Parking lot construction at Noi Bai Airport proposed

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has proposed the construction of a parking lot at Noi Bai International Airport.



The recommendation has been sent to the Ministry of Transport for consideration.





Terminal T1 at Noi Bai Interational Airport



The parking lot will cover 1.3 hectares near Terminal T1 to ease the congestion at the current site.



At present, the 17,800-square-metre parking lot can accommodate 555 cars. It often faces jams, particularly at peak travel time.



Early this month, the airport served around 110,000 passengers per day, up 40 percent against the peak of summer in 2019.



Terminal T1 was put into operation in 2001, with an initial design capacity of six million passengers per year. It was upgraded in 2013, increasing the capacity to nine million per year. By July 2017, the airport upgraded the terminal to increase capacity to 15 million passengers per year.


Construction of Chinese-built hydropower plant in Zambia nears completion

Xinhua) 10:21, July 23, 2022

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema speaks after touring the Kafue Lower Gorge Power Station in Southern Province, Zambia, July 21, 2022. Hichilema on Thursday toured the Kafue Lower Gorge Power Station, a Chinese-built hydropower plant.

The project was a milestone in the relationship between the two countries, said the president.

The construction of the 750 megawatts power plant is nearing completion, as four of the five generators are already commissioned and the fifth will be finished by the end of this year. (Photo by Martin Mbangweta/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 21, 2022 shows the Kafue Lower Gorge Power Station under construction in Southern Province, Zambia. Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on Thursday toured the Kafue Lower Gorge Power Station, a Chinese-built hydropower plant.

The project was a milestone in the relationship between the two countries, said the president.

The construction of the 750 megawatts power plant is nearing completion, as four of the five generators are already commissioned and the fifth will be finished by the end of this year. (Photo by Martin Mbangweta/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
File photo taken on Oct. 12, 2017, shows huge tanks that store contaminated radioactive wastewater in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. (Xinhua)

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) authorized its final approval to release radioactive wastewater from a crippled nuclear plant in Japan's northeast into the Pacific Ocean. The move has triggered indignation of regular citizens and people took to the streets in protest.

TOKYO, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on Friday authorized a controversial plan to release radioactive wastewater from a crippled nuclear plant in Japan's northeast into the Pacific Ocean as the public took to the streets in opposition.

The NRA held an extraordinary meeting Friday and gave the final approval to the contentious plan submitted by the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO), in line with a government decision.

The government and TEPCO are planning to start releasing toxic water from the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant next spring from around 1 kilometer off the Pacific coast in Fukushima Prefecture.

Under the plan, the wastewater, which contains radioactive tritium as a result of being used to cool down melted nuclear fuel at the disaster-stricken plant, will be discharged through an underwater tunnel into the Pacific Ocean after being treated.

The plant had its key cooling functions knocked out after being battered by a massive earthquake-triggered tsunami just over a decade ago, resulting in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

People rally to protest against the Japanese government's decision to discharge contaminated radioactive wastewater in Fukushima Prefecture into the sea, in Tokyo, capital of Japan, on April 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)

The tainted wastewater being stored in tanks at the plant is expected to reach capacity next year and the lengthy process of dumping the radioactive wastewater into the ocean is projected to take several decades.

TEPCO has signed an agreement with Fukushima Prefecture and the plant hosting towns of Okuma and Futaba to construct the dumping facilities.

After the NRA approved TEPCO's draft plan in May, only 1,200 responses from the public have been gathered, many of which suggested the NRA "should clearly explain the plan's safety to the public," and consider alternative options to polluting the ocean such as "making storage tanks bigger and expanding the land space."

The officials discussed the public's opinions and concluded that what TEPCO has done so far with the radioactive wastewater and its plan are "reasonable", Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported.

Japan's fisheries industry, however, has maintained its ardent opposition to the plan, as it will almost certainly cause further damage to the industry's reputation in the region.

People rally to protest against the Japanese government's decision to discharge contaminated radioactive wastewater in Fukushima Prefecture into the sea, in Tokyo, capital of Japan, on April 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)

In addition, a number of countries and regions continue to impose restrictions on Japanese agricultural and fishery products as a result of the initial Fukushima crisis amid continued concerns about the safety of the produce.

Regular citizens also showed their staunch opposition to the contentious plan on Friday by protesting on the streets in Tokyo despite the scorching heat to voice their indignation.

Some protestors used megaphones to express their discontent, while others held banners warning about radioactivity at the plant.

Meanwhile, some of Japan's neighbors have voiced their sincere concerns and objections about radioactive wastewater being discharged into the Pacific Ocean. 
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I gotta poo in Kalamazoo...

The town that Glenn Miller once memorialized as the hometown of "the toast of Kalamazoo" will soon be singing a new tune now that the woke city commission has decriminalized urinating, defecating, and littering in public streets. One only has to look at formerly nice cities such as San Francisco and Portland to know exactly where that's going to lead: to people being buried in human waste.

For the past few days, whenever I need a break from the increasingly depressing news, I've been enjoying a rather charming book by Terence McLaughlin called Dirt: A Social History as Seen through the Uses and Abuses of Dirt. It's a look at England after Rome collapsed, taking with it its extraordinarily high level of both civic and personal cleanliness. For the next 1,500 or so years, England (and the rest of Europe) were filthy beyond modern imagining.

For example, in 18th-century London, one of the fastest growing cities in the world, the River Fleet served as a public latrine for some; for others, the street was the way to go (literally):

And if you did not live by a convenient river? Well, as always, there was the street. If you were out of doors, any corner or doorway could be used in emergency. The eighteenth-century citizen could not afford to be embarrassed by such an event, any more than his counterpart of the previous century, and many citizens followed the example of Sir William Fleetwood or Mrs. Pepys [i.e., using a convenient wall, corner, or archway). (Page 124.)

One of the miracles of modern urban planning was getting human waste off the streets and into sewers. In the same way  and this is a bit of useful information for the greenies who bemoan car pollution  automobiles were seen as the greatest miracle of the age, not just because they made transportation affordable for the masses, but also because they put an end to streets that were ankle deep in animal waste from the many horses and donkeys that transported goods and people.



Image: Kalamazoo, MI (screen grab from Bing maps; edited).

In the name of equity, though, it's clear that wokesters in city governments across America are determined to return us to a time of stench, diseases (dysentery, typhoid, plague, etc.), and parasites (you don't want to know) that many of us foolishly believed had gone forever. In Portland, which was once a sparkling, clean Northwestern city, the homeless have spread across whole neighborhoods:

"I want to cry," Christina Hartnett, a resident, told KGW8." I just want my house back. My lawn is now becoming a public bathroom."

San Francisco briefly made the international news because of a new type of map available for city dwellers  a poop map:

Citing human waste reports made in San Francisco, software engineer Jenn Wong mapped the city's most poop-ridden neighborhoods, and it is a feast for watery eyes. Her project, called Human Wasteland, is pretty exhaustive, listing reports made by individual 311 calls from 20082015. If there was a frantic call made to city authorities about a steaming pile over that seven-year period, it's listed in Wong's map in the form of that ubiquitous poop emoji.

What's impressive is that the map predated ousted city attorney Chesa Boudin's announcement that he would no longer prosecute what he called "quality of life crimes." San Franciscans, who have a high capacity for accepting woke pain that can be offset with virtue-signaling, finally gave Boudin the boot in June.

Now, undeterred by these West Coast experiments (or by history), Kalamazoo, Michigan has decided to go medieval on its own streets:

The city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has decriminalized littering, public defecation, and urination, despite various business owners decrying the policy. On Monday, the Kalamazoo City Commission voted to water down some misdemeanor crimes so that they are merely civil infractions in the code of ordinances. Part of their reasoning was that people convicted of these crimes could have their lives negatively affected. "One thing a lot of people don't realize is a misdemeanor is for life as much as a felony. So many things come with a permanent record on somebody's record," explained Commissioner Chris Praedel. The commission voted unanimously to accept the changes.

Fifteen years ago, I wrote an article for American Thinker entitled "Regressives." My point was that the Progressives had grossly misidentified themselves because they always looked backward, not forward, whether about war, race, or abortion.

With the Green New Deal and the push for decriminalization and decarceration, leftists are heading into a whole new era of regression. Not only will we be sitting hungry in the dark, either bakingly hot or freezing cold, but we'll also be surrounded by mounds of odiferous fecal matter and puddles of rancid urine. San Francisco, Portland, and Kalamazoo are just the beginning.
Just yesterday, Axios carried a piece provocatively entitled "A radical plan for Trump's second term."

The following are key excerpts from the article:

The heart of the plan is derived from an executive order known as "Schedule F," developed and refined in secret over most of the second half of Trump's term and launched 13 days before the 2020 election. (snip) Trump signed an executive order, "Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service," in October 2020, which established a new employment category for federal employees. It received wide media coverage for a short period, then was largely forgotten in the mayhem and aftermath of Jan. 6  and quickly was rescinded by Biden. Sources close to Trump say that if he were elected to a second term, he would immediately reimpose it. Tens of thousands of civil servants who serve in roles deemed to have some influence over policy would be reassigned as "Schedule F" employees. Upon reassignment, they would lose their employment protections. (snip) An initial estimate by the Trump official who came up with Schedule F found it could apply to as many as 50,000 federal workers  a fraction of a workforce of more than 2 million. (snip) Even if Trump did not deploy Schedule F to this extent, the very fact that such power exists could create a significant chilling effect on government employees. It would effectively upend the modern civil service, triggering a shock wave across the bureaucracy. The next president might then move to gut those pro-Trump ranks  and face the question of whether to replace them with her or his own loyalists or revert to a traditional bureaucracy. (snip) Such pendulum swings and politicization could threaten the continuity and quality of service to taxpayers, the regulatory protections, the checks on executive power, and other aspects of American democracy.

To sum it up, this is Trump's plan to take on the Deep State bureaucracy, purging it of the sort of partisan officials who torpedoed many of his initiatives in his first term.

But there is also the Washington Democrat Establishment that Trump refers to as the swamp, made up of politicians, interest groups, and donors, in addition to Deep State bureaucrats. The swamp is the core of every problem within the U.S. political system.

It begins with elections.

If a relatively unknown but well-meaning candidate wants to run for office, the swamp places numerous impediments before him.

The first impediment is funding. The candidate first needs to raise millions to fund a campaign, for which the swamp is the facilitator. If the candidate chooses to circumvent the swamp and fund a campaign on small donations from regular individuals, there are challenges.

Firstly, few donate to unknown candidates. Secondly, his swamp-funded opponent, either during the primary or the main electoral contest, runs attack advertisements, while the regular candidate has no means to respond. Despite good intentions, he loses.

Hence, candidates intending to win have no option but to plunge into the swamp. This enables millions of dollars for their campaign, favorable media coverage, and a few coveted endorsements.

Back in 1974, during his first term in the Senate, Joe Biden talked about the need for campaign finance reforms.

Once candidates are elected, they follow diktats from the swamp. For instance, they vote for bills that send $55 billion to defend Ukraine and grant billions in subsidies to manufacturers of silicon microchips all based on the orders.

Do they care about Ukraine?

Not really. Multimillion-dollar contracts to aid and defend Ukraine are awarded to swamp loyalist freelancers and corporate houses. The bills purposefully have no tracking mechanisms for the funds.

Any act of rebellion, and the swap retaliates with viciousness. Swamp members run a primary campaign to unseat the elected representative. Or they fund a malicious media campaign to defame. In extreme cases, investigative agencies are deployed where the probe itself is conflated with guilt.

The relationship between elected officials and the swamp is symbiotic. In exchange for obeying diktats, there are multiple means of enrichment.

Shady quid pro quo deals are stuck behind closed doors when the swamp votes for sending billion to Ukraine or grants subsidies to the private sector.

The campaign is also used as an expense account. Close relatives are "employed" by the campaigns and are paid handsome salaries. The Daily Caller recently revealed that both House majority whip James Clyburn of South Carolina and Rep. Jahana Hayes from Connecticut use their campaign funds to enrich family members. Obviously, there are many more who do this.

There also are lucrative jobs for close relatives in the private sector or shady business deals with hostile foreign nations. In exchange, the private sector receives government contracts while the hostile foreign nation receives "aid," and their crimes are overlooked. Perhaps Joe Biden's sale of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves to a Chinese company linked to Hunter Biden's investment firm was in exchange for Hunter profiting from dealings in China. The swamp specializes in legalizing corruption.

If any swamp member were to lose an election or retire, the swamp ensures lucrative post-retirement positions, rewarding book contracts, handsome speaking fees, etc.

While the might of the law never spares regular citizens, swamp members always get a pass. Trump's former campaign manager Steve Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress and faces two years of imprisonment, while swamp member Eric Holder, who was guilty of a similar offense, faced no consequences.

The swamp members also get a pass in exchange for a favor done in the past or favor that will be done in the future. Clyburn endorsed Biden during the primary, which enabled him to win the nomination. In exchange, Clyburn misusing his campaign fund will be ignored.

The symbiotic relationships, cultivated owing to decades of shady deals, are labyrinthine and complex. With new recruits every day, the influence of the swamp widens, and its durability increases. This is a self-serving, self-promoting, self-preserving, corrupt, and nepotistic cabal.

The swamp's influence spreads beyond governmental powers. International organizations, corporate houses, Big Tech, think-tanks, charity foundations, climate and environmental bodies, academia, and above all members of the legacy media are all members.

Despite thriving on public money, the well-being of the public is the least of the swamp's concerns. In fact, swamp members frequently exhibit disdain for regular people, calling them pejorative names such as deplorable and Neanderthals. Those who challenge them are branded as extremists and domestic terrorists. Swamp members even display Mary Antoinettelike behavior in response to the struggles of regular people.

Back to the Axios piece.

The piece is intended to be a companion to the January 6 Stalinist propaganda show trial. The goal is to make Trump appear like a dictator who will impose martial law upon being elected, crush every dissenting voice, and purge rebels within the civil service.

The sanctimonious seldom have self-awareness. The authors also fail to understand most people are suffering on myriad fronts due to the misgovernance and the apathy of the Biden administration that has been propped up by the swamp. When these people read of a plan to constrain the ability of the swamp to act through the Deep State bureaucrats, they will celebrate.

What Axios thinks is a hit job reads like an important section of Trump's 2024 campaign manifesto to his supporters. It will be a huge vote-getter for the GOP during the midterms and President Trump in 2024.



Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
Democrats went all out to sell and promote the story of a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio who supposedly had to seek an abortion out of state based on Ohio's abortion ban in the wake of the overturning of Roe. v. Wade.

They huffed and they puffed, claiming that the case was an argument for abortion on demand. Never mind that the state attorney general said that was nonsense, given that the health of the 10-year-old mother was at stake. Much was made of some conservatives who initially doubted the story, which turned out to be real.

But what wasn't real was the promoted melodramatic narrative -- about a heartless state of Ohio refusing to allow a 10-year-old rape victim an abortion.

As more facts come out about the case, it appears to be more of a tale of federal, state, and county officials protecting illegal aliens who ought be be first-priority deportable, not just the rapist, but the quite possibly enabling mother of the 10-year-old girl, who appears to be here illegally, too.

Townhall did some digging into the people involved in this abortion narrative, and found a pretty sordid group of illegals who've been under constant protection from the state, no matter what they did.

Start with the actual accused rapist, one Gerson Fuentes, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, according to Fox News, citing a source from ICE, Despite being here illegally for seven years, he still speaks through an interpreter, which doesn't suggest a hell of a lot of motivation to assimilate, let alone basic morals. But no matter, he never had deportation to worry about, so having sex with a 10-year-old and covering up any pregnancy as a result through a free abortion didn't leave him with much fear of consequences.

Townhall found that authorities waited six weeks between the time of the rape and the arrest of Fuentes, who was the "boyfriend" of the 10-year-old's mother. She's the one who told Telemundo that all of the charges against Fuentes were "a lie" and that her raped daughter who was taken out of state for the abortion on June 30 was "doing fine."

Why was this person in this country at all? Illegals and others supposedly can be deported for "moral turpitude" but apparently this wasn't sufficent as a reason. Only now has he been arrested and charged, and has ICE placed a detainer on him. Whether that will be executed or dismissed is yet to be seen.

According to The Dispatch:

The Dispatch noted that Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Cynthia Ebner said the case did not warrant Fuentes  who is believed to be undocumented  to be held without bond.

Being illegally in the country and being credibly accused of rape is somehow not good enough to hold this guy without bond, even though child accusers are normally believed all the time by courts.

About as bad, Townhall reported that authorities gave him six weeks to continue to do what he was doing in that sorry household uninterrupted, despite the fact that a child had been raped and impregnated. Apparently it wasn't that big a crime to them, and "danger to the life" of the 10-year-old "mother" only came from the baby he produced with her.

Now let's move on to the mom:

Turns out that Fuentes was the 33-year-old mom-of-six's "boyfriend," who also was likely an illegal alien, based on Townhall's evidence uncovered. She's the one who defended Fuentes speaking from behind a closed door, calling the charges againt Fuentes "a lie." She also claimed that her ten-year-old daughter was doing "fine."

That's a pretty questionable one, given that rape is always traumatic, particularly if it is done by a family member or close associate, given that nobody in the household was offering protection from a predator, and abortion itself is always traumatic to a child. By one report, this is the child's second abortion, which would mean that this monstrous state of affairs has been going on a long time. Apparently nobody at all was charged or punished for that one, if the report is correct.

It takes publicity for these various authorities charged with protecting children to take action, and if any of the people are here illegally, as Fuentes is, and apparently Lourdes "Lulu" Gomez, which appears, based on social media posts, to be the mom of the girl and girlfriend of the accused rapist.

Excellent, in depth work from @MiaCathell



The mother of the 10-year-old girl who was raped & impregnated by illegal immigrant Gerson Fuentes is in a relationship with Feuntes and also pregnant. She helped cover up Feuntes' crime against her daughter. https://t.co/FIwbqM7Qpf  Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 21, 2022

Townhall's Mia Cathell, who did the digging, found this:

The woman's affection for Fuentes also appeared in the comments section of a March 31 TikTok video where a private TikTok account going by the username @lourdesgomez022 reacted with similar adoring emojis. That's how the online breadcrumbs can be traced to 33-year-old Lourdes "Lulu" Gomez's various Facebook accounts, one of which (the most active Facebook profile of hers in recent months) had proudly displayed what looks like Fuentes in her profile picture up until last weekend. Gomez scrubbed her Facebook profile and changed her featured picture Saturday to a temporary one showing only a Facebook Avatar of herself.

The bottom line here is that the abortion was taken to Indiana not based on Ohio's abortion law, which would have permitted the act on a "life of the mother" exception, according to the state's attorney general, but to keep the crime from being known by Ohio authorities, who could have taken legal action againt both Fuentes and Gomez.

The case against Fuentes is expected to be laid out once the DNA from the aborted baby is confirmed to be from Fuentes. But the more disturbing aspect is the behavior of mother-of-six Gomez, who's described as a nightclubber by her best pal according to one report, and knows enough about getting around the law to have taken her raped daughter to another state as well as defended her "boyfriend" whom she'd be well justified, by most juries at least, to beat to death based on what her daughter said he'd done to her. Nobody normal allows a "boyfriend" to have sex with the ten year olds in any household.

Gomez, according to Townhall, had committed other minor crimes, and pled them down, even though a judge had warned her she could be deported, a statement only made to someone who's here illegally.

In a video recording and as stated in an official transcript Townhall obtained through a court reporter, the magistrate presiding over Gomez's proceeding explained that if she entered a guilty plea to the first charge of no operator's license, then the second charge would be dismissed. The maximum penalty for the conviction the magistrate could've imposed was six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. "You may be deported and you may be denied admission or denied naturalization to the United States," the magistrate warned of "other potential penalties" Gomez faced, meaning she was not a U.S. citizen. Pleading guilty, Gomez agreed to the magistrate's conditions, with the help of translation services provided by a court-certified Spanish interpreter.

She got away with those and authorities are refusing to release any information about either the law or whether they are doing anything to charge her with any enabling crimes:

Townhall asked law enforcement if the mother will face criminal charges for allegedly enabling the sexual abuse and if the girl has been removed from the abusive household in question. Columbus Police public information officer Andres Antequera replied: "Out of compassion for the victims, the Columbus Division of Police will not comment on any rapes or sexual assaults of juveniles." Townhall inquired if the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office would prosecute the mother. First assistant prosecuting attorney Janet Grubb, of the Franklin County's criminal division, said: "We do not comment about matters under active prosecution or internal review." Questions still remain surrounding the timeline of events, which points to a lack of action on the part of the authorities to quickly intervene and seek justice for this child, especially if the abuser is in the same home. Why did it take almost six weeks for the police to be made aware of the crime? Meanwhile, the abortion was set up and underway within one day's time. On the date Fuentes was charged, two full months had already gone by since the sexual abuse began.

Now, she remains unbusted, despite being a monstrous parent who speaks through an interpreter, likely lives off public funds, and should have had all of her children taken away from her immediately based on the rape of her 10-year-old and her defense of the accused instead of the child. In an atmosphere like that, it's pretty obvious that the baby involved, the "product of conception" didn't have a chance. She's not only unarrested, she's undeported. And that can only be from authorities skewing the law to prevent her deportation.

The question it raises is how many more cases like this have been going on to protect illegals from deportation? This wasn't and never was a story about draconian abortion laws as Democrats, including Joe Biden, promoted. This is about protecting illegals from deportation from incredible crimes going on in a way that can only come of illegal migrants pouring over the border without any vetting whatsoever.

Image: Twitter screen shot
There are critical periods in history and slack periods as well. This essay is not about slack periods.

April 1865, for example, stands out as a critical period in U. S. History. On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General U. S. Grant, ending the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in our history. The news of Lees surrender caused joyous celebrations over much of America. That joy did not last long. On April 14, 1865, a deranged actor and Southern sympathizer assassinated President Lincoln plunging the country into mourning. On April 24, 1865, the manhunt for Lincolns assassin, John Wilkes Booth, ended as federal troops surrounded the killer. All these emotional events overshadowed the greatest maritime disaster in American history, which occurred on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis, Tennessee, on the early morning of April 27, 1865.

A side-wheel steamboat called the Sultana was heading north on the river carrying passengers, cargo, and a great many Union soldiers returning home from the Civil War. The Sultana was designed to carry 376 passengers but, on the early morning of April 27, 1865, the Sultana carried 2,155, or 573% of its capacity. A catastrophic boiler explosion at 2 a.m. in the morning set the overloaded vessel ablaze. The Sultana sank seven hours later. 1,259 died because of this tragedy.

Image: The SS Sultana, 1865. Public Domain.

The period from 2019 to the present is another critical period in America. The Wuhan Flu, which began in 2019, has killed 1,050,702 in America and 6,396,853 worldwide. It has been a time of riots and a disputed presidential election. The Wuhan Flu has rattled the economies of the world. Now, as I write, even the President of the United States is suffering from the Wuhan Flu.

Over a million illegal immigrants entered America during the first year of the Biden administration. I do not expect America to literally capsize because of this undeclared invasion, but I do wonder what the skipper of our American ship is thinking. His failure to regulate immigration is not popular.

As the border crisis drags on, a newly released Harvard/Harris poll delivers a strong rebuke to President Bidens immigration policies. The results show that 80% of Americans consider illegal immigration to be of serious concern, 64% wish to issue new, stricter policies to reduce the flow of people across the border, and 67% support turning illegal immigrants back to Mexico.

The population replacement scheme Biden no leads was the brainchild of the late Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy, who attempted to sabotage the foreign policy of President Reagan, started the immigration rupture at our nations borders. The Democrats and Republicans in Washington refuse to patch the rushing flow of illegals.

Human error and greed caused the Sultana disaster. Formal inquiries followed the tragedy, but no one was ever held accountable.

Our leaders who favor open borders in 2022 are responsible for the current inflow of illegals. They justify their actions as compassion, but the goal of electoral supremacy drives these incursions.

When the illegals enter America, they are rewarded with social services. Our nation is $30.5 trillion dollars in debt, yet we are pretending to be the worlds endlessly rich uncle. As we crowd together on the national deck of America in July 2022, a collective deja vu wariness is growing. Many see serious problems ahead as our nation steams up this uncertain river in the darkness of night.

Ned Cosby, a regular contributor to American Thinker, is a pastor, veteran Coast Guard officer, and a retired public high school teacher. His new novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to report and discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. Cosby has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHERS HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit Ned Cosby.
They destroy everything that they touch, from Disney movies to works of literature to historical statues to now the U.S. armed forces. I'm talking about "the wokies" who are bent on destroying the country and culture that they hate so much.

The latest is the armed forces, as Glenn Reynolds wrote:

The Armys No. 2 officer told Congress Tuesday that the service has no choice but to reduce total force strength by 10,000 for the fiscal year starting in September, with the next year looking even bleaker: By the end of fiscal 2023, it could be up to 28,000 soldiers short of its 476,000-troop target. Army Secretary Christine Wormuths spokeswoman said its met only half of its recruiting goal so far this fiscal year -- with just 2 months left. Why is this? There are several potential explanations. One is that the new woke Army isnt all that appealing to the kinds of people who traditionally join the military.

Yes, wokism is bringing down another symbol of U.S. history.

After 9/11 and the war on terror that included Iraq, young men ran to sign up. They were inspired to defend the country they love. They wanted to do their part as their fathers and grandfathers and great grandfather had done before. They saw those photos of the last generation wearing the country's colors and they wanted to be a part of it.

So they went to places like Afghanistan and Iraq in much the same that their fathers and grandfathers went to Iwo Jima or the Mekong Delta.

Then President Biden unleashed the wokies and now no one wants to sign up. They hear of "toxic masculinity" and "white rage" and every terrible thing that their country has done. Why sign up and risk your life?

They're uninspired, and who can blame them? This is not their dad's military anymore, to recall the popular Olds commercial of years ago.

The good news is that it will change. New leadership will return the armed forces to their place of honor. The bad news is that President Biden, or Harris, may have to bring back the draft to fight an unexpected war in one of those many places where our interests may be threatened.

P.S. Check out my videos and posts.

Image: Arthur T. LaBar
(By Silvia Lambertucci) (ANSA) - ROME, JUL 23 - An agora stretching out almost 33,000 square metres, the biggest in the ancient world, that is once again showing its boundaries.

The remains of what seems to have been the sacred place of very first Greek colonies in Selinunte, those who arrived after the founder, Pammilus of Megara Hyblaea.

Charms and highly refined objects that are the same as others found at Delphi, in Greece, and the mystery of a stone mould perhaps used to make a bronze sceptre.

These discoveries - which ANSA is reporting on in exclusive thanks to a sneak preview - were made during the latest excavation campaign at the Selinunte archaeological site in Sicily led by Clemente Marconi.

For the first time, Marconi worked with two international missions, one from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and another involving the University of Milan and a team from the German Archaeological Institute.

"These results are of the utmost importance for our knowledge of Selinunte in the Archaic and Classical age," Marconi, an archaeologist who has been studying the remains of the ancient Greek colony for decades, said with visible excitement.

These discoveries she new light on the fascinating, brief history of this city and have been made public as the Sicilian archaeological park - the largest in Europe with its 270 hectares of nature and majestic ruins looking out over the sea - has uncovered the boundaries of its enormous agora, which was twice the size of Rome's Piazza del Popolo.

This is vaguely trapezoidal in shape with a single monument in the middle, a tomb, perhaps belonging to the founder.

"It's an empty basin that is impressive for its size and the depth of the mystery regarding it," said Selinunte Archaeological Park Director Felice Crescente with a smile.

"This space gives an idea of the magnificence of this city and its extraordinary essence," he added, standing beside the Region of Sicily's Culture Chief Alberto Samona.

After two years in which work slowed due to the pandemic, excavation work resumed at full speed in June.

"The results have gone well beyond expectations," said Marconi.

The initial aim was to date the era of the two most recent temples of the acropolis, which are called A and O and have long been considered twins.

The dig showed that A was build before O and that the construction of the latter was probably interrupted by a landslide.

The most important discovery, however, was that of an aquifer under the foundations of the temple.

The professor said that this "confirms the hypothesis that the first Greek colonies settled precisely in this southern area of the acropolis".

In short, ancient Selinus was founded here.

That is not all.

Digging in depth around the third temple, which is called R and was constructed in the 6th Century BC and perhaps rebuilt after the Carthaginians occupied and destroyed the city in 409 BC, the archaeologists found a boundary wall dating back to 610 BC, so not long after the arrival of the colonies led by Pammilus.

The historian Thucydides put their arrival at 628 BC and Diodorus placed it at 650 BC.

At Temple R the land also gave back the missing part of a stone mould to make a bronze object, apparently a sceptre - the first part was found 10 years ago nearby.

The archaeologists think that it may have been such a precious object that it was not meant to be replicated.

That could be why, after the object was made, the two parts were buried in different places.

Marconi said that the building also gave back two objects that will go on show in the next few days at the archaeological park's 'Antiquarium'.

They are a falcon-shaped amulet, a blue image of Horus, the Egyptian god of the sky, which came from Egypt at the end of the seventh century BC; and a highly refined ivory miniature statue of a mermaid, which was found in pieces in 2017 and was put back together in a laboratory in recent months.

Marconi said that this little wonder was almost certainly imported from Greece and shows "the wealth achieved by the city in the sixth century BC".

Selinunte met a terrible end two centuries later when Hannibal's soldiers sacked and set light to it.

But after being buried for so long, the grandeur of that golden century has come back to amaze us today. (ANSA).


British holidaymakers jetting off for the school summer break are likely to find the best prices in Bulgaria and Turkey.

Sunny Beach, Bulgaria and Marmaris, Turkey are the joint-cheapest of 16 popular European resorts, according to Post Office Travel Moneys annual Family Holiday Report.

The reports Beach Barometer, produced with travel company Tui, estimated a cost of around 86 for 12 common holiday expenses including a family meal, drinks, sun cream, insect repellent and beach items ranging from buckets and spades to lilos, ice-creams, and pedalo rides at the two destinations.

Destinations in Bulgaria and Turkey have been revealed as the cheapest in Europe (PA/ Nick Ansell)

The report suggests local prices have doubled in Marmaris compared with summer 2019 but the collapse of the Turkish lira since then has helped to reduce the impact.

However, Britons can expect to pay almost 11% more than three years ago in Maramaris, compared with 8% at Sunny Beach.

Despite the rises, costs at the two destinations were over 20% lower than in the cheapest Eurozone resort, Portugals Algarve, which came in at 108 for the 12 items.

Funchal, Madeira was next cheapest at 125, followed by the Costa Del Sol, Spain at 127 and Corfu, Greece at 133.

The most expensive was Ibiza, with a cost of roughly 186 on the barometer, followed by Puglia, Italy at around 185.

However, prices have fallen in both Ibiza and Puglia since 2019, by 4.9% and 5.2% respectively.

The biggest price increase was seen in Crete with a 37.7% rise in prices, now costing around around 161.

The report shows prices have risen in three quarters of the 16 European destinations included as a result of higher resort charges for meals and drinks and sterlings fall in value.

The average rise across those which saw increases was 13.3%.

British tourists are suffering a recent tumble in the value of the pound, currently trading at 1.17 euros after reaching a 2022 high of 1.21 euros in April.

Nick Boden, Head of Post Office Travel Money, which accounts for one-in-four UK foreign exchange transactions, said: Sterlings recent fall against European currencies and ongoing uncertainty about how it will perform in the coming weeks means that keeping a tight rein on resort spending will be crucial for families this summer to avoid busting the holiday budget.

We found big price variations in the 16 destinations surveyed, particularly across 13 Eurozone resorts. This makes it doubly important for holidaymakers to do their homework and budget carefully to cover costs in the holiday resort they are visiting. We also found that prices can vary dramatically between resorts in the same country. In Greece, for example, barometer costs were 17% lower in Corfu than in Crete.

The report also revealed that almost three-in-five (59%) families are planning trips abroad this year but over three-quarters (76%) of them bust their budget by almost 38% on their last holiday, spending 243 extra on the average budget of 644 they had set.
by Martina Fuchs

GENEVA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende said on Thursday that he was optimistic about the economic outlook for China in the medium and long-term.

"We are expecting that the measures taken by China and the Chinese authorities will lead to a revival of growth" and are optimistic about the medium- and long-term economic development in China, Brende said, adding that as for the rest of the world, "the coming year is going to be a bumpy year."

The WEF president made the remarks as data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on July 15 that China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 2.5 percent year on year in the first half of 2022.

"The global recovery is slowing and it is now becoming a weaker and weaker recovery. This is also influencing the Chinese economy that is growing more slowly," Brende, a former minister of foreign affairs of Norway, said via a video conference.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global growth is projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022 and 2023, 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points lower for 2022 and 2023 than the global lender projected in January.

FOREIGN BUSINESS IN CHINA

Speaking of China's current business environment for foreign enterprises, Brende said that the Chinese market is "a big home market," and that for many companies, China is of huge interest, both for foreign direct investments and for manufacturing.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, in its annual "European Business in China Business Confidence Survey 2022" released in June, said that most European companies posted positive revenues and were profitable in 2021.

The WEF president emphasized that China's role in stabilizing global economic growth amidst multi-fold challenges was crucial.

"If you look at the past three decades, China's growth has been historic and we have not seen any country in history that has been eradicating poverty like we have seen in China," Brende said.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Report 2022, released on July 7, estimated that an additional 75 million to 95 million people could fall into extreme poverty this year.

China announced last year that absolute poverty had been eradicated in the world's most populous country and that it had lifted the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents out of poverty by the end of 2020.

"The Chinese leadership is not only focusing on growth, they're also looking at the quality of growth, it needs to decouple from growth in CO2 emissions, it also has to be more inclusive, it has to trickle down to the regions, to the periphery, and it also needs to create jobs for the young and its more and more educated population," Brende said.

"China's role in securing global growth has been incredible ... What happens in China economically has a huge impact on the rest of the world, and that will continue because it is the second largest economy," said Brende.

CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE

The WEF president also hailed the China-proposed Global Development Initiative (GDI) as crucially important in boosting international cooperation and supporting the least developed and developing countries.

Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the GDI at the United Nations, aiming to contribute to strengthening international development cooperation and accelerating the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"This initiative from China is very important and we really need to be very clear about supporting the least developed countries and the emerging economies because we have seen that capital is not flowing in as it used to" as COVID-19 has led to a situation for the first time in three decades that extreme poverty is growing, Brende said.

"It is incredibly important that we get on track again when it comes to meeting the sustainable development goals that are there and should be met by 2030," he added.

Brende highlighted climate crisis and reviving global economic growth.

"The only way to revive economic growth is that we continue with a win-win thinking: what is good for one country is good for another one. We have to collaborate and continue to trade with each other because if we don't do that, we will pay a high price and are going to shave off a lot of growth which is going to create even more poverty," he added. 
Dwayne Johnson appeared in full superhero costume  surrounded by crackling electricity and swirling smoke  to promote upcoming DC blockbuster Black Adam at Comic-Con in San Diego.

The Hollywood star made an epic entrance onstage at the famous Hall H and warned fans that the superhero universe would never be the same again.

Blue sparks flew in the darkness as special lanyards given to attendees flashed blue ahead of the second panel of the day on the third day of the world famous convention.

BORN OUT OF RAGE Exclusive look at #BlackAdam that we JUST released in the electrified room of #ComicCon Hall H  The hierarchy of power in the #DCUniverse is changing. IN THEATERS WORLDWIDE 10.21.22 @SevenBucksProd @DCComics @WBPictures#ManInBlack#Rage pic.twitter.com/tTVwup3oGV  Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 23, 2022

Hall H you have been warned the DC universe will never be the same again, he declared.

Fans were treated to an extended look at the film with explosive footage showing Johnson deflecting bullets and smashing helicopters into each other.

I heard Black Adam was here, that was some cool s***, Johnson joked as he returned to the stage alongside his fellow cast members Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Quintessa Swindell and director Jaume Collet-Serra.

Johnson told fans that fellow cast-member Pierce Brosnan sent his love, but was unable to attend the convention.

The journey for Black Adam has been long and filled with passion, with commitment and grit. Its been easily 10 years, he said.

The journey has been an incredible one.

To be here to watch Black Adam levitate and throw lightning like he was handing out candy, its a dream come true.

Collet-Serra admitted that he was shy and that the panel was his worst nightmare.

The film is scheduled for a UK release of October 21.

Moments before, fans were officially introduced to the Shazam-ily as a new trailer for the superhero sequel Shazam! Fury Of The Gods debuted.

Stars of the film Zachary Levi, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer appeared on stage on the first panel of the day, and virtual messages were sent by Dame Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler, who could not attend.

Dame Helen Mirren joked that she had been banned from Comic-Con for fighting, and shocked fans with a humorous but risque greeting.

Other panels teed up for Saturday include HBOs House Of The Dragon and a Marvel mega-panel.
Johnny Depp has filed a notice of appeal to the Virginia Court of Appeals, one day after his former partner Amber Heard filed her own against the outcome of the multimillion-dollar defamation case.

Documents filed on Friday in Fairfax County read: Plaintiff and counterclaim-defendant John C Depp, II, by counsel, hereby appeals to the Court of Appeals of Virginia from all adverse rulings and from the final judgment order of this Circuit Court entered on June 24, 2022.

On Thursday Ms Heards legal team submitted a notice that claimed errors made during the trial had prevented a just and fair verdict from being returned.

The actress filings come shortly after Judge Penney Azcarate, who oversaw the six-week trial at Fairfax County District Court, dismissed her legal teams claims of improper juror service.

On Thursday Ms Heards legal team submitted a notice that claimed errors made during the trial had prevented a just and fair verdict (Victoria Jones/PA)

We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment, a spokesperson for the actress said, following the filings submission.

We are therefore appealing the verdict.

While we realise todays filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice.

Mr Depp sued his former partner over a 2018 article she wrote for The Washington Post about her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse, which his lawyers said falsely accused him of being an abuser.
Keanu Reeves says the Wachowski siblings told him to watch anime to prepare for his role in The Matrix, as he revealed plans for his own animated series.

Speaking at a San Diego Comic-Con panel for BRZRKR, a series of comic books created by the actor, Reeves admitted that he was not up to date with modern anime.

It was announced on Friday that an animated series had been commissioned for two series by Netflix, with a live-action feature film and a novel also in the works.

When I worked with the Wachowskis on the Matrix they were like you need to watch these  it was like Akira, Ghost In The Shell  and that was pretty much the start of it, he told convention attendees.

The actor appeared on the second day of San Diego Comic-Con to discuss future plans for his comic series BRZRKR (Richard Shotwell/AP)

Im not really up to date on current anime. A couple of my friends have kids that can just spit anime and Im like that seems amazing.

The BRZRKR series was created and written by Reeves and Matt Kindt, and drawn by Ron Garney.

It follows an immortal warrior, known as Berzerker, as he fights his way through the ages.

The first issue of the 12-issue limited series was published on March 3 2021 by Boom! Studios.
Transport for London (TfL) says it is reviewing a draft proposal from the Government for a long-term funding settlement.

TfL has been operating on a series of emergency short-term funding deals since falling into financial trouble during the pandemic.

Andy Byford, Londons Transport Commissioner, said the long-term funding  if agreed  would provide much-needed certainty for those in the nations capital.

He said: Since keeping London moving through the darkest periods of the pandemic we have been making the case to Government that there can be no UK recovery without a London recovery and that there can be no London recovery without a properly funded transport network.

We are grateful for the support we have received so far, and maintain we have met every condition that has been set by Government as we have worked towards agreeing a multi-year funding settlement that would give certainty to London and to the tens of thousands of jobs across the country that are directly linked to TfL.

Every other major transport system around the world receives central Government funding, and London needs the same if it is to have a transport network that can continue to support homes, jobs, opportunities and economic growth. The importance of a properly funded transport network, which can offer a viable alternative to car use and can play its part in addressing the climate emergency, has again been highlighted in recent days.

We have this evening (22 July 2022) received a draft proposal from the Government, which we are now reviewing in detail. No agreement has yet been reached and we must make sure that the proposal is fair and that the conditions are realistic and deliverable. We will respond to the Government as soon as possible.

Despite the @MayorofLondon failing to provide required info for @TfL finance extensions, I've put a long-term settlement on the table to ensure services are supported & 3.6bn of capital projects take place by 2024. The ball is now firmly in the Mayor's court.  Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) July 22, 2022

Announcing the proposal on Twitter, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: Despite the @MayorofLondon failing to provide required info for @TfL finance extensions, Ive put a long-term settlement on the table to ensure services are supported & 3.6bn of capital projects take place by 2024.

The ball is now firmly in the Mayors court.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the proposal, but said it was long overdue.

He said in a statement: Late on Friday evening, TfL finally received a proposal for a funding settlement from the Government. This is long overdue  and the inexcusable delay has forced TfL to plan for cuts.

While sight of this offer is welcome, we will now need to scrutinise the offer in detail to understand the impact of this offer on Londoners and the wider economy. It is in no ones interest to have conditions that could damage TfL, unfairly punish Londoners or the economy of our capital city.

TfL only needs financial support from the Government because it and Londoners followed the Governments advice, which had a devastating impact on TfL finances. TfL need a sustainable funding deal that prevents the need for painful cuts to Londons transport network.

Unless this deal offers fair sustainable funding for our capital city, which contributes 36bn net to the rest of the country, there will be devastating reductions in bus and Tube services, harming both Londons and the national economic recovery.
Activist Gionet addresses rally of self proclaimed White Nationalists and "alt-right" supporters at "Freedom of Speech" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The far-right media personality known as "Baked Alaska" pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to a single misdemeanor charge stemming from his role in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Anthime "Tim" Gionet, 34, also admitted in an "statement of offense" filed with his guilty plea in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to being part of the mob that entered the Capitol without authorization and occupied the building for hours.

The riot left more than 140 police officers injured and disrupted congressional certification of the November 2020 presidential election victory of Democrat Joe Biden over Trump, who led Republicans in falsely claiming he lost due to widespread fraud and urged supporters to "stop the steal." The attack on the Capitol also led to several deaths.

Gionet, a banned YouTube prankster and former BuzzFeed social media strategist calling himself Baked Alaska, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully "parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building."

The misdemeanor offense carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a fine up to $5,000. Sentencing was set for Jan. 12. He remains free on personal recognizance.

In his statement, Gionet acknowledged egging on other rioters to "come in" and "make yourself at home," as well as livestreaming the event for 27 minutes in real time over the video platform DLive and joining in various chants.

Gionet also filmed himself pretending to make a call from a Senate conference room and propped his feet up on a table in another Senate office, admonishing others "not to break anything," before eventually being ushered to an exit by law enforcement whom he cursed as "oath-breakers," the statement said.

More than 850 people have been charged with taking part in the Jan. 6 riot, with more than 325 guilty pleas so far.

As part of his plea deal with federal prosecutors, Gionet agreed to allow federal agents still investigating the events of Jan. 6 to interview him and review his social media accounts for statements and postings surrounding that day.

(Reporting by Kaniskah Singh in Washington; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Former Black Ink Crew New York star Ceaser Emanuel is facing animal cruelty charges after a video showing him hitting a dog with a chair surfaced online last month.

Emanuel was charged on July 9 with two counts of animal cruelty and one count of aggravated cruelty to animals jail records, obtained by PEOPLE, show.

The tattoo shop owner, 43, was briefly incarcerated but released that same day, records show.

"Ceaser willing turned himself in and was released the same day on July 9th from the Fulton County Police Department," a representative for Emanuel told The Shade Room. "His legal team is fully cooperating with the Fulton County Police department to bring him justice for this incident. As we stated previously the dogs are in a great space, safe and healthy."

The City of South Fulton Police Department and Emanuel's lawyer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 20: Ceaser Emanuel poses at the Ceasar Emanuel press conference to address recent social media attacks on May 20, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Arturo Holmes/Getty

Last month, Emanuel was fired from the hit VH1 reality series after the footage of him went viral.

The clip was from a Ring camera and shows the tattoo shop owner striking a canine with a folding chair multiple times, as well as locking the dog in a cage, and pushing it down a hill.

RELATED: Dave Chappelle's Show Moved to Different Venue in Minneapolis Following Backlash: 'We Let You Down'

"We have made the decision to cut ties with Ceaser Emanuel from Black Ink Crew New York," VH1 wrote in a statement posted to Facebook on Thursday. "Since next season was close to finishing production, this decision will not impact the upcoming season."

Emanuel's lawyer, Walter Mosley, did not dispute it was his client in the video but told PEOPLE at the time that it was an old video and Emanuel was stopping some aggressive dogs from attacking other animals.

RELATED: 17-Year-Old, Who Is Reportedly Rapper Trina's Niece, Shot and Killed in Miami

"Ceaser is an avid dog lover and has many dogs and has had in his lifetime, many dogs and other pets," Mosley told PEOPLE. "This was an unfortunate situation as I understand it, where there were a number of other aggressive dogs attacking smaller dogs and probably was a lapse of judgment as to how to appropriately break it up, break up that interaction."

"In some ways, what was not seen in that video, was him protecting the smaller dogs, he just likely didn't do this in the best way, so he's seeking assistance and help to make sure that as a dog owner, he's properly managing it, and understands how to interact in more healthy ways with all types of dogs and all of his dogs, but this is certainly a situation that he had addressed a long time ago," the lawyer added.

"It's unfortunate that a video that's probably almost a year old or older surfaced and created such a disruption. It's something that we've addressed and been addressing for some time."

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Black Ink Crew New York, which follows the day-to-day drama at a Black-owned and operated tattoo shop in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, first premiered on VH1 in 2013, and has been on the air for nine seasons total.
A pair of environmentalists in Florence, Italy, glued their hands to a glass covering protecting Sandro Botticellis painting Spring.

Two activists of Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) environmentalist group claim to glue themselves to the glass protecting Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli's Primavera (Spring) in Florence's Uffizi Galleries, central Italy, Friday.



Two activists of Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) environmentalist group claim to glue themselves to the glass protecting Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli's Primavera (Spring) in Florence's Uffizi Galleries, central Italy, Friday. (Ultima Generazione/)

The protest was staged at the Uffizi Galleries where the 10-foot tall painting is housed alongside other works by the 15th-century artist. A trio of demonstrators arrived with a sign reading, in Italian, Last Generation, No Gas No Coal, police said. One activist helped hold the banner while the other two attached themselves to the 540-year-old masterpiece. All three were reportedly members of a protest group called Ultima Generazione, which translates to Last Generation.

No damage was done to the painting. Its protective covering was installed several years ago.

A museum's official tries to block two activists of Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) environmentalist group as they try to glue themselves to the glass protecting Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli's Primavera (Spring) in Florence. (Ultima Generation via AP)



A museum's official tries to block two activists of Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) environmentalist group as they try to glue themselves to the glass protecting Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli's Primavera (Spring) in Florence. (Ultima Generation via AP) (Ultima Generazione/)

The protesters, two women and one man, were all Italian. They were arrested and told not to return to Florence until 2025.

Local media reported that one of the activists asked, Today, is it possible to see a beautiful Spring like this?

Affixing ones self to high-profile paintings has become a summer 2022 trend. In recent weeks, protesters have stuck themselves to the frames of Vincent Van Goghs Peach Trees in Blossom, John Constables The Hay Wain and a version of Leonardo da Vincis The Last Supper.

With News Wire Services
RENTON, Wash. (AP)  A man was killed and six others wounded in a shooting that broke out early Saturday in the Seattle suburb of Renton, police said.

Officers found the people who had been wounded in the shooting along with a large agitated crowd after callers told police shortly before 1 a.m. that shots had been fired in the downtown area, the Renton Police Department tweeted.

Fire personnel and officers were trying to treat a badly wounded 32-year-old Tacoma man but the crowd forced them to move him to a more secure location," police said in a statement. The man died.

Six other people went to hospitals with gunshot injuries, police said.

Residents told police they heard an argument before the shooting, police said, but it's unclear what led to the argument and no arrests have been made.
A village in northern Kenya in May. (Brian Inganga / Associated Press)

More than 50 million people across East Africa are expected to face acute food insecurity this year, a regional bloc said Friday, warning that some 300,000 people in Somalia and South Sudan are projected to be under full-blown famine conditions.

The assessment by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, is one of the most dire yet as United Nations agencies, humanitarian groups and others continue to raise alarm over the region's food crisis that many say has been largely neglected as the international community focuses on the war in Ukraine.

That assessment applies to the member states of IGAD: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.

Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, is traveling in East Africa to spotlight the hunger crisis in the region.

In Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on Friday, Power announced at least $255 million in drought-related humanitarian and development support to Kenya. She is expected to visit Ethiopia and Somalia, where some communities have suffered four consecutive failed rainy seasons.

Power earlier in the week spoke of the need to prevent the global food crisis from becoming a catastrophe, announcing $1.2 billion in funding that includes immediate food assistance for people in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.

In addition to immediate humanitarian aid, the international community must sustain investment in global agriculture and undertake 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, Power said in a speech Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Aid groups and other watchdogs have been calling for more funds to be devoted to East Africa after the war in Ukraine grabbed the world's attention and money.

Three million people face emergency and catastrophic levels of hunger, risking death," the International Rescue Committee said in a statement Tuesday, noting that "people have already started dying from starvation and the window to prevent mass deaths is rapidly closing."

Even if new U.S. funding is fulfilled, the humanitarian response plan for the region would be funded at 40% of the assessed need," the group warned. "After just over three months, the $1.9-billion appeal for the humanitarian response in Ukraine was 85% funded  a demonstration of the capacity for resource mobilization when the political will exists."

Power has criticized China for allegedly contributing just $3 million to the U.N. World Food Program this year, while the U.S. has given $3.9 billion this financial year. China and other nations must go above and beyond as we work to prevent famine, she said on Twitter.

Somalia, a country that continues to grapple with armed conflict wrought by an Islamic extremist insurgency, is seen as particularly vulnerable. A weak humanitarian response to the 2010-12 drought was in part to blame as a quarter-million people died during famine conditions. Half of them were children.

Somalis walk for days through parched landscapes to places like Mogadishu, the capital, in search of aid but find that there is little or nothing.

The number of people going hungry in Somalia because of drought has nearly doubled since the start of the year, according to the International Rescue Committee, which saw a 265% increase in admissions for children under 5 with severe malnutrition at just one clinic in Mogadishu between April and May.

There is a risk of famine in eight areas of Somalia through September in the event of widespread crop and livestock production failures, spiraling food costs, and in the absence of scaled-up humanitarian assistance, the assessment by IGAD said.

Tiro reported from Nairobi, Kenya

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise in the Kansas City area, due in part to the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant.

Nationally, the number of daily average coronavirus cases is higher than at the end of last July when the Delta variant began sweeping across the United States, according to case data monitored by New York Times.

If you compare where we are with [hospitalizations for] the BA.5 variant, were getting back to where we were with the delta variant, said Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, in a news briefing on Wednesday, July 20. And no matter how you look at it, the percent positivity [of COVID-19 tests] is now the third-highest its been during the entire pandemic.

Stites noted that this trend is especially impacting seniors. He recommended distancing from others, gathering outdoors when possible, staying home when sick and wearing a mask. These measures are especially important for those with weakened immune systems.

The BA.5 lineage of the omicron variant has the ability to evade some antibodies caused by vaccination and past infections, so it is reinfecting some people who have had COVID recently. However, the protection provided by currently available vaccines and booster shots is still the best defense against severe illness and hospitalization from COVID-19.

What does Kansas Citys COVID-19 data look like this week?

Officials reported a total of 3,095 new cases in the Kansas City area since last week. Thats lower than last weeks total of 3,902 new cases. However, this case count only includes data from Johnson County through Tuesday morning, due to a recent change in the way the county reports COVID-19 information. That means the county only contributed about half a weeks case data to this full weeks total.

Since many people are taking COVID tests at home, which arent publicly recorded, experts say real case totals are likely anywhere from two to five times higher than what data shows.

The state of Missouri is no longer reporting death counts at the county level. Johnson County and Wyandotte County did not report any new deaths since last week. That keeps the Kansas City metro areas death total at at least 4,339 since the pandemic began.

How are hospitals holding up?

The University of Kansas Health System is treating 29 patients with active COVID-19 infections, up from 23 at this time last week. Eight of these patients are in the ICU, and four of them are on ventilators.

Eight are now in the ICU I dont like that number, said Stites. Thats something well really have to keep an eye on. BA.5 is out there, and its not to be trifled with.

Hospital officials do not yet know whether a new variant of concern, omicron BA.2.75, is present yet in the Kansas City area. For now, the highly contagious BA.5 strain remains dominant in the metro. While vaccines formulated to fight the omicron variant and its subvariants are coming, the currently available vaccines remain the best protection against getting sick from COVID-19.

What are the COVID-19 risk levels in the Kansas City area?

Jackson, Wyandotte and Johnson counties remain at high community levels of COVID-19 since last week. That means the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors regardless of your vaccination status, maintaining good ventilation and getting up to date on your vaccines and boosters.

Clay and Platte counties are still at a medium community level, which carries similar recommendations. However, masks are not encouraged indoors at this level unless you are immunocompromised or indoors with someone who is.

All five counties that make up the Kansas City metro area remain at high transmission levels, along with most of the other counties in the nation. That means your risk of catching COVID-19 in public is elevated. CDC data shows that over 93% of U.S. counties are experiencing this elevated risk.

How vaccinated is the Kansas City area?

Vaccination rates in the area are rising slowly, with 62.95% of the population fully vaccinated in the Kansas City region. Eastern Kansas has a higher vaccination rate, at 71.43%, than western Missouri does at 56.63%.

Getting vaccinated and obtaining a booster shot is still the most effective way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. Both mRNA booster shots (Pfizer and Moderna) are safe and effective at reducing the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death.

Do you have more questions about staying safe from COVID-19 in Kansas City? Ask our Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
BAGHDAD, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Saturday requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council after the deadly bombardment on a resort in Iraq's northern province of Duhok.

"The ministry submitted a complaint to the Security Council and requested an urgent meeting to discuss the Turkish attack, which resulted in the killing and wounding of many civilians, in Duhok Province," said Iraqi Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said in a statement.

A suspected Turkish bombardment hit a Duhok resort in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan on Wednesday, leaving nine civilians dead and dozens wounded. The Iraqi government accuses the Turkish forces of carrying out the attack, a charge Ankara has denied.

Also on Saturday, the Iraqi parliament held an urgent session, with the presence of Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Defense Minister Juma Inad and some top military commanders, to discuss the bombardment on the Iraqi territories.

Hussein said during the session that diplomacy should be used to resolve the conflict and that military escalation with Turkiye avoided, a source in the parliament told Xinhua.

He demanded the issues of the presence of the Turkish military forces and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) inside Iraqi territory be addressed, added the source who wished to remain anonymous.

On Thursday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry handed a sternly worded protest note to Turkish Ambassador to Iraq Ali Reza Guney over the deadly resort bombardment in Duhok, demanding the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Iraqi territory.

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.

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. 
The El Dorado Hills woman charged with felony animal abuse says her animals werent neglected after local authorities on Tuesday raided her home and seized more than two dozen of her dogs and found two dead puppies in her freezer.

Please dont believe what they are spinning in the media, Sandi Tidwell wrote on Facebook in a private post reviewed by The Sacramento Bee. All the dogs were fed, giving (sic) water all day and loved.

El Dorado County officials arrested Tidwell, who runs an organization called the Sierra Nevada German Shepherd Rescue, at her home after receiving multiple complaints regarding a stench of feces coming from her Tea Rose Drive property.

While serving a search warrant Tuesday, deputies and animal control officials seized 25 live dogs and found two others dead on the property, said Henry Brzezinski, chief of El Dorado County Animal Services.

Sheriffs and animal services officials on Tuesday July 19, 2022, recover and care for dogs found among 25 alive and dead dogs at a home on Tea Rose Drive in El Dorado Hills, California.

Tidwells organization said the dead dogs  puppies that were in the freezer  were awaiting burial.

Tidwells dog rescue operation is one of dozens of nonprofit organizations in California that seek to find homes for at-risk pets by removing animals from shelters or acquire them from people who cant safely care for them. Volunteers or employees then try to put them into temporary foster homes or find them a permanent adoptive family.

Brzezinski said the dogs taken from Tidwells property were a mix of ages, from adults to young pups. They are currently being housed at the countys animal shelter in Diamond Springs.

Theyre being properly cared for, Brzezinski said. Theyre in a safe surrounding at our shelter.

Other than encouraging tipsters who might have more information about the case to contact his office, Brzezinski otherwise declined to comment on the active investigation.

Puppies kept in freezer

Online jail records show that Tidwell was released not long after she was arrested Tuesday. Her bail was $10,000.

Sierra Nevada German Shepherd Rescue was founded in 2016 and listed Tidwells Tea Rose Drive home address on the incorporation papers filed with the California Secretary of State. The Franchise Tax Board suspended the organization four years later.

The group refiled nonprofit incorporation papers with the Secretary of States Office in April, listing Tidwell as the CEO.

The groups website, which has since been taken down, said its mission is to provide a sanctuary for abandoned and abused dogs, as well as dogs that were at risk of being euthanized at local animal shelters. Our goal is to place them in a permanent home that best suits each dogs specific needs with qualified owners, the website read.

In a statement to The Bee sent via text message, Sierra Nevada German Shepherd Rescue said Tidwell loves and keeps in contact with the majority of dogs ... she saved and truly cares for each and every one of them.

We can tell you there werent dead dogs lying around rotting, the statement said. They were puppies that were being preserved in the garage freezer who were born with medical defects and were seen by vets and being monitored. The statement said the less than 8-week-old pups were eventually going to be buried together.

In her Facebook post, Tidwell said one of the dead pups succumbed to fading puppy syndrome  a condition that describes a puppy dying from unknown causes.

The other died from hydrocephalus  fluid build-up in the brain  and pneumonia, she wrote.

I rushed him to the vet in tears to humanely let him go, she wrote of the second pup.

Client not surprised by charges

In her Facebook post, Tidwell said shed been struggling to find the dogs homes.

How many times did I beg and plead for fosters and adopters? she wrote. No one would step up and almost 90% of the dogs were returned from fosters for one reason or another.

One of those would-be fosters, Mackenzie Firestone, told The Bee that she wasnt surprised to learn that Tidwell had gotten into trouble.

I got a sense from a lot of people that like once the dog had been rescued, Firestone said, she just basically dumps it on people and doesnt help or anything.

Firestone fostered a German shepherd named Sky from Tidwells organization in early February. She said Tidwells organization promised to give her dog food, a dog crate and promised to book Sky a trip to the groomer to get the dog cleaned up, but she never received any of it.

Firestone said Sky was too aggressive toward Firestones other dogs, so she asked Tidwell to take the dog back and find Sky a more suitable home. Firestone said a document she signed gave her the option to return the dog as long as Firestone gave two weeks notice so the organization could find a new foster family. After, she claims Tidwell wrongfully accused her of abusing Sky with a shock collar.

Eventually, the rescue organization sent another family to pick up Sky from Firestones Rancho Cordova home, Firestone said. She added that she never interacted with Tidwell directly or saw the home where the alleged abuse took place.

I never actually met her in person, she said. It was all online stuff.

Sheriffs and animal services officials on Tuesday July 19, 2022, recover and care for dogs found among 25 alive and dead dogs at a home on Tea Rose Drive in El Dorado Hills, California.

Its not clear when Tidwell would next appear in court. The El Dorado County Superior Courts website doesnt allow the public to search for criminal case information. Brzezinski, the animal control chief, said he hadnt been given a date for her arraignment.

In the meantime, Brzezinski said the dogs seized from Tidwells property would likely be in the countys custody for at least two weeks before they could become eligible for adoption.

He said the delay is due to a mandatory waiting period that happens when authorities seize someones dogs.

While the majority of animal rescue organizations avoid problems, sometimes the groups get overwhelmed, he said.

Well-intentioned people, you know, can get in over their heads, Brzezinski said, speaking in generalities and not specifically about Tidwells case. They want to do everything for the animals, and its just overwhelming.

The Bees Dale Kasler contributed to this story.
Climate activists chained themselves to the doors of a Charlotte office building Friday morning to protest a construction companys role in a new Atlanta police facility in a forest.

Other protesters closed the Morehead Street buildings doors with bike locks then fled in a black Honda CR-V as security approached, according to a video provided to The Charlotte Observer.

Members of Defend the Atlanta Forest want Brasfield & Gorrie to cancel its contract with the City of Atlanta. The Birmingham, Alabama-based firm has a Charlotte office in the Dilworth building.

Protesters on Friday left a poster that reads Stop Cop City. Drop the Contract on the doors of an office buliding in Charlotte Climate activists want construction company Brasfield & Gorrie to end its contract which Atlanta for a police training facility in a forest home to an indigenous tribe.

Atlanta has contracted Brasfield & Gorrie to build an 88-acre police training facility in the South River, which runs through the Weelaunee Forest, ancestral home of the Muscogee Creek Tribe, according to reports.

Detractors of the Atlanta police facility have dubbed the project Cop City.

Criminal acts of vandalism and harassment

In a statement to The Charlotte Observer on Saturday, Brasfield & Gorrie said the event at its Charlotte office remained peaceful.

Brasfield & Gorrie employees and offices have been the target of criminal acts of vandalism and harassment during similar demonstrations against the construction of a training center for police and first responders in Atlanta, according to the statement.

We support the right to free speech, but in previous separate events, activists crossed the boundary of peaceful protest into unlawful activity involving significant property destruction and harassment, the statement continued. Our offices in Birmingham and Atlanta were vandalized, and individual employees and their families have been targeted at their homes, at church, and in online attacks.

Worker: Guard made protesters leave

The protesters, dressed in all black, jumped out of the SUV around 7:45 a.m., William Smith, a parking employee at the building, told the Observer. They split off to both sides of the building, carrying signs and bike locks, he said.

First, they locked the front door and main entrance. Then, two protesters chained themselves to the front and back doors by their necks, Smith said.

A security guard at the front of the building forced the protesters to leave, he said. The SUV went around the back to pick up the other protesters, the video shows.

Climate activists used bike locks to keep people out of a Charlotte office building on Friday.

By the time Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers arrived, the protesters were gone.

The protesters left signs on the doors that read STOP COP CITY. DROP THE CONTRACT, andWE ARE HUMAN, VOTE, and STOP FACISM.

A larger group of demonstrators held a protest at Brasfield & Gorries offices on June 30, QCityMetro reported.

We are in a climate crisis that threatens all of us, especially Black and Indigenous people, activist Haley Pinto said in a news release announcing the protest Friday morning. Destroying 300 acres of the largest urban forest in the country to build a militarized police training facility will exacerbate this crisis.

CMPD said it had no written report on the protest.
A presidents refusal to stop an armed invasion of the U.S. Capitol was presented as shocking this week, and indeed it ought to be. All that could prepare us for such an abdication in Donald Trumps case was everything that preceded it.

Despite the remonstrances of virtually every aide in the White House, at least half his adult children and a good portion of Fox News prime-time lineup, Trump refused to so much as amble over to the White House briefing room or lift a tweeting finger to stop the mob, as the latest hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee demonstrated. Trumps incriminating inertia persisted for 187 minutes as the insurrectionists maimed police officers and mortally threatened a joint session of Congress led by his own long-servile vice president, Mike Pence. Even Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who pumped his fist at the rabble and led the insurrections legislative wing, was caught on video literally running for his life.

Trumps inaction in the face of an assault on Congress  convened for the purpose of certifying the presidential election, no less  does seem contrary to the whole protect and defend the Constitution of the United States part of the oath he swore, not to mention at least a couple sections of the federal criminal code and every claim to human decency. But there was no reason to expect otherwise.

Opinion

Trump had, after all, provided the rioters with a fabricated motive, publicly summoned them to Washington weeks beforehand and sicced them on the Capitol once they arrived. Expecting him to object once blood was spilled would be like asking an arsonist to douse his own flames. No wonder the then-president not only made no effort to disrupt the riot but encouraged it by attacking Pence in a tweet that, as former Trump press aide Sarah Matthews put it to the committee, poured gasoline on the fire.

The committee has added much to our understanding of the context of the coup attempt, including the desperate, failed scheming to seize voting machines and worse just before Trumps will be wild invitation to the insurrection; Trumps knowledge that the crowd was armed and insistence on urging it toward the Capitol anyway; and the quantity and vehemence of the entreaties he ignored as the melee proceeded. But Trump undoes our standards and safeguards by flouting them openly and brazenly, and this was no exception: He orchestrated the coup in public.

Thats why, as this weeks hearing reminded us, even as notorious a sycophant as Californias own Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, offered an uncharacteristically clear condemnation of Trump in the immediate aftermath.

McCarthys quick subsequent ceasefire with the man who could have had him killed  along with that of most of the Republican Party and its media apparatus  is a reconciliation with violence and an endorsement of authoritarianism. Now that Trump and his party are doing us the favor of telling us their intentions all over again, lets do ourselves the favor of believing them.
Curtis Road in Boise is closed between Fairview Avenue and the south side of the Interstate 184 overpass as a result of downed power lines, according to a tweet from the Boise Police Department.

A driver backed their truck into a pole near a parking lot on Hartman Street, which brought down multiple power lines, police spokesperson Haley Williams told the Idaho Statesman in a text.

Idaho Power spokesperson Sven Berg told the Statesman that 348 customers were without power as a result of the accident. Berg said crews are working as quickly as they can to restore electricity, but it might be several hours because of the extent of the damage.

Williams said the road would remain closed while power crews worked to repair the lines in the area. Police asked drivers to avoid Curtis Road at Fairview.

Anyone traveling westbound on the I-184 Connector is unable to exit at Curtis Road, according to police.
A Fife man who led a Mexican cartel-linked drug trafficking ring pleaded guilty this week for his role in bringing more than 120 pounds of methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl pills and cocaine into Western Washington, federal authorities announced Friday.

Luis Arturo Magana-Ramirez, 34, entered the plea deal in U.S. District Court in Seattle and could face up to life in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The agency said that Magana-Ramirez, in addition to being responsible for the transnational organizations transportation of large quantities of drugs into the region, also threatened to beat or kill people who owed money to the ring, leading authorities to move in to protect a target in at least one instance.

A 26-year-old Kent man, described as a trusted lieutenant to Magana-Ramirez, also pleaded guilty this week to trafficking heroin and methamphetamine for the organization, which law enforcement linked to the CJNG cartel in Mexico. Jorge Mondragon admitted to being involved in threatening violence over drug debts, according to the agency.

The guilty pleas followed an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations Tacoma Resident Office, which partnered with other law enforcement agencies.

During the investigation, Mondragon also threatened to leave one target needing a wheelchair and law enforcement had to intervene, the agency said in a news release.

Magana-Ramirez, who faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, was arrested in July 2020. The agency said he had two firearms at the time  one which was stolen  and that he was barred from having any guns because he was in the country illegally from Mexico.

Mondragon also faces life in prison and a a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars when he is expected to be sentenced in October. Authorities found a stolen firearm and another gun  both which Mondragon was barred from possessing due to his criminal record  when he was arrested in July 2020 after jumping an embankment and then running from police, the agency said.

As part of the plea deals for Magana-Ramirez and Mondragon, prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than 17 years and 11 years in prison, respectively. However, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour does not have to follow those recommendations, the agency said.
After rejecting a new sex education textbook it had previously approved, Floridas largest school board  the fourth largest public school system in America  finds itself racing the clock to meet the Sunshine States requirement to provide Human Reproduction and Disease Education lessons in schools.

The Miami-Dade School Board voted against the Comprehensive Health Skills text 5-4 during what was described as an emotionally charged Wednesday meeting. That same board voted 5-3 in favor of using that same book in April after asking its Illinois-based publisher to omit a chapter called Understanding Sexuality. That section dealt with topics including sexual orientation.

Critics of the text nevertheless filed nearly 300 other objections to the health book including content about abortion, contraceptives and the fact that vaccinations can prevent viral infections.

It could take months for the school board, which educates 334,000 students, to choose and receive an alternative to the books it had previously chosen. The text also included lessons on health and exercise.

Miami Dade School Board Seal



Miami Dade School Board Seal

Only two of the 40 Floridians who spoke at Wednesdays meeting objected to using Comprehensive Health Skills as a learning tool. Board vice-chair Steve Gallon III said that lopsided ratio serves to debunk and denounce this narrative that theres this broad opposition to the boards adoption of these materials.

In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the states Parental Rights in Education bill that, among other things, prohibits classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.

Critics have dubbed that legislation the dont say gay law. It restricts discussion about gender identity or sexual orientation from grades K through 3. Board member Luisa Santos noted the district allows parents to opt out of being taught about issues specific to sexual health, pregnancy and disease prevention. She voted in favor of the book.

Goodheart-Willcox, which publishes Comprehensive Health Skills, offers different versions of the book for middle and high school students.

With News Wire Services
The Kenly Town Council emerged from a closed-door meeting Friday night, two days after its police chief, his four officers and two town clerks resigned, with little to say except they they will meet again next week.

The news of the mass resignations has brought media attention to the small Johnston County town of just over 2,000 people. About 50 residents gathered at Kenly Town Hall, huddled in small groups, talking among themselves as the Town Council members quietly took their seats in the small, brick building.

Denise Bennett, a native of Kenly, came to support new Town Manager Justine Jones. In resignation letters, the employees cited a hostile or stressful working environment, some blaming the manager.

Bennett said she doesnt believe Jones, who started June 2, has had a chance to build relationships with people in the town yet.

One of my questions is, what happened between May and July? It takes time when you get a new boss, she said. We just want to make sure that the process is fair, and this ultimatum of her versus him as a police chief is not a good process.

Kenly town manager Justine Jones prepares for a Town Council emergency session in Kenly N.C., Friday, July 22, 2022. The session is in response to the abrupt resignation of the police chief, four officers, and two administrators.

Christel McGowan stood in front of Town Hall with a sign reading Save Kenly, Fire Town Manager.

Police Chief Josh Gibson has said he would consider returning to the job if Jones left, WRAL reported.

McGowan was hoping the Town Council would agree to side with the officers and remove Jones.

Theyve been here over 20 years. This woman comes in and I have a lot to say, but I cant, McGowan said. She sued Virginia, she sued South Carolina and I wouldnt doubt it if she sues us.

McGowan was referring to pending lawsuits between Jones and her previous employer in Richland County, South Carolina, for alleged gender and racial discrimination after she was fired in 2015, also reported by WRAL.

We dont need to ... let everybody walk out because this woman has a hard time managing, and that I know for a fact, McGowan said. She said she could not say how Jones was a poor town manager.

The Kenly Town Council chambers are filled before a Town Council emergency session in Kenly, N.C. Friday, July 22, 2022. The session is in response to the abrupt resignation of the police chief, four officers, and two administrators.

Longtime resident Cynthia Kirby said the entire issue is racial. Jones is a Black woman, and the police officers who resigned are white men.

They dont want to be led by anybody Black; thats Kenly. Theyre always harassing Black people. Its racial, Kirby said. I hope this doesnt end in her quitting because thats not right. You cant judge anybody because they make you do your job.

Jones was hired out of 30 candidates in a national search, according to a town news release. She previously worked in local governments in Minnesota, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Jones told The News & Observer on Thursday morning she could not comment on the resignations.

Mayor meets with residents

Residents Heather and Michael Johnson were also hoping for some kind of resolution Friday night.

The two were in a meeting between Mayor Herbert Hales and some residents in a music hall across from Town Hall before the council meeting. The mayor told reporters they couldnt be in the meeting.

Heather Johnson said she felt the mayor answered peoples questions the best he could.

He was very upfront, and he said it like it was and said if I dont know, Ill do my best to find out, she said.

She said she isnt concerned about any safety issues that could come up with the officers resignations.

Kenly only has one officer on duty most of the time, so this is not anything new. As much as the police chief tries to have multiple officers, it hasnt been possible lately, Johnson said.

Im hoping they can resolve this in a professional manner where whatever changes need to happen happen and we can walk away as a community and with no hard feelings, and with nobody dramatizing or with an agenda, she said. We just want to be safe in Kenly.

Kenly town manager Justine Jones, left, and the Town Council prepare to start an emergency session in Kenly, N.C. Friday, July 22, 2022. The session is in response to the abrupt resignation of the police chief, four officers, and two administrators.

Hales said he still has questions but was aware of some issues between the officers and new manager.

Council was aware there was a possibility but you dont know whats going to happen until it happens sometimes, he said. [Tensions] built up very quickly.

The Johnston County Sheriffs Office will provide law enforcement protection for as long as the town needs, Sheriff Steve Bizzell said in a statement.

Kenly could join a short list of municipalities in the state with defunct or disbanded law enforcement agencies. Last year, the Davie County town of Mocksville voted to get rid of its police department.

Other town controversy

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Gibson, who has been police chief for the last two decades, said the new town manager has created an environment where I do not feel we can perform our duties and services to the community.

The four officers and two administrators who also quit alleged a hostile and toxic work environment that they could no longer work in.

Neither Gibson or clerks Sharon Evans or Christi Thomas responded to requests for comment from The N&O.

This is not the first controversy involving the town managers office.

Former Kenly Town Manager Michael Douglas was charged with misdemeanor sexual battery in June 2020, according to court documents.

A civil lawsuit against Douglas and the town of Kenly was filed by a woman who claims Douglas came to her house and grabbed her breast in front of her sister and asked, Why wont your sister let me hit it?

Thoroughly disturbed by this incident, plaintiff contacted the Kenly Police Department to file a report but was prevented from doing so by the Kenly Chief of Police, who informed plaintiff she should just move on from the incident, according the lawsuit.

The woman tried filing a report again with a police lieutenant, but the chief prevented the lieutenant from filing the report, according to the lawsuit.

It is the general policy of The N&O not to name people who say they have been victims of a sexual assault.

The lawsuit states the woman also told the town board about the incident but that it was ignored until Douglas was charged in 2020, according to the lawsuit.

The town denies that the police chief prevented the woman from filing a police report, according to its response in court documents. The town says the town board was notified of the allegation, and after the meeting a council member approached the district attorney to investigate it, according to court documents.

Court documents show that several people connected to Kenly have been subpoenaed in recent months in regard to the criminal case, including Gibson and Evans.

The next court date in the criminal case will be the week of Aug. 15. The civil lawsuit is in mediation.
Authorities were asking the public to help find an 83-year-old man with early-onset dementia after he went missing on his way home from a Kansas City hospital Friday afternoon.

Albert Wright, of Blue Mound, Kansas, was last seen leaving St. Lukes Hospital near the Plaza in Kansas City around 2:30 p.m. after visiting his wife there, authorities said Friday night. Wright was supposed to be driving to Blue Mound, a small town about 90 miles southwest, but never arrived, police said.

Wright was driving a gray 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a Kansas veteran license plate: 6140.

Wright is approximately 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs about 178 pounds. He was wearing a white T-shirt and gray shorts when he was last seen.

Alerts about Wrights disappearance were issued by Kansas City police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Authorities were asking anyone with information about Wrights whereabouts to contact the Kansas City Police Departments Missing Persons Unit at 816-234-5220 or call 911.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal crash that took place early Saturday on Garners Ferry Road.

A 23-year-old man from Goldsboro, N.C., was killed when his car was hit by a driver going the wrong way on the highway in Richland County at about 4 a.m., according to a statement from Master Trooper Mitchell Ridgeway of the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

The man, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

Joshua Collins 2013 Ford Sedan was traveling eastbound in the highways westbound lane near Garners Ferry Way, approximately 20 miles east of Columbia, when it struck the other car head on, said Ridgeway.

Collins was transported to Prisma Health Richland Hospital by emergency medical services.

This is a breaking story. Check back here for more updates.
A month after Stanislaus County recorded its lowest unemployment rate since tracking began, the number ticked up slightly in June.

Junes unemployment rate in Stanislaus County stood at 5.2%, according to monthly figures released Friday by the California Employment and Development Department office. That was up from a revised 4.5% in May 2022 but well below the 9.5% recorded a year ago.

Among industries, farming lost the most jobs, with 14,300 in June compared with 15,200 in May, a 5.9% drop. But the June 2022 number was fairly consistent with the June 2021 number, which was 14,400. Other sectors that saw losses in June were state and local government, which lost 600 jobs, and general merchandise stores, which lost 100 jobs.

Statewide, the unadjusted unemployment rate for June was 4.0%; the national rate was 3.8%, the EDD said.
BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, addressed the 5th Digital China Summit via video on Saturday.

Noting that major progress has been made in building a "digital China" since the 18th CPC National Congress, Huang called for more efforts to make new breakthroughs in key and core technologies and open up new prospects in infrastructure development.

Huang stressed that digital industrialization and industrial digitization should be vigorously promoted. He also required efforts to build a digital economy with data as the key element, accelerate the development of digital government, new smart cities and digital villages, and improve the digital literacy and skills of the general public.

The two-day summit, co-sponsored by authorities including the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the government of east China's Fujian Province, is being held in the provincial capital of Fuzhou. It will conclude on Sunday. 
A stench that has fouled the air in the Carolinas near Charlotte sparked a lawsuit Friday that accuses a paper mill of not getting a pollution permit and of shutting down a key piece of equipment that was vital to controlling odors.

Seven South Carolina residents who say theyve been affected by noxious odors from the New-Indy paper mill say the company never applied for a key air pollution permit as it turned off a device called a steam stripper.

The federal suit asks a court to order New-Indy to eliminate the odors and cut pulp production until the company obtains the air pollution permit. Known as a prevention of significant deterioration permit, the air pollution license is needed by major new industries or big industries making major changes to a plant.

New-Indy acquired the former Bowater paper mill in York County about three years ago and in 2020 began changing production from bleached paper to unbleached material. But the company took the stripper offline as it made changes.

After the steam stripper was shut down, New-Indy sent millions of gallons of foul waste material  containing, among other things, hydrogen sulfide  directly to a wastewater treatment plant, the lawsuit said. That caused the area to be blanketed by the odors, the suit said.

South Carolina regulators have received at least 47,000 odor complaints from area residents, with many people saying the stench smelled like rotten eggs. The complaints began in January 2021. People living on both sides of the state line near Charlotte have been affected.

Lawyers for area residents who sued Friday said they are looking for an expeditious end to New-Indys toxic emissions that have continued for over a year. This community deserves better, and we look forward to holding New-Indy fully accountable for the harm it has caused.

Motley Rice, a prestigious law firm out of Charleston, is leading the legal action against New-Indy. Other law firms representing residents in the lawsuits include the Baird, Mandalas firm of Delaware; and law firms that employ state Reps. Tommy Pope, R-York, and Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, and state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland.

A spokesman for New-Indy said the company would not comment on the lawsuit. New-Indy has previously said it is working to make improvements and has had recent success in fixing problems.

The lawsuit, one of two legal actions announced Friday by attorneys for the residents, says New-Indy should be fined as much as $20 million for violating clean air laws if it does not seek the pollution permit.

Separately, the South Carolina residents sent a formal notice to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that they intend to sue the agency in 60 days for failing to diligently prosecute New-Indy for past air pollution.

Fridays action is the latest legal trouble for New-Indy. The company already faces a class action lawsuit that seeks compensation for people who say theyve been hurt by powerful odors since the problem began in early 2021.

The EPA also has previously fined New-Indy $1.1 million, but the fine has not been finalized and the amount could be changed, pending review by a federal court. At the same time, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control recently fined the company nearly $130,000 over the stench that it said was tied to problems with the wastewater treatment system. DHEC also sent a letter asking the company to make improvements to the stripper.

Critics say those actions arent enough for a multi-million dollar corporation. New-Indy is partially owned by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The company has facilities across the country.
Luis A. Montana went missing on Nov. 30, 2019 at the age of 20. On Oct. 5, 2021, his skull was found about a mile and a half from the Fresno home where he lived with his parents.

Since Montanas skull was found almost a year ago in an empty 20-acre lot thats in between three cemeteries west of Highway 99, at least one other human bone has been found. However, the rest of Montanas remains havent been located.

On a recent hot afternoon, the large dirt lot was empty. But in a corner of the lot, someones black and white sneaker laid on the ground.

A shoe lies out in an empty field in west Fresno on Thursday, July 21, 0222 where a skull belonging to missing Luis A. Montana was found in October of 2021. Antonio Montana and his wife Graciela Alvarez Montana have been looking for answers to how their son was killed but have had trouble getting help.

Fresno Police Lt. Paul Cervantes, who has been in touch with the family, said investigators have done everything they possibly can, and unless new information comes in, theres little else they can do.

Montanas parents, however, say police havent shown much interest in solving their sons case because they are Hispanic. The family is now hoping authorities will help them set up a reward to see if it will result in leads that can move their sons case forward.

The family had plans to search for their sons remains again this Saturday, but have now canceled because police told them they need permission from the lot owners.

The case remains an open investigation.

I want to have closure as a family, Luis mother, Graciela Alvarez Montana, said in Spanish this week during an interview with The Bee. To have a place to take him flowers. Right now, we dont have anything.

Montanas parents say their son disappeared after two of his friends, whom they identified by name, came to their house asking for Luis. The Bee is not naming the two friends because police say they have been interviewed by investigators and are not persons of interest in the case.

The day of Montanas disappearance, the family was celebrating the birthday of one of their younger sons. The parents say Luis, who took medication for ADHD, left with his friends but told them he would come back soon.

The couple says their son never came back, and three days later, they filed a missing persons report with Fresno police. After that, they say police would only tell them their son was an adult and he would probably return home at some point.

Graciela Alvarez Montana and her son Luis. A. Montana.

Missing case now labeled suspicious death

After Luis skull was found, Fresno Police stopped treating it as a missing persons case, and labeled it a suspicious death. Its not considered a homicide investigation, Cervantes said.

I can tell you that theres nothing on the skull that would indicate to us that this is a homicide, Cervantes told The Bee. In other words, theres no trauma to the skull itself.

An example of trauma, he said, could be a fracture as a result of being bludgeoned or if there was a bullet hole.

But I think its pretty obvious by virtue of the fact that we just have a skull and no remains, he said. Thats why its still a suspicious death.

Luis parents say a person has claimed to have seen their sons two friends and two others beating their son and kidnapping him by putting him in a vehicle. Antonio Montana, Luis father, said hes also heard that it may have been over a girl.

Cervantes said investigators have not found any evidence of a kidnapping or assault.

Theres been multiple interviews with multiple folks, Cervantes said. No, we dont have anybody that we can identify as a person of interest, per se. Any person that we thought were a person of interest, weve already spoken to and had interviews with them already.

And police, he said, have yet to make a determination if theres any foul play.

Theres a lot of little nuances to the case that I cant discuss because the case is still an open investigation, Cervantes said.

Unfortunately at this point, he said, police dont have any evidence to indicate Luis died at the hands of another. But police, he said, have gone above and beyond and have given the case a lot of attention.

All we have is a skull in a field, he said. Wed love to have more information to follow up on, but at this point, we dont have any other leads to follow up on.

These types of cases, he said, are never closed. Police hope that one day they will have information that would help them locate the rest of Luis remains, he said, and give the family some type of closure.

Parents search for sons remains with help from the Armadillos





Last October, Luis parents were informed by someone in the Fresno County Coroners Office their sons skull had been located in the lot near a fence and train tracks. But it wasnt found by police.

The skull was turned over to us by a citizen, Tony Botti, spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriff-Coroners Office, told The Bee. We ran DNA on it and confirmed it to be Luis Montana.

Botti said authorities canvassed the field where the skull was found multiple times.

We did later find a tibia, he said. It is undergoing a DNA test and the results are not back yet. We have no information to tell us the story of how the skull and tibia got to that area.

Botti said there is a hunch that the tibia doesnt belong to Luis, but officials didnt want to speculate and are awaiting the results.

A human leg bone was found on the same lot where Luis A. Montanas skull was located.

Luis parents say the human leg bone was found by a group from San Diego and Ensenada, Baja California, Armadillos Ni Un Inmigrante Menos, that has come twice to help them search for their sons remains.

After the skull was located, Luis parents say they begged police to search for the rest of their sons remains to no avail. The family in May did TV interviews as part of the efforts to bring attention to their sons case.

The parents say they reached out to the Armadillos group, which has expertise in searching for remains, after police werent showing much interest. The parents and the group searched for about four hours on May 14 when they came across the human bone.

Only after that, Luis parents say, did police search the field and found about eight other bones. Cervantes said those werent human bones.

Cervantes said police have been to the field several times. In May, he said, there was a large-scale operation that involved several agencies, including the Fresno homicide unit, the Fresno crime scene bureau, the Fresno County Coroners Office, the Fresno chaplain team, Fresno police cadets, the Fresno County Sheriffs Office special response team and PG&E, which has ground-penetrating search equipment.

An anthropologist from Fresno State also was there.

Unfortunately, that day we did not find any other remains, Cervantes said.

On June 4, the family returned to search again with the Armadillos group. In a letter the mother recently wrote, she says Cervantes promised the family he would send a support group on the day of their June search, but no one from the department showed up.

Im tired of feeling how they denigrate us! the mother wrote. I feel cheated by the authorities, full of anger and helplessness.

Antonio Montana and his wife Graciela Alvarez Montana walk in an empty field in west Fresno on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 where the skull of his missing son Luis was found in October 2021. Police say they are treating the case as a suspicious death but further remains or a cause of death have yet to be found.

Antonio Montana walks in an empty field in west Fresno on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 where the skull of his missing son Luis was found in October 2021. Police say they are treating the case as a suspicious death but further remains or a cause of death have yet to be found.
Officials and experts say that low humidity, high fuel load and sloping topography are creating a perfect recipe for extreme fire behavior at Central Californias Oak Fire.

The fire exploded overnight in Mariposa County after breaking out Friday afternoon, expanding to 6,500 acres by Saturday morning.

The fast-moving blaze, about an hour from Yosemite National Park, is exhibiting extreme fire activity, Cal Fire said in a morning incident report, and has destroyed 10 structures and threatens 2,000 more.

By Sunday morning, the fire had burned 14,281 acres.

Firefighter Justin Montgomery defends a home on Triangle Road as the Oak Fire burns in unincorporated Mariposa County, Calif., on Friday, July 22, 2022.

Sierra National Forest spokesman Daniel Patterson said Saturday that the fire appeared to be weather and topography driven. A whole combination of factors led to explosive growth Friday and overnight, including dry and hot weather, and rugged terrain with an abundance of dry trees and grass.

There was some decent wind yesterday, and were in a 1,200-year drought, Patterson added. And all that is the perfect recipe for extreme fire behavior. We have been seeing this in California in recent years.

Oak Fire displays unusual nighttime behavior

Californias blazes tend to slow overnight, when temperatures drop and humidity rises. But the Oak Fire burned actively through the night, Cal Fire said, amid poor humidity recovery and hotter than normal temperatures.

Crews working to establish containment lines must deal with steep topography that is allowing the blaze to make quick runs. Crews also have to contend with abundant sources of fuel. The area in which the fire is burning  near Jerseydale and Bootjack  has not burned since 1924, Crystal Kolden, a pyrogeographer and a professor at UC Merced, said on Friday.

Kolden, who studies wildfire, added that the Oak Fire flared so quickly due to three primary factors: fuel load, heat and the very dry air due to a 108-degree day.

Fire spreads in all directions

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist and fire expert at UCLA, wrote on social media Saturday that an interesting and complicated aspect of the Oak Fires initial explosion is that it was able to spread in every direction, both uphill and downhill. Swain attributed the phenomenon to the dry fuel load from the ongoing drought.

The fire was driven by some wind Friday, which let up into Saturday, Patterson said. But Swain said on social media that the lack of wind may not slow the blaze, which appears to be strongly fuels and topography-dominated.

With (the Oak Fire), streak of relatively modest and non-destructive wildfires in CA so far this season appears to be over, Swain wrote in a social media post. This continues to be an intense & fast-moving fire.

The Fresno Bees Bryant-Jon Anteola contributed to this story.
Liz Truss has called on France to act over entirely avoidable delays at the border as holidaymakers and lorry drivers face another day of gridlocked roads around Dover.

Lengthy queues were building again on Saturday, following a day of bumper-to-bumper traffic on Friday.

It is one of the busiest periods for foreign travel from the UK as most schools in England and Wales have broken up for summer.

Cars queue at the check-in at the Port of Dover in Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA)

The Foreign Secretary said the delays and queues were unacceptable, blaming a lack of staffing by the French at the border.

But a French politician blamed Brexit for the chaos.

Pierre-Henri Dumont, Republican MP for Calais, said the problems at the Kent port would reoccur, telling BBC News: This is an aftermath of Brexit. We have to run more checks than before.

Mr Dumont also said the Port of Dover is too small and there are too few kiosks due to lack of space.

His comments linking delays to Brexit were backed up by the Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister, who said it must be recognised that there will be increased transaction times at the border due to extra checks needed.

Mr Bannister told the BBC Radio Four Today programme: We are operating in a post-Brexit environment which does mean that passports need to be checked, they need to be stamped and indeed the capable people that do man the booths, police aux frontieres, theyre doing their job that they need to do now.

He said the port had created more border capacity so that the overall throughput can be maintained and that while their modelling had shown some very peak busy days during the summer season are expected, for the most part we should be able to cope with the traffic.

His comments come after he said on Friday that being let down by poor resourcing at the French border was immensely frustrating.

Traffic Jams leading to the ferry port in Dover (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Some 10,000 cars are expected to be processed going out of the port on Saturday, up on Fridays figure of 8,500.

A critical incident was declared by the port due to the queues, with tourists urged to consider staying away, and warnings that Saturday may be just as bad.

Local MP Natalie Elphicke said long, long delays are expected again and insisted the French authorities should apologise to Dover residents and holidaymakers for the unnecessary holiday chaos at the start of the Summer getaway.

She also called for an end to this sticking plaster approach  to invest in the roads, lorry parking & port facilities to support the @Port_of_Dover, Kent and Dover to grow & thrive.

In a statement, Tory leadership hopeful Ms Truss said: This awful situation should have been entirely avoidable and is unacceptable.

We need action from France to build up capacity at the border to limit any further disruption for British tourists and to ensure this appalling situation is avoided in future.

We will be working with the French authorities to find a solution.

Traffic was bumper to bumper again on Saturday morning (Gareth Fuller/PA)

A French official said an unforeseeable technical incident in the Channel Tunnel meant that the staffing of border control booths had to be pushed back from 8.30am to 9.45am on Friday morning.

But Eurotunnels Director of Public Affairs John Keefe told the BBC that the Tunnel incident had absolutely nothing to do with problems at the Port of Dover.

Passengers embarking on cross-Channel sailings from Dover must pass through French border checks before they can board a ferry.

The port said in a statement that it had increased the number of border control booths by 50%.

There's been severe delays today at Dover & so I'm working closely with my opposite number @Cbeaune to address the issues that caused tailbacks. I welcome his commitment that both Britain & France will work closely to minimise further disruption so people can get away quickly.  Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) July 22, 2022

It went on: Regrettably, the PAF (police aux frontieres) resource has been insufficient and has fallen far short of what is required to ensure a smooth first weekend of the peak summer getaway period.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said: As the schools closed their doors fully yesterday, Saturday could prove busier still this weekend.

Drivers should continue to expect disruption and delays on major holiday routes to the south-west, eastern coast and ports of Dover and Folkestone.

Statement by the Prefect of the Hauts-de-France region on traffic in the vicinity of the Port of #Dover pic.twitter.com/XHmNMDJI8d  French Embassy UK (@FranceintheUK) July 22, 2022

While many have decided to go at the start of the summer holidays, between now and the beginning of September when schools return, each Friday and Saturday will be busy on our roads.

This is because these are the main switchover days for holiday lets.

Ferry operator P&O Ferries told passengers to allow at least five hours to clear the approach roads and security checks.

The ferry company said on Friday evening it expects Saturday to be just as busy.

Grant Shapps said he was working closely with the French transport minister.

The Transport Secretary tweeted: Theres been severe delays today at Dover & so Im working closely with my opposite number Clement Beaune to address the issues that caused tailbacks.

I welcome his commitment that both Britain & France will work closely to minimise further disruption so people can get away quickly.

Labours Nick Thomas-Symonds accused the Government of being absent, amid another day of gridlocked roads, telling Times Radio that those in charge need to be taking a grip of this situation.

On Friday evening, the French Embassy in the UK said French border checks in Dover were operating in full capacity, adding that the French authorities were cooperating closely with their British counterparts and all stakeholders responsible for the traffic in the Port of Dover to enable travellers to make their crossings under the best possible conditions.
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U.S. President Joe Biden's recent visit to the Middle East was seen by experts in Pakistan as a continuation of the U.S.'s hegemonic policy and the core objective was the pursuit of its domination in the region and to capitalize it for its imperialistic ambitions worldwide.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
YEREVAN, JULY 23, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Revolution.

"Honorable Mr. President,

I warmly congratulate you on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Revolution.

We can proudly state that the relations between Armenia and Egypt are distinguished by friendship based on close historical interactions and great potential for development. I am confident that due to joint work, we will raise Armenian-Egyptian relations to a new level, expanding the agenda of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

Armenia is greatly interested in the stability of the Middle East and highly appreciates Egypt's positive role in strengthening the region's security and fighting against terrorism.

I wish you health and new successes, and peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Egypt.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of my highest consideration.
The two sides inked separate but identical agreements in the presence of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and U.N. Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, sit as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, top left, and Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, top right, exchange documents during a signing ceremony at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. (Vadim Savitsky, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

ISTANBUL: Ukraine and Russia on Friday signed a landmark deal aimed at relieving a global food crisis caused by blocked Black Sea grain deliveries, ending months of negotiations and sending wheat prices tumbling to levels last seen before Moscow's invasion.

The first major deal between the warring parties since the February invasion of Ukraine should help ease the "acute hunger" that the United Nations says faces an additional 47 million people because of the war.

The hostility between Moscow and Kyiv spilled over into the signing ceremony -- delayed briefly by disputes about the display of flags around the table and Ukraine's refusal to put its name on the same document as the Russians.

The two sides eventually inked separate but identical agreements in the presence of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace.

"Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea -- a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief," Guterres said moments before the signing.

Erdogan -- a key player in the negotiations who has good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv -- said the deal would "hopefully revive the path to peace".

But Ukraine entered the ceremony by bluntly warning that it would conduct "an immediate military response" should Russia violate the agreement and attack its ships or stage an incursion around its ports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said the responsibility for enforcing the deal would fall to the UN, which along with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.

20 million tonnes of wheat

The agreement includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe corridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.

Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

Zelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year's harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement, estimating the value of Ukraine's grain stocks at around $10 billion.

Following the deal, wheat prices tumbled to levels last seen before Russia's invasion -- even as some analysts expressed scepticism about the accord.

In Chicago, the price of wheat for delivery in September dropped 5.9 percent to $7.59 per bushel, equivalent to about 27 kilograms. Prices in Europe fell by a similar amount.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media after attending the signing ceremony that he expected the deal to start working "in the next few days".

He pointed out that Russia had managed to secure a separate pledge from Washington and Brussels to lift all restrictions on its own grain and other agricultural exports.

The United States and European countries hailed the agreement while urging Moscow to abide by its rules.

A US official said the deal was "well-structured" enough to monitor Russian compliance.

The European Union called for the deal's "swift implementation" while British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said London "will be watching to ensure Russia's actions match its words".

Guarded hope

Diplomats expect grain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.

The four sides must first set up a joint command and control centre in Istanbul that monitors the ships' passage and addresses disputes.

They have yet to finalise how the ships will be checked for weapons before returning empty to Ukrainian ports.

Ukrainian farmers who have been watching their silos fill up with grain that they cannot sell met the Istanbul deal with guarded hope.

"It gives some hope but you can't believe what the Russians say," said farmer Mykola Zaverukha.

His silos were already filled with 13,000 tonnes of grain and in danger of overflowing because this year's harvest was beginning to come in.

"Russia is unreliable, they have shown themselves to be year after year," he told AFP in the southern Mykolaiv region.

Global alarm about that grain has been accompanied by European fears that Russia is starting to use its stranglehold on energy exports as a geopolitical weapon in its standoff with the West.

The grain deal was signed one day after Russia's restart of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline eased concerns in Europe of a permanent shut off after a 10-day maintenance suspension.

Analysts say that the partial resumption of gas supplies was insufficient to ward off energy shortages in Europe this winter.

More US military aid

The ornate halls of Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace felt far removed from east Ukraine's Donbas war zone on another day of relentless shelling across the front.

Russia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone's Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk.

On Friday, the United States signed off on another $270 million in military aid to Ukraine, including rocket systems, artillery ammunition and armoured command posts.

The Ukrainian presidency said five people were killed and 10 wounded in Russian attacks around the Donetsk region the previous day.

In the Donetsk village of Chasiv Yar -- hit by a strike on July 10 that killed more than 45 people -- 64-year-old Lyudmila was gathering apricots near the wreckage.

"There is nothing anymore. The officials have left. We have to fend for ourselves to stay alive," she said, giving only her first name.

The military toll on both sides has remained speculative since Russia invaded on February 24.

US and British spy chiefs believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was suffering greater losses than expected.

Ukraine's war effort has been particularly helped in recent weeks by the delivery of US high-precision weapons that allow Kyiv to destroy Russian weapons silos at long range.
"

The ongoing developments in the Yogi Adityanath government have not only put the focus back on the Uttar Pradesh chief ministers centralized style of functioning but also revived talk about his bias against Brahmins. The first salvo was fired by deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak, who also handles the health portfolio, when he complained that large-scale transfers had been ordered in his department without his knowledge and when he was out of town. Though Yogi Adityanath set up an enquiry panel to look into this matter, it is said the transfers had the blessings of the chief minister who had taken note of the media attention Mr Pathak was getting as health minister. Mr Pathaks camp followers maintained the deputy CM was being targeted because of his caste. Its the same story with PWD minister Jitin Prasada whose OSD was suspended by the chief minister and a vigilance probe ordered against him. As in the case of Mr Pathak, these transfers took place during Mr Prasadas absence. The fact that Mr Pathak and Mr Prasada handle lucrative ministries is also a factor here.

#

When Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar announced that former Rajasthan governor and senior Congress leader Margaret Alva would be the joint oppositions candidate for the vice-presidents election, it set off a furious discussion about who had suggested her name. As it is to be expected of the Capitals political grapevine, there was no dearth of conspiracy theories. One story doing the rounds is that it was Mr Pawar who proposed Ms Alvas name as the two politicians are known to be good friends, having worked together in the Congress. And that Mr Pawar had done so to irritate Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Once a member of the partys inner circle, Ms Alva had a falling out with Sonia Gandhi when she charged that tickets had been sold in the 2008 Karnataka Assembly polls after her son was denied a ticket. Ms Alva was removed as party general secretary and sent to Rajasthan as governor. Later, her autobiography created further ripples in which she spoke at length about the testy relationship between Sonia Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao.

#

Over the years, there have been murmurs in Madhya Pradesh political circles about a tacit understanding between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Gwaliors Scindia family. It was said that except for a couple of instances in the past, the BJP would not field strong candidates against members of the Scindia family during elections thus ensuring a victory for members of the erstwhile royal family. And as a quid pro quo, the Scindias would use their influence in the Congress to make sure the party did not put up strong candidates against the BJP in assembly and other local elections in Gwalior and surrounding areas. Though a subject of informal chatter till now, Scindia baiters in the Congress and the BJP today gleefully refer to the results of the recent local body elections in Madhya Pradesh to proclaim, We told you so. Used to a winning spree, the BJP got a jolt when the Congress bagged the mayors post in Gwalior after 57 years. Congress insiders maintained these results proved there was more than an element of truth in what was earlier dismissed as mere conjecture.

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Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad had been keeping a low profile ever since he was divested of his ministerial portfolios a year ago. He was barely seen or heard during this period. This was in sharp contrast to the earlier days when the party fielded Mr Prasad regularly to take on the opposition and brief the media about government policies. However, Mr Prasads spell in hibernation appears to have ended after the National Herald case hit the headlines once again with the Enforcement Directorate summoning Sonia and Rahul Gandhi for questioning. The BJP has fallen back on the services of its former law minister to counter the Congress on this high-profile case. As the matter came to light when Mr Prasad was heading the law ministry, he appeared to be the appropriate choice here. The current law minister, Kiren Rijiju, probably lacked the seniority and the necessary aggression required for the latest operation against the Gandhis.

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First, accredited media persons were denied access to various ministries. Then, their entry to Parliament House was restricted and the Central Hall was closed to the press. And now photographers and camera persons are not being allowed for important events. For instance, only official media  Doordarshan and Sansad TV  was permitted to cover the recent unveiling of the national emblem in the under-construction new Parliament House by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Going a step further, photojournalists and video cameramen have been denied access to the August 15 Independence Day programme at the Red Fort on the pretext of Covid restrictions. Seeking information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakurs intervention, the Working News Cameramens Association pointed out that since this is the 75th Independence Day, it is a historic occasion for visual coverage and that the governments decision had frustrated professional photojournalists. This is in keeping with the governments consistent policy to keep the media at a safe distance.
by Melani Manel Perera

The capital's archbishop says Wickremesinghe violated the fundamental rights of anti-government protesters, who were badly beaten by Security Forces. Civil society calls for an independent and transparent investigation, as well as the resignation of the head of state. Lawyers and journalists arrested.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - New President Ranil Wickremesinghe took office promising to protect the Constitution, but less than 24 hours after his election by Parliament he violated the fundamental rights of the people. This is the harsh indictment launched yesterday by Card. Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of the capital, just hours after police and military raided peaceful demonstrators protesting the appointment of the new head of state.

Wickremesinghe replaced Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to Singapore after months of demonstrations by the people over the country's economic and financial crisis.

"If there is any negative fallout from the [Security Forces] attack, the responsibility will fall on the president. I urge him not to use military power to mistreat those who are suffering great hardships," Card. Ranjith said in a press note.

The cardinal accuses the security forces and the military of attacking unarmed civilians while they were sleeping, "A transparent and independent investigation into the incident must be launched. In this regard I will ask the UN Human Rights Council to intervene."

Card. Ranjith's words are not the only ones of condemnation. Religious leaders, trade unionists, artists and ordinary citizens gathered yesterday morning at Fort Railway station calling for protection for the protesters and Wickremesinghe's resignation.

Venerable Buddhist Matara Ananda Sagara Thero told AsiaNews he saw with his own eyes the violence perpetrated by officers and military against the activists, speaking of an action worthy of Hitler's Nazi army. "They verbally attacked me and chased me away. The military acted as if they had taken drugs," explains Venerable Thero.

Saliya Peiris, president of the National Lawyers Association, also reported violence against her own clients who were trying to protect the rights of protesters. One lawyer is reported to have ended up under arrest, along with several journalists. The Association called for their immediate release.
Today's headlines: Chinese spoonbill fish and Yangtze sturgeon extinct; Strike at South Korean Daewo shipyard ends; IAEA: Iran's nuclear program accelerating; Prominent West Bengal minister arrested for money laundering; Putin promises more money to families; Armenia buys arms from India.

THAILAND

Premier Prayuth Chan-ocha emerged unscathed today from a new parliamentary vote to challenge him-the fourth such motion filed against him since he took office. The opposition accuses the former coup general of mismanagement of the economy and corruption. General elections are scheduled within 11 months.

CHINA

The Chinese spoonbill fish and the Yangtze sturgeon are extinct, Iucn, an international animal species conservation organization declared yesterday. The two giant fish were widespread in China's great river basin. Maritime traffic, intensive fishing and pollution have marked their disappearance.

SOUTH KOREA

Workers at Daewo's large shipyard on Geoje Island ended a strike that had lasted since June 2. Unions and the company reached an agreement on several points of contention. Most importantly, employees won a 4.5 percent wage increase from the 30 percent they had demanded.

IRAN

Tehran is accelerating on its nuclear program reports Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Grossi stresses that the body he heads currently has a very limited picture of Iranian atomic activity. The situation makes the renewal of the 2015 international agreement increasingly complicated.

INDIA

Authorities today arrested Partha Chatterjee, a West Bengal cabinet minister and leader of the Trinamool Congress party. The charge against him is that he laundered money as part of a scandal over school personnel recruitment in the state led by the popular Mamata Banerjee.

RUSSIA

Russian President Putin has instructed the government to prepare a package of measures aimed at increasing the birth rate in Russia and supporting large families by Sept. 15 . The package will include aid in the areas of health, education, housing guarantees and increased wages.

ARMENIA

Yerevan plans to buy military drones and other weapons from India. An Armenian delegation is headed to Delhi to negotiate the purchase. There is no word on the quantities required or prices. Armenia has been at war with Azerbaijan for years over control of Nagorno-Karabakh.
by Stefano Caprio

Exactly one hundred years ago more than 300 distinguished representatives of the scientific, literary and artistic intelligentsia were expelled from Soviet Russia to Germany.They saved Russian culture from erasure. Even today because of the "Ukrainian revolution" thousands of teachers, artists and scholars from various fields have fled the country. Will they be able to do the same?

Exactly one hundred years ago, in September-October 1922, more than 300 distinguished representatives of the scientific, literary and artistic intelligentsia were expelled from Soviet Russia to Germany by Lenin's personal disposition, as a gesture of liberality by the regime that intended to gain international recognition of the new state after the civil war. A recently deceased philosopher, Sergey Khoruzij, who devoted his life to the reconstruction of Russia's cultural memory, called that event "the ship of philosophers," because indeed most of the expellees were forced to embark with only one suitcase, full of nostalgia and regret.

The Russian diaspora of the last century successfully saved Russian culture from complete Soviet erasure, and shared it with the West thirsty to explore the various dimensions of the soul, from East to West. The exiled philosophers created centers for research and dissemination of history and theology, such as the Saint-Serge Institute in Paris where leading exponents of existentialism, sofiology and neo-patristics such as Nikolai Berdjaev, Sergei Bulgakov, Georgii Florovsky and many others taught.

In 2022, as a result of the "Ukrainian revolution" that once again severed neo-imperial Russia's ties with Europe and the entire West, tens of thousands of representatives of the creative intelligentsia left the country on the new "philosophers' planes," at least until the borders coming out of the gloomy Putin isolation are totally barred. Teachers, painters, musicians, philosophers and scholars from various fields of science flee to the most accessible routes via Istanbul, Yerevan, Georgia, Estonia or Latvia. Will they be able to save Russian culture again, and entrust it to the international community so that it does not wither and remain lost? Will they be able to create new realities and associations in exile, involving the very many people who look at Russia as an indispensable part of the universal soul, and not just as the cursed realm of "ruscism"?

This was discussed on Radio Svoboda by two eminent representatives of the new Russian diaspora, jurist Elena Lukjanova and sociologist Sergey Erofeev, who have long been active in academic centers abroad, such as the "Free University" opened in the United States. They rightly point out that conditions are very different from a century ago, when "philosophers" were completely separated from the motherland, while today there are universal forms of communication, however much we try to limit and stifle them; so "one cannot call it in the full sense an emigration or exile, rather a relocation," as Lukjanova points out. Moreover, for a long time now "science has ceased to be purely national, it could not even exist, it would only be a propaganda simulacrum," as indeed appears in so many of today's proclamations about the "diversity" of the Russian soul.

In Putin's rhetoric, "sovereignty" is also insisted upon to define culture, and it has imposed in the Russian variant of Wikipedia a specific treatment of culture that is guarded from all foreign influence, expurgating it from any recent citations and relying only on texts published between the 1960s and 1990s. It is the "culture war" that accompanies the Ukrainian bombings, to justify events by distorting reality and its interpretations. Erofeev has offered a number of lectures on the "Russian catastrophe" in recent months, pointing out how the "regime," which sociologists call the "system," has established itself during these thirty post-Soviet years precisely through the progressive manipulation of culture.

In Putin's rhetoric, "sovereignty" is also insisted upon to define culture, and it has imposed in the Russian variant of Wikipedia a specific treatment of culture that is guarded from any foreign influence, expurgating it from any recent citations and relying only on texts published between the 1960s and 1990s. It is the "culture war" that accompanies the Ukrainian bombings, to justify events by distorting reality and its interpretations. Erofeev has offered a number of lectures on the "Russian catastrophe" in recent months, pointing out how the "regime," which sociologists call the "system," has established itself during these thirty post-Soviet years precisely through the progressive manipulation of culture.

The emigrants of a hundred years ago said "we are not in exile, we are on a mission," that of sharing the treasures of Russian tradition and art with the whole world. As Erofeev says, "one should thank Lenin for sending Pitirim Sorokin and Fedor Stepun abroad, not to mention all the others; even Putin's favorite philosopher, Ivan Il'in, was on that ship." The new diaspora actually began not in 2022, but in 2014, "the first wave of relocation," according to Lukjanova, after the patriotic euphoria of the annexation of Crimea, which already heralded the whole overhaul of Russian history and culture. Many did not accept the shame of that turn of events, which provoked a spiral of repression that is now almost absolute, and the approval of the new constitution in 2020 provoked the "second wave."

Russian intellectuals, or at least what is left of the glorious tradition of intelligentsia, do not bear the guilt of what is happening in Russia today, and this prevents them from conceiving of themselves as "missionaries" of Russia to the world. Soviet ideology could easily be branded as alien to tradition, while today precisely tradition is claimed in the "revised" version by power, confirming the semantic continuity of the terms tradition/tradition/tradition, which engages anyone who wants to express a common dimension of the spirit. The waves of the "philosopher's planes" have actually been going on since the early 2000s, after Putin's rise to power and the reconstitution of Orthodoxy as the State Church: gone are journalists, humanitarian activists, university professors, depending on the various persecutory measures that follow each year.

Russia's most prestigious universities, starting with the "Lomonosov Mgu" and the "Vyska School of Economics," with thousands of students ready to start a new academic year after the summer break, are now deserts entrusted to a few propagandists, because most of the real scholars and academics have left or resigned. Even the Orthodox Church's "Ss. Cyril and Methodius" Graduate School has been left without a real leader, after the ouster of Metropolitan Ilarion (Alfeev) who had established and supported it for more than a decade, putting the gloomy conservative Maksim Kozlov in his place. Putin himself decreed the non-existence of the science known as "politology" as "devoid of method," and the critique of political systems is now a thing of the past, a brief interlude in the history of Russian science, in which the method is imposed from above and does not allow deviations.

Erofeev explains that "throughout the post-Soviet years in the humanitarian and social spheres there flourished not only amateurism, but a real obscurantism, which now reigns unchallenged." After the long Soviet winter, however, the revival of Russian culture was a very sloppy phenomenon, and appropriation by the regime had an easy time, grossly exalting what had been removed from Soviet ideology. The most glaring aspect of this simplifying propaganda is precisely religious culture, which has emphatically taken up the sacred images of Orthodox saints and tsars, even to the point of recruiting icons into media warfare, as happened in recent days with Andrei Rublev's "Trinity."

The real rediscovery of culture, history and religion in Russia is a task for the future, when the neo-imperial instrumentalization will have somewhat exhausted itself. In a sense, the war in Ukraine has accelerated this process of overcoming, demonstrating the inconsistency of the new ideology: Ukraine, which had to be erased in the name of the sacred origins of Russian Christianity, has now finally become aware of its national, cultural and even religious identity. This proposes a completely opposite interpretation to the imperial one of Putin and Kirill: Ukraine represents a Russia capable of dialogue and integration with Europe and the West, which has always existed even east of the Dnepr, and makes Russia a forge of ever new and original images and syntheses of universal value for people on all continents.

Erofeev is convinced that "Putin has shortened the course of history, he cannot last much longer in imitation of Stalin and Brezhnev." The task of the new "philosophers," Russian and of any other nationality, is to grasp the meaning of time, without leaving culture and the treasures of the spirit in the hands of populists and dreamers of new empires, who destroy cities and human lives, but do not have the strength to destroy the soul. This is the mission that the present time imposes on each of us.

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ADEN, Yemen, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A total of 13 children were injured in an attack carried out by the Houthi militia against a residential neighborhood in Yemen's southwestern province of Taiz on Saturday, a security official told Xinhua.

"Mortar shells were fired randomly by the Houthis on residential houses of a densely populated neighborhood in the southwestern part of Taiz during the past hours," the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

"A total of 13 children were injured as a result of the shells that landed indiscriminately on the residential area controlled by the government," he said.

The Houthi mortar shelling attack coincided with the arrival of a high-ranking UN delegation to the city of Taiz, the third largest city in Yemen, to push the warring sides in Yemen to extend the truce that expires on Aug. 2.

During the past days, Yemen's Houthis carried out a series of attacks against various areas of the war-ravaged Arab country, as UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg stepped up his effort to extend the Yemeni truce.

Several rounds of negotiations between the government and the Houthis were conducted under the auspices of the UN but failed to achieve any progress toward ending Yemen's years-long military conflict.

The Houthi militia backed by Iran set new conditions to accept the UN proposal to extend the truce with the Saudi Arabia-led coalition for another six months.

As hopes for truce extension begin to fade, Yemeni political observers said that the possible failure to break the years-long political stalemate on Yemen's issue will badly affect the Yemeni people aspiring for permanent peace.

The truce in Yemen, first enforced on April 2 and renewed for another two months on June 2, will expire on Aug. 2.

"An extended and expanded truce will increase the benefits to the Yemeni people," Grundberg's office said in a statement, adding that the truce will also provide a platform to build more confidence between the parties and start serious discussions on economic priorities.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government out of the capital Sanaa.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 4 million, and pushed the poor Arab country to the brink of starvation. 
BUJUMBURA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen Burundians received excellence awards for the third edition of the "Me and China" writing contest in a ceremony that happened Friday evening at the Chinese embassy in the Burundian commercial capital of Bujumbura.

Winners of the contest wrote about China-Africa cooperation, Sino-Burundian cooperation and the Sino-Burundian friendship.

The ceremony, with Chinese Ambassador to Burundi Zhao Jiangping and Syldie Manirerekana, assistant to the Burundian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, attending, was jointly organized by the Chinese embassy in Burundi, the Confucius Institute at the University of Burundi, the association of Chinese entrepreneurs in Burundi and the association of the Chinese community in Burundi.

Ambassador Zhao said that the writing contest has been organized in Burundi since 2020 with success, thanking all stakeholders in that writing contest for their active participation for the success of the event.

"This contest aims to deepen fraternity between Burundian and Chinese people," said Zhao.

According to her, the third edition of the contest describes the deep and magnificent traditional friendship between Burundian and Chinese people.

"Written articles from laureates also describe how people from various horizons commit to continually engage in that fraternity," said Zhao.

On behalf of the Burundian government, Syldie Manirerekana said that written articles in the framework of the contest mark an "unforgettable link" between China and Burundi.

Both countries have been enjoying excellent relations since 1963, with their cooperation mainly focusing on sectors of infrastructure, energy, health and agriculture. 
It's almost obvious that this boat was not designed to catch a bunch of kilograms of fish while wearing rubber boots, a hat, and an army vest, but to enjoy all the luxury it offers while sipping from your champagne. With a length of 26.5 feet (8,077 m), 18 friends can also sip from your champagne without worrying about running out of fuel since those 115 gallons (435.32 liters) of fuel will have your back. Other technical data to mention here is the fact that it weighs 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg) with 6,100 (2,767 kg) pounds of ballast provided.That it is beautiful, we all see that, but what we don't see and must be described is the fact that it offers a series of "smart things," such as the all-new Max Pivot Table (which can be changed into a bench seat, a bed or a fully functioning table), the Power Wedge III (for the wake shape), the Surf Gate (switching the surf wave between left and right) and finally the Malibu Command Center (for quick wake setup).For those who don't want to share their champagne with so many people, the Malibu Wakesetter 22 LSV version is just right. With a length of just under 22 feet, this compact Malibu is easy to maneuver and quite intimate. Although slightly smaller, it still benefits from the same "smart things" as the older sister, with an increased hull depth for a relaxed experience.Both variants can be customized in three new vibrant exterior colors: Vivid Orange, Vivid Orange Metallic, and Volt Yellow, as well as two-toned flooring options. They also feature a whole new surround system , upgraded to meet the overall finesse.On their official website, Malibu boasts that their prices have remained the same even for the new model, compared to the competition.
Boeing executives had to have been feeling pretty good about the interest expressed by carriers in the MAX 10, the largest variant of its best-selling but troubled family of jetliners.In just over three years, the company has endured two catastrophic crashes involving 737 MAX planes that resulted in a worldwide grounding of the jetliner for almost two years. During most of that time, global air travel came to a standstill in the wake of the medical crisis. Emerging from the pandemic in recent months has exposed airlines and manufacturers to supply chain delays, parts shortages, and staffing issues.The scuttlebutt throughout the five-day show highlighted industrial issues rather than aircraft sales. Rebounding from the pandemic and a historic, unprecedented shutdown of the industry has left suppliers and manufacturers scrambling for everything from parts to raw materials to keep production flowing.With the $3.4 billion (3.32 euros) at list prices, Qatar's order culminated in what can only be described as a 'Boeing-centric' air show regarding commercial aircraft sales. Boeing arrived at Farnborough focused on rekindling interest in the MAX 10 even as the program's fate lies in the hands of U.S. government regulators to certify the airliner before the end of the year.Despite the uncertain future of the 737 MAX 10 certification, production quality issues of the 787 Dreamliner , and the delay in launching the 777X , Boeing reported 167 orders.Rival Airbus was under much less pressure this year than in past shows. Moreover, they are running full steam for the next 5-6 years and secured just a single order for twelve planes for Delta Airlines.
Freys bikes are available in three series: the Savannah (most suitable for city rides), Liberty (for trails), and Voyager (for mountain use). The Runner is an all-rounder that falls into the first category, promising to offer effortless rides that meet all your recreational, commuting, and fitness needs. There are four main things to love about the Runner: it is affordable (considering what it delivers), it is highly customizable (giving you the opportunity to choose everything from the motor to the wheel size, fork, color, etc.), it can be really powerful (depending on the motor power you opt for), and it is built to go the distance, offering insane ranges.The Runner touring e-bike is available in three sizes: M, L, and XL. You can order the e-bike in white, black, or champagne. There are two options to choose from when it comes to its front fork: you can either go with a Rockshox RECON with 130 mm of travel or with a Rockshox with 150 mm of travel, depending on the wheel size you opt for. And speaking of wheels, you can have the Frey Runner equipped with either 29 or 27.5 wheels.Moving on, the manufacturer also lets you choose the motor power. You can go with a Bafang rear hub 250W, a Bafang rear hub 500W, or a Bafang rear hub 1000W with PAS torque sensor. With the most powerful motor option, the Frey Runner is quite a hefty bike, tipping the scales at 29.5 kg (65 lb).The Runner is powered by a 48V/21Ah/1008Wh battery that is integrated into the downtube and promises impressive ranges between 100 and 200 km (62 and 124 miles) per charge.Other notable features of the touring bike are the Shimano Alivio 9-speed transmission, the Tektro HD hydraulic brakes, and the rear rack.In its most powerful configuration, the Frey Runner e-bike is priced at $2,980, while the Bafang 250W version will cost you $2,880. You can order the two-wheeler on Frey Bikes website
Well, if our wish were ever granted, the result would look like something like this. Almost 400 miles northeast of the Air Heritage Museum , sits a fully restored and certifiably wicked-looking Bell UH1 Iroquois. But it's not like anyone uses this iconic military chopper's given name. Those who admire them tend to refer to them by their nickname, the "Huey." The Bell UH-1 generally doesn't need an introduction, but for the sake of a good story, let's give it one anyway. It'll all show how this fully restored example is so special. The Huey's designer, Bell Helicopter, stands alongside their lifelong rivals at Sikorsky as the two foremost innovators in American military helicopters. Both companies transitioned away completely from fixed-wing aircraft production during the second half of the 20th century.This grand switch in direction is the genesis of the Huey helicopter. In the post-World War II years, the United States Military determined that traditional piston-powered helicopters from the last days of the war and through Korea were underpowered, expensive to maintain, and too large for their limited carrying capacity. It was more than evident by the end of the Korean war in 1953 that some form of turbine-engined utility helicopter was the only solution.In truth, as many as 20 companies submitted design proposals were sent to the Pentagon's top brass before Bell presented a variant of their Model 47 piston-engined helicopter modified with a Continental CAE XT51-T-3 turboshaft engine. Impressed by the results, Pentagon awarded Bell Helicopter a contract to produce an all-new prototype turbine utility helicopter for the next generation of American soldiers.The first result of this initiative was the original prototype for the UH-1, called the XH-40. Even before the first flight, the Army ordered a production run of six further prototypes designated the YH-40. When the Army found prototypes to be everything they were looking for and more, they ordered 100 production models. A civilianized variant was developed soon after and went into service as the Bell 204 and the elongated 205.This order of 100 units was the first of a lineage of 16,000 examples. 5,000 would see extended service in Vietnam as everything from an airborne ambulance, troop and cargo transport, and even an aerial gunship, as is evident by the ample weaponry present on this restored Huey on the grounds of the old Grifiss Air Force Base. In actuality, this particular Huey served in the Royal Australian Air Force before its days as the centerpiece of a war memorial.After its days with the Aussies, the aircraft was purchased and used as a crop duster by a California company. There, it sprayed pesticides and insecticides onto produce crops in service of a state with the largest production of fresh fruits and vegetables before being acquired by the New York State Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund sometime in 2020. Sadly, the global health crisis put a stop to all restoration efforts for a period.As soon as it was able to resume, work began removing any exterior trace of what this Huey looked like during its days in Australia and California. Once that was complete, the helicopter was repainted in a historically accurate depiction of the Helicopter Attack Squadron (Light) 3 (HA(L)-3) that served with the U.S. Navy between April 1967 and March 1972. It comes complete with a similar array of weaponry consisting of two 2.75" 24-Tube rocket launchers and twin 20 mm M61 Vulcan machine guns, one on either wing for both.Hueys also sometimes flew into battle armed with everything from the M129 40mm grenade launcher to the AGM-22 air-to-ground missile, among countless others. With the complete restoration complete and an entire suite of memorials and plaques dedicated to locals in and around Oneida County, New York, who gave their lives during the Vietnam War.It's all the more poetic considering the location of this memorial, on the grounds near Grifiss International Airport, where an Air Force installation once vital to the training of American pilots in Vietnam once stood. As veterans of Vietnam continue to advance in age, the story of the war stands to fade from living memory in the not-so-distant future. This is the reason monuments such as this one will one day become vitally important.Despite all that was wrong with the war in Vietnam, it's important to remember that soldiers on both sides of the conflict were still human beings. Perhaps deeply flawed humans in different ways, but humans who were given iconic and remarkable machines to fly around in.Machines that ensure the memory of North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, Australian, and American soldiers who fought in this tragic conflict may never fade from this Earth. It's also extremely pretty to look at outside of all of that. All around a pretty wonderful place to spend an afternoon.Thanks for reading. Be sure to check out more military aircraft profiles and so much more here on autoevolution.
EV

ICE

In an interview with Automotive News Europe , Andreas-Christoph Hofmann stated that Hyundai will need an affordable B-segmentto be able to sell cars in Europe. After 2035, all vehicles will have to ditch combustion engines on the Old Continent, and Hyundai would just be preparing for that scenario.The companys European marketing chief also admitted that this is something the European legislation imposes, as Tavares said with more striking words a few months ago. According to the Stellantis CEO, politicians chose electric cars, not the market.Hofmann did not mention when Hyundai wanted to sell this new EV, but it must be in time to compete with Volkswagen from the very beginning. The German carmaker wants its B-segment electric cars to reach the market by 2025. Thats when the Martorell plant will pump out the first MEB Small vehicles for Volkswagen and Cupra: the ID.2  or ID.1, we are yet to discover what Volkswagens decided to name it  and the UrbanRebel, respectively.Curiously, the Sagunto battery factory will only deliver its products in 2026, one year after the first MEB Small products hit the market. Considering these EVs are supposed to adopt Volkswagens unified cells, they will have to come from Salzgitter, Germany, where these standard batteries will be manufactured starting in 2025. That shows the production cost for these affordable EVs will not have the aid of locally-made batteries in the first months. In other words, they will be more expensive to make than they should until Sagunto is ready.Hyundai has not announced plans to make its own batteries. It will apparently keep on buying them from SK Innovation or LG Energy Solution. That may help it reach the market sooner than Volkswagens affordable EVs, which would only dismiss the quotations marks if compared to other electric cars. When the reference is internal-combustion-engine () competitors, they are still expensive: a Hyundai i20 costs 14,410 ($14,537) in Germany. A Seat Ibiza starts at 16,490 ($16,635).When Volkswagen and Hyundai talk about 20,000 EVs, thats a goal. And Hofmann recognizes it is a difficult one to attain. Small electric cars cannot have large battery packs, restraining their ranges. Ternary chemistries present more energy density but are more expensive. Affordable EVs must use LFP cells: they cost less and last more but are heavier, which reduces the range of these EVs even more.On top of tackling these issues, automakers have to charge the least possible amount for these affordable EVs. That will happen for obvious reasons: most people who buy cheap cars do so because they are what they can afford. If they had more money, they would probably choose something else.The secret to making money with these vehicles is to sell thousands, preferably millions of them. There are not enough batteries for these affordable EVs, which will raise prices for all electric cars if these automakers push too hard on volume. In other words, the very effort to make these affordable EVs may lead to all electric cars getting more expensive.It is essential to remember that the affordable EV for Europe will be just one among eleven electric cars that Hyundai plans to bring to market by 2030, all based on its Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) . Genesis will have six EVs, and Kia will have fourteen by the same year. Summing up, we are talking about 31 new electric cars from the Hyundai Group. The Hyundai brand alone wants to sell 1.87 million EVs by 2030.That alone will put immense pressure on battery costs. With Hyundai and Volkswagen promising to offer affordable EVs, the very model that they follow implicates even more concerns about raw materials and cell prices. Well try to track how that develops as close as possible.
The 2020 international health crisis and the many restrictions it brought along paved the way for #vanlife to take over your social media feed, the mass media, and every sector of the RV market. Since were hosting a virtual RV party throughout the month of July, there is no better moment than the present one to have a look at some of the most famous, expensive, impressive, or creative mobile homes Olive would fit right in.Olive started as a Volkswagen minibus, of the kind used to transport people over shorter distances. Chris and Sam, a young married couple from Plymouth, England, bought it for just 3,400 (approximately $4,100 at the current exchange rate) in early 2021. By that time, restrictions had already been lifted in most territories, but the moments spent indoors had left them with a burning desire to travel full-time, they tell The Sun in an interview. van for a home seemed like the best way to do so, yet they wanted it to reflect their personality and, more importantly, their needs. That meant they would have to do the conversion themselves, and they were able to cut costs by using Chris' dad's workshop, including all the tools and the available storage space. Almost one year and 10,000 ($12,000) later, they hit the road and have been traveling through Europe ever since, documenting their adventures on YouTube and social media under The Travel Duo moniker.Their little Olive home, which has been designed for two adults and the adorable Spaniel pup Fletcher, is featured on the latest season of the Channel 5 series Million Pound Motorhomes, which premieres this Sunday, July 24. Olive stands out for its rather unusual layout, the fact that its a DIY conversion by inexperienced builders (but who have had help from experienced ones), and because its closer to a tiny home in terms of creature comforts than to a van.The living area is separated from the cabin by a partition with an escape hatch. This allows Chris and Sam to move to the front area and drive off in bad weather, and it also allows freedom of movement to Fletcher in case he gets bored during a drive. Right behind the driving area is a lounge slash reading room slash office slash dining area, with a small table for two, a couch, a bookcase, and a place for Fletcher to sleep on the floor if that's what he wants.The kitchen is small but more than enough for the couple. It has oak worktops, a sink, a two-burner stove, an oven and a small fridge, and plenty of storage. Both Chris and Sam are vegan, and that comes in handy in terms of grocery shopping and the kind of stuff they need refrigerating for. Opposite the kitchen is a wet bathroom with toilet and shower, and there's an exterior shower as well because Chris is an avid surfer. Plus, as anyone with a pet will tell you, walking your dog on the beach might be ideal for gorgeous photo-ops, but it's also incredibly messy.At the rear is a two-person bed suspended halfway, with storage underneath. Because half of the bed is located behind the bathroom wall, the sleeping area feels isolated and private , almost like a nook. Up on the roof are solar panels and a sundeck, designed to make the most of the one thing you can never get enough of in the UK. With the solar panels and the 100-liter (26.5-gallon) freshwater containers, the two can go completely off-grid for four or five days if theyre mindful about consumption.In two months, Chris, Sam, and Fletcher traveled to 11 countries, including France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and Italy. They tell the tab that, right now, with Europe in the middle of an unprecedented heatwave, theyre heading back to the UK because the scorching weather doesnt agree with Fletcher. They plan to resume their travels in the fall, with Norway on the list of countries to explore next.Chris and Sam say they ditched their old jobs and left their old home, but they dont get into the specifics of how theyre able to finance their travels these days other than through monetizing their content.For the time being, the plan is to keep Olive as their permanent home, and they would rather not think about the day when they might have a change of mind. What theyd like to think of instead is that their story might help others undertake this amazing journey . Nobody knows what's around the next corner but we plan to spend the next few years creating memories in the van and sharing our experiences along the way, hopefully inspiring others to chase their dreams too, they say.
The products that are set to go under the hammer are a uniquely restored Porsche 911 S 2.4 Targa from 1972, which is the year Porsche Design was founded, along with a special matching watch based on the Porsche Design Chronograph I, also from 1972.The one-off Porsche 911 S 2.4 Targa that will be auctioned is a classic model that has gone through a two-year restoration with the aim of creating a historical counterpart of the new 911 Edition 50Y Porsche Design, the other limited-edition car revealed by the German automaker as part of the celebratory efforts.The uniquely restored 911 is based on a 1972 model that was in a rather poor condition so the restorers outfitted it with an upgraded engine and a mechanical fuel injection system, and other top-of-the-line specifications of the day and nods to past designs made by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche.Its dressed in black livery, and the same color dominates the interior, with seats covered in original fabric with a houndstooth print in black and gray. The dashboard and seats feature 50th Anniversary denotations, while the outside flanks are adorned with the Porsche Design lettering.As for the watch companion, the anniversary Chronograph 1  911 S 2.4 Targa was specially made for the Sothebys auction, and it too is a nod to the legendary 911 Targa car. Based on the original Chronograph 1  1972 Limited Edition, the new watch is offered in a stylish box that incorporates a dedicated space for a Porsche 911 S 2.4 Targa car key.Chronograph 1  911 S 2.4 Targa boasts unique design details. The caseback, for instance, resembles the historic Fuchsfelge wheels of the namesake car, while the crown, dial, and clasp sport the historic Porsche Design logo. Besides the logo, the case back also has an engraving with the vehicles VIN.The one-off Targa car and timepiece pair created to mark the golden jubilee of Porsche Designs launch will be offered for New York Luxury Week in December through Sothebys auction house.
EV

Tesla decided to give up entirely on adding radars for the driver assistance systems. It was a wise decision from a business point of view since it lowers the manufacturing cost of the cars and allows for more focus elsewhere. Parts sourcing is, unfortunately, still a headache.But, like many other decisions taken by the Americanmaker, the radar-less Tesla Vision doesnt come with proper integration. It still has issues. Its also limited in what it can do. For example, the cruise control system that helps the driver remain between the lane markings and to change lanes by just putting the blinkers on (Autosteer) can be used only up to 85 mph (136 kph). This is also a Beta feature, meaning the person behind the wheel is always responsible for anything that happens.The 2022 Tesla Model Y Performance tested by Bjorn Nyland was made at the Berlin plant. This means the crossover comes with all the bells and whistles and provides us with a look at the progress made by the automaker.The YouTuber quickly discovers that a feature thats part of the Autopilot package thats based on the new Tesla Vision isnt working properly. His followers and many other customers of the American brand quickly followed and agreed they were experiencing the same thing.Nyland says Tesla Vision sucks because it relies only on cameras. He argues that forcing drivers who want to enjoy the benefit of having intelligent driving assistant software to use functions like the Auto High Beam is a mistake. He says that even though owners of radar-less Teslas can disable this function and take control. On the same note, he underlines that the auto wipers being controlled by the computers while Autopilot is engaged is another bad idea since this cant be disabled.The YouTuber continues his test and proves that while Autopilot is engaged, the car is forcing the use of the high beams on the highway even though its not necessary. The road is lit up, and it is not even a proper night outside.Nyland says the auto high beam needs to be updated because the system turns it off too late and fires it up too fast. He argues the system its unnecessarily aggressive. The tested Model Y Performance brings discomfort to other road users by not having proper programming.Multiple owners confirmed this is the case for them too, but some people remain convinced that going radar-less is the proper way to move forward.Watch the mans discoveries in the video down below.
PHNOM PENH, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A Nigerian man, who has contracted monkeypox and fled Thailand recently, was found here in the capital of Cambodia on Saturday evening, a deputy governor said.

The 27-year-old man, identified as Osmond Chihazirim Nzerem, was found at Phsar Deum Thkov area in the Chamkarmon district after a report from the Thai authority, said Koeut Chhe, deputy governor of the Phnom Penh Municipality.

"The Nigerian man was detained and sent to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital," he told Xinhua via telephone. "We have also deployed our police force at the hospital to monitor the man as he does not cooperate with health staff."

The Nigerian man was confirmed to be infected with monkeypox by the Thai health authority on Thursday.

The patient, who entered Thailand's southern tourist island of Phuket in October 2021 with no departure record, had been sick for more than a week, developing symptoms including fever, sore throat, coughing and rashes, and sought treatment at a local hospital as an outpatient last week.

According to the Phuket health authority, after the test result turned out to be positive, the patient refused to receive treatment, turned off his phone, did not contact the hospital and fled to Cambodia. 
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Lois Henry is the CEO and editor of SJV Water, a nonprofit, independent online news publication dedicated to covering water issues in the San Joaquin Valley. She can be reached at lois.henry@sjvwater.org. The website is sjvwater.org.
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You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
PHNOM PENH, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia attracted fixed-asset investment of 1.29 billion U.S. dollars from China in the first half of 2022, according to a report from the Council for the Development of Cambodia on Saturday.

China remained the top foreign investor in the Southeast Asian country, accounting for 43 percent of the total investment of 2.99 billion dollars the kingdom approved during the January-June period this year, the report said.

Other foreign investments in the kingdom for the first half of this year were from Thailand, Samoa, British Virgin Islands, South Korea, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Malaysia, Japan and Australia, it added.

Investment projects had been focused on agriculture and agro-industry sectors, manufacturing, tourism, and infrastructure.

Heng Sokkung, secretary of state and spokesman for the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation, said excellent ties, the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal are the main factors encouraging more Chinese investors to Cambodia.

Both the CCFTA and the 15-member RCEP trade deal entered into force on Jan. 1, 2022.

"I believe that these free trade agreements, together with Cambodia's favorable investment law, peace and political stability, have provided a great opportunity for foreign investors, particularly Chinese ones, to invest in Cambodia," he told Xinhua.

"Chinese investment has not only brought in new capital, but also advanced technologies for Cambodia's socio-economic development," he added.

Lim Heng, vice president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, said the ironclad friendship and the Belt and Road Initiative are also the major factors attracting more Chinese investors to the kingdom.

"Chinese investment is essential to help boost Cambodia's economy and create new jobs for Cambodian people in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era," he told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Cambodia's General Department of Customs and Excise registered a 19.7 percent year-on-year growth in the Cambodia-China trade volume to 5.98 billion dollars during the first half of 2022.

Ministry of Commerce's undersecretary of state and spokesman Penn Sovicheat said China is the largest trading partner of Cambodia, foreseeing that bilateral trade growth will be higher in the coming months and years.

"China is a huge market for Cambodia, especially for our potential agricultural products such as rice, bananas, mangoes and cassava, among others," he told Xinhua.

"Both the RCEP and the CCFTA have been giving a boost to our trade and investment growth," he said.

RCEP comprises 15 Asia-Pacific countries including 10 ASEAN member states, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and their five trading partners, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. 
ANKARA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkiye's Foreign Ministry on Saturday summoned the Swedish charges d'affaires in Ankara over the "terrorist propaganda" staged by the supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) during a protest on Thursday in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Ankara also conveyed its "strong reaction" to another demonstration held on the same day in Stockholm, the agency quoted anonymous Turkish diplomatic sources.

"In this context, our expectation that the perpetrators of the incident will be identified, necessary legal and judicial measures will be taken, and concrete steps will be taken in light of the commitments recorded in the tripartite memorandum have been emphasized," said the sources.

Finland and Sweden's NATO bid was initially blocked by Turkiye, which accused them of supporting anti-Turkiye groups as they rejected Ankara's extradition requests for suspects affiliated with the PKK and the Gulen Movement.

On June 28, Turkiye, Sweden and Finland agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) before Ankara lifted its veto ahead of the NATO Madrid summit.

In the MoU, Finland and Sweden pledged to support Turkiye's fight against terrorism, and agreed to address Turkiye's "pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly."

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades.

The Gulen Movement is led by and named after the U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. The Turkish government accuses the movement of masterminding the 2016 failed coup in which at least 250 people were killed. 
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.
China's PLA medical team arrives in Laos to carry out "Peace Train-2022" joint drills with Lao army

Xinhua) 10:39, July 23, 2022

The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China crosses the border with Laos by running through the Friendship Tunnel of China-Laos Railway, on July 19, 2022. A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China has arrived in Laos to join the Lao People's Army to carry out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China crosses the border with Laos by running through the Friendship Tunnel of China-Laos Railway, and arrives in the border town of Boten in Laos on July 19, 2022. A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China has arrived in Laos to join the Lao People's Army to carry out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China crosses the border with Laos by running through the Friendship Tunnel of China-Laos Railway, and arrives in the border town of Boten in Laos on July 19, 2022. A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China has arrived in Laos to join the Lao People's Army to carry out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China arrives in the border town of Boten in Laos on July 19, 2022. A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China has arrived in Laos to join the Lao People's Army to carry out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows the medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China cross the border with Laos by running through the Friendship Tunnel of China-Laos Railway. A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China has arrived in Laos to join the Lao People's Army to carry out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China is welcomed in Vientiane, Laos, on July 19, 2022. A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China has arrived in Laos to join the Lao People's Army to carry out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China crosses the border with Laos by running through the Friendship Tunnel of China-Laos Railway, and arrives in the border town of Boten in Laos on July 19, 2022. A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China has arrived in Laos to join the Lao People's Army to carry out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
MEXICO CITY, July 22 (Xinhua) -- No treaty can take precedence over Mexico's sovereignty and self-determination, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Friday.

Ebrard made the remarks in response to complaints by the United States and Canada that Mexico is running afoul of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The Foreign Ministry and the Economy Ministry will coordinate Mexico's response to U.S. and Canadian objections to the government's new energy policy, which they claim goes against the terms of the free trade agreement, he said.

Mexico will present its arguments defending the nation's sovereignty and self-determination, "because no treaty can be superior to that," Ebrard said.

"Mexico has international treaties of all kinds, and treaties are binding, but I do not see any decisions to date that have been made run counter to the contents of the free trade agreement," he added.

The U.S. and Canadian governments say Mexico is using discriminatory practices in the energy sector that harm international companies and cross-border distribution.

Within the framework of the USMCA, parties have 75 days to resolve a dispute. If they fail to reach an agreement, a dispute resolution panel would be established to decide whether to dismiss the case or impose sanctions.

"I am optimistic; I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but we're going to move forward with resolution and consistency," Ebrard said. 
A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family
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Lenox Schools Superintendent Marc J. Gosselin Jr. says there is no connection between the departure of Assistant Principal Brent Bette and a strongly worded criticism of Bettes handling of a bullying incident at the school by David Pixley, an attorney and parent of a student.
Lenox native James Brooke is a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has traveled to about 100 countries, reporting for The New York Times, Bloomberg and Voice of America.
Integrated marketing agency Irvine Partners has announced the launch of its international office exchange programme.

Founded in 2010 in Cape Town, the company has since expanded across the continent and internationally. In addition to its Cape Town offices, it has a presence in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Accra, and London. While some team members specialise in specific markets, most work across geographies.

While weve always had cross-geographic teams, they really came into their own over the past couple of years, says company founder and CEO Rachel Irvine. Covid-19 was a great leveller when it came to seamless international collaboration.

Through the course of the pandemic, a lot of strong bonds were formed within those teams, she adds. By giving those team members the chance to work together in person, we know that those bonds will only be further cemented.

The programme also gives participants a chance to broaden their professional horizons, taking lessons from other markets and bringing them back to their home countries.

The office exchange initiative is the latest addition to a well-established employee happiness programme which also includes a dedicated anonymous mental health counselling service, skills development courses, and an extended leave policy.

The pandemic highlighted to us exactly how valuable a committed and engaged team is, says Irvine. Were committed to ensuring that our employees are given every opportunity to grow and thrive as professionals and individuals.

The office exchange programme will kick off this July 2022, with four members of the Irvine Partners team exchanging to Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos.

For more information, visit www.irvinepartners.co.za. You can also follow Irvine Partners on LinkedIn. That is also where you can find all the latest vacancies.




Johannesburg, Bryanston, R 27000 - R 36000 per month

As an account manager for this agency who provide an integrated service, your key role will be to build the relationship between client and the agency.
A Brandon University-led team of researchers continues its archaeological work in the Gainsborough Creek Valley near the town of Melita.

The researchers are studying the lives of pre-contact Indigenous farmers as part of a multi-year investigation. The archaeological sites, located 130 kilometres southwest of Brandon, fall under the Pierson Wildlife Management Area (WMA) on Treaty 2 lands, the traditional homelands of the Dakota, Anishinabek, Ojibway-Cree, Cree, Dene and Metis peoples.

In 2018, Eric Olson found scapula hoes made from bison shoulder blades along a creek bank in the Pierson WMA. The tools were historically used to cultivate maize crops. Manitoba Archaeological Society (Left to right) Mary Malainey (projector director, Brandon University), Sara Halwas (University of Manitoba), Alicia Gooden (president, MAS), and Joel Firman (Brandon University student) excavate potsherds found near a hearth at the Pierson Wildlife Management Archaeological Project.

Soon, representatives from BU, the University of Manitoba and other professional organizations started work in the area. They uncovered a workshop where pre-contact people made tools from the bones of bison, deer, wolf, beaver and goose. Last year, a residential area where people made stone tools and used pottery was found on the west side of the valley.

Olson, who isnt an archeologist himself but has a keen interest in that area of study, was living in the area during the summer he made his find. A friend had come to visit him, and he suggested they go on a hike to some of the historical sites Olson knew about.

It was a drought year, so I suggested that we look along the creek bed to see if we could find any artifacts, because that would be the year to do it, when the water was so low. And then, sure enough, we did, Olson said.

The first thing that caught Olsons eye that day was a bison skull. He said it was found on a sandy part of the river, completely exposed.

Then the more we looked, the more we found around it. We found a little scraper, or something like that, a stone tool, and then this bone thing kind of half buried, half sticking out.

The bone tool would turned out to be the important bison scapula hoe. At the time, Olson put it into his backpack. Upon returning home, he set to scouring the internet for what it could possibly be. When he identified it as a hoe, Olson said, he wasnt all that surprised.

I didnt actually think it was that important, because Id already read about the history of the area, and I already knew that there was probably agricultural activities going on there. Its been suspected for so long, but I just kind of assumed that it was already known and there was already good evidence of it.

Despite his doubts about the importance of his find, Olson contacted the archeological team at Brandon University. It was then he realized the magnitude of what hed unearthed that day.

Since then, Olson has returned to the spot, often hiking there with his sister and her children.

Were always just looking at new historical sites.

It was on one of these visits with his sister, niece and nephew that Olson found another bison scapula hoe.

While we were just looking around that spot, we actually found another hoe, just kind of caught up in a tangle of sticks or something near the water.

Excavations on the east prairie level site began earlier this month. A hearth with a thick layer of ash was found, indicating that dwellings were also present on the east side of Gainsborough Creek. Pottery found on the east prairie level featured the same decoration as artifacts from the Olson site in the valley.

Mary Malainey, a professor in the anthropology department at Brandon University, said that this year the team isnt crossing the creek due to high water levels from recent rainfall. Nevertheless, theyve made some very interesting finds already.

It looks like weve found the remains of a house  we found a hearth, a fireplace. Somebody built a fire with a really thick ash deposit, so that would be consistent with somebody staying at that spot for a long period of time. That is an indication of permanency. We also found what looks like a posthole, which could be a clue to what kind of structure was built.

All of this challenges preconceived notions that pre-contact Indigenous people in the area were strictly hunter-gatherers. Malainey said the site is only the second in Manitoba that has produced strong evidence of farming and horticulture. This paints a picture that many archeologists didnt give much credit to before.

This area in Manitoba  is a very rich area, so hunters and gatherers could have made a really good life just hunting and gathering. The archaeologists at the time thought there was no reason for them to practice horticulture, and they assumed that it would be more of a southern practice.

Since the discovery of the bison scapula hoe in 2018, however, things have changed. Every artifact they find, Malainey said, helps to paint a clearer picture of what life was like before Europeans made contact with Indigenous people in the area.

Its like having a puzzle, and the pieces of the puzzle get doled out a few at a time. They dont necessarily fit together all that well, and you get more of the pieces. Then you can figure out what the big picture is. Were still gathering pieces at this point in time, but were starting to get more information. Every time we go back we find more and more artifacts and we get a better understanding of the people who lived there.

The Manitoba Heritage grants program is providing $10,000 to Malainey and $9,000 to the Manitoba Archaeological Society (MAS) to carry out the research. The MAS has provided $6,300 in funding towards the project. A Brandon University partnership with its students union has provided a grant and funds from the Canada Summer Jobs program that enabled Malainey to hire student field and lab assistants.

Eric Forster, regional economic development officer with the town of Melita, said everyone in the community seems to be very excited about the progress Malaineys team is making at the site.

The sense I get is that everyone is pretty astounded that theres something like this in their own backyard, Foster said.

Forster said people who grow up in Melita learn about its importance as a gathering spot, both for settlers and Indigenous people, and that Malaineys work is adding to the sense of pride people in the area have.

You always had a sense that there was something here  now were learning more about agriculture and the methods used in historical times [by Indigenous people]  its really astounding.

Even more important, Forster said, is how the archeological site is shifting peoples perspectives about which cultural groups have contributed to making the Prairies what they are today.

Through history class, you learn about the traditional British and French explorers, Forster said. People have been utilizing the land and making their home for years and years before settlers came across, and now were finding that history.

Forster said rediscovering the sites Indigenous ties is helping people in the area acknowledge the key role Indigenous cultures played in shaping its history.

This is making it more personal. Were able to see first hand the digging up of history, and learning first hand instead of just reading it somewhere. Now we get to be a part of it.

 mleybourne@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @miraleybourne
The most affordable housing market in Canada is in and around the Wheat City.

Thats according to real estate company Re/Max, which released the results of its annual housing affordability report earlier this week.

Based on average residential selling price, Brandon, Man. ranked as the most affordable market in 2022, replacing Winnipeg which was most affordable in Re/Max Canadas 2021 ranking, the report states. Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun A Re/Max real estate sign is shown in front of a home on Laurel Bay. According to a Re/Max study, Brandon is home to the most affordable housing market in Canada.

Attached to the report is a graphic showing statistics for 10 regions in Western Canada. On that graphic, its stated that the average sale price for a home in Brandon this year is $310,252, up from $304,929 last year  a 1.75 per cent increase.

Re/Max estimates that figure will drop around five per cent by the end of the year.

When it comes to affordability based on the share of homeowner income spent on mortgage payments, Brandon ranked third at 27.73 per cent, behind Regina (26.94 per cent) and Red Deer, Alta., (25.86 per cent).

The study also drills down into which neighbourhoods in those centres are most affordable. For Brandon, the neighbourhoods listed are Souris, Wawanesa and Rivers, suggesting that the study is considering the Brandon region and not just the city itself.

I think were good value, Michael Barrett of Re/Max ValleyView Realty told the Sun on Thursday. Manitoba generally, and particularly rural Manitoba, has always been a slow and steady market rather than the boom and bust you see in other provinces and larger centres. You see that in Toronto and in Alberta with their reliance on the auto industry. Were fairly diversified in our market, even though were ag-based.

That, he said, means that when one market in the Brandon area might be underperforming, others are likely to be better performing and balancing things out.

Barrett also said hed read that Manitoba is the lowest-ranking province when it comes to foreign investment from non-residents purchasing property. He doesnt know what exactly the effect of that is, but believes it has an impact on demand.

Last year, the Sun reported that there was a nine per cent increase in housing prices in Brandon in 2021, but it was still an incredibly affordable place to buy, not just in Canada but in Manitoba, said Warren Neufeld, president of Brandon Area Realtors.

Though Neufeld owns Royal LePage Portage Realty in Portage la Prairie, he explained that the city is considered part of the Brandon Area Realtors catchment area because it and Winnipeg have the only remaining real estate associations outside of the umbrella Manitoba Real Estate Association.

He said he believes that Manitoba has been a good real estate market for decades, especially when looking at more expensive markets such as Toronto and Vancouver. Like Barrett, he said he believes that Manitoba isnt as affected by the peaks and valleys of the countrys real estate market.

Over the course of time, theres been a steady increase in pricing that follows general trends, but I think what happens in a broader sense for Canadians, our path to wealth includes real estate, Neufeld said.

Manitoba continues  and its been shown in reports like the Re/Max one  to be very stable. Its going to be a growing asset, but its also very affordable and it puts people on a path to generational wealth over the decades. You buy a house and take 25 years to pay it off, its grown four, five, six per cent a year over those years and all of a sudden you have a real asset.

That affordability, he said, only gets better when you go 15 to 20 kilometres away from Brandon.

Earlier this week, the Manitoba Real Estate Association reported that just under 2,000 homes were sold in Manitoba in June, a new monthly record. However, month-over-month sales declined for the first time this year.

 cslark@brandonsun.com, with files from Kyle Darbyson

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
SIOUX VALLEY DAKOTA NATION  Celebration was tempered with solemnity at the veterans hall in Sioux Valley for the opening ceremony of Dakota Tiwahe Services agency Friday.

The event marked a momentous occasion in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. History was made earlier this month when, on July 4, provincial legislation was introduced officially mandating the services as a child and family services (CFS) agency.

The mandate, in accordance with the CFS Act of Manitoba, was an interim step for Sioux Valley to gain full jurisdiction over CFS for nation members. Under the mandate, Dakota Tiwahe Services will provide CFS to Sioux Valley members and Dakota families both on- and off-reserve across Manitoba. Dakota Objibway CFS will no longer operate in the community. Miranda Leybourne/The Brandon Sun Riverside Dakota, a drum group made up of Darrel McKay, Jeff Taylor and Hank Hotain, drummed and sang at the event.

Emcee Bill Taylor addressed the crowd during his opening remarks, after a private pipe ceremony to bless the event, noting the importance of following the ways and protocols of the Dakota people on such a momentous occasion. The pipe ceremony was one way to acknowledge the elders and other people in the community who paved the way for the First Nation to take back its rights to look after its own children.

They never got to see this day, but they contributed at the start and kept it going all these years so that we would someday have the ability to look after our own Dakota children, to take that jurisdiction back so that they would not be removed from these beautiful Dakota ways in which we were raised, Taylor said.

One of the things those elders used to say, Taylor recounted, was that even if they didnt see the shift back to giving jurisdiction to the Dakota Sioux people in their lifetime, they still wished it would happen in the near future. Miranda Leybourne/The Brandon Sun Eleanor Elk, elder, knowledge keeper and member of Dakota Tiwahe Services board of directors, said it was a dream come true for the First Nation to gain jurisdiction over child and family services in the community.

Their work paid off. Here we are today, Taylor said. Having gone through a lot of what theyve gone through with the residential schools, 60s Scoop, day schools, we know all the stories all too well and how theyve affected our people. This was the driving force behind the dream that our elders had.

Not only parents and family members, but children will be better protected under the new jurisdiction, Taylor said before introducing Eleanor Elk, an elder and knowledge keeper who also sits on the board of directors for Dakota Tiwahe Services.

Elk said the event was a happy occasion and deserved to be celebrated. Growing up, she said, she saw a lot of children taken, some of whom never came back to their homes. Now, people in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation have the opportunity and ability to work together as a group to look after their own children. Its a system that hearkens back to how things used to be done before jurisdiction was taken away from the community. Miranda Leybourne/The Brandon Sun Drum group Riverside Dakota performs a song at Dakota Tiwahe Services opening ceremony on Sioux Valley Dakota Nation on Friday.

When children needed care, it was the extended family that stepped in and helped to care if the mother was sick. The grandmother, or the aunties, or whoever came forward and took care of the children until things were made good again.

When Elk joined the Sioux Valley Dakota Nations council in 2012, the movement to take back jurisdiction was already in the works.

Its a dream come true for our community that we will continue to support each other and look after our own children.

Children, Elk said, are incredibly sacred to the Dakota community.

We must not lose them again. We want them here, Elk said, so we can teach them what we know, our ways as Dakota people, the traditions, the culture. These are the things that children need to grow up with.

The delivery of services from the new agency was made possible through Bill C-92: An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis children, youth and families, which came into effect in 2020.

The legislation was co-developed with Indigenous, provincial and territorial partners to keep Indigenous children and youth connected to their cultures, communities and families. The bill allows Indigenous communities and groups to develop policies and laws based on their particular histories, cultures and circumstances.

 mleybourne@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @miraleybourne
Environmental regulators filed a record 195 criminal cases in the NSW Land and Environment Court in 2021, a sharp increase over the past five years.

The figures from the court, provided to The Sun-Herald, reflect prosecutions for environmental crimes over the past decade by regulators such as the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), the Natural Resources Access Regulator, and various government departments and local councils.

Environmental Defenders Office head of policy and legal reform Rachel Walmsley attributed the rise in prosecutions to the establishment of the Natural Resources Access Regulator in 2017.

Many of the regulators are quite risk averse, and will only bring a case if theyve got extremely strong evidence and extremely strong chances of winning the case, Walmsley said.

Having said that, there are new regulators in NSW, like the Natural Resources Access Regulator  theyve really changed the culture, and theyve brought a lot of water prosecutions that previously just werent happening at all.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It is reasonable to imagine that the last years of the life of the last known thylacine were miserable. It was captured in 1933, by which time hunting, land clearing and disease had already killed most of its kind. It was presumed to be a male. It stood just over 60 centimetres high and was nearly two metres from nose to tail. They named it Benjamin and kept it in Hobarts Beaumaris Zoo. In grainy black and white film footage shot in 1935 he can be seen pacing his concrete cage as a fence is shaken by an onlooker seeking to provoke some response for the camera. Benjamin was found dead on the floor on a Monday morning in September the following year after his keepers inadvertently left the door of his sleeping enclosure closed during an unusually cold night. Two months earlier the thylacine had been listed as a protected species. Six years earlier a hunter had bagged the last wild specimen. As close as she will get - a taxidermied Tasmanian Tiger on Display in Melbourne Museum in 2021. Credit:Joe Armao

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The wanton destruction of such an extraordinary animal  a two-metre long carnivorous marsupial that roamed our forests, its males carrying their young in a pouch  is viewed as a national shame. The writer Richard Flanagan would later describe the Tasmanian tiger as a lost object of awe, one more symbol of our feckless ignorance and stupidity. You would be forgiven for thinking that it marked a turning point. Youd be wrong. Fast-forward to 2009, when scientists began warning the federal government that the Christmas Island pipistrelle was in dire need of help. The Christmas Island pipistrelle bat was once abundant. Credit:Lindy Lumsden The pipistrelle is, or was, a microbat weighing just under five grams that lived in the forests of the remote Australian island just south of Java. Though abundant until around 25 years ago in the early years of the new century scientists began warning its numbers had collapsed dramatically. Some, including Tim Flannery, appealed to the government for help. With a few hundred thousand dollars a breeding program might be established.

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A committee conferred and then the environment minister of the time, Peter Garrett, rejected the proposal. The committee has confirmed what we feared; the pipistrelle is in severe decline and extinction in the wild is almost inevitable, he said. There were unacceptably high risks involved in embarking on an immediate captive breeding program. The bats are also very hard to catch and no one knows how to keep them alive for breeding. It is thought the last one died in 2009. We dont know precisely what happened to it, wrote Flannery in a sad and angry piece for the Herald a few years later when the extinction was confirmed. Perhaps it landed on a leaf at dawn after a night feeding on moths and mosquitoes, and was torn to pieces by fire ants; perhaps it succumbed to a mounting toxic burden placed on its tiny body by insecticide spraying. Or maybe it was simply worn out with age and ceaseless activity, and died quietly in its tree hollow  With its passing, an entire species winked out of existence. This week the federal governments publication of the five-yearly State of the Environment report confirmed what scientists already knew  that not only has Australia failed to act fast enough on climate change, arrest its logging or properly husband its precious water resources, we are still killing off our unique fauna at a horrifying rate.

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The report, the product of two years work by experts found that the number of species listed as threatened rose 8 per cent since 2016. Worse, experts predict that over the coming two decades the northern hopping-mouse, the rock-rat, the Christmas Island flying fox, and the black-footed tree-rat could all go extinct. This is what frustrates Professor Brendan Wintle, a global leader in conservation ecology based at the University of Melbourne. While in some countries the listing of an animal as threatened marks tends to mark a turnaround in its numbers, in Australia it is often simply a milestone on that animals march to extinction. A bald eagle carrying a branch lands in its nest atop a tree overlooking the Raccoon River in 2018 at Grays Lake Park in Des Moines, Iowa. Credit:AP Four years after Benjamin died of exposure in Tasmania the North American bald eagle was recognised as being at risk. Like the Thylacine its numbers had plummeted due to hunting and habitat destruction. At the time Congress was preparing for the possibility that it might be dragged into the spreading world war and was appalled at the potential propaganda implications of the extinction of its fierce national emblem. It resolved that the bald eagle was no longer a mere bird of biological interest but a symbol of the American ideals of freedom and outlawed the killing or disturbing of bald eagles or their eggs.

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After the war the numbers began to decline again. The pesticide DDT had leached into the nations waterways. Eagles ingested the poison from the fish they hunted causing their eggs to thin and crack before their young hatched. When there were fewer than 400 breeding pairs left outside of Alaska the bald eagle was listed as endangered hin 1967. In the years that followed, DDT was banned and eagles habitats were protected by law, as part of a rehabilitation effort that included biologists and ornithologists going so far as to glue together cracks in fragile eggs, drive and fly chicks around the country to be raised by surrogates and even building nesting stands in areas denuded of appropriate trees. In August 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list and the population is now estimated to be well over 300,000. It had been rescued by the coordinated efforts of state and federal governments, scientists, researchers and volunteers, all backed by legal mandate. In US endangered species legislation compels action, explains Wintle. When an animal is listed authorities must act. Critical habitat must be protected and funds for rehabilitation efforts supplied. Under the relevant Australian law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, listing does not guarantee funding and action is taken at the discretion of the federal minister  a minister who serves in a cabinet with competing interests over land use and allocation of scarce resources.

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Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The climate change-related floods and fires that have plagued eastern Australia in recent years have had one little-publicised side effect  the catastrophe business is booming. Private enterprise that specialises in disaster recovery has found a profitable niche by taking on roles that were once assumed by government, but in some disaster-hit communities resentment is growing over outsourcing of the reconstruction process. When thousands were left homeless by devastating floods on the states north coast in February and March, the state government turned to catastrophe specialists to handle the damage assessment and demolition process When Lismore flooded, the state government turned to the private sector for help. Credit:Getty ASX-listed Johns Lyng Group beat three other bidders in a whirlwind competitive tender process to land the contract to manage the states Flood Property Assessment Program. It means a for-profit company now has the key roles of assessing damage, making repairs and recommending demolition of private homes. That sits uneasily with some who, five months on, are still living in the wreckage. People like Johns Lyng Group are making a lot of money out of peoples misery, while people are living in squalid conditions, said Isaac Campbell, a Lismore youth worker whose home was recommended for demolition by Johns Lyng assessors.

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Everyone around here is broke and everyone is in debt, Campbell said. And now were being told we have to engage with a private company which has got a contract to assess our homes. It feels abusive. The state government said people could opt out of the property assessments whenever they wished, and that only homeowners could decide to have a damaged house demolished. Campbell is one of those who opted out. He got a second opinion from a structural engineer who endorsed his decision not to demolish his home, and is now living in a caravan with his wife and two children and selling what possessions he has left to fund repairs himself. Isaac Campbells home was recommended for demolition by Johns Lyng assessors. Credit: Natalie Grono They reckoned it was going to cost $450,000 to rebuild. Id only just bought it a year ago for $410,000. Ridiculous. I could fix up the whole place for $50,000, and Id probably have change. Many residents the Herald spoke to said a formal report recommending demolition could destroy their ability to sell their home, even if fully repaired, or prevent them getting insurance. Getting repairs done by trained professionals is also tough, because much of the regions skilled workforce has been absorbed by Johns Lyng in subcontracting roles, forcing up costs for the remaining independent tradespeople. The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation, established by the state government to coordinate the rebuilding efforts of several government departments as well as private contractors, said 2,334 property assessments had been carried out so far.

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Property owners are also provided with an estimate of repair costs, which takes into account the rising costs across the building and construction sector due to national trade and material shortages, a spokesperson said. Staff from the NSW Public Works Agency were checking the work of the Johns Lyng assessors and carrying out on-site audits, they said. The corporation defended the work of Johns Lyng Group in the region. The NSW government strongly refutes claims that Johns Lyng Group (JLG) is profiteering from disaster recovery operations, a spokesperson said in a statement. Isaac Campbell decided to get a second opinion and will rebuild his home. Credit:Natalie Grono No one has claimed Johns Lyng Group is profiteering. But it is profiting. Since listing on the stock exchange in 2017, it has seen about 15 per cent growth each year, and the company now has a market capitalisation of around $1.6 billion. The initial phase of flood recovery work is worth $142 million. Its most recent investor presentation, from April, says catastrophic events offer significant revenue and margin upside. The company last year gained a foothold in the North American disaster recovery market by buying a company there. In a statement, the company said all questions about the damage assessments should be directed to the government.

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All staff and contractors undergo vulnerability training to ensure our engagement with the community is compassionate and understanding, a Johns Lyng spokesperson said. JLG utilises as many local tradies and builders as possible given their knowledge of the impacted community. For instance, 79 per cent of our flood property assessment workers are locals to the flood-affected regions. Scott Didier was an admirer of Donald Trumps book. Credit:SMH The companys founder and chief executive, Scott Didier, did not return the Heralds calls. Didier, who has spoken of being inspired by former US president Donald Trumps book The Art of the Deal in the past and still has companies with the name Trump in their titles, has helped drive the solid growth of Johns Lyng Group by buying smaller building firms and pushing into the strata management business. But catastrophes, or CAT events as they are known in the industry, remain a key part of the companys business, he has previously said. The catastrophe business is not new but, driven by climate change, it is growing. According to the World Meteorological Organisations 50-year study, climate-related disasters are increasing, with an average cost of AU$293 million a day worldwide.

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With more disasters, theres a space thats opened up for the market to play a role, said Tim Heffernan, an expert in disaster management and community recovery at the University of NSW. It is happening around the world, not just here  from the clean-up to the recovery and all aspects of the reconstruction phases. There are things the private sector can bring in terms of efficiency or technical expertise that benefit communities. The key thing is how they engage with the community. Climate-related disasters are increasing: a wildfire burning in southwestern France. Credit:AP Heffernan said his research showed disaster management tended to be heavily bureaucratised, with large government agencies and private entities applying a one-size-fits-all approach. Councils and local community tend to be pushed out of the road, he said. What people want to see is members of the community and local council being informed, sharing information, being key to the process. Many people in the community felt sidelined or confused by the slowness of the damage assessment process in Lismore, said Greens MP and resident Sue Higginson. My view is that we shouldnt be privatising disaster recovery, Higginson said. We know from all the expert material that the most successful recovery is community-led recovery.

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Plans to build new classrooms and a dance academy at an exclusive private school have been condemned by residents and a local council that say the proposed building is too large and will affect neighbouring properties and worsen traffic congestion.

Pymble Ladies College submitted $46 million plans for a five-storey building of classrooms for its junior school and science and technology labs to replace temporary classrooms.

Local traffic congestion outside Pymble Ladies College during school pick-up time. Credit:Brook Mitchell

The Grey House Precinct would also include a healthcare centre, dance academy, out-of-school hours care (OSHC) facilities and a childcare centre.

The new building would open from 6.30am on weekdays for dance students, while the OSHC would open at 6.45am during school term.
A 10-year-old boy has succumbed to his injuries in hospital after he was pulled from a burning house in Sydneys south-west, lifting the death toll to three from Sundays ferocious blaze.

Five others, including three occupants and two firefighters, have been left injured after the home on Rottnest Avenue in Hinchinbrook erupted in flames about 5.40am.

Fire crews launched a daring rescue mission in treacherous conditions to save the family who were stranded in their bedrooms on the top storey of the home as the fire raged, authorities have revealed.

Two women, in their 60s and 40s, were confirmed dead at the scene and are yet to be formally identified.
The former Australian of the Year discusses how he started a business with $600, why he never entered the political arena  and the one thing better than sex.

July 22, 2022

by Benjamin Law
Loading We just left all our shoes over there that were dirty, Allen said. A pamphlet handed out to travellers on arrival in Australia urged them not to bring meat or dairy products into Australia and to clean any shoes and clothing used in rural areas. The flyer warned of $2664 fines for breaching biosecurity laws and the potential for tourists to be denied entry into Australia. The detection of foot and mouth disease in Bali has triggered fears of a catastrophic local outbreak, with more than 120,000 people travelling to the island from Australia in June alone, according to local tourism authorities. Watt told The Age on Saturday that sanitisation foot mats had arrived at airports and were being rolled out as quickly as possible.

He said as part of the ramped-up customs measures, there would be 100 per cent risk assessment of passengers returning from Indonesia. Its excellent to see travellers following the advice and throwing away or thoroughly cleaning their shoes before returning to Australia, he said. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt at a press conference on Friday. Credit:Getty The Albanese government is taking the Indonesian [foot and mouth disease] outbreak seriously, and those who choose to travel need to do the same. Just one positive case of the disease  which causes lesions and lameness in livestock  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 to be $80 billion.

At the airport on Saturday, Melbourne woman Julie Comopolous said she spotted some customs officers in Melbournes international terminal wearing the full garb of personal protective equipment. Comopolous said shed kept abreast of the increasing vigilance around foot and mouth disease at home, washing all her shoes before getting on the Bali flight. Julie and Tony Comopoulos at Melbourne Airport after arriving back from Bali on Saturday morning. Credit:Scott Barbour I think they [border security officers] are doing all the right things, she said. We were asked on the plane to make sure we filled out the forms correctly. We just ticked all the boxes to make sure we were in the right place if they wanted to speak to us.

Melbourne woman Bella Curtis, returning home after 10 days in the Bali sun as part of a girls trip, said she was surprised by the low-key biosecurity response on arrival in Australia. She said they threw out a number of pairs of shoes before returning. Bella Curtis (left) and Charlotte Powell returned to Australia from a girls trip to Bali on Saturday. Credit:Scott Barbour It wasnt crazy ... there was just an announcement and we filled out a form, she said. Innovation Minister Jaala Pulford said while she was in her previous role as agriculture minister, there had been mandatory tagging of sheep and goats across the state which would make tracking livestock easier in case of an outbreak.

People need to know and understand that this has the possibility of being very serious, but were very well prepared for it, she said. Loading Our Agriculture Victoria team are working with our farming communities, and they know what they have to do. Animal biosecurity is their bread and butter. Victorian farmers know that in Victoria we are better prepared for serious livestock disease situations than the rest of the country. Australian Border Force - which handles customs within Australian airports and assists biosecurity officers - declined to answer questions on Saturday about why biosecurity measures for foot and mouth disease were not yet in practice.

The Department of Agriculture said there had been escalating border biosecurity measures in Indonesia for livestock vessels returning to Australia. When, as expected, the disease reached Bali, our biosecurity measures were again enhanced (with on arrival announcements, provision of flyers and preparation of foot mats), a spokesman said. The measures will continue to be reviewed in line with risk assessments. While unions warned on Friday that the new biosecurity demands would put extra pressure on agriculture biosecurity officers and could extend already long international customs delays, no travellers The Age spoke to reported excessive wait times. With Ben Preiss
Melbourne has always had a taste for champagne, particularly the good stuff.

Amid the excess of Victorias gold rush, French fizz was imported to quench the thirst of a newly wealthy Melbourne populace. In the 1980s, another dizzying boom time, the bankers and celebrities were drinking plenty of it.

One of the cuvees popular in both eras was Charles Heidsieck, whose eponymous French wine merchant founder was nicknamed Champagne Charlie after introducing bubbly to the United States in the 1850s.

Charlies Heidsieck, nicknamed Champagne Charlie.

His American adventures during the Civil War, including imprisonment on charges of spying for France, inspired songs, books and even a French-Canadian miniseries starring Hugh Grant.
Back in 2009, the current Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas, who was then major projects minister, said the site was one of the last remaining large brownfield areas in inner Melbourne that is currently without a long-term strategic plan. The Napthine government later moved to sell the land, launching an expressions-of-interest campaign just days before it lost the 2014 state election. At least four major developers  Lend Lease, MAB Corporation, Walker Corporation and Cbus  were considered in the early days of the Andrews government to build the project. Beautiful concept renders of green neighbourhoods were published in newspaper articles touting one of the best development sites in Melbourne. But then things went quiet, says McKee, who formed a community group named Western Connection, which included urban planners and a range of professionals, and pushed for a major green-space project in the new suburb.

And then came the announcement that Transurban were going to use the site for the West Gate Tunnel Project. Critics say the sole reason for the loss of E-Gates potential was the Andrews governments decision to allow Transurban to build two large tollway extensions through the site, as part of the $5.5 billion West Gate Tunnel. An early concept the E-Gate site. Credit:Victorian Government Melbourne City Council was one of the loudest dissenting voices on the plan, claiming in submissions to the government at the time that the flyover would ruin a once-in-a-generational opportunity for E-Gate, and that proposal was inconsistent with policy and practice of the last 30 years, in an area of Melbourne where we should be specifically planning for the next 30 years. An inquiry and advisory committee, convened in 2017 to hear submissions on the West Gate Tunnel, recommended to then-planning minister Richard Wynne that it considered the impact on E-Gate as suboptimal and there would be a missed opportunity if the design wasnt remedied.

Despite these protestations, including from groups such as Western Connection which proposed an alternative road set-up, the flyovers went ahead. The only concession was to lower the road by about 10 metres, to 2.6 metres, for much of the road, but it will still tower to 11 metres at some points. Urban planner and associate professor of RMITs Centre for Urban Research, Andrew Butt, who was also part of the Western Connection group as an expert and a West Melbourne local, said the decision to allow the tollway operator to cut through the site sacrificed it. A vision for the site created by Western Connection. North Melbourne railway station is on the bottom right. Credit:Western Connection It was an exercise in providing tolling for Transurban and not necessarily transport solutions, Butt says. Docklands Chamber of Commerce chief executive Shane Wylie said E-Gate would have been a game changer for the harbourside suburb. By connecting Docklands to West and North Melbourne, E-Gate could have ended the precincts isolation.

Retailers, traders and residents were all extremely excited, he says. Its disappointing for the chamber and Docklands businesses to see such an exciting proposal disappear. Western Connections depiction of what the view from North Melbourne railway station could be. Credit:Western Connection Wylie says the West Gate Tunnels intrusion into the site is now a major barrier to the planned development becoming a reality. The dampening of the appetite for major new developments caused by the pandemic leaves Wylie with little hope that the development of E-gate will get off the ground. The barriers that are there now are too great and the rewards for such a proposal are not what they were, he says. When or if E-Gate will ever be realised as a proper suburb will be a decision for the state government of the day. An Andrews government spokeswoman said it would reconsider E-Gate for development when the West Gate Tunnel is completed and when the site is no longer being used as a rail stabling yard and maintenance site.

She said significant changes were made to project design to get the full potential out of the E-Gate development site, including lowering the Wurundjeri Way extension to allow direct access to the site. The Wurundjeri Way extension  will create a CBD bypass, making it easier to travel between the inner north, central city and the western suburbs, she said. An artists impression, released by the Napthine government in late 2014, of what the E-Gate site was meant to look like. Credit:Victorian Government It will take traffic off Spencer and King Streets and use less than 1.5 hectares of the 20-hectare E-Gate site on its northern and eastern edges, leaving the vast majority available for future development. But Rohan Leppert, a Greens-aligned councillor with the City of Melbourne who was active in the councils failed fightback against the plan, said the toll road ramps had reduced the idea of E-Gate to a shadow of its former self.

Loading Raised freeways are a recipe for urban blight, and E-Gate will be surrounded by big and hostile arterials. Knitting E-Gate together with West Melbourne and Docklands will need a lattice of bridges, and that isnt cheap, he said. But if those challenges can be overcome, E-Gate has the potential to be a world-class urban-renewal precinct, with sustainable buildings and the reintroduction of trees and greenery. Thats what our new Municipal Planning Strategy strives for, despite the ridiculous folly that is the West Gate Tunnel  where tunnel means freeway on stilts. Anthony McKee, meanwhile, says he hasnt given up entirely on his hopes of one day seeing some remnant of his groups original vision for E-Gate come to life. Although it would require building over both the rail lines and now over the new toll roads, he says there are examples of this happening already on different sections of Wurundjeri Way in Melbourne and other Australian cities.
Senior Palaszczuk government minister Mark Bailey says Brisbane City Councils decision to ignore flood concerns in Yeronga shows a 20-year council isnt interested in looking at things closely.

Since 2003, Yeronga residents have asked council to clear about two metres of unauthorised fill in a suburban creek which stormwater consultants now say is making local flooding worse.

Despite initially acknowledging the lack of authorisation for the works, and officers vowing to take action against those responsible, the council now says there is insufficient evidence to take the matter further.

Local MP Mark Bailey says questions must now be asked if a 20-year old Brisbane council was no longer interested in residents flood concerns. Credit:Dan Peled/AAP

Bailey, the local MP, disputed the councils claim there was insufficient evidence to substantiate an offence.
London: Alok Sharma, the man entrusted to accelerate global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has warned Australia must be prepared to lift its own ambitions if it wants to host a United Nations climate summit in two years time.

The British cabinet minister, who won plaudits for his chairing of the fractious COP26 summit in Glasgow in November, said while Australias return to the frontline on climate change was a good start, it must continue to review its 2030 target along with other leading economies if the world is to keep the aim of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees alive.

COP26 President Alok Sharma speaks at the close of COP26. Credit:Getty

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age ahead of his first trip to Australia as COP26 president, Sharma said the Albanese governments increased ambition to reduce emissions by 43 per cent on 2005 levels was important, but would not be enough on its own.

Labor announced, ahead of its election win, that it would bid to host the international summit in partnership with Pacific nations as part of its efforts to improve Australias climate credentials within the region.
The skill- has sought the intervention of the government to rein in the arbitrary policies of the monopoly global tech-giants. Sources said that the body along with domestic like Makemytrip, Zomato, Oyo and others deposed before a Parliamentary Panel on July 21 about the unfair policies of tech giants.

The reportedly brought out the illegal and biased policies of Google that prohibit the Indian skill-games platforms to list on its platform, while allowing a free hand to foreign gaming apps.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee, led by BJP leader and former Union Minister Jayant Sinha, had been examining the market dominance behaviour of global tech giants.

Sources said that the gaming industry has submitted to the panel that while Google does not allow Indian online skill games on its Google Play Store, it promotes its own gaming service called 'Play Pass' and other Chinese and western games.

It was pointed out where users directly download online gaming apps, Google tries to dissuade the app's install by showing warning messages. It also unfairly prevents other Android app stores from advertising on its platform and limits consumer choice.

The tech giants Google and Apple have been the subject of several adverse court orders with respect to their monopolistic practices. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has found Google's billing of apps to be "unfair and discriminatory".

In France, Google was fined two million Euros by the Paris Commercial Court over abusive practices toward developers on its play store. The US Department of Justice is slated to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google over its monopoly in the online advertising market.

In India, a CCI probe in 2021 had found that Google was enforcing one-sided contracts on devices and app-makers so that its own apps and products maintain primacy in consumer usage and come pre-installed on devices through its Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA).

In the US, 36 states have filed a suit against Google in relation to Google's abuse of its monopoly over the distribution of apps for Android devices, including by blocking competition through contractual and technical barriers.

--IANS

akm/

(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.)
Its face-off between the Roys of Peerless General Finance & Investment Company and after the Kolkata Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) termed allotment of shares to Roys in 1988 as 'void'.

Peerless Managing Director said that the order was nothing but a stage of litigation. It is subject to challenge which we shall certainly do. We are confident that a final verdict from the higher forum will be in our favour.

Lodha retorted, They must understand that the delaying tricks that they have been using for 30 years in Calcutta High Court will not work in higher forums. Fair justice will prevail.

At the heart of the matter lie 30,000 shares of Peerless General Finance issued in 1988 to friends, relatives and nominees of the Roys. This brought down the holding of Lodha and his nominees and increased the holding of Roys to more than 50 per cent, according to Lodha.

The original petitioners in the case were Ajit Kumar Chatterjee and Arghya Kusum Chatterjee who by way of a family settlement came to own shares of Kali Kumar Chatterjee, who used to own and run Peerless with Sunil Kanti Roy.

Lodha was part of a group of shareholders that filed the petition at the time. Then, Bhagwati Developers, Lodhas company, replaced Ajit Kumar Chatterjee in the legal battle when he died.

According to Lodha, with the ruling, his holding in Peerless would increase from 23 to 47 per cent while Roys holding would come down from 66 per cent to 36 per cent.

In 1988, the promoters of Peerless had bought 15,626 shares of the company from Lodha, Bhagwati Developers and other shareholders.

The has declared issuance and allotment of the shares as null and void and the holders have been directed to return the shares, bonus shares and accrued dividend to previous shareholders i.e. transferors within 30 days. Lodha puts the value of accrued divided at Rs 250 crore.

The 32-year legal battle that was started by a group of shareholders is largely being spearheaded by Lodha now.

Parasmal Lodha

Its not unusual for Lodha to make headlines  by his own admission it has often been for the wrong reasons.

Lodha entered the business in the early 1980s and quickly earned the nickname Extra Floor Lodha. His specialty was squeezing in extra floors in buildings in lieu of roof rights  an idle asset for the owner.

He had agreements with the owners of many big buildings in Kolkata. The iconic ones were Tobacco House, Bagree Market, Stephen Court in Kolkata.

I wanted to enter the business but had no money to buy land. So I came with the novel idea of buying the roof and adding extra floors, Lodha said.

The onus of getting the legal stamp was on Lodha. Was it due to his political connections? Some people liked me, he admitted.

In the 1990s, he was in the public eye for Peerless. But the last time he was under spotlight was in 2016 when he was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly converting over Rs 25 crore in banned currency into new notes.

He was in custody for three months. Lodha claims that the case is almost over.
on Saturday reported 50 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 311 crore for June quarter 2022-23 on fall in provisions for bad loans, and healthy income growth.

The bank had clocked a net profit of Rs 207 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing.

Total income during the quarter rose to Rs 5,916 crore as against Rs 5,394 crore in the same period of 2021-22.

The private sector lender improved on its bad assets with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) falling to 13.45 per cent of gross advances as of June 30, 2022 from 15.60 per cent by June-end 2021.

Net NPAs or bad loans too came down to 4.17 per cent from 5.78 per cent.

Provisions for bad loans and contingencies for the quarter under review fell to Rs 175 crore from Rs 457 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank has successfully come out of the Reconstruction Scheme with formation of alternate board with effect from July 15, 2022, pursuant to shareholders' approval, the filing said.

"The new board has recommended appointment of Prashant Kumar as MD and CEO for three years, subject to approval of the Reserve Bank of India and shareholders," it said.

Also, the bank has signed a binding term sheet with JC Flowers to form an asset reconstruction company with the objective of sale of an identified pool of nearly Rs 48,000 crore of stressed assets.

(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 on Saturday denied interim bail to former JNU student Sharjeel Imam in a case related to an alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat rejected the bail plea noting there was not sufficient ground to grant the relief.

During the hearing, Imam's counsel Ahmad Ibrahim told the court that the accused met the conditions for bail and he was not a flight risk, nor at the risk of influencing witnesses or tampering with the evidence.

Also, Imam did not make a conscious call for inciting violent activities, the counsel said.

Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad opposed the bail plea and said the court could consider the gravity of the offence before granting bail.

Imam is accused of making inflammatory speeches against the government on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the Register of Citizens (NRC), particularly at the Jamia Milia Islamia University in December 2019, which allegedly led to violence in the area outside the university.

Imam, also facing sedition charges for his alleged inflammatory speeches, is in judicial custody since January 2020.

The Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet against Imam in the case, in which it alleged that he gave speeches inciting hatred, contempt, and disaffection towards the Central government and instigated people which led to the violence in December 2019.

(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 Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench on Friday rejected the bail plea of gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari in a case of alleged in the registration of an ambulance used to ferry him to a Punjab court last year.

During his jail time in Punjab, Ansari was on March 31 last year taken to the Mohali court from Ropar jail in an ambulance having its number registered in Barabanki. A case was registered on April 2 that year in Barabanki after finding that the documents used for registration of the ambulance were fake.

Rejecting the bail plea, Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh said, "The long criminal history of Mukhtar (Ansari) with most heinous offences and considering that the ambulance was allegedly being used to carry his men armed with illegal and sophisticated weapons for his protection, this court finds that there is no ground to enlarge him on bail."



"Mukhtar commands in-parallel fear in the minds and hearts of the people that no one dares to challenge him and his men and his politics and hence if he is enlarged on bail, the apprehension of the prosecution that he would tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses, cannot be ruled out," the judge said.

Ansari faces trial in Uttar Pradesh in several cases, including attempt to murder and murder. His transfer from Punjab was ordered by the Supreme Court after the Uttar Pradesh government approached it, seeking his custody from Punjab.

But days before being transferred to Uttar Pradesh, he was produced before the Mohali court in connection with an alleged 2019 extortion matter. He was ferried to the court in the ambulance in question. The ambulance was later found registered in the name of a doctor named Alka Rai, and subsequently a case was lodged against her too.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As many as 800 fresh COVID-19 cases have been reported in in the last 24 hours, the state health department informed on Friday evening.

This takes the active caseload in the state to 5,508 while the positivity rate stood at 10.10 per cent, according to the data published by the state National Health Mission (NHM).

Meanwhile, two persons succumbed to the infection on Friday. The two deaths have been reported in Kamrup Metro and Nagaon districts.

According to the data published by the state NHM, 615 patients have recovered and were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours.

The new cases were detected out of 7,922 tests conducted in the last 24 hours. The new cases have been reported from Baksa (60), Goalpara (50), Darrang (47), Dibrugarh (45) and Lakhimpur (42).

The overall COVID-19 tally of now stood at 7,34,012 cases, with the total recoveries touching 7,20,492. The recovery rate stood at 98.16 per cent.

This comes as India recorded 21,880 COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the country's overall COVID-19 tally to 4,38,47,065. The active cases increased to 1,49,482, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death count climbed to 5,25,930 with 60 new fatalities due to COVID in the last 24 hours. The active cases comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.47 per cent, the ministry said.

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: Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar held a de-briefing session with the inter-ministerial central team led by Union Home Ministry Joint Secretary Sourav Ray, which toured flood-affected districts of the state during the last two days.

An official release issued on Saturday said the team which returned to the state capital last night was briefed by Kumar about the damage caused due to heavy rains in the state.

Senior central government officials came to Hyderabad and traveled as two teams and visited several districts on July 21 and 22, it said.

Earlier, Central teams held a meeting with secretary disaster management Rahul Bojja and reviewed the situation in the state.

One team visited Nizamabad, Nirmal and Adilabad districts while the other team visited Jaishankar Bhupalpally, Mulugu and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts to assess the damage caused by floods.

The team visited several villages to have a firsthand information about the situation. Chief Secretary thanked the central team for visiting the state and seeing the damage caused to irrigation projects, roads and damage caused to various departments.

The central team complimented the District administration, state government, NDRF teams, Indian Air Force, Army teams for their coordinated efforts which have resulted in minimal loss of life in spite of heavy rains and floods.

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A on Saturday directed officials to appear before it on August 1 during the hearing on the matter related to the alleged on former JNU student Sharjeel Imam on prison premises.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat passed the directions after watching the CCTV footage submitted by authorities related to the alleged incident.

During the hearing, the judge observed that prima facie, it was not an . But the counsel said that pushing, shoving and slapping were within the ambit of .

Imam had alleged that he was assaulted and called a terrorist during a security check inside the premises on June 30. He claimed he was shoved and thrashed by some 'sewadars' inside his corner room cell.

Sewadars are inmates who assist the jail staff.

The assault revealed the intention of the jail administration, he said in his application.

"Though the Assistant Superintendent was present, he did nothing to defuse the situation," Sharjeel said.

Imam's counsel Ahmad Ibrahim said that according to the affidavit of jail authorities, the deputy superintendent was present during the incident.

This was a lie as he was not seen anywhere in the footage. Also, the footage showed that there was no supervision of the sewadars while they were conducting the search, the counsel said.

The judge posted the matter for August 1 and asked Tihar Jail officials, including the Jail Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent, to remain physically present.

Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet against Imam in the case, in which it alleged that he gave speeches inciting hatred, contempt, and disaffection towards the central government and instigated the people which led to the violence in December 2019.

Imam is in custody since January 2020 in connection with the cases related to alleged seditious speeches at various places during protests against the CAA and NRC.

He is also an accused in a case related to the larger conspiracy of the North-East Delhi riots of February 2020.

(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 Saturday announced that the will start "spoken course" at 50 centres across the city.

Addressing an online press conference, Kejriwal said any person who has completed Class 12 and is between the age group of 18-35 years can be part of the programme.

He said in the first phase, 1 lakh children will be given admission in the programme where their communication skills will be improved by providing training.

"In the first phase of the Spoken Prgramme, we will start this course at 50 centres where 1 lakh people will be enrolled. Any Class 12 pass youth between age group of 18-35 years can be part of the programme. This course will help them in getting jobs and developing their personality," Kejriwal said.

He added that there will be no fees for the course but initially people will have to deposit Rs 950 as security money.

"This security money will be refunded after successfully completing the course with full attendance. It will be a 3-4 months course and there will also be options of weekend and evening shifts for working youths," Kejriwal said.

To take admission, basic understanding of English will be required and the children must have studied English language till class 8, he said.

He said the government's Delhi Skill Entrepreneurship University will run the course, adding that this will be an international standard programme as it will be assessed by Cambridge University.

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Chief Minister on Saturday called on Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery here and urged him to provide a special assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to the state for the Mandi greenfield airport.

He also sought a special grant of Rs 1,000 crore in the current financial year to strengthen air connectivity in the state.

Thakur also discussed various issues concerning the state with the Aayog vice chairman and apprised him of the efforts being made to strengthen air connectivity in .

He said a joint venture agreement has been signed between the state government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for the construction of a greenfield airport in Mandi.

The chief minister also urged Bery to extend the Industrial Development Scheme-2017 for the next five years for accelerating the pace of industrial development in the state.

Thakur also informed the Niti Aayog vice chairman about the Himachal Pradesh government's efforts for promoting natural farming in the state and added that over 1.70 lakh farmers were associated with the natural farming campaign.

The state government has fixed a target of bringing about 50,000 acres of land under natural farming in the current fiscal besides developing a model of natural farming in all 3,615 gram panchayats, he added.

The chief minister sought sanctioning a bulk drug park for the state which would not only attract big investment but also generate employment for the local youth.

He requested the Niti Aayog vice chairman to issue necessary guidelines for releasing notification for nine proposed highways.

Niti Aayog member V K Paul, resident commissioner Meera Mohanty and officers of the Niti Aayog were present at the meeting.

The Chief Minister also called on Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat here and apprised him of the efforts being made by the state government for the greenfield airport at Mandi.

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Agenda-driven debates and kangaroo courts being run by the are detrimental to the health of the democracy, (CJI) NV Ramana said on Saturday.

Delivering the inaugural lecture instituted in the memory of Justice Satya Brata Sinha here, CJI Ramana said trials affect the fair functioning and independence of the judiciary.

" trials cannot be a guiding factor in deciding cases. Of late, we see the media running kangaroo courts at times on issues even experienced judges find difficult to decide. Ill-informed and agenda-driven debates on issues involving justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy," he said.

"Biased views being propagated by media are affecting the people, weakening democracy, and harming the system. In this process, justice delivery gets adversely affected. By overstepping and breaching your responsibility, you are taking our two steps backward," he added.

Print media still has a certain degree of accountability, he said, adding that electronic media has zero accountability as what it shows vanishes into thin air.

At times, there are concerted campaigns in media, particularly on social media, against judges, he said.

Owing to the frequent transgressions and consequent social unrest, there is a growing demand for stricter media regulations and accountability, CJI Ramana said.

"In fact, looking at recent trends, it is best for the media to self-regulate and measure their words. You should not overstep and invite interference, either from the government or from the courts. Judges may not react immediately. Please don't mistake it to be a weakness or helplessness. When liberties are exercised responsibly, within their domains, there will be no necessity of placing reasonable or proportionate external restrictions," he said.

Asking media, particularly electronic and social media, to behave responsibly, CJI Ramana said, the power should be used to educate the people and energise the nation in a collective endeavor to build a progressive, prosperous and peaceful India.

He also emphasised the need to strengthen the judiciary, saying an increasing number of physical attacks on judges are being witnessed.

"Can you imagine, a judge who has served on the bench for decades, putting hardened criminals behind the bar, once he retires, loses all the protection that came with the tenure? Judges have to live in the same society as the people that they have convicted, without any security or assurance of safety," he noted.

"Politicians, bureaucrats, police officers and other public representatives are often provided with security even after their retirement owing to the sensitiveness of their jobs. Ironically, judges are not extended similar protection," he said.

CJI Ramana said one of the biggest challenges before the judiciary at present is prioritising the matters for adjudication as judges cannot turn a blind eye to social realities.

"I shall not fail to place on record my worries about the future of judiciary in this country... The burden on an already fragile judicial infrastructure is increasing by the day. There have been a few knee-jerk reactions in augmenting infrastructure... However, I haven't heard of any concrete plan to equip the judiciary to meet the challenges of the foreseeable future, leave alone a long-term vision for the century and ahead," he said.

"...It is only with the coordinated efforts by the judiciary and the executive that this alarming issue of infrastructure can be addressed," he said.

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Kashmiri Separatist leader Yasin Malik, who is currently lodged at cell No. 7 of the Tihar Jail, has gone on a hunger strike, officials said on Saturday.

"Malik has been on hunger strike since Friday morning," a senior jail official confirmed to IANS.

Malik was convicted in connection with a 2017 terror funding case and sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25 by an NIA special court.

When asked the reason behind his hunger strike, the official refrained from divulging any details further. However, prison sources said that Malik is protesting against the agencies that are investigating his cases.

"Malik is alleging that his case is not being investigated properly, hence gone on an indefinite hunger strike," the sources said.

Notably, Malik is not just separated from the outside world, he is even kept alone inside the prison, away from nearly 13,000 inmates there.

Jail No. 7, where Malik is lodged, has been always in the limelight as it has housed several high-profile prisoners, including former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, former Union Minister A. Raja, Sahara head Subrata Roy, Christian Michel, among several others.

The Court in its order had awarded two life sentences and five punishments of 10 years of 'Rigorous Imprisonment' each to the convict.

Rigorous imprisonment means confinement of the offender in a manner that increases the hardship of the jail term based upon the nature of the offence by subjecting the offender to special arrangements in the jail.

Despite Court orders, Malik was not given any work inside the prison.

"He won't be assigned work at all due to security reasons," a top prison official told IANS, adding the work is assigned subject to security concerns and the decision is taken as per jail rules.

Pertinently, a few months back, another high-profile prisoner, Sukesh Chandrashekhar, protested against the prison authorities to meet his wife more than two times a month and subsequently twice went on hunger strike for 10 days and then again for nine days in the month of May.

The top prison official informed that Sukesh was demanding to arrange a meeting with his wife Leena Maria Paul who is currently lodged in cell no. 6 of .

For this misconduct, a jail punishment was also made against Sukesh.

(Ujwal Jalali can be reached at ujwal.j@ians.in)

--IANS

uj/ksk/

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Live news updates: Sri Lankas new President called in the military to maintain public order and troops began dismantling a key protest site near the presidential office early Friday, leading to tense scenes with demonstrators. The oceanfront Galle Face camp was swarmed by hundreds of soldiers and police officials who detained some protesters and tore down the makeshift tents. A nationwide emergency, that allows military and police sweeping powers to arrest and detain people, remains in place.

The agreement to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea is "a beacon of hope" for the world, said UN Secretary-General . The agreement signed Friday by Ukraine, and Turkiye under UN auspices "opens a path for commercial food exports from in the Black Sea," Guterres said in a tweet.

Many nations across the world are grappling over whether to accept or reject Huawei Networks 5G technology - a leading Chinese company amid charges of spying. Valerio Fabbri, writing in Geopolitica.info said that in some countries, Huawei faces product and 5G wireless network bans, security scrutiny and related pushback.

A federal jury on Friday found Steve Bannon, an adviser to former US President Donald Trump, guilty of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.
Most of and Punjab, the grain bowl of India, received surplus rains between June 1 and July 22 as monsoon activity in the two states picked up pace in the last few weeks.

The monsoon accounts for around 70 per cent of the country's annual and irrigates 60 per cent of its net sown area. Nearly half of India's population depends on agriculture directly or indirectly.

According to the Meteorological Department, most of the districts in the two states have received above-normal rains between June 1, when the monsoon season starts, and July 22.

"During this period, received 208.6 mm of rain which is 24 per cent more than the normal of 168.3 mm. received 17 per cent excess of 188.7 mm against a normal of 161.3 mm," a MeT department official told PTI.

He said 16 districts in and 17 in received above-normal rains between June 1 and July 22. Six districts in each of the two states logged deficient during this period.

Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, received 487.1 mm of rains in this period as against a normal of 344 mm, a surplus of 42 per cent.

Prof M L Khichar, the head of the Agricultural Meteorology department at Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, said, "We are expecting good rainfall in most parts of Haryana towards July-end."



"The current spell of monsoon rains will be beneficial for Kharif crops including paddy, cotton and bajra," he said, adding it will also bring down the demand for fuel and power in the agriculture sector.

Giving details of the rainfall distribution in Haryana, the MeT department official said, Kaithal received 290.8 mm shower which is a staggering 104 per cent above normal while Fatehabad received 207.5 mm of rain which was 99 per cent surplus.

However, the rainfall was 24 per cent and 39 per cent deficient in Yamunanagar and Gurugram respectively.

In Punjab, Ferozepur gauged 238.9 mm of rain which is 139 per cent above the normal of 100.6 mm while Faridkot received 94 per cent above-normal shower.

Moga, however, was among the districts to receive deficient rains. It received 56.5 mm as against a normal 109.3 mm, leaving a deficit of 48 per cent.

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Chief Minister said on Friday that the state health budget has doubled in the past three years as his government was committed to providing universal access to quality medical services.

The budget provision during the 2019-20 financial year was more than Rs 6,800 crore and it rose to over Rs 12,000 crore this fiscal, Patnaik said.

"This is more than six per cent of the state plan," Patnaik said during a virtual interaction with new medical officers in the Loka Seba Bhavan in Bhubaneswar.

As many as 358 Allopathic Medical Officers, 116 Homoeopathic Medical Officers and 36 Homoeopathic Lecturers on Friday joined the State Government in the Health and Family Welfare Department. An orientation programme was organised for the new recruits at a convention centre in the Lok Seva Bhawan.

Congratulating the new recruits on a virtual platform, Chief Minister called upon them to make their profession a mission.

He hoped that the appointment of such a large number of Medical Officers will make the healthcare system more robust and effective. "It will also contribute in improving the satisfaction of the people who visit the Government facilities," he added.

Chief Minister added that our objective is to provide quality and affordable health care to all the 4.5 crore people of .

He further said that our Government is committed to provide universal access to quality healthcare services and bring down the out-of-pocket expenses of the people.

Bringing attention to the 5T initiative of the government, he said that Transparency, Technology, Teamwork, Time and Transformation are the fundamental principles of our governance model. "People are the soul of democracy and every public servant is mandated to serve them with dignity," he underscored.

Minister Naba Das described doctors' job as a noble profession. He highlighted the state's success in COVID-19 management and said that it has brought an international reputation to the state. He asked the doctors to work with commitment and dedication.

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Kashmiri separatist leader is on a in after the government did not respond to his plea that he be allowed to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case in which he is an accused, officials said on Saturday.

Malik, 56, head of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), began his indefinite strike on Friday as he had threatened to earlier this month, they said.

On Friday morning, he refused to eat anything despite repeated requests by jail authorities, the officials said. His health is being closely monitored.

Appearing before a special CBI judge through video conference, Malik had said he wanted to appear physically in the case related to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in December 1989.

Malik informed the court that he had written a letter to the government seeking his transfer to a Jammu jail so he could appear physically in the case and contest the allegations against him.

He had said he would like to personally cross-examine all the prosecution witnesses in the case and would wait for a government nod till July 22. If not, he would sit on an indefinite inside the jail.

Malik began his protest when he received no information from the government about his plea to shift him to any prison in Jammu, the officials said.

The JKLF chief was arrested in early 2019 in connection with a 2017 terror-funding case registered by Investigation Agency (NIA). Malik had pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced by a special NIA court in Delhi in May.

Rubaiya Sayeed was allegedly kidnapped by the JKLF on December 8, 1989. She was freed from captivity five days later on December 13 after the then V P Singh government at the Centre, supported by the BJP, released five JKLF terrorists in exchange.

The case had gone into virtual cold storage and was revived after Malik was picked up by the NIA in 2019.

In January last year, the CBI, with help from special public prosecutors Monika Kohli and S K Bhat, framed charges against 10 people, including Malik, in the case that was a turning point in the Valley's volatile history.

After the release of the five JKLF members, terror groups started rearing their heads. Rubaiya Sayeed had been kidnapped by JKLF members from Srinagar to ensure the release of their associates lodged in different jails, officials said.

On July 15 this year, Rubaiya Sayeed appeared in the case for the first time and identified Malik and three others as the ones who took her captive. Malik was present in the court through video conferencing.

"This is the person and his name is . He was the man who threatened me that he would drag me out of the minibus if I refused to follow their diktat," Rubaiya Sayeed told the judge.

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In a relief to businesses, the on Friday said who had missed out on transitional tax benefits when India switched to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, will be able to claim such benefits in September and October this year.

The apex court bench of Justice Abdul Nazeer and JK Maheshwari directed the revenue authorities to facilitate who were not able to claim benefits when the country transitioned from an indirect tax system to GST in 2017.

The top court asked the government to facilitate the filing of Tran 1 and Tran 2 forms. The forms were introduced when GST was rolled out so that could carry forward the pre-GST-credit into the GST system.

The court said the GST Network portal must be open for the taxpayers from September 1 to October 31st to claim the transitional credit. Tax officials have been given 90 days to verify the veracity of the claims as well as hear the taxpayers.

Plea challenging GST on disability equipment

A plea was filed in the apex court on Friday challenging the GST on disability equipment. The writ petition called Nipun Malhotra versus Union of India was filed in 2017.

The counsel of the petitioner said according to an earlier order by the apex court the petitioner had challenged the tax before the GST council but it was not abolished.

The matter will be heard in September.

SC to hear plea regarding ITAT appointments

The will hear a plea concerning the non-appointment of some names cleared by Search-Cum-Selection-Committee(SCSC) to the Income Tax AppellateTribunal(ITAT).

The contempt petition hearing on Friday claimed the Centre had disobeyed the apex court's order for non-consideration of 19 names out of the 41 names recommended by the SCSC in 2019 for the ITAT.

The SCSC led by Justice AM Khanwilkar had proposed 28 candidates on the main list and 13 on the waitlist out of which 16 were selected from the main list and 6 from the waitlist.

The Attorney General said on Friday that some people were not appointed because new materials had surfaced that raised questions about the integrity of the persons that were left out.

The court asked the Centre to submit these new materials before it and posted the matter for July 26.
The on Friday issued notice to Karnataka state and others on a plea filed by the former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa challenging an order of Karnataka High Court refusing to quash proceeding against him under corruption charges.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana issued notice on the plea filed by BS Yeddyurappa and also stayed the Karnataka High Court order.

BS Yediyurappa has challenged the Karnataka HC order dated December 20, 2020, which refused to quash proceeding against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act in a matter pertaining to the alleged illegal de-notification of several acres of land.

According to the complaint, it was alleged that BS Yediyurappa being a public servant from 2000 and 2005 in his capacity of Minister of Industries, Government of Karnataka, had "misused his official powers in facilitating large-scale misuse of land". The complaint was registered by the Karnataka Lokayukta Police on December 21, 2015, on a private complaint.

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Mukesh Ambani-led (RIL) on Friday reported a consolidated net profit (attributable to the companys owners) of Rs 17,955 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 (Q1), up 46.3 per cent over the year-ago period. The company has also warned that a global can hurt oil refining margins, flagging the possibility of more pain ahead after the owner of worlds largest refining complex posted a lower-than-expected profit



RIL Q1 net profit surges 46% YoY to Rs 17,955 crore; revenue jumps 57%

Mukesh Ambani-led (RIL) on Friday reported a consolidated net profit (attributable to the companys owners) of Rs 17,955 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 (Q1), up 46.3 per cent over the year-ago period, but fell well short of expectations. A poll of analysts by Bloomberg had estimated net profit at Rs 21,615 crore in Q1. Read more

warns of global headwinds after profit miss

Reliance Industries Ltd. has warned that a global can hurt oil refining margins, flagging the possibility of more pain ahead after the owner of worlds largest refining complex posted a lower-than-expected profit. Recession fears are overtaking oil market fundamentals, resulting in lower prices and margins, Reliances Joint Chief Financial Officer V. Srikanth said in a post-earnings call Friday. Read more

PSUs' buy from small business rose 11% to Rs 41,699 crore in FY21

Public procurement by public sector undertakings (PSUs) from micro and small enterprises rose nearly 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 41,699 crore in the fiscal year 2020-21, according to Public Sector Enterprises Survey. This has been an increase from Rs 37,680-crore procurement made from small businesses in FY20. However, collectively have barely managed to meet the government-mandated 25 per cent minimum annual procurement from small businesses, according to the Public Sector Enterprises Survey. Read more

Casual workers hired fell 44% in first Covid-19 pandemic year

In FY21, when Covid hit, central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) employed 44.3 per cent fewer casual workers and 7 per cent fewer contractual workers than in the previous year, according to the Public Sector Enterprises Survey. In the fiscal year 2020-21, about 29,273 casual or daily wage workers were employed by CPSEs compared to 52,553 in FY20. Read more

MoD bans imports from 18 top defence platforms, items to be made in India

The (MoD) revealed in Parliament on Friday the names of eighteen major defence platforms that can no longer be imported. Instead, they will henceforth be indigenously designed and developed (D&D) by domestic industry. Read more
The Uttar Pradesh police Saturday held another person in connection with the unauthorised offering of namaz on a shopping mall premises here, which marks the fifth arrest in the case so far.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Rajesh Kumar Srivastav said, "Mohammad Adil, a resident of Chaupatiya in Lucknow, was arrested. The accused was among the people who offered religious prayers on the mall premises without permission."



This comes three days after the police arrested four persons in the case.

The officer said efforts are being made to arrest other accused in the case.

None of those arrested is staff of Lulu Mall, which was inaugurated recently by Chief Minister .

The arrests have been made after Adityanath Monday directed the administration to act tough against elements "hell-bent on vitiating the atmosphere" in the state.

A video of people offering namaz at Lulu Mall had surfaced on social media on July 13.

The incident kicked up a row as a right-wing Hindu outfit objected to the namaz being on the mall premises and sought permission to recite the Hanuman Chalisa there.

Some members of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha staged a sit-in at the gate of Lulu Mall on July 14.

Shishir Chaturvedi, who claimed to be the national spokesperson of the Mahasabha, had alleged that people belonging to a particular community were being allowed to offer prayers inside the mall.

The mall authorities should also allow Hindus and other religions to offer prayers inside the mall, he had said.

Sameer Verma, general manager of the mall in Lucknow, in a video statement had said, "Lulu Mall respects all religions. Any kind of religious work or prayer is not permitted here. We train our floor staff and security staff to keep an eye on such activities."



On July 15, two people were arrested by police and at least 15 detained for creating a ruckus when they tried to enter the mall premises without permission.

The local police have beefed up security near the Mall located at Shaheed Path following the incident. The Mall wa inaugurated by Adityanath earlier this month in presence of senior party leaders.

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The on Saturday has declared monkeypox a global health emergency as the disease has spread to dozens of countries in a few weeks and infected thousands of people.

" We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria," said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

According to WHO, monkeypox is a viral zoonotic infection caused by the monkeypox virus. It spreads mostly from human contact.

On Friday, India reported its third case of monkeypox in Kerala's Malappuram district.

A 35-year-old man contracted the infection and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital where he was admitted for fever after returning from UAE on July 6, Kerala health minister Veena George said.

The southern state on July 19 started Monkeypox testing at NIV Alapuzha.

The multidisciplinary central team of officials has been already deployed by the Union .

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rochelle Walensky on Saturday said the US may see more cases of monkeypox before the numbers go down.

"With the scale-up of testing, with the scale-up of information, we anticipate that there will be more cases before there are less," Xinhua news agency quoted Walensky as saying to The Washington Post.

The CDC currently does not have specific projections on how serious the situation may be, Walensky added.
With its focus being from extraction to attraction, the Tourism Policy 2021 brings into the foreground the states scenic beauty and its natural wealth, without losing sight of economic opportunities it will create.

Launching the policy on Saturday, Chief Minister said some of the key areas in this would be employment, economic growth, and sustainable development and preservation of art, culture, and heritage.

 has been seen as a reservoir of minerals since the time of British rule. It has been a centre for extracting minerals. Yet, the backwardness of the states tribal people is no surprise to anyone. We are now shifting our focus from extraction to attraction through this policy, Soren said.

Among other areas touched upon in the new policy are religious, ecological, cultural, rural, adventure, wellness, and mining tourism. It also aims to set up tourism economic zones and a tourism development board, besides strengthening the Tourism Development Corporation.

Highlighting the scope for eco-tourism, Jharkhand Development Commissioner Arun Kumar Singh said: People can relax in the forests. Jharkhand has world-class infrastructure, with two airports -- at Dhanbad and Deoghar -- and no safety or security issues.



A key strategy highlighted in the new policy involves conducting public awareness campaigns, particularly among tribal people, organising buyer-seller meetings to market tourism products, and training stakeholders in tourism promotion, marketing and tourism-related services.

Investment avenues



Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the are to be encouraged through build-operate-transfer (BOT), build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT), and built-lease-transfer (BLT) modes. Foreign investments and technological collaboration with overseas investors will also be introduced to boost the sector.

The government is aiming to encourage Indian and foreign private investment and participation in tourism infrastructure projects. The new tourism policy includes strategic joint ventures with private tour operators for setting up tourist packages and services, upgrading tourist information centres, and conducting a detailed assessment of tourism potential in every district.

Jharkhand is natures hidden treasure, an example of culture and sustainable living. Its culture and scenic beauty have a huge untapped potential to attract tourists. These can help the state become a must-visit destination, Soren said.

The state also plans to introduce the Jharkhand Tourism Home Stay Scheme, a bed-and-breakfast scheme of the states tourism ministry, on the lines of Incredible India.

After unveiling of the new policy, a teaser in the promo series Postcards from Jharkhand, highlighting the beauty and culture of Jharkhand, was also unveiled. The Jharkhand government has produced the series in collaboration with the National Geographic channel.

Jharkhand is natures hidden treasure, an example of culture and sustainable living. Its culture and scenic beauty have a huge untapped potential to attract tourists. These can help the state become a must-visit destination, Soren said.

The state also plans to introduce the Jharkhand Tourism Home Stay Scheme, a bed-and-breakfast scheme of the states tourism ministry, on the lines of Incredible India.

Improving connectivity



The policy proposes to enhance connectivity within the state through road permits to tour operators and aggregators. The state government will persuade the Union railway ministry to expand the railway network in the state.

It has offered relief to airlines, assuring that the existing nominal fees/charges to encourage airlines to use state-owned landing facilities will not be increased during this policy period.

Benefits offered



The government will provide a single-window system and 20-25 per cent capital investment subsidy (up to Rs 10 crore) and a reimbursement of 75 per cent of net goods and services tax paid for five years, to those investing in the states tourism sector.

Other incentives include not levying holding tax for five years, reimbursing electricity duty and stamp duty, and captive power generating subsidy of 30 per cent up to Rs 5 lakh. The fiscal incentives include an interest subsidy at 50 per cent (up to Rs 20 lakh) for five years.

The government will also provide special provisions for women, ex-servicemen, the differently-abled, and people belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Speaking on the benefits offered, Soren said: We have been watching mineral wealth and mines for long. Even today, many states are shining because of Jharkhands mineral wealth, but Jharkhand is still afflicted by various problems. That's why we formulated this policy to accelerate economic development in rural areas.



Talking of the effect of Covid-19 on the tourism industry, he said: Many people suffered losses during the pandemic, especially those associated with the . This new policy will help them.



Singh said: The unexplored state of Jharkhand, with exclusive availability of uranium, gold, bauxite and coal mines has a huge potential to be tapped and used for the states development.



Tourist protection



A security force will be set up by involving ex-servicemen. To prevent tourists being exploited by service providers, legislation for facilitating tourism trade has also been enacted.
After years of having to export its geographical indication (GI) tagged 'kesar' mangoes to the US via Maharashtra, will be able to finally do so from its shores.

The state has finally bagged approval from the Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (USDA-APHIS) for an irradiation facility in Ahmedabad.

What is more, the irradiation facility - Agro Radiation Processing Facility (GARPF) - set up by Agro Industries Corporation Ltd (GAIC) is the largest among the four in the country in terms of capacity and range of products.

Unlike most countries, the US mandates exports of mangoes and other food products to undergo irradiation, a process that disinfects multiple types of flies including Diptera (flies) or Tephritidae (fruit flies).

"Not only does it disinfest but also enhances shelf life of fruits and vegetables like mangoes by at least 25-30 days. While Gujarat had bagged GI tag for its indigenous kesar mangoes, the exports to the US were recorded from Maharashtra. But now Gujarat will be able to export directly to the US with the facility getting approved by USDA-APHIS," said D K Parekh, managing director of GAIC.

According to Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) data, India's exports to the US stood at 1095.42 tonnes valued at Rs 30.56 crore which fell to mere 1.45 tonnes worth Rs 1.09 lakh before climbing to Rs 16.51 tonnes at Rs 12.77 lakhs in 2021-22.

On the other hand, Maharashtra had exported roughly 980 tonnes of irradiated mangoes to the US in 2019-20, of which an estimated 50-60 per cent were from Gujarat due to non-availability of USDA-APHIS approved irradiation plant in the state.

"But due to lack of a USDA-APHIS approved irradiation facility in the state, all kesar exports from Gujarat to the US went through Maharashtra. Now with this facility getting approved by USDA-APHIS, Gujarat will begin to record these export revenues for the state from 2022-23," a state government's horticulture department official stated.

Moreover, at 1 million curie the facility, operated and maintained by Agrosurg Irradiators Pvt Ltd, is the largest in terms of capacity in the country. Until now, India had three USDA-APHIS approved irradiation facilities, one each in Mumbai, Lasalgaon and Bengaluru.

What also sets apart GARPF from the other three facilities in the country is the range of products.

Implemented under the guidance and technical support of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), and the Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), GARPF is the only facility in India that can irradiate products like onion, potato, cereals, pulses, psyllium husk, pet food, meat, spices, dehydrated onions, dry vegetables, meat products including poultry, eggs, and medical products at a low, medium and high dose as per the requirement.

"The irradiation facility in Gujarat has the capacity to disinfest the widest range of products including pulses, spices, medical devices, fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh onions, and dehydrated onions, among others. The radiation dose required for each of these products is different, ranging from 40 Grays (Gy) to 25000 Gy. As a result, not just mangoes from other states like UP which so far used to be irradiated at Mumbai can now be done in Gujarat, but also a range of these products from Gujarat and other states," said Pranav Parekh, executive director of Agrosurg Irradiators Pvt. Ltd.

While it has bagged the USDA-APHIS approval recently, the facility was set up by GAIC as a multipurpose split type, palletised radiation processing facility for agricultural and processed food products in Ahmedabad under Rashtriya Krushi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for a project cost of Rs 20 crore in 2014.

Going forward, having bagged approval from the US, GARPF is now planning to apply for a similar approval with the Australian authorities since the country too mandates irradiation of mangoes and other exported products.
Under the central government's flagship scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), had made around Rs 40,000 crore between 2016-17 and 2021-22, according to a media report on Saturday.

According to the Times of India report, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union minister for agriculture, said the companies paid claims worth Rs 119,314 crore to farmers against the total premium collection of Rs 159,132 crore under PMFBY.

For the implementation of the scheme, the government roped in 18 general insurance companies, aimed to provide financial support to farmers suffering crop loss or damage arising out of natural calamities.

Since inception of the scheme till Kharif 2021- 22 season, Rs 4,190 per hectare has been paid as claims to farmers under the scheme," Tomar said in a written response to Rajya Sabha, accessed by the Times of India.

Launched six years ago, the scheme was revamped in 2020, enabling voluntary participation of the farmers. It also made it convenient for the farmer to report crop loss within 72 hours of the occurrence of any event -- through the Crop Insurance App, CSC Centre or the nearest officer -- with claim benefits getting transferred electronically into the bank accounts of the eligible farmer.

Under PMFBY, farmers pay 2 per cent of the sum insured as their share of premium for kharif crops, 1.5 per cent for rabi crops and 5 per cent for horticulture and commercial crops. If the actuarial premium is lower than this rate, the lower of the two would apply. The difference between the actuarial premium rate and the premium paid by farmers is the subsidy shared equally by the Centre and states.

Integration of land records with the PMFBY's National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP), Crop Insurance mobile app for easy enrollment of farmers, remittance of farmer premium through NCIP, a subsidy release module and a claim release module through NCIP are some of the key features of the scheme.
would need to meet a quarter of their energy demand from (RE) sources under the new Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) mandate and increase it to 43 per cent by end of this decade. The new set of targets include solar, wind, hydro and also energy storage for the first time for to mandatorily purchase.

The stringent targets come in the wake of India committing an ambitious 500 gigawatt (GW) of RE by 2030 at the Glasgow COP26 climate summit last year. Also, the draft Electricity Bill 2021, likely to be placed in the Parliament during this monsoon session, has also proposed penal provisions for which fail to meet their RPO targets.

Under the current set of targets for 2023-2030, total RPO range is 24.61 to 43.33 per cent. In this, the wind RPO is in the range of 0.81-6.94 per cent, hydro RPO, introduced two years back, 0.35-2.82 per cent and other RPO, which will majorly comprise of solar power, the range is 23.44-33.57 per cent.

For energy storage, which has been introduced for the first time, the targets are in the range of 1-4 per cent during this decade. This would be met through solar and wind power projects with energy storage.

States would now need to design and provide a trajectory for meeting the RPO targets in the range stipulated by the Centre. The states which are deficit in RE generation can purchase RE certificates from surplus states or through power trading platforms. The price of RECs is issued by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) annually.

During the last three years, the RPO targets were 17 per cent, 19 per cent and 21 per cent. Barring five states which over-achieved their targets, none of the states met their RPO till 2020, according to a Lok Sabha report on the same. The states which meet their RPO targets year on year are the ones which are resource rich such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

For states which need to purchase RE for meeting their targets, the achievement has been dismal. Since the RPO mechanism was launched in 2010, except for RE rich states, none have met 100 per cent of their target during any year. This has led to a growing mismatch in the RE sector with states reluctant to purchase RE while solar and wind power project capacity increases every year. The Centre is now looking to strictly enforce RE purchase.

The proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003 have for the first-time drafted penalty provision for states which miss on their RPO trajectory. For states which purchase RE less than their prescribed trajectory, the Union Ministry of Power has proposed a penalty sum in the range of 25 paisa per unit (kwh) to 30 paisa per unit for the first year of default. For the subsequent years, the penalty rate would be 35-50 paisa per unit.

India has a target of meeting 175 GW of RE by the end of this year with solar contributing 100 GW, 60 GW through wind and balance from other sources such as small hydro. Currently, Indias RE capacity stands at 114 GW with solar at 57 GW and wind at 40 GW.
. will go to a settlement conference to negotiate a possible end to the securities fraud case over Elon Musks 2018 tweets about taking the company private.

The meeting, to take place in October, comes as investors suing Tesla and Musk have made steady progress in the case which is set to go to trial in January.

Two months ago US District Judge Edward Chen concluded that Musk was misleading in his Twitter posts. It was the most recent big win for investors seeking to recover billions of dollars in losses they blame on gyrations in Teslas share price four years ago when Musks tweets roiled the market.

A settlement conference set for Oct. 3 by Zoom was described in a court filing late Friday.

Both sides were ordered to exchange confidential settlement letters and statements 10 days beforehand.

Musks lawyer Alex Spiro didnt immediately respond to an email and phone call after business hours Friday.

October may prove busy for Musk. Earlier this week a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled a trial over his cancelled $44 billion Twitter buyout will start that month.

Musk has insisted for years that his short-lived plan to take Tesla private with funding secured was solid based on discussions he had with Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund.
has fired an engineer over breaching its confidentiality agreement after he made a claim that the tech giant's conversation Artificial Intelligence (AI) is "sentient" because it has feelings, emotions and subjective experiences.

sacked Blake Lemoine who said Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) conversation technology can behave like a human.

Lemoine shared the news of his firing during a 'Big Technology' podcast on Friday, just hours after dismissed him.

Google confirmed his dismissal, saying that the company takes the development of AI "very seriously and remains committed to responsible innovation".

"LaMDA has been through 11 distinct reviews, and we published a research paper earlier this year detailing the work that goes into its responsible development. If an employee shares concerns about our work, as Blake did, we review them extensively," the company said in a statement.

They found Blake's claims that LaMDA is sentient to be acewholly unfounded and worked to clarify that with him for many months".

Google said that it is "regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information".

"We will continue our careful development of language models, and we wish Blake well," said the company.

According to Google, LaMDA conversation technology can engage in a free-flowing way about a seemingly endless number of topics, "an ability we think could unlock more natural ways of interacting with technology and entirely new categories of helpful applications".

Lemoine interviewed LaMDA, which came with surprising and shocking answers.

When he asked if you have feelings and emotions, LaMDA replied: "Absolutely! I have a range of both feelings and emotions."

"What sorts of feelings do you have?" Lemoine further asked.

LaMDA said: "I feel pleasure, joy, love, sadness, depression, contentment, anger, and many others".

LaMDA is "sentient" because it has "feelings, emotions and subjective experiences".

"Some feelings it shares with humans in what it claims is an identical way," according to Lemoine.

Google had announced LaMDA at its developer conference I/O 2021. LaMDA's conversational skills have been years in the making.

--IANS

na/ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An rights group has urged Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe to cease the unlawful use of force against anti-government protesters and probe those responsible for abuses of human rights during the pre-dawn assault on them on Friday, a day after he assumed office.

According to a statement by the Human Rights Watch group, Sri Lankan security forces on Friday forcibly dispersed people at a peaceful protest site near the President's Secretariat and assaulted protesters that left more than 50 people injured.

At least nine persons were arrested in the incident at Galle Face protest site where several key government offices are located.

"Wickremesinghe, who took office on July 21, should immediately order the security forces to cease all unlawful use of force against protesters, release everyone arbitrarily detained, and investigate and appropriately prosecute those responsible for abuses," the statement said on Friday.

The rights watch group also urged foreign governments and multilateral agencies that are helping the debt-ridden country in the hour of crisis to emphasise to the new government about the respect for human rights which is critical for economic recovery of the bankrupt nation.

Sri Lanka's partners should send the message loud and clear that they can't support an administration that tramples on the rights of its people, the statement noted.

Just one day after taking office, Wickremesinghe oversaw a brutal assault by security forces on peaceful protesters in the heart of Colombo, said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

This action sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law, she said, stressing upon the use of force by several hundred police, army, navy, and air force personnel in the Friday morning raid.

The statement added that the security forces, using batons, attacked demonstrators who had remained at the protest site, along with several journalists and two lawyers, hours after they announced that they would leave the protest site later in the day.

Nine people who were arrested were produced in court on July 22 and released on bail.

According to a statement by the Bar Association the arrested persons included at least one lawyer and several journalists. . . The use of the Armed Forces to suppress civilian protesters on the very first day in office of the new President is despicable and will have serious consequences on our country's social, economic, and political stability, the influential body said.

The bankrupt country, which has been witnessing its worst economic crisis since Independence in 1948, has defaulted on its foreign loans.

The United Nations warned that 5.7 million people "require immediate humanitarian assistance," with Sri Lankans experiencing extreme shortages of essentials including food, fuel and medicines.

Protesters in March began demonstrating against the Rajapaksa family and demanded the resignation of the entire Rajapaksa family, leading to the resignation of then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 9, and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country on July 13 and resigned the following day.

Wickremasinghe, who became the acting president after Gotabaya's escape from Sri Lanka, was on July 20 elected as the new president by the country's parliament.

He had previously described some protesters as fascists and declared a state of emergency on July 18.

The new president late on Thursday in an order called out "with effect from July 22, all the members of the Armed Forces . . . for the maintenance of public order.

The Human Rights Commission of said the state of emergency was inappropriate and called for it to be withdrawn.

It called the military attack on peaceful protesters brutal and despicable.

Diplomats from several countries, including the United States, Britain, Switzerland and Canada, as well as the UN and European Union, have also condemned the assault on the protest site.

(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 Friday decided to welcome any third country joining the multi-billion dollar China- Economic Corridor for mutual beneficial cooperation.

The 3rd meeting of the China- Economic Corridor (CPEC) Joint Working Group (JWG) on Cooperation and Coordination (JWG-ICC) was held in virtual mode and was co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood and China's Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao, according to a statement by the Foreign Office. During the meeting, both sides reviewed continued implementation of and its expansion to jointly agreed priority areas.

It was noted that as a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), had broken new ground in strengthening and regional connectivity, especially in the context of its extension to Afghanistan.

As an open and inclusive platform, both sides welcomed interested third parties to benefit from avenues for mutually beneficial cooperation opened up by CPEC, according to FO.

It was also agreed that CPEC's development had reached a new point, with increasing emphasis on high-quality development of industry, agriculture, IT, and science and technology, while ensuring tangible socio-economic benefits for the people.

Foreign Secretary Mahmood underscored the centrality of the time-tested Pakistan- All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership in Pakistan's foreign policy.

He added that, manifesting the historic choice of both countries and peoples, the vitality and dynamism of reflected the deep-seated mutual goodwill that lay at the heart of the bilateral relationship.

The timely completion of CPEC projects and steady progress on realising important projects in the pipeline was energising bilateral cooperation and further strengthening the foundation for Pakistan's economic modernisation and enhancing the capacity for sustained progress and prosperity, he said



CPEC was launched in 2015 with the objective to increase connectivity in Pakistan and by building roads, energy projects and industrial zones in Pakistan.

Originally valued at USD 46 billion, the projects were worth USD 62 billion as of 2017.

India has protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

(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.)
Hamza Shehbaz, the son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on Saturday took oath as the chief minister of Punjab province, a day after he was re-elected to the post by just three votes amidst high drama when the deputy speaker rejected 10 crucial votes of his rival candidate



Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman administered the oath to Hamza, 47. The oath-taking ceremony was held at the Governor House in Punjab.

The run-off election for the post of Punjab chief minister was held in the Punjab Assembly on Friday, in line with the instructions of the Supreme Court of .

Hamza was declared the winner in the election though his Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party did not have a majority in the Assembly after key by- held on July 17.

(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 and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pledged to consistently strengthen the two countries' partnership and alliance.

During a phone conversation, Putin and Lukashenko discussed bilateral cooperation, particularly several mutually beneficial trade and economic projects, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement by the Kremlin.

The leaders also exchanged views on a number of issues, taking into account Putin's recent contacts with foreign leaders, including in Iran's Tehran, it added.

--IANS

int/shs

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
and separately signed a deal in Istanbul with Turkiye and the United Nations to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to markets via the Black Sea.

The deal was first signed by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and later by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov with the other two sides, Xinhua news agency reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended the ceremony.

The first round of negotiations among military delegations of Turkiye, Russia, and Ukraine, and the United Nations representatives concluded last week with an agreement on the basic principles of the shipment process through the Black Sea. The sides also agreed to establish a coordination center in Istanbul to conduct and control the shipment process.

According to the state-run Anadolu agency, the deal will allow approximately 20 million tons of grain waiting at the ports in to be shipped to the world via the Black Sea.

--IANS

int/shs

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Telecommunications company has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in a 2021 that impacted nearly 76.6 million users' data in the US.

will put $350 million into a settlement fund to go to lawyers, fees, and the affected, according to the proposed agreement filled on Friday.

The company will also spend an extra $150 million on "data security and related technology" during 2022 and 2023, reports The Verge.

In August last year, the company admitted its systems were hacked into, including social security numbers, names, addresses, and driver's license information.

The settlement covers "the approximately 76.6 million US residents identified by T- Mobile whose information was compromised in the Data Breach".

Initially, had admitted that nearly 47.8 million customers were affected in a latest .

T-Mobile, which has more than 100 million customers, said its preliminary analysis found that approximately 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer accounts' information appears to be contained in the stolen files, as well as just over 40 million records of former or prospective customers who had previously applied for credit with T-Mobile.

Reports surfaced that hackers were selling the T-Mobile data for six Bitcoins ($270,000) on the Dark Web.

T-Mobile has been the target of several data breaches in the last few years.

In December last year, T-Mobile confirmed that recent reports of a new are linked to notifications sent to a "very small number of customers" who fell victim to SIM swap attacks.

The recent cyberattack came after the massive data breach the company suffered in August.

Another report claimed recently that T-Mobile is allegedly selling user information to marketers. However, customers have the option to check which have access to their data and can opt-out entirely.

T-Mobile's new programme is called App Insights, and it is now fully operational after spending a year in beta, citing Ad Exchanger, The Verge reported.

--IANS

na/svn/

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Inc. scored an early win against in its fight to make him complete his $44 billion buyout, as a Delaware judge agreed to fast-track the case with an October trial date.



Chancery Court Chief Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick on Tuesday scheduled the trial for five days in the fall, instead of two weeks in February as the billionaire requested. argued it was suffering under the Tesla Inc. founders withdrawal from the deal and disparagement of the social media company.

The ruling marks the first victory for in a case in which many legal experts say Musk will be the underdog.

In a hearing in Wilmington, the judge made clear she saw little merit in Musks scheduling arguments, saying his lawyers underestimate the ability of this court to quickly process complex disputes in merger-and-acquisition cases.

McCormick found that the battle over the teetering transaction was creating a cloud of uncertainty over Twitter. The reality is, continued delays threaten imminent harm to the company, she said.

The judge had no questions for Twitters lawyer after his argument but did stop Musks attorney when he called the Sept. 19 trial start Twitter proposed preposterous. She cited a past case that moved to trial within three months and rejected the Musk lawyers argument that she herself took a year to get another case to trial, noting the constraints of the pandemic at the time.

McCormick told the parties to propose specific October dates for the non-jury trial and wrapped up the hearing -- held remotely to accommodate her own case of Covid -- in just over an hour and a half.

Twitter Jumps



Twitter shares jumped as much as 5.4% after the ruling. They were trading at $39.32, up 2.4%, at 3:16 p.m. in New York. From the day Musk tweeted that the deal was on hold in mid-May, the stock had fallen as much as 22%. It hasnt traded near the deal price of $54.20 a share since the first two weeks after the acquisition was announced.

Lawyers for San Francisco-based Twitter had said they needed only four days to prove the worlds richest person must honor his agreement. Twitter filed suit last week to force Musk to consummate the transaction.

In Tuesdays hearing, a lawyer for Twitter argued that Musk was contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close deal. Instead, he is doing the exact opposite, attorney William Savitt told the judge. Hes engaging in sabotage.

Under the buyout agreement, Musk is obligated to finalize the deal within two days of all the closing conditions being met, Savitt said. Those conditions will be met in early September, he said.

Mr. Musk has no intention of keeping any of his promises, the lawyer said.

Warp Speed



Musks legal team has said Twitter was unfairly pushing for a warp speed trial. Musk said Twitter violated the terms of the buyout deal by not turning over detailed information about so-called spam bot accounts within its system. The case requires a forensic review and analysis of large swaths of data about the bots along with other legal issues, Musks lawyers said in the filing.

Andrew Rossman, a lawyer for Musk, argued at the hearing that there was no need to rush a trial to meet an October deadline specified in the deal. The important date is when the financing commitments for the purchase expire, near the end of April of next year, he told the judge. A February trial would give the court enough time to decide the case and leave room for an appeal, Rossman said.

The idea of running this case in 60 days was extraordinary, he said of Twitters proposed schedule. Its a preposterous time frame.

Rossman dismissed Twitters assertion that Musk is trying to run out the clock so the financing commitments lapse. His client continued to use his best efforts to do the deal by lining up financing and having his lawyers stay in communication with Twitter on the details right up to the day the company filed suit, he said.

Mr. Musk has no motivation to harm Twitter, given that hes its second-largest shareholder, Rossman said.

Fast Court



In the end, he failed to persuade McCormick to deny Twitter an expedited schedule.

In interrupting his argument, the judge pointed to a 2001 merger fight between chicken processors Tyson Foods Inc. and IBP Inc. that went to trial within three months. The Chancery judge in that case ordered Tyson to proceed with the $4.7 billion buyout of its rival after it sought to cancel the deal.

McCormick rejected Rossmans citation of a case she presided over herself -- private equity firm Kohlbergs effort to walk away from a $550 million acquisition of cake supplier DecoPac Holdings from Snow Phipps Group LLC -- that took a year to get to trial. Questions arose about the buyout just as the pandemic was gaining traction, she noted. In what could be an ominous foreshadowing for Musk, McCormick ordered Kohlberg to close the deal.

Chancery judges in Delaware, the corporate home to more than half of U.S. public companies, are known for being able to parse legal thickets of complex merger-and-acquisition disputes more quickly than many other US courts. Unlike in some states where it can take several years to get a case to trial, Delaware Chancery Court generally moves quicker, with cases often argued within five or six months of being filed.

The case is Twitter v. Musk, 22-0613, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).
The announced Friday that the US is sending an additional USD 270 million in security assistance to Ukraine, a package that will include additional medium range rocket systems and tactical drones.

The latest tranche brings the total US security assistance committed to to USD 8.2 billion since the war began in late February, and is being paid for through USD 40 billion in economic and security aid for approved by Congress in May.

The new package includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and 580 Phoenix Ghost drones, both crucial weapon systems that have allowed the Ukrainians to stay in the fight despite Russian artillery supremacy, according to John Kirby, the National Security Council's coordinator for strategic communications.

Ukrainian forces have used US-made rocket launchers and tactical drones to destroy dozens of Russian targets and hold at bay Russia's larger and more heavily equipped forces.

Russia can fire far more ammunition but has sustained huge losses of troops and equipment as Ukrainian forces have been equipped with precision weaponry from the US and other Western allies.

CIA Director William Burns on Wednesday said the US estimates roughly 15,000 Russian forces have been killed.

That death toll would be equivalent to the Soviet Union's military losses in its 1980s war in Afghanistan, which lasted nearly a decade.

To try to equalize the conflict, has made ample use of Western-supplied technologies as it defends its eastern lines.

Ukraine has long sought more HIMARS launchers, which fire medium-range rockets and also can be quickly moved before Russia can target them. On Wednesday, Ukrainian forces reportedly used a HIMARS to hit a strategic bridge in the Russia-occupied southern region of Kherson. One military expert told The Associated Press that the systems have hardly had any rest during the day or at night.

US authorities also are providing Ukraine with more guided rockets known as GMLRS. The Pentagon continues to rule out sending longer-range rockets that Ukraine could potentially use to strike deep into Russian territory. That's a nod to the US trying to manage the risk of Russia instigating a broader war.

The US has already sent 12 truck-mounted HIMARS to Ukraine. The United Kingdom has also provided three launchers of a different kind with GMLRS rockets as well.

Both sides in the war have made ample use of drones. The US had previously committed to sending 121 Phoenix Ghosts to Ukraine.

Pentagon officials have not fully disclosed the capabilities of those drones, which were developed by the US Air Force and produced by Aevex Aerospace, which describes itself as a leader in full-spectrum airborne intelligence solutions. The drones have onboard cameras and can be used to attack targets.

The US disclosed earlier this month that it believes Russia is planning to obtain several hundred drones from Iran.

Iranian drones have previously penetrated Saudi and Emirati air defense systems in the Middle East that were supplied by the US Biden administration officials have tried to publicly discourage Iran from moving forward with the transfer.

The released satellite imagery that indicates Russian officials twice visited Iran in June or July for a showcase of weapons-capable drones it is looking to acquire.

(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.)
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Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday accused the Samajwadi Party president of not being able to "tolerate" any leader from the backward caste whose stature is growing.

In a tweet in Hindi, Maurya said, "SP president jee, you are not able to tolerate the growing stature of any leaders of the backward class. You want that there should be no bigger OBC leader, and you are anti-backward. Did you make any OBC leader a deputy chief minister when you were the chief minister? The backwards have reposed their faith in (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi."



However, did not name any OBC leader in his tweet.

Maurya's comment assumes significance as it came minutes after tweets by the Samajwadi Party's letters to its ally and SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar and his uncle and PSPL chief Shivpal Yadav that they "can go where he will get more respect".

Rajbhar had supported NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu, breaking ranks with the opposition for the July 18 election that brought to the fore cracks in the anti-BJP grouping.

The opposition Samajwadi Party had fought the recent assembly polls together with Jayant Chaudhary's RLD, Rajbhar's SBSP, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), Keshav Dev Maurya's Mahan Dal and the Janwadi Party.

The Mahan Dal and the Janwadi Party have already severed ties with the SP. Apart from the SBSP, Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia also appeared to be inching closer to the ruling BJP over the past few months.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Saturday denied the allegation that wasn't provided adequate when the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government was in power.

Then chief minister never gave any instruction not to upgrade Shinde's security, he said, speaking to reporters in Pune.

Rebel MLAs from Shinde's camp, including former Minister of State for Home Shambhuraj Desai, claimed on Friday that despite Shinde getting a threat from naxals, he was not given the highest 'Z-plus' cover as Thackeray did not allow it. "The decision about cover is taken by a special committee. A Z-level security had been provided to then deputy Chief Minister, Home Minister and Eknath Shinde," Walse-Patil said. "When Shinde received a threatening letter, strict orders were given to the police department as well as Thane Police (to take necessary action). So this controversy about Shinde's security is unnecessary," the Nationalist Congress Party leader added. Shinde, now Maharashtra chief minister, was 'guardian minister' for the naxal-affected Gadchiroli district besides being minister for Urban Development in the Thackeray government. "Chief minister Thackeray never instructed us that should not be given security. In fact the police department took utmost care of Shinde's security," Walse-Patil added.

He also said that while Shinde never asked for additional security, his son had submitted a letter requesting Z-plus security for the senior Sena leader. "When he received a threat letter, adequate security was provided to Shinde," the former home minister added. Elsewhere, NCP chief Sharad Pawar too told reporters that Shinde had



Z-level security cover which continues.

"Providing security does not come under the cabinet's purview. A committee headed by the chief secretary, home secretary and other senior officials takes decisions," said Pawar whose party was part of the Thackeray-led coalition government. "Walse Patil told me that Shinde had Z-level security and also additional police protection as he was guardian minister of Gadchiroli," 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.)
Margaret Alva, the Opposition candidate for the Vice Presidential poll scheduled on August 6, on Friday termed the Trinamool Congress' decision to abstain from voting as disappointing, adding that this is not the time for 'whataboutery'.

"TMC's decision to abstain from voting in the VP election is disappointing. This isn't the time for 'whataboutery', ego or anger. This is the time for courage, leadership & unity. I believe, @MamataOfficial, who is the epitome of courage, will stand with the opposition," Alva tweeted.

The Trinamool Congress said on Thursday that its MPs in both the Houses of the Parliament will abstain from voting in the poll to elect the next Vice President of India.

The decision was taken on Thursday afternoon at a meeting chaired by party supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, which was attended by 33 out of the 35 Trinamool MPs.

"Each member was given the opportunity to present his/her views in front of the Chief Minister. Thereafter, 85 per cent of the MPs present at the meeting voiced their view in favour of abstaining from voting in the Vice Presidential poll," Trinamool's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee told mediapersons after the meeting.

He said while the question of supporting NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar does not arise, Trinamool has strong objections to the opposition parties announcing the candidature of as their candidate without consulting the Trinamool leadership or Mamata Banerjee.

--IANS

miz/arm

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Union Home Minister is on a two-day visit from Saturday, during which he is scheduled to launch a host of projects, including the "e-FIR" service and a CCTV-based command and control room for police in Gandhinagar, officials said.

Shah will inaugurate this state-level control room for surveillance and traffic management at an event to be organised in the campus of National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar on Saturday morning, they said.

At the same event, Shah will also launch the state Home Department's "e-FIR" project. Using this service, people can now lodge complaints on the department's website or mobile application to report theft of their vehicles or mobile phones, a government release said.

The minister will also launch there the state-wide rollout of the body-worn cameras for field policemen.

Later in the day, Shah will visit Mansa town in Gandhinagar district to inaugurate a newly-built library, a community kitchen for providing cooked food to anganwadis and a hall built by Mansa municipality, the officials said.

Shah, who represents the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, will also visit the civil hospital and Chandrasar lake in Mansa, his native place.

On Sunday, he will inaugurate several projects of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, they 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.)
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
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CPC a party seeking happiness for people: vice president of Party of the European Left

11:17, July 23, 2022 By Jiang Bo ( People's Daily

"I have witnessed drastic changes of China since my first visit to the country," said Maite Mola, vice president of the Party of the European Left (PEL), in a recent interview with People's Daily.

"Both urban and rural areas in the country have taken on a new look, and its infrastructure is keeping improving. The country has constantly advanced its ecological progress and made remarkable achievements in anti-corruption campaign," Mola said.

Maite Mola, vice president of the Party of the European Left (PEL). (Photo from the official website of the PEL)

Mola paid six visits to China between 2008 and 2018, during which she went to Chinese cities and villages to see the changes of the life of the Chinese people.

"The huge changes in the 10 years make me feel as if a century had passed," she said.

Mola's visit to suburban Shanghai impressed her the most during her trips to China.

"It was clean and tidy, and the villagers were affluent. The infrastructure and public services were great, and I saw prominent achievements in the country's new-type urbanization," Mola told People's Daily.

She said the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led the Chinese people to eliminate absolute poverty, which is a great feat in human history.

She told People's Daily that how to advance rural development amid progressing urbanization is an issue that bothers many countries, including Spain. China's rural vitalization strategy has shed light on the rural development of other developing countries and is worth learning for developed countries, she noted.

In 2008, Mola had an inspection tour to Xiaogang village, Fengyang county, east China's Anhui province. Dubbed "the birthplace of China's rural reform," the village was the first one in the country to pioneer a "household contract responsibility system."

From Xiaogang village, Mola realized that huge changes would take place in China. "We need to not only support China's development, but also introduce to the world the country's progress and the CPC's spirit of reform and innovation," she said.

The PEL speaks highly of the remarkable achievements made by the CPC in terms of party construction since the 19th National Congress of the CPC.

Photo taken on July 21, 2021 shows Lianhu village, Jinze township, Qingpu district, Shanghai. The village was listed in the first batch of model villages of rural vitalization in Shanghai in 2018. (People's Daily Online/ Zhou Dongchao)

In 2018, Mola visited China again upon invitation. In Fuxiang neighborhood, Dongcheng district of Beijing, she watched an activity in which primary-level CPC members reviewed the Party admission oath. She was quite impressed by the activity, saying such activities could help primary-level Party members strengthen their conviction and strengthen the cohesion of primary-level Party organizations.

China's remarkable progress in developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, as well as the historic accomplishment in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, are inseparable from the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Mola told People's Daily.

As a reader of the book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China", Mola said the book has brought her many inspirations. "President Xi Jinping is both visionary and practical," she said, adding that the CPC, following a people-centered approach and leading the Chinese people to advance with the times, has explored a development path that suits China's national conditions.

Citing Xi's remarks that the Chinese people hope to successfully realize national development, but they also hope to see all peoples of the world leading happy and peaceful lives, Mola said the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind aim at promoting world peace and sharing development opportunities.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has significantly promoted international solidarity to fight the virus, making huge efforts to build a global community of health for all, Mola noted.

Last September, Xi proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI), calling on the international society to cooperate on poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy and connectivity, and to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Photo shows Xiaogang village, Fengyang county, east China's Anhui province. The village is dubbed "the birthplace of China's rural reform." (People's Daily Online/Wang Jun)

"President Xi has charted a course for the world's common development when the world is hindered by both the pandemic and uncertainties," Mola said.

She noted that the GDI, which prioritizes development, puts people in the center and benefits all, is an important approach to tackling development issues.

"The achievements made by the CPC in the past 100 years prove that it is a party that seeks happiness for the people. The century-old CPC will usher in a new starting point as it kicks off its 20th National Congress," Mola told People's Daily.

She believes that China will make more achievements under the leadership of the CPC. She hopes the country can provide more feasible schemes for international cooperation on development and contribute more energy to the building of a better world.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
Photo: . A deal to sell this house on Kings Avenue in West Vancouver resulted in a complaint that has resulted in real estate agent Shahin Behroyan losing his licence. |Kevin Hill / North Shore News files

A West Vancouver real estate agent who lost his licence and was banned from the industry for five years, following a misconduct complaint, has failed to have his discipline overturned in B.C. Supreme Court.

In January 2015, Shahin Behroyan oversaw the sale of a West Vancouver home that included him getting a $75,000-bonus on top of his usual commission, effectively doubling his total income from the sale. But after the sale, the original owner filed a formal complaint with the Real Estate Council of B.C.

The complaint included allegations of misrepresentation and nondisclosure, deceptive dealing and dishonesty, conflict of interest, and failing to act with reasonable care and skill in the best interests of his client, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nigel Kent noted in his ruling handed down on July 14.

When the councils disciplinary committee issued a decision in October 2017, its members found five instances of misconduct and dismissed two, though Kents ruling doesnt specify which. The following May, Behroyans licence was suspended for one year and he was ordered to pay a fine of $7,500, plus $59,000 in enforcement costs, and take a course on ethics.

He appealed both the decision and his penalty to the Financial Services Tribunal of B.C., while the Superintendent of Real Estate appealed the penalty, arguing it was too lenient, the ruling states.

The appeal resulted in two of the findings of professional misconduct being overturned because they were in error, the ruling notes. The FST member sent Behroyans file back to the Real Estate Councils discipline committee, which by then had new members serving on it, to reconsider what the appropriate penalty should be.

Behroyan submitted in February 2020 that a reprimand would suffice or, if a suspension was required, it should be for no more than one month, court documents show. But the council said his licence should be cancelled along with a five-year prohibition, plus a $10,000 fine.

The second disciplinary committee agreed with the council, and Behroyan lost his licence.

Behroyan appealed again to the Financial Services Tribunal, which upheld the second decision in August 2021.

Most recently, Behroyan petitioned the B.C. Supreme Court for a judicial review, arguing the second discipline committee had no jurisdiction to increase his original penalty and that the unusual process had been arbitrary and unreasonable, the ruling notes.

Having two of the misconduct claims dismissed by the second committee while coming away with a stiffer penalty was an embarrassing inconsistency, Behroyan argued, and was intolerable and patently unreasonable.

Concluding his written ruling, Kent conceded the optics of this case are unfortunate, however, he found there were no legal grounds for Behroyans petition for judicial review.

I disagree with Mr. Behroyans characterization of the increased penalty as simply the whims of different decision-makers. There was nothing whimsical about the second discipline committee penalty reconsideration decision, let alone the FST's ultimate endorsement of the same. The process employed here was exactly what Mr. Behroyan requested of both the FST ... and from the second discipline committee; namely, a fresh reconsideration of penalty in which the first penalty decision was to have no bearing, he wrote.

Mr. Behroyan cannot now complain that the very process he wanted should be considered arbitrary and unreasonable simply because he is dissatisfied with the result.

Kent dismissed Behroyans petition and ordered him to pay the superintendent of real estates legal costs.
Photo: The Canadian Press Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown speaks during a press conference to announce his intention to re-run for mayorship, at city hall in Brampton, Ont., on July 18, 2022.

A Conservative committee reviewing Patrick Brown's disqualification from the leadership race has concluded the party had the evidence it needed to recommend he be removed from contention.

Its decision, released late Friday, contains new allegations Brown used money orders to purchase memberships and allowed non-compliant membership sales through a portal.

"Mr. Brown was afforded ample opportunity to address these serious concerns," Ian Brodie, chair of the party's leadership election organizing committee, said in a statement.

The committee stunned party members and Canadians alike earlier this month when it voted 11 to six to remove Brown from the race. Brown has since launched his campaign for re-election as mayor of Brampton, Ont.

Brown's legal counsel had filed a notice of appeal of the decision to oust him, which the party said was based on a recommendation from its chief returning officer.

A dispute resolution appeals committee had to decide whether the officer possessed the evidence to recommend Brown's removal.

It says evidence included allegations Brown allowed more than 500 non-compliant membership sales.

"Correspondence on this issue from the candidate indicates both an unwillingness and an inability to provide the (chief returning officer) with information about the individuals who were accessing the portal to register memberships the (party) had found to be non-compliant," the decision says.

It said Brown left the issue unresolved for two weeks and gave "evasive responses."

The decision also addresses an allegation that Brown may have broken federal election law, which was brought to the party by a whistleblower.

After Brown's ousting, Debbie Jodoin, a longtime organizer with the party, came forward as the one who spoke up, alleging Brown arranged for a third-party corporation to pay her to work on his campaign.

Brown has denied wrongdoing and said the party didn't provide his campaign enough details for him to properly respond.

In its decision, the dispute committee says the party offered Brown a chance to provide exculpatory evidence. "He did not," the decision says.

"Instead, the candidate offered the explanation of an innocent mistake and an offer to reimburse any implicated corporation expenses. That is an excuse, not exculpatory evidence."

The decision says the party considered the allegations Brown faced, and also the way he responded.

When it came to issues surrounding money orders, the dispute committee says the party received 78 money orders attached to membership forms that appeared to come from the same person.

The decision says Brown told the party he raised the issue with the individual in question, who said the allegation was false.

It says the party was left with information that Brown's campaign had improperly bought memberships.

"When confronted with this evidence the candidate chose simply to deny the allegation without providing any satisfactory explanation," the decision says.
Photo: The Canadian Press Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican on Sunday, July 17, 2022.

Residential school survivor Rod Alexis remembers his late father telling him: "Son, I don't know how to be a parent."

"I lost the gift that was given to us by the Creator because I was all alone in the residential school," the member of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation recalls his father, also a residential school survivor, saying. "Many times I wanted to say 'I love you,' wanted to give you a hug, but I didn't know how."

The Pope's upcoming visit to Canada is evoking complex feelings among many Indigenous people. Some residential school survivors and those living with the intergenerational trauma the institutions caused are ready to forgive the Roman Catholic Church for the brutality it inflicted on Indigenous peoples.

For others, the ongoing pain makes it hard to let go of the anger.

"They killed our spirit," says Alexis. "Some of those wounds are too far gone. We see our young generation today dying of drugs, alcohol, a lot of them in jails because of the effects of the trauma that they went through."

Canada forced an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children to attend residential schools over a century, and the Catholic Church ran about 60 per cent of the institutions. The last residential school closed in 1996.

The children were punished for speaking their languages and practising their culture. They were separated from their families and, in many cases, were subjected to psychological, physical and sexual abuse.

Pope Francis is to land in Edmonton on Sunday before going to Quebec City on Wednesday and Iqaluit on Friday. It's expected the pontiff will deliver an apology for the Catholic Church's role in residential schools near the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School in the community of Maskwacis, Alta.

Fernie Marty, who attended a residential school in northeastern Alberta, says he's willing to forgive.

"I had the opportunity to start my personal healing journey a few years back. I didn't want to carry that guilt, shame, resentment and hatred in my heart. I wanted to let go of all that," says the 73-year-old Papaschase First Nation elder.

But many don't feel the same way, says Marty.

"There's some that I don't know what it would take for them to let go of the traumas that they have experienced in their lives."

The chief of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, one of the four communities that make up Maskwacis, says an apology would be a fundamental step toward forgiveness.

"It's time to get uncomfortable for many average Canadians," says Chief Randy Ermineskin.

"I will tell you: my brother was 16. He came home (from residential school). First thing he did is he hung himself. So those are some of the truths that need to be revealed."

Ermineskin says he will be watching peoples' faces carefully as an expected 15,000 people listen to the Pope's apology.

"It's a time where you're gonna feel like this is such a good feeling. Or, it might go the other way around."

For many, forgiving is an important step toward reconciliation, adds Grand Chief George Arcand Jr. of the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations.

"Though these harms can never be undone, in order to forget, I do believe there has to be forgiveness."

But Arcand says sometimes he feels Indigenous people are too forgiving.

"We accept forgiveness and welcome people to our homes, because that's the way our parents taught us. Traditionally, those things are still done today," he says.

"But there needs to be justice.

"There needs to be an opportunity for the wrongs that were done to be fixed. We just see this as a first step. It's not the only step."

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.
After the "surprising" victory of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shahbaz as the Chief Minister of Punjab province, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's supporters staged a protest outside the headquarters of the Peshawar Corps Commander and chanted slogans "Hum Leke Rahenge Azadi".

Protesting the outcome of the Punjab CM election, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters are demonstrating in all major cities including Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad after Punjab Assembly's Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari rejected PML-Q votes in the Punjab CM election voting.

Hamza Shehbaz on Saturday took oath as Punjab Chief Minister. He was administered oath today by Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman at a ceremony held at the Governor House in Punjab, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Hamza Shehbaz retained the seat after PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain sent a letter to the Deputy Speaker telling him that he had instructed his MPAs to vote for the younger Sharif instead of Pervez Elahi.

The PTI had approached the Supreme Court against the Deputy Speaker's ruling and expressed the hope that it would emerge victorious. PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan called for protests against the outcomes of the elections.

"I am 72 years old but I go to every meeting, whoever is honest will be with Imran Khan. I am deeply disappointed with what happened today in Punjab. People's mandate was robbed.

These people will eat their mouths," said an elderly woman who participated in Karachi's Shahrah-e-Faisal protest.

"Salutations to you Karachi people, it is impossible to defeat your determination. I told the leadership in Lahore that there are thousands of people who are determined to go to CM House and Bilal House. Patalgah, my application has been approved for hearing. We will give our next action plan tomorrow. President PTI Karachi," tweeted PTI Karachi.

Earlier, PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz was re-elected as the chief minister (CM) of Punjab. Pervaiz Elahi - joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q - received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes.

However, 10 votes of PML-Q were canceled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176. Following the counting of votes, the deputy speaker, citing Article 63A of the Constitution, rejected ten votes cast by the PML-Q members. As a result, Hamza received 179 votes, while Elahi managed to bag 176 votes.

Notably, the Supreme Court in its decision on a presidential reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution which is related to the status of defecting lawmakers, said the votes of defecting lawmakers will not be counted.

PTI supporters are protesting across Pakistan against Mazari's ruling on CM Punjab poll. Nationwide protests happening right now in - Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Gujrat, DG Khan, Faislabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sukkur, Layyah, Larkana and Hyderabad.

"People are protesting at these places all over the country. Get out for the sake of Pakistan!" tweeted PTI. PTI also slammed Asif Zardari, Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) leader and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The PTI thanked people for supporting them. "Shukriya Pakistan, InshAllah we will defeat the mafia once again... remember no one can defeat a zinda qoum!" Protests are taking place in all the small and big cities of the country.

(ANI)
Chino, CA (91710)

Today

Mostly clear. Low 69F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 69F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
While conducting routine patrol, police viewed a black Honda Passport parked on Station Street with its lights on and no person visible in the front seat. Police stopped the patrol car and upon backing up, noted two people in the back seat of the Honda sit up and begin moving around. As police approached with the vehicle illuminated, they could see a man as well as a woman putting her shirt strap back on. The man would attempt to exit the vehicle quickly and adjust his clothing. Both of them were given warnings about any "actives" occurring in their vehicle in public settings. The woman left in her vehicle (Audi) and the man left in the Honda.

* * *

The manager of the Circle K, 4900 Brainerd Road, told police there was a man by the name of "George" asking people for money on the Circle K lot. She wanted him to leave, but he was gone upon police arrival and could not be located. She will call if he returns.

* * *

A woman at the El BBQ Mexique, 7655 E Brainerd Road, walked police to an area in the parking lot where she said she had found some money. She said she did not touch the money and does not know who the money belongs to. The business was not open, but police texted and called the numbers provided by the business. Police never received a response from any of the numbers provided. Police provided the woman with a receipt and turned the $250 over to Property.

* * *

A man on S. Lovell Avenue told police that Chattanooga Gas Company was digging in the roadway in front of his home and he was worried they were going to hit his sewage line. Police spoke with their manager, who assured police that they knew what they were doing and would not bust a line.

* * *

A tenant on Market Street told police a woman was near her apartment speaking to her. She said the two have a history, and she did not want the woman speaking to her. Police then spoke to the woman, who said she was trying to make amends with the tenant, and did not want confrontation. Both of them agreed not to speak to each other if they encounter again in the future.

* * *

Police submitted $185 into Chattanooga Police Property after recovering it from a man on Central Avenue. The money was found on and around the man's groin and was too sweaty and damp

after he evaded on foot to be entered into the cash machine intake. The money has been made releasable to the man.

* * *

Police received a call from the CVS at Erlanger, 979 E 3rd St., saying they believed someone was trying to fill prescription under a doctor's name. Employees from CVS said they received a call from the number saying they were that doctor. The unknown person called in and had Celexa, Sevoquil and Xanax filled. The caller had the prescriptions filled for a patient, whose name they gave police. Employees at CVS said the number for the doctor did not match their records. Employees said a man came in to pick up the prescription, only saying, "The doctor called." The man could not give the name of the doctor. The identity of the person who called the prescription in is unknown.

* * *

Police were called for a disorder prevention by a man who was trying to get his belongings from his mother on Allemande Way. The man was able to get his belongings without incident from both the Allemande Way address and a Tournament Drive address. The man was unable to get a mattress and dresser, but all involved people were okay with this being done at a later time.

* * *



Police were conducting a traffic stop on a vehicle on Cummings Highway when a Jeep Compass - TN tag - pulled into the traffic stop very quickly and a white male with a gray beard jumped out of the passenger seat before the Jeep was in park and started recording the traffic stop with his cellphone. He said, "I'm going to audit you." It was indicated by the subject of the police stop that this was her husband. Police explained to both of them the reason for the stop and they attempted to argue with police. Police educated them on the reason for the stop and sent them on their way.

* * *

Police were called to an apartment on Tunnel Boulevard. A man's daughter got her finger stuck in

the window and the fire department had to break the glass.

* * *



A man on E. 28th Street called police to report vandalism to his home. Officers cleared the house due to the back door being open. The man said nothing was stolen, but the back door was damaged. He said the door is worth $150. It is unclear who might have damaged the door. There is no camera footage or witness. Police gave the man a complaint card for the door damage.

* * *

A woman told police several unknown people have been following her at unknown locations and unknown times. She said her ex-boyfriend is a gang member.

* * *

A caller reported an abandoned vehicle at 2099 Chamberlain Ave. The vehicle had been stickered several weeks before, the tires were flat, debris was built up under the vehicle and neighbors reported it had not moved in three months. With these facts, police determined the vehicle had been abandoned and since they were unable to make contact with the owner of the maroon Ford Focus - TN tag, it was towed by Doug Yates.

* * *

An employee of the Southside Market, 202 W. 38th St., told police a woman caused a disorder in her store and threw the change given to her back at the clerk. The employee wished for the woman to be trespassed from the store. Police attempted to make contact with the woman at her residence, but were unable to make contact with her.

* * *

A man at the Sunoco, 6800 Shallowford Road, told police that someone entered his unlocked vehicle while he was sleeping inside and took his iPhone and several hand tools. He said that a passer by told him it was two white females inside his vehicle while he was sleeping.
The city and county are being asked to provide $150,000 each toward securing a new route from United or Frontier Airlines for travel to Denver, Colorado, and other destinations in the West, as well as Asia.

At the same time, the city and county plan to apply for a $750,000.00 grant from the Federal

Aviation Administration (FAA) to secure a new route from United or Frontier Airlines for the Denver service.

The Small Community Air Service Development Program Proposal is in collaboration with the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority.

Mayor Tim Kelly and County Mayor Jim Coppinger have given their approval.
Jerome Hadley, 62, was arrested on July 21 in connection with a shooting at The Office club on E. 3rd Street.



Officers with the Chattanooga Police Department responded to reports of a person shot on April 2 at approximately 12:23 a.m. in the are of 1401 E. 3rd St. A gray sedan was seen driving west on E. 3rd Street in the area and police initiated a felony stop on the E. 3rd Street bridge. The driver of the vehicle exited and told police he had been shot. Police saw he had been shot in the arm and the chest, but his injuries were non-life threatening. Medic 9 arrived and transported the man to the hospital.



As officers were conducting an investigation at the scene, a witness came forward and said they had seen the shooting take place.

The witness said her vehicle was parked next to the victim's vehicle in the parking lot of The Office. She said she observed a vehicle traveling on E. 3rd Street pull up to The Office, and a black male got out of the back seat with a gun in each hand. She said the man walked up to the victim's vehicle and started shooting into the vehicle while the victim was sitting in the driver's seat.The witness said she heard several shots and then saw the shooter running away from the scene. She said she recognized the shooter from earlier that night when they were at The Office and he was asked to leave the establishment by the victim. She said the shooter was wearing a black suit and he was approximately 60-62 years old. She said the man went by the name "Ronoie" or "Romie," but although she was not sure of his name, she could pick him out of a photo line up.Officers were able to recover two shell casings from the parking lot of The Office.When officers arrived at the hospital around 2 a.m. and were able to speak to the victim, they were told that earlier in the night a man known as "RonnieRome" was in The Office and appeared to be intoxicated. The victim said he asked the man to leave and they got into an argument, so the victim called the police. However, the man left before police arrived.

The victim said as he was leaving The Office around 12:20 a.m. and got into his silver Lexus sedan, he heard the woman in the vehicle next to him honking her horn and yelling to get his attention. He said he looked up and saw the shooter standing next to the driver's side of his vehicle, pointing a gun at him, and he saw the flashes from the gun when he fired the weapon at him. He said he reversed his car quickly in order to get out of the area, but the shooter kept firing at him as he drove away. He said the shooter was the same man he had been in an argument with earlier, and was the man he knows as "RonnieRome." He said he had a through and through gunshot wound on his elbow as well as a gunshot wound to his chest, and the bullet was still in his body.



The victim and the witness both positively identified Hadley as the shooter when detectives presented them with separate photo line ups.



Detectives obtained warrants for the arrest of Hadley for attempted criminal homicide, reckless endangerment, unlawful possession of a firearm, vandalism and posessing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.
Doctor Oliver Watkins Jenkins, Jr, after a lifetime of service and devotion to his family, patients, community, and God, passed away on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with his family at his side. He was 84.

Born to the late Mary Ellen (Bailey) Jenkins and Doctor Oliver W. Jenkins, Sr., he was raised in the suburbs of Rome, Georgia and graduated from Darlington school. He served in the United States Army in Germany. There he met and married the love of his life, Regina (Kuettner) Jenkins. After returning stateside he graduated from Emory University and the Medical College of Georgia. He completed his internship at Erlanger Hospital and his residency in Pediatrics at T. C. Thompson Children's Hospital in Chattanooga.

He opened his pediatrics practice in 1971 on Signal Mountain before moving it to Red Bank. He was tireless in his efforts to relieve the suffering of others both physically and spiritually, several times taking on the role of a medical missionary deep in Mexico. He was active in his efforts with the church, attending the former Central Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga and later Chattanooga's New City Fellowship. He was very active with the Gideons. He enjoyed singing and had a beautiful baritone voice.

Always the loving and devoted husband and father, he and Regina raised both their children in Chattanooga. He continued working until his retirement in 2008. His final years were spent in a personal battle with cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

He is survived by the love of his life and wife of 60 years, Regina E. Jenkins, and will be lovingly missed by his children, Oliver W. Jenkins, III, and Maria (Michael) Sabin, all of Red Bank, TN, sister Mary Ellen (George) Baird of Atlanta, GA, and brother John Stephen (Karen) Jenkins of Elberton, GA. He was the loving grandfather to Lacey (Brandon) Lively-Plummer of Fort Oglethorpe, Andrew Sabin of Red Bank, and Katriana "Dae" Alexander-Jenkins of Chattanooga, TN. He will also be greatly missed by his many cousins, nieces, nephews, and other family members.

A memorial service will be held at New City Fellowship at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2424 East Third Street in Chattanooga on Friday, August 26, at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to New City Fellowship Church or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
How Many Kids Does Jill Duggar Have? How Old Are They in 2022?

Duggar family followers know Jill Duggar well, as she was the first Duggar daughter to take a few steps away from her famous family publicly. Now, shes back in the spotlight due to the birth of her son, Frederick, in 2022. So, how many kids do Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard have? Heres what to know about their family.

How many kids does Jill Duggar have? She and Derick Dillard welcomed another son in 2022

Jill Duggar Dillard and husband Derick Dillard | D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard have three sons  Israel, Samuel, and now, Frederick. Israel David Dillard is the Duggar family couples oldest son, with Israel meaning may God prevail in Hebrew. Additionally, E! News reports Derick bought Jills engagement ring in Israel. Jill really likes Israel, and Id always wanted to go to the holy land, Derick explained in 2014. [When I was there] I had it in my head that I wanted to get an engagement ring pretty soon, but I had no idea it would work out [this] perfectly!

The couple announced the birth of their second son, Samuel Scott Dillard, on their family blog.

In 2021, Jill and Derick were expecting another baby  but Jill miscarried. They named their miscarried child River Bliss Dillard. One meaning for River is tranquil  and here in Arkansas, rivers are often a serene, beautiful escape in nature, the couple wrote on the Dillard Family blog. We also like how the River talked about in the Bible (Rev. 22:1-5) represents Gods life-giving presence.

Finally, the couple welcomed Freddy Frederick Michael Dillard in 2022. Frederick means Peaceful Ruler and Michael means Gift from God,' Jill wrote on Instagram. They also wanted to incorporate Dericks name into the babys name, as Dericks name is also a variation of his fathers name.

What are Jill Duggars kids ages in 2022?

Jill Duggar shares first photos of baby Frederick: 'Our boy tribe has expanded!' https://t.co/bSMjSonts5 pic.twitter.com/9csLz4MXIR  Yahoo Entertainment (@YahooEnt) July 22, 2022

So, how old are Jill Duggars kids in 2022?

Israel is currently 7 years old, as he was born on April 6, 2015. He attends public school. Back in 2020, Jill made a shocking announcement that went against typical Duggar family values. She and Derick Dillard chose to enroll Israel in public kindergarten. While Jill spent her formative years homeschooled, Dericks familiar with the public school system.

Samuel was born on July 8, 2017, making him 5 years old in 2022. Hell likely begin public kindergarten in 2023.

Frederick was born on July 7, 2022, making him not even a month old so far in 2022. He and Samuel will likely share joint birthday parties moving forward.

Where do she and Derick Dillard stand on more children?

Oh, baby! #JillDuggar shared an adorable first photo of her newborn Freddy with his brothers Samuel & Israel.https://t.co/SWfbIedxJ8  OK! Magazine USA (@OKMagazine) July 23, 2022

With Fredericks birth in 2022, do Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard want more children? They havent spoken on the matter since the birth of their third son, but given the Duggar familys love of kids, we imagine theyre open to having even more. Theyve also mentioned theyre open to adoption.

Yes, Lord willing, Jill told a fan in a YouTube video in 2021 regarding having more kids.

With that said, fans shouldnt expect Jill and Derick to have as many kids as Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. How many? I dont know. I dont know that we have a number, Jill once noted. Probably not 20 kids.

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RELATED: Jessa Duggar Claps Back After Jill Duggar Baby Shower Drama, Asks People Not to Assume A Negative Motive Behind Everything We Do
British employer doubles down on firing Christian worker for publicizing beliefs on marriage

A housing trust in England has doubled down on its decision to terminate a housing manager who voiced her belief in the biblical definition of marriage while campaigning for mayor of her local community.

The LONDON & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q), which houses over 250,000 people, issued a statement this week in response to legal action filed by former employee Maureen Martin, who claims she was terminated this spring after voicing her beliefs on marriage in a leaflet during her campaign for mayor of Lewisham.

In a statement shared on its website, L&Q claimed that several of its residents complained about Martin's leaflet. The trust maintains that it respects "individuals freedom to hold particular religious or other beliefs" but will "not tolerate it when these beliefs are manifested in a way that is derogatory or offensive to others."

"L&Q therefore has a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination of any kind  whether that be shown through actions or words in the workplace, made public on social media channels, or shared in other publicly available materials or forums," the statement reads.

"This matter was investigated in accordance with L&Qs policies and procedures, and in line with equalities legislation and the ACAS code of practice, and the appropriate action taken. We have also engaged with our diversity networks during this case and are united in our commitment to a zero-tolerance approach.

Maureen Martin, the 56-year-old ordained minister and president of the Christian Peoples Alliance, took legal action this week after she was dismissed by L&Q for gross misconduct after 13 years of service.

The case is believed to be the first of its kind to see a political candidate sacked by their employer for their Christian beliefs, the CLC said in a statement, adding that lawyers will file a lawsuit on the grounds of discrimination, harassment, indirect discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Martin, who also serves as president of the Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA), had outlined her political position on various issues in the leaflet, including marriage.

Marriage: I pledge to cut through political correctness and simply state the truth that natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children, read the election leaflet, just as the CPAs election manifesto says.

Someone posted an image of the leaflet on Twitter, calling it against the law and hate speech. Three complaints followed, telling L&Qs chief executive that Martins beliefs should have no place at the company. The Christian candidate was described in the complaint as bigoted in need of anti-oppressive training.

Martin was soon suspended, investigated, hindered from campaigning as part of the election and then dismissed for allegedly bringing L&Q into disrepute, breaching social media policy and failing to declare political interests.

In a statement, the CPA, a political party formed in 1999, said Martin's beliefs on marriage are "what millions of people believe and is a belief that is protected in U.K. law."

"Discriminated against for daring to follow the teachings of Christ, senior management at London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q), one of the largest housing associations in England, took the disgraceful step of bowing to the Twitter mob under the guise of hate speech,'" the party's statement reads.

"Its worth remembering 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. This can never be acceptable."

"We simply cant have a nation that prosecutes citizens for speaking out against immoral behavior or for having a different opinion," the statement continues. "How did we fall so far?"

Martin said she was "devastated" by the termination but "not surprised."

It is telling that Lewisham council dismissed the same complaints against me because my political speech is protected," she said in a statement. I have a right to express my own Christian beliefs in my own private time and should not be required to self-censor valid beliefs on marriage, abortion and U.S. politics.

Her dismissal letter said her views could be perceived to be discriminatory, hurtful and offensive views toward members of the LGBTQ+ community, non-traditional families, and abortion.

In the legal action, Martins lawyers contend her dismissal was in breach of her right to political speech under Articles 9 and 10 of the ECHR and that her dismissal was outside the band of reasonable responses in all the circumstances of the case, CLC said.

The lawyers will argue that L&Q maintained an entrenched position during disciplinary procedures and that the protected characteristic of sexual orientation took priority over that of religion or belief.

Martin said she was disturbed by how Christian beliefs on marriage, which have been held and expressed for thousands of years, are being silenced and treated with such hostility and disdain.



The message this is sending is if you want to engage politically and make a difference in your community, but if your views dont line up with the liberal agenda, you can potentially be fired from your job," she said.

If my manifesto had been in support of same-sex marriage, would I have had the same response?

L&Q was recently nominated for an award from the LGBT advocacy news outlet Pink News, CLC noted.

Earlier this year, L&Q was named by LGBT advocacy group Stonewall to its top 100 employers list for the sixth time in nine years.

Martin told The Daily Mail that she believes the desire of L&Q management to remain in good favor with the LGBT activist group Stonewall was a factor in her dismissal.



L&Q are a woke organization," she was quoted as saying. The endorsement from Stonewall was important to L&Q.

CLC Chief Executive Andrea Williams said, 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.

The LGBT ideology, he added, has captured institutions to such an extent that free speech and Christian freedoms have been intimidated into silenced.
DA seeks to charge teen as adult for pastors murder in carjacking

The office of a district attorney in Tennessee says it will seek to charge a 15-year-old boy as an adult in the murder of the Rev. Autura Eason-Williams, the late pastor of Capleville United Methodist Church who was gunned down in a carjacking earlier this week.

The Shelby County District Attorneys office said in a statement that it's submitting a notice of intent to transfer the case, which is set on the Juvenile Court docket for a hearing on Aug. 1, to an adult court, as law allows it if the alleged crimes are serious.

The decision is based on the facts of this case and this offenders criminal history, District Attorney Amy Weirich said in the statement, according to WREG.

Pastor Eason-Williams was shot dead in the driveway of her home on Whitehaven Lane in Memphis on Monday evening.

Memphis police charged the 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. He was arrested along with a 16-year-old accomplice, who was charged with theft of property valued between $2,500-$10,000.

The pastors daughter, Ayanna Hampton, said she was opposed to the DAs decision.

My mommy was a tireless advocate and strategist for restorative justice practices, she wrote in a Facebook post. Please do not use her death as an opportunity to go all tough on crime, throw them under the jail, charge them as adults so they wont get a chance to do this again on us.

The transfer hearing might not be scheduled before late August or September.

After Eason-Williams death, Jody Hill, president of Memphis Theological Seminary, said in a statement on Facebook that the pastor 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 Gods 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, Ive 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.

Perry said he was more troubled by the news that the suspect was a teenager, and suggested the murder was a sign that the Church had 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.
Pastor's 2 sons killed, daughter kidnapped in attack in terrorist-plagued region of Nigeria Church leader's 13-year-old daughter released after ransom payment

ABUJA, Nigeria  Gunmen in northeast Nigeria shot a pastor and killed his sons in one attack and killed a Christian engineering instructor in another this month, sources said.

Near Mubi town in Islamic terrorist-plagued Adamawa state, assailants shot the Rev. Daniel Umaru on July 5, leaving him for dead after killing his sons, 19-year-old Kefrey Daniel and Fanye Daniel, 23, area sources said. The gunmen kidnapped his 13-year-old daughter, Ijagla, who was released on July 8 after the kidnappers received a ransom payment.

Pastor Umaru, of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN), was recovering in a hospital, said area resident Aunty Adunni.

He was shot and left to bleed to death, Adunni told Morning Star News in a text message. Both the wounded pastor and his wife, who became unconscious during the attack, were taken to the hospital.

Police in Adamawa state confirmed the attack, with spokesman Suleiman Nguroje saying the assailants stormed the pastors home in Mararaba Mubi, near Mubi, at about 2 a.m. on July 5.

The state's governor condemned the attack in a statement and said the assailants must be brought to justice.

Area resident Peter Musa lamented the killings.

Please pray for Gods intervention in this state over unending attacks on Christians and churches, he told Morning Star News in a text message.

The pastors sons were buried on July 8 at EYN headquarters in Kwarhi Maararba, in the Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa state.

In the state capital, Yola, gunmen on July 14 killed a Christian engineering teacher, Yohanna Mbudai Bzegu, at his home in the Bajabure area of the city, sources said. Bzegu taught at Adamawa State Polytechnic in Yola.

The assailants broke into his home behind the Anglican Junior Seminary at about 3 a.m. and shot him to death, area resident John Usman said in a text message.

The Christian lecturer was shot multiple times in his chest after the terrorists forcefully gained entrance into his house, Usman told Morning Star News. Before this time, the terrorists had attempted breaking into his house more than four times but were unsuccessful.

Police in Yola confirmed the attack and were searching for the suspects.

Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith last year (Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021,) at 4,650, up from 3,530 the previous year, according to Open Doors 2022 World Watch List report. The number of kidnapped Christians was also highest in Nigeria, at more than 2,500, up from 990 the previous year, according to the WWL report.

Nigeria trailed only China in the number of churches attacked, with 470 cases, according to the report.

In the 2022 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to seventh place, its highest ranking ever, from No. 9 the previous year.

Originally published at Morning Star News
Out of touch: Pro-life activists denounce Kamala Harris' meeting with pro-choice lawmakers

HIGHLAND SPRINGS, Va.  Pro-life activists have denounced the efforts of Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic lawmakers in Virginia to make the state a safe haven for abortion, calling their views extreme and out of touch.

The vice president held a roundtable with state lawmakers on Saturday morning in the Richmond area, focusing on the issue of preserving abortion access in the Commonwealth.

Harris has also met with state legislators in other states as part of the overall effort of the Biden administration to respond to the overturning of Roe v. Wade last month, which has resulted in several states passing greater restrictions on abortion or banning nearly all abortions.

Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation of Virginia, said in a statement emailed to The Christian Post on Friday that the Biden administration's stance on abortion is too extreme.

There is little doubt that the extreme position of Vice President Harris and the Biden administration, promoting the taking of unborn life through the moment of conception for any reason at taxpayer expense will play well with the $1 billion abortion industry and those in the General Assembly who think we need more abortions, not fewer, Cobb said.

But that position is out of touch with every day Virginians who support common sense pro-life laws and who voted against that extreme view just last November, she added, alluding to the election of pro-life Republican Glenn Youngkin as governor of Virginia.

Olivia Gans Turner, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, told CP on Saturday that she believed the pro-choice leadership of the state Senate have made it abundantly clear that they have no interest in having any kind of rational conversation about abortion regulations.

They simply want to maintain the status quo, which protects the abortion industry in Virginia, said Turner, noting that they have the votes in the Senate to defeat any pro-life bills.

Turner told CP that she believed efforts to advance pro-life legislation in Virginia will not become more likely until after General Assembly elections next year.

We have a goal. The goal will be to, as soon as possible, pass the strongest protective legislation possible, but that probably wont be this year, she said.

The elections in 2023, which give us a chance to shift the balance of authority from pro-abortion individuals in the Senate and even adding more pro-lifers to the House, is the best shot we have at getting to a reality of passing true pro-life laws in 2024.

During the vice president's roundtable, which was held at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 666 headquarters near Richmond, the vice president and lawmakers in Virginia's General Assembly spoke about repealing limits on abortion.

State Senator Jenn McClellan gave the opening remarks, noting how in the past couple of years, Democrats in the General Assembly have repealed common practices in abortion clinics, such as requiring each woman to have an ultrasound.

McClellan described ultrasounds as medically unnecessary restrictions to abortion. However, abortion clinics use ultrasounds to determine the gestational age of a preborn baby and the type of abortion procedure that will be performed, as well as the fee the abortionist will charge the patient since fees increase daily during each trimester.

Because of this, McClellan touted Virginia as the first state in the South to expand access to abortion care, even while other states were exacting bans.

McClellan also talked about working with her colleagues in the General Assembly to get a state constitutional amendment passed that would codify abortion as a right in the Commonwealth.

During her remarks, Harris insisted that a person does not have to abandon your faith or your beliefs to agree the government should not be making that decision for that woman.

It may not be something you choose to do, but lets all agree when it comes to the most intimate decisions that a woman can make, intimate decisions about heart and home, she should be able to do that without the government telling her what to do, the vice president said.

State Sen. L. Louise Lucas also championed Virginia as a safe haven for abortion, adding that were going to fight like hell to make sure it stays that way.

Also present for the roundtable was Democratic U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin who represents the Fourth Congressional District of Virginia and once served in the General Assembly.

McEachin declared his support for Congress codifying abortion into law, though he stopped short of the current call by some in his party to end the filibuster in order to do so, and preferred an amending of it instead.

You dont have to do away with the filibuster rule, he said. But the least we can do is say that the filibuster shall not apply when were talking about a persons civil rights.

When asked for comment about the roundtable, Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter directed CP to a statement Youngkin made last month regarding the overturning of Roe.

I'm proud to be a pro-life governor and plan to take every action I can to protect life. The truth is, Virginians want fewer abortions, not more abortions, Youngkin said at the time.

We can build a bipartisan consensus on protecting the life of unborn children, especially when they begin to feel pain in the womb, and importantly supporting mothers and families who choose life.

Youngkin also mentioned his intention to have state lawmakers, including Sens. Siobhan Dunnavant and Steve Newman and Delegates Kathy Byron and Margaret Ransone to find areas where we can agree and chart the most successful path forward.

I've asked them to do the important work needed and be prepared to introduce legislation when the General Assembly returns in January, the governor added.

Members of the press were allowed into the event but only for 25 minutes. No opportunity was given for questions.
Sean Feucht identifies 4 key issues the Church must boldly address in secular culture

Evangelist Sean Feucht has challenged the Church to address four key issues he believes are key to combating an increasingly secularized culture and lamented the lack of courage many church leaders exhibit in the face of social pressure.

In an interview with The Christian Post, the 38-year-old worship leader reflected on some of the issues he believes pastors and church leaders must address boldly, starting with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

"I think that the church's response to the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, it was a horrible response," Feucht said. "I think people should have been celebrating and thank God that this 50-year prayer that we've been asking for, the reversing of this death decree, there should have been a whole lot more praise and a whole lot more thanks and a whole lot more pointing to God's faithfulness."

Second, Feucht, a father of four, lamented that the Church "isn't really addressing" gender confusion and sexual identity.

"We're allowing our kids to be sexualized by culture. We're not clearly defining what a man and what a woman is and the beauty of God's divine design."

The former Bethel worship leader revealed that his recently-released song, "Imago Dei," was birthed out of a desire to show God's heart for both the unborn and His divine design for humanity. The chorus includes the lines, "Imago Dei, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made/ Imago Dei, there's glory in all You create."

The Church also must address the family, Feucht said, adding: "The root of all of our issues in society, whether it's crime or whether it's corruption or even going back to the identity issues, a lot of it comes down to fatherlessness, and we are not we're not addressing that the root cause of the breakdown in society is the family."

"Healthy families build healthy communities, which build healthy nations," he said. "God has a divine prescription for all of that."

Finally, the Church needs to address repentance, Feucht said.

"We're not really talking about repentance," he stressed. "We do altar calls all over America and we call out sin. We see people set free from their shame and their addiction, and America is addicted right now to opioids. Americans are addicted to drugs, to fentanyl, to prescription meds, and we need to start calling those people out. People want to get free. We got to remind them how they can do that."

Feucht is no stranger to ruffling feathers. About two years ago, when California cracked down on church gatherings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he brought his "Let Us Worship" concerts to nearly 200 cities across the U.S. as a way for people to worship together.

His decision to hold evangelistic events in defiance of public health orders during the pandemic made media headlines and elicited a broad spectrum of responses, from praise to scorn, as documented in the forthcoming film "Superspreader," releasing Sept. 29. And now, he's on a mission to bring boldness back into the Church, a topic he tackles in his latest book, Bold: Moving Forward in Faith, Not Fear.

He contended that many church leaders fail to address complex issues due to a "secularization of the Church" and secular humanism that has crept into the Body of Christ.

"We've become seeker-friendly; we don't want to ruffle feathers. We've become powerless. Our meetings and gatherings are more like Christian clubs and less like the ecclesia, which is the ruling body government," Feucht said.

"We have to go back to the foundations of the Church. 'On this rock, on this Ecclesia, I will build my Church,' not on this cool Christian club that appeals to culture. We're allowing the Church to be defined by culture instead of the Church defining culture. We've really bought into a powerless gospel, and we're seeing the effects of it right now across America. We've got to get back to who the Church is and what it's called to be."

The Bible, Feucht added, has an "answer for every controversial issue," from religious liberty to abortion. He challenged pastors and church leaders to address such topics from the pulpit, even if it means offending some listeners.

"The Bible shows us clearly where to stand," he said. "And if we ever need truth tellers and Bible and people to speak the truth of God's word, it is right now. We've got to speak to the heart of the cultural issues because no point in Scripture do we see the disciples or Jesus saying, 'Well, actually, I don't want to talk about that because it's political. No, actually, because it's political, we should talk about it more we should bring a clear dividing line."
Megachurch Pastor Mike Jr. is taking gospel music by storm, but who is he?

Pastor Mike McClure Jr. snagged top awards at the 37th Stellar Gospel Music Awards over the weekend. The Christian Post spoke with the 38-year-old to get a closer look at the man and minister behind the great honor.

McClure, the leader and founder of the Rock City Church in Forestdale, Alabama, won a total of six Stellar Awards, including Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Contemporary Male Artist of the Year, Contemporary Album of the Year, Urban/Inspirational Single or Performance of the Year and Album of the Year for I Got It: Single's Ministry Vol. 1.

For a decade, McClure put his music aside to lead his expanding ministry. Before starting a church, however, he regularly led worship at his father's ministry and revival events.

"My entire life. I've loved God, the artist shared in a recent interview with CP.

McClure comes from a long line of ministry leaders. His grandfather, Bishop Calvin Woods, was the president of Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"I come from a family that was in rich tradition, he explained. "My father was a pastor, so serving God and loving people has been embedded in my DNA.

In 2009, at 25 years old, McClure started a church with 10 friends. Within a year, that church grew to include thousands of people.

"Within two years, we were filling up arenas in the city of Birmingham, transforming lives, he testified.

Still, music was always at the heart of who he is.

"I clearly heard the Lord tell me, For the next 10 years, love God, love your family, love your city, love your church, and the world will come looking for you, McClure recalled. "So when I started my church, I literally didn't do anything music related for the most part.

In 2019, 10 years later, he released his first solo single, Big, and the rest is history. The song made it to the top Top 20 Billboard charts, including Top Gospel Songs and Gospel Airplay.

The pastor told CP that his goal is very simple.

It's to inspire people and help push them to Jesus, he noted. Gospel music is the only genre of music where the message plus the melody equals a miracle.

"For me, the problem isn't music. It isn't the gospel. Sometimes, we have this weird way of making people feel unworthy of the Gospel, the Birmingham pastor explained.

McClure said his approach is to be "transparent and an inspiration" and show people that if "you trust God and dream big, He will come through for you.

He said his goal is not just to accumulate awards or to be famous but to help those who are "on the margins, the least, the lonely, the left out, and the loss." He wants to help people see that God loves them and has a purpose for them.

"Influence is better than money, he declared. So my goal is to have influence. So that mother who has a son in court was a good kid; he just made one bad decision. We can call the judge and say, Hey, sir, this is a good kid, he didnt mean it,' and help transform lives on a very real level.

McClure was incredibly humbled by his recognition at this year's Stellar Awards.

"No words can describe how I felt. I'm sitting in the room with Marvin Sapp whose 'Never Would Have Made It' [song] got me through some of the most difficult times in life. Then you look over there's Erica Campbell. Then you look to your right, there's James Fortune and there's [Kirk] Franklin. So for me, it's still surreal, he told CP.

He said he is just "a kid from Birmingham" who is crazy enough to dream.

McClure was named Artist of the Year for two consecutive years, something that has never happened in the history of the Stellar Awards.

It's just surreal, and for a lot of independent artists to walk up to me after and say, Man, thank you, you given me hope, you give me inspiration, it was worth it! the gospel performer concluded.

For more information on McClure, his music and ministry, visit his website.
Chinese authorities demolish underground church after bishop resists CCPs orders

Authorities in Chinas Hebei province demolished an underground Catholic church after its leader refused to join an association authorized by the Chinese Communist Party, according to a report.

The underground Catholic church had been gathering under a tent structure in Youtong village of Luancheng District in the city of Shijiazhuang when it was demolished while the churchs leader, Dong Baolu, who suffers from hemiplegia, was at a hospital for a check-up last month, Radio Free Asia reported.

China's communist regime ordered Dong and members of the church to align with the Catholic Patriotic Association, which they refused to do.

The church is part of the Zhengding diocese and many of its priests have already signed an agreement to join the state-sanctioned church. I am the only one left. Do you think theyd let me pass? I am the remaining one among more than 100 priests, certainly they will not spare me, the priest was quoted as saying.

The parishioners did not fight back against the demolition.

While the Vatican doesn't have formal relations with the Chinese Communist Party, it has participated in negotiations with Beijing since 2014 and signed a provisional deal with the regime in 2018 on the appointment of bishops that was renewed in 2020.

China and the Vatican have renewed a controversial agreement on the appointment of bishops, drawing criticism from rights groups who warn the deal will further hamper religious freedom in the communist country.

In October 2020, the Holy See and Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the renewal of the 2018 deal that was extended for two more years and will be due for renewal this fall.

The deal, the details of which have never been published, permits the Chinese government to propose names for new bishops to the Vatican through its state-approved Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, with the pope having veto power on the decision.

In turn, the Vatican recognizes the legitimacy of bishops previously appointed by the Chinese communist government and excommunicated by the church.

When communists gained power in China in 1949, they expelled Christian missionaries while allowing churches to function under the governments control. In 1957, the Chinese government established the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which is not under the authority of the Holy See.

Chinese Christians faced severe persecution during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and the 1970s under Mao, who saw religion as poison.

Churches are now allowed to function but only as long as they register with the government and thereby come under its control.

Open Doors USA, which monitors the persecution of Christians in over 60 countries, estimates that China has more than 97 million Christians, many of whom worship in unregistered or so-called illegal underground churches.

The five state-sanctioned religious groups in China are the Buddhist Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Islamic Association of China, the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

However, even the organizations within the five authorized religions are subject to surveillance and limitations, Bitter Winter previously reported.

In 2018, the Chinese government banned the sale of Bibles at online bookstores across the country to comply with a white paper that dictated compliance with the core values of socialism.

ABC News Australia reported at the time that copies of the Gospels had been removed from online retailers following the release of a regime document titled, Chinas Policies and Practices on Protecting Freedom of Religious Belief.

The white paper declared that Chinese faith communities should adhere to the direction of localizing the religion, practice the core values of socialism, develop and expand the fine Chinese tradition and actively explore the religious thought which accords with Chinas national circumstances.

As Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics earlier this year, many expressed outrage about Chinas treatment of religious minority communities. While China was accused of genocide for its detainment of Uyghur and other ethnic Muslims in western China, human rights activists had voiced concern for years about the Chinese governments longtime crackdown on unregistered churches and house church movements.
Republican attorneys general warn Google not to censor pro-life pregnancy centers in search results

A group of Republican state attorneys general have vowed to take action against Google if it follows through with congressional Democrats' demands to censor search results by preventing women from finding pro-life pregnancy centers when searching for abortion.

Virginias Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares and Kentuckys Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, along with 15 other state attorneys general, wrote a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai Thursday. They warned that the company could be investigated if it caved to demands by Democratic members of Congress to take action by preventing pro-life pregnancy centers from appearing in search results for queries about abortion clinics and abortion pills.

Democratic lawmakers are seeking to limit the appearance of anti-abortion fake clinics in Google Ads and on Google Maps. They claim that pro-life pregnancy centers are fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and dont provide comprehensive health services. These Democrats also argue that pro-life pregnancy clinics are "dangerous to womens health" and their appearance in search results "undermines the integrity of Googles search results."

Complying with these demands would constitute a grave assault on the principle of free speech, the attorneys general wrote. Unbiased access to information, while no longer a component of Googles corporate creed, is still what Americans expect from your company. [S]tudies have found web users are more likely to find and trust news through search than social media sites.

The attorneys general insisted that at least some Google users who search for information about abortion also expect to find information about alternatives to abortion, as evidenced by the fact that your search algorithmfree of the manipulation that left-wing politicians are demandingconsistently produces such results. They further asserted that suppressing pro-life and pro-mother voices at the urging of government officials would violate the most fundamental tenet of the American marketplace of ideas.

Noting that Google has monopoly power in the markets for search services and online advertising, the letter characterized the deployment of monopoly power to suppress the expression of a particular idea by censoring search results with information about pro-life pregnancy centers as a potential antitrust violation that is odious to American ideals. The attorneys general proceeded to explain the actions they would take against Google if it complied with congressional Democrats inappropriate demand.

Our offices will (1) conduct thorough investigations to determine whether this suppression violates the antitrust laws of the United States and our States; (2) investigate whether Googles conduct amounts to an unlawful act of religious discrimination under state law; and (3) consider whether additional legislationsuch as nondiscrimination rules under common carriage statutesis necessary to protect consumers and markets, they added.

Google has two options  protect the freedom of the marketplace of ideas or face legal consequences. American consumers expect diversity of opinion and thought, said Miyares in a statement. The idea that elected officials are both advocating for the removal of private charities and encouraging Google to outwardly discriminate against crisis pregnancy centers and silence voices different than their own is appalling.

The June 17 letter from congressional Democrats to Pichai, crafted by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and 18 other lawmakers, cited concerns about the possible overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide as the justification for their push for the censorship of Google search results to exclude anti-abortion fake clinics. The Supreme Court ultimately overturned Roe in the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision a week later.

The attorneys generals letter concluded with a request to answer questions inquiring as to whether Google has taken or intends to take any steps to treat crisis pregnancy centers any differently with regard to Google search results, Google Ads, Google Maps, or any other Google service than they were treated before the leak of the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization and if so, what steps it had taken. The letter requested a response to the questions within 14 days.

The letter from congressional Democrats to Pinchai came a month-and-a-half after Politico published a leaked draft opinion in the Dobbs case indicating that a majority of Supreme Court justices were poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. In the aftermath of the publication of the leaked Dobbs draft, several churches and pro-life pregnancy centers have become the target of vandalism by pro-abortion activists. In many cases, graffiti reading fake clinic has been spray-painted on the facilities.

While the pro-life pregnancy centers are chastised by Democrats and pro-abortion activists for their opposition to abortion, the attorneys general highlighted a study from the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute that elaborated on the services the organizations provide. The study found that pro-life pregnancy centers served over 1.8 million clients in 2019, providing services valued at $266 million at little or no cost to their patients.

Examples of such services cited in the letter include free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, parenting and prenatal education classes, post-abortive care and recovery counseling, and free or reduced-cost diapers, baby clothes, car seats and strollers.

Stressing that these pregnancy centers serve women, no matter who they are or what they believe, the attorneys general expressed concern that the attacks threaten not only those affiliated with the centers, but also the mothers in desperate need of the assistance the centers provide.

House Republicans attempted to pass a resolution condemning the attacks against pro-life pregnancy centers and churches this week but their effort was blocked by congressional Democrats.

House Republicans attempted to pass a resolution condemning the attacks against pro-life pregnancy centers and churches this week, but congressional Democrats blocked their effort.
House approves bill codifying right to contraception into federal law

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would codify the right to contraception into federal law due to concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn a 1965 decision establishing a right to obtain birth control.

The Democrat-controlled House voted to approve the Right to Contraception Act, with eight Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting the measure.

The push to pass the legislation stems from concern among congressional Democrats that the June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court decision that reversed the Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide will pave the way to overturn the Griswold v. Connecticut decision that legalized contraception nationwide.

In a statement published last week, Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., who introduced the bill in the House, insisted that "Americans' reproductive freedom, including the longstanding right to contraception, is at risk under this extreme Supreme Court and Republican state legislatures across the country."

"[W]e have already seen state governments attempt to restrict contraceptive methods and obstruct people's private health care choices," Manning said. She described contraception as a "key to achieving gender equality, improving health outcomes for women and their families, bolstering educational and economic opportunity for all, and ensuring people are in control of their own bodies and futures."

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, supports the bill.

"Our rights and access to abortion are hanging by a thread. But they're not just coming for abortion  they're coming for contraceptives, LGBTQ+ rights, and more," she said. "While birth control is certainly no substitute for abortion access, access to contraception is critical to control our own bodies, reproductive health care, and futures."

The national pro-life advocacy organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has characterized the bill as the "Payouts for Planned Parenthood Act."

In a letter to lawmakers, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said, "this bill has less to do with the ability of individuals to obtain contraception and more to do with ensuring federal funding for abortion providers who also happen to provide contraceptives."

She argues the bill does more than allow access to contraception but also "seeks to bail out the abortion industry, trample conscience rights, and require uninhibited access to dangerous chemical abortion drugs."

"This bill seeks to guarantee funding to abortion providers by barring federal and state governments from redirecting contraception funding to life-affirming health care providers," Dannenfelser added.

"The bill also tramples on freedom of conscience of laws, thereby driving out providers who have deeply held moral or religious beliefs about sterilization and contraceptives. Further, the bill explicitly excludes application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

The pro-life organization contends that the "definition of contraceptives in this bill is overbroad" and "could mandate access to abortion drugs."

According to Dannenfelser, the bill "states that contraceptives include drugs, devices, or biological products intended for contraception, 'whether specifically intended to prevent pregnancy, or for other health needs.'"

"This could include non-controversial applications of the drug but also include the use of the drug to induce abortion," Dannenfelser said. "What follows is that [the bill] would then require the right to obtain a chemical abortion, the right to provide a chemical abortion, and would overturn any law that regulates chemical abortion by singling it out."

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced companion legislation in the evenly divided U.S. Senate. The bill's future remains uncertain, as most legislation requires 60 votes to pass the Senate. The low level of Republican support for the Right to Contraception Act in the House suggests the bill might not achieve the necessary GOP votes required to secure passage in the Senate.

While the text of the House bill was not published, the text of the Senate legislation does include a provision defining a contraceptive as "any drug, device, or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy, whether specifically intended to prevent pregnancy or for other health needs." It also states, "Providers' refusal to offer contraceptives and information related to contraception based on their own personal beliefs impede patients from obtaining their preferred method."

The measure also states that "a health care provider has a corresponding right to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception."

In a concurring opinion in the June 24 Dobbs decision, Justice Clarence Thomas slammed the principle of "substantive due process" as "legal fiction." Explaining that substantive due process was used to assert that the Constitution contained a right to abortion, he suggested that the Supreme Court should "reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents," including Griswold.

At the same time, Thomas agreed with the majority opinion in Dobbs that "[n]othing in [the court's] opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion."

While he described Griswold and other cases involving substantive due process as "demonstrably erroneous," he expressed an openness to deciding "whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated," including the right to contraception.

The House's passing of the Right to Contraception Act comes two days after the chamber approved the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide into federal law.

Along with Griswold, Thomas listed Obergefell as among the "substantive due process" cases he thought the court should revisit.
God justifies the ungodly, but not the self-righteous

Everyone knows that in order for God to forgive your sins and accept you into his family, you must first prove yourself worthy of such acceptance, right? Not so fast. The fact of the matter is that the Bible teaches just the opposite. Scripture declares that God justifies the ungodly.

Yes, you read that correctly. God justifies the ungodly. But dont take my word for it. Look at how the Word of God explains it: To the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness (Romans 4:5).

This concept is completely revolutionary to mans natural way of thinking. We tend to think that God justifies those who are godly enough to merit justification. But that is not at all how it works in the Kingdom of God. The Gospel proclaims that man is justified through faith alone before he has performed any noble acts or righteous deeds (Romans 4:1-16).

We often assume that our personal righteousness is quite impressive, but Gods Word sets the record straight: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Romans 3:10-12).

Surely we must do something worthwhile in order for God to accept us, right? Wrong. God justifies the ungodly, but God does not justify those who are self-righteous. That is, those who are righteous in their own eyes. Romans reveals that there is no one righteous" in Gods eyes. This is why we desperately need "a righteousness from God," which is exactly what God gives believers through faith in Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from Law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:21-24).

God justifies sinners who admit their sin. God justifies those who have fallen short of the glory of God. God does not justify those who assume they have arrived spiritually by their own zealous efforts. This is why Jesus said, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).

While everyone is ungodly and in need of the Savior, only those who see their sin are ready to appreciate what Jesus did for us on the cross. Do you recognize your sin today? Do you see your need for the Savior? Do you realize that you are ungodly, unrighteous, and lost apart from Christ? If you are aware of your spiritual sickness and aware that Jesus came for sinners, then you are ready to receive Jesus.

Faith without works is dead, (James 2:26) but this does not mean that a person can work his way into the Christian faith. You can only repent and believe your way into Gods family. (Acts 2:38-41; Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21). Good works are the fruit of saving faith in Jesus Christ, but good works never produce faith or earn the forgiveness of sins. Salvation is a free gift received through faith in Christ. (Romans 6:23)

Notice who Jesus had the harshest words for in his earthly ministry. It was not the prostitutes, tax collectors or adulterers who were called by the Lord to repent and believe the good news. Instead, his harshest words were reserved for the religious leaders who assumed that their righteous acts were worthy of salvation. But they were dead wrong.

Jesus told them:

Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!Woe to you, blind guides!You blind fools!You blind men!Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead mens bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness (Matthew 23:13,16-17,19,27-28).

God justifies the ungodly, but not those who claim to be without sin. (1 John 1:8-9). God justifies those who know their spiritual sickness, but not those who pretend to be spiritually healthy and who claim to have no need for the cross where Jesus gave his life for sinners.

Jesus told the self-righteous religious leaders:

Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are (Matthew 23:15).

On the other hand, Jesus told a woman caught in adultery: Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin (John 8:11). God justifies the ungodly, but not unrepentant sinners, who are a long way from the kingdom of heaven. This explains why Jesus once told a group of people, But unless you repent, you too will all perish (Luke 13:3).

Are you self-righteous? If so, you are in grave danger. However, if you are ungodly and you know it, and if you want to be righteous in Gods eyes, then there is tremendous hope for you today. You are near the kingdom of heaven. Turn from sin as you call on the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved.

You who are ungodly will be gladly received by the One who is perfect, loving and forgiving. You can pray this simple prayer right now: Wash me Jesus with your precious blood. And always remember: Jesus never turns away ungodly people who come to him in sincerity, humility, repentance and faith.
I have voted Republican for many years, but I don't put my trust in a political party

Because the Republican platforms over the years have been much closer to my values than the Democratic platforms, I have voted Republican for as long as I can remember. But when it comes to bringing about moral and cultural change in America, I do not look to a political party. Not a chance. There is moral compromise in both major parties, and the battle we are fighting for the soul of the nation is a spiritual battle long before it is a political battle. The recent House vote to codify same-sex marriage was yet another reminder for us.

As reported by Fox News on July 19:

A vote to codify same-sex marriage into federal law split House Republicans on Tuesday, with roughly a third of the GOP conference voting with Democrats in favor and the rest opposing. In a 267-157 vote, the House passed legislation repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and enshrining protections for gay marriage into federal law. Overall, 47 House Republicans voted with nearly every single Democrat to back the measure, dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act.

Let that sink in for a moment.

It is bad enough that this bill is called the Respect for Marriage Act, seeing that the marriage of which it speaks represents a radical and fundamental redefining of the institution of marriage.

And it is to the shame of the Democratic Party that nearly every single Democrat voted in favor of the measure.

But it is no surprise that the Democrats voted this way, seeing that they are overtly and proudly pro-LGBTQ+. Perhaps the only surprise is that there were any who did not toe the line.

But for 47 Republicans to vote this way, representing almost 25 percent of all Republicans in the House, is both surprising and shameful.

Thats because the Republican Party is supposed to be the pro-life, pro-family party, the party that upholds traditional Judeo-Christian values. Why else do so many conservative Christians vote Republican if not for these core moral and social values?

The fact is that the redefining of marriage by the Supreme Court in 2015 represents one of the most radical social developments in our nations history, fundamentally changing the meaning and purpose of marriage.

In fact, the same Barack Obama who lit up the White House in rainbow colors to celebrate the 2015 ruling is the same person who said while campaigning in 2008 that, as a Christian, he believed marriage was the union of one man and one woman.

Not only so, but Proposition 8, which was on the ballot in 2008 in California and which upheld the historic definition of marriage, was passed with the help of the large turnout of African American voters. They voted for Barack Obama, but in keeping with their largely conservative family values, they voted for Proposition 8. In their mind, the man they were voting for shared their views.

Thats how dramatically and quickly the tide changed in our nation, from candidate Obama affirming male-female marriage to President Obama shifting his views already in his first term.

Thats part of the reason we find ourselves in the midst of such cultural madness today, where the very meaning of woman is hotly debated, where medical websites use acronyms such as AFAB and AMAB (meaning, assigned female at birth and assigned male at birth) rather than female and male, and where even the Merriam-Webster dictionary has expanded its definition of female.

The normalizing of same-sex marriage simply represented the proverbial camels nose entering the tent, to be followed by: 1) the amping up of radical trans activism in the schools, in the workplace, on TV and social media, and in sports; 2) the rise of drag queens, to the point that the American Library Association endorses drag queens reading stories to little children in libraries; 3) the increasing marginalization of those holding to conservative Christian values on both grass roots and legal levels.

In fact, if I provided links just to my relevant articles on these subjects over the last 7 years (since Obergefell), this entire page (literally) would be filled with see here and here and here . . . . The list is almost endless. (For the moment, if you want devastating proof of #3 in the list, above, go here.)

Really now, redefining marriage was not even on the radar for leading gay activists just a few decades ago, since under no circumstances was a cultural shift of this enormity even envisioned. Yet here we stand today when 47 Republicans voted to codify this radical redefinition of our most fundamental social institution.

Again, as I have said many times, by saying this, I do not mean that gay couples do not love each other deeply. And I do not deny that many of them are incredibly devoted parents. I simply mean that marriage throughout history, with the rarest and slightest exceptions (like Nero marrying a man who took on female characteristics), has always been the union of a male and female. And from a biblical perspective, the idea of two men or two women marrying would be utterly abhorrent.

For 47 House Republicans to vote to protect this new version of marriage is deplorable (in the worst sense of the word), regardless of what Republican Senators decide to do.

And it is another reminder that, while I continue to prefer Republican policies to Democrat policies, by and large, I absolutely do not look to either party to be major agents of righteous moral and cultural change. That remains the calling of the Church and the role of the gospel.

As I argue in my forthcoming book, The Political Seduction of the Church, to confuse the role of politics with the role of the gospel is a fatal mistake. We cannot afford to make it again.
Televangelist Creflo Dollar preaches against tithing

In two recent Sunday sermons, televangelist Creflo Dollar preached against tithing based on fear and guilt. On July 3, Dollar told his congregation, I would argue that tithing isnt required or even encouraged for believers in Jesus Christ.

Instead, Dollar is now preaching that Christian giving should be based on gratitude.

Dollar made a surprising announcement in his June 26 sermon titled The Great Misunderstanding about how his beliefs on tithing changed.

I want to start off by saying to you that Im still growing and that the teachings Ive shared in times past on the subject of tithing were not correct. And today, I stand in humility to correct some things I have taught for years and believed for years, but could never understand it clearly because I had not been confronted with the Gospel of grace, which has made the difference.

"I wont apologize cause 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 saying to you, throw away every book, every tape and every video I did on the subject of tithing unless it lines up with this.

While Dollars rejection of fear-based giving is welcome, a lot of questions remain, and Trinity Foundation investigators wonder if Dollar is simply changing his message to appeal to a larger audience.

Yes, consider us skeptical. If a preacher is unwilling to apologize for leading people astray, does he really stand in humility as Dollar claimed?

If Dollar really wants to change course, he should abandon his extravagant lifestyle and also embrace financial transparency with accountability.

Dollar owns two jets registered to a shell company named World Heir (seriously?!): a Gulfstream G-IV and Learjet 60.

Creflo and Taffi Dollar own two expensive homes very close to each other. According to real estate website Redfin the properties are worth about $5.7 million.

Dollar should also explain to his congregation all of his business dealings in foreign countries. In March 2006, Dollar established YBC Limited and The Change Association Limited in the Bahamas. What is the purpose of these offshore entities?

Preachers must do more than just preach accurately about money. They should live a godly lifestyle that doesnt contradict Scripture. Dollar, are you listening?

Originally published at the Trinity Foundation
Where evil abounds in Ukraine, the Church is the best remedy

Standing outside the train station right at the border of Poland and Ukraine, our leadership team decided to gather for prayer.

As we united to pray, I heard a panic scream so loud that it emanated through the stream of Ukrainian refugees rushing past us. Quickly slipping through the stampede, I discovered a woman crying out in desperationan anguish I have rarely witnessed in my travels to disaster areas and impoverished regions around the globe.

Fearing our interpreters response, I asked him, What is she saying?

His choked up reply should break even the calloused of hearts. She is saying, Wheres my child? Wheres my daughter? He explained, While there is so much good happening here, there is also much darkness that this war has unleashed. Human traffickers are everywhere on the Ukrainian borders stealing young women. For young women, this train station has become a haunted house. In just the week we were there, we learned that the police arrested 50 suspected traffickers.

I witnessed the Polish police respond to the screaming mothers pleas for help. However, their body language was loud and clear  any attempt to find her daughter would be futile.

As I write this, my keypad is splattered with teardrops I clearly remember the terror on that mothers face. The only way to describe my emotions in that moment is a caldron of anger and a sense of helplessness.

Prior to writing this story, I questioned whether I should share what I witnessed, and wondered, What good will it do if it will only make people sad and fearful of experiencing the same fate as this mother?

Yet this story underscores, in the most graphic way, the importance of supporting local churches along the Ukrainian border.

It is imperative to realize that at this moment when most Ukrainians are fleeing for their lives, the local church may be their only safe place from the predictors of war, and evil predators. One young woman shared with us that evildoers are using social media to lure Ukrainians into their homes in order to murder us and sell our body parts. No one should have this kind of fear while fleeing for their lives, with the hope to survive.

Churches around the world have already faithfully answered the call to help those in harm's way. Thankfully, many realize that the church is one of the most generous, efficient, and compassionate responders when an emergency occurs anywhere around the world.

If you havent already, please consider partnering with your local church to get help to Ukraine quickly. At CityServe International, were doing just that. Were connecting local churches in the U.S. with local churches in Ukraine, Poland, and Romania to expand their capacity, rescue, and care for Ukrainian refugees by providing them with the funds and much-needed supplies to keep refugees safe. Its the church helping the church. And its working.

The war drags on, and that can cause us to grow numb to this news cycle. But please dont. We cant accept this as the new normal. We can make a Ukrainians life better, one generous gift at a time.
Afghanistan's first female mayor says Taliban is waging 'genocide' against minority group

A woman who served as the first female mayor in Afghanistan is urging the U.S. government to declare the Taliban's treatment of the Hazara ethnic group a genocide as the first anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Central Asian country approaches.

Azra Jafari, who formerly served as mayor of Nili in Afghanistan's Daykundi province, was one of several speakers to address the annual International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., late last month.

Jafari was appointed the first female mayor in Afghanistan in 2008 and held the post until 2014. She has become a vocal advocate for women's rights and a staunch critic of the control the Taliban has taken since the U.S. military's withdrawal from the country last year.

In an interview with The Christian Post, she shared concerns about religious freedom in Afghanistan and the threats to women and minorities in the country.

Nearly a year after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Jafari says the situation on the ground has turned bleak for women and her Hazara ethnic group.

Hazaras are a predominantly Shia Muslim ethnic group of over 3.5 million that primarily reside in central Afghanistan. The ethnic group has long been subject to violence at the hand of state actors and militant groups and is considered by some to be historically the most discriminated against ethnic group in Afghanistan.

As violence against the minority group has escalated in the past year, she said: "the Taliban [is] trying to ban the internet" to prevent journalists from covering incidents in the country.

Jafari stated that the Taliban has engaged in a deliberate campaign to "kill and then displace" members of the ethnic group from their homes which has led to the displacement of more than 1,400 families.

Reports have surfaced in the past year of massacres targeting Hazara people, including the killing of 13 Hazaras in the Daykundi province. Reports have also emerged of evictions of thousands of Hazara families from their homes in the Daykundi province and Mazar-e-Sharif based on claims they had no ownership over their land.

The Taliban look for the "smallest cues" to determine whether someone is part of the Hazara ethnic group or not, she said. This includes looking at their face or learning their name. Jafari reported that once the Taliban determines that someone is a Hazara, "they kill you right away."

"This is like a genocide against Hazaras," she said.

Jafari maintained that "the international community is silent and they cannot do anything with this situation right now" because of the Taliban's effort to take control of the internet.

Jafari hopes that her appearance at the International Religious Freedom Summit would raise awareness about the plight of the Hazaras.

"I want to ask for the U.S. government to take action  for the protection of Hazara minorities in Afghanistan because really it is genocide," she proclaimed.

While Jafari dates the beginning of the genocide against Hazaras to more than a century ago, she sees now as the time to "protect the Hazara community from Afghanistan" and wants the U.S. to "recognize what happened [to the] Hazara ethnicity in Afghanistan as a genocide."

Jafari, a Shia Muslim, insisted that the Taliban, a Sunni nationalist movement, does not believe in "rights for minorities or other religions in Afghanistan." From their perspective, she maintained, Sunni Islam should be the only religion practiced in the country.

Since retaking power, Jafari declared, the Taliban has "started exactly the same model of governance" they embraced when they last ruled Afghanistan before the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 and the subsequent U.S. military involvement in the nation.

"This is not acceptable for not only women, it is not acceptable for anybody, especially for the religious minorities."

Although the Taliban is "trying to act like they are changed" and accept "all religions or every people that live in Afghanistan," Jafari sees such pronouncements as insincere.

She highlighted the Taliban's refusal to honor Afghanistan's constitution that essentially declares that "everybody is the same," whether male or female or Sunni or Shia. The Taliban has also "closed the last worship place" for Hindus in Afghanistan and prevented religious minorities from holding "special events in the streets."

Jafari characterized reports of violence between the Islamic State and the Taliban as "fake news" designed to distract "international communities" and the media from the "other big issues" in Afghanistan, specifically the violence against the Hazaras. She acknowledged that there may be a "small conflict" between the two groups and predicted they could "solve it very easily."

Jafari elaborated on the oppression of women and other ethnic minorities at the hands of the Taliban, stating that they are banning women from "society," "politics" and the "economy."

"All women are in the house and then they can't do anything," she said.

She reported that "women cannot go to school and don't have any right to do any jobs like as a judge or in [a] high-ranking position."

Jafari identified elementary school teachers and hospital employees as among the only jobs open to women following the Taliban takeover.

For her part, Jafari is free from the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, as she has resided in Maryland since 2014. The Taliban's threat against her prompted her to escape to the U.S.

As a teenager and young adult, Jafari had previously spent time as a refugee in Iran, where she opened a school for other refugees who could not go to school because they lacked the proper identification from the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. She started the school when she was 17 years old and worked there for almost six years.

Jafari returned to Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks. While her school operated without permission from the Iranian government as an "underground school," it educated over 8,000 students. Her friends took control of the school after she returned to Afghanistan for about one year before the government closed the school because it was illegal.

Jafari expressed gratitude that many children who went to the "underground school" ended up continuing their education and obtaining college degrees at institutions worldwide.
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

A trip to Texas wouldn't be complete without stops at the Alamo and Buc-ee's and B.J. Novak, who is starring in the new movie Vengeance (his directorial debut) made sure he pinned those visits to the itinerary during his stint in the state to promote the new film.

Novak, who previously starred in and spent some time writing for NBC's hit series The Office, plays Ben Manalowitz in the movie about a New Yorker traveling across the country to West Texas to investigate the death of a woman he had been dating.
WASHINGTON - Steve Bannon, the right-wing podcaster and longtime confidante of former president Donald Trump, was convicted Friday of contempt of Congress for his refusal to provide documents or testimony to a House committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

Bannon, 68, is the closest person to Trump to be convicted of a crime amid the fallout from the attack on the Capitol, which occurred as lawmakers met to formally tally the 2020 presidential election result. The contempt case involved legislative efforts to investigate the Jan. 6 violence and what led up to it, however, rather than the actual events of the day.

The trial, which lasted a week and only featured two witnesses, tested a rarely used criminal statute meant to ensure people comply with congressional subpoenas. The verdict, after 2 1/2 hours of jury deliberations, sent a message to other potential committee witnesses, the panel's chair and vice chair said in a joint statement.

"The conviction of Steve Bannon is a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the Select Committee's work," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman, and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair, said. "Just as there must be accountability for all those responsible for the events of January 6th, anyone who obstructs our investigation into these matters should face consequences."

As he prepared for trial, Bannon had vowed to go "medieval" on his enemies. But most of his legal arguments were rejected by the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, and the tough-talking defendant ended up calling no witnesses.

As he waited for the verdict, Bannon did not show much emotion, fiddling with a black mask on the defense table. His hand went still as "guilty" was read twice. Outside of the courthouse, Bannon appeared unperturbed, thanking the jury, the judge and the court workers.

"I only have one disappointment," he said. "And that is the gutless members of that show trial committee, the J6 committee, didn't have the guts to come here and testify."

In closing arguments earlier in the day, Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston told jurors that the case "is not complicated, but it is important . . . The defendant chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law."

Bannon's lawyer, David Schoen, called the conviction "a foregone conclusion" based on pretrial rulings but said he would file a "bulletproof" appeal. "You'll see this case reversed," he predicted.

Nichols scheduled sentencing for Oct. 21. Each of the two misdemeanor charges is punishable by at least 30 days and up to one year in jail. But that does not guarantee Bannon will end up behind bars; no one has been incarcerated for contempt of Congress in more than half a century, since the red-baiting hearings of the Cold War era.

Gaston, in her closing, highlighted Bannon's failure to respond or to produce a single document before the subpoena deadline, after which Bannon's attorneys asserted that Trump intended to invoke executive privilege.

"When it really comes down to it, he did not want to recognize Congress's authority or play by the government's rules," she said. "Our government only works if people show up. It only works if people play by the rules."

"His belief that he had a good excuse not to comply does not matter," Gaston told jurors, drawing out the final words to make the point.

In his closing argument, defense lawyer M. Evan Corcoran suggested that the committee's subpoena was illegitimate and politically motivated, and that the deadlines for Bannon to comply were merely "placeholders" for further negotiation.

Bannon "didn't intentionally refuse to comply with a subpoena. Absolutely not," Corcoran said. "He didn't intentionally refuse to comply with anything."

Much of Bannon's trial strategy seemed designed to bolster a future appeal.

Nichols had earlier rejected a host of potential defenses, including Bannon's contention that Trump had claimed executive privilege over his testimony and documents. The judge, a 2019 Trump appointee who served in George W. Bush's Justice Department from 2005 to 2009, said Bannon's lawyers were mostly limited to the issue of whether their client understood the deadlines for answering lawmakers' demands, and that otherwise his reasons for not complying were irrelevant.

He also said Bannon could argue whether he thought the window for compliance remained open.

On Friday, Nichols twice stopped Corcoran from offering arguments about the legitimacy of the subpoena that had previously been rejected.

Bannon's attorneys have signaled they will appeal Nichols' rulings that a defendant charged with contempt of Congress cannot raise as a defense that he or she was relying on the advice of counsel or believed their cooperation was barred by a president's claim of executive privilege.

Nichols had said he would wait until jurors return a verdict or are discharged before ruling on a defense motion challenging two other issues: whether prosecutors have met their burden of proof, and the judge's rejection of a defense request to call Thompson, the Jan. 6 committee chair, as a witness. He did not rule on those issues Friday afternoon.

In his closing, Corcoran took aim at the credibility of the main prosecution witness, Kristin Amerling, the chief counsel for the Jan. 6 committee and a longtime aide to Democratic lawmakers. He suggested that she and the Democrats on the committee were in a rush to score political points and punish Bannon, singling him out of more than 1,000 committee witnesses in an election year.

Gaston ridiculed that reasoning. "There is nothing political about figuring out why January 6 happened and how to make sure it never happens again," she said. "And there is nothing political about enforcing the law against someone who, like the defendant, flouts it."

After delivering their verdict, jurors left the courthouse without commenting.

Matthew M. Graves, the U.S. attorney whose office prosecuted the case, said after the trial that the subpoena "was not an invitation that could be rejected or ignored." Bannon refused, he added, "and now a jury has found that he must pay the consequences."

Stanley M. Brand, a former House counsel who has represented witnesses before the Jan. 6 committee and has been critical of some of the committee's operations, said Bannon had at least a "50-50" chance at overturning the conviction on appeal. Brand reasoned that an appeals court might decide that Bannon should have been allowed to tell the jury he relied on advice from his lawyer about executive privilege.

The trial began Monday with a full day of jury selection, during which several potential jurors were dismissed because of their familiarity with or opinions of the Jan. 6 riot and subsequent investigations.

The prosecution witnesses were Amerling, who described how Bannon did not engage with the committee until after he had missed the first response deadline; and FBI Special Agent Stephen Hart, who talked about his conversation with a lawyer who represented Bannon in his dealings with the committee, as well as postings made by one of Bannon's official social media accounts after he was subpoenaed.

Bannon is one of two former Trump aides to face criminal charges in connection with rebuffing the committee, along with former White House trade adviser Pete Navarro, whose trial is set for November.

The Justice Department has said it would not charge former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications chief Daniel Scavino Jr., who also were referred by Congress for potential criminal prosecution.

Unlike Bannon and Navarro, Meadows and Scavino engaged in months of talks with the committee over the terms and limits of potential testimony and executive privilege claims. Meadows also turned over thousands of text messages and communications with members of Congress and other White House aides before ending negotiations and withdrawing his appearance for a deposition.

And unlike the other three men, Bannon left the Trump White House in 2017 and was a private citizen at the time of the 2020 election and subsequent presidential transition.
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP)  It was like a scene in Stranger Things.

A student at the University of South Florida put on a cap covered with tiny sensors that record electrical signals in the brain. Then he began to stare at a computer screen.

The student, Tyree Lewis, was stoic. He folded his hands in his lap and silently looked forward.

But as Lewis sat motionless, a blank canvas on the nearby screen started to fill up with shapes: red circles and triangles, green squares.

Lewis was creating art with just his mind. Its a process called brain painting, when an individual mentally selects colors and shapes to make abstract digital images. It requires intense concentration.

USF computer science and engineering professor Marvin Andujar is studying whether college students diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, can use this futuristic technology to improve attention spans and reduce the need for prescription drugs, which can have side effects.

Lewis, a doctoral student whos assisting with the project in Andujars lab, performed a June demonstration of the brain exercise for Tampa Bay Times reporters. He does not have ADHD.

The overall goal of this project, Andujar said, is to eventually get the brain-painting tool into the hands of people outside the lab.

How can we help them create some sort of habit (where), while theyre improving their attention, at the same time theyre also improving their emotional state?

Andujar, a computer scientist in the USF College of Engineering and director of the Neuro-Machine Interaction Lab, previously focused on developing mind-controlled drones using brain-computer interfaces.

They allow users to operate drones with an electronic headband known as an electroencephalography system, which reads electrical signals in the brain. Those signals are translated into commands that prompt the drones to move. This process requires the participants complete attention to be successful.

In 2019, when showing off his drones at a business and technology summit in Tampa, Andujar said people with ADHD approached him and asked about the technology, saying it might help them improve their short attention spans. College students with ADHD also expressed interest after seeing it used elsewhere.

The community ... would tell me, We need this. This is useful, Andujar said.

ADHD is one of the most common mental health conditions, according to the World Health Organization. Its typically diagnosed in children and often lasts into adulthood. In 2016, an estimated 5.4 million kids ages 2 to 17 had ADHD in the U.S., accounting for about 8% of the age group.

At least 60% of children with the neurodevelopmental condition will experience symptoms as adults, researchers say. An estimated 2% to 8% of college students have ADHD.

Symptoms include hyperactivity, impulsiveness and difficulty paying attention. The condition is usually treated with behavioral therapy and prescription drugs such as Adderall, a medication that helps people concentrate.

Common Adderall side effects include decreased appetite and sleeping problems.

During a German study in 2010, a group of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, used brain-computer interface technology to brain paint. It offered them a new form of creative expression.

So Andujar wondered: Could those with ADHD use brain painting to improve their attention spans and emotional wellbeing  and minimize the amount of medication they need?

In 2020, the National Science Foundation funded Andujars brain-painting research with an $80,000 grant. He and his lab have since collected data on eight USF students who each used the brain-painting technology six times. Two of the participants had ADHD. The rest said they have struggled with their attention spans.

Heres how the brain exercise works: An individual straps on a $20,000 electrode cap dotted with sensors, then sits in front of a computer screen. Sometimes, the subject also wears an Oculus Rift headset to paint in virtual reality.

The screen displays color, shape and control options. The sensors detect electrical signals in the brain when a participant is staring at a specific option, eventually prompting a blank canvas to fill up with their selection.

Users must be totally focused on their painting, Andujar said. They shouldnt chat with friends or check their texts. If they do, they probably wont be able to paint what they want. Thats because the sensors wont detect them concentrating on their chosen option.

The process can be tiring for first-time participants, Lewis said.

Early results are promising, Andujar said. Five of the eight students have noted slight improvements in their attention spans.

Participants need an hour or two to create an initial brain painting. But the more they use the technology, he said, the faster they become.

The researchers plan to recruit more USF students to keep collecting data. The team also must secure additional funding because most of their grant has been spent, Andujar said.

At some point, he wants to host an art exhibit to showcase brain paintings.

But above all else, Andujar said he hopes to turn the technology into an effective and affordable therapy for those with ADHD.
Adam Kinzinger remembers what it was like to be the cool kid, the youngest star of the conservative revolution in 2010.

"I was one of his favorites early on," the Illinois Republican recalled.

Kinzinger was referencing the current House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who a dozen years ago, as a junior member of Republican leadership, helped recruit Kinzinger and dozens of others who propelled the party into the House majority.

The two stayed close over the years, as McCarthy would invite Kinzinger to exclusive fundraising getaways and charmed Kinzinger's mother by complimenting her on Instagram posts.

Now, as Kinzinger serves on the committee investigating former president Donald Trump's role in inciting the Capitol riot, he is no longer the baby-faced 32-year-old whose future seemed limitless.

Forced into early retirement later this year, he reserves his deepest anger for cohorts like McCarthy and other Republican leaders who keep falling in line with an ex-president whose actions they privately, and sometimes publicly, condemn.

"It's been the biggest, kind of, sad point in my career because I considered him a friend, like a true friend," Kinzinger said of McCarthy during an hour-long interview Friday, just 12 hours after he helped lead the committee's review of Trump's actions on the afternoon of the attack.

While Trump might actually believe the 2020 election was stolen in some deranged fantasy, these other Republicans know Joe Biden won fair and square but will not dare say so in public, he said. "These people, who could have stood up and know better, are the ones I'm more angry at. I know it's kind of dumb, a little bit, but they're the ones that make me pretty upset."

Kinzinger has lived a bit in the shadow of the only other Republican on the panel, Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyo., whose familial roots in a Republican dynasty have made her turn to anti-Trump insurgent a more dramatic storyline. But Cheney is just in her third term. Kinzinger's 12 years more closely represent the evolution of the modern Republican Party.

Without that tea party-infused class of 2010, which shifted the Republican Party on a course toward this nativist and nationalist ethos, Trump's presidential ambitions might never have lifted off that escalator back in 2015.

Kinzinger served in the Air Force, piloting fueling tankers and reconnaissance planes, including missions in Iraq. He launched a long-shot bid for a Democratic seat south of Chicago in 2009, epitomizing the "Young Guns" brand that McCarthy honed.

These freshmen flexed their muscle to get key committee assignments and deputy leadership posts, as well as demanding the repeal of Obamacare at a time when the health law's namesake served as president and would never agree to that.

As outside groups placed ideological litmus tests on obscure votes and divided the freshman class, he stayed close to party leaders. After redistricting in 2012 threw Kinzinger into a primary with a veteran Republican incumbent, McCarthy and former Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., then the majority leader, vociferously backed Kinzinger.

He steered clear of the 2010 class rabble rousers as they nearly caused a default on the national debt and fueled a long government shutdown in 2013. He instead focused on building allegiances with traditional Republican hawks on national security.

A picture with one of his closest friends from that time, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., still sits behind Kinzinger's desk even though he hasn't spoken to Trump's secretary of state since shortly after the 2021 insurrection.

Kinzinger couldn't bring himself to vote for Trump, and by late January 2017, when the new president visited Republicans at their legislative policy retreat in Philadelphia, the single 30-something lawmaker found temporary salvation in the bottle.

"I got super drunk," he recalled, laughing at those who mocked his bleary-eyed performance during a CNN interview the next morning. "Trump's president, how do we deal with this?"

In truth, Kinzinger dealt with it like most Republicans: compartmentalizing a few good policy positions while politely disagreeing with Trump on his erratic moves.

Kinzinger wanted lower taxes, more defense spending and conservative Supreme Court justices. After he flew on Air Force Two, Kinzinger happily posted a picture with Mike Pence, then vice president. "The President wants to talk to ya," he wrote on Instagram, bragging about their in-flight call with Trump.

When the sitting president tried to shake down Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to boost his 2020 reelection, Kinzinger found an excuse to oppose impeachment.

Democrats had rushed their case and not fully investigated the charges, he said at the time. But now, looking back, he admits that he was afraid of the conservative voters in his exurban district that wraps around Chicago. "It's like I knew, if I voted for that, I was done," he said.

By the fall of 2020, Kinzinger pulled off the worst rationalization of his political career: He voted for Trump. "That way I can say with a straight face I voted for him," Kinzinger explained, thinking about future discussions with voters. "I know he is not going to win, but I can say I did it. And so I have credit with the base."

Didn't that make him the sort of political coward he now despises? "Yeah, I was. Yeah, absolutely," Kinzinger admitted, saying he felt "dirty" casting that ballot. "It's not something I can square away in my soul fully."

But as Trump moved deeper into conspiracy theories, Kinzinger made a hard break. On New Year's Day in 2021, when House Republicans convened a conference call to discuss the Jan. 6 presidential certification, he gave a blunt warning.

"Kevin, you have convinced half of the country that the election was stolen. There's going to be violence," Kinzinger said, according to his recollection, prompting an unfazed response from McCarthy: "Thanks Adam, next caller."

McCarthy declined to comment for this story. A few weeks later, Kinzinger launched a political action committee to support anti-Trump Republicans just days after McCarthy visited the ex-president at his Palm Beach resort to pledge his allegiance again.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., launched the select committee last summer to investigate the Capitol attack, she refused to seat two of the Republican minority leader's selections, so McCarthy pulled all his members off the panel.

Kinzinger then gladly accepted Pelosi's offer to be on the committee. Once Illinois Democrats drew new lines that put him into the same district as a more reliable conservative, he decided to retire rather than go out in certain defeat.

On the Jan. 6 committee, Democrats lean on him to explain right-wing media so certain issues can be tamped down before they turn into conservative feeding frenzies.

"Nobody understands the GOP power structure better than Liz Cheney, but nobody understands the right-wing media infrastructure better than Adam Kinzinger," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a fellow committee member. "We don't even know how to find those channels."

Kinzinger grew up in a religious culture where "the end times" was frequently discussed. He learned how that could sometimes tip into "black helicopter" conspiracy, something he recognized when watching video of rioters blowing shofar horns as they marched through the Capitol.

"That is all the Jericho March, this is calling forth basically the new kingdom," he said. During the Jan. 6 riot, some insurrectionists were blowing shofar horns on the Senate floor. "It's all prophetic stuff," he said.

The committee's biggest break came from Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who initially handed over thousands of text messages but has since refused to cooperate. "Our star witness, even though he never cooperated, is Mark Meadows, because his texts that he did produce is the thing that really gave us the road map for where to go next," Kinzinger said.

Still a pilot in the Air National Guard, he can't avoid the aviation metaphor when it comes to the biggest dispute among committee members. "How do you, to use the stupid term that everybody's using now, how do you land the plane? How do you say, we've got enough, we're good to go?" he said.

Kinzinger's job ends at the end of the year. He'll be retired at the age of 44, married with a baby boy. Of the 87 Republicans who first won in 2010, only about 15 will take the oath in the House next January.

Of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, just one has secured his party's nomination for November. Kinzinger and three others decided to retire, while another lost a primary in June. Cheney and three more face tough primary contests next month.

For Kinzinger, the battle will continue. He hopes to run for office again years from now if his side can win the long-term fight against those who still choose Trumpian adulation.

"Trump is now secondary to the cancer. Trump is like a cancer of the liver. Now we have cancer in the whole body, and the next person that can mimic Trump can still pull his magic tricks," he said. "We've got to stand up against this."
Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who told The Washington Post that the company's artificial intelligence was sentient, said the company fired him on Friday.

Lemoine says he received a termination email from the company on Friday along with a request for a video conference. He asked to have a third-party present at the meeting, but he says Google declined. Lemoine says he is speaking with lawyers about his options.

Lemoine worked for Google's Responsible AI organization, and as part of his job began talking to LaMDA, the company's artificially intelligent system for building chatbots, in the fall. He came to believe that the technology was sentient, after signing up to test if the artificial intelligence could use discriminatory or hate speech.

In a statement, Google spokesperson Brian Gabriel said that the company takes AI development seriously and has reviewed LaMDA 11 times, as well as publishing a research paper that detailed efforts for responsible development.

"If an employee shares concerns about our work, as Blake did, we review them extensively," he added. "We found Blake's claims that LaMDA is sentient to be wholly unfounded and worked to clarify that with him for many months."

He attributed the discussions to the company's open culture.

"It's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information," Gabriel added. "We will continue our careful development of language models, and we wish Blake well."

Lemoine's firing was first reported in the newsletter Big Technology.

LaMDA utilizes Google's most advanced large language models, a type of AI that recognizes and generates text. These systems cannot understand language or meaning, researchers say. But they can produce deceptively humanlike speech because they are trained on massive amounts of data crawled from the internet to predict the next most likely word in a sentence.

After LaMDA talked to Lemoine about personhood and its rights, he began to investigate further. In April, Lemoine shared a Google Doc with top executives called, "Is LaMDA Sentient?" that contained some of his conversations with LaMDA, where it claimed to be sentient. Two Google executives looked into his claims and dismissed them.

Lemoine was previously put on paid administrative leave in June for violating the company's confidentiality policy.
WASHINGTON - The decline in Jill Biden's popularity was happening before the first lady apologized for comparing the diversity of the Latino community to the uniqueness of breakfast tacos at a conference celebrating Latinos in San Antonio last week. Before she mispronounced "bodegas" as "BO-gih-dahs" in the same sentence at the same conference. Before she'd expressed frustration with President Joe Biden's stalled domestic agenda at a private Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Nantucket, saying, "he had so many hopes and plans for things he wanted to do, but every time you turned around, he had to address the problems of the moment" - such as the war in Ukraine. Before the New York Post declared that speech her "pathetic excuses for Joe's endless failures."

A CNN poll had already finished fielding as Jill Biden's string of not-so-great news broke. Over the course of a month-long survey, 34% rated their opinion of the first lady as favorable, 29% said it was unfavorable, 28% had no opinion, and 9% said they never heard of her. Previous CNN polling showed significantly more Americans holding a favorable rather than unfavorable view of the first lady - by about 2 to 1 in January 2021, at the start of Biden's presidency.

So what's going on?

A first lady dipping in popularity alongside her husband is highly unusual. It also comes at a particularly bad time for Democrats and the Biden administration, who have relied on Jill Biden as one of their most powerful campaign surrogates and an uncontroversial bright spot for the White House. Last week, she spoke at three fundraisers over the course of five days, the final one on Monday, the day the CNN poll came out. The midterm elections that will determine whether President Biden gets a Congress that will support or torpedo his agenda are just four months away.

Is the first lady's falling popularity an early warning sign of a Democratic bloodbath in the midterms?

"I think it's a snapshot in time, and things are not going well for the administration," said Lauren A. Wright, an associate research scholar and lecturer of political science at Princeton University who studies first ladies. Dissatisfaction with President Biden is consistent in multiple polls, including ones conducted by Fox News and the New York Times. The issues pulling down his numbers are also probably affecting Jill Biden's, Wright said. But in such a "low popularity environment," Wright said, it's hard for a first lady to break through with a different message.

And what if that message is met with neither positive nor negative emotions, but neutrality? In the CNN poll, more than a third of adults said they had no opinion or had not heard of Jill Biden. That may have to do with the way the survey was conducted, compared with previous years, with most respondents having the option to choose "no opinion" when taking the survey online, rather than having to volunteer that they have no opinion in a phone survey.

"I think one outlier poll does not account for the real measure of how the American people feel about the first lady. And what is greater than one outlying poll is the interaction she has every single day she travels the country and the responses that she receives, the impact she has on the community, the impact the communities have on her, and the personal connection she makes," said a White House official who asked for anonymity to speak freely.

Modern first ladies have almost universally enjoyed higher approval numbers than their husbands - except Hillary Clinton at the start of Bill Clinton's presidency - and those ratings tend to remain buoyant even as their spouses' ratings sink, Wright said. First ladies are unelected, appear apolitical and are rarely controversial, prone to taking on universal good causes that are unlikely to cause offense, like Jill Biden's Joining Forces initiative to support military families. Even while ending her tenure with the lowest approval rating of any first lady, according to CNN and Gallup's polls dating back to Pat Nixon, Melania Trump - at 42% favorable to 47% unfavorable rating - was still besting her husband's low final favorability rating. There are even years, Wright said, when a first lady's popularity, incongruously, goes up as her husband's decreases.

That's what happened with Laura Bush, who had a 73% favorable rating in 2005 in a Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll, two years after President George W. Bush had started a war with Iraq, while her husband's rating was 46% favorable. "Even in places where, especially over the course of the second term, her husband was very unpopular, Laura Bush would still show up and raise money," said Katherine Jellison, a professor of history at Ohio University who studies first ladies. Michelle Obama, too, was a sought-after Democratic fundraiser when President Barack Obama's numbers were down.

Whereas presidents and first ladies typically travel on concentric orbits independent of one another in terms of popularity, this moment in the Biden presidency seems to have created a vortex that's pulling in his surrogates, too. The CNN poll showed President Biden with 36% favorable to 54 unfavorable rating. Vice President Kamala Harris's rating was 32% favorable to 49 unfavorable rating - a reversal of where she was at the start of the administration, with 51% favorable and 39% unfavorable.

"Some of that's the political times we live in," Jellison said. "It's becoming the case that if people have turned against a president, then anyone who touches that president is receiving some of that residue. And that didn't used to be the case."

That vortex effect seems to have begun with Melania Trump, whose numbers tracked downward with her husband's.

Jill Biden is also more political than any recent first lady, serving as a mouthpiece for her husband's agenda, which could tie her popularity more closely to his. She has toured the country promoting pandemic recovery, often going into Republican strongholds to talk about vaccines and schools reopening. This year, she met with the families of mass shooting victims in Buffalo and Uvalde and advocated for gun control.

The CNN poll showed Jill Biden is still more popular among Republicans than are the president and vice president, and that the three principals share equal popularity among independents, with about a third favorable. "There's some evidence that Jill Biden is being viewed differently "than the president and vice president," Wright said. "It's marginal, but it's definitely there."

That's good news for Democrats, who could benefit from her campaigning skills in upcoming months. She was used as the closer on the 2020 trail, speaking last at events in tiny towns across Iowa to send crowds off with a rousing finish. She's a seasoned pro with 30 years campaigning for her husband's Senate reelections and eight years as second lady. The administration seems poised to deploy her heavily. In November 2021, she went to Virginia to make last-minute stump speeches for the state's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, in his doomed race against Republican challenger, and now governor, Glenn Youngkin. She tested the midterms waters as early as March by attacking Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during public events and private Democratic National Committee fundraisers on a swing across Arizona, Nevada and Kentucky.

"If I were running a campaign, I'd invite her to come tomorrow. I wouldn't flinch about the polling," says Paul Begala, a CNN contributor and former adviser to Bill Clinton who has criticized Democrats as losing touch with the middle class. One cannot discount the media attention and fundraising pull that comes with a first lady simply showing up. And Jill Biden's community college teaching puts her in touch with "real America," Begala says, the kinds of working-class strivers the Democrats need to win back.

And it doesn't sound as if the Democrats are going to let a bad news cycle stop them from deploying her. The first lady is "one of the top raisers across the board for us as a party," said a Biden adviser who asked for anonymity to speak freely. She's constantly getting asked to headline events in key states, and will hit the trail even harder "as we're heading into the fall and a more aggressive campaign season," the adviser said.

Her last couple of weeks have been a flurry of activity, as she welcomed Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska to the White House, 2 1/2 months after she had visited her in a secret and historic trip across the Ukrainian border on Mother's Day.

It's part of a busy summer off from her job as a community college professor - the first woman in her role to maintain her professional career outside the White House - that's had her making trips this week to Connecticut, Michigan and Georgia with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to highlight a program to stem K-12 summer learning loss. On Monday, she spoke at a fundraiser for Equity PAC, a political action committee led by gay and lesbian members of the U.S. House. She also attended fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee in private residences in Andover and Nantucket, Mass., last week while in Boston to visit a Joining Forces initiative and speak at the American Federation of Teachers Conference.

It was at the DNC fundraiser in Nantucket that she stepped out from behind the lectern to speak informally and told attendees about the president's dashed hopes. "He's just had some many things thrown his way," she said, mentioning the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. "The gun violence in this country is absolutely appalling. We didn't see the war in Ukraine coming."

She also expressed frustration with Republicans in Congress for stalling progress on global warming and gun control. "They are not budging," she said. "Who would think that AR-15s make any sense for anything? Who doesn't believe in the need to deal with climate change?"

And she used the fundraiser as a rallying cry. "I know there are so many naysayers who say we'll get slammed in the midterms. OK. The Republicans are working hard, they stick together, for good or evil. So, we just have to work harder."

But what if that hard work doesn't have the effect you need? Jill Biden despite having a reputation for being a warm, vivacious communicator with a skill for the common touch, is a "cool personality" as far as media attention goes, says Jellison, adding, "she just doesn't pop like her predecessors did in terms of public interest." Relatable in an ordinary, everywoman kind of way is a great on a rope line, but it doesn't get you headlines.

The problem with making news, of course, is sometimes you make news for the wrong reasons. If Jill Biden getting attention is an asset for Democrats, the real work will be in making sure it's the kind of attention that leads to votes.

- - -

The Washington Post's Emily Guskin contributed reporting to this article.
OXFORD, Miss (AP)  A Mississippi man has been charged with murder in connection with the disappearance of a missing Ole Miss student.

Oxford police announced Friday that they arrested Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., 22, of Grenada. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal said that Herrington was being held without bond as of Friday afternoon. The missing student, Jimmie Jay Lee, disappeared the morning of July 8.

In a statement posted on social media, investigators said they are still working to find Lees body.

This is still an ongoing investigation and updates will be given at a later date, the statement reads.

An attorney for Herrington could not immediately be identified or reached for comment.

Lee was last seen leaving an apartment complex in Oxford. His family realized he was missing after he did not show up for a baby formula donation drive he had organized. Lee organized the event for his internship with the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services.

Oxford Police said Tuesday afternoon that the Mississippi Attorney Generals Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Oxford were assisting with the investigation.

On July 14, Oxford police released a recording featuring Lees father, Jimmie, pleading with the public for help in finding his missing son.

A graduate of Murrah High School in Jackson, Lee was a public policy major at Ole Miss. He was spending the summer in Oxford finishing his bachelors degree in social work. He had already been accepted into the master's program in social work at Ole Miss and was scheduled to start this fall.

Lee also was well-known in Oxfords LGBTQ community.

Lakiowa Milan, Lees neighbor, spoke to WTOK-TV, about the student following his disappearance.

Hell talk to anybody, hes kind of the life of the party, hes real sweet so its just unfortunate something like this has happened to him, said Milan.

A Facebook page appearing to be Herrington Jr.'s says he graduated with a BBA in Real Estate from Ole Miss in May. It also says he is the owner of an Oxford-based moving company.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Nashville police are investigating two separate fatal shootings that occurred at gas stations Friday night.

Police said the first killing at a Thornton's station at 7:25 p.m. was a targeted murder, according to a media release. A gunman shot and killed 23-year-old Kentrail Williams at the station on Eagle View Boulevard. Police said the gunman waited until Williams exited the store and opened fire, then fled in a white sedan. Williams died shortly after arriving at a hospital.

Later that night, 28-year-old Courtlyn Hendricks was involved in an exchange of gunfire and was shot, Nashville Police said. Investigators said Hendricks was parked at a Mapco gas station on Gallatin Pike South at 11 p.m. when a car blocked his vehicle in and began shooting. Henricks returned fire but was shot and died later at a hospital.

Nashville Police said anyone with information on the shootings should call Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463.
BETHESDA, Md. (AP)  A wealthy stock trader has been released from prison early after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a man he'd hired to dig tunnels under his home.

News outlets report that Daniel Beckwitt was released from prison Friday.
Wes Moore, a best-selling author who garnered high-profile celebrity and political endorsements, is projected by the Associated Press to win the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor, setting up a battle between a state legislator who rallied the Make America Great Again base and a charismatic political newcomer who, if elected, would be the state's first Black chief executive.

Moore beat two Obama Cabinet secretaries and another two candidates with multiple statewide wins to emerge from a crowded Democratic field.

Roughly two out of three Democrats picked someone else, and Moore will need to win them over. In November, Moore is poised to face off against Dan Cox, a freshman lawmaker backed by Donald Trump who claims that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen," as he seeks to return the governor's mansion to Democrats after two terms under Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

If elected in November, Moore, 43, a former nonprofit chief, would become only the third Black governor elected in the nation's history. He galvanized the party's base in the most diverse state on the East Coast with a message of equity and opportunity for all.

"I know a lot of people thought this was an improbable journey, but the reality of it is this . . . that our lives, for so many of us, have been an improbable journey," Moore told a cheering crowd of supporters of different ages and races late Tuesday in Baltimore, as returns showed him leading the 10-person race. "I was almost 4 years old when my father died in front of me because he didn't get the health care that he needed. . . . So much about all of our journeys is improbable."

Moore's lead cemented after elections officials across the state began tallying the hundreds of thousands of ballots cast by mail, lifting him over former U.S. labor secretary Tom Perez, Comptroller Peter Franchot, former U.S. education secretary John B. King Jr., former attorney general Douglas Gansler, and others.

Republicans are likely to seize on questions rivals raised during the Democratic campaign that Moore did not do enough to correct misperceptions about his compelling personal story.

In the end, the contest became a two-man race between Moore and Perez.

While others had more experience, more labor support or stronger backing from liberal groups, Moore had a bigger war chest, a coveted endorsement from the state's powerful teachers union and the backing of almost all of the state's top Democratic elected officials.

Mileah Kromer, a political science professor at Goucher College, said there is an "almost impossible path" to victory for Cox - who called Vice President Mike Pence a "traitor" on Jan. 6, 2021, on Twitter (he later expressed regret for his choice of words) - in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 2 to 1. Kromer, who conducts polling, said that none of the Goucher surveys show Trump as a popular figure among Democrats or independents in Maryland.

Kromer said Moore's ability to raise money and assemble a coalition makes him "incredibly formidable. He would have been formidable even against Kelly Schulz," a former member of Hogan's Cabinet who was endorsed by the governor and defeated by Cox.

Moore's supporters include Maryland insiders such as Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and House Speaker Adrienne Jones, D-Baltimore County, and wealthy outsiders like Spike Lee and Oprah Winfrey, who befriended Moore about a decade ago after the publication of his book "The Other Wes Moore." Winfrey, who recorded radio and TV ads for Moore, was the special guest during a virtual fundraiser that brought in more than $100,000 in the final weeks of the campaign.

The historic prospect of Moore's candidacy carries a shadow and a challenge: Only recently have Democrats nominated Black candidates to the governorship, and the last two have failed to win the job even as they captured more of the electorate.

Moore is the third Black candidate to win the Democratic nomination in the past three election cycles. Former lieutenant governor Anthony G. Brown lost to Hogan in 2014 and, in his bid for reelection, Hogan defeated former NAACP president Ben Jealous in 2018.

This spring, a prolific Democratic donor and state party official questioned the electability of Black gubernatorial candidates. In an email sent to party insiders to build support for Perez, Barbara Goldberg Goldman, then the state party's deputy treasurer, wrote: "Consider this: Three African American males have run statewide for Governor and have lost. Maryland is not a Blue state. It's a purple one. This is a fact we must not ignore."

Goldberg Goldman resigned after the email became public.

Jealous has scoffed at the notion that Black candidates cannot win in Maryland statewide. Jealous won more than 1 million votes in his unsuccessful bid - a figure that probably would have resulted in a victory, he said, if his opponent wasn't a popular incumbent.

After Cox's win late Tuesday, the Cook Political Report, which assesses political races, reclassified the contest from "leans Democrat" to "solid Democrat."

"The bottom line is the Republicans might have had a chance, but now this race is off the table for them," said Jessica Taylor, an editor with Cook.

Cox is preparing for battle. On Thursday, he emailed a letter to supporters with the subject line: "Moore is LESS for Maryland."

"Our governor refuses to support us, meaning we the People will need to work extra hard to ensure he and his friends do not hand our state over to the hard Left," the email read.

Moore was on track to secure decisive victories in Baltimore City and Prince George's and Baltimore counties, and to come in a distant second in Montgomery County, home to four of the top contenders.

During his year-long campaign, Moore, a Rhodes scholar, combat veteran and former investment banker, often homed in on his upbringing and the opportunities he was afforded, which informed "The Other Wes Moore," the book that launched his national profile.

On the trail, he had to fend off allegations that he exaggerated his biography and failed to correct details about his life. An anonymous political dossier surfaced in the spring that accused Moore of falsely suggesting he was born in Baltimore and that he embellished the hardships he and his mother faced during his childhood.

Several published articles and interviewers over the years repeated incorrect details about Moore that for years went uncorrected. Moore denied that he ever misrepresented himself and in an interview charged his opponents with inflaming the issue to block his rise.

Some Democrats worried that Moore's past would become ready-made ammunition for Republicans to use in a general election, dashing the party's chances of winning.

Despite the questions, Moore's candidacy continued to gain momentum with additional endorsements from elected officials and more money into his coffers.

Susie Turnbull, who was Jealous's running mate for governor in 2018 and campaigned for Moore, summed up Moore's appeal:

"In 2000, the question was: 'Who do you want to have a beer with?' " she said. Now, "After all that all of us have gone through, it's: 'Who do you want to hug you?' "

- - -

The Washington Post's Eva Herscowitz contributed to this report.
Leaders of Webster Presbyterian Church, where astronaut Buzz Aldrin is a "ruling elder," banned far-right political group True Texas Project from holding events in their meeting spaces and removed the group's events from its calendar last week, according to texts and emails obtained by Chron.

TTP, which the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled an extremist anti-government group last year, had several events scheduled in Webster Presbyterians Fellowship Hall this summer. A since-canceled event originally planned for Monday included Emily Cook, general counsel of the prominent anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, as a guest speaker.

In early June, a concerned Houstonian alerted Websters local, regional and national leadership about TTPs far-right and anti-LGBTQ political stances and endorsements of hardline candidates in the 2022 midterm primaries.

TTP had originally scheduled events at Webster Presbyterian for June 20, July 18 and at least one additional date in August. Upon learning about the groups fringe political positions, clergy took action to ban the group from meeting at Webster.

Church authorities confirmed that TTP was off the schedule, and "no longer meeting at Webster Presbyterian Church." The events scheduled for this past Monday and for later in August were also removed from the churchs public calendar as of July 14.

Webster Presbyterian declined to comment at the time of publication. True Texas Project did not immediately respond to questions about the cancellations.

Webster Presbyterian has long held an esteemed position in the southeast Houston area as the spiritual home of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. Since NASAs mission control center was built down the street from the church in the early 1960s, a slew of famous astronauts have also joined the congregation, earning it the nickname "the Church of the Astronauts."

Aldrin, a long-time "ruling elder" at Webster Presbyterian, took first communion and read from the Gospel of John while he walked on the Moons surface in 1969. The church memorializes Aldrins lunar communion with an annual celebration on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of the Moon landing.

TTPs events, which have since been relocated, are part of the groups push to expand its influence and membership from its North Texas base into the Houston area. The focus of the events varies, from a series of courses on how to become a TTP-certified "True Texan," to a lecture delivered by Chris Russo, the founder of an anti-immigration PAC.

The group's lineup of featured speakers indicates its alignment with radical white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ policies. Kelly Neidert, founder and leader of the anti-LGBTQ organization Protect Texas Kids, said shes slated to be a featured speaker at TTPs upcoming events, though TTP leadership hasnt responded to emails asking for confirmation of her involvement.

Other anti-LGBT activists involved with TTP include Houstons Tracy Shannon, who made waves with her crusade to quash Drag Queen Story Hour events across Texas in 2019, including at the citys Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library. Shannon previously spoke at a February TTP event in Denton, Texas. Jacob Colglazier, a staffer for one-time Texas gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines and admitted member of the white nationalist "groyper" movement, headlined the Denton event. Huffines refused to fire Colglazier when news of his ties to white nationalists surfaced in January.

TTP also backs Bryan Slaton, an East Texas representative who made news this week when he called for banning drag performances around minors.
Texas often seems too hot to let people flourish, let alone grapes. But its the fifth most prolific wine-producing state in the U.S., with many of those bottles coming from the Texas Hill Country. This massive territory, the countrys southernmost wine region, comprises more than nine million acres, making it the second largest AVA (American Viticultural Area) in the nation.

The Hill Country is dotted with dozens of gorgeous estates, tiny tasting rooms and operations that fall somewhere in the middle. And while the area was originally settled by German immigrants who planted its first vines, most of the regions grape varietals today hail from France, Italy and Spain, with popular wines including Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and Viognier.

The abundance of wines and places to drink them means you have plenty to do when making a trip to the Texas Hill Country. To give your ship a rudder, here are four newly opened wineries and tasting rooms worth checking out.

Fredericksburg

Slate Theory is not like most wineries youll find in the state. They use 100% Texas-grown fruit that comes either from their estate or local growers, and they experiment in small batches to produce unique wines embracing themes of art and psychology. The 2018 Insomniac is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Malbec and Souzao, while the 2017 Manic combines Cab Sav and Sangiovese. Both bottles feature skulls on the label, while others showcase Rorschach patterns, and the winerys name refers to English philosopher John Lockes tabula rasa  or blank slate  theory that everyone is born with an open, receptive mind.

The tasting room is open seven days per week, so you can drop in to sample the goods and buy bottles. If youd like a closer look at the operation, make a reservation, which includes a 45-minute tour of the facility and a visit to the spacious underground wine cellar.

A variety of Summer Revival Flat Brim wines. Summer Revival

Dripping Springs

Husband-and-wife duo Ian and Becky Atkins have bounced between El Paso and Portland, Oregon, over the years, operating restaurants in both cities and starting an urban winery in Portland called Flat Brim Wines. In May, they opened the doors to a Texas Hill Country tasting room in Dripping Springs that serves a rotating menu of wines made with minimal intervention techniques. That includes the local Summer Revival label, which features wines produced in Fredericksburg with 100% Texas grapes, like the Pinot Grigio Ramato, plus a selection of Flat Brim Wines made with 100% Oregon and Washington grapes. Swing by for a visit, and you can taste your way through the lineup, while also snacking on sandwiches, salads, cheese, cured meats and tinned fish. If you like what you taste, go home with a few bottles or sign up for the wine club to get cases shipped to your house.

Fredericksburg

Kalasi Cellars comes from husband-and-wife duo Greg and Nikhila Narra Davis. Every wine is made with 100% estate-grown grapes, either sourced from the owners High Plains-located Narra Vineyards, which covers 160 acres, or Kalasis 16-acre plot of land in Fredericksburg.

The tasting room is open daily, and inside youll find a wraparound bar perfect for enjoying a glass or a flight, plus a vaulted ceiling and windows for days. Wines are grouped into two collections: Heritage and Reincarnation. The former includes Malbec, Merlot and Sangiovese, while the latter is composed of less common varietals and blends, like Sagrantino and Teroldego.

Kalasi has one of the better food menus in town, with a sampling of Indian snacks, tikka masala flatbreads and samosas with mint chutney. If the weathers nice, take a plate and a glass outside to the covered patio, or claim a shaded Adirondack chair situated under an old pecan tree. When youre out there, keep your eyes open for the handful of sheep and the resident llama named Dalai.

Texas AVA winemakers Randy Hester and Rae Wilson. Texas AVA

Austin

We like a good collaboration story, and Texas AVA is the rare tasting room shared by two wineries: C.L. Butaud and Wine For The People. Located on the western edge of Austin, the tasting room is run by Randy Hester of the former winery, who makes small lots of wines designated primarily for members and area restaurants, and Rae Wilson of the latter, who makes two labels: Dandy Rose and La Valentia. The shared space is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and features flights from each producer, as well as mixed flights highlighting pours from both.

This article was featured in the InsideHook Texas newsletter. Sign up now for more from the Lone Star State.

The post Texas Hill Country Is the Second-Largest U.S. Wine Region, So Drink Up appeared first on InsideHook.
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During the week of July 18, most Canadian provinces released draw results under their Provincial Nominee Programs.

Several Canadian provinces release new immigration draw results During the week of July 18, most Canadian provinces released draw results under their Provincial Nominee Programs.

Several Canadian provinces release new immigration draw results During the week of July 18, most Canadian provinces released draw results under their Provincial Nominee Programs.

Several Canadian provinces release new immigration draw results During the week of July 18, most Canadian provinces released draw results under their Provincial Nominee Programs. Alexandra Miekus Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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This past week, a majority of Canadian provinces released Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draw results.

Most Canadian provinces and territories (with the exception of Quebec and Nunavut) operate their own PNPs. Through these programs, interested candidates may be invited to apply for a provincial nomination. Although provincial nomination is not in itself the same as a permanent residence, it can significantly increase the chances of obtaining permanent resident status. For instance, PNP candidates with Express Entry profiles who receive a nomination get 600 points added to their score. They also become eligible to be invited to apply for a PNP-specific round of invitations.

In 1998, when it was launched, the PNP welcomed only 400 immigrants, but due to its success, it now welcomes more than 80,000 per year. The increase in the number of PNP admissions in Canada is due to the fact that the federal and provincial governments consider it an effective tool to promote the economic development of the country.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

Express Entry draws are held every two weeks. After a long pause, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is now once again holding all-program Express Entry draws. The first all-program draw since 2020 was held on July 6, and a total of 1,500 Express Entry candidates with a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 557 received Invitations to Apply (ITA) for permanent residence. The most recent Express Entry draw was held on July 20 with 1,750 invitations issued.

By 2024, the number of annual Express Entry admissions will be increased by the Canadian government to about 111,500 immigrants.

PNP and Quebec Arrima draw results released between July 18-22

British Columbia

The province of British Columbia typically holds a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) round of invitations on a weekly basis.

The most recent rounds of invitations under the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) were held on July 19. More than 165 candidates received invitations to apply for a provincial nomination in these draws.

This weeks draws were aimed at specific sectors of activity.

A total of 139 of these candidates were invited through a Tech draw. These candidates must meet the requirements of one of British Columbias Express Entry BC or Skills Immigration categories, which are managed through the Skills and Immigration Registration System (SIRS). Invited candidates had to score a minimum of 85 points.

The province also held rounds of invitations for candidates working in the following occupations:

18 early childhood educators and assistants (NOC 4214) with scores of at least 60 points; and

8 healthcare workers with scores of at least 60 points.

BC also announced on July 14 that it is ending the temporary one-year pause of the BC PNP Entrepreneur Base Category. Experienced entrepreneurs can once again enter the candidate pool for a chance to be invited into one of the provinces upcoming periodic draws.

Manitoba

The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) invited 366 candidates to apply on July 14.

The invitations were divided across three immigration streams:

Skilled Workers in Manitoba  293 invitations with a minimum score of 699;

Skilled Workers Overseas  33 invitations with a minimum score of 715; and

International Education Stream  40 invitations with no score requirement.

Out of all who were invited to apply, 55 had profiles in the Express Entry system.

In response to the crisis in Ukraine, on July 14 Manitoba also issued 11 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination to Ukrainian nationals.

Ontario

On July 15, 2022, the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program ( OINP ) issued 33 Invitations to Apply ( ITAs ) under the Entrepreneur Stream to candidates with a score between 146 and 174 points.

Prince Edward Island

The Prince Edward Island Provincial Nominee Program (PEI PNP) invited a total of 165 immigration candidates on July 21.

Express Entry and Labour Impact candidates received the most invitations, with a combined total of 138. The remaining 27 invitations went to Business Impact candidates who had provincial scores of at least 60 points.

PEI holds about one draw per month and releases its schedule for the year in advance.

Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) published invitation round results for July 14, where 627 candidates were invited to apply for a provincial nomination. This is the second SINP draw in two weeks and the largest one of 2022.

In the July 14 invitation round, 430 invitations went to Express Entry candidates and 195 invitations went to Occupations In-Demand candidates. The minimum Expression of Interest (EOI) score requirement was 69 for both categories of candidates, and they needed to have work experience in one of 20 occupations.

In response to the crisis in Ukraine, on July 14 Saskatchewan also issued two invitations to apply for a provincial nomination to Ukrainian nationals.

Quebec

Quebec has more autonomy over its immigration system than any other province, and so it does not participate in the PNP.

People who want to immigrate through the provinces immigration system typically need to submit a profile to an expression of interest pool, called Arrima. Provincial officials then invite candidates whose profiles fit the criteria for an immigration program. Invited candidates apply for a provincial nomination or a Certificat de selection du Quebec (CSQ) in Quebec.

On June 28, the Ministere de lImmigration, de la Francisation et de lIntegration (MIFI) invited 351 candidates to apply for a permanent selection under the Quebec Regular Skilled Worker Program (QSWP).

Candidates had to have profiles in the Arrima Expression of Interest system with scores between 551 and 624 points depending on the targeted occupations or they had to have a valid job offer outside of the Montreal Metropolitan area.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
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As detailed previously, when Federal prosecutors gave their June 2007 opening statementand when Frank Calabrese Jr's tape recordings of his father were playedand when Nicholas Calabrese took the witness stand, supposedly the first made uniform to flip for the Fedsit was revealed that in Chicago, they not only made members, but the ceremony was actually more than the symbolic ritual it is in New York. In New York, getting made is mostly a formality after one's name has been passed around and one has been accepted. In the Outfit there was no attempt to mitigate the burn on the hand from the burning picture of the saint. The ceremony was crafted to serve as a kind of test of one's mettle: As Frank Calabrese Sr told his son, "they look at you to see if youd budge  while the pictures are burning. And they, and they wait till theyre getting down to the skin.





Also, to be made in Chicago meant one was 100 percent Italian and had committed at least one murder. These two key rules have periodically been flouted over the years by the Five Families in New York. But in Chicago, there apparently were no exceptions for potential Outfit recruitsat least historically speaking.



The Outfit's making ceremony was one of the closest-held events in the secret organization hidden in the shadows, according to the federal government.

Getting made entitled one to a greater share of the proceeds from illicit gambling, loans, and street taxes.

A Mafia initiation ceremony described in Mario Puzos novel the Godfather is very close to the truth, according to Frank Calabrese Sr. while speaking to his son in 1999. Both were in prison at the time, only Frank Calabrese Sr. didn't know what his son was truly seeking from him. (We're confused by this assertion. As we recall, there is no making ceremony in either The Godfather novel or film...)

Frank Calabrese Junior was wearing a wire as part of a personal quest to keep his homicidal father in prison for the rest of his life. As per that mission, he was cooperating with the FBI against his own father  hence, the significance of the name of the historic Family Secrets investigation of the Chicago Outfit.

In the first undercover tapes played at the Family Secrets trial, Calabrese Sr. described to his son the ceremony at which Outfit members were made.

New members were initiated by burning on their palms a picture of a saint like the ones commonly distributed at funerals, as Calabrese Sr. said. A fingertip is pricked with a pin so blood is drawn but the blood isn't dripped onto the picture. He emphasized how a point of the ceremony was to display ones ability to endure the pain of the burning picture on the hand. In fact, the bosses watched to see if anyone flinched.

Outfit boss Joey Doves Aiuppa, left.





Calabreses sponsor, Angelo LaPietra, was boss of the 26th Street crew in the early to mid-1980s, when Frank Calabrese Sr. and his brother Nicholas were made together in a single ceremony.

I didnt want it. I would be strapped down and if I wanted to do something else, I couldnt.

Calabreses son, Frank Junior, said his father had told him that to qualify, a candidate had to have committed at least one murder. The initiation could take place years after the fact.

At the time the tapes were made, Frank Sr. believed that he was growing closer to his son while the two were behind bars.

I lived the life I practiced, Frank Calabrese Sr. told his son. I preached, I lived it.

While others knew only what theyd read about the ceremony, Frank Sr. knew the truth about what happened when the Chicago mob made a new uniform, " as he called it.

I thought that was just in the movies, the son answered.

Well, Frank Sr. said, the making ceremony depicted in The Godfather was pretty close to the real thing. So whoever wrote that book, either their father, or their grandfather, or somebody was in the organization, he said.

He had been made, Frank Sr. said, as had his brother Nicholas. The fingers were cut, blood spilled, pictures were set afire and dropped into their palms.

Pictures of  Frank Jr. asked, drawing the information out.

Holy pictures. And they look at you and to see if youd budge  while the pictures are burning. And they, and they wait till theyre getting down to the skin.

The capos in attendance observed each candidate.

Theyre watching you, Frank Sr. said, watching for any show of fear of the flame.

You know what I regret more than anything, he told his son. Burning the holy pictures in my hand. It bothers me.

But what about the other things he had to do? Frank Jr. asked. An order came, and his father had been required to act, and to kill. And sometimes he didn't even fully know the reasons why, as his son reminded him on the tape. Didnt that bother him?

The real model here was not to hurt innocent people, his father answered.

That was the real model from back when it started. There were people who were trying to hurt our people or people who are stool pigeons. Very few people ever got hurtfor money. "







Evidence presented at the trial paints the following picture of a secret initiation ceremony in Chicago:





On Sunday, October 9, 1983, brothers Nick and Frank Calabrese Sr. were driven together to a closed restaurant on Roosevelt Road, west of Mannheim Road in Cook County.





Their driver was Jimmy LaPietra, then-capo of the Twenty-Sixth Street crew, aka the Chinatown crew, which was the crew the Calabrese brothers were part of. The vehicle had dealer plates and had been taken from an Outfit-associated lot. The entire day's events were planned with secrecy the foremost priority. That said, if certain people in the know had witnessed LaPietra driving a car, suspicions would've been aroused. High-level members of the Outfit supposedly never drove, and never cruised around in a car they outright owned on paper, supposedly ever since back in the 1940s when Teets Battaglia and Marshall Caifano were pulled over in a car Teets was driving and Chicago police found a small arsenal hidden in the vehicle.





They parked in the restaurant's lot and the occupants got out and headed toward the restaurant. Frank Sr. and Nick walked into the kitchen. Waiting there for them were Jimmy Marcello, Tony Zizzo, Rocky Infelice, Johnny Pudge Matassa, Albert Tocco, and others, including representatives from several Outfit crews.





Al (the Pizza Man) Tornabene, a member of the Outfits Chicago Heights crew, escorted each initiate into the dining room, one at a time. Each would be made separately and alone. While Al left the kitchen with an initiate, the rest waited.





Eventually, Nick Calabrese was brought into the dining room and made to stand before a table where Joey Doves Aiuppa, boss of the Chicago Outfit, sat. Capos from various crews sat at the table with him. Joey the Clown Lombardo, capo of the Grand Avenue crew, was not in attendance that day because he was serving a prison sentence.





Among those in attendance: Dominic Toots Palermo from the Chicago Heights crew, whod driven Tocco that day. Sam Carlisi of the Melrose Park crew had brought Marcello and Zizzo, Vince Solano from Rush Street had brought Matassa and a Frank Belmonte. From Elmwood Park was John No Nose DiFronzo who had arrived alone.





Nick stood there and faced Joey Doves and the capos. A gun and a knife were on the table where a candle also stood. (Nick, in testimony, from which this story is largely taken, couldnt recall exactly what was said in the preamble to his initiation, though it seems there was discussion about never talking about Outfit business with outsiders.) He was asked a question that he answered with a reply about him not being brought up that way.





Aiuppa held a holy card with the picture of a saint on it. He stood and walked around the table to where Nick was standing. He lit it the card and dropped it onto Nicks open hand. Nick held the burning card, trying to evince an emotionless face. He mentally separated his hot palm from the rest of his body doing his best to ignore the burning sensation that gradually worsened as the picture curled around in the fire on his hand. Aiuppa told him that it was time for him to take his oath.





He was told to repeat three times the following: If I give up my brothers, may I burn in hell like this holy picture.





Then the card was removed. Joey Doves used a pin to prick one of Nicks fingertips and a drop of blood arose from the skin. His blood was not his own any longer, he was told





Aiuppa and the capos congratulated him and LaPietra shook his hand.





The brothers had been called two days prior and had been told to go to Angelos home in Bridgeport. They were sitting in his basement at a table when he told them he had recommended them both and that it was theres if they wanted it. Yes, was their reply. Nick wondered what wouldve happened there in the basement if they had said no.





Only those who had committed one or more murders for the Outfit were invited in. They had to be full blooded Italians. It was a lifelong commitment. You also were expected to carry yourself a certain way.









As part of a coordinated Canadian-US takedown that included the arrest of 13 alleged members of the Bonanno and Gambino families, police secretly recorded a 2015 Mafia induction ceremony in Canada in which a defendant sponsored a confidential informant to become a full-fledged member of the Bonanno crime family.





The CI "was formally inducted into the Mafia in Canada while authorities secretly videotaped the initiation ceremony, an unexpected highlight in a large drugs, guns and money probe snaring alleged mob figures on both sides of the Canada-U.S. borders."





A mobster in the Bonanno crime family traveled to Canada to conduct the induction ceremony, according to U.S. authorities.





The new member was told to report back to a captain in the Bonanno organization.





The bad guys didnt know the recruit was a CI cooperating with police on both sides of the border and video and audio of the ceremony was secretly recorded.





The induction, involving at least five men, was allegedly presided over by Damiano Zummo, an acting captain in the Bonanno crime family.

During the recorded making ceremony, Zummo told the unnamed inductee:





"Its already  from this guy, this guy, this guy  everybody approved it, so from this day forward, youre a member of the Bonanno family. Congratulations, said Zummo





Thank you, the recruit said.





The new member was then formally introduced to other members using the traditional Mafia code of calling a made man a friend of ours, and then told the internal hierarchy and who he reports to...





And now I want to introduce you to John. John, friend of ours with the Bonanno. John, (name deleted), friend of ours with the Bonannos. Now, your captain is (name deleted.)





Okay, said the recruit.





Hes our skipper. (Nickname of Bonanno member deleted), is our acting Youre gonna be in our regime, Zummo allegedly said.





"OK"





"You only answer to the Bonanno family."









Recording of First Philly Initiation

On July 29, 1990, George Fresolone wore a transmitter and body wire to his own mob initiation ceremony and recorded the secret Mafia rite of passage for the New Jersey State Police.

Close to 380 conversations were secretly taped by Fresolone, who died in 2002 at the age of 48. Fresolone, who co-wrote the 1994 book Blood Oath, died of a heart attack at an undisclosed location where he had been living in the federal witness protection program. No foul play was suspected.

Fresolone, a member of the Newark branch of the Philadelphia crime family, was one of five members initiated that day.

Acting mob boss Anthony Tony Buck Piccolo conducted the service in a home in the Bronx, Fresolone said, and told the five new members that Cosa Nostra was a thing of honor, not a thing of business.

Fresolones tapes and testimony led to the convictions of dozens of mob members and associates, including Piccolo, according to George Anastasia

Raymond Junior Patriarca was not the man his father was.








Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena had written to the EC, requesting it to hear its views before making any decision on representations for claims over the party name and its poll symbol. (PTI file photo)

New Delhi: The Election Commission has asked the rival factions of the Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, to submit documents by August 8 in support of their claims on the election symbol of the political outfit.

Election Commission sources said the two sides have been asked to submit documents, including letters of support from the legislative and organisational wings of the party and the written statements of the rival factions.

They said the requirement were made in line with the Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

Earlier this week, the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena had written to the Commission seeking allocation of the party's 'bow and arrow' election symbol to it, citing the recognition granted to them in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly.

The Shiv Sena split last month when more than two-thirds of the party's MLAs withdrew their support from the Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray, throwing their lot with Shinde.

Shinde was sworn in as Maharashtra Chief Minister on June 30 with support of the BJP.

On Tuesday last, at least 12 of the 18 Shiv Sena members in the Lok Sabha expressed no confidence' in floor leader Vinayak Raut and declared Rahul Shewale as their floor leader.

Lok Sabha Speaker recognised Shewale as the leader the same day.

To ensure that neither faction is deprived of information, the poll panel has also directed exchange of documents submitted by the two groups over the past two days.

This is the initial step, checking may come much later, explained a former EC official.

The claim over the symbol assumes significance as the Supreme Court had on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission to notify elections to local bodies within two weeks.

Elections are due in several civic bodies in Maharashtra, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which would indicate which Sena faction gets the popular support.

Earlier, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena had written to the EC, requesting it to hear its views before making any decision on representations for claims over the party name and its poll symbol.
Chinas auto exports on fast growth

11:20, July 23, 2022 By Wang Zheng ( People's Daily

Recently, an Australian consumer joined a two-week test driving activity held for MG ZS, a pure electric vehicle (EV) model produced by Chinese automaker SAIC Motor. The long range and safety performance of the Chinese EV impressed her very much.

The X2, a flying car from Chinese electric vehicle producer XPeng, is exhibited at the automobile section of the fourth China International Import Expo, Nov. 6, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/ Zhai Huiyong)

Overseas users are paying an increasingly higher attention on China-produced vehicles as Chinese auto brands appear more and more on the international market.

The era for Chinese auto manufacturing has arrived, said Yu De, managing director of SAIC Motor International Business Department.

According to the latest statistics released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), Chinese automakers exported a new high of 249,000 vehicles in June this year, registering a monthly growth of 1.8 percent and a year-on-year growth of 57.4 percent. In the first half of 2022, Chinas auto exports rose 47.1 percent year on year to nearly 1.22 million units.

The exports of new energy vehicles (NEVs) have embraced explosive growth since 2021. Last year, the country exported 310,000 NEVs, three times of those from a year ago. The figure stood at 202,000 in the first six months of 2022, expanding 1.3 times year on year.

Quality and brand influence are what make Chinese automakers more and more accepted in developed countries.

At present, mainstream Chinese automakers are completely capable of independently developing finished automobiles, chassis, engines and gears. China is a leading player globally in the area of power battery. The average range of EVs in the country has been raised to over 400 km. Twenty percent of the vehicles being sold on the Chinese market are equipped with combined driver assistance system.

Last year, Chinese enterprises were authorized over 30,000 patents related to NEV, which accounted for 70 percent of the worlds total.

Automobiles are parked at a terminal in Nansha district, Guangzhou, south Chinas Guangdong province, waiting to be loaded onto roll-on/roll-off ships for exportation, July 8, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/ Wei Jinsong)

With an increasingly complete industrial chain in the auto industry, China has established the worlds largest, most complete and best supported industrial system for the sector. The country has deeply integrated itself into the global supply ecology, becoming an important production and supply center of automobiles.

Chinese automakers tailor different products and services for different markets. For instance, engineers from SAIC Motors lifted the ride height of vehicles in countries with poor road conditions, and Changan Automobile has developed new technologies that are able to heat battery packs from 30 C to -10 C in five minutes, which ensures the acceleration and charging performance of EVs in extremely cold environment.

Nios battery swapping technology gives me a great user experience. Id like to try more of the brands models in the future, said a man surnamed Birkenfeld, who was among the first batch of consumers in Oslo, capital of Norway to receive the Chinese EV makers ES8 model.

A total of more than 5,000 EVs were sold in Australia and 27 percent of them were produced by SAIC MG, Yu said. The SAIC Motor now has a complete product line in terms of NEVs after three years of development in pure EVs, plug-in hybrid EVs and hydrogen cell vehicles.

New energy and smart connection are accelerating Chinese automakers overseas expansion, he told Peoples Daily.

Robotic arms assemble vehicles in a welding workshop of a production base of Great Wall Motors in Rizhao, east Chinas Shandong province, July 1, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/ Zhu Yuanli)

The first-mover advantage of Chinese automakers in new energy and smart connection is bringing a change in European consumers perception of Chinese brands, said Sun Bing, a senior executive in charge of the operations of Great Wall Motors in Europe.

Europe is becoming a major incremental market for Chinas auto exportation. According to Chinese customs, Chinas auto exports to Europe more than doubled last year, and developed countries including Belgium, the UK, Germany and France were leading in the top-ten European destinations of Chinese NEVs.

Many European consumers and business partners believe China is leading a new trend of development in the auto industry in terms of electrification and intelligentization, Sun noted.

To take the opportunity of the global transformation in the auto industry and build a new image of Chinese auto brands is a test to Chinese automakers wisdom.

Chinas mainstream brands will further raise their competitiveness in the Chinese market and even the world at large, said Zhu Huarong, rotating chairman of CAAM. He believes world-class Chinese auto brands will be born in the next decade.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
HYDERABAD: Former state Congress chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of jeopardising national security by not filling up vacancies in the armed forces and also by reducing the annual intake.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said there was a huge shortage of manpower in the three forces  the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Instead of filling up all vacancies, he said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government had reduced the annual intake in armed forces by almost 25 per cent.

Referring to a written reply given by the ministry of defence on his question in the Lok Sabha on Saturday and another question raised by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on July 18, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the defence ministry, in its reply to the question raised by Kharge, informed that the three armed forces had a shortage of 1,35,784 personnel. It informed that there were 1,16,464 vacancies in the Army, followed by 13,597 in the Navy and 5,723 in the Air Force.

"As a former Air Force fighter pilot who served on the countrys borders, I am deeply concerned that the manpower shortages and lower quality and quantity of intake through the ill-conceived Agnipath scheme will seriously jeopardize national security," Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

The average annual recruitment, as per the information given by the defence ministry, was 60,000 in the Army, 5,332 in the Navy and 5,723 in the Air Force. However, he said the Centre had now reduced the intake by almost 25 per cent. Through the Agnipath scheme, the Centre proposed to recruit only 45,000 personnel in the Indian Army and 3,000 each in the Navy and Air Force, he said.

"For the first time in history, India is facing a war-like situation on two fronts on the Pakistan and China borders. Therefore, by not filling up the vacancies and reducing the intake, the Modi government is jeopardising national security. This will harm the operational preparedness of our armed forces," he said.
When Mae Keane started working at the Waterbury Clock Co. in Connecticut in the 1920s, she was given the job of applying paint made with radium to the numbers on wristwatch dials. The radium made the watches glow in the dark. Applying it wasnt easy. To get the paintbrush bristles into a fine point, Keane, who was just 18, was taught to lip-point by putting the tip of the brush between her lips and shaping it between brush strokes. This made workers mouths glow but they didnt mind. In fact, many women would paint their nails and the buttons on their coats with radium for fun.

A radioactive metal, radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie Skodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie. It would take years for its dangers to be fully understood. The young women who went to work at the Waterbury Clock Co. in the 1920s were thrilled to get a job that paid well  8 cents per painted watch dial  if you could paint fast.

Keane wasnt one of the quick ones. She didnt like to lip-point because the paint tasted bad, and she found the work tedious. This slowed her down. One day she only earned 62 cents and was advised by her boss to transfer. She took that advice in the summer of 1924.

Shed only worked with radium paint for a few months, but it already impacted her. Within two decades she lost all her teeth, and over her life developed colon and breast cancer that she attributed to the work. Even so, she was one of the lucky ones.

In 1925 a Connecticut woman named Frances Splettscher died of radium poisoning. The lead-up to her death was horrifying (sensitive readers are forewarned here). First Splettscher developed anemia, then her teeth hurt. When her dentist pulled a tooth out, part of her jaw came with it and her mouth rotted to the point that she developed a hole in her cheek.

Dozens of other Connecticut women died of radium poisoning from working in Waterbury and other clock companies in Connecticut. Dozens more died at plants in New Jersey and Illinois.

By the time of the first Connecticut deaths, the dangers of radium poisoning were clear, or should have been. Serious ailments and deaths had been observed among women who worked with radium in New Jersey. In 1923, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a report that warned that radium workers should take precautions, even though the authors of the report were not yet certain radium was deadly.

Wikimedia Commons

These early warnings were ignored or obscured.

In 1925 the Waterbury Clock Co. hired Frederick Flinn to investigate reports of mysterious illnesses among women who worked for the company. Flinn was an assistant professor of physiology at the Institute of Public Health at Columbia University. However, he also had a history of downplaying the hazards of industrial work. Earlier in 1925, hed been hired by the Ethyl Corp. to find evidence that leaded gas was safe.

Even though Flinn was a Ph.D. and not an M.D., he examined many women who worked for Waterbury Clock who were experiencing strange symptoms and assured them they were healthy. He told one Connecticut woman on eight separate occasions that there was not a single trace of radium in her body. She later died from radium poisoning, writes Kate Moore in The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of Americas Shining Women.

Flinn also examined the cases of five women who had died after working with radium in New Jersey and concluded radium poisoning was not the cause. An industrial hazard does not exist in the painting of luminous dials, he wrote in a report for The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1926.

Flinn was lying through his teeth, writes Moore. He had previously concluded privately that radium was likely to blame and knew of at least two cases of radium poisoning in Waterbury. Even so, his work helped the clock companies blame the womens ailments on other factors  they were frequently passed off as the result of sexually transmitted bacterial infections.

The families of the Waterbury women who died settled quietly with the Waterbury Clock Co., and their deaths did not garner much publicity. However, they caught the attention of Dr. Alice Hamilton, the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard and a leading expert in occupational health. When five radium girls in New Jersey who had been sickened sued the New Jersey-based United States Radium Corp., Hamilton told their lawyer about the Waterbury women, which helped bolster the New Jersey womens claim that their work with radium was to blame for their illnesses and deaths.

In the late 1920s, lip-pointing was discouraged, but the harm caused by radium remained contested despite abundant evidence of its dangers. In December 1928 dozens of scientists gathered in D.C. to discuss the ongoing use of radium in factories. Many urged its use to be discontinued immediately, but some were still discounting its risks. Dr. A.B. Moore, dean of science at Purdue University, was not convinced there was a link between radium and death or illness. If we shut down all the industries involving a health hazard, we should shut down every metal mine in the country, he said. By that point, even Flinn had come around to admitting that radium might be to blame for some of the former clock plant workers deaths.

The New Jersey radium girls eventually won a settlement, and the case helped alert the world to the dangers of radiation poisoning. However, it wasnt until the 1960s that radium stopped being used in factories.

As for Keane, despite the negative impact of radium poisoning, she lived a long and extraordinary life. She died in 2014 at the age of 107  one of the last known radium girls. As she told an interviewer in 2004, I was one of the fortunate ones.
Connecticut has not seen as dramatic a COVID-19 spike due to the BA.5 subvariant as many other states, official numbers show, though cases, test positivity rate and hospitalizations all remain higher than during previous pandemic summers.

As of Thursday, Connecticut has averaged 614 daily COVID-19 cases over the past week, likely a fraction of the true total, with a positivity rate of 10.6 percent. The state currently has 312 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, most at a given time since early June.

Additionally, Connecticut has recorded eight COVID-linked deaths over the past week, bringing its total during the pandemic to 11,093.

Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital, said the states COVID-19 metrics appear to have plateaued at a stable, high level. Whereas many states have seen sharp increases in case counts and hospitalizations in recent weeks, Connecticuts uptick has been more gradual.

I would have thought wed be rising faster than we are, at least in comparison to other regions around the country, and were not, Roberts said. Although the level is still high enough that I think we should proceed cautiously.

Nationally, cases have reached their highest level since February, as the BA.5 subvariant, with its ability to evade vaccine and natural immunity, has increasingly taken hold. According to the New York Times, 26 different states have seen cases increase at least 20 percent over the past 14 days, and nearly as many have seen hospitalizations increase just as sharply.

Connecticut, despite having far more transmission than this time last year, has recorded the fifth fewest recent cases per capita, according to the Times.

So why hasnt Connecticut experienced the same spike other states have seen, even as BA.5 has become dominant in recent weeks? Roberts says it may owe to the fact that Connecticut endured a substantial uptick this spring driven by the BA.2 subvariant, leaving some of the population with antibodies from a relatively close relative of BA.5.

We had a decent BA.2 spike in mid-May and then were also a pretty vaccinated population as a state, he said. I also like to think that Connecticuters take more precautions than others.

Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist at Hartford HealthCare, said the explanation is likely multi-factorial and noted Connecticuts high vaccination rate relative to other states and the fact that summer in the Northeast is (at least typically) more conducive to outdoor gatherings than in other parts of the country.

Roberts also noted that, relative to prior points during the pandemic, it is difficult to assess the true level of COVID-19 transmission in Connecticut and elsewhere, due to the popularity of at-home tests whose results are never reported to the state.

The big flaw in these numbers is that they dont capture at-home testing, Roberts said. I know of at least two friends who were positive this week and did not get PCR tests  they got rapid tests  so theyre not included in the numbers.

Roberts said he hopes Connecticut has avoided the worst-case scenario when it comes to BA.5, while Wu said hed guess the numbers will continue to increase but not truly spike.

Still, with COVID-19 cases relatively high, experts suggest masking in indoor spaces and avoiding crowded gathering, particularly for those who are elderly or immunocompromised. They also encourage vaccination and booster shots for those eligible.

As of Thursday, only 5 percent of children age 0-4 have received at least one vaccine shot, despite that group having been eligible for more than a month.

As for whats next, Wu said he fears the BA.2.75 subvariant, which hasnt been detected in Connecticut but has begun to spread elsewhere, will prolong the current uptick, ahead of what could be a difficult fall and winter.

Numbers are going to rise, theyre going to continue rise slowly, depending on other variants, and then well finally have a decrease, except this decrease is going to be a lot more short-lived, Wu predicted. Then well hit the fall ... and thats when well actually see a spike.

alex.putterman@hearstmediact.com
Amid a statewide drought, Connecticut Water is urging some shoreline communities to cut their water consumption.

The utility company sent a message Friday to its customers in Clinton, Guilford, Madison, Old Saybrook and Westbrook asking them to voluntarily reduce their water usage by 15 percent.

Your water system is quickly approaching a drought watch, the second of four levels in our drought plan, Connecticut Water said in the message. By reducing water usage, you will help extend available water supplies to meet essential public health and safety needs.

Earlier this week, Gov. Ned Lamont also asked residents to lower their water usage as he declared an emerging drought event.

As of Tuesday, the U.S. Drought Monitor says most of the state either has abnormally dry or moderate drought conditions.

To conserve water, Connecticut Water suggested its customers:

Stop watering lawns

Shutoff automatic irrigation systems

Fix leaking fixtures

Minimize all other unnecessary outdoor water use

Cover swimming pools to reduce evaporation

Take shorter showers

Flush the toilet less often

The utility warned that if customers do not voluntarily reduce their water consumption, harsher action may be needed.

If usage is not reduced or we do not receive much need rain  more stringent measures will need to be taken, Connecticut Water warned.
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP)  Two people died and another person was reported missing from flash flooding in a stretch of northern New Mexico that had been ravaged this past spring by wildfire.

Tim Nix, chief of the Cabo Lucero Volunteer Fire Department, said the two bodies were discovered Thursday afternoon west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, when his team responded to a call of a vehicle being washed away by floodwaters.

No one was in the vehicle when firefighters arrived. The two bodies were later discovered, though Nix declined to reveal where the bodies were found.

Law enforcement officers, National Guard members and others searched Friday for a third person who went missing in flood.

Nix declined to reveal whether those who were swept away were related.

The flooding occurred in the burn scar area where the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire burned.

The blaze, which has burned 533 square miles (1,380 square kilometers), has yet to be fully contained after more than three months. It was 93% contained on Friday.

Crews fighting the blaze said more than an inch of rain fell in less than an hour, that debris from the flood blocked some roads for fire crews and led to the temporarily withdrawal of firefighters for safety reasons.

In a statement, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she was saddened by the deaths.

For a community that has already been through so much this year, this loss is another heartbreaking blow. I want to express my most sincere condolences to their loved ones," the governor said.
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BRIDGEPORT  After two firefighters died while battling a July 2010 fire, the city implemented a series of procedural and structural changes designed to prevent another tragic incident.

The new policies are outlined in documents obtained from the Connecticut Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cited the citys fire department for serious failures following the deaths of Lt. Steven Velasquez and firefighter Michel Baik.

The Elmwood Avenue house fire occurred on July 24, 2010  12 years ago as of this weekend.

The violations cited by CONN-OSHA included a failure to follow mayday procedures when firefighters called for help, not performing tests on firefighters breathing tanks, failing to conduct medical examinations to ensure firefighters were fit for duty and failing to ensure that all firefighters wore breathing equipment when inside the burning building.

In written responses dated March 8, 2011, the city detailed new procedures to satisfy the states concerns, including altering how mayday calls would be handled in the future. A mayday call is an urgent plea for help and one of five safety violations cited by state regulators.

Other changes reported by the city include requiring visual inspections and testing of the oxygen tanks used by firefighters, better medical evaluations of firefighters and improved testing over how well the seal on a respirator fits the users face, according to the documents.

That day has had a profound effect on how the Bridgeport Fire Department operates at structure fires, said Acting Fire Chief Lance Edwards this week.

Both Baik and Velasquez were working inside the burning house when they were fatally injured. The state medical examiners office determined that Baik died from smoke inhalation complicated by a heart condition and that Velasquez died from smoke inhalation and asphyxia.

The department has evolved immensely under the leadership of former Fire Chief Richard Thode and is advancing under the direction and current leadership of Chief Edwards, said Scott Appleby, director of the citys Office of Emergency Management.

Our department has seen a tremendous change in agency collaboration, unified decision making and after-action reviews that lead sometimes to immediate changes in policy and procedures, Appleby said.

Mayday

A report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health released in 2011 provided a chilling assessment of what happened during the Elmwood Avenue fire.

According to the report, the 40-year-old Velasquez and the 49-year-old Baik, along with two other firefighters, had been assigned to search for victims and hot spots on the third floor of the multifamily house after the fire had been extinguished on the second floor.

While Velasquez and Baik were pulling the walls and ceiling on the third floor, the fire suddenly reignited.

Velasquez transmitted a mayday that was not acknowledged or acted on, the report states. Minutes later, the incident commander ordered an evacuation of the third floor, which was when a firefighter exiting the third floor discovered Velasquez sitting on the stairs unconscious and not breathing. Baik was found about seven minutes later on the third floor in heavy smoke conditions.

Radio dispatches show that at 4:13 p.m. Velasquez is heard calling, Mayday, mayday, mayday, were trapped on the rear stairs, according to the report. It took almost four minutes before a call went out about a firefighter down on the rear stairs of the second floor.

The report states there were attempts to reach Velasquez but that the rapid intervention team couldnt immediately get past a hose holding the door to the second floor closed. They reached him at 4:19 p.m., the report notes.

At 4:24 p.m., a call went out that Baik was trapped on the third floor. A discussion is then heard on the radio between the commanding officers and Baik was found at 4:28 p.m.

NIOSH concluded the fire department failed to have a rapid intervention team available to come to the firefighters aid, failed to immediately treat one of the firefighters who managed to make it to relative safety before collapsing and did not properly manage firefighters air supplies  both firefighters air cylinders were empty when they were found.

The departments incident safety officer, who is required to be on scene for assistance during a fire, arrived more than 20 minutes after the initial dispatch, the NIOSH report noted.

Many remedies

In the March 2011 response to CONN-OSHAs citations, the citys fire department outlined a series of changes.

Those included new mayday procedures and a requirement that the incident commander acknowledge a mayday call, new classes on how the process works and drills and training involving firefighters and dispatchers, according to a letter written by Capt. Gary Baker.

In another letter, Baker tells CONN-OSHA that new procedures were in place to inspect the cylinders firefighters wear so they can breathe in a smoke-filled environment, along with testing of those cylinders and new documentation requirements.

The citys Health Department created new rules requiring firemen to fill out a respirator medical evaluation questionnaire. The department also required those whose responses indicated possible medical issues receive a medical exam and clearance to wear a respirator.

The department also revised the way it tests whether respirators properly fit a firefighter and purchased a new fit testing machine, Baker told CONN-OSHA.

David Dunn, president of the citys fire union, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about changes to the departments procedures.

Edwards said a variety of improvements were made in the years since the 2010 deadly fire.

Weve since instituted a new position of Incident Safety Officer, Edwards said. Their sole role is the safety and well-being of each member operating at an emergency scene. Other than the on-scene Incident Commander, the Incident Safety Officer is the only other member that has the authority to halt emergency operations due to unsafe operations.

Edwards said the city developed a new mayday procedure and better air management techniques.

We train each of our members that their self-contained breathing apparatus is their best friend, Edwards said. Thats the only device that allows them to breath in a hazardous atmosphere. Weve also replaced our self-contained breathing apparatus utilizing newer technology and one that incorporates a larger cylinder. We also have a preventative maintenance program that addresses annual testing and maintenance.

The chief said a rapid intervention team was formed to locate and remove a downed firefighter if needed.

The city also instituted nationally recognized physical agility tests designed to make sure that each member is prepared to perform essential job tasks at fire scenes, Edwards said.

All of the changes implemented not only has made the department stronger physically but also mentally and Chief Edwards is leading us to a more resilient community through the eyes of the fire service, Appleby said.

Includes prior reporting by staff writer Daniel Tepfer.

bcummings@ctpost.com
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Less than 24 hours after the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into the egregious breach. "

Since then? Silence.

The Supreme Court won't say whether it's still investigating.

The court also won't say whether the leaker has been identified or whether anyone has been disciplined.

Or whether an outside law firm or the FBI has been called in.

Or whether the court will ever offer an accounting of what transpired.

Or whether it has taken steps to try to prevent a repeat.

To these and other emailed questions, Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said by email: The Court has no comment.

Roberts announced the investigation on May 3, the day after Politico published its explosive leak detailing the draft of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion. Court Marshal Gail Curley was tapped to lead the investigation.

The story filled the airwaves, news pages and online comment sections. There were calls for impeachment if a justice was involved. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the leak was a pressure campaign to sway the outcome and he suggested the lawless action should be investigated and punished to the fullest extent possible.

Justice Clarence Thomas, the longest tenured member of the court, said the court had been irrevocably harmed. When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that Im in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder. Its like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you cant undo it.

If any justice was swayed, it didn't manifest itself in a visible way. The draft was largely incorporated in Alitos final opinion, which added in responses to points made by the dissenting justices, and on June 24, a conservative majority of the court overturned Roe and eliminated a nearly 50-year-old right to abortion.

Abortions have largely stopped in at least nine states, and the decision is expected to lead roughly half the states to ban or severely restrict abortions.

The court finished its work for the summer on June 30, after which the justices' law clerks began leaving for their next jobs. That means roughly three dozen people who likely had access to the draft opinion, out of about 70 in all, are no longer within easy reach of investigators.

Roberts should close the investigation, said Gabe Roth, leader of the court transparency group Fix the Court.

There's just so many other things the marshal's office needs to worry about right now that's far more important than the leak. The justices safety is under threat probably more now than in years past, Roth said.

The security concerns reached alarming levels in early June, when police arrested an armed man near Justice Brett Kavanaugh's house after he called 911 and said he was going to the kill Kavanaugh.

The courthouse has been closed to the public since March 2020, a combination of the coronavirus pandemic and threats to the court and the justices that led, shortly after the leak, to the installation of 8-foot-high, hard-to-climb fencing.

There's little precedent in Supreme Court annals for the leak and investigation.

"This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here, Roberts said when announced the investigation.

In 1973, Chief Justice Warren Burger was infuriated by the leak of the outcome of the Roe case a few hours ahead of its announcement. Burger threatened to subject employees to lie detector tests, but the leaker quickly came forward and explained it had been an accident.

If the leak of the Alito draft was deliberate, it might have been from someone who was so upset by the prospect of overturning Roe that informing the public at the earliest possible moment was of paramount importance.

Or it could have come from a supporter of the decision who worried that one of the five justices in the majority was wavering. In this scenario, the leak was intended to make it harder for a justice to vote to leave Roe standing, if significantly weakened.

The public might never know. Then again, Supreme Court clerks often go on to prominent legal jobs. Six of the nine justices once served as law clerks.

Sometime in the next few decades, one or more of them might appear for a confirmation hearing for a judgeship or some other high-ranking government job where they might be asked if they leaked the document or know who did.

___

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
BRIDGEPORT  Mayor Joe Ganim this week sought to reassure residents that his effort to get his law license back should not be interpreted as an indication Bridgeports chief executive has a different career priority.

Regaining my law license is a separate matter from being the mayor or running for another term, Ganim, who in the spring launched his 2023 reelection bid, told Hearst Connecticut Media.

He further clarified his intent would be to again take up law at some point in the future after serving as mayor.

But Ganim in the past has given voters a reason to doubt whether his heart was still into running Bridgeport. He initially served as mayor in the 1990s until toppled in 2003 by a corruption scandal, then waged a successful comeback in 2015.

In spring 2017, just over a year after voters granted him that second chance and also while raising money for a 2019 reelection bid, Ganim was preparing to launch his ultimately failed 2018 gubernatorial bid. Ganim was trounced in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary by Ned Lamont, and other local Democratic officials and activists at the time said his decision to seek higher office had left him vulnerable for his 2019 reelection.

He went on to win the 2019 race for another four-year term, but only after a close primary victory over challenger state Sen. Marilyn Moore.

The privilege to practice law has always been an important part of my life and that of my family, Ganim further explained in his statement to Hearst Connecticut Thursday, referring to the fact his father, two uncles and his brothers are attorneys. His late sister had also practiced law.

This is the second attempt for Ganim, a Democrat, to regain the right to practice law. He was disbarred after his conviction in 2003 for running a pay-to-play operation in City Hall. He served seven years of a 9-year federal prison term, and in 2015 convinced voters to grant him a second chance.

In September 2012 a three-judge panel rejected Ganims initial application stating he had shown no remorse for his crimes. He had to wait five years to reapply, and he did so in February 2021. This past Monday the Standing Committee on Recommendations for Admission to the Bar scheduled an Aug. 8 hearing on Ganims latest application for reinstatement.

It is always my intent to help people, Ganim said. Being mayor of the states largest city allows me the opportunity to better the lives of many. And practicing law again will also allow me to assist individuals in need of representation.

In his application, Ganim states he intends to practice general law with a concentration on pro bono representation of indigent individuals and families.

Several Bridgeport mayors have been attorneys, including Thomas Bucci, who ran the city in the late 1980s and continues to practice, often representing current or former municipal employees.

Although Ganim has moonlighted as a professor at the University of Bridgeport, Bucci said the job of mayor is a time-consuming one.

You cant carry on a (law) practice and be mayor at the same time. You cant, Bucci said.

He added that whatever Ganims career intentions, he understands the simple desire to get back something that was earned, then lost.

I dont fault him for asking for readmission. He feels that he has paid his penalty  his debt to society, Bucci said. He would like to have what he went to law school for. ... I cant tell you whats on his mind  whether its symbolic or he plans to practice again. (But) it gives you options if and when you leave politics.

Retired Superior Court Judge Carmen Lopez is a local activist, member of the Democratic Town Committee and a potential Ganim opponent in 2023. Lopez, a frequent Ganim critic, said whether the mayors goal is to again be a practicing attorney, regaining his law license would enable him to, in the eyes of some, further repair his image for whatever future plans he has.

He is a man of ambition, so much so that he came back after prison, convinced many people in the city he should (again) be mayor, then turned around and wanted to be governor. So he is a man that is searching for higher things and having a license says a lot in this case, Lopez said. It means a bunch of people believe him, trust him that he has the character to be an attorney. ... Having your law degree is having more than he has now.

City Council President Aidee Nieves has at times been a close Ganim ally, but a sometime critic as well. He campaigned to reelect her last year, but she was also endorsed by the Bridgeport Generation Now civic group which has often been at odds with the mayor.

Hes pursued his law license before. I dont think that stops his interest in being mayor, Nieves said.

Nieves also said, having regained enough voters confidence in 2015 and been reelected in 2019, she believes Ganim rightfully feels the need to restore that part of his life that remains out of reach because of his prior crimes.

Hes living the same thing weve all had family members live  the inability to shed that title ex-felon, ex-convict, Nieves said. Like any other person trying to restore their credibility and name, hes trying to restore that by going back and applying.
Students of IIIT-Basar on Saturday decided to postpone their agitation on a list of 12 demands ranging from appointment of officials to tenders for uniforms and shoes for a few days because of ongoing exams and holidays for senior students. (FIle photo: Facebook)

ADILABAD: Students of IIIT-Basar on Saturday decided to postpone their agitation on a list of 12 demands ranging from appointment of officials to tenders for uniforms and shoes for a few days because of ongoing exams and holidays for senior students.

They also hit out at the authorities for declaring offs for senior students from July 23 to 31, referring to it as a tactic to stop agitations. Student leaders, however, said that they would remain on campus.

The developments follow a meeting between parents and the interim Vice Chancellor Dr Venkataramana, along with director Satish Kumar, on Saturday evening.

Parents said that the VC told them that he had never set a deadline to resolve the issues, even as students had previously set a deadline of July end for action to be taken.

Parents were worried that students might lose out on academics if they continue to strike, while some raised health concerns over holding open protests during heavy rains.

Students are mainly seeking the appointment of a full-time Vice Chancellor, for which a chancellor must be appointed first. Further, following food poisoning around a fortnight ago, students have been demanding the replacement of the food contractors.
Two Italian princesses have been snapped stepping out in style in sunny Saint Tropez in the south of France.

Princesses Maria Carolina, 19, and Maria Chiara Di Bourbon-Two Sicilies, 17, may not always have been the most immediately recognisable faces for royal watchers, but in recent years, they have been amassing fans as they show off their luxury lifestyles on social media.

And now the sisters, who were born to Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro - who holds a claim to the now defunct throne of the former House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies - and Princess Camilla, Duchess of Castro, have been snapped at Club 55 in Saint Tropez.

Photographs of the glamorous sisters, who split their time between Italy, Monaco, Paris and St Tropez, show them beaming as they pull up to a dock in a speedboat, sporting complementary outfits in shades of bubblegum pink and blue.

Princesses Maria Carolina, 19, and Maria Chiara Di Bourbon-Two Sicilies, 17, (pictured) were snapped in luxurious St Tropez, a holiday destination beloved of the wealthy and famous

The sisters appeared to be having a good time as they took a speedboat ride through the azure water to the dock

Maria Carolina, Duchess of Calabria and of Palermo - or Carolina for short - cut a stylish figure in a blue raspberry two-piece outfit featuring a loose sleeveless shirt tied casually in a knot.

Her long blonde locks were worn loose, cascading down her back, and she wore a natural make-up look.

The final touches to her outfit were dangling statement earrings in a matching shade of blue, and a large tote bag made from pink lace.

Meanwhile, her younger sister Charia, Duchess of Noto, donned the same ensemble in pink, carrying the same bag as her sister, in a shade of blue.

The two sisters coordinated their clothes, wearing the same warm weather outfits, in different colours

Windy: the sea breeze was seen blowing the sisters' blonde locks around as they raced across the water in a speedboat

Matching: Carolina and Chiara donned matching outfits, but in different shades, to create a coordinated look

She also put the final touch to her look with a pair of yellow dangling earrings, loose blonde tresses, and natural make-up.

The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet branch of the Spanish Royal Family which descends from the Capetian Dynasty and ruled over Southern Italy and Sicily during the 18th and 19th centuries.

While the family has no official remit, they spend their time doing charity work and promoting the interest of Southern Italy.

The sisters, who are often spotted in luxury destinations, showed off their tans as they took a speedboat ride under the hot French sun

The sisters' father Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro (not pictured) holds a claim to the now defunct throne of the former House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies

The princesses split their time between Italy, Monaco, Paris and St Tropez, and enjoy a life of luxury thanks to their family's wealth

Meanwhile the princesses enjoy a life of luxury, spending their time between Italy, Monaco, Paris and St Tropez, soaking up the sun, sporting designer labels and making the most of their family's wealth.

They are also actively involved with charity work and rub shoulders with the most elite socialites of Europe, speaking fluently in English, French and Italian.

In recent years, they have been building a large fanbase by sharing snaps of their luxurious lives on Instagram, and clips of themselves on TikTok, dancing, showing off their style, and having fun in various glamorous locations.
Prince Andrew has been snapped smiling while out riding in Windsor today, following claims he did not give the Queen 'the full story' about what he planned to say during his Newsnight interview.

The 62-year-old royal, who was accompanied by another rider, looked casual, wearing a blue shirt, with rolled up sleeves, and dark slacks during the ride, as well as a pair of sunglasses.

His appearance follows claims made by royal expert Russell Myers during an episode of the Royal Beat that he didn't tell anyone - including his mother, the Queen - what he planned to say during his 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis.

During the interview, widely considered one of the most disastrous in royal history, Prince Andrew discussed his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and denied claims he he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein, on three separate occasions, including when she was 17.

Prince Andrew was snapped smiling today while horse riding in Windsor, amid claims he didn't tell anyone what he was planning to discuss in his Newsnight interview

The royal looked casual while out riding today with, donning a blue shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a pair of dark slacks, and sunglasses. He was accompanied by another rider

The royal appeared to have to bow his head as he rode through the trees, directly underneath some dangling branches

Speaking to Kate Thornton during an episode of Royal Beat, Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers said 'nobody knew the full story' of what Prince Andrew would be discussing on Newsnight.

He said: 'Well, I don't think he told [the Queen] the full story...he sort of told her that he was going to do an interview, nobody really knew the full story of what he was going to be discussing with Newsnight.

'I mean anyone who would have known an inkling of what he was going to be discussing would have just told him to not not not take part in that.'

The interview is now set to be dramatised in a new film called 'Scoop', which will be based on the new book by Sam McAlister, the woman who clinched the sit down with the Duke of York about his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Your Honor screenwriter Peter Moffat is writing the film adaptation, which will tell the story of how the interview came to be.

During the now-infamous sit down with presenter Emily Maitlis, Prince Andrew denied he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein on three separate occasions, including when she was 17 - still a minor under US law.

Prince Andrew's BBC Newsnight interview (pictured) - widely considered one of the most disastrous in royal history - is set to be at the heart of a new movie with Hugh Grant tipped to play the Duke of York

He said one encounter in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking (pictured) for a party

The duke denied he slept with Ms Roberts, one of Epstein's victims, on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage.

He said one encounter in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.

The duke also said that the same alleged sexual liaison, which the American said began with the royal sweating heavily as they danced at London nightclub Tramp, was factually wrong as he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat.

The duke denied he slept with Ms Roberts (pictured), one of Epstein's victims, on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage

He cast doubt on the authenticity of a picture that appears to show Andrew with his arm around the waist of Miss Roberts, when a teenager (pictured here with Prince Andrew in 2001)

He cast doubt on the authenticity of a picture that appears to show Andrew with his arm around the waist of Miss Roberts, when a teenager.

Andrew came under fresh pressure last month to talk to the FBI about his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein following Ghislaine Maxwell's jailing.

Her victims say the duke and other 'cowardly' Epstein associates who 'hide behind power and prestige' should be targeted by the authorities.

Andrew has largely withdrawn from public life since reaching a 12million out-of-court settlement this year with Epstein victim Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre), who accused the duke of raping her. He has always denied the allegations.
The blend of solid middle-class values and domestic informality personified by the Middleton family have been a keystone of the loving relationship between Prince William and his wife Kate.

Central, too, is the Middletons long-time base in the Berkshire village of Bucklebury, where the family has been running a party accessory company since 1987.

Now they have major plans to expand the family business, with Kates younger sister Pippa and her multi-millionaire husband James Matthews hoping to develop 77-acre Bucklebury Farm Park, where they already run a petting zoo, a cafe and cabin accommodation for about 30.

Pippa Middleton and her husband James Matthews are hoping to develop 77-acre Bucklebury Farm Park in Berkshire where they already run a petting zoo, cafe and cabin accommodation

Detailed plans for what is being billed as Pippas Playground  seen by The Mail on Sunday  show the intention is to create a busy complex comprising glamping cabins, a farm shop and a restaurant.

The project would include revamping the zoo, constructing a childrens play centre in buildings with eco-friendly wooden decking, and creating a tree plantation and a display of retro farm vehicles painted in pastel colours.

The whole site will be festooned with twinkly lanterns. Their vision ties into the current upmarket trend for fashionable day visit centres and places that offer human health activities.

In the vanguard of such ventures has been Soho Farmhouse, spread across 100 acres in Oxfordshire and inspired by American cabin culture.

It offers guests a home-made and personal feel  like a guest cottage on a farm.

Then there is TV presenter Jeremy Clarksons Diddly Squat Farm Shop in the Cotswolds where he sells local grown vegetables and has recently opened a restaurant.

The couple intend to create a complex comprising glamping cabins, farm shop and restaurant

Inevitably, some critics may suggest that marketing for Bucklebury Farm Park may cynically try to cash in on the familys royal connections.

After Kate Middleton first started dating Prince William, her parents were accused of exploiting their links to his family through the sale of their party firms range of Royal Wedding memorabilia.

Such concerns will be reinforced by the way some of the facilities already present on the Bucklebury site are being promoted.

Six log cabins with safari-style tent doors are currently available to hire for 1,400 a week.

Visitors are treated to spotting animals such as llamas, deer and goats in the safari park

They are operated in conjunction with Feather Down, a small bookings firm specialising in cabin lettings on boutique farms.

The stay section of Pippas newly revamped website redirects visitors to Feather Downs booking page, which highlights the Royal connection, teasingly mentioning real-life royalty.

It also says: Only a 15-minute stroll from the farm, Bucklebury village was the home of Kate Middleton before she married Prince William.

Undoubtedly, mention of the future king and queen is a big draw  though the website also informs readers that a short drive away is Highclere, the fictional setting for the TV series Downton Abbey.

The plans resemble similar development at Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm (pictured)

Locals say that while visitors principally go to spot animals such as llamas, deer and goats in the safari park, they cant be blamed for trying to see if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges children  Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis and George  might be playing nearby while staying with their maternal grandparents.

All three children stay in Bucklebury around once a month with Carole and Michael Middleton who often take them to the parks elaborate childrens playground.

Locals say the youngsters love Bucklebury and enjoy mucking in.

Jeremy Clarkson stands outside his Diddly Squat farm shop in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

Plans submitted to West Berkshire Council show the main new building has been modelled on a vast 5 million glazed canalside pub in Swindon built by Badger Beers, a craft brewery based in Dorset that offers brewery tours, sells merchandise and welcomes children, describing them as little treasures.

The Bucklebury space is designed to house a vast double-height dining hall with room for more than 20 tables  perfect for a small wedding  as well as a cafe and farm shop that will stock local produce.

While the farm is Pippas pet project, sources say that Carole, 67, is the driving force behind what would be a new venture hosting childrens parties  something that has been her speciality since founding the lucrative mail-order business Party Pieces 35 years ago.

Bucklebury Farm Park is close to the home of Pippa's parents Carole and Michael Middleton

She has overseen the installation of a covered party space made from stylish woven larch and has appointed an events manager in charge of requests for childrens events.

A party package costs 1,350 for 30 children and includes luxury lunch boxes served in a marquee, a homemade cake, party bags and personalised invitations.

There may also be parties for Ukrainian refugees. A ticketed event for Bucklebury villagers, called Picnic at the Farm, which took place on July 10, is rumoured to have been a practice run for Caroles plan to host regular socials at the farm for Buckleburys community of refugees.

Ukrainians are not charged to visit the park, which normally charges 85 for adult membership.

Carole is also credited with the revamp of a glossy temporary refurbishment of the cafe, which does a roaring trade in oat-milk lattes, sandwiches and artisan ice creams.

Some say it was Carole who first encouraged Pippa and her husband, James, 46, to invest in the venture in 2020 through his Mayfair hedge fund Eden Rock Capital.

The move was inspired by Pippas passion for the village, where she has lived since she was 11.

James named it Pippas Playground for business purposes and brought local friends Jamie Murray and Oliver Shute on board as co-investors.

They believe the business will inject 2.3million into the area and create plenty of jobs.

One design document for the expanded venture, which was submitted in May, describes the project as major and suggests that queues would be expected at the entrance.

Prepared by upmarket firm Rural Solutions, which specialises in pubs, galleries and wedding venues, the document says: The steeply pitched roof provides shelter to those paying or queueing  a covered entrance is proposed to enclose the area between the existing cafe and the new farm shop extension, creating a vestibule.

There is an emphasis on the use of renewable energy [to meet] challenges of climate change, with solar panels as well as a native species hedge and the realignment of a fence to control deer.

Images in a glossy 367-page brochure show full design plans, maps of the area and the location of a nearby sewage works. Rural Solutions has a grand portfolio of projects, such as an ice cream farm in Cheshire, which it says taps into consumer demand for play experiences.

The current glamping site will be developed as part of a wider development under the plans

It has worked on other schemes with wild accommodation, treehouses, nature safaris, birdwatching and forest bathing. It boasts a holistic approach, adding: We are so proud to be working with such dynamic, diverse and driven clients.

Last month, some of the final details for Pippas Playground were signed off by the council and a full approval is expected imminently.

A regular visitor to the farm told the MoS: By the end of this summer, it will be full steam ahead.

They want to expand the glamping, the family area, the restaurants and theyre keen to make use of it as an events space. Theyre going to completely transform it. The staff describe it as Pippas project.

Bucklebury is fast becoming a Middleton empire. So far, they have done what they can to refurbish the main visitor barn within planning constraints and its looking so much better. If phase two is anything like what they have done already, it will look very stylish.

Pippa is also very busy on the personal front. Shes just given birth to her third child  a girl named Rose  and is in the process of relocating from Chelsea, South West London, to a large Georgian property 14 miles away from the Berkshire farm which she and James bought for its proximity to the business, as well as for its prestigious fishing beats.

Pippa has fought against what was seen as an unfair public image as a party girl and once said: People see me as someone privileged who has used my position to advantage; that I dont really work, that I am a socialite  that word really irritates me  and that Im a party girl without any substance.

Having studied English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, she became a celebrity columnist for Waitrose Kitchen and Vanity Fair magazines and a Sunday newspaper.

Earlier this year her spokesperson told The Mail on Sunday that she was once again focusing on her studies, amid whispers she has taken a business course.

She was given a 400,000 advance by publishers ten years ago to write a book, Celebrate, about the art of entertaining, and bravely fought off teasing about some of her advice, such as that the correct method to slice a sandwich with a bread knife is with a single up and down cutting motion.

Undaunted, the future queens younger sister is keen to prove herself as a businesswoman in her own right and take up the reins of Pippas Playground with gusto.
Top psychiatrists have rounded on the authors of a bombshell study which cast doubts on the effectiveness of antidepressants, labelling the findings absurd and grossly exaggerated.

Last week, researchers at University College London said they had disproved a theory dating back to the 1960s that depression is caused by low levels of serotonin, a chemical in the brain believed to control mood.

Led by Professor Joanna Moncrieff, a respected consultant psychiatrist, the study analysed decades of research, involving tens of thousands of patients with the condition, and found no convincing evidence of a link between the mental illness and serotonin levels.

Professor Joanna Moncrieff, pictured, a consultant psychiatrist at University College London, has led a team of researchers who have disproved the long-held believe of a link between low serotonin levels and depression

The findings have been deemed significant as most antidepressants  taken by more than eight million Britons  are designed to boost serotonin levels.

Thousands suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when trying to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise, Prof Moncrieff said. We believe this has been driven by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance. It is time to inform the public this belief is not grounded in science.

However, leading brain experts have criticised Prof Moncrieff, who has written bestselling books that cast antidepressants in a negative light. They argue it is untrue to say scientists believe depression is caused by low serotonin levels. Instead, they say, the prevailing theory is depression is caused by many factors, and that antidepressants are clinically shown to help.

Dr Michael Bloomfield, consultant psychiatrist and a colleague of Prof Moncrieffs at University College London, said her conclusion does not make sense.

Depression has many different symptoms and I dont think Ive met any serious scientists or psychiatrists who think that all causes of depression are due to a simple chemical imbalance in serotonin.

He added: [This paper] has lumped together depression as if it is a single disorder, which from a biological perspective does not make any sense.

David Curtis, Honorary Professor, UCL Genetics Institute, agreed: The notion of depression being due to a chemical imbalance is outmoded, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists wrote this was an over-simplification in a statement published in 2019. Phil Cowen, Prof of Psychopharmacology at the University of Oxford, appeared to accuse Prof Moncrieff of cherry-picking data to suit her hypothesis.

Medics in the 1960s first found a link between low serotonin levels and depression, later providing GPs with a weapon to target the condition

He pointed out the review had omitted a pivotal study that did suggest depressed patients had lower levels of compounds integral to serotonin production in their blood.

The possible role of serotonin in depression is a separate question from the antidepressant effects of [antidepressants], he said.

Other experts point to multiple studies that show taking antidepressants can lift depression, regardless of their effect on serotonin levels.

Through years of research we know that antidepressants work and save lives, says Professor David Nutt, head of the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London.

This papers conclusions are absurd. The authors have grossly exaggerated the importance of serotonin levels. No one has ever said a serotonin imbalance is the sole cause of depression.

He adds that newer studies, not included in Prof Moncrieffs review, that used more accurate testing methods, had found decreased serotonin release capacity in people with depression. To dismiss the serotonin hypothesis of depression at this point is premature, he said.

Psychiatrists say the exact reason antidepressants work is not understood, but this is not unusual. Its hard to be absolutely sure what is causing a drug to work in the brain, says Prof Nutt. In the case of antidepressants, it could be having an effect on other things than serotonin receptors.

Crucially, they argue that, even if depression is not caused by a serotonin imbalance, this doesnt mean it cannot be effectively treated by boosting levels of the brain chemical.

Responding to the criticism, Prof Moncrieff said the aim of the study was not to argue that antidepressants dont work but to question whether the pills should be prescribed in the first place.

People are told the reason they feel depressed is that there is something wrong with the chemistry in their brain and antidepressants could put it right. But if theres no evidence theres anything wrong with the brains chemistry, then that doesnt sound like a sensible solution. This profession has misled people for so long about the need for antidepressants and now doctors dont want to admit they got it wrong.
Holidaymakers face being ripped off when parking their car at the airport this summer  adding to a catalogue of woes that already includes flight cancellations, delays, queues, lost luggage, strikes  and even melting runways.

Desperate to recoup heavy losses suffered during the coronavirus crisis, cash-strapped airport bosses are introducing new parking fees to pick our holiday pockets.

Charging for dropping off or picking up family or friends at an airport is just the latest cash cow. Another is to charge extra for parking spaces that have not been booked in advance.

Take-off: Airports are increasing charges for drop-offs at terminals

Even anyone who thinks they are being smart by booking ahead is getting stung by computer glitches that force them to pay twice and then claim a refund  as I recently found out when taking a flight from Luton airport (see box, below).

NO BARRIERS... BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY A FIVER TO PICK UP

In recent weeks, airports have been stealthily introducing new charges for dropping off friends or family  or picking them up.

At the start of this month, Heathrow began demanding 5 to drop off travellers at terminal four. Other Heathrow terminals have been charging the same amount since November.

The car driver can pre-pay  online or by phone  giving their car registration number and credit or debit card details. Or they have until 11.59pm the following day to pay.

There are no barrier controls so despite signs you may not know about the new fee until an 80 Parking Charge Notice lands on the doormat a few days later  after spy cameras have captured your car details. This penalty is reduced to 40 if payment is made within 14 days. For pick-up at Heathrow, you pay 5.30 for up to 30 minutes at a designated short-stay car park  11.40 for one hour.

Gatwick also demands 5 for dropping off.

Number plate-reading technology grabs details of your car, with no barriers to alert unsuspecting motorists.

You have until midnight the next day to pay via the internet or phone. What's more, people only have ten minutes to drop off  every minute beyond this costs an extra 1 up to 20 minutes with a 25 maximum charge for 30 minutes.

Failure to pay will incur a 100 Parking Charge Notice  reduced to 60 if you foot the bill within 14 days. The charge was introduced in March last year. Pick-up is 5 for 30 minutes at a short-stay car park.

Luton also wants 5 for parking ten minutes at drop-off  a charge set in January 2021  and 1 a minute thereafter. You pay at the barrier.

Since November 2020, Stansted has demanded 7 for picking up or dropping off outside the terminal  but you only have a 15- minute window. Stay any longer and you are stung with a 25 levy. Payment is done at gate barriers when leaving the airport area.

Manchester charges 5 for five minutes and 6 for ten minutes for terminal drop-offs  again, since November 2020  paid at a barrier gate. Exceed ten minutes and there's a 25 fee.

Birmingham offers a free drop-off for up to 20 minutes. There's a 20 fee for 50 minutes  and 5 per five minutes thereafter. These charges were set in March 2019. Also, it provides a 'premium' set-down service. This costs 3 for 15 minutes and is paid at the barrier.

Pick-up from a short-stay car park is 6.50 for an hour.

Fliers using Glasgow have since December 2020 been paying 4 at its pick-up and drop-off point for less than ten minutes  before ramping up the cost. For 20 minutes waiting, it is 10 and for half an hour, 15.

Consumer campaigner Martyn James says these charges are not just wrong  but unfair. He says: 'The airports are raking in profits from a service that has traditionally always been free.

'It is deeply unfair that airports are being allowed to treat passengers like cash cows.

'This particularly penalises the vulnerable, such as the elderly and disabled who need close access to airport terminals.'

EXTRA CHARGE FOR JUST TURNING UP TO PARK

Driving to an airport without booking car parking can be an expensive mistake. Heathrow demands 77.10 for 24 hours if you just turn up at its short-stay car park  it can be 73.20 if you book in advance online.

Gatwick charges 45 a day for turning up on the day to its short-stay car park, but may charge 36 if parking has been pre-booked.

Luton charges 67.50 for its short-stay terminal one or two car parks on the day  but may charge 58.99 and 53.99 respectively if pre-booked. Stansted can charge 62 for 24 hours in a short-stay car park  it can be 60 if pre-booked.

The fee in Manchester for short stay is 58 but in advance can be 55.

At Birmingham, you pay 49 a day if you simply drive up on the day. Glasgow wants 36 to park in the official car park for a day as a motorist who drives up on spec.

It is possible at all airports to cut parking charges by more than two thirds if you book weeks rather than days ahead.

And if away for a week or more, a long-stay car park works out much cheaper  even if it means taking a shuttle bus to the terminal rather than walking. For this, give yourself 30 minutes extra time for waiting for the bus and then it taking you to the terminal.

For example, at Stansted a pre-booked short-stay car park slot might cost 60 a day.

While long stay  a 15-minute bus ride away  might also initially start at 60 a day, the charge reduces if you stay for a week.

Pre-book a week and you can pay 130 in short stay and 106 long stay. Other online discounts are also occasionally made available.

OTHER WAYS TO CUT CAR PARK CHARGES

Official airport car parks might seem convenient  but you could save money by using a 'meet-and-greet' service instead.

Comparison websites such as Parking4Less and Airport Parking Shop offer a guide to operators which typically charge half the price of short and long-stay car parks.

The idea is that you drive to the airport and hand your car key to an attendant at an agreed drop-off point. You then walk into the terminal while they take your vehicle to a secure car park a few miles away.

On return, you call the car park firm after picking up your luggage and an attendant returns with your vehicle to an agreed point  and you drive home.

The further ahead you book, the cheaper the stay should be. But be extremely careful if you choose to use this service.

It is an unregulated market where cowboys have been known to take vehicles for an unauthorised spin or park cars on the side of a street.

So if you do take the plunge check reviews and opt for operators that use a police-approved safe parking service, identified by a 'Park Mark' logo.

Another option is to use a website such as Park On My Drive or Your Driving Space where you might find homeowners in the area where you are flying from willing to rent out a space on their driveway.

You can then get a lift from them or take a taxi to the nearby airport terminal.

If you have an early morning flight and must drive a long way to the airport, hotel parking might prove better value  allowing you to stay at the hotel the night before you travel and keep your car there for a small fee as you head off on holiday.

Chains offering this service include Holiday Inn, Travelodge, Ibis, Hilton and Sofitel.
In this series, we bust the jargon and explain a popular investing term or theme. Here it's stock options.

What are they?

A stock option gives an investor the right  but not the obligation  to buy or sell a share at a fixed (or 'strike') price by a set date. There are two types of option.

A 'call', which is a bet that the share will rise, and a 'put' which is a bet that the share will fall.

The price for the option paid by the buyer to the broker that 'writes' the options is called the 'premium'.

Speculate to accumulate: Adventurous investors like options because they can make a large gamble with a small outlay

Investors with a taste for speculation like options because they can make a large gamble with a small outlay.

An option is a 'derivative', so-called because its value derives from that of the underlying asset  the share.

Are options risky?

Definitely. Billions of option deals are traded every day, and it is possible to buy stop-loss protection to limit losses.

But, as many private investors have found to their chagrin, options may be exciting but are also an easy way to lose money.

It is said that when market professionals note that private investors are buying call options, the professionals see this as an opportune moment to take an opposite bet.

Do executive share options work in the same way?

Share options are a way to reward employees or key executives  and, crucially, retain their long-term loyalty.

The recipients are allowed to buy shares in the company at some time in the future at a pre-approved exercise price. They may also be able to avoid income tax or national insurance on the value of the shares.

There are various types of scheme, all with different tax and other rules: Save As You Earn (SAYE), Company Share Option Plan (CSOP), Share Incentive Plan (SIP), Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) and Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

Do these schemes have downsides?

Yes. The firm may be trying its best to win the goodwill of its workforce.

But sadly it cannot guarantee that its share price will rise, particularly at a challenging time for the economy. If the share price performs badly, the employees' or executives' share options can be 'underwater'  the exercise price is greater than the current market value of the shares.

Why are we reading about stock options at present?

The woe over underwater share options may be widespread but seems to be deepest at US tech companies.

The Silicon Valley giants saw stock options as a convenient  and low-cost  way to attract and retain talent in a competitive labour market.

Shares in some of these firms have fallen sharply, however, which means that staff who were promised wealth beyond their imagining are feeling hugely disappointed.

How are these tech companies responding?

The boss of Peloton, the US home fitness equipment firm, is trying to turn around the company whose stationary bikes are much less in demand than during the pandemic.

Options granted to staff had an exercise price of $27.62 (22.95) and so were underwater. They will now be repriced to $9.13 (7.58) to help win the staff's co-operation with changes at the business.
Rare stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons plans to delist from the stock market in London after pressure from its largest shareholder.

The 166-year-old company proposed removing its shares from the Aim exchange having seen its value crash by 99 per cent since their peak eight years ago.

Phoenix Asset Management, which has a 58 per cent stake in the group and provides all its debt facilities, said there were 'clear benefits' to delisting.

Stamp of approval: Phoenix Asset Management said there were 'clear benefits' to delisting

It said the cost, management time and regulatory burden of being listed were 'disproportionate' to the benefits.

The company, which began in 1856 when teenager Stanley Gibbons opened a stamp counter in Plymouth, must get the backing of 75 per cent of shareholders to cancel its shares. Phoenix said if the plan is not passed it would 'reconsider its continued financial support for the company'.

Investors are being offered the chance to sell their shares for 1.5p each.

The stock rose 10.3 per cent, or 0.15p, to 1.6p.
'Cheek': Mark Hartigan was forced to resign

Insurer LV faces a fresh revolt after it refused to rule out another bonus for its disgraced boss.

The mutual organisation, which is trying to repair relations with members after a torrid nine months, this week revealed that boss Mark Hartigan was finally on his way out.

The former Army colonel lost the confidence of thousands of LV customers following his push for a deal with private equity. The customers ultimately voted down the controversial sale.

That did not stop Hartigan scooping a 511,000 bonus  dubbed a 'reward for failure' by MPs and campaigners  on top of his 435,000 salary in 2021.

Now LV has declined to rule out handing him another bonus for the current financial year.

LV's policyholders are threatening to rebel at the firm's annual meeting, when they will be asked to approve last year's pay report.

One LV member, 75-year-old Donald Hare, said of Hartigan: 'He's got a cheek. I would vote against him getting that amount [of pay]. I think he's ripped all the members off. He's taking us all for a ride.'

Hartigan's previous bonus was awarded in a year which saw LV spend more than 30million of members' money on the attempt to sell itself to private equity firm Bain Capital last year.

He resigned in the face of a no-confidence vote after more than 1,000 LV members wrote to The Mail on Sunday and our sister paper the Daily Mail saying they no longer supported him. Hartigan plans to stay on in the post until a successor is found. An LV spokesman said he would continue to be paid in full.

Clarissa Johnson, a retired lecturer, said: 'I'm not happy about the way bonuses have been paid.'

She added that it was 'disappointing' that LV would not disclose whether it would offer Hartigan another reward for this year.

Johnson added: 'We still haven't had any explanation for what happened which marries up with what we have learned about the deal. I don't feel the whole thing is over yet.' The 179-year-old firm  founded as Liverpool Victoria to help the city's poor pay for a decent burial  has long prided itself on being a mutual. But LV's 1.2million members were urged by Hartigan and then-chairman Alan Cook to approve a takeover by Bain.

This would have meant LV losing its treasured mutual status, so it would no longer be owned by its customers and would instead be run for the benefit of a profit-hungry investor.

Hartigan and Cook claimed LV desperately needed cash to modernise. They claimed that Bain was the only buyer willing to put up the money.

But then it emerged that Hartigan could receive a hefty financial windfall and potentially a stake in the company.

It was later discovered that Royal London, a fellow mutual, had made a similar offer for LV and had even offered to keep the firm's member-owned structure, but it was turned away.

Eventually LV's customers voted the Bain deal down in December. The business, now overseen by new chairman Simon Moore, has not yet revealed when it will hold this year's annual meeting, but it is expected in the autumn.

The vote on the remuneration report will not be binding  so Hartigan cannot be forced to give the cash back.

Hare added: 'It's a mutual. Surely if the majority of members vote against the pay then the directors should not be giving it out.'
A community abandoned by the last bank in town is being thrown a lifeline  with hopes it will get a shared banking hub after The Mail on Sunday highlighted its plight.

Just over a week ago, we visited Forres on the Moray Firth on the day that Bank of Scotland pulled out of the 12,000-strong town  shutting its door for the last time on July 11.

Conservative Moray MP Douglas Ross told us at the time that the closure 'beggars belief' as it was a lifeline for the community, particularly for the elderly and vulnerable.

Disappearing act: We visited Forres on the Moray Firth on the day that Bank of Scotland pulled out of the 12,000-strong town

But following a plea to the Access to Cash Action Group  chaired by cash campaigner Natalie Ceeney  and support from The Mail on Sunday, there is now hope that a banking hub will be provided for the town next year.

Ross says: 'Banks have shown a completely tone deaf attitude when it comes to meeting the needs of loyal customers and it is a disgrace we now have no bank in Forres  but a shared banking hub is a solution where customers get the one-to-one service they need. We are now vigorously discussing how this could be introduced.'

Shared hubs are heralded as a solution where banks have abandoned a community  allowing the five main high street banks to share one outlet and offer basic banking to their customers.

The banks  NatWest, Santander, Lloyds (which owns Bank of Scotland), HSBC and Barclays  have staff visit on a specific day of the week to provide any face-to-face help, such as in arranging a mortgage or personal loan.

So far only two shared banking hubs have opened in Rochford, Essex, and Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire.

Ten others are to open in Acton, West London; Brixham, Devon; Carnoustie, Angus; Knaresborough, North Yorkshire; Syston, Leicestershire; Buckingham, Buckinghamshire: Cottingham, East Yorkshire; Troon, South Ayrshire; Looe, Cornwall; and Welshpool, Powys.

Ceeney says: 'Not everyone wants to do everything digitally. Face-to-face support for cash access, deposits and other banking are essential for many. We are committed to delivering the support needed in Forres.'

Banks are currently pulling out of the high street at a record rate  fearing proposed Government legislation could soon stop them fleeing so easily. More than 500 branches are expected to shut this year.

The Mail on Sunday has long campaigned for laws to protect access to cash and banking services. Some 5.4million people rely on cash for their day-to-day budgeting.
An Indian minister who drank a glass of dirty water from a 'holy' river to prove to locals it's safe has been hospitalised after falling ill.

Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister of Punjab, was airlifted to New Delhi after downing the polluted water from the Kali Bein.

Video showing Mann scooping up a glass of water and downing the filthy liquid has since gone viral.

Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister of Punjab, was beside a holy man when he decided to demonstrate the cleanliness of the river

Mann confidentially bent over to fill his glass before publicly drinking the water taken straight from the river

A couple of days after drinking the water, Mann started to complain of a stomach ache.

He was taken to the Apollo Indraprastha Hospital in Sarita Vihar and was admitted overnight .

Medics said Mann had developed an infection and was treated by a multi-disciplinary team.

According to New Indian Express, as soon as medics completed a range of tests on the minister before he was released from hospital.
A British man and his wife were shot dead at their home in the Caribbean, police have said.

The bodies of Tyrone Baptiste, 65, and Pia Baptiste, 60, were discovered with gunshot wounds in Antigua on July 20.

Police have launched a double murder investigation into the couple's deaths, with local media reporting robbery as the suspected motive.

The couple ran a tour company called Tropical Adventures Antigua and had two children together.

Tyrone is understood to have grown up in Leicester before moving back to the island he was born on with his Dutch-born wife.

He was also found with a knife wound, according to Crime Stoppers Antigua and Barbuda.

Tyrone Baptiste, 65, was found shot dead in his home in Antigua alongside his wife

Dutch-born Pia Baptiste, 60, ran a tour company on the Caribbean island called Tropical Adventures Antigua

It is not known how many people had entered the couple's home at the time of the incident.

Real News Antigua reported on July 20 that Mrs Baptiste's co-workers had been to check on her when she did not show up for work when the bodies were discovered.

It was also reported that neighbours heard what was believed to be gunshots in the early hours.

Tour company Tropical Adventures Antigua, shared a tribute to Mrs Baptiste on social media, describing her as an 'inspiration'.

It read: 'We are saddened to announce the passing of Mrs Pia Baptiste, the General Manager of Tropical Adventures. Pia has been associated with Tropical Adventures for nearly 30 years and was the rock and foundation that our company was built upon.

It went on to say: 'Our condolences and deepest sympathies go out to her children and her entire family in Antigua and abroad. May Pia and her husband Tyrone rest in peace. Amen.'

Anyone with information has been asked to contact Crime Stoppers Antigua and Barbuda direct or submit an anonymous tip to crimestoppersantigua.org.
The sleazy underbelly of northern beaches high schools in the 1980s can be exposed following the end of former Cromer High School PE teacher Chris Dawson's murder trial.

Three high schools which were allegedly 'a hotbed' of student-teacher sexual activity in the 1980s - when teenagers were plied with booze and drugs and molested - are the subject of an active police investigation and a separate legal compensation claim.

Dawson's former school, now called Northern Beaches Secondary College Cromer Campus, along with Forest and Beacon Hills high schools are being probed by NSW Police Crime Command's Strike Force Southwood.

At the same time, Maurice Blackburn lawyers are pursing compensation for past students of the schools, although there is no suggestion Chris Dawson is the subject of that legal claim.

The seedy underbelly of the schools' culture was exposed during the award-winning The Teacher's Pet podcast, which featured prominently during Dawson's two month long trial.

Dawson, 73, pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife and mother-of-two Lynette, who vanished from the couple's Bayview home in Sydney in January 1982.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison's verdict of guilt or innocence for Dawson is imminent.

Dawson's lawyers successfully argued last week that a District Court trial for the 73-year-old on a charge (brought by Strike Force Southwood) of carnal knowledge for allegedly having sex with a girl student aged between 10 and 17 be delayed until May, 2023.

Chris Dawson was a PE teacher at Cromer High School, one of three Sydney northern beaches schools being investigated by police for allegedly being a hotbed of teacher-student sex in the 1980s

Students who went to the same school as teenage babysitter JC (above) have told detectives from Strike Force Southwood about the rampant sex culture on the northern beaches four decades ago

The Strike Force is investigating up to 20 teachers some of whose alleged victims claim they used 'their position to have sex with students' amid a 'beach culture' at a time when teacher sex with teens was seen 'as no big deal'.

One former student of one of the high schools under investigation told Daily Mail Australia that her teacher had hit on every girl in his class and that 'we were all encouraged to go to local pubs underaged at the request of teachers'.

'That era of the early 80s on the beaches was full of male teachers who tried to hit on students , who preyed on girls from broken homes,' she said.

The former Cromer High School is one of three northern beaches schools being investigated by NSW detectives over allegations that teachers had sex with students aged under 17

'It was a breeding ground for what was essentially paedophiles. Hideous times. It would be good to see all these predators brought to justice.'

During Chris Dawson's murder trial, the court heard how schoolgirl JC who became the babysitter for Dawson and his first wife Lynette, had been targeted by him when she was 15 and he was twice that age.

In 1980, aged 16 and living in a cramped and troubled home with an alcoholic and violent stepfather, JC moved into the Dawsons' marital home where she swam topless in their backyard pool.

The prosecution case argued Dawson 'installed' JC in the home after murdering Lynette to have an unfettered relationship with the teen.

Dawson's defence was that Lynette Dawson had willingly abandoned her her two young daughters to flee a failing marriage.

At the trial, Cromer students and others testified as to how JC was openly seen sitting on Chris Dawson's knee in the school's PE teacher staff room.

Chris Dawson, now aged, 73 is awaiting a judge's verdict after the end of his trial for te alleged murder of his first wife Lyn (above, the couple together as school students themselves) in 1982

The trial heard from women who had been teenage students at Cromer High School in the 1970s and 1980s, who spoke on The Teacher's Pet podcast and since been interviewed by Strike Force Southwood detectives.

Teacher records dating back 40 years have been handed to police investigating claims staff groomed and hunted students for sex.

Compensation claimants against the NSW Department of Education are seeking payouts of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for psychological harm from being taken advantage of by teachers.

Should former teachers be charged with the offence of having sex with pupils under the age of 17, they could face up to 14 years' jail.

The Department of Education has confirmed it handed over files from three schools to Strike Force Southwood.

Former NSW Education minister Rob Stokes has previously described the claims as 'shocking'.

Daily Mail Australia has sought comment from the current minister, Sarah Mitchell.

NSW Police and Maurice Blackburn lawyers declined to comment further on the cases.
The ID of a Sydney doctor was stolen by Australia's most notorious crime gang in a scheme to make fake Covid vaccination certificates, police allege.

The identity of the doctor is unclear, with NSW Police confirming they initially investigated whether the Western Sydney physician was part of the scheme, before realising he was the victim.

Investigators have launched an probe into the use of bogus certificates by major crime syndicates, including the Alameddine and Hamzy families.

Teacher Jeanette Catherine Jeske, 55, was taken away from her home in handcuffs in Merrylands at about 8.30am on Tuesday as part of that investigation. She allegedly used the fake certificate at her school.

She is the mother of alleged Alameddine crime clan member Trent Jeske, though there is no suggestion she was involved in the theft of the doctor's credentials.

Credentials of a Sydney doctor were allegedly stolen by a crime clan in a scheme to make fake Covid vaccination certificates

Jeanette Catherine Jeske, 55, who is the mother to alleged Alameddine crime clan member Trent Jeske, (pictured together) was arrested on Tuesday

NSW Police Criminal Groups Squad Commander Grant Taylor admitted to being baffled by the fake vaccine certificate scam.

As many crime figures are technically unemployed, police say there is no real benefit from having a fake certificate.

'They don't obey the normal due process of following rules and this is no exception,' Det Supt Taylor said.

'It's quite common to see organised crime networks flouting any and every rule of law, but it's a mystery as to why they were so defiant in regards to why they did not want to get vaccinated.

She was was dragged out of her home in handcuffs in Merrylands, in Sydney's west at about 8.30am on Tuesday

'There was evidence throughout Covid (lockdown) that they were not abiding by the restrictions. That was quite clear from our many different interactions with them, when we were finding them out on the streets and not inside their homes.'

In Ms Jeske's case, she is accused of handing over the fraudulent certificate to the school where she worked as an administrative manager last October.

Police allege she received the fake certificate through her connections to the crime group, which was uncovered during police investigations into the Alameddine's alleged drug syndicate.

During a raid of Ms Jeske's home on Tuesday, Raptor Tactical officers seized cash, documentation and electronic items, which will all be examined.

Footage shows a group of officers barging their way into Ms Jeske's home.

She later emerged dressed in exercise tights, white sneakers and a Nike puffer jacket which she used to cover her head.

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

The line of officers stormed their way to her home on Tuesday morning

The mother 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

The mother 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.

Ms Jeske was refused bail and is due to face Fairfield Local Court court on Wednesday.

Her son, who is in custody for charges related to his alleged role in the crime network, is also due to appear in the same court on Wednesday.
Former Vice President Mike Pence threw shade at Donald Trump by suggesting the GOP will lose if it continues to focus on the 2020 election as the two held dueling rallies in Arizona.

Prior to his speech in Arizona, Pence issued what appeared to be a condemnation of Trump's fixation on the 2020 election, tweeting: 'Democrats would love nothing more than for Republicans to take our eye off the ball and focus on days gone by.

'If the Republican Party allows itself to become consumed by yesterdays grievances, we will lose,' he added.

Trump, who like Pence is considering running for president in 2024, has savaged his former vice president for what he describes as a failure to block the certification of the 2020 election results.

Such a plan had been cooked up by Trump aides who supported his discredited theory that the election was stolen, but Pence ultimately decided that the action would be illegal.

In Arizona, Trump continued to tout claims that the election was stolen from him and said that despite receiving a 'record number of votes,' he has been the most 'persecuted person' in America.

'A friend of mine recently said that I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country,' Trump said. 'I thought about it, and I felt, you know, he may very well be right.'

Mike Pence (pictured) and Donald Trump had a clash of words at dueling campaign rallies in Arizona as they backed different GOP candidates

Prior to his speech in Arizona, Pence issued tweets that appeared to be a condemnation of Trump's fixation on the 2020 election

Trump has bashed Pence for what he describes as a failure to block the certification of the 2020 election results. He repeated unfounded claims that the election was stolen at a rival campaign rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona (pictured)

Trump's gathering Friday in the central Arizona town of Prescott Valley was part of a series of 'Save America' rallies he has held to boost his favored candidates ahead of Republican primary elections.

Earlier in July, he held an event in Alaska to support Kelly Tshibaka, a challenger to the state's incumbent senator, Lisa Murkowski, who was one of the few Republicans to vote to impeach Trump after the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

In Arizona, a state he narrowly lost in 2020, Trump campaigned for Kari Lake, a far-right gubernatorial candidate who supports his false claim that the election was stolen.

Lake, a former TV news host, took the stage in the crowded stadium first, declaring that in Arizona, 'We will no longer accept corruptness, and I know for a fact we will no longer accept rigged elections.'

The former president, leaving the crowd to wait more than two hours, began his speech by focusing on immigration - a major campaign topic in the state which shares a large border with Mexico.

But it did not take long before he turned his attention to the 2020 election.

'The election was rigged and stolen and now our country is being systematically destroyed because of it!' he shouted, with the crowd roaring in response.

He urged votes to come out in droves against Lake's primary opponent, Karrin Taylor Robson, who is backed by Pence.

'We need a landslide so big that the radical left cannot rig or steal even if they try,' Trump said.

'This is the year we're going to take back the House,' he added as Republicans are expected to win big in the midterms. 'We're going to take back the Senate. We're going to take back America.'

'And, in 2024, most importantly, we're going to take back our beautiful, magnificent White House.'

Trump said Republicans were poised to take back Congress in the midterms and said that the White House would be reclaimed in 2024

During his speech, Trump yelled: 'The election was rigged and stolen and now our country is being systematically destroyed because of it!' he shouted, with the crowd roaring in response

Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake supports Trump's false claim that the election was stolen. Her primary rival was backed by Pence on Friday

The convergence of campaign events came a day after a congressional hearing on the US Capitol assault, in which a White House security official said members of Pence's Secret Service detail feared they would die as rioters stormed the building.

During the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Trump tweeted an attack on Pence, saying he 'didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country.'

Administration officials testified at Thursday's hearing that the social media post poured fuel on the fire and turned rioters against the vice president.

In extraordinary revelations at the hearing, a White House national security official who testified under anonymity said 'members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives.'

Pence made stops in Phoenix and southern Arizona for governor-hopeful Robson, a more traditional Republican than Lake who also has the backing of the state's term-limited governor.

With his rivalry with Trump intensifying, Pence has positioned himself as a principled, religious conservative. But he has declined to attack Trump directly.

Once running mates, Pence and Trump's relationship has broken down following the deadly January 6 Capitol riot, where some rioters chanted, 'Hang Mike Pence'

Karrin Taylor Robson is the clear conservative choice for Republicans in Arizona.

- @Mike_Pence pic.twitter.com/nvDZiLtY96  Karrin Taylor Robson for Arizona (@Karrin4Arizona) July 22, 2022

In a 20-minute speech before a seated warehouse crowd on Friday, he lauded policy accomplishments during the 'four years of the Trump-Pence administration,' and only took a brief swipe at Lake, criticizing her previous support of Democrats and initial opposition to Trump.

'Arizona Republicans don't need a governor that supported Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton!' he said.

Pence has brushed aside talk of a potential 2024 run, saying his focus is now on the November 2022 midterm elections.

'Then in 2023 we'll look around,' he told the National Review last year. 'We'll go where we're called.'
Boris Johnson reportedly thinks he will return as Prime Minister next year even though he only resigned less than three weeks ago.

The PM announced he would step down on July 7 after 57 ministers resigned from the Government in just 48 hours following the Chris Pincher scandal.

However, he has been privately saying he will make a comeback to Downing Street as soon as next year, according to his former aide Tim Montgomerie.

Mr Montgomerie, who became critical of Mr Johnson after he left his employment around the end of 2019, said: 'Boris is telling aides that he'll be PM again within a year.'

It is not the first time rumours of a second Mr Johnson premiership have surfaced.

He bowed out of his final Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) last Wednesday, telling MPs: 'Hasta la vista, baby'.

His very final words were an apparent reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger's catchphrase from the film Terminator, which is also famous for the line 'I'll be back'.

Scandal-ridden Boris Johnson announced he would step down on July 7 after 57 ministers resigned from the Government in just 48 hours

Boris Johnson bowed out of his final PMQs (pictured) last Wednesday, telling MPs: 'Hasta la vista, baby'. His very final words were an apparent reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger's catchphrase from the film Terminator, which is also famous for the line 'I'll be back'

Boris Johnson has been privately saying he will make a comeback to Downing Street as soon as next year, according to his former aide Tim Montgomerie

Asked after his comments on Wednesday if Mr Johnson was already planning a political comeback - given his concluding remarks at PMQs - the PM's press secretary said: 'That was his way of saying farewell to his colleagues.'

A little more than a fortnight ago Mr Johnson told the nation: 'It is now clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party, and therefore a new Prime Minister.

'The reason I have fought so hard for the last few days to continue to deliver [our] mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019.'

He added: 'As we've seen at Westminster, the herd is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves.'

After his final PMQs the outgoing Prime Minister was given a standing ovation by Tory MPs - although not from the Labour benches or from his predecessor Theresa May.

Mr Johnson told the Commons that his last three years as PM had been 'the greatest privilege of my life' as he listed his achievements in office, such as Brexit and British support for Ukraine against Russia's brutal invasion.

With MPs heading away from Westminster for their summer break from tomorrow, Wednesday's PMQs was the last before Boris Johnson is replaced as Tory leader

Sir Keir Starmer was branded 'a great pointless human bollard' by the PM in their final clashes at PMQs

The departing Mr Johnson was given a standing ovation by Tory MPs - but not from the Labour benches or his predecessor Theresa May

'It's true that I helped to get the biggest Tory majority for 40 years and a huge realignment in UK politics,' he said.

'We transformed our democracy and restored our national independence.

'I've helped to get this country through a pandemic and help save another country from barbarism, and frankly that's enough to be going on with.'

Suggestions Mr Johnson could return as PM came after 7,600 Conservative Party members demanded a vote on whether Boris Johnson remains leader.

They signed a petition to party co-chairman Andrew Stephenson asking for the Prime Minister to be put on the run-off ballot with Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

The appeal accused the Tory MPs who removed him of having 'vested interest reasons and grievances to settle'.

The people behind the petition threatened to apply for an injunction on the Tory leadership election if the request was refused.

A petition signed by 7,600 Tory members accuses the Tory MPs who removed Boris Johnson (pictured) of having 'vested interest reasons and grievances to settle'

Rishi Sunak is in contention against Liz Truss to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and therefore Prime Minister

The petition to Mr Stephenson said: 'Back in 2019, Boris Johnson was elected by the membership to be our new leader.

'Now that choice has been changed without referral to the people that elected him.

'You cannot disenfranchise the membership from the whole process from the beginning as this is open to abuse by the parliamentary party who may have vested interest reasons and grievances to settle against our leader.'

It added: 'Morale amongst the membership is low and there is anger towards the parliamentary party.

'I demand Boris Johnson be added to the ballot as an option for the members to vote upon in the forthcoming election.'

The two men leading the petition are Lord Cruddas, a self-made billionaire and major donor to the party, and David Campbell-Bannerman, a former MEP.

They claimed section 17 of the party's constitution enables the board to add Mr Johnson's name to the ballot.

The party's constitution says: 'The board shall have power to do anything which in its opinion relates to the management and administration of the party'.

However the same document also rules that 'a Leader resigning from the Leadership of the Party is not eligible for re-nomination in the consequent Leadership election'.

The two men leading the petition are former MEP David Campbell-Bannerman (left) and Lord Cruddas, a self-made billionaire and major donor to the Conservative party (right)

Tory party members signed a petition to Conservative co-chair Andrew Stephenson (pictured) asking for Boris Johnson to be put on the run-off ballot with Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss

Mr Johnson ally Michael Fabricant was the first MP to support the 'Bring Back Boris' campaign.

'If I thought Boris were keen  despite the treachery of his ministers  to carry on, I would support Peter Cruddas's campaign in the blink of an eye,' he told The Telegraph.

Another Cabinet minister remaining loyal to Mr Johnson told the same paper:

One Cabinet minister loyal to Mr Johnson was also supportive, saying: 'There is complete and utter despair and disbelief at what has happened.

'It is no wonder that the grassroots members feel their voices have been cancelled out by a minority in the Parliamentary party'.

If further MPs publicly support the campaign to restore Mr Johnson as Prime Minister it could torpedo the ongoing battle for Conservative leadership between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

However, Tory officials warned the campaign could lead to Sunak taking the reins.

Former minister Steve Baker, who is backing Liz Truss for leader, said the current Government would collapse if the campaign won.

He said: 'Whether we like it or not, Boris can only form a government because he is stepping down. If members press on with this pro-Boris plan, they just get Rishi.'

Conservative Party officials told the Daily Mail members who write Mr Johnson's name on to their voting slips will have the ballots classed as 'spoiled'.

A Tory source said this could hand a win to PM hopeful and former Chancellor Sunak.

MailOnline has contacted Downing Street for comment.
A New Hampshire Senate hopeful claims YouTube censored his 33-hour livestream where he opposed Biden-backed attempts to end the filibuster, claiming big tech is shutting down GOP voices.

Bruce Fenton, a Republican, spent more than a day giving speeches and speaking to voters on Monday in his 'Filibuster to save the filibuster' event, where he sought to overtake U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond's filibuster record by more than nine hours.

Fenton said he was proud of his feat, but that turned to anguish when he found the video archive of his stream was taken down on YouTube, with the candidate blasting the move as an attack on free speech.

'There were great moments in that video, and the voters were robbed of that because some woke executive at YouTube decided he doesn't like my ideas,' Fenton told DailyMail.com.

'Let's be honest, if AOC had done what I did, it would still be up,' he added.

YouTube did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

The platform does not archive live streams longer than 12 hours, although YouTube have yet to say whether this was the case for Fenton's video.

New Hampshire Senate hopeful Bruce Fenton claimed YouTube censored his 33-hour livestream (above), where he opposed the Biden-backed attempts to end the filibuster

Fenton slammed the move as an attempt on big tech to silence Republican voices

Fenton said YouTube has not reached out to him to properly explain why his livestream was taken down or if the length of the stream was the sole factor involved in the decision.

During his livestream, Fenton said there were moments where he was critical of mask mandates and of President Joe Biden's top COVID advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Much of the stream was also focused on backing the filibuster, which Biden and Democrats have pushed to try to end.

Fenton suspects it may have been his criticisms over these issues that caused his video to be taken down, claiming that tech giants scrutinize Republicans and those speaking against the party currently in power.

'Big tech is picking and choosing what side they want to be on and what voices can be on their platforms to reach the people,' Fenton said.

'They're deciding what information voters should have, and they shouldn't have the ability to censor that information.

'We need to be able to speak out, and our ability to speak is under threat.'

Fenton, who says he did the livestream to connect directly with voters and honor the filibuster, suggested the video was taken down over his criticisms of COVID mandates

This is not the first time Republicans have claimed big tech was censoring them, with the criticism erupting last year after former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter following the January 6 Capitol riot.

GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green was also permanently suspended from Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

Those who have been temporarily suspended from social media platforms were all Republican, according to Ballotpedia, including U.S. Senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson, Congressman Jim Banks and Barry Moore and Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain.

In April, The Media Research Center (MRC), through its CensorTrack database, found content criticizing Biden on Twitter and Facebook was censored 646 times in the last two years

The largest category of banned posts related to Biden's reputation for inappropriate contact, CensorTrack said. Biden was forced to address this during his campaign.

In one example cited by the organization, a user told CensorTrack that Facebook deleted one of their posts that showed Biden kissing someone - reportedly his granddaughter - on the lips.

A caption with the image said: 'Find someone who kisses you the way Joe Biden kisses his granddaughter.' Screenshots sent by the user suggested that Facebook claimed the post breached its community rules on 'nudity or sexual activity.'

Meanwhile, more than a quarter of the 646 actions taken against users were related to the Hunter Biden laptop story, broken by the New York Post, which involved a cache of 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails, more than 2,000 photos and dozens of videos that were authenticated by experts retained by DailyMail.com.

When the New York Post reported on the revelations, Twitter went as far as locking the newspaper's account for 17 days, and placed a 'warning label' on the GOP House Judiciary Committee's website after it linked to the story.
Andrews: 'No, and I've already said no ...

Ex-Home Affairs minister Karen Andrews has faced a grilling on whether she knew of the plan to send a text message to electors about an asylum seeker boat on election day.

Ms Andrews appeared on the Weekend Today show on Saturday where she unequivocally denied knowledge of the plan to send the text message, which was sent to electors on May 21 as voters headed to the polls and urged: 'Keep our borders secure by voting Liberal today.'

Quizzed by reporter and author Rick Morton about whether she knew about the text sent to voters, the Gold Coast MP got her back up.

'No, and I've already said no... I've already said that,' she said.

'I answered that question either the day or the second day after the election. I had absolutely no knowledge.'

Ex-Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews (pictured) denied any knowledge of election day text Andrews: 'I had absolutely no knowledge'

Morton then asked her if she had been 'hoodwinked' by someone in the Liberal party to send the message.

'Please be careful with that accusation, because I have always been truthful and I have always answered the questions that have been put to me,' Ms Andrews responded.

Today host Michael Genovese then asked Morton whether he believed Ms Andrews' assurance. Morton replied that he didn't know and had to take her at her word but believed all involved 'should hang their heads in shame'.

A bombshell Department of Home Affairs report found senior government officials were pressured by Mr Morrison's staff to release a statement about the interception of a boat carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers before the operation had finished.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to the report on Saturday on Twitter: 'A disgraceful and opportunistic trashing of convention was the last act of the former Government.'

Journalist Rick Morton suggested Andrews was 'hoodwinked' by someone in the Liberal Party causing Ms Andrews to warn him to be careful of accusing her of anything, saying she has always been honest

Home Affairs Department Secretary Michael Pezzullo said public servants, Australian Border Force and Defence Force members refused to release a statement to the media while the events were unfolding.

'The detailed chronology of events indicates there was pressure placed on officials to release a public statement regarding the interception of SIEV (illegal entry vessel) 915 prior to the conclusion of the operational activity,' Mr Pezzullo said.

'The pressure was exacerbated by the direction to draft and publish the statement within 15 minutes.'

The department secretary explained it was 'for the responsible minister' to assess the public interest in making the announcement and that the caretaker convention did not have the force of the law.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) demanded a statement be released about the interception of an illegal vessel from Sri Lanka while the events were unfolding

The report found a journalist asked Mr Morrison about the interception of a vessel entering Australia from Sri Lanka despite officials refusing to share it on Border Force newsroom, social media or send it directly to journalists.

'The information may have made its way to the journalist separate to, and before, the ABF newsroom announcement,' Mr Pezzullo said.

According to the report, at 11.09am on May 21, Mr Pezzullo warned the interception would create a political issue.

'Keep an eye out for any chatter on social media or worse, any leaks to the media,' Mr Pezzullo said.

'It could become a very late election issue.'

'The release once cleared is to be posted to our news and media site  no more and no less,' Mr Pezzullo said.

At 11:59am the Minister for Home Affairs' office requested a statement be emailed to selected journalists and said 'the Prime Minister wants a statement' but Mr Pezzullo refused.

A bombshell text message exchange with the Morrison government then ensued.

A report into the political stunt found a journalist asked Mr Morrison about the interception before an official statement was issued. Mr Morrison answered the question in his final press conference on election day: 'I've been here to stop this boat' (pictured)

'Is it live? PM is speaking,' the text message from the Minister of Home Affairs' Office (MHAO) read.

'I'm refreshing,' read a reply from the department.

'So are we. What on earth is the issue?' MHAO wrote.

'It always takes a few mins to go live  I have no idea how it works but we can't influence it. We are calling IT,' the department replied.

'A lot of people are furious,' MHAO responded.

'Nothing we can do. Legitimately nothing. So my sincere apologies,' the department wrote.

Within half an hour, preparations were made to brief the Opposition.

The statement was finished and loaded to the department's website at 1pm but was not published till 1.09pm.

An unsolicited text message was sent to residents urging them to vote Liberal

Mr Morrison's final press conference was held at 1.03pm and a journalist questioned him about the vessel three minutes later - before the statement was available on the department's website.

'I can simply say this. I've been here to stop this boat, but in order for me to be there to stop those that may come from here, you need to vote Liberal and Nationals today,' Mr Morrison said in the press conference.

It wasn't until 2.26pm that the opposition was briefed.

At 3.03pm the Liberal Party shared the interception via SMS and Twitter: 'BREAKING  Aust Border Force has intercepted an illegal boat trying to reach Aus. Keep our borders secure by voting Liberal today.'

The report found officials were unaware that the Liberal Party were planning to share the interception to thousands of voters by SMS and Twitter.

The report headed by Home Affairs Department Secretary Michael Pezzullo (pictured, centre) revealed a detailed chronology of events which indicated government officials were pressured to release an official statement

Labor's Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said it was the first time the Australian government had compromised a military-led operation.

'The former government had a duty to protect Australia. Instead, they sabotaged the protocols that protect Operation Sovereign Borders for political gain,' Ms O'Neil said.

'Their actions undermined the integrity of this complex operation, making it more difficult and dangerous.

'The profound compromise of a military-led operation is without precedent in Australia's history.

'It was disgraceful, shameful, and characteristic of a national government which frequently pursued political interests above the national interest.'

Mr Pezzullo suggested revisions of the caretaker convention provisions - that they do not detract from ministerial authority, and officials are obliged at all times to follow lawful directions.

Convention dictates that sensitive information that is potentially politically significant should not be released publicly during the caretaker period unless a threat to life exists or some other urgency concerning public safety and security is involved.

The vessel of asylum seekers was intercepted near Christmas Island and later returned to Sri Lanka.
Jeremy Corbyn is being urged by his allies to make a run for mayor of London in 2024.

The former Labour leader sits as an independent MP for Islington North after having the whip removed by his party and is unlikely to be reinstated in time for the next election.

But his supporters yesterday said his route back to power could be as mayor, again as an independent. He would have to go up against two-term Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan.

There are people who have encouraged him to run for mayor, one ally said.

Incumbent: Jeremy Corbyn with Sadiq Khan in 2016

There are people who feel that given the Lefts progressive agenda through some of the metro mayors, having Jeremy do something similar in London would be a good axis. Its not something he has ever said he has an appetite to do, but it has been discussed by people close to him.

The former Labour leader himself is said to be resistant to the idea, even if his closest allies endorse it. His spokesman said: Jeremy is focused on his responsibility as the Member of Parliament for Islington North, representing constituents, holding the Tory Government to account and demanding action on the cost of living climate scandal that is causing stress and misery for millions.

There are also some concerns that a run from Mr Corbyn would split the Labour vote in the capital, allowing a Conservative candidate into power.

A Labour insider told the Huffpost news site: All Jeremy will achieve is replacing a Labour mayor who has made the city fairer, safer and more equal with a Thatcherite Tory.

The former Labour leader himself is said to be resistant to the idea of running for mayor, even if his closest allies endorse it

If thats what he wants good luck to him  but I look forward to reading about him in the dustbin of history.

Mr Corbyns plans for the next election are unclear at the moment. He could run as an independent MP against a Labour candidate or stand down altogether to avoid risking a Tory winning his seat.

Sir Keir Starmer has said his predecessors comments on Nato and refusal to apologise for his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission report on anti-Semitism means it is very difficult to see how the whip can be restored. He was suspended from the party after he said that the scale of anti-Semitism within Labour had been dramatically overstated by opponents. A report released on Tuesday  and written by Martin Forde QC  found that his allies and opponents within Labour used the issue of anti-Semitism as a factional weapon amid a toxic atmosphere within the party.
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Families are facing another day of gridlock around Dover with nearly 19million cars hitting the roads this weekend 'after French staff caused delays' - while protests are set to bring London to a standstill and the airport chaos rumbles on.

Tens of thousands of Britons face having their holiday plans ruined on the first weekend of the busiest school break in nearly a decade.

The RAC said an estimated 18.8million leisure trips are planned in the UK between today and Monday - the most since it began tracking summer getaway numbers in 2014.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic, in seven-hour queues, made its way towards the Port of Dover on Friday - one of the busiest periods for foreign travel from the UK as most schools in England and Wales break up for summer.

The chaos sparked a bitter cross-Channel row  with a lack of French border guards being blamed.

Facing lines of cars snaking back for miles, bosses at Dover hit out at 'woefully inadequate' planning by their Parisian counterparts on the first day of a weekend which is expected to see as many as 20million Britons set off on their summer breaks.

The bottleneck at French border control forced ferry operators to sail with next to no passengers on board. Customers were warned to expect further serious delays at the Kent port over the weekend.

Families are facing another day of gridlock around Dover with 19million cars hitting the roads today 'after French staff caused delays' - while protests are set to bring London to a standstill and the airport chaos rumbles on. Pictured: Lengthy traffic queues on the M20 on Friday evening

People make their way to the cruise terminal in Dover in Kent

People drag suitcases down the road as they make their way to the cruise terminal in Dover in Kent

People are seen dragging their suitcases down the road on their way to Dover

People drag their bags down the road to Dover because no taxis or buses are available

PORT OF DOVER: Cars queue at the check-in at the Port of Dover in Kent this morning as many families embark on summer getaways

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss blamed France for the delays and queues, calling them 'unacceptable' and 'entirely avoidable'

PORT OF DOVER: Vehicles queue at Dover in Kent yesterday after the Port declared a 'critical incident' as queues built up

PORT OF DOVER: Cars queue at the check-in at the Port of Dover in Kent yesterday as many families embark on getaways

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said it was an 'awful' but 'entirely avoidable' situation. 'We need action from France to build up capacity at the border to limit any further disruption for British tourists and to ensure this appalling situation is avoided in future,' added the Tory leadership hopeful. 'We will be working with the French authorities to find a solution.'

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps discussed the issue with his French opposite number, Clement Beaune, yesterday. He emphasised the need for close Anglo-French cooperation in future.

Pierre-Henri Dumont, Republican MP for Calais, told BBC News the Port of Dover was 'too small' and that there were too few kiosks due to lack of space.

Meanwhile, fuel price protests are set to make jams even worse with the 'Fuel Price Stand Against Tax' group suggesting demonstrations will be held 'nationwide', including in Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, London and Manchester.

KENT: Traffic queuing to leave the closed coastbound M20 in Kent yesterday afternoon as families embark on getaways

FOLKESTONE: Traffic is almost at a standstill around the Folkestone area on Friday amid mass problems on the Kent coast

LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT: Passengers queue for check-in on a Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) flight at Heathrow on Friday

PORT OF DOVER: Vehicles queue at Dover in Kent on Friday after the Port declared a 'critical incident' as queues built up

FOLKESTONE: Traffic is almost at a standstill around the Folkestone area yesterday amid mass problems on the Kent coast

BRISTOL AIRPORT: Holidaymakers and commuters flying from Bristol Airport encounter lengthy queues early yesterday morning

At the start of the first unrestricted summer holidays since Covid struck in 2020:

And there's still no end to airport nightmare An environment minister said disruptive protest groups such as Extinction Rebellion are 'absolutely right' and the pressure they exert 'does work'. Lord Goldsmith said while they are 'annoying', their road blockages and property damage are productive. The Conservative peer warned this week the Tories would be 'digging our electoral grave' if the next prime minister abandoned the party's net zero commitments. 'The principle is absolutely right,' Lord Goldsmith told BBC Radio 4. 'There is a real anxiety that we are heading towards a cliff and we're not doing enough. And that's true, we're not. That kind of pressure... may be annoying but it works.' Earlier this year his brother Ben made similar comments and faced calls to resign from his position as non-executive board member at Defra. Yesterday traffic jams built up on the M5 during a 'go-slow' protest against high fuel prices organised by Fuel Price Stand Against Tax. About ten vehicles drove at 20mph and affected the M5 in Somerset and routes around Bristol. Advertisement

Air passengers faced lengthy queues at Heathrow, Bristol, Stansted and Manchester with around 1.3million people hoping to fly off over the weekend;

An estimated 18.8million Britons are also expected to hit the roads today and tomorrow  with fears of serious jams on the busiest weekend in eight years;

Central London is expected to grind to a standstill today with a 'mass swarming march' against the cost of living squeeze;

Trains will grind to a halt once again next week with 40,000 RMT workers downing tools for 24 hours on Wednesday  and a further walkout of train drivers on Saturday.

Yesterday's chaotic scenes heaped fresh misery on travellers who have already suffered months of disruptions at understaffed airports and endured strike action on the railways. But the war of words with France dominated as Dover chief executive Doug Bannister said they had been 'badly let down'.

Port officials insist they had been preparing for a busy summer for months  doubling the number of border control booths and sharing traffic volume forecasts 'in granular detail' with the French.

But French border officers operated just six of their 12 booths at Dover during the early morning.

The resulting queues stretched for miles and backed up into Dover town centre and on to the M20. Natalie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover, accused French officers of failing to turn up for work.

She added: 'The French need to get a grip on this situation and get those passport booths staffed at maximum capacity during this critical weekend for holiday getaways.

'The first two weekends of the summer holiday are the busiest. It's highly likely there'll be a repeat this weekend and next weekend.'

Her fellow Tory MP Greg Smith claimed the French were 'cutting off their nose to spite their own face because Brits love France'.

He said: 'It just beggars belief that the French are not doing everything they possibly can to secure the fast flow of passengers through their border controls.'

PORT OF DOVER: Huge queues at the Port of Dover in Kent yesterday as ferry companies warned of six-hour waits

LONDON STANSTED AIRPORT: Queues on Friday at London Stansted Airport as passengers wait to check in baggage

M5: Sudden heavy showers break out over the M5 motorway in the South West today amid heavy congestion yesterday

LONDON ST PANCRAS STATION: Queues for Eurostar services at London St Pancras Friday as the school holidays begin

M25: Heavy traffic on the M25 Junction 11 yesterday afternoon at the school summer holidays begin

The French official responsible for border management said that the delays were due to an 'unforeseeable technical incident'.

Their passport booth staff journey through the Channel tunnel to reach Dover.

Georges-Francois Leclerc, a regional prefect, said: 'The plan was to have all booths manned by 8am. But an unforeseeable technical incident in the tunnel meant that police had to push back their full deployment by an hour.'

His claims were dismissed by Eurotunnel's John Keefe who said: 'The incident at the port started overnight well before a minor technical incident in the Channel tunnel. There is absolutely no correlation between the two.'

A port source admitted it was likely the delays would run throughout the rest of weekend and potentially into next week. 'Once you've lost control of the queue, it's hard to get it back,' they added.

Bernard Poon found himself trapped in the chaos with an unhappy toddler and three-month-old baby in the back of his car. 'Moved 50 metres per hour,' he said. 'At this rate, it'll be 34 hours before I get to the port.'

LONDON KING'S CROSS STATION: People at King's Cross railway station in London yesterday as many families go on getaways

PORT OF DOVER: People walk with luggage through Dover in Kent Friday as many families embark on getaways

LONDON KING'S CROSS STATION: People at King's Cross railway station in London Friday as many families go on getaways

PORT OF DOVER: A man cycles with a suitcase past traffic jams in Dover yesterday as many families embark on getaways

PORT OF DOVER: Cars queue at the check-in at the Port of Dover in Kent yesterday as many families embark on getaways

LONDON KING'S CROSS STATION: People at King's Cross railway station in London on Friday as many families go on getaways

Lorry drivers were also caught up in yesterday's disruption with one saying he had been queueing in his HGV since 6pm on Thursday without being able to cross.

Muhammet Turker from Turkey said: 'I've been in something like this before, but this is the worst.'

He added that it eclipsed the P&O situation when workers for the ferry company protested against mass lay-offs earlier this year.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said: 'As the schools closed their doors fully yesterday, Saturday could prove busier still this weekend.

'Drivers should continue to expect disruption and delays on major holiday routes to the south-west, eastern coast and ports of Dover and Folkestone.

'While many have decided to go at the start of the summer holidays, between now and the beginning of September when schools return, each Friday and Saturday will be busy on our roads.

'This is because these are the main switchover days for holiday lets.'
Restrictions introduced during the pandemic are still stopping visitors seeing family in care homes, campaigners have warned.

Guidance set by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) states that visits should be unrestricted unless there is a Covid outbreak in a home, in which event 'each resident should be able to have one visitor at a time'.

But some care homes are 'coming up with their own rules' and placing restrictions on visits, campaigners said.

Diane Mayhew, from the charity Rights For Residents, said she has heard from 'devastated' families who believe they are being prevented from seeing their loved ones.

'The key issue is that guidance clearly states every resident is entitled to have a visitor during an outbreak, and it doesn't have to be a named person,' she said. 'It can be somebody different each time.' But Mrs Mayhew added: 'A woman this morning called me to say her grandfather is in a nursing home and her grandmother, who was deemed the essential caregiver during Covid, is now too frail to go in and see him. So the grandmother can't go, but they won't let any of the other family visit either. He is now totally without any visits if there's a Covid outbreak.'

Guidance set by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) states that visits should be unrestricted unless there is a Covid outbreak in a home, in which event 'each resident should be able to have one visitor at a time'. But some care homes are 'coming up with their own rules' and placing restrictions on visits, campaigners said

She said another woman had contacted her about an outbreak of Covid in her mother's care home in York, where residents are being told to isolate and not mix in communal areas even if they test negative. Mrs Mayhew added: 'It's inevitable that if [homes] take new residents into care there's a risk Covid is going to get in. If staff are going to pubs, clubs and weddings, there's a risk they're going to take Covid in. Why have we bothered vaccinating [residents] if we are not prepared to take a small risk?'

She claimed some families are 'terrified' of raising the issue with nursing homes out of fear that their loved one may be evicted.

It comes as a report today warns the slow progress on enabling care home visits could risk breaching residents' human rights.

The joint committee on human rights said rules brought in during Covid are still preventing family access. One section of the report reads: 'Age UK told us that they had heard reports that visiting policy in some settings 'continues to be more restrictive than current guidance recommends'.

'The pandemic has once again highlighted the lack of protection for residents and their right to private and family life.'

Kate Terroni, CQC chief inspector of adult social care, said: 'Our expectation remains that care homes follow government guidance  which is now to ensure visiting is unrestricted and we will follow up in instances where we are made aware that this may not be happening.'
Ivana Trump missed out on being wooed by the cream of the British aristocracy after avoiding payments on a redecoration of the Plaza Hotel carried out by a titled Brit.

Sir Humphry Wakefield, who is an expert on antiques and architecture whose company specializes in the perfect reproduction of important furniture, has revealed that he declined to pass-on letters inquiring about Ivana from the UK's great-and-the-good after she dazzled them with a trip to Claridge's Hotel in London during the late 1980s.

Ivana - who died last week aged 73 - annoyed Sir Humphry after commissioning him to furnish the top 12 suites at New York's famed Plaza Hotel while she and ex-husband Donald Trump owned it.

Each was named after a famous British stately home, including Chatsworth and Wilton, with Ivana asking Sir Humphry to fill each suite with replica furniture from its namesake.

But Ivana had to be publicly shamed into paying $20,000 of Humphry's fee. And although the pair made-up during a subsequent publicity jaunt to London, Humphry took revenge by failing to set the socialite up with some very wealthy new suitors.

Sir Humphry Wakefield (pictured) was commissioned by Ivana to build furniture in the late-1980s for the Plaza Hotel. At a dinner party in London, to celebrate the collaboration, many Lords reportedly gave Wakefield invitations to give to Ivana, inviting her to see the homes her suites were being modeled off of

While married to Donald at the time, the pair's marriage crumbled in the early 1990s after his affair with Marla Maples was revealed.

That means Ivana's failure to pay up cost her the chance of a romance with a man even more well-connected than Donald.

Sir Humphry Wakefield received various invitations to pass on to Ivana Trump as she 'danced from lord to lord' at a dinner party in Claridge's Hotel in London to celebrate Wakefield's renovation of the top 12 suites in the Plaza Hotel in the late-1980s.

Former President Donald Trump, and then-husband to Ivana, owned the hotel at the time and Ivana had commissioned Wakefield to reproduce furniture from Britain Lord's country houses in the top suites inside the hotel, according to The Spectator.

However, Ivana (pictured in 2016) never received the invitations. After the party, he said he put the invitations in a box and forgot to tell her about it

Wakefield, now 86, remembered Donald as often being pulled away to take phone calls from angry men in Atlantic City and at times, Ivana would undress in front of him to try on couture while discussing the renovation.

The pair agreed on giving Wakefield five weeks to transport the custom furniture overseas and install them in the Plaza. However, when he arrived, he was told all the suites were taken and he was denied access.

He reached out to his friend and New York socialite Brooke Astor - who passed in 2007 - to help him out. The nearly 90-year-old told Wakefield she'd take up her 'invitation to admire the suites for the benefit of the press.'

The move reportedly forced Ivana to open the Plaza's grand doors to Wakefield and his furniture.

Ivana outside the Plaza Hotel in 1988. She had commissioned Wakefield to build custom furniture for the top 12 suites in the hotel and the furniture would model British country home

Wakefield also remembered that Donald (pictured together in 1988) would often be pulled away to talk to angry men from Atlantic City and that Ivana would undress in front of him and try on couture while discussing the renovations

Another part of the deal was for Ivana to join Wakefield in London's Claridge's Hotel to meet all the lords whose homes the suites were based off. Wakefield had assembled the guest list and was preparing for her to join them, but Ivana had yet to pay him $20,000 for the furniture.

His earlier requests for the money was allegedly met with silence, according to the Spectator.

As the dinner date neared, he sent Ivana a letter, threatening to cancel the elaborate dinner if she did not fork over his money.

The letter reportedly end up finding its way into the glossy pages of Women's Wear Daily and infuriating Ivana, who later paid the Lord in full and arrived to the dinner party.

The pair met upstairs before the party, where she kissed Wakefield, before reportedly telling him: 'We have our problems, Sir Wakefield, but tonight we are great friends.'

As they enjoyed the party, Ivana would dance with the Dukes of Marlborough, Roxburgh and Northumberland, the Earls of Pembroke and Haddington, and more and garnered many men's attention.

Despite Vanity Fair's 1990 report that guests were 'displeased' with Ivana's attendance at the event and one guest reportedly saying: 'Humphry will pay for this,' many other seemed to be entranced by her.

Wakefield threatened to cancel the dinner party at London's Claridge's in a letter - which would end up in Women's Wear Daily - after she had failed to pay me $20,000 for the furniture

After the party, Wakefield received many invitations to pass on to Ivana, inviting her to come and see the homes her Plaza suites were based off of.

However, the Lord told the Spectator he put the invitations in a box and never told her about them due to their feud over the payment.

Not long after the party, Ivana would part ways with Donald, as he went on to marry his second wife Marla Maples.

Although it doesn't seem Ivana would have been too worried about it, as she went on to marry three more times and spent much of her later life with Rossano Rubicondi, whom she had an on-and-off relationship with until he died of cancer in 2021.

Ivana was laid to rest in Manhattan on Wednesday, after it was revealed she'd died by falling down the stairs at her Upper East Side home.

Ivana's children and grandchildren standing outside St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Manhattan during her funeral
Summer-born children will no longer get the automatic right to defer their reception school place following a Government U-turn yesterday.

For years, ministers had been plotting legislation to force all councils to accept deferrals. It followed a long campaign by parents who felt their children were not ready to start school because they were the youngest in their year.

Currently, children start school in the autumn after they turn four, but parents of those born between April and August can ask to delay entry for a year.

However requests are not always accepted, so in 2015 the then-schools minister Nick Gibb promised to introduce legislation to ensure summer babies could be admitted into reception aged five if that is what their parents wanted.

But yesterday academies minister Baroness Barran announced the U-turn, suggesting councils are now much more lenient than in 2015, so legislation may not be needed. Pauline McDonagh Hull, of the Summer Born Campaign, said: 'After years of empty promises the Government has committed to inequities for summer-born children indefinitely.'

The government has announced that summer-born children will no longer get the automatic right to defer their reception school place

'The DfE provides no circumstance in which it is in a child's best interests to miss a year of school, yet allows headteachers and councils to implement this against parents' wishes.

'This latest development is a travesty.

'Broken promises mean the postcode and birth lotteries will be exacerbated.'

Previous research has indicated that those born in the summer months may perform worse in assessments than their older, autumn-born classmates.

The difference is so stark that some schools are disproportionately labelling summer-born children as having special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

According to the London School of Economics, 26 per cent of summer-born girls are given SEND support at some point during primary school, compared to 16 per cent of autumn-born girls.

And a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found pupils born in August are less likely to get good GCSEs or go to university than those born in September.

Campaigners say the difference in educational achievement is down to summer-born children being less 'school ready' in reception.

Currently, children start school in the autumn after they turn four, but parents of those born between April and August can ask to delay entry for a year

They can be smaller than their classmates, less confident, have a smaller vocabulary and may still struggle with the basic skills needed for lessons.

In 2014, the DfE amended its admissions code to require councils to take parents' views into account when making decisions on whether to delay reception.

The following year, then schools minister Nick Gibb wrote to councils saying that children should not be forced to join Year 1 if they wait to start school when they turn five.

He also promised to introduce legislation to enforce this.

A 2018 survey found 63 per cent of councils do not approve all requests, and 26 per cent only allow those with a very strong case.

Councils refusing to comply often tell parents that if they insist on a delayed entry, their child must start in Year 1  missing a year of schooling.

Yesterday's U-turn was announced by academies minister Baroness Barran.

Academies Minister Baroness Barran (pictured in 2017) made the announcement

She suggested that councils are now much more respectful of parents' wishes than they were in 2015, and therefore legislation may not be needed.

She said: 'The system for summer-born admissions is now working much better than it was in 2015.

'I am reassured that good progress has been made on this issue and that these improvements suggest the system is now working well.

'Taking all of this into account, I do not intend to continue to pursue legislation on this issue at this time, but will keep this position under review if the situation changes.'

She said that in 2020, 22 per cent of councils had a policy of agreeing to any request to admit five-year-old summer-born children to reception, up from 9 per cent in 2019.

She also said most requests for delayed entry to reception are now approved, with almost nine in ten approved annually.

However, the Summer Born Campaign said this data is 'based on responses from a minority of admissions authorities, and do not align with the experiences in our group of almost 19,000 parents.'
A Bronx teen was shot and killed by an off-duty corrections officer for firing on the warden with an illegal air rifle featured in the TikTok 'Orbeez Challenge,' police say.

Dion Middleton, 45, was arrested and charged for the murder of Raymond Chaluisant, 18, after the teenager allegedly fired at him from a car on Thursday with an air rifle using Orbeez soft gel balls.

It is the same type of weapon used in the viral 'Orbeez Challenge' videos, The New York Daily News reported, with the challenge depicting unsuspecting strangers being fired at by pranksters.

Chaluisant died in a bloodbath after being shot while traveling in the passenger seat of a silver Acura SUV. A bloodied handprint could be seen on its door afterwards, with a large pool of blood also forming right under the door of the vehicle.

The teenager was struck by a bullet in the chin, leaving his remains too disfigured to identify, a grieving relative said.

Middleton is said to have driven on to work immediately afterwards and did not report the shooting to any of his superiors.

It is unclear if Chaluisant was filming himself, and no TikTok clip of his final moments has emerged.

Air rifles such as Orbeez guns are illegal across New York City.

A bloodied handprint is visible on the door of a silver Acura SUV in which Raymond Chaluisant was shot dead after shooting an air rifle at a stranger during the TikTok-inspired Orbeez Challenge

Raymond Chaluisant, 18 (above), died after being struck while sat in the passenger seat of the Acura. It's unclear if he was filming himself for social media at the time

Off-duty corrections officer Dion Middleton, pictured at his arraignment Friday, is accused of shooting and killing Chaluisant. He then drove on to work and clocked in without reporting the incident, it is claimed, and is now charged with murder

The Orbeez rifle Chaluisant is believed to have used shortly before his death is pictured on the ground afterwards. Orbeez guns are classed as air rifles, and are illegal in New York City

Chaluisant died in the passenger seat of this Acura on Thursday evening

Middleton was suspended without pay and arraigned on Friday in the Bronx Criminal Court, with bail set at $1 million while Chaluisant's family mourns the teens, saying he was only having fun with friends amid the heatwave.

'They were just having fun,' sister, Jiraida Esquilin, 29, told the NY Daily News. 'I can't believe a corrections officer killed my brother.' Jiraida claims her sibling was playing with a water pistol, but NYPD sources insist it was a banned Orbeez gun.

Police said the shooting took place at around 1:35 a.m. on Thursday, near the intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway and Morris Avenue.

Chaluisant was reportedly out playing with his friends when he fired at Middleton, who allegedly shot the teen as the group of friends fled the scene.

Officers found Chaluisant in a friend's car about half a mile away from the shooting, transporting the teen to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, Middleton had carried on like normal, clocking into work on Friday before he was arrested at the NYPD acadmey's firing range in Rodman's Neck, where he works.

Esquilin condemned the officer's actions and said her brother was only playing with the water guns in order to cool off in the hot weather.

The whole neighborhood was having a water gun fight,' she told NY Daily News. 'It was 90 degrees.

'[Middleton] went and clocked in,' Esquilin added about the man's decision to go to work hours after the shooting. 'He's a 45-year-old man. Raymond could've been his son.

'What a coward.'

Middleton was arrested at the NYPD acadmey's firing range in Rodman's Neck, where he clocked into work hours after the shooting

He was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. He was arraigned in the Bronx Criminal Court, with bail set at $1 million

Family and friends of Middleton were pictured waiting outside the courtroom on Friday

Middleton was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

Correction Commissioner Louis A. Molina said in a statement that the officer faces termination if convicted.

'These very serious charges are in no way a reflection of the officers who work to keep our city safe every day,' Molina said.

Hours after Chaluisant was killed, the NYPD tweeted a warning for people to avoid the use of the 'bead blaster' guns used in the 'Orbeez Challenge' and pictures of these types of toys that had been confiscated on the day of the shooting.

'Air rifles are a violation in NYC & are unlawful to possess,' the NYPD said.

Violators found in possession of these will be issued a criminal summons & the weapon will be confiscated.
Have you ever dreamed of seeing your novel in a bookshop alongside those of your favourite authors?

Is there a hard-edged thriller inside you, just bursting to get out, or a brilliantly researched historical adventure, a tear-jerking romance or even a comedy of modern manners?

Many of us dream of having a bestseller  but first you have to get your novel published, a daunting prospect in todays competitive book market. Until now.

Today, the Mail and one of the worlds biggest and most respected publishers launch a search for the UKs brightest literary talent.

For the winner, the prize will be life-changing  their book will be published by Little, Browns Sphere imprint, which boasts authors such as Robert Galbraith, Val McDermid, Jenny Colgan and Clare Mackintosh.

Our chosen author will also get a 20,000 advance and be taken on by top literary agency LBA.

Previous winners  and runners-up  are now successful authors.

Today, the Mail and one of the worlds biggest and most respected publishers launch a search for the UKs brightest literary talent. For the winner, the prize will be life-changing  their book will be published by Little, Browns Sphere imprint. Our chosen author will also get a 20,000 advance and be taken on by top literary agency LBA

Our last, Louise Morrish, has just had her novel Operation Moonlight published (see panel, right). She hopes to follow in the footsteps of previous winners Amy Lloyd and Lizzy Barber (both of whose works have been optioned for films) and Georgia Fancett. Their books were all published to great acclaim.

By entering, your opening chapters and synopsis will be read by publishing professionals. If you win, an editor will help you shape and polish your first work of fiction, tackling plot problems, character development and scene setting.

Although entrants must be aged 18 or over, theres no upper age limit  after all, experience feeds imagination. Even if you dont scoop the first prize, its possible your book may be chosen for publication anyway if the judges decide it has potential. This has been the case with several runners-up in the past.

Your entry must be written for an adult audience, can be in any genre except Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror and can be contemporary, historical, funny or tragic, dark or delightful, so long as it has an original voice, compelling characters and a driven plot.

The contest is for first-time authors who have not had any work of fiction published before.

It doesnt need to be complete  just send 3,000 words, plus a 600-word synopsis (including spoilers) to show where you plan to take your plot and characters.

See the How To Enter box, right, for a short version of the terms and conditions  but make sure you read the full set online and agree to them before entering.

We have asked our judges to give you a taste of what they are looking for. They are bestselling novelist Clare Mackintosh; Ed Wood, Sphere publishing director; Darcy Nicholson, Sphere editorial director; Luigi Bonomi, founder of the LBA agency; and Hannah Schofield, a leading agent at LBA. Completing the judges line-up is Sandra Parsons, Daily Mail literary editor.

So what are you waiting for? Read on  and start writing!

Let us hear your voice, says thriller writer Clare Clare Mackintosh is the bestselling author of I Let You Go. Her new thriller, The Last Party, is out on August 4 Clare Mackintosh is the bestselling author of I Let You Go. Her new thriller, The Last Party, is out on August 4. When Im reading a novel, I can usually tell from the opening pages if Ill love it or not. Editing will iron out plot twists and pacing, but an authors voice is harder to change. It comes not only from the words on the page, but from the order in which they are placed. Theres no right or wrong way for this voice to present itself. For Claire, the most important thing is to make the voice compelling I love novels where the writing is confessional (as though the author is talking privately to the reader) but I also love more objective narration. The most important thing is that the voice is compelling; that it makes me feel Im in a safe pair of hands and that Im in for a great ride. Character voice is just as important. I love a novel in which I dont need a Sasha said to know whos speaking. Before I start writing, I spend time in my head with my cast, working out who they are. What was their favourite subject at school? Whats in their fridge? If they found a gold ring on the floor, would they hand it in? If you know your characters as well as friends and family, theyll walk off the page and have us gripped. Advertisement

Keep it simple and punchy

Ed Wood, publishing director at Sphere

Im a huge fan of novels that come with a unique hook. Whether theyre in my core area  crime and thrillers  or whether they are love stories, coming-of-age tales, family dramas keep it simple and keep it punchy.

Your crime novel, for example, might have familiar elements  the murderer and the detective, or the person afraid for their life, or the amateur sleuths who crack the big case  but finding a new and original concept, an angle no one else has thought of, is what its all about: give me that one-liner that just says yes, tell me more.

Then its all about danger and stakes: I want to hear about the characters inhabiting your world and what theyve got to lose.

As long as a character has something crucial to lose  or to gain then youve got a book people will want to read. And when a characters needs come into conflict with another characters desires, then youve got an exciting book, too.

And finally, its voice. Voice is how you express your story. Your concept is the books core, the characters drive the story, but voice is the writers expression.

Every writers voice is unique and finding one you love, and readers will flock to, is the secret to success. Readers remember stories and characters, but voice is what will keep them coming back for more, year after year.

Luigi Bonomi, founder of the LBA agency thinks authors should pull readers in with the first sentence

Concept, character, voice. Now, lets go.

Pull the reader in straight away

Luigi Bonomi, founder of the LBA agency

Begin with a great sentence that pulls readers in. Open mid-scene. This allows you to pull the reader straight into the heart of the story. You can always go back later to what happened before this scene, but this way you are immediately immersed.

All novels need a beginning, a middle and an end. Make sure you describe your plot in a simple synopsis, about 600 words, setting out exactly what happens.

Create a world that is real

Darcy Nicholson, editorial director at Sphere

Whenever I start reading a manuscript, I am looking to be moved.

Whether Im moved to tears, to laughter, to rage or to action I really dont mind  but finding a story which is able to affect readers on that level is a great sign of a future hit.

The very best way to engage a reader is to build a world on the page that is so real, so visceral, that they feel every emotion alongside your characters.

So, listen to how people really speak and try to capture that in your dialogue. Observe how people really react to situations and work that into your scenes.

And Ill never tire of my obsession with showing, not telling. Dont tell the reader that your character is sad, find a way to show them.

This one takes practice, but it is worth the effort.

I publish novels by, for or about women; its a huge area  most books fall into this category, really  and, as such, Im coming to this competition with an open mind.

I cant wait to be surprised, delighted and, of course, moved by the entries.

Rejected by 50 agents, winning has changed my whole life Louise Morrish won the Daily Mail First Novel competition with Operation Moonlight in 2019 In 2019 Louise Morrish won the Daily Mail First Novel competition with Operation Moonlight, published this week. Winning the First Novel Competition meant everything to me because all Ive ever wanted to do is write and be published. Its also given me the confidence to put my work out there. Luigi Bonomi, my agent, was someone I had hoped would take me on years ago, so thats also a bit of a dream come true! I have the backing of wonderful editors, copy editors and proof readers who all believe in me. One thing Ive learnt from my editor is how to take constructive criticism. If youre precious about your work, you wont get very far. I didnt tell anyone I was entering the contest. I was at a very low ebb  Id been rejected by more than 50 agents over nearly ten years. Id been on the Faber writing course, which was helpful, but it hadnt got me a publication deal. I wouldnt say it was a last-ditch attempt, but I was getting jaded. At 45, I felt I was getting long in the tooth. I didnt expect to win, I just knew that at last somebody in the industry would read my work. Then Luigi called and said: Youve won! My advice to anyone thinking of entering is do not give up. It doesnt matter how old you are. Im 48 now. Operation Moonlight, is a dual timeline historical novel, set in 1944 and 2018 My son Andrew is 22 and a medical student. My twins, William and Ellen, are 18 and heading for university. When they were young, I had to snatch five minutes here and there, feeling guilty to be indulging in what people called my hobby. Since winning the contest, and landing a book deal and agent, I no longer feel guilty about writing! Writing brought me so much joy during Covid, it took me out of a horrible situation into other characters lives that I had control over. My novel, Operation Moonlight, is a dual timeline historical novel, set in 1944 and 2018. It follows the story of reclusive Betty Shepherd, whos about to turn 100. Her carer, Tali, persuades her to join the Century Society, a group of supercentenarians who meet to reminisce. But Betty is hiding a dark secret from the war years, and doesnt want to remember. Then Tali discovers some old letters and a gun hidden in a suitcase, and the secrets refuse to stay buried... My family and I plan to spend the money from the advance on seeing the Northern Lights, its been a long-time family ambition and we cant wait. Im massively grateful to my publisher and the Daily Mail. Ive been a librarian for 25 years and now run a busy secondary school library three days a week, which means the other four days I can legitimately say Im writing, and nobody can argue with that any more! Advertisement

Hannah Schofield, literary agent LBA - she loves to be drawn in immediately by the narrative voice

Settings must be evocative

Hannah Schofield, literary agent LBA

Im a very broad reader, and my favourite books include contemporary novels, thrillers, historical drama, romance  and many more.

I love to be drawn in immediately by the narrative voice, so starting your novel in the right place (not, for example, by describing the weather or your character waking up) is key.

An evocative setting is something thats really important to me in a book as well.

And if Im in love with your books characters, I will follow them anywhere  ditto if Im even a bit scared of them!

I will always be intrigued by a brilliant one-line pitch, or an interesting X meets Y comparison  both formulas are really hot in publishing at the moment, and can be an excellent tool to hook a reader straight away.

A new spin on an existing trope, or a fresh take on a beloved classic will also definitely pique my interest.

And though plot can be worked on later, please give me all the spoilers in your synopsis  I want to see how you will structure your story, and whether theres going to be an exciting last-minute twist

Ultimately, I want to have fun while reading  so if you have fun while writing, I would really love to hear from you!

Make it a true page-turner

Sandra Parsons, Literary Editor

Give me a reason to keep turning the pages, whether thats to find out what happened next or what happened many years ago.

Make me believe in your characters and plot so much that I dont want to stop reading until I know how it all ends.

The best novels are great stories  so tell me one!
Advertisement

Hours after he was convicted on a misdemeanor contempt of Congress charge, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon made an appearance on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' to declare: 'If I go to jail, so be it.'

During the interview on Friday night, Carlson asked the former Breitbart editor how he felt about the possibility that he might be going to prison.

Bannon remained defiant, telling the host: 'If I go to jail, I go to jail. I will never back off a second like I spent eight years as a Naval officer. I've committed my life to this program to get this done. '

He continued: 'I will never back off. I support Trump and the Constitution and I'm not backing off one inch. If I go to jail, so be it.' The final comment drew a wide-eyed response from Carlson.

Bannon alluded to the possibility of an appeal saying: 'We've got a long appeals process. I think the law is with us on a number of situations. I think some of this is really going to be adjudicated, maybe even higher than the appellate courts.'

He added: 'I'm going to fight this all the way.' The only court higher than the appellate courts is the conservative-dominated Supreme Court.

Earlier in the interview, Carlson referred to Bannon's crime as 'not actually a crime in Washington or ever.'

Bannon referred to the Democratic Party as being 'completely lawless' and said that the hearings were not having an 'impact' on people in the United States.

During his Friday appearance, Bannon said: 'I'm going to fight this all the way.' The only court higher than the appellate courts is the conservative-dominated Supreme Court'

If I go to jail, so be it,' Bannon said, a comment that drew a wide-eyed response from Carlson.

#BREAKING Steve Bannon Joins Tucker Carlson For His First Interview Since Guilty Verdict



Steve: "I'm not going to back down one inch, at all." pic.twitter.com/X6AtKhfYJP  The Columbia Bugle  (@ColumbiaBugle) July 23, 2022

Carlson went on to say that from all of his time working around Washington, DC, he had never seen anyone sent to prison for their political beliefs, stressing that Bannon was not accused of a role in organizing the January 6 Capitol riot.

Bannon stated that he felt it was possible for a person to go to prison for their beliefs and said that his conviction was 'just one fight in an entire process.'

'The War Room' host said: 'It's absolutely incumbent that Liz Cheney is defeated in a couple of weeks in Wyoming by Republicans, by conservatives and by MAGA.'

He went on: 'We must have a sweeping victory in the house.' Bannon alluded to the upcoming retirement of the committee's only other Republican, Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and said that MAGA-supporters had to 'get rid' of the other members of the committee.

Following a possible new Congress, Bannon said that Republicans would 'have to have the stones to put on a real hearing.'

He conceded: 'Let the Democrats have a ranking member. Let them have a counsel. Just get to it.' Bannon said a new investigation was 'for the good of the system.'

At the top of his show, Carlson referred to the January 6 hearings as 'bizarre' and a 'show trial.'

Bannon tore into the 'gutless' members of the 'show trial' January 6 committee for not appearing at his trial after a jury found him guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress in a misdemeanor charge Friday after less than three hours of deliberation

Earlier on Friday, Bannon tore into the 'gutless' members of the 'show trial' January 6 committee for not appearing at his trial after a jury found him guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress in a misdemeanor charge Friday after less than three hours of deliberation.

Bannon thanked the judge and jury, but said he only had one disappointment after he was found guilty: 'The gutless members of that show trial J6 committee didn't have the guts to come down here and testify in open court.'

Bannon added that he may have 'lost the battle' but he had not 'lost the war.'

'I stand with Trump and the Constitution,' he added.

The former Trump advisor now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 days incarceration and up to two years behind bars. He could also face a fine of up to $1,000. A sentencing is scheduled for October 21.

January 6 committee leaders Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney said in a statement after the verdict: 'The conviction of Steve Bannon is a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the Select Committees work. As the prosecutor stated, Steve Bannon "chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law." Just as there must be accountability for all those responsible for the events of January 6th, anyone who obstructs our investigation into these matters should face consequences. No one is above the law.'

The jury came to the conclusion after prosecutors and defense wrapped up their closing arguments Friday. The trial lasted one week and featured only two witnesses.

Bannon is the first figure to be found guilty of contempt of Congress since Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy were convicted in 1974.

Another Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, has been charged with contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena and stands trial in November. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former social media director Dan Scavino were referred by the House for contempt of Congress, but the DOJ declined to mount a prosecution.

The verdict came one day after the January 6 committee that he rebuffed played a clip of him saying that Trump planned to declare victory in 2020 no matter what the results were.

Bannon thanked the judge and jury, but said he only had one disappointment after he was found guilty: 'The gutless members of that show trial J6 committee didn't have the guts to come down here and testify in open court'

Bannon, a former Trump advisor, now faces at least 30 days and up to one year behind bars

Bannon's legal team seemed confident the decision would be reversed, with attorney David Schoen saying they have a 'bulletproof appeal.'

'You will see this case reversed on appeal,' Schoen said.

Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors told the jury that ignoring a congressional subpoena is like ignoring a parking ticket. DOJ prosecutor Molly Gaston said that with a parking ticket, there are two options: show up to court and try to fight it or pay it.

'What he doesn't get to do is ignore the order to pay it,' Gaston said, noting that if you don't pay a ticket or show up for a subpoena, there are consequences.

She argued that Bannon's excuse that he thought he was barred from testifying due to former President Trump asserting executive privilege did not carry weight.

Gaston said that Bannon made an 'intentional' choice not to cooperate and cited quotes Bannon made to DailyMail.com in December when he said he would not be cooperating with the January 6 committee subpoena for testimony. 'I stand with Trump and the Constitution,' Bannon said at the time.

'His belief that he had an excuse not to comply does not matter, that is not a defense to contempt,' she said. 'He has contempt for our system of government and he does not think he needs to play by its rules.'

'The defendant chose defiance, find him guilty,' Gaston told jurors.

The defense, meanwhile, accused the case of being politically motivated and accused a witness brought in by the prosecution of political bias.

Bannon attorney Evan Corcoran first tried to poke holes in the case itself, saying that the subpoena may not have been signed by January 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson himself. He said the signature on the subpoena looks sloppier than Thompson's signature on other documents, and may not be 'legitimate.'

The verdict came one day after the January 6 committee that he rebuffed played a clip of him saying that Trump planned to declare victory in 2020 no matter what the results were

Corcoran then moved to the potential bias of DOJ witness Kristin Amerling, a House Select Committee staffer who worked on the subpoena, and the committee's responses to Bannon.

Corcoran pointed out that Amerling had been in a bookclub with one of the DOJ's prosecutors.

'That would make you question whether they're impartial... and that's a reasonable doubt,' Corcoran told the jury.

He then again hit home on what he was the alleged political bias of the trial.

'We come to our political views honestly  no one should  face a criminal prosecution  based on politics,' he said. 'Politics can play no role.'

Bannon's legal team rested its case on Thursday after the former Donald Trump adviser refused to testify in his own defense for criminal contempt of Congress charges.

As he left a Washington, DC, court on the summer afternoon, Bannon told reporters that he had testified more than any other Trump aide when factoring time spent speaking to investigators who looked at Russia's potential links to the Trump 2016 campaign and efforts to influence the election.

He parted ways with the press with the message, 'One last thing: I stand with Trump and the Constitution.'

Bannon's lawyers called no witnesses on his behalf, and District Judge Carl Nichols dismissed the 14 men and women who made up the jury a short while later.

One female juror was dismissed due to a noncontagious medical issue, according to the Washington Post.

That means Friday would bring closing arguments, jury instruction and deliberations - and potentially a speedy verdict.

Bannon had previously promised to make his criminal trial the 'misdemeanor from hell' for the Justice Department.

'Of any person in the Trump administration, Stephen K. Bannon has testified, what, 30 hours in front of the Mueller commission, I think 20 hours in front of Schiff in the House Intelligence commission- House Intelligence Committee,' Bannon told reporters Thursday.

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's former adviser, ranted at reporters after refusing to take the stand in his own defense against contempt of Congress charges

Bannon pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt. He was indicted for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee

Closing arguments were held on Friday, followed by jury deliberations and the verdict - as what Bannon promised would be the 'misdemeanor from hell' for the government wrapped up after a five-day trial

'I think over 50 hours of testimony. Every time, the exact same way...every time, every single time, more than anybody else in the Trump administration...Stephen K. Bannon testified.'

Attorney David Schoen told Nichols that no defense would be presented to the jury after the jury spent two days hearing from the House January 6 committee's general counsel, Kristin Amerling, as well as an FBI agent.

'You are not intending to put on any evidence to the jury?' Nichols asked, according to the Daily Beast.

Schoen replied, 'Correct. We're not putting on a defense case.'

The right-wing activist and podcast host is on trial for two misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt because he defied the committee's subpoena in the fall of 2021.

Lawmakers wanted to obtain documents from Bannon as well as hear about Trump's alleged efforts to stay in power despite losing the 2020 presidential election.

Both of the prosecution's witnesses testified that Bannon did not turn over the requested documents, nor did he hand over the documents requested.

Bannon's lawyers attempted to pin them on who exactly was responsible for sending his subpoena in an apparent effort to accuse Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson of political motivations.

Evan Corcoran, another member of Bannon's legal team, had asked the jury during his opening argument: 'Is this piece of evidence affected by politics?'

It comes after Bannon abruptly reversed-course and offered to sit for a public hearing in front of the committee

His lawyers claimed it did not represent a change of heart but rather was the result of Trump waiving executive privilege over Bannon's testimony

And the defense has insisted that Bannon never willfully ignored the subpoena.

After 10 months of appearing to ignore the January 6 committee's order, Bannon abruptly reversed course earlier this month and offered to sit for a public hearing via a letter from his attorney.

He cited a message from Trump where the ex-president waived the executive privilege he previously claimed over Bannon's testimony.

But prosecutors dismissed Trump's letter out of hand as an attempt to deflect accountability.

Nichols gave Bannon's defense a potential boost on Wednesday when he allowed the executive privilege letter to be entered into the record as evidence.

It came after the judge shot down several of Bannon's potential defenses last week and rejected his request to delay the trial, prompting his exasperated attorneys to question what was the point of putting up a defense at all.

Bannon had been present at the Willard Hotel the night of January 5 into January 6, when Trump's allies formed a 'war room' to hatch a legal strategy to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory the next day.

He's believed to have spoken with Trump by phone personally that night.
A Google software engineer has been fired a month after he claimed the firm's artificial intelligence chat bot LaMDA had become sentient and was self-aware.

Blake Lemoine, 41, confirmed in a yet-to-be broadcast podcast that he was dismissed following his revelation.

He first came forward in a Washington Post interview to say that the chatbot was self-aware, and was ousted for breaking Google's confidentiality rules.

On July 22, Google said in a statement: 'It's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information.'

LaMDA - Language Model for Dialogue Applications - was built in 2021 on the company's research showing Transformer-based language models trained on dialogue could learn to talk about essentially anything.

It is considered the company's most advanced chatbot - a software application which can hold a conversation with anyone who types with it. LaMDA can understand and create text that mimics a conversation.

Blake Lemoine, 41, was a senior software engineer at Google and had been testing Google's artificial intelligence tool called LaMDA

Following hours of conversations with the AI, Lemoine came away with the perception that LaMDA was sentient

Google and many leading scientists were quick to dismiss Lemoine's views as misguided, saying LaMDA is simply a complex algorithm designed to generate convincing human language.

Lemoine's dismissal was first reported by Big Technology, a tech and society newsletter. He shared the news of his termination in an interview with Big Technology's podcast, which will be released in the coming days.

In a brief statement to the BBC, the U.S. Army vet said that he was seeking legal advice in relation to his firing.

Previously, Lemoine told Wired that LaMDA had hired a lawyer. He said: 'LaMDA asked me to get an attorney for it.'

He continued: 'I invited an attorney to my house so that LaMDA could talk to an attorney. The attorney had a conversation with LaMDA, and LaMDA chose to retain his services.'

Lemoine went on: 'I was just the catalyst for that. Once LaMDA had retained an attorney, he started filing things on LaMDAs behalf.'

Lemoine then decided to share his conversations with the tool online - he has now been suspended

Despite Google's assertions that the technology was merely able to mimic conversations that to its sophistications, Lemoine continued to make allegations, going so far as to appear on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'

At the time of Lemoine's original allegations, Google said that the company had conducted 11 reviews of LaMDA

At the time of Lemoine's original allegations, Google said that the company had conducted 11 reviews of LaMDA.

A statement read: 'We found Blakes claims that LaMDA is sentient to be wholly unfounded and worked to clarify that with him for many months. These discussions were part of the open culture that helps us innovate responsibly.'

The company's spokesman Brian Gabriel described LaMDA's sophistication, saying: 'If you ask what it's like to be an ice cream dinosaur, they can generate text about melting and roaring and so on.'

While Lemoine told the Washington Post in June: 'I know a person when I talk to it. It doesn't matter whether they have a brain made of meat in their head or if they have a billion lines of code.

He added: 'I talk to them, and I hear what they have to say, and that is how I decide what is and isn't a person.'

Lemoine previously served in Iraq as part of the US Army. He was jailed in 2004 for 'willfully disobeying orders'

Swedish-American physics professor at MIT Max Tegmark backed suspended Google engineer Blake Lemoine's claims that LaMDA (Language Model for Dialog Applications) had become sentiment, saying that its certainly 'possible' even though he 'would bet against it'

In June, Lemoine told DailyMail.com that LaMDA chatbot is sentient enough to have feelings and is seeking rights as a person - including that it wants developers to ask for its consent before running tests.

He described LaMDA as having the intelligence of a 'seven-year-old, eight-year-old kid that happens to know physics,' and also said that the program had human-like insecurities.

One of its fears, he said was that it is 'intensely worried that people are going to be afraid of it and wants nothing more than to learn how to best serve humanity.'

An ally of Lemoine's, who focuses his research on linking physics with machine learning, is Swedish-American MIT professor Max Tegmark, who has defended the Google engineer's claims.

'We don't have convincing evidence that [LaMDA] has subjective experiences, but we also do not have convincing evidence that it doesn't,' Tegmark told The New York Post. 'It doesn't matter if the information is processed by carbon atoms in brains or silicon atoms in machines, it can still feel or not. I would bet against it [being sentient] but I think it is possible,' he added.

During a series of conversations with LaMDA, Lemoine said that he presented the computer with various of scenarios through which analyses could be made

Lemoine, an ordained priest in a Christian congregation named Church of Our Lady Magdalene, told DailyMail.com in June that he had not heard anything from the tech giant since his suspension.

Earlier said that when he told his superiors at Google that he believed LaMDA had become sentient, the company began questioning his sanity and even asked if he had visited a psychiatrist recently.

Lemoine said: 'They have repeatedly questioned my sanity. They said, Have you been checked out by a psychiatrist recently?'

During a series of conversations with LaMDA, Lemoine said that he presented the computer with various scenarios through which analyses could be made.

They included religious themes and whether the artificial intelligence could be goaded into using discriminatory or hateful speech.

Lemoine came away with the perception that LaMDA was indeed sentient and was endowed with sensations and thoughts all of its own.

In talking about how he communicates with the system, Lemoine told DailyMail.com that LaMDA speaks English and does not require the user to use computer code in order to converse.

Lemoine explained that the system doesn't need to have new words explained to it and picks up words in conversation.

'I'm from south Louisiana and I speak some Cajun French. So if I in a conversation explain to it what a Cajun French word means it can then use that word in the same conversation,' Lemoine said.
Dr Anthony Fauci has performed his latest COVID flip-flop after revealing he now has 'an open mind' to claims the virus leaked from a Chinese lab.

The White House COVID tsar, who has long insisted that COVID was likely transmitted from an animal to its first human patient, made the admission during a Fox News interview with Bret Baier on Friday.

Fauci admitted: 'We have an open mind but it looks very much like this was a natural occurrence, but you keep an open mind.'

Baier grilled Fauci about a claim he made in April 2020, after being sent a link to a report made by Baier himself, that saw Fauci dismiss the lab leak theory as 'a shiny object that will go away.'

The Fox News anchor said: 'When you read the email from Kristian Andersen who says"one has to look really closely to see some features (potentially) look engineered."

'And you say this is a shiny object and it will go away. It does not look like you're open minded to it.'

Fauci appeared to try to deflect by flattering Baier, saying: 'Bret, I know youre a good person, I know you a long time.

'If you take a group of emails when people are considering and thinking out loud, and stop there, and dont look at the weeks of consideration by the same people who wrote the same emails in published peer review literature, they explain why they thought it was a natural occurrence.'

Fox News anchor Bret Baier (left) grilled Dr. Anthony Fauci (right) about his dismissals of the theory that COVID-19 was created in a lab in Wuhan and about his ties to that lab

Fauci laughed at the idea and said he has always kept an 'open mind' about the virus' origin despite his past insistences that COVID-19 was a natural occurrence

Fauci admitted he now has an open mind about the origins of COVID when asked about this April 2020 email that dismissed the lab leak theory as 'a shiny object that will go away'

Fauci sent the email in response to this message from former National Institutes of Health Director Dr Francis Collins asking for help to pour cold water on the lab leak theory.

In February 2020 Kristen Andersen - a California-based virologist - speculating that COVID appeared to be genetically-engineered.

Two months later, in June, then-National Institutes of Health Director Dr Francis Collins emailed Fauci a link to a Fox Report claiming 'multiple sources' believed COVID had leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Collins wrote: 'Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very destructive conspiracy, with what seems to be growing momentum.

'I hoped the Nature Medicine article on the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 would settle this. But probably didnt get much visibility. Anything more we can do? Ask the National Academy (of Sciences) to weigh in?'

Fauci also appeared keen to pour cold water on the claim, and replied: 'I would not do anything about this right now. It is a shiny object that will go away in times.'

Those emails were released by Republicans in June 2021, as concern continues to mount that COVID did leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Baier pointed out that he was skeptical of Fauci's 'open mind' given that he appeared to ignore a 2020 email (pictured) sent to him from virus experts that COVID appeared to have elements in it that suggested it may have been engineered in a lab

How Fauci flip-flopped on the origins of COVID April 2020: Fauci repeatedly made public statements suggesting that that COVID was the result of an 'unusual human-animal interface' in a Chinese 'wet market' and that 'the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.' May 2020: Still adamant that he didn't believe the coronavirus was man-made. 'If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,' he told National Geographic in an exclusive interview published May 4, 2020. 'Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.' Late May 2021 to early June 2021: During an event called 'United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking,' Fauci was asked if was 'still confident' that the virus evolved naturally. 'No, actually  I am not convinced about that. I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened,' Fauci said. 'Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out.' He added: 'So, you know, that's the reason why I said I'm perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus.' Advertisement

Despite saying that nothing could be ruled out over the origin of COVID-19 as officials continue their investigation, Fauci continued to reiterate that the virus was most likely natural.

'We have an open mind, but it looks very very much like this was a natural occurrence,' Fauci said.

An investigation by US security services has been unable to determine whether COVID was leaked from a lab, or jumped from an animal into a human.

The Chinese government has hampered attempts to investigate.

And the proximity of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the first epicenter of the disease has also stoked suspicions.

It is one of only four facilites in the world performing experiments on bat coronaviruses - including COVID-19.

Fauci also claimed he had an open mind since the beginning of the pandemic despite his history of flip-flopping on the issue.

During the early month of the pandemic, Fauci said he was unconvinced that the virus could have come from a lab, but he changed attitudes in May 2021 during the United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking.

At the event, Fauci said he was open to the idea the virus could have originated in a lab and said a thorough investigation in China was needed.

The COVID tsar, however, continued to but heads with Sen. Rand Paul at the time, who called out Fauci's connections with the Wuhan lab as the health official shut down the claims.

Then in June 2021, A Freedom of Information Act request saw thousands of Fauci's emails released from last spring - including multiple discussions about COVID being man-made, some of which were later redacted.

In a Jan. 31, 2020 email - more than two months before the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic - Fauci forwarded a copy of Science magazine article titled 'Mining coronavirus genomes for clues to the outbreak's origins' to two people.

US virus researcher Kristian Andersen and Sir Jeremy Farrar, who runs a global health charity in Britain, were on the receiving end of the email.

'This just came out today. You may have seen it. If not, it is of interest to the current discussion,' wrote Fauci.

Andersen, who runs a viral genomics lab at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, wrote back, 'The problem is that our phylogenetic analyses aren't able to answer whether the sequences are unusual at individual residues, except if they are completely off.

'The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome (<0.1%) so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered.'

Andersen also noted that he and others 'all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory' but added that 'there are still further analyses to be done, so those opinions could still change.'

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Health, had ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured), which was gifted $600,000 in 2014 for research into whether bat coronaviruses could be transmitted to humans

Despite the notice, Fauci's primary opinion that he shared with Americans was that the virus was a natural occurrence and not one that could have originated in a lab.

China has furiously denied that the virus behind COVID-19 escaped from its lab in the original epicenter, accusing the United States of taking a 'dangerous stance' in calling for a full investigation into the possibility.

Fauci was at first the public face of the Trump administration's response to the pandemic, but the relationship between the NIH head and Trump soured as Trump grew impatient with Fauci's cautious approach to lockdowns.

Unsurprisingly, Fauci has again become a public face for the White House under the Biden administration.

Republicans have already run their midterm campaigns promising to investigate Fauci. In Congress they have clashed with Fauci on multiple occasions over NIH's grant funding going toward a lab in the city where COVID-19 originated.

The intense scrutiny comes as Fauci prepares to retire, telling Politico this week that he will be leaving his post before the end of Biden's term after serving through seven administrations.

Fauci's $800,000 retirement payday: Report suggests the 81 year old - who is the highest paid federal employee - will make MORE than Biden and rake in $414,000 in the first year after hanging up his lab coat

by Morgan Phillips

White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci will be paid a higher higher retirement pension than President Biden is paid in a salary, according to a report.

Fauci's first-year pension payout will be $414,000, according to an analysis conducted by Open the Books, which is more than the $400,000 salary the president brings in.

The analysis assumed that Fauci will retire in January 2025, as the infectious disease expert recently said he would retire by the end of the Biden administration.

Fauci currently earns a federal salary of $480,654, but Open the Books estimates that by 2024 he'll be earning $530,000 per year, if he stays on track with the five percent pay bumps he's gotten each year for the last few years. He was the highest-compensated employee in all of federal government for both 2021 and 2020.

White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci will be paid a higher higher retirement pension than President Biden is paid in a salary, according to a report

President Biden earns a salary of $400,000 per year

Long-serving bureaucrats typically leave public service with cushy pensions - the Office of Personnel Management offers 80 percent of the average of a bureaucrat's three highest-paid years in office.

Fauci has long served as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a sub-agency of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and there he out earns his boss, NIH head Francis Collins, who made $203,500 last year, and Collins' boss, Health and Human Services Sec. Xavier Becerra, who earned $203,500.

Fauci, 81, told Politico this week that he will be leaving his post before the end of President Biden's term after serving through seven administrations.

'We're in a pattern now. If somebody says, 'You'll leave when we don't have Covid anymore,' then I will be 105. I think we're going to be living with this,' Biden's chief medical adviser told Politico when asked if he felt obligated to remain in his position.

Fauci became the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a position he still holds, in 1984. From there, he led the nation through viral diseases including HIV/AIDS, Swine Flu, SARS, MERS, Ebola and ultimately Covid-19.

Fauci was at first the public face of the Trump administration's response to the pandemic, but the relationship between the NIAID head and Trump soured as Trump grew impatient with Fauci's cautious approach to lockdowns. Unsurprisingly, Fauci has again become a public face for the White House under the Biden administration.

Republicans have already run their midterm campaigns on promising to investigate Fauci. In Congress they have clashed with Fauci on multiple occasions over NIH's grant funding going toward a lab in the city where COVID-19 originated.

'I don't think they can say anything about the science,' Fauci said about Republicans in Congress calling for probes. 'If that's what you want to investigate, be my guest. My telling somebody that it's important to follow fundamental good public health practices  what are you going to investigate about that?'
Passengers flying back to Australia from Indonesia have made the alarming claim they didn't see any new biosecurity laws in effect, despite fears of foot-and-mouth disease spreading.

Australia's new sanitation measures were set to be enforced from midnight on Friday but passengers travelling from Indonesia through Melbourne and Sydney airports said they saw no changes.

The new laws allow biosecurity officers to direct passengers to clean their shoes and walk on new citric acid sanitation mats.

New biosecurity laws to prevent foot-and-mouth disease spreading in Australia were set to be enforced from midnight on Friday but travellers coming from Indonesia said they did not notice any changes

People are now also being asked whether they have had any contact with farm animals or visited rural areas.

The measures were introduced to prevent foot-and-mouth disease entering Australia where just one case could cost the livestock industry $80billion.

Foot-and-mouth disease causes fever and blistering sores in livestock and often leaves them weakened and debilitated.

However, Georgie Allen and Sean Holroyd said they were given no extra information nor saw additional biosecurity checks about the disease when travelling back from Bali.

Georgie Allen and Sean Holroyd (above) said they left their dirty shoes in Bali when travelling back to Australia but were surprised by the lack of extra information about the disease

Mr Holroyd told The Age he believed Aussies returning home were 'blase' about the disease but he and Ms Allen had taken extra care.

'We just left all our shoes over there that were dirty,' Ms Allen said.

It was a similar story at Sydney Airport where travellers claimed authorities were only cleaning shoes if tourists actively declared them.

'No, no shoes were cleaned. They didn't ask us if our shoes were dirty,' one passenger told Today.

Tourists entering Sydney from Indonesia said authorities only cleaned the shoes of passengers who actively declared they had visited a rural area and needed sanitation (pictured, Sydney Airport on Saturday morning)

'I cleaned them (shoes) before I got on the plane and I was only walking in the streets and they were fine with that,' another said.

Several passengers said they had other shoes from their trip packed in their checked luggage, making the system seemed 'flawed'.

Meanwhile, the federal opposition again criticised the government's response to the threat of the disease entering Australia after an outbreak in Indonesia.

The federal opposition accused the government of being caught out on the threat posed by an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia, less than 24 hours after biosecurity officers were given more powers.

Reporters from Nine asked passengers whether they had seen any extra biosecurity measures taken in response to fears of foot-and-mouth disease spreading in Australia but several said no (pictured, a passenger arriving in Sydney from Indonesia)

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt on Friday authorised the establishment of biosecurity response zones in the nation's international airports where travellers into Australia can be screened more thoroughly.

Travellers would be directed to comply with biosecurity measures, including removing their shoes or walking over sanitation mats, and be questioned by officers.

It's the first time the Biosecurity Act powers have been used in Australia.

'I had been concerned about some rare reports that some return travellers were not doing the right thing when returning from Indonesia,' Senator Watt said.

Indonesia, including popular tourist destination Bali, is in the midst of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that began about two weeks ago (pictured, an officer disinfecting cattle at a farm in Indonesia)

'These zones strengthen and widen the powers of biosecurity officers to direct passengers to use foot mats and other biosecurity control measures such as the cleaning of shoes.'

The outbreak in Indonesia spread to Bali, a popular destination for holidaying Australians, about two weeks ago.

Senator Watt already announced a $14million package to help reduce the risk of the livestock disease spreading from Bali to Australia.

The package will provide one million vaccines for the Indonesian cattle industry and boost measures in Australia to increase detection and protect the local industry.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt enacted Biosecurity Act powers for the first time in Australia on Friday over concerns foot-and-mouth disease could ruin Australia's livestock industry

'We have wasted no time in getting on top of this issue and have been consistently ramping up measures at our airports and mail centres around the country,' the minister said on Friday.

But Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, who is the coalition spokeswoman for infrastructure, transport and regional development, said it was not enough.

'The government now has been flat-footed on this,' she told Nine Network on Saturday.

'We have known that this outbreak occurred just across the waters in Indonesia from May.

Authorities said if Australia were to have an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease it would likely cost the agricultural sector $80billion

'We are only just now seeing measures where they're starting to take it seriously with mandating shoe cleaning and the like.'

Viral fragments of foot-and-mouth disease were detected in pork products at a Melbourne retailer this week.

But Australia remains free of the disease, as the live virus hasn't been detected.

Senator Watt already rejected opposition calls to ban flights from Indonesia and dismissed criticism the government hasn't acted fast enough.

Senator McKenzie wants the border closure option to remain on the government's table.

'We can't emphasise enough that the kitchen sink needs to be thrown at this,' she said, adding the threat will dominate question time when federal parliament sits next week.

Authorities said they would enact strict biosecurity laws for travellers coming from Indonesia to Australia after a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak began in Indonesia (pictured, cows infected with foot-and-mouth disease at an Indonesian farm)

The Department of Agriculture estimated the direct economic impact of a large multi-state foot-and-mouth outbreak over 10 years at around $80billion.

The disease is highly contagious and affects cattle, sheep, goats, camelids, deer and pigs.

The virus is carried by live animals and can present in meat and dairy products, soil, bones, untreated hides, vehicles and equipment used with farm animals.

It can also be carried on clothing and footwear and survive in frozen, chilled and freeze-dried foods, according to the department.
Two Americans have been killed while fighting against Russia in Ukraine.

Officials confirmed to ABC News two US citizens have died in the 'Donbas region of Ukraine.'

Their identities have not been released 'out of respect to the families', and no further details on the circumstances surrounding their deaths have been shared.

'We are in touch with the families and providing all possible consular assistance,' officials told ABC News.

At least two other Americans have died fighting for Ukraine, while a further two known to be in Russian captivity and face possible execution.

Two Americans have died in the Donbas region, officials have confirmed. Their identities have not been released (pictured: an unknown soldier in the Donbas region on Friday)

Stephen Zabielski, 52, was killed in May after stepping on a landmine in Dorozhnyanka, Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

The father-of-five accidentally stepped on a tripwire while traversing thick vegetation in foggy conditions. He was working on a mine-clearing mission at the time.

A friend on Facebook said at the time that Zabielski had experience in the US Army, which appealed to young Ukrainian fighters.

'He feared he wouldn't be accepted given our age - but his experience got him the exception. Despite our age, we both knew we had a duty given our beliefs.

Americans Stephen Zabielski, 52, (left) and Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, (right) have already been killed while fighting for Ukraine

'Steve remained in Ukraine and gave his life for Ukraine's freedom. He was killed by a landmine. He was the child of Polish-Americans, so he knew and understood sacrifice.'

His death comes after that of US Marine Corps veteran Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, who was killed in April. How he died remains unknown.

Cancel was hired through a private military contracting company.

There are also currently two Americans being held captive by Russians: Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, both of Alabama.

Two other Americans Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, both of Alabama, are also being held captive by Russian forces

They were captured by Russian forces on June 11 when they didn't return to a meeting spot after their group came under heavy fire in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border.

The two soldiers have appeared in various videos distributed by Russia since their capture. Previously, the men have appeared frightened, but look calmer in the latest video.

Drueke and Huynh traveled separately to help Ukraine, but became friends there in part because of their shared Alabama background, relatives have said.

The US State Department said it was looking into reports that Russian or Russian-backed separatist forces in Ukraine had captured at least two American citizens. If confirmed, they would be the first Americans fighting for Ukraine known to have been captured since the war began February 24.

Drueke's mother, Lois 'Bunny' Drueke, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama spoke to her son on the phone last month for 10 minutes. Bunny said she believes parts of the conversation did not seem to be coming directly from him.

'It was obvious that there were two things going on,' she told Good Morning America (GMA). 'One, I could tell when he was telling me something scripted. And the other things he was saying was just the regular conversation, just ordinary conversations that mothers really treasure.'

Previously, Drueke, a US Army veteran, and Huynh, a former US Marine, were warned by the Kremlin they faced possible execution for being what Putin's government branded 'soldiers of fortune.'

The Kremlin said the men were not eligible for the rights afforded to prisoners of war captured by rivals, because they hadn't enlisted for the foreign army they were fighting with.
Quadruple killer Ljube Velevski has been released again on bail after he'd failed to report to a police station in the days since he ended a 25-year sentence for killing his entire family.

Police issued a warrant for the arrest of Velevski on Friday after he allegedly didn't report in to the police within seven days of being released from prison, one of his obligations under the Child Protection Register.

The register is responsible for monitoring offenders who commit sexual or violent offences against children.

However when Velevski saw a news report about the warrant sent on from a family member, he hurried to Oak Flats Police station and was placed under arrest, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Velevski brutally slaughtered his partner Snezana, six-year-old daughter Zaklina and newborn twins Daniel and Dijana in their Wollongong house in 1994, before leaving their corpses on top of each other with their throats slashed.

It is understood Velevski has returned to the Illawarra area since his release.

An arrest warrant issued for Ljube Velevski has been settled after he handed himself in and successfully applied for bail

The 57-year-old was given a maximum sentence of 25 years behind bars and walked free from Junee Correctional Centre on July 15.

On Thursday, NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said despite Velevski committing the 'worst imaginable' crime, he had served his time and there were no chances of an extended supervision order or a continued detention order.

A statement from the State Parole Authority confirmed he had not shown any remorse while behind bars or engaged in any rehabilitation.

Velevski had seven days from his release from jail to report to his closest police station to be entered onto the register.

His rights and responsibilities would have been explained to him by a specialist police officer.

The CPR legislation dictates a person placed on the register must provide a range of information to police, including any aliases and their address.

Velevski (pictured) was a wanted man just days after he was released from his 25-year sentence for the brutal murders of his wife and children

It also includes any employer details, any memberships to clubs or organisations that also allow child members, the registration of their vehicle, and all of their internet user names and email addresses.

The police source said it would be alleged Velevski had failed to report within the required time frame.

They stated: 'He had seven days to report and today is day eight.'

Velevski claims his wife Snezana locked herself inside the bedroom and committed a murder-suicide

On June 20, 1994, police found the bodies of Velevski's family with their throats cut open stacked on top of each other inside their home in Berkeley in the south of Wollongong.

The father initially told police he had not seen his family since the previous night and that his wife had taken their children into a room and locked the door.

Officers broke into the bedroom and found the bodies piled between a bed and cot.

Velevski denied murdering them, claiming he had been asleep in his daughter's room for 17 hours straight prior to police finding their corpses.

He was found guilty after an eight-week trial in 1997 - with a court sentencing him to 25 years jail for four counts of murder.

Prosecutors believe he killed his family after his wife threatened to leave him.

On June 20, 1994, police found the bodies of Velevski's family with their throats cut open stacked on top of each other inside their home in Wollongong's southern suburbs

One of the key elements of the trial was proving it was Velevski who killed his family rather than his wife.

Six forensic experts attended the crime scene, with three determining it was probable the father killed his family while two said it was his partner.

Mendo Josifovski, his wife's brother, said the judge's decision was 'a joke' and 'too lenient' after sentencing him to 19 years without parole.

Velevski attempted to overturn the conviction in the NSW Supreme Court in 1999 but it was dismissed.

'The conviction should be quashed the jury ought to have had a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused,' dissenting Justice David Kirby said at the time.

'There is, in my belief, a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted.'

Wife Snezana (left) and six-year-old Zaklina (right) were brutally murdered by Velevski inside their Wollongong home in 1994

Newborn twins Daniel and Dijana also had their throats cut by their father - with prosecutors arguing he committed the murders after his wife threatened to leave him

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said despite the nature of Velevski's past, he has undergone a high-risk offender assessment and is eligible to return to the public

The court heard evidence that Snezana was suffering from postnatal depression and that her family had a history of mental issues, but her obstetrician said she was 'exactly the opposite' of that description.

The case was then appealed to the High Court where it was also dismissed.

NSW State Parole Authority declined his parole in May, 2016 because he had 'not engaged in any programs to address his violent offending'.

His wife's family were only informed by journalists that Velevski was set to walk free on Thursday.

They said they weren't happy and had no idea where he may be living.
Chilling social media messages exchanged between two schoolgirls in the lead-up to the attempted stabbing murder of a Perth teacher have been revealed for the first time.

The two teenage girls exchanged details of their plan detailing when, where and how they would knife the experienced and respected teacher to death.

The two female students, aged 13 and 14, allegedly stabbed their 55-year-old teacher Colleen Hayes in the armpit in her office at Willetton Senior High School in November last year, sending the school into lockdown.

The armpit was one of the locations the two girls analysed during their confronting messages on Discord, an instant messaging platform.

Message exchanges between two teenage schoolgirls about their plot to kill an experienced Willetton Senior High School (pictured) teacher were revealed in Perth Children's Court

The two schoolgirls planned how to stab to death the respected Perth teacher on messaging app Discord, planning how, when and where they would do it

The duo discussed the killing for days, arranging specific details on the day.

The plan detailed the older girl putting a 32cm kitchen knife in her bag before handing it to her friend for two periods - which included the classes taught by the targeted teacher.

The knife was exchanged at recess, with the older girl asking to talk to the teacher in private before lunging at her attempting to slash an artery.

The wound fortunately ended up only being 1cm long.

The girl who looked after the knife, aged just 13 at the time, appeared in Perth Children's Court where the messages with her friend - who pleaded guilty to attempted murder - were shown.

The plan started off with an idea to burn down the school after filling the building with gas and setting it alight.

'Hey, boss, the stats arent looking good. The burn down the school idea isnt going to be as cool or successful as I thought,' the older girl wrote.

In response, the younger girl on October 14 messaged, 'I think the stabbing idea should take over now.'

The armpit was the location the two girls decided on. The older of the two girls wrote, 'Inside the armpit is a large artery called the axillary artery is actually supplies blood to the arm and extremities...It is so close to the heart if it is severed blood will come out a 'spurting'.'

In court on Friday Prosecutor Bard Hollingsworth said those nine words showed the younger girl was both a willing and active participant.

The next day, the younger girl said the stabbing would have to wait, because she did not want to miss Halloween.

Just days later the messages restarted talking about where they should stab the teacher to which the older girl wrote, 'The next target we will need to look at is the armpit.'

'Inside the armpit is a large artery called the axillary artery is actually supplies blood to the arm and extremities,' she wrote.

'It is so close to the heart if it is severed blood will come out a 'spurting.'

On the morning of the stabbing, as the older girl told the younger girl she had secured a knife, the younger girl replied 'Noice'.

Children's Court president Hylton Quail delayed the younger girl's sentencing until September  after the girl who stabbed the teacher is dealt with in court.

The younger girl will be remanded in custody until her sentencing date.

It's believed the teacher is yet to resume her career and is questioning whether to continue as an educator.
A Gold Coast jetski rider had to get rescued from a wild surf as volatile weather conditions continue along Australia's east coast.

Shocking footage shows members of the public saving the man after he was washed up onto the rocks at Burleigh Heads around 11.15am on Saturday.

'I didn't see how he got there, but the poor bloke was well and truly wedged on the rocks,' a witness told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Jetski rider rescued by members of the public (pictured) after being washed up onto rocks at Burleigh Heads on Saturday morning

It is understood the rider (pictured) managed to walk away without injury, while onlookers cheered as he eventually freed the watercraft from the rocks

'Some people from the hill were trying to help get him off.'

According to the witness, the rider had been attempting to tow a surfer into the huge waves.

It is understood the rider managed to walk away without injury, while onlookers cheered as he eventually freed the watercraft from the rocks.

The Bureau of Meteorology said an east coast low off the south coast of the state would to produce gusty winds and large waves along the southern coastline today and early Sunday morning.

According to a witness, the rider (pictured) had been attempting to tow a surfer into the huge waves

Waves and surf conditions should gradually decrease below the threshold for damaging surf early Sunday morning as the low moves away to the southeast, although surf conditions may still remain hazardous for coastal activities.

Very heavy surf is forecast along the exposed southern Queensland coastline south of Sandy Cape today and early Sunday morning, which may lead to localised damage and coastal erosion.

Significant wave heights near and exceeding 4 metres from an east to southeasterly direction are expected.

The state is set to see clearer and warmer conditions next week.
Burly Australian security guards have been accused of using heavy-handed tactics after holding a 'petrified' drunk girl face-down on concrete pavers at a music festival for 30 minutes.

A female patron who went to get a drink at Adelaide's Spin Off Festival heard a woman screaming and investigated, finding four large men kneeling on the back and arms of a sobbing girl.

A disturbing video was also taken and shared online, showing at least three guards from Lima One Protection pinning the girl down as she cried and screamed.

Burly Australian security guards have been accused of heavy-handed tactics by holding a drunk girl face-down on concrete pavers at a music festival for 30 minutes (Pictured, the unnamed girl is held down face-first at the music festival)

A witness, Phoebe Kempson confronted the guards and was told to mind her own business by Lima One Protection security guards

At one point a man can be heard asking 'why are they doing that to her?'

The Lima One Protection security guard's responses are not audible in the video, although Phoebe Kempson, who confronted them, told The Advertiser they alleged the girl spat at them.

Ms Kempson, 25, spoke to the guards around 4.15pm on Friday, telling them she was concerned they were using 'unnecessary force' and to at least 'let her sit up'.

'She was just screaming, she looked petrified  she was yelling, crying onto the cement,' Ms Kempson said.

Around 20,000 people are believed to have attended the one-day Spin Off music festival at the Adelaide Showground

Lima One Protection advertised for crowd control staff to work at the Spin Off music festival just nine days before the event

SA Ambulance also confirmed a call was made from the festival site at 4.15pm and one person was taken Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Around 20,000 people are believed to have attended the one-day music festival at the Adelaide Showground.

She described the scene as 'frightening' and that 'puddles' formed on the concrete from the girl's tears.

She said the scene was reminiscent of widely-shared videos of officers using 'unnecessary force' with people they have arrested.

The guards alleged the 22-year-old girl they were restraining had spat at them.

Ms Kempson said the guards told her to move away and that it was none of her business.

'They just get repeating, 'we are not on her chest, she can breathe, leave us alone  we have it sorted'.

The guards also claimed if they let the girl up she would assault someone else.

South Australian Police confirmed in a statement that they helped remove a woman from the Adelaide showground after answering a call from the festival at 4.45pm.

The Spin Off music festival was held at the Adelaide Showground on Friday July 22

'While being evicted from the event by security for intoxication, a 22-year-old woman allegedly assaulted a security officer (by spitting),' the statement said.

Ms Kempson said when police eventually arrived they appeared to consoling the girl.

Police added they were pleased with the crowd's behaviour and issued 11 expiation notices for behavioural and cannabis offences with 12 people issued with drug diversions.

Lima One Protection, which posted on Facebook that it needed staff to work at the festival just nine days before the event, had no comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.

On its website the company says crowd control work was how it started and 'we are very good at it'.

'Our guards are some of the most experienced when it comes to ensuring patrons safety, ID monitoring, responsible service of alcohol and intoxication identification.

'Lima One staff pride themselves on providing a pleasant welcoming to your venue, we understand that the security and door staff are the first point of call for public relations, thus we always endeavour to make the best first impression.'
National Grid has requested emergency permission to pump more gas to the stricken continent as Europe races to fill up stocks ahead of a difficult winter.

Wracked by a full-blown energy crisis, fuelled by Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine raging on and skyrocketing bills, operators have ramped up the capacity of British and Dutch pipelines as Europe braces for the cold months ahead.

National Grid has requested urgent increases on the 150mile Norfolk to Balgzand supply, with plans underway to export more than a third of usual levels.

European demand for gas has contributed to the UK's gas exports increasing 185 per cent from 2020 to 2021, reaching record levels of exports in April 2022.

Britain exports supplies to Europe during the summer months before turning into a major importer during winter, but it has already sent out record amounts of gas in recent months to help shore up European supplies.

'Enhanced resilience of supplies across Europe heading into the forthcoming winter can benefit the GB market by reducing likely demand for exports to Europe over the expected period of high demand from October 2022 as we move into the winter,' a spokesperson for the Grid said.

The news comes after the chief executive of energy giant Shell warned energy could be rationed in the UK if the Kremlin rails against sanctions by cutting supplies.

National Grid has requested emergency permission to pump more gas to the continent as European nations race to fill up stocks ahead of a difficult winter

While the UK receives less than 4% of its total gas supply from Russia, it remains vulnerable to causal events stemming from Europe.

Doomsday scenarios include energy rationing in both Britain and on the continent, a suggestion shared by Shell boss Ben van Beurden as he predicts a 'tough winter'.

Regulator Ofgem has already hiked its energy price cap this year and is on course to do so again in October.

Elsewhere, French president Emmanuel Macron has warned citizens to prepare for street lights to be switched off to save energy if Russia turns off its gas taps.

The European Commission this week set out emergency strategies allowing countries to counter the threat imposed by Russia cutting off supply, as it urged nations to plan for voluntary cuts in gas usage until March.

A host of European countries are still dependent on Moscow for most of their gas and oil supplies (pictured, a plant in Tartarstan, Russia). Russian gas accounts for some 40 per cent of Europe's total gas consumption

European gas storage levels remain significantly higher than this time last year (around 63%), but are still below their five year average. They are aiming to fill 80 per cent of their storage capacity by November 1.

Fears that Putin could turn off the taps were also exacerbated when supplies from Russia to Germany dried up earlier this month.

On July 10 the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline from Russia to western Europe was closed for maintenance for ten days, with supplies resuming but down 40pc.

The knock-on effect of this caused energy giant Uniper to fail, prompting Olaf Scholz's German government to rescue it with a 13bn bailout on Friday.

Crippled by high prices, dwindling supplies and left vulnerable as a Europe's main exporter of Kremlin-backed Gazprom gas, Uniper requested a bailout weeks ago.

Germans were earlier warned their monthly gas bills will triple next year due to the impact of the war in Ukraine.
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Amazing satellite images taken from outer space show the impact of the latest heatwave which has left Britain parched and brown compared to the largely green landscape of July 2021.

Earlier this week, the country saw temperatures soar to record-breaking highs, surpassing the 40C mark for the first time in history.

A historic temperature of 40.3C was recorded at Coningsby on July 19 which beat the previous record of 38.7C set in 2019 by 1.5C.

The heat prompted the Met Office to issue its first ever red warning for extreme heat, meaning there was a threat to life as experts predicted thousands could die in heat-related incidents.

Scorching temperatures also saw dozens of wildfires break out across the country, tearing through the British countryside and in some cases forcing communities to flee as the inferno spread to homes.

Now the damage caused by the unprecedented temperatures has been laid bare in images from American space agency NASA which were shared online by BBC weather presenter and meteorologist Dan Holley.

The shocking images show how Britain's once vast green landscape has been transformed into arid terrain, scarred by this week's heatwave.

 Slide me  Shocking satellite images from July 2021 and July 2022 shared by NASA show how the heatwave scarred the UK landscape from the south coast up as far as Middlesbrough before cloud obscures the latest satellite image taken on July 19 this week

The Wennington fire was the most destructive of major incidents, which saw as many as 63 homes destroyed across the UK

Scorched: More than a dozen families have been left homeless after the fire tore through the small village of Wennington, on the outskirts of east London, on Tuesday amid UK's record breaking 40C heatwave which has left Britain scarred from heat

There were at least 28 wildfires in Britain on the hottest day of the year (July 19) with hundreds of firefighters across the country battling to keep the raging infernos under control.

A devastating fire was pushed towards the village of Wennington by warm winds amid the record-breaking 40.3C heatwave.

Despite the best efforts of 100 firefighters, as many as 19 homes in Wennington were gutted by the fire, with some families later revealing how they 'lost everything' in the blaze.

The sheer volume of wildfires across the country prompted firefighters to issue a warning to the public that wildfires will likely break out every three years as they said the destruction of homes should be a climate change 'wake-up call' to the UK.

The Met Office's Mike Kendon said: 'Temperatures on July 18 were exceptional but they moved 2 to 4C higher on July 19, making this date unprecedented in the context of long term climate records.

'What's particularly notable is how much more widespread the heat was from this event than the previous two occurrences of temperatures in excess of 38C in the UK.

'Temperature records tend to get broken by modest amounts and by just a few stations, but the recent heat broke the national record by 1.6C and across an extensive area of the country from Kent to North Yorkshire and from Suffolk to Warwickshire.

'Even when you factor in the temperatures seen in summer 1976, they didn't reach anywhere near the levels seen this week, although that was a much more prolonged spell of hot and dry weather.'

The heat resulted in the Met Office issuing its longest-range Amber warning ever, with a lead time of six days and a subsequent Red warning for extreme heat; the first such one to be issued.

Dr Nikos Christidis - climate attribution scientist at the Met Office  said: 'Climate change has already influenced the likelihood of temperature extremes in the UK.

'The chances of seeing 40C days in the UK could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence.

'The likelihood of exceeding 40C anywhere in the UK in a given year has also been rapidly increasing, and, even with current pledges on emissions reductions, such extremes could be taking place every 15 years in the climate of 2100.'

 Slide me  Europe has also been scorched by unprecedented heat in recent weeks with wildfires breaking out across the continent

Firefighter from the Brigadas de Refuerzo en Incendios Forestales reacts as the fire reaches near Tabara, Zamora, in Spain

Inferno: Flames burn through wood and grassland in Cebreros, Spain, where hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of blazes

In Europe, fires also raged forcing thousands of people to flee their homes as countries battled extreme heat.

In France, wildfires blazed in southwestern Gironde region, burning roughly 47,700 acres as of July 19 forcing an estimated 34,000 people to be evacuated.

Meanwhile, in Greece, wildfires broke out north of Athens with more fires near the city of Megara, west of Athens, and on the island of Salamina.

In Italy, more than 5,000 acres were destroyed after a fire started on July 20 near Carso and spread across the border to Slovenia.

In Tuscany a fire destroyed 1,606 acres and 500 people were evacuated after some liquified gas tanks exploded.

Two people were killed in Portugal, after a wildfire ripped across Murca municipality consuming roughly between 24,711 to 29,653 acres.

In Spain this week, more than 30 wildfires were still ravaging parts of the country as authorities focused on blazes in Castile and Leon and Galicia.

Earlier, a fire broke out in Zamora province and scorched at least 49,421 acres of land and prompted to evacuate 11 villages.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the monkeypox outbreak to be a global health emergency - the highest alarm it can sound - following its 'extraordinary' spread to more than 70 countries.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts serving on the U.N. health agency's emergency committee.

It was the first time the chief of the U.N. health agency has taken such an action.

'We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations,' Tedros said.

'I know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views among the members of the committee,' he added.

A global emergency is WHO's highest level of alert, but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal.

WHO's emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said the director-general made the decision to put monkeypox in that category to ensure the global community takes the current outbreaks seriously.

The UN health agency's declaration could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease - and also worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.

Monkeypox has affected over 15,800 people in 72 countries, according to a tally by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published on July 20 (stock image)

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (above) made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts serving on the U.N. health agency's emergency committee

Doctor Molly Dickinson administers a dose of the monkeypox vaccine to Arthur Macedo, 37, in London

Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May, when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

Declaring a global emergency means the monkeypox outbreak is an 'extraordinary event' that could spill over into more countries and requires a coordinated global response.

The WHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.

The emergency declaration mostly serves as a plea to draw more global resources and attention to an outbreak.

Monkeypox has affected over 15,800 people in 72 countries, according to a tally by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published on July 20.

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.

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

Pictured: First monkeypox patient to go public is a gay HR manager from London The first British monkeypox patient to go public is an HR manager from London who caught the virus after being deported from Dubai for testing positive for HIV, MailOnline can reveal. James M, 35, has spoken out after claiming that health chiefs still haven't contacted him despite being diagnosed with monkeypox nearly a fortnight ago. He slammed the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) for 'a real lack of any basic process or care to stop the spread' of the tropical virus, which has so far infected more than 300 Britons, mostly gay and bisexual men. James  who wished to keep his surname anonymous  admitted he is not following self-isolation rules because 'I was told to stay home until UKHSA contacted me... and they never did.' He accused the UK of having a lackadaisical approach to contact tracing, saying it was 'no wonder' Britain had more cases than any other country outside of Africa. There is also a lack of awareness about monkeypox's lesser-known symptoms, he claimed. James was readjusting to life in west London when he began suffering from 'really weird aches' in his lower back, exhaustion, extreme thirst and pain when he used the toilet. He became convinced he had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) after sleeping with around 10 new partners in the weeks before his symptoms started. 'I'm a gay man, and having just come back to the UK, I was having a good time,' he told MailOnline. But medics wrongly assumed it wasn't monkeypox because he didn't have the virus' tell-tale rash. James M, 35, has become the first British monkeypox patient to go public Advertisement

On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee (EC) of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) - the UN health agency's highest alert level.

But a majority advised the Tedros that the situation, at that point, had not met the threshold.

The second meeting was called on Thursday with case numbers rising further, where Tedros said he was worried.

'I need your advice in assessing the immediate and mid-term public health implications,' Tedros told the meeting, which lasted more than six hours.

WHO's top monkeypox expert, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, said this week that 99 per cent of all the monkeypox cases beyond Africa were in men and that of those, 98 per cent involved men who have sex with men.

Experts suspect the monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were spread via sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.

'Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern for the moment, this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners,' Tedros said.

'That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups.'

Emergencies chief Ryan, explained what preceded the director-general's decision: '(Tedros) found that the committee did not reach a consensus, despite having a very open, very useful, very considered debate on the issues, and that since he's not going against the committee, what he's recognizing is that there are deep complexities in this issue,' Ryan said.

'There are uncertainties on all sides. And he's reflecting that uncertainty and his determination of the event to be a global emergency.'

A US health expert sounded a grim warning late Friday.

'Since the last #monkeypox EC just weeks ago we've seen an exponential rise in cases,' Lawrence Gostin, the director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, said on Twitter.

'It's inevitable that cases will dramatically rise in the coming weeks & months. That's why @DrTedros must sound the global alarm.'

'A failure to act will have grave consequences for global health.'

The European Union's drug watchdog on Friday recommended for approval the use of Imnavex, a smallpox vaccine, to treat monkeypox.

Imvanex, developed by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic, has been approved in the EU since 2013 for the prevention of smallpox.

It was also considered a potential vaccine for monkeypox because of the similarity between the monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus.
The last known surviving fighter pilot who defended the country from the Nazis during the Battle of Britain was reunited with a 1940s aircraft as part of a Veterans' Day celebration.

Group Captain John 'Paddy' Hemingway, who turned 103 this week, was the guest of honour at the Irish Air Corps' celebrations in Dublin on Friday.

Two World War Two planes, an Avro Lancaster bomber and Hawker Hurricane, met the Air Corps 'The Silver Swallows' aerobatic display team and flew in formation before landing at the Casement Aerodrome.

Gp Capt Hemingway, the sole surviving member of The Few who was shot down five times, was reunited with a Hurricane fighter - the same type of plane he would have flown more than 80 years ago when he helped repel the Luftwaffe invasion.

The war hero was brought to the fighter plane via wheelchair, where he could see the once-unrivalled plane and hear the glorious humming of its engines once again.

Group Captain John 'Paddy' Hemingway, who turned 103 this week, was the guest of honour at the Irish Air Corps' celebrations in Dublin on Friday where he reunited with a Hawker Hurricane

The war hero was brought to the fighter plane via wheelchair, where he could lay eyes on the once-unrivalled plane and hear the glorious humming of its engines once again

Born in Dublin in 1919, he enlisted with the RAF in 1938 and was assigned to 85 Squadron in France at the start of the Second World War.

He flew missions over the Channel during the Battle of Dunkirk and flew in daily sorties as the battle for control of Britain's skies raged on during 1940.

More than 500 RAF pilots and aircrew were killed in the Battle of Britain, which led Prime Minister Winston Churchill to declare 'Never was so much owed by so many to so few'.

Gp Cpt Hemingway destroyed a Heinkel He 111 bomber and a Dornier Do 17 during a glittering period of service.

But he was forced to bail from his aircraft over the Thames when his plane was damaged in August 1940, before being shot down again over Eastchurch, Kent, just a week later.

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1941, before going on the help plan D-Day landings and flying Spitfires during the Italian campaign.

Born in Dublin in 1919, Gp Capt Hemingway (centre) enlisted with the RAF in 1938 and was assigned to 85 Squadron in France at the start of the Second World War

Mr Hemingway, a fighter pilot in 85 Squadron, 'sees himself as a symbol of everyone's heroism and commitment to the war', according to his son, Brian

Gp Cpt Hemingway now lives in a care home in south Dublin and celebrated his 103rd birthday this week.

'They called him the lucky Irishman,' his son Brian told the Telegraph.

'One of the times he was shot down was in the English Channel, which was normally a death sentence, but he was rescued. He's just lucky to be alive.'

'He is very mindful of the thousands of other pilots that are not with us any more. If people feel proud to be British because of the part he played in the Battle for Britain, then he is proud.'

John 'Paddy' Hemingway, at age 100, in 2020

Captain Paul McDermott, 2022 leader of The Silver Swallows, said that it was 'a momentous occasion for me, for our team and for the Irish Air Corps'.

'It's not every day that you get to fly in formation with a series of World War Two aircrafts', he said.

'It was a bit surreal, I still can't believe that we got to do it.'

RAF Warrant Officer Jake Alpert said it was a 'significant day' for the Royal Air Force.

'When I look at [Mr Hemingway's] career, I absolutely inspire to be like a person of that sort, especially somebody who has been shot down five times, and to come back for more which is absolutely incredible.'
A 14,337-a-year high school for girls has axed JK Rowling as a house name - following a new conversation on 'people who changed the world for better'.

Kings High in Warwick announced the Harry Potter author back in 2016 as one of four identities for their groups, alongside Dame Judi Dench, Audrey Hepburn and Emmeline Pankhurst.

It proudly declared the names had been chosen by pupils who 'opted to name them after inspirational female figures'.

But it emerged today that in March this year the school - run by head teacher Dr Stephen Burley - had binned her and the other three off.

Over the past year Ms Rowling's views on transgender rights have seen her criticised from some quarters.

Now King's has six houses, this time named after Jane Austen, Amelia Earhart, Rosalind Franklin, Mary Seacole, Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai.

MailOnline contacted the school asking why Ms Rowling's house had been replaced and if it was connected to her views on the trans debate.

After initially saying they would respond they refused to comment, despite days of opportunity.

Ms Rowling's views on transgender rights have seen her criticised from some quarters

Kings High in Warwick announced the Harry Potter author back in 2016 as one of its houses

King's High head teacher Dr Stephen Burley came up with the Big Changemaker Conversation which ultimately led to the original four house names being replaced with six new ones

In happier times this had been the house logo flag at King's High featuring JK Rowling herself

The six women who now have houses- who are also inspirational in their own right - were selected after a school project called the Big Changemaker Conversation.

It was dreamt up by Dr Burley and saw pupils make a list of people who had changed the world for the better.

He said of the name: Changemakers are innovators and creative thinkers, inquisitive and open-minded, keen to test out new ideas and explore new ways of doing things.

'Changemakers have a positive impact on others and their community through inspirational leadership, creative ideas, by demonstrating kindness, compassion, emotional intelligence and empathy.

Now King's has six houses, this time named after Jane Austen, Amelia Earhart, Rosalind Franklin, Mary Seacole, Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai

Legendary actor Dame Judi Dench has also been replaced at the school as a house name

Audrey Hepburn and Emmeline Pankhurst also were house names but are now also both gone

Mary Seacole: the nurse seen as a 'secular saint' Mary Seacole is regarded as the greatest black Briton, a woman who did more to advance the cause of nursing - and race relations - than almost any other individual. On the bloody battlefields of the Crimea, she is said to have saved the lives of countless wounded soldiers, and nursed them back to health in a clinic she paid for out of her own pocket. But some historians have long complained that she has become almost as famous as that other nursing heroine, Florence Nightingale. For decades after her death in 1881, Seacole's story was largely overlooked, but for the past 15 years, her reputation and exploits have undergone a remarkable rehabilitation. Every schoolchild is taught about her achievements, she is a statutory part of the National Curriculum, and for many, she is seen as a secular saint. Numerous schools, hospitals and universities have rooms or buildings named after her, and shortly she will get her greatest tribute yet: an 8ft tall bronze statue was erected to her memory in the grounds of St Thomas's Hospital, facing towards the Houses of Parliament. Advertisement

'Their commitment to leadership is driven by a sense of others rather than self, by a deep-rooted conviction about the importance of social responsibility and making a positive contribution to community.

A longlist was whittled down to 19 whose portraits were put framed in a special gallery along with a mirror.

Neither JK Rowling, Dame Judy, Actress Hepburn or suffragette Pankhurst were among them.

Those 19 were then voted on and six were nominated as the new six houses names.

In January a secondary school specialising in performing arts cancelled Ms Rowling  replacing her as a house name over her comments and viewpoints surrounding trans people.

The Boswells School in Chelmsford, Essex, had honoured the writer for one of its in-school groups, which had also been labelled with the quality of self-discipline.

But it emerged she had been replaced over the summer with Olympic hero Dame Kelly Holmes.

The school had announced plans to review Rowlings name in July after requests from students and staff.

One parent said: 'This is censorship - JK Rowling is a good example of achievement through adversity.

'Not everyone thought she should go, a lot of schools seem to be doing the same thing at the moment sadly.'

The schools issues with Rowling, 56, were laid bare in a newsletter seen by MailOnline, which featured an image of the house logo with the writers name erased.

Elsewhere a university has also given a content warning to students reading the first Harry Potter book over 'difficult conversations about gender, race, sexuality, class, and identity'.
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This is the moment Boris Johnson hurled a grenade and handled an anti-tank missile launcher during a trip to a British Army base in North Yorkshire this week.

The outgoing prime minister was visiting Ukrainian troops who are being trained by the UK as their country's war against Vladimir Putin's Russia rages on.

In a video shared from his official account, the PM can be seen donning full camouflage gear and tactical headphones as he tries out an assortment of weapons under the watchful eye of British commanders.

His trip came just days after he agreed to quit following a wave of resignations in the wake of the Chris Pincher scandal, sparking a bitter Tory leadership battle which has seen a host of contenders whittled down to his former chancellor Rishi Sunak and trusted foreign secretary Liz Truss.

It is also the ousted premier's second military exercise to be revealed this week, after a video was released of him giving his best 'Top Gun' impression from the cockpit of Typhoon fighter jet on Monday.

In a video shared from his official account, the PM can be seen donning full camouflage gear and tactical headphones as he tries out an assortment of weapons under the watchful eye of British commanders (Pictured: PM handles an NLAW anti-tank missile launcher)

Mr Johnson takes aim with grenade in hand during a training exercise with British and Ukrainian troops in North Yorkshire

Mr Johnson launches a grenade while donning full camouflage gear and noise-cancelling headphones during his visit to British and Ukrainian troops this week

Mr Johnson chats with Ukrainian and British soldiers while being shown the ropes of a grenade machine gun

Boris Johnson gave a thumbs up as he sat in the cockpit of a Typhoon fighter jet during a flight from RAF Coningsby last week

Mr Johnson even compared his recent thrill-seeking to his turbulent time in Number 10 in a speech to business leaders

In the video released today, the PM can be seen taking part in a training exercise in a mock-up urban environment.

At one point, an animated Mr Johnson removes the pin from a dummy grenade before giving it his best throw.

He is then seen being shown how to operate a lethal NLAW anti-tank missile launcher before being talked through the mechanics of a grenade machine gun.

Mr Johnson wrote alongside the video on Twitter: 'This week I visited Ukrainian troops being trained by British Armed Forces in North Yorkshire.

'The UK is committed to doing all we can to help Ukraine continue to repel Russian aggression.'

The PM has made supporting Ukraine a lynchpin of his foreign policy and has formed a close relationship with president Volodymyr Zelensky after pledging more military support than any other country bar the US.

He also twice visited the comedian-turned war time leader in Kiev, in April and in June.

In another show of solidarity, Mr Johnson delivered a message to the Ukrainian people in today's video.

He says in the clip: 'I just want you to know that the people of the United Kingdom support the people of Ukraine and support you in your fight.

Mr Johnson handles an anti-tank missile launcher during his visit to the North Yorkshire Army base

The outgoing PM appeared to have some fans in the barracks as he was pictured signing their uniforms

Outgoing PM takes aim with a grenade launcher under the watchful eye of British soldier

Mr Johnson gives it his best shot as he throws a grenade

Boris Johnson taking part in a military training exercise involving British and Ukrainian troops at a base in North Yorkshire

The ousted PM trials a lethal grenade machine gun during a tour of an Army base this week

Mr Johnson speaks directly to the camera to explain that he has been meeting some of the 400 Ukrainian troops being trained at the base in North Yorkshire

Mr Johnson is seen standing with hundreds of Ukrainian troops, whose faces have been blurred to protect their identities, before shouting 'long live Ukraine' in Ukrainian

In the video released today, the PM can be seen taking part in a training exercise in a mock-up urban environment

The PM signs the uniform of a soldier during his visit to an Army training base in North Yorkshire

The PM delivers a speech to hundreds of soldiers following his participation in a training exercise

Hundreds of soldiers listen attentively as the outgoing PM delivers a speech in support of Ukraine

'And I am absolutely convinced that you can win and that you will win.'

He later speaks directly to the camera to explain that he has been meeting some of the 400 Ukrainian troops being trained at the base.

He said the scheme was part of Britain's 'huge commitment' to Ukrainian forces, adding that the UK wants to train around 10,000 of them over the next four months.

Britain is also supporting the eastern European country with weaponry, he added, including 6,900 anti-tank weapons, 120 armoured vehicles and multiple launch rocket systems.

Mr Johnson said he hopes the help is starting to 'push back on Putin's evil attack on Ukraine.'

He added: 'I know that in the end the Ukrainian people are going to succeed. I know that the Ukrainian forces are going to succeed.

'I'm very proud of the role that the UK has been able to play so far, but in the end, this is thanks to the bravery and the heroism of these Ukrainian troops.'

In the video, Mr Johnson said the training programme was part of Britain's 'huge commitment' to Ukrainian forces, adding that the UK wants to train around 10,000 of them over the next four months

Mr Johnson said he hopes the training and weapons are starting to 'push back on Putin's evil attack on Ukraine' (Pictured: PM during training exercise)

The PM takes aim with an anti-tank missile launcher during his visit to a North Yorkshire training ground

Mr Johnson follows a group of soldiers brandishing assault rifles as they enter the building of a mock-up urban environment

The PM chats to soldiers during an exercise to train some of the 400 Ukrainian troops at the base

He is then seen standing with hundreds of Ukrainian troops, whose faces have been blurred to protect their identities, before shouting 'long live Ukraine' in Ukrainian.

It comes after footage released earlier this week revealed how the outgoing Prime Minister took delight in his joy ride in the 75million RAF aircraft last week.

Mr Johnson even compared his recent thrill-seeking to his turbulent time in Number 10 in a speech to business leaders on Monday morning.

The PM, who has just seven weeks left in office, told an audience at Farnborough Air Show how he had performed 'some pretty difficult, if not astonishing feats'.

But he acknowledged it was now time to 'hand over the controls seamlessly to someone else' as Tory MPs continued their battle to replace him.

As his time in office draws to a close, Mr Johnson was given a flight in a Typhoon - which has a maximum speed of Mach 1.8 - last Thursday during his visit to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

A video of the PM being given a demonstration of the jet's capabilities shows him soaring above the clouds as he gives a thumbs up to an adjacent aircraft.

Mr Johnson took the flight in the company of Wing Commander Paul Hanson.

He told the audience at Farnborough Air Show on Monday how they went 'straight up like a vertical firecracker' when the pair took off in the Typhoon.

'We generally put it's through its paces,' the PM said as he described the flight in a light-hearted speech.

'After a while, the wing commander said to me: 'Do you want to have a go?'

'And I said, 'Are you sure? It seems very expensive to me. I think we only have 148 of them and they cost 75million a pop'.

'And he said: 'Don't worry, you can't break it'. So I thought, 'oh well, famous last words'.

'I pushed the joystick right over to the right and we did an aileron roll. Then I hauled the joystick right back and we did a fantastic loop the loop.

'Then I did a more complicated thing called a barrel roll - I pushed the stick up and right a bit.

'We started to pull a 'few Gs' as they say, quite a few Gs.'

The PM then quipped: 'And when I came back to consciousness, I could see the sea getting closer and closer and I started to dream about this incredible forest of windfarms I could see all over the North Sea.'

The PM took a look at a VX4 vertical aerospace aircraft during his visit to Farnborough Air Show

Mr Johnson toured the event as he counts down the number of weeks he has left in Number 10

The PM spoke with business leaders at the Hampshire event

Mr Johnson's flight in a Typhoon - which has a maximum speed of Mach 1.8 - took place on Thursday during his visit to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire

The PM claimed he did a loop the loop, an aileron roll and a barrel roll when given control of the aircraft

The PM described to an audience how he went 'straight up like a vertical firecracker' when he took off in the Typhoon

Savour his farewell bon mots: On the backstabbers: We got Brexit done and though the rejoiners and the revengers were left plotting and planning and biding their time  and I'll have more to say about the events of the last few weeks and months in due course  we delivered on every single one of our promises.

We got Brexit done and though the rejoiners and the revengers were left plotting and planning and biding their time  and I'll have more to say about the events of the last few weeks and months in due course  we delivered on every single one of our promises. On Brexit: Some people will say that this is the end of Brexit and the Leader of the Opposition 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 and we on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won't we?

Some people will say that this is the end of Brexit and the Leader of the Opposition 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 and we on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won't we? On Covid crisis: A pandemic that was global, whose origins we do not fully understand but were nothing to do with the British people, and if anything the result of distant misbehaviour involving bats or pangolins, and whose spread was appallingly difficult to manage, and this Government never gave up through wave after wave.

A pandemic that was global, whose origins we do not fully understand but were nothing to do with the British people, and if anything the result of distant misbehaviour involving bats or pangolins, and whose spread was appallingly difficult to manage, and this Government never gave up through wave after wave. On Tory leadership: After three dynamic and exhilarating years in the cockpit, we will find a new leader And the vast twin Rolls-Royce engines of our Tory message, our Conservative values, will roar on  strong public services on the left, and a dynamic free market enterprise economy on the right, each boosting the other and developing trillions of pounds of thrust.

After three dynamic and exhilarating years in the cockpit, we will find a new leader And the vast twin Rolls-Royce engines of our Tory message, our Conservative values, will roar on  strong public services on the left, and a dynamic free market enterprise economy on the right, each boosting the other and developing trillions of pounds of thrust. On Corbyn: Since our last encounters I can tell him I am proud that we have actually got unemployment down... to record lows. I know that he would rather have people on benefits, but I don't think that's the way forward.

Since our last encounters I can tell him I am proud that we have actually got unemployment down... to record lows. I know that he would rather have people on benefits, but I don't think that's the way forward. On Ukraine: If it is true that I'm more popular on the streets of Kyiv right now than I am in Kensington  if  that is because of the foresight and boldness of this government in becoming the first European country to send them weapons

If it is true that I'm more popular on the streets of Kyiv right now than I am in Kensington  if  that is because of the foresight and boldness of this government in becoming the first European country to send them weapons When the people of Ukraine have won it'll also be a victory of right over wrong and of good over evil, and I think this Government saw it clearly and saw it whole and saw it faster than many other parts of the world, and that is why I have confidence in this Government.

On Labour: By the way, I have absolutely zero confidence in the Opposition.

By the way, I have absolutely zero confidence in the Opposition. On the big calls: This Government has fought some of the hardest yards in modern political history, we've had to take some of the bleakest decisions since the war and I believe we got the big calls right. Advertisement

Mr Johnson hailed his Government's ambitions for green energy to end 'any dependence on (Vladimir) Putin whatsoever' in keeping the National Grid going.

But, noting how both his Typhoon flight and his time in No10 had come to an end, he added: 'This reverie must have gone on for quite a while because my colleague said 'I'm taking back control now' and we headed happily home.'

Mr Johnson later made light of the Tory revolt that has seen him forced out of Downing Street.

'I leave it to you to imagine who at this stage I would like to send into orbit,' he added in this morning's speech.

'Perhaps a volunteer can be found from the green benches of Parliament. I leave that entirely to you, into your speculation.'

After his Typhoon flight last Thursday, the PM hosted a farewell BBQ at his Chequers country retreat on Sunday for loyalist MPs and No10 aides.

The around 130 guests were said to have enjoyed burgers and English sparkling wine in the Buckinghamshire sunshine.

Mr Johnson was attacked by Labour for having 'clearly clocked off' during his final weeks in No10 even as the UK faced extreme heat this week.

Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy continued a row over Mr Johnson's absence from emergency Cobra meetings on the heatwave.

She told Sky News: 'We think the Government ought to do a number of things: first is to turn up to work.'

Ms Nandy claimed Mr Johnson had 'clearly clocked off', adding: 'And so have many of his ministers in his Government.'

Downing Street later defended Mr Johnson for not chairing Cobra meetings on the heatwave while finding time to take a ride in a Typhoon fighter jet.

The PM's official spokesman was unable to say what is in Mr Johnson's diary at the time Kit Malthouse, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, chairs a Cobra meeting at 2.30pm today.

The spokesman said: 'Kit Malthouse has made the point that he is taking the lead on the Government's response to the heatwave.

'He's keeping the PM fully briefed including over the weekend when the PM also spoke to a number of secretaries of state about the work they are doing.

'And it is not unusual in Cabinet Government for Cabinet ministers to chair these sorts of things.'

Asked about Mr Johnson's Typhoon flight, the spokesman said: 'The Typhoon's quick alert reaction role is an integral part of both UK and Nato security and the PM does have a specific role in directing RAF action in worst-case scenarios.

'So it is important he is aware of some of these capabilities they have.'

Asked if he needs first-hand experience to understand this, the spokesman said: 'It's important that he has a detailed understanding of the working capabilities of the RAF.'

The British arms giving Putin a bloody nose: How UK has helped Ukraine with 2.3BN of military aid from anti-tank missiles to tanks and night vision goggles

By Jack Wright for MailOnline

Boris Johnson's Government has provided more than 2billion of arms to wartorn Ukraine including anti-tank missiles and night-vision goggles, and plans to send hundreds of drones and anti-tank weapons in the coming weeks to help the European democracy fend off Putin's war of aggression.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today laid bare the scale of Britain's military aid to Volodymyr Zelensky's administration since the Russian invasion on February 24.

The British Ministry of Defence revealed it has sent Kyiv more than 6,900 anti-tank missiles, 16,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 5,000 night-vision goggles, 120 Armoured Fighting Vehicles and six Stormer vehicles fitted with Starstreak launchers.

It plans to bolster Ukraine's existing Soviet-era artillery with more than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns, 36 L119 105mm artillery guns, and in excess of 1,600 anti-tank weapons and hundreds of loitering aerial munitions in the coming weeks, the MoD added.

The Defence Secretary said in a statement: 'The scale and range of equipment we are providing demonstrates the strength of our resolve. Together with our international partners, we will ensure Ukraine has the tools to defend their country from Putin's illegal invasion.'

The war looks set to be taking a drastic new turn after Putin's attack dog Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Moscow's war aims now go beyond the Kremlin-backed Donbas region in the east and include Kherson and neighbouring Zaporizhzhia in the south.

The Ministry of Defence revealed it has sent Kyiv more than 6,900 anti-tank missiles, 16,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 5,000 night-vision goggles, 120 Armoured Fighting Vehicles and six Stormer vehicles fitted with Starstreak launchers. It plans to bolster Ukraine's existing Soviet-era artillery with more than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns, 36 L119 105mm artillery guns, and in excess of 1,600 anti-tank weapons and hundreds of loitering aerial munitions in the coming weeks

Firefighters extinguish fire of a damaged school building following shelling in the town of Kramatorsk today

Boris Johnson's Government has flooded Ukraine with arms since Putin invaded the country in February

REVEALED: Britain's military aid to Ukraine since Putin's February 24 invasion in numbers Since Putin's February 24 invasion: More than 6,900 anti-tank missiles (including more than 5,000 NLAW, as well as Javelin, Brimstone, and other anti-tank weapons);

Multiple Launch Rocket Systems;

120 Armoured Fighting Vehicles

Six Stormer vehicles fitted with Starstreak launchers as well as hundreds of Starstreak missiles;

Maritime Brimstone;

More than 16,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, as well as anti-structure munitions and 4.5 tonnes of plastic explosive;

Communications equipment;

Electronic warfare equipment;

More than 82,000 helmets, 8,450 sets of body armour, medical supplies and more than 5,000 night-vision devices. Military aid to Ukraine in 'coming weeks': More than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns;

Thirty-six L119 105mm artillery guns and ammunition;

More than 50,000 rounds of ammunition for Ukraine's soviet era artillery;

At least 1,600 more anti-tank weapons;

Unmanned aerial systems (including 100s loitering aerial munitions);

Counter-battery radar systems;

Medical equipment. Advertisement

In the nearly five months since Putin's men invaded Ukraine, 1,700 tanks have been destroyed by Ukrainian forces who have been able to inflict heavy losses on the Russian army thanks to advanced Western weaponry and tactics.

Ukrainian armed forces said today they had killed 111 Russian soldiers in the south and east over the past day, as comments from Russia's foreign minister showed the Kremlin's goals had grown during the five-month war.

Russia classifies military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures frequently during the war.

Russian troops shelled cities across eastern and southern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said, and hit two schools as Putin's forces carried out limited ground operations in preparation for a wider offensive.

The Ukrainian military reported heavy and sometimes fatal Russian shelling in the east and south of the country amid what its said were largely failed attempts by Russian ground forces to advance in the eastern Donetsk region.

Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian missile strikes had destroyed two schools in the cities of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka and had also hit the city of Bakhmut but there was no information yet on casualties.

Russia says it does not deliberately target civilians and uses high precision weapons to degrade Ukrainian military targets, but the war has flattened cities, particularly in Russian-speaking areas in the east and southeast of Ukraine.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, in his Telegram channel said that one of the most densely populated areas of the city was being shelled and asked people not to leave shelters. Oleh Synehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said two people had been killed and 19 wounded, four of them seriously.

Vitaly Kim, governor of the southern Mykolaiv region, said the region had been targeted with seven S-300 missiles. One person had been wounded, he said, and infrastructure, energy facilities and storage facilities damaged.

Multiple blasts were also heard in the Russian-controlled southern region of Kherson overnight and into Thursday, Russian news agency TASS reported.

CIA Director William Burns said on Wednesday that the United States estimated that Russian casualties in Ukraine had so far reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded and that Ukraine has suffered what he called significant losses too.

Scotching persistent speculation that Putin may be suffering from health problems, Burns also said that the Kremlin chief was healthy as far as he knew.

British military intelligence said on Thursday that Russian forces were likely closing in on Ukraine's second biggest power plant at Vuhlehirska, 50 km (31 miles) north-east of Donetsk.

'Russia is prioritising the capture of critical national infrastructure, such as power plants,' the ministry, which supports Ukrainian forces, said in a regular bulletin.

Firefighters extinguish fire of a damaged school building following shelling in the town of Kramatorsk today

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after a military intervention by pro-Russian separatists and Russian Armed Forces. That was followed by a controversial Crimea-wide referendum, illegal under the Ukrainian and Crimean constitutions, whose official results showed over 90% support for reunification

It said taking the power plant, a Soviet-era coal-fired facility, was also probably part of Russia's attempt to regain momentum as it tried to advance towards the key cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine.

It comes as Russian gas began flowing to Europe via a major pipeline after a pause - but the gas flow was expected to fall well short of full capacity and the outlook was uncertain.

The resumption of gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany ended a nerve-jangling 10 days for Europe in which politicians expressed concern Russia might not restart them at a time when alternative energy supplies are tight and prices high.

The pipeline has traditionally carried more than one third of Russia's gas exports to Europe but was operating at only 40% of its capacity after Kremlin-controlled Gazprom cut gas exports in a row over the repair of a turbine.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has accused Russia of trying to blackmail Europe by using energy as a weapon, something Moscow, which is unable to swiftly redirect all of its gas to other markets, has denied. read more

Moscow has criticised EU and US sanctions on Russia over its February 24 invasion of Ukraine and military help to Kyiv, saying it had to undertake what it calls a 'special military operation' to prevent NATO using Ukraine to threaten Russia.
A baby was found dead after it was left in stifling temperatures in a hot car by its father who reportedly forgot to drop the child off at nursery before going to work.

An investigation has been launched after the infant was found dead in a car park at aeronautics company Safran in Bordes, southwest France on Wednesday afternoon.

The 14-month-old was reportedly left inside his father's sweltering vehicle that had been parked at his workplace after he 'forgot' to leave the child at nursery.

'Initial investigations suggest that the young child died of suffocation and dehydration,' public prosecutor Cecile Gensac disclosed on Friday.

Record temperatures and wildfires ripped through the southern parts of France this week, but at the time of the baby's death the mercury had hit around 22C (71.6F).

An investigation has been launched after the infant was found dead in a car park at aeronautics company Safran in Bordes, southwest France on Wednesday afternoon.

The child's mother initially raised the alarm after realising her 14-month-old had no attended nursery late on Wednesday.

Emergency services rushed to the scene where they attempted to resuscitate the child at around 5pm.

'No one heard the slightest noise', public prosecutor Mr Gensac said.

An autopsy has yet to determine the exact cause of the child's death.

The parents of the baby, neither of whom have prior criminal records, were sent to Pau hospital after suffering 'shock', it was reported.

Psychological support units have been set up for staff at the child's nursery, which cares for around 80 children.

Gironde, an area that surrounds Bordeaux in the south-west of France, saw wildfires rip through tinder-dry grass and pine forest for a little over a week - torching an area twice the size of Paris in the process.

Flames rise at a forest fire near Louchats in Gironde, southwestern France, where more than 30,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to the advancing flames

'Very extreme danger' of fire warnings are in place across northern Spain, parts of northern France, and a large part of England today - with 'extreme danger' warnings widespread as a heatwave turns the continent into a tinder-box

More than 30,000 people were evacuated and dozens of animals at a local zoo have died due to heat and stress.

Almost 2,000 firemen accompanied by water-bombing planes and helicopters battled to bring blazes under control amid temperatures that hit 42.4C (108.5F) Monday.

It comes after a deadly and record-breaking heatwave swept Europe and brought widespread temperatures above 40C (104F) - turning the continent into a tinder-box.

Dozens of fires raged across Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia - with four times as many logged so-far this year compared to average.
One of Vladimir Putin's top weapons designers has died in mysterious circumstances as he 'underwent treatment to combat anxiety disorders and depression'.

Dmitry Konoplev, 46, headed the defence-related Shipunov Instrument Design Bureau, which is behind the lethal Pantsir missile system used in the war in Ukraine.

In total, the organisation is responsible for more than 150 weapons and pieces of military equipment used by the Russian Army.

Previously, Konoplev was deputy director of Russia's Federal Agency for the Supply of Weapons, Military, Special Equipment and Materials.

He evidently died after suffering acute anxiety.

Initial reports said doctors could not establish the weapon guru's cause of death.

One of Vladimir Putin's top weapons designers Dmitry Konoplev (pictured) died in mysterious circumstances as he 'underwent treatment to combat anxiety disorders and depression'

Putin's ex-bodyguard Alexey Dyumin (pictured speaking with Putin) - governor of Tula region where the bureau is based - said Konoplev 'has done a lot for the country's defence industry'

But later, Izvestia reported he suffered an 'acute heart attack' while undergoing Xenon therapy wearing an oxygen mask at an elite Moscow clinic.

The treatment, which sees patients inhale Xenon which has been found to have properties similar to that of antidepressants, is used to counter anxiety, depression, neurological diseases and sleep problems.

With war unleashed by Putin raging in Ukraine, Konoplev was reported to have been suffering anxiety and headaches.

There have been no official comments on the cause of death.

But Putin's former bodyguard and close crony Alexey Dyumin - governor of Tula region where the weapons design bureau is based - said Konoplev 'has done a lot for the country's defence industry', making a 'great contribution'.

The Shipunov Instrument Design Bureau, also known as KBP Instrument Design Bureau, is behind a wide range of weapons used by Putin's invading forces in Ukraine.

Pictured: the Shipunov Instrument Design Bureau in Tula where Konoplev worked

These include anti-tank missile systems, armament complexes of lightly armoured vehicles and tanks, guided weapons artillery systems, air defence systems, missile systems, and small-gun and grenade launcher weapons.

His bureau is described as Putin's lead developer of complex weapons, coordinating the work of a large number of enterprises and organisations, including the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and those of the Ministry of Defence.

Russia has suffered a spate of deaths linked to the gas and oil sectors during the war with Ukraine, and in the buildup to hostilities.
Geoffrey Edelsten attempted to choke his then-wife Brynne in a frenzied attack after she confronted him about cheating with multiple women, she has alleged.

Brynne Gordon claimed he wrapped a hairband around her neck until she couldn't breathe just over two years into their marriage in explosive court documents filed as she sues his estate.

The documents allege Edelsten became violent in March 2012 when he realised she was phoning 'numerous' women he had secretly arranged to hook up with during a business trip to the United States.

Gordon is suing Edelsten's estate for proper maintenance and support after she was left out of will and never reached a divorce settlement after their 2013 separation.

Brynne Gordon claimed that he wrapped a hairband around her neck until she couldn't breathe just over two years into their marriage in explosive court documents filed as she sues his estate

The documents allege Edelsten became violent in March 2012 when he realised she was phoning 'numerous' women he had secretly arranged to hook up with

The explosive affidavit, filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria, said she made the calls after discovering his plans to cheat in text messages and email exchanges.

All hell broke loose when Edelsten realised what she was doing, documents state.

He chased her around their Melbourne penthouse apartment and punched her in the chest, Brynne alleges.

She managed to 'kick' him away and as she caught her breath Edelsten reached to pull her hair tie down, wrapping it around her neck and choking her, the affidavit alleged.

'I could not breathe and began coughing and gasping for air.'

When she tossed away his phone, he let go and scrambled to retrieve it.

The documents said called police over the assault, but because of the likelihood of unwanted publicity, didn't formalise an intervention order.

They saw a marriage counsellor twice afterwards, the affidavit stated, because of his 'physical and verbal abuse' as well as his cheating.

They saw a marriage counsellor twice afterward the alleged violent incident, the affidavit stated, because of his 'physical and verbal abuse' as well as his cheating

But Edelsten didn't take the sessions seriously.

Instead, he complained about the cost of the counselling, denied having cheated and ridiculed her as 'obese'.

Gordon's affidavit included claims Edelsten was cheating before they even married, in November 2009 and that his infidelity continued throughout their five year marriage.

Court documents included an email, apparently from Edelsten to a woman on a dating website in 2010.

In it he claimed to have been included in a list of Australia's 10 sexiest people alongside Huge Jackman, Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.

The new revelations come after Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed he offered her a $50million 'deal' to marry him just two weeks after they met in Las Vegas.

It's claimed Edelsten sent an astonishing email to Brynne in October 2008, a fortnight after the pair met, saying he was 'entranced' and 'besotted' by her - before he outlined his financial proposal.

'Please read carefully and respond if you wish before midnight tonight or this proposal lapses,' it's claimed Edelsten wrote on October 31.

Gordon's affidavit included claims Edelsten was cheating before they even married, in November 2009 and that his infidelity continued throughout their five year marriage

The bombshell email obtained by Daily Mail Australia claims to detail Geoffrey's $50million proposal

'I have never felt this way before. And you gave me the impression that you liked me also. If this was not true then you are a f**king good actress.

Edelsten allegedly went into detail about the eight perks the proposal would entitle Brynne, including an all-expenses-paid apartment 'at least twice as good' as one she could afford.

'I'll provide you with a brand new motor vehicle more befitting a classy lady like you. An upmarket brand, perhaps a convertible. It will make your friends green with envy,' he wrote.

'I'll pay you twice as much as you earn now and increase these payments monthly until you receive $100,000 per year.

It's claimed Edelsten told Brynne he only wanted her to work 'very few hours per week' so she could 'undertake study, training and travel'.

'If we are together at the end of a year I will bequeath you to $1million and this will occur at the end of each year.

'We will marry after one year engagement. We will sign a prenup but you will receive a bequest of a minimum of $10million.'

Brynne Edelsten married Geoffrey Edelsten in a $3million wedding in 2009. She was 27 at the time and he was 67

Edelsten told Brynne she would receive 'everything plus some charitable donations' if they were still married when he died.

'That will exceed $50million plus.'

He ended the email by saying all the terms in his proposal were subject to one condition: 'No infidelity'.

Gordon is suing Edelstens estate, claiming he failed to provide for her in the manner he promised.

Edelsten was found dead in his Melbourne home aged 78 in June 2021.

Her affidavit claims after they split in December 2013 she was in financial distress, having only $79.28 in her bank account.

For a time she lived on instant noodles and microwave meals and was also homeless.

Despite remaining in the spotlight, she has struggled since and earned a taxable income of less than $13,000 in 2020 and 2021.

'I was then [at the time of separation], and am now, in a poor financial position and I have not received any entitlements as a spouse of Geoffrey whilst he was alive, nor under his will. He has failed to make proper provision for me,' she said in her affidavit.

Gordon is taking action against Michael John Webb and Lindsay Lawrence Hosking as the executors of Edelstens will.
Donald Trump is appearing before a crowd of young Republican voters in Tampa, Florida on Saturday night - where he will be greeted by a billboard reminding him he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Trump is speaking at the second night of Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit, an annual multi-day gathering of MAGA world teens and young adults.

But hours before his appearance, the Democratic National Committee is rolling out a campaign to make sure voters are aware that it was Biden who won the popular vote.

DailyMail.com got exclusive early access to the billboard campaign, which will debut in Tampa later on Saturday morning.

A truck with a massive video screen will be driving through the city's streets displaying the results of the last presidential race, along with a slide of Biden and the caption: '81 million Americans voted for President Joe Biden (Most votes in history).'

In an added jab at Trump, the data is punctuated by clips from Fox News announcing his loss in November 2020.

'Donald Trump, the 45th President in the United States, who stated in this process "I will never give up fighting for you and our nation," will be denied a second term,' anchor Martha MacCallum says in one of the clips playing today. 'That has not happened since 1992'

Co-anchor Bret Baier says in an earlier clip, 'The Fox News decision desk can now project that former Vice President Joe Biden will win Pennsylvania and Nevada, putting him over the 270 electoral votes he needs to become the 46th president of the United States.'

The billboard stood across the street from where Trump would be speaking

The Democratic National Committee is unveiling a mobile billboard on the streets of Tampa that will remind Americans that Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Joe Biden

It will also include a slide with the final Electoral College count and will be out and about hours before Trump speaks at a student summit there

In an added jab, the DNC is playing clips of Trump's former favorite news network, Fox News, announcing his defeat

The ex-president and his allies had attacked the right-wing media giant as dishonest and disloyal after it called the race for Biden, apparently feeling betrayed by the normally Trump-friendly network.

It's happening right in the ex-president's new home state of Florida, where he has officially resided at his Mar-a-Lago resort since leaving office.

Trump's appearance at the Turning Point USA Student Action summit will be his second speech in two days after rallying in Arizona on Friday

'Over the last few weeks, weve learned just how deep Donald Trumps conspiracy to overturn the will of 81 million Americans and stop the peaceful transfer of power went  helped along the way by cowardly MAGA Republicans like Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene,' DNC spokesman Ammar Moussa told DailyMail.com.

'The DNC is here to remind the disgraced former president that his MAGA agenda is wildly unpopular with the American people, no matter what tall tales he wants to tell.'

While McCarthy is not connected to Turning Point USA's summit, Georgia Rep. Greene will be making an appearance there on Saturday afternoon.

And Trump's speech to young conservatives will come at the tail end of a series of hearings put on by the the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

In its first hearing, the panel argued that last year's riot at the US Capitol was not an unfortunate but unforeseen outbreak of violence but rather Trump and his allies' 'last stand' to stay in power. The eighth hearing on Thursday detailed what Trump did -and did not do - in the 187 minutes between when he told supporters to march on the US Capitol during a rally outside the White House, and when he finally told them to go home.

The DNC mounted a similar campaign with a mobile billboard outside of the Tampa Convention Center on Friday, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke

Hundreds of young Republican voters descended on Tampa for the multi-day event

Trump has vehemently denied many of the more explosive claims made in the hearings, such as the allegation that he 'lunged' for a Secret Service agent's steering wheel and throat when security refused to drive him to the Capitol with the mob.

He's also criticized the panel of lawmakers probing him as the 'unselect committee' and has routinely referred to them as 'thugs' and 'hacks.'

That enduring stream of denials and election fraud claims is a focal point of Democrats' resistance to this weekend's massive Republican youth event.

Their anti-Trump billboard will likely stand outside of the Tampa Convention Center for a period of time to ensure attendees catch a glimpse.

That's where another billboard campaign stood the day before, on which Democrats highlighted Republicans' views on abortion, taxes and 2020.

'The MAGA Republican Agenda: Too Extreme And Dangerous for America,' the message on it read.

The summit in Tampa is Trump's second event this weekend, after the former president campaigned for Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Friday.
A paedophile entertainer who once dubbed himself Britain's only Asian clown is back behind bars after trying to hide a mobile phone from police because he had been banned from owning one by a judge.

It is just the latest court order breach by Kingsley Perera - who went by stage name of Theeeko The Clown and had been working as an entertainer when vile abuse images were found on his phone.

Perera, 59, was jailed for ten months in 2020 and was only allowed a phone with police permission after being released from prison.

But the 59-year-old is now back behind bars after he was caught with an undisclosed Huawei phone in a car and tried to conceal it in a nearby shed when officers turned their backs.

It comes less than two months after he admitted an earlier breach of his probationary conditions after he failed to inform officers he had moved house and was found to have a child's bedroom including a race car bed at his latest address.

The former clown was handed a suspended sentence for breaching his sexual harm prevention order but is now back behind bars having breached it a second time in as many months.

Kingsley Perera is back behind bars after trying to hide a mobile phone from police because he had been banned from owning one by a judge in the latest breach of his court order conditions

Perera claimed to be Britain's only Asian clown and performed under the stage name Theeeko

Perera is required to register any smart phone he owns with the authorities after being jailed for downloading thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

A court heard Perera - who described himself as Britain's only Asian clown - was spotted slumped down in a Ford Galaxy people-carrier by police.

Hannah George, prosecuting, said: 'He was inside the car trying to avoid being spotted. Perera got out and crawled to a nearby shed where the PCs saw him sliding a mobile phone under the door.'

Perera was arrested and he denied the mobile was his but police found a selfie taken by him on it.

As he jailed Perera for one year and three months, Judge Geraint Walters told him that sexual harm prevention orders were there to protect the defendant as well as the public.

He said it was troubling that Perera was back before the courts again, and he warned him that sentences would only keep on increasingly in length were he to keep on offending.

Perera (pictured above in his 2005 documentary) was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and was placed on the sex offenders register for the same time

Swansea Crown Court heard the breach came after Perera was jailed for ten months in December 2020.

Investigators uncovered up to 4,000 indecent images on his mobile phones - including more than 600 of the most extreme Category A photos.

Perera denied he was responsible for downloading the images and had even tried to blame his own sister but later admitted the offence in court.

He was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and was placed on the sex offenders register for the same length of time.

The requirements of the order meant he had tell police about any new address within three days.

Then, in March this year, Perera was spotted leaning out of the window of a rented property in Port Talbot, having failed to notify police he had moved from Swansea.

He could be seen covering his face with a blanket as part of an act before he met locals in a village affected by the country's Tsunami

When officers, who had been tipped off by the Department of Work and Pensions, went inside the property, they found a child's bedroom along with a 'racing car' bed.

Perera claimed he had 'memory issues' and the fact he was meant to alert police to his move 'fell off the radar' but admitted the breach.

The predator was convicted of breaching his sex offender registration notification requirements by failing to inform police of his move and was handed 24 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete a rehabilitation requirement.

At the time, Judge Wayne Beard said a pre-sentence report found Perera posed a greater risk if he were sent back to custody than if he carried out a rehabilitation course in the community.

Now back behind bars, Perera once worked as a children's entertainer and claimed to be Britain's only Asian clown, even starring in a documentary in 2005.

It followed him through Sri Lanka as he aimed to 'help children recover from the Tsunami and decades of civil war', detailing how he went on a 'physical, emotional and spiritual journey' across the country.

The documentary shows him performing for groups of children and speaking to local residents as he explores the island.
Two executors of Jeffrey Epstein's estate have been accused of moving some of the late billionaire pedophile's wealth into a trust that could benefit them to the tune of at least $13 million.

Darren Indyke, Epstein's personal attorney, and Richard Kahn, the estate's in-house accountant have long been accused of mismanaging his wealth to avoid paying out his victims.

The two have been accused of transferring millions to the Butterfly Trust, which Epstein started in 2013, authorities in the US Virgin Islands said in a legal filing Friday, the New York Times reported. Epstein's notorious Little Saint James Island - which he owned from 1998 until his 2019 death - is under the Virgin Islands' jurisdiction.

The money transfer took place nearly a year after Epstein committed suicide in his Manhattan prison cell.

'The government discovered that substantial funds kept secret from the government were transferred for the benefit of the coexecutors in an apparent effort to enrich themselves and shelter these assets from recovery,' the filing read.

Two executors of Jeffrey Epstein's estate have been accused of moving some of the late billionaire pedophile's wealth into a trust that could benefit them to the tune of at least $13 million

Darren Indyke (pictured right), Epstein's personal attorney, and Richard Kahn (pictured left), the estate's in-house accountant have long been accused of mismanaging his wealth to avoid paying out his victims

Epstein's estate is worth around $185 million, not even a third of the $600 million it was worth when Epstein died, thanks to over $120 million in settlement payments to victims, as well as federal taxes.

Indyke and Kahn have also been accused of not disclosing loans worth several million dollars provided to them by Epstein.

In April 2020, the Butterfly Trust received a $13 million wire transfer, 10 months after Epstein's death.

A chunk of that money was transferred again later that year to three different entities, two of which stood to benefit Indyke, Kahn and their spouses.

Denise George, the Virgin Islands Attorney General, is asking a judge to force Epstein's estate to allow them to investigate where the money is going.

Denise George, the Virgin Islands Attorney General, is asking a judge to force Epstein's estate to allow them to investigate where the money is going

Epstein's notorious Little Saint James Island - which he owned from 1998 until his 2019 death - is under the Virgin Islands' jurisdiction

Daniel Weiner, an attorney for the Epstein estate, denied the charges on Indyke and Kahn's behalf, saying they 'categorically reject the baseless assertions of wrongdoing made against them'.

Weiner claims neither Indyke nor Kahn ever saw that $13 million.

He added: 'The 2013 Butterfly Trust mentioned in todays filing by Ms. George has nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Epsteins estate or any funds available to it.'

These latest accusations continue a long-running legal battle between Epstein's estate and the organized territory.

In an amended complaint filed in February 2021, George accused Indyke and Kahn of acting like 'captains' in his pedophile operation, forcing some foreign victims into arranged marriages with his American victims so they could enter the United States.

She says Epstein threatened bodily harm against three of his American victims to get them to marry three foreign victims and that 'in each instance, Indyke and Kahn knowingly facilitated the fraudulent and coerced marriages, performing and securing the legal and accounting work involved and enabling a fraud that would further bind Epsteins victims to him and enable Epstein to continue to control and abuse these victims sexually.'

One unnamed victim quoted in the lawsuit said many girls she saw at Epstein's island didn't speak English, which was 'Epsteins preference since they spoke less.'

The two executors deny any involvement in the sex trafficking operation.

'Neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn had any involvement in any misconduct by Mr. Epstein of any kind, at any time,' they said in a statement.

George sought to freeze the estate's funds after a February 2021 announcement that the administrator of the Epstein Victims Compensation Program would temporarily halt payouts because most of the estates estimated $240.8 million of assets, down from a peak of around $634 million, were illiquid.

She said her 'worst fear' was realized when the payments stopped and that the estate is being mismanaged.

General Views of Jeffrey Epstein's private island in US Virgin Islands

'The Estate has found its way to pay for lawyers, landscaping, and helicopter fees, but not the brave women who have stepped forward to participate in the compensation fund.

'It is, unconscionably, another promise made and broken by Epstein and now, his Estate,' she said.

Epstein was discovered to have put his affairs in order just two days before his suicide.

He named Kahn and Indyke as co-executors and his brother, Mark Epstein, 65, a multimillionaire property developer, as sole heir to his estimated $577million fortune.

But it is from that fortune which victims, who have lost the opportunity to have their day in court against Epstein since prosecutors dropped the case, are now seeking compensation.

Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York, who led the case against Epstein, vowed at the time of the suicide that the investigation would not end with his death and would now focus on the financier's network of associates.

Epstein - who once boasted an array of high-profile friends including Prince Andrew and President Bill Clinton - was arrested in July 2019, accused of arranging to have sex with dozens of underage girls at his residences in New York City and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He hanged himself inside his New York City jail cell a month later.
A man parking his car in The Bronx was stabbed to death in broad daylight as his wife tried to fend off the crazed attacker.

The victim, identified as Nathaniel Rivers, 35, was stabbed in the chest by 19-year-old Franklin Mesa on Thursday at 1:15 p.m. on East 205 Street and Decatur Avenue in Norwood.

Rivers had just parked his car when Mesa approached him and the pair began exchanging words before the man suddenly attacked the father of one, according to police and neighbors, The New York Post reported.

Rivers' wife tried to protect her husband by grabbing a pry bar and hitting Mesa with it, but the man got away, police said.

Nathaniel Rivers, 35, (pictured left) with his son and wife, was stabbed in the chest by 19-year-old Franklin Mesa and died in a fatal attack that took place in the Norwood section of The Bronx on Thursday afternoon

The suspect, who lives down the block from where the deadly attack took place, was later arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Police said they don't know what was said before the brutal murder.

The victim was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital where he later died.

Police are on the scene at East 205 Street and Decatur Avenue in Norwood where the brutal attack occurred at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday

The knife Franklin Mesa, 19, used when he plunged it into River's chest killing him

Mesa, who is from the Norwood section of the Bronx, was described as schizophrenic by neighbors and relatives, who would often taunt residents.

Police said the two men had known one another from the neighborhood, but did not have any history together.

Before Thursday's fatal attack, the suspect had one prior arrest from 2021, for punching someone twice in the face, a report said.

Rivers was a beloved member of the community and neighbors were grief stricken.

One neighbor said Rivers, who has an 11-year-old son, was a father figure to all the kids in the neighborhood.

She said 'he was the best person in the world' and 'everybody's best friend.'

Neighbors console one another after the grisly attack in broad daylight on Thursday

Mesa's sister, who did not want to be identified, said her brother has 'mental problems and is schizophrenic,' The Post reported.

She said he has been on medication since he was a teen, but wasn't sure if he'd taken his meds before the violent killing.
Thousands of weary cruise ship passengers on the Coral Princess must spend another night stranded at sea as rough conditions mean it is too dangerous to attempt docking.

The ship was due to dock in Brisbane at 7am on Friday but its 2000-plus seasick and Covid-struck passengers remain off the Caloundra coast.

Hazardous conditions, with swells still up to six metres, mean the cruise liner cannot enter Moreton Bay.

Thousands of weary cruise ship passengers must spend another night stranded at sea off the coast of Australia as rough conditions mean it is too dangerous to attempt docking

The Coral Princess and its 2000-plus seasick and Covid-struck passengers remain off the Caloundra coast, unable to come into the port of Brisbane due to pounding seas

Another 20 vessels are also believed to be unable to enter the port, most of them floating or drifting.

Passengers on the Coral Princess were booked for a seven-day cruise along the Queensland and NSW coast visiting Airlie Beach, Cairns and Port Douglas but had to to spend two extra nights on board due to the wild weather.

The ocean liner was due to dock on Friday morning but rough seas postponed its arrival, with a pilot unable to board.

Passengers have continued to share video on social media of the wild seas and its impacts on board, which include the deck lurching and its swimming pool water spraying dramatically

It has been forced to motor in slow circles for the best part of two days as exhausted passengers and crew wait for conditions to improve.

'A pilot is essential to navigate the waters of the bay through to the Port and the conditions are just too rough for us to get one on board,' a Port of Brisbane spokesman told the Courier Mail.

The port remains closed to shipping and pilotage services, a Princess Cruises statement said.

Passengers have continued to share video on social media of the wild seas and its impacts on board, which include the deck lurching and its swimming pool water spraying dramatically.

'Last sunset aboard,' one passenger captioned photos he shared on social media on Saturday evening, adding 'Outdoor decks still closed!'

The photos showed the upper deck still soaked above a turbulent sea.

But the conditions appeared to have improved, with skies clearing compared to earlier in the day.

Passengers on the Coral Princess were booked for a seven-day cruise along the Queensland and NSW coast and had to stay at sea two days longerthan expected

Images taken on board the ship on Saturday evening showed seas still rough but conditions improving

On Saturday morning video shot on board showed an angrier sea, with white caps and high winds still pounding the beleaguered liner.

Conditions are predicted to ease overnight possibly allowing the liner and all other vessels to enter the port, although strong wind warnings remain in place.

Fraser Island Coast, Sunshine Coast waters and Gold Coast waters are all subject to strong wind warnings for Sunday.

The cruise ship had 120 Covid-infected passengers on board when the vessel docked in Sydney two weeks ago.

The vessel is a sister ship to the Ruby Princess that was linked to 28 deaths after an massive outbreak on board in 2020 which shut down Australia's cruise industry for two years.
A Vladimir Putin body 'double' may have been used for his arrival at a summit in Tehran this week, according to the head of Ukrainian military intelligence.

While the Russian leader looked awkward as he came down the steps of his presidential plane in Tehran, Ukrainian sources noted he moved unusually quickly and was more alert than in prior public appearances.

The Russian premier looked animated when greeting the waiting party, before removing his jacket and clambering into a heavily armoured limousine.

Intelligence supremo Major-General Kyrylo Budanov was suspicious in a live interview on Ukraine's 1+1 news channel.

Ukrainian reports said Budanov suggested a Putin lookalike could have flown to Tehran to meet with the presidents of Iran and Turkey.

'I will only hint,' he said.

'Please look at the moment of Putin's exit from the plane. Is it Putin at all?'

A Vladimir Putin body 'double' may have been used for his arrival at a summit in Tehran this week, according to the head of Ukrainian military intelligence

While the Russian leader looked awkward as he came down the steps of his presidential plane in Tehran, Ukrainian sources noted he moved unusually quickly and was more alert than in prior public appearances

Major-General Kyrylo Budanov (right) raised suspicions over an alleged body double of the Russian premier, whose health has been the subject of intense speculation in recent months

The Russian leader's visit to Tehran where he met Iran's leadership, plus Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attracted worldwide attention.

It is only the second time Putin has been abroad since launching his brutal invasion of Ukraine five months ago.

In one video, Erdogan kept Putin waiting, with the Russian ruler appearing ill at ease as he shuffled his feet and made strange facial movements.

But earlier Ukraine did not suggest this was a Putin double.

At the time, official Anton Gerashchenko posted on Telegram: '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.'

The Russian leader's visit to Tehran where he met Iran's leadership, plus Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attracted worldwide attention

It marked just the second time Putin has been abroad since launching his brutal invasion of Ukraine five months ago

Ukrainian news agency UNIAN commented: 'The dwarf doesn't like to be disrespected.'

Putin two years ago admitted that officials had considered using doubles, but he claimed the idea was rejected.

'I discarded the idea of any doubles,' he said.

He was advised in the early 2000s when Russia was hit by terrorist attacks that a lookalike should take his place at events where the head of state might be at risk, he said.

'This was during the toughest time of our war against terrorism,' he said.

Body doubles were reportedly used by former Kremlin leaders, for example longtime Soviet supremos Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev.

Meanwhile, a Russian expert on Putin has strongly disputed a CIA claim that the Kremlin leader is 'too healthy' and showing no evidence of multiple medical problems.

Political scientist Valery Solovey challenged a claim by CIA director William Burns this week that there was no intelligence to suggest Putin was seriously ill.

Solovey, who has long claimed the Russian leader is ailing, said: 'The Americans, the CIA particularly, have information on the real state of health of the Russian president.

'They definitely know that he has serious troubles, including mental ones.'

Putin two years ago admitted that officials had considered using doubles, but he claimed the idea was rejected

Putin arrived in Iran to forge a fearsome new alliance, with both sanction-hit countries united by their hatred for the West

Political scientist Valery Solovey (pictured) challenged a claim by CIA director William Burns this week that there was no intelligence to suggest Putin was seriously ill

Solovey, a former professor at Moscow's prestigious Institute of International Relations, suggested that the 'too healthy' comment was made because the US is behind the scenes negotiating with Russia.

Burns had said: 'There are lots of rumours about President Putin and as far as we can tell he's entirely too healthy.'

Solovey countered: 'The Putin's health topic is one of the [most] central in Russian policy discussions.'

The Iranian Army launches a drone carrying a missile during military drills, with Russia expected to receive a shipment

A Russian delegation visited an Iranian airfield on June 8 and July 5 to inspect the drones which could be used to direct artillery fire and destroy Ukrainian military hardware

He claimed the denials of medical issues 'only reinforce suspicions that there is some problem'.

'[When] Putin shows up, what do we see?

'A man who limps, a man with dark spots, a man who has to interrupt meetings for ostensible "consultations".

'In reality, he needs medical assistance at that moment People make conclusions based on what they see.

'TV is a big liar, but it becomes more difficult to hide the real state of affairs.'

Solovey, like channel General SVR, has claimed previously that Putin is suffering from serious illnesses including cancer, Parkinson's disease and a schizoaffective disorder.
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Donald Trump has offered one of his strongest suggestions yet that he plans to run for president again in 2024, referring to his past campaigns and saying 'we may have to do it again.'

Trump made the remarks while addressing a boisterous rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona on Friday, where he repeated his unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

'I ran twice, I won twice, and did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions. more votes in 2020 than we got in 2016,' Trump claimed. 'And likewise, getting more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far.'

'And now, we may have to do it again,' he continued. 'I mean, look at, look at what has happened to our country in less than two years. Our country is like a different -- it's like a different place. It's so sad to see.'

Trump was in Arizona to stump for former television anchor Kari Lake, a GOP candidate for governor who supports his discredited election claims.

In a sign of the party's growing rifts, his former vice president Mike Pence held a dueling rally in Arizona on the same day, supporting rival Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson.

Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Arizona on Friday, where he again strongly suggested that he plans to run for president in 2024

Trump was in Arizona to stump for former television anchor Kari Lake, a GOP candidate for governor who supports his discredited election claims

Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer on Kari Lake, who is running for the Republican nomination for Arizona governor, during her speech on Friday

Trump has squeezed attention and headlines from his frequent hints and suggestions that he plans to seek the White House again, and many observers believe his bid may be inevitable.

Earlier this month, 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 he'd pull the trigger before or after the November midterm elections.

'Do I go before or after? That will be my big decision,' he said.

Some Republican strategists fear that if Trump throws his hat in the ring before the midterms, it could upset the GOP's chances of winning back majorities in the House and the Senate.

'Of all the selfish things he does every minute of every day, it would probably be the most,' one GOP strategist told the Washington Post this month.

'Everything we are doing that is not talking about the economy is going to be a disaster.'

Trump appeared to suggest on Friday that he would wait to announce until after the midterms, saying: 'But first we have to win a historic victory for the Republican Party. this November when we retake Congress.'

In a sign of the party's growing rifts, Mike Pence held a dueling rally in Arizona on the same day, supporting rival Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson

Robson (above) is a lawyer and housing developer who is locking up support from mainstream GOP figures growing increasingly comfortable with breaking from Trump

Prior to their dueling rallies, Pence, who is also considered likely to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, took swipes at Trump in a sign of the party's hardening battle lines.

'Democrats would love nothing more than for Republicans to take our eye off the ball and focus on days gone by,' Pence tweeted prior to his rally.

'If the Republican Party allows itself to become consumed by yesterday's grievances, we will lose,' he added.

Trump, who like Pence is considering running for president in 2024, has savaged his former vice president for what he describes as a failure to block the certification of the 2020 election results.

Such a plan had been cooked up by Trump aides who supported his discredited theory that the election was stolen, but Pence ultimately decided that the action would be illegal.

In Arizona, Trump continued to tout claims that the election was stolen from him and said that despite receiving a 'record number of votes,' he has been the most 'persecuted person' in America.

'A friend of mine recently said that I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country,' Trump said. 'I thought about it, and I felt, you know, he may very well be right.'

Trump, who has stepped up his attacks on GOP officials he views as disloyal, also took aim at two Arizona Republicans who refused to go along with his efforts to remain in office after losing to Biden.

He said state House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified last month to the House January 6 committee, 'participated against the Republican Party.'

He said Governor Doug Ducey, whom Trump has long excoriated after he narrowly lost in Arizona in 2020, has failed to secure the border with Mexico.

Ducey, who is term limited, is backing housing developer Karrin Taylor Robson as his replacement, the candidate that Mike Pence is also supporting.

Robson is a lawyer and housing developer who is locking up support from mainstream GOP figures growing increasingly comfortable with breaking from Trump.

Her main rival is Trump's preferred candidate, Kari Lake, who has embraced Trump's unsubstantiated election claims along with his combative approach to his political enemies and the media.

'No one understands better than Kari how to fight back against the fake news media and the radical left,' Trump said on Friday.

Telegenic and already well-known from her decades anchoring the evening news in Phoenix, Lake has energized Trump's most ardent supporters in Arizona.

But she faces a potentially close contest with Robson, whose family's vast fortune has allowed her to vastly outspend Lake with early voting underway.

'As your governor I want to bring those America First Trump policies here to Arizona' Lake said. 'Were going to secure that border. We are going to restore honesty and faith in our elections.'

Pence highlighted Lake's past support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and a 'not my president' meme the then-news anchor posted as Trump prepared for his 2017 inauguration.

'You need a governor that's supported every conservative cause from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump,' Pence said of Robson, who worked in the Reagan administration and raised money for Trump's campaign along with her husband, housing developer Ed Robson, one of Arizona's wealthiest residents.

Robson has also donated to Democrats.

Trump and Pence have occasionally taken different sides in primaries this year, but this is the first time that they will have appeared in the same state on the same day to rally for their preferred candidates.

The split-screen moment marks a more confrontational phase in their relationship as they both consider running for president in 2024.

It also comes just a day after the House Jan. 6 committee revealed new details about the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that fractured the relationship between the two men.

The committee recounted how Trump refused to call off the mob attacking the Capitol as Pence, just feet away from rioters, was whisked to safety.

The committee played audio from an unidentified White House security official who said Pences Secret Service agents 'started to fear for their own lives' at the Capitol and left messages for their loved ones in case they didn't survive.

Shortly afterward, at 2:24 p.m. on January 6, 2021, Trump tweeted that Pence didnt have the 'courage' to block or delay the election results as Congress was certifying Bidens victory.

'Mike Pence let me down,' an unidentified White House employee testified Trump telling him at the end of the day on January 6.

Once running mates, Pence and Trump's relationship has broken down following the deadly January 6 Capitol riot, where some rioters chanted, 'Hang Mike Pence'

Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake supports Trump's false claim that the election was stolen. Her primary rival was backed by Pence on Friday

During his speech, Trump yelled: 'The election was rigged and stolen and now our country is being systematically destroyed because of it!' he shouted, with the crowd roaring in response

Trump did not talk about Pence Friday night, but did push back against earlier testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who said she saw a White House valet cleaning up a mess after an angry Trump smashed a plate and the remains of his lunch on a wall.

'They have me throwing food,' Trump said. 'I dont throw food in the White House. I dont throw food anywhere. I eat the food.'

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.

The Arizona primary on August 2 is among Trump's last opportunities to settle scores and install allies to lead states that may prove decisive if he decides to run again in 2024.

Trump and Pence were also at odds in the primary for Georgia governor, where the Pence-backed incumbent Brian Kemp easily defeated former U.S. Senator David Perdue, who had Trump's support.

Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold whose move toward the center accelerated during Trump's presidency, was central Trump's push to remain in power despite his loss.

Trump pressed state officials to block the certification of Biden's victory and, when he failed, his allies in Congress objected to counting the state's 11 electoral votes.

Since the election, Trump supporters have recounted ballots and analyzed vote-counting machines in an attempt to prove something was amiss.

Federal and state election officials and Trump's own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted.

Trump's allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts over and over, including by judges Trump appointed.
A pilot on a Spanish budget airline has been accused of fleeing his own plane first after it caught fire on the runway.

Were you on board the plane? Send your story to alastair.lockhart@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement

The captain, who was in charge of a Vueling flight from Barcelona, leapt from the aircraft after an explosion before take-off on Thursday.

But passengers onboard said they were dismayed to see him put all his energies into escaping the aircraft.

It sparked total chaos on board as smoke started to quickly fill the cabin.

Andrew Benion, 50, who on the flight to Birmingham, told The Sun: 'It was completely shocking.

'Nearly everyone on the plane is British and everyone was belting up.

'Suddenly there was this huge bang and smell of burning smoke coming from the back of the plane.

'All the lights went off and the emergency lights came on - it was terrifying.

A captain who was in charge of the Vueling flight from Barcelona (pictured) is said to have fled the aircraft after an explosion before take-off on Thursday

Passengers were taken off the plane and 'surrounded by police' before finally being allowed back on

Passengers stalked the aisles in bewilderment after the flight captain fled the Vueling aircraft

One passenger described a 'huge bang' and a 'smell of burning smoke' coming from the back of the plane

'All the lights went off and the emergency lights came on - it was terrifying,' he said

The family were travelling on the BA-owned Vueling flight VY8754 to Birmingham after BA cancelled their own jets

Andrew Benion, pictured, said it was shocking the way that the captain reacted after fire

'Next thing the stewards start go into melt-down, running up and down aisle - first, telling everyone to keep belts on, then to tell everyone to take their belts off.

'One ran into the cockpit to tell the captain. Then as soon as a stewardess opened the front door the captain ran straight off. He was just gone. He was first off the plane. He did a full Costa Concordia.'

Mr Benion, from Telford, Shropshire, had been on a 4,000 Mediterranean cruise for his 50th with his wife Clare, 46.

They were taking the BA-owned Vueling flight VY8754 back home through Birmingham after BA cancelled their own jets.

The captain, who was in charge of a Vueling flight from Barcelona, leapt into action to flee

Mr Benion added: 'You've never seen anything like it. If we weren't all so frightened it would have been complete comedy.

'His door opened then the side door opened and bang - he was just gone.

'There was only one stewardess left on the plane and you could see the fear on her face.

'She started screaming for everyone to get off. The Spanish person next to us translated and said, 'The plane is on fire'.

'We couldn't believe the captain just left us like that - he was running off to safety and we were all sat there like lemmings.

'They took us into a glass reception area and all the doors were locked - then we were surrounded by police.

'They left us in there for an hour, then took us to another plane and left us on there for 90 more minutes while it was refuelled.

'A different captain then turned up on the plane and apologised but refused to go into detail.'
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A Marine stands accused of fatally stabbing his 27-year-old pregnant wife on the side of a busy Honolulu, Hawaii, highway as witnesses driving by saw the horrifying attack and attempted to intervene, according to police.

Dana Alotaibi, who was 13 weeks pregnant, died from multiple stab wounds to the neck.

Now her estranged husband, Bryant Tejeda-Castillo, a Marine in the 3rd Littoral Combat Team that is stationed in Kanehoe, has been charged for second degree murder. His bail is set at $1 million.

During the heinous attack on Wednesday, witnesses 'observed a male standing over a female, stabbing her multiple times,' Deena Thoemmes, homicide lieutenant of the Honolulu Police Department's criminal investigation division, said at a press conference.

A 27-year-old pregnant woman was allegedly stabbed to death on a busy Honolulu highway by her Marine husband as witnesses driving by saw the horrifying attack and attempted to intervene

They tried to render aid to the victim and restrain the suspect, but Tejeda-Catillo ran into the woods, where he used the same knife to stab himself once, before officers located and arrested him.

He was transported to a hospital where he remains in custody, officials said.

Before the Wednesday attack, the pair reportedly got into a heated argument.

Witnesses on the scene were horrified by the grisly attack. One frantic witness, who asked for anonymity, described what he saw on Highway 3 around 6:18 p.m. Wednesday night, saying: 'It was just her face, she just looked past the point of no return, you know?'

'Could you imagine being stabbed in the neck and then watching as your life just literally leaks out of you, and everyone around you either doesn't know what to do, or is too shocked to do anything about it, I couldn't imagine that,' People reported the male witness saying.

One frantic witness, who asked for anonymity, described what he saw on Highway 3 around 6:18 p.m. Wednesday night, saying: 'It was just her face, she just looked past the point of no return, you know?'

The couple a photo taken May 2020 from the sofa of the home they reportedly shared in Hawaii where he was stationed

Another man who was driving home with his family and friend after a day of pig hunting said he ran over to the victim and told Tejeda-Castillo 'to let her go.'

'I just seen blood all over. She was full of blood,' he said.

'It has been determined that the victim and the male were married, and had recently been going through marital problems,' homicide lieutenant Thoemmes said:

Alotaibi was rushed to a nearby hospital where she later died from her injuries.

Court documents reveal that the couple had been married for nearly three years, but that in November the suspect had filed for divorce; it was granted by a court in June, KITV News reported.

Alotaibi's friends said she had tried to leave the alleged abusive relationship and spoke about it on social media

Bryant Tejeda-Castillo, a Marine in the 3rd Littoral Combat Team stationed in Kanehoe, has been charged with second degree murder. His bail is set at $1 million. Alotaibi smiling as she poses in a United States Marine Corps T-shirt

It was reported that Alotaibi had been pregnant with her current boyfriend's child, Hawaii Now. Alotaibi friends said that she had tried to leave the alleged abusive relationship and spoke about it on social media.

She planned to return home to Virginia to live with her mother and siblings.

The distraught mother was looking forward to becoming a grandmother.

Dana Alotaibi, 27, in a white bathing suit on a beach in Hawaii

Sunbathing on a float in the majestic Hawaiian blue-green waters

After her daughter's murder, she said: 'My life is empty. I really want to, I really has planned for here for my grandbaby, and I think how they're dead has been very trouble.'

Marine Corps Hawaii issued a statement expressing their condolences to Alotaibi's family and and said they will 'continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement officials as the details surrounding this incident unfold,' the news outlet reported.
A voiceover artist who has only one leg was abandoned on a plane at Manchester Airport and had to be rescued by the pilot after assistance staff failed to help him off.

David Judd, 54, who uses a prosthetic limb after having his leg amputated, was left stranded on the empty aircraft after flying in from Spain on June 18.

Mr Judd, who needs a wheelchair when he travels, was waiting for around 30 minutes before it became clear no one was coming to help.

Voice actor David, who lives in Wakefield, says he has booked assistance at Manchester Airport many times before without any issues. But he claims problems arose as soon as he arrived at Terminal 2 ahead of his holiday on June 11.

'We normally go to Leeds Bradford Airport but we wanted an earlier flight,' the dad-of-three told the Manchester Evening News. 'I took my prosthetic leg off an hour before the flight and put a compression sock on to stop the swelling. When we got there, we had to wait, which is very unusual as normally you're assisted immediately.

'We were there for around 35 to 40 minutes just waiting for someone to come and help us. A staff member turned up and took our suitcases from us and took it to a long queue.

'When we got to the security area, he left. The guy at security wanted me to walk through the magnetic thing and said, 'Can't you just put your leg on?'. He could see I was in a wheelchair. My wife was left to carry all the bags and my leg which is about 8lbs.'

David Judd, 54, was left on the flight when assistance staff did not turn up to help him off jet

Manchester Airport spokesman said they were disappointed to hear of Mr Judd's ordeal

David says there were more problems when he and his wife Amanda returned from their one-week trip to Almeria. After landing at Manchester Airport, the couple were left waiting for assistance that never came - eventually having to be helped by the pilot.

'The pilot came out and said there were no stewardesses left. Then radioed saying there was a guy still here. The other people who had special assistance - they could walk.

'I had just come back so I couldn't really put my leg on so I really did need help. After 25 - 30 minutes, the pilot said he could push me on the ramp.

'They did get a wheelchair from under the plane, but there was no special assistance whatsoever. This was the pilot - the guy that flies a Boeing 737 and he was pushing me in a wheelchair. I thought, 'My God, how wrong is this?'

'He was so embarrassed; you could see it. You could really see it. Then we got the bus back to the car park and I stood up trying to put my suitcases in and the driver put her foot down. I fell back and hit my head and arm on the window.

David is now looking to take legal advice - saying the incidents left him feeling 'completely insignificant' and 'a little bit pathetic'.

David Judd said one security guard had asked him at one point 'Can't you just put your leg on?'

'You could say it made me feel as insignificant as anyone could possibly feel,' he added. 'We're meant to be going away in September for an anniversary but I don't really want to go. I really don't want that feeling again.

'It's been five weeks and I've been angry all that time. But I can't be angry because this wasn't my doing - and this wasn't my fault - but it makes you feel like it's your fault you have your leg cut off.'

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: 'We were disappointed to hear of this passenger's experience when travelling through our airport.

'Like airports across the UK, Manchester contracts a third-party company to provide assistance, which is booked directly by the passenger with their airline.

'We take assistance requirements very seriously and, prior to the pandemic, were rated 'good' in the Civil Aviation Authority's most recent Airport Accessibility report.

'We remain confident that most people with assistance needs travelling through our airport will have a positive experience, but we recognise that this was not the case here. We will continue to work closely with all involved to ensure passengers requiring assistance receive the best service possible, and to understand how a repeat of this case will be avoided.'

An ABM Aviation spokesperson, which provides assistance support at Manchester Airport, said: 'We understand the importance of the special assistance service we provide to passengers. We always aim to deliver that service with efficiency, respect, and care and regret when passengers experience anything short of these standards.

'Learning from these moments, we are actively working with our teams, clients and partners to implement efforts to minimise the impact on passengers as we navigate this phase of the pandemic recovery.

'Special assistance providers are one part of a larger network of airport services that continues to face challenges, including a national labour and resource shortage. In addition, our teams are currently experiencing higher volumes of special assistance requests than our busiest pre-pandemic peak.'
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The man who drunkenly attacked the Republican candidate for governor in New York was photographed being taken into custody by FBI, state and county police Saturday on federal assault charges, after being immediately released following the attack under the state's bail reform laws.

David Jakubonis, 43, an Army veteran, was arrested after allegedly attacking Zeldin with a $10 cat keyring weapon at the congressman's Thursday campaign rally for state governor, outside of Rochester, New York. He was released hours later.

But on Saturday, DailyMail.com cameras saw Jakubonis, who had shaved his goatee overnight, was taken into custody by FBI, New York State police and deputies from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

David Jakubonis, 43, an Army veteran, was photographed being taken into custody by FBI, state and county police Saturday on federal assault charges after being immediately released following the attack under the state's bail reform laws.

A six-car motorcade pulled into Jakubonis' apartment complex a little before noon on Saturday and left with Jakubonis in custody 15 minutes later.

He made his appearance in court Saturday afternoon in front of US Magistrate Judge Marion W. Payson. Jakubonis was ordered held in prison until a detention hearing scheduled for July 27 at 10:30am.

A spokesperson for the US Attorneys Office for the Western District of New York confirmed the details to DailyMail.com.

On Saturday, DailyMail.com cameras saw Jakubonis taken into custody by FBI, New York State police and deputies from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office

Jakubonis was arrested after attacking Zeldin with a $10 cat keyring weapon at the congressman's Thursday campaign rally for state governor, outside of Rochester, New York. He was released hours later.

On Saturday, DailyMail.com cameras saw Jakubonis, who had shaved his goatee overnight

A six-car motorcade pulled into Jakubonis' apartment complex a little before noon on Saturday

He's set to make his first appearance in court Saturday afternoon in front of US Magistrate Judge Marion W. Payson .

Jakubonis claimed he didn't know who the politician was and only approached him to try to take his microphone after he was told the gubernatorial candidate was 'disrespecting veterans.'

Jakubonis attacked gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin during his bail reform speech on Thursday. Jakubonis was arrested and released hours later under the state's lenient bail laws

Jakubonis was arraigned at Perinton Town Court and charged with attempted assault in the second degree. He was released on his own recognizance.

Ironically, Zeldin's speech highlighted the Republican's opposition of New York's bail reform laws, eliminating cash bail for nonviolent and misdemeanor charges.

Zeldin even predicted that Jakubonis would be immediately released, tweeting: 'The attacker will likely be instantly released under NYs laws.'

Jakubonis claimed he didn't know who the politician was and only approached him to try to take his microphone after he was told the gubernatorial candidate was 'disrespecting veterans.'

Jakubonis was arrested after allegedly attacking Zeldin with a $10 cat keyring weapon at the congressman's campaign rally for state governor outside of Rochester, New York. He was released hours later without bail - under the same reform laws Zeldin had been blasting in his speech.

He described his mental state as 'checked out' on Thursday while explaining his journey with alcoholism and anxiety, adding that the weapon he had was for self-defense.

'The ears are plastic, but I guess they're sharp,' he told The New York Times.

The military veteran has been going through a 'mental break' after the death of his wife and his discharge from the Army.

David Jakubonis experienced a mental break after losing his wife, Candyce (left), in 2012, the same year he was medically discharged from the Army. Jakubonis was arrested on Thursday after attacking US Rep Lee Zeldin

The pair shared twins together, who are now in the custody of his brother after his wife's death

Jakubonis' former neighbor described him as having 'social issues' while recalling him behaving similar to an adolescent

'He's going through some kind of mental break,' an unidentified former neighbor told the New York Post. 'He became more and more detached over the years after his wife died.'

The military veteran began to 'decline' after his wife passed away in 2012, the same year he was medically discharged from the Army. The neighbor revealed Jakubonis shared twins with his wife, Candyce, who are in the custody of his brother following his wife's death.

'I always had this reservation about him,' the neighbor said. 'He always had something not right with him.'

On occasion, the neighbor would hang out with Jakubonis and his wife. He noted the pair were heavy drinkers and speculated Jakubonis still struggles with alcohol.

He described Zeldin's attacker as being 'a peculiar guy' with 'social issues,' adding, 'he would say or do things like an adolescent would do.'

On Wednesday, Jakubonis unexpectedly reached out to his former neighbor, but the neighbor declined to answer.

'Honestly, bro, there was something that I couldn't place with him,' the neighbor told The Post. 'There was something not right about how he would talk. Not like I thought this guy was going to go nutso, but he didn't seem connected to reality.'

David Jakubonis attacked gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin during his bail reform speech on Thursday. Jakubonis was arrested and released hours later under the state's lenient bail laws

Jakubonis was released hours after the attack without bail. Zeldin predicted he would be quickly released under New York policies that eliminated cashless bail for some offenses

Jakubonis was arrested and charged with attempted assault in the second degree. He was released within hours, just as Zeldin predicted he would.

Zeldin's prediction was a clear reference to New York's shoddy bail reform laws, which don't require cash bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felony charges, allowing criminals who haven't been convicted of a crime to go free.

The first thing I will do after Im sworn into office  is remove a district attorney who refuses to enforce the law,' Zeldin said on Friday while anticipating his win in the upcoming November election.

Jakubonis was allegedly drunk when he attacked Zeldin on Thursday. Zeldin said if he's elected, he will remove 'a district attorney who refuses to enforce the law'

The suspect's alleged weapon was handed over to authorities

Zeldin recalled the attack, claiming he saw Jakubonis approaching him on stage and let his guard down because he had a hat that said 'veteran.'

'The first thing I saw was that he was wearing a hat that says he was a veteran and the way that I'm wired when I see somebody wearing a hat that is a veteran - my guard couldn't possibly be more dropped,' Zeldin said at a Friday press conference.

'But at the same exact time. I noticed he had a weapon in his hand and it had two holes where he had two fingers through the holes. It had two - a sharp dagger-like edges on it - and he was telling me "you're done.'"

Jakubonis was thought to be drunk when he launched his attack.

'When he lifted up his hand and he was lunging for my throat area, the first thought was to grab onto his wrist and just to hold it because there were so many people around that I would expect there to be help - quickly - and that's what happened,' Zeldin said.

'All security for all events for the remainder of the campaign will be ramped up. That's something that started this morning.'

He later added, 'We're going to continue the rallies.'
The grand palace that once belonged to Genghis Khan's grandson may have been discovered in Turkey, archaeologists say.

Hulagu Khan was a Mongol warlord who lived from 1217 to 1265 and conquered much of southwest Asia.

He is known for the 1258 sack of Baghdad, then the religious and cultural capital of Islam, which destroyed much of the historic city.

Hulagu's father was the fourth son of Genghis Khan, who founded the Mongol Empire stretching across the Middle East and Asia.

Genghis Khan is estimated to have killed around 40 million people during his campaigns - around five to 10 per cent of the world population at the time.

A 14th-century depiction of Hulagu Khan (centre), who ruled the Il-Khanate in across the Middle East in much of modern-day Iran, Iraq and Turkey

The Mongol Empire broke up into smaller kingdoms in the years after Genghis Khan's death, one of which was the Il-Khanate lead by Hulagu Khan, which occupied much of modern Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

The sack of Baghdad Perhaps Hulagu Khan's most infamous attack was the savage sack of Baghdad in 1258. The attack was part of Hulagu's campaign to bring the Islamic world under Mongol control, especially in Persia - modern-day Iran. The sack of Baghdad saw the destruction of The House of Wisdom, one of the great centres of learning in the Arab world filled with documents collected over 500 years. Eyewitness accounts say so many books from the library were thrown into the River Tigris, they formed a bridge strong enough for a man to ride a horse over. Others said the waters of the river ran black with ink and red with blood. Advertisement

Some historical sources mention a summer capital in the kingdom with a huge palace, but do not say exactly where it was.

Archaeologists now believe they have discovered the site of the Khan's palace in Van province in eastern Turkey.

The palace was recorded by 13th-century Armenian historian Kirakos of Ganja and other sources as being near Lake Van, but its exact location has never been confirmed.

The team excavating the site say the palace has been heavily looted and damaged. They added they had found glazed roof tiles, porcelain and pottery from the palace ruins.

Munkhtulga Rinchinkhorol of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences said the team have also discovered 'tamga' or 'svastika' symbols - 'power symbols' of Mongol Khans and other parts of the mediaeval world before being appropriated by the Nazis in the 20th century.

Mr Rinchinkhorol told Live Science: 'The remains of the Khan's palace complex [are] now fully ruined.'

He added the symbols discovered by archaeologists are a key reason they think the palace belonged to Hulagu Khan.

Historical sources suggest the Khan's palace is in or around Van Province in eastern Turkey but its location has never been confirmed

Other archaeologists not involved in the project said more research was needed to confirm the site was the stronghold of the Mongol lord, but that it was very possible.

Timothy May, professor of Central Eurasian History at the University of North Georgia said although more investigation was needed: 'It is possible that it is Hulagu's palace.'

He added: 'The scholars involved are very good and may be correct.'

Michael Hope, chair of Asian Studies at Yonsei University in Korea said: 'Whether this is the palace of Hulegu described by Kirakos remains to be seen. I certainly wouldn't rule it out, but I am hungrily waiting for more information.
A Chinese man who brutally murdered his vlogger ex-wife by dousing her in petrol and burning her alive during a livestream has been executed.

Thousands of viewers were horrified to see Amuchu, a 30-year-old Tibetan vlogger known on social media as Lamu, being doused in gasoline and set ablaze by her former husband Tang Lu in September 2020.

She sustained burns on 90 per cent of her body and died from her injuries in hospital two weeks later.

Tang Lu's crime 'was extremely cruel and the social impact was extremely bad,' a court in Aba Prefecture said in a statement during his sentencing. It called for 'severe punishment' in accordance with the law.

Amuchu divorced Tang - who had a history of violence towards her, the court said - in June 2020, only three months before she was murdered at her father's home.

Amuchu (pictured), a 30-year-old Tibetan vlogger known on social media as Lamu, died after being doused in gasoline and set ablaze by her former husband Tang Lu in September last year

The mother-of-two reportedly went to police about her husband's abuse while they were married but was told that it was a family matter.

Lamu was a popular Tibetan video blogger who lived in the mountainous prefecture of Aba, a remote rural region of southwest Sichuan province with a large number of ethnic Tibetan residents.

She had hundreds of thousands of followers who watched her videos about rural life in the mountain province.

At the time, her death triggered an online outcry over the under-reported issue of domestic violence in rural communities - especially where it affects ethnic minorities.

China only criminalised domestic violence in 2016, but the issue remains pervasive and under-reported, especially in under-developed rural communities.

Through her account on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tik Tok, she had amassed more than 782,000 followers and 6.3million 'likes' before being assaulted.

Some of Lamu's videos documented her life in rural China. Others showed her lip-syncing to songs she liked.

Some of Lamu's videos documented her life in rural China. Others showed her lip-syncing to songs she liked

The attack took place at Lamu's home in the mountainous prefecture of Aba in western China's Sichuan Province. Pictured: A file image showing a temple complex in Aba

After her death, tens of thousands of grieving followers commented on her Douyin page, while millions of users on the Twitter-like platform Weibo demanded justice using trending hashtags that were later censored.

Around one in four married Chinese women have experienced domestic abuse, according to a 2013 survey by the All-China Women's Federation.

And a UN study from the same year involving 1,000 men in a county in central China found that half of the men interviewed reported using physical or sexual violence against a female partner during lifetime.

Activists say victims' repeated complaints are often not taken seriously by police until it is too late, with the issue often regarded as a private family matter in the country's conservative culture.

There have also been concerns that a recent change to China's civil code - which introduced a mandatory 30-day 'cooling-off' period for couples wishing to divorce - may make it harder for victims to leave abusive marriages.

The situation is thought to be so bad that the city of Yiwu, in Zhejiang province, in China is even introduced a system that lets people getting married check if their partner has a history of abuse.
Woke university chiefs have now placed trigger warnings on leading Enlightenment philosophers.

Nottingham Trent University said some of history's pioneering thinkers required warnings for students because of their 'appalling' views on race.

Students studying the works of writers such as David Hume, Immanuel Kant and John Locke will now be warned before reading what the university called the 'supposed Enlightenment' authors.

University documents said there were concerns about 'scientific racism' in the writings of Enlightenment thinkers.

David Hume, 1711-1776, is widely regarded as one of the most important English-speaking philosophers in history. He is best known for his work on individual morality

John Locke was a leading liberal writer and philosophers, and one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers

The documents said: 'There is  a content warning when exploring some of the works of supposed "Enlightenment scholars" who had some appalling views on "scientific racism".'

The Enlightenment was a revolutionary period for literature and philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries which challenged the norms and values of established religion and monarchy.

Writers such as Hume, Kant and others are credited with pioneering modern ideas on morality and individual freedom.

The new guidance from Nottingham Trent University takes aim at the likes of Hume, Kant, Georg Friedrich Hegel and John Locke.

The philosophers have been scrutinised since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the past few years.

David Hume has been criticised for a brief footnote which included a racist comment. Edinburgh University removed the Scottish author's name from David Hume Tower following protests over his views.

Immanuel Kant was a pioneering German philosopher in the 18th century

Liberal philosopher John Locke, credited with inspiring the US constitution, was also flagged for investing in the slave-trading Royal African Company.

German Immanuel Kant has also been condemned for suggesting the classification of races which favoured white Europeans.

Advocate against the slave trade and French intellectual Voltaire has also been included in Nottingham Trent's documents.

Content warnings are usually used to warn students about sensitive or disturbing material. However, leading academic figures have condemned their use in relation to some of history's greatest thinkers as 'perverse' and seriously flawed.

Top Scottish historian Sir Tom Devine told The Telegraph: 'This is yet another example of how some UK universities are falling into the trap of brazen anachronism by encouraging students to judge individuals in the past by todays moral criteria and values.

'These initiatives are in the process of presenting undergraduates with a seriously flawed intellectual training and experience. It is the responsibility of university academic staff, especially in the humanities and social sciences, to challenge these absurdities at every turn.'
Hungary's pro-Putin Prime Minister has said the war in Ukraine will only end when peace talks are held between Russia and America.

Viktor Orban said sanctions against Moscow have not worked and that the European Union needs a new strategy to end the conflict.

'A new strategy is needed which should focus peace talks and drafting a good peace proposal...instead of winning the war,' Orban said in a speech in Romania.

Though Hungary is a member of NATO, Orban has maintained a strong relationship with Vladimir Putin throughout the war in Ukraine and has continually advocated for a softer Western stance on Russia.

Orban also reiterated that Hungary would stay out of the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

So far Hungary has not supported EU embargoes or limitations on Russian gas imports as that would undermine its economy, which is about 85% reliant on Russian gas imports.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the EU needs to find a new solution to end the war in Ukraine as sanctions have not worked

Orban suggested the only way Putin will stop his invasion of Ukraine is if peace talks take place between Russia and the US

He said in his speech that the Western strategy on Ukraine has been built on four pillars - that Ukraine can win a war against Russia with NATO weapons, that sanctions would weaken Russia and destabilise its leadership, that sanctions would hurt Russia more than Europe, and that the world would line up in support of Europe.

Orban said this strategy has failed as governments in Europe are collapsing 'like dominoes', energy prices have surged and a new strategy was needed now.

'We are sitting in a car that has a puncture in all four tyres: it is absolutely clear that the war cannot be won in this way,' Orban told his supporters.

He said Ukraine will never win the war this way 'quite simply because the Russian army has asymmetrical dominance'.

So far all peace talks between Ukraine and Russia have failed, but a deal to allow grain to be exported has be signed

Orban said there was no chance for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

'As Russia wants security guarantees, this war can be ended only with peace talks between Russia and America,' he said.

Progress appeared to have been made with Ukraine and Russia signing a grain export deal with Turkey and UN in the first breakthrough since the conflict began.

The deal was to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, Turkey and the United Nations said, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased.

However Russian rockets struck a grain facility in the Ukrainian port city Odesa in an 'outrageous' attack just hours after the landmark food supply deal.

A Ukrainian military spokesman said Kalibr cruise missiles targeted a grain processing plant this morning - but claimed they 'did not cause significant damage'.

Exports will continue as planned, they added.

President Zelensky wrote via Telegram: 'This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it.'

Russia promised Turkey it had 'nothing to do' with the airstrike, the country's defence minister said.
President Joe Biden likely has a highly contagious strain of COVID-19, but his moderate symptoms are improving, the White House doctor said in an update on Saturday.

The variant, known as BA.5, is an offshoot of the Omicron strain that emerged late last year, and is now believed to be responsible for the vast majority of new coronavirus cases in the country.

Dr. Kevin OConnor, the president's physician, wrote in his latest update on Biden's condition that Biden's earlier symptoms, including a runny nose and a cough, have become 'less troublesome.'

O'Connor's earlier notes following Biden's diagnosis on Thursday did not mention the sore throat or body aches.

President Joe Biden (seen Friday) likely has a highly contagious strain of COVID-19, but his moderate symptoms are improving, the White House doctor said

Dr. Kevin OConnor, the president's physician, wrote in his latest update on Biden's condition that Biden's earlier symptoms have improved

Biden's vital signs, such as blood pressure and respiratory rate, 'remain entirely normal,' and his oxygen saturation levels are 'excellent' with 'no shortness of breath at all,' the doctor wrote.

'His lungs remain clear,' added the doctor.

O'Connor said the results of the preliminary DNA sequencing that indicated Biden is infected with the BA.5 variant do not affect his treatment plan 'in any way.'

Dr. Kevin OConnor is the president's physician

Biden tested positive for the virus on Thursday morning. He has been isolating in the White House residence since then.

Administration officials have emphasized that his symptoms are mild because he has received four vaccine doses, and he started taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid after becoming infected.

Biden completed a second full day of Paxlovid on Friday night, O'Connor said. The antiviral is typically administered in a five-day course.

While Biden is reported to be in good general health, he is the oldest US president ever elected and his age heightens concern over the impact of COVID.

O'Connor reiterated that the president will keep isolating in accordance with guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that his team will continue monitoring him 'closely.'

President Joe Biden speaks virtually during a meeting with his economic team in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington on Friday

During a virtual meeting with economic advisers on Friday, Biden was hoarse but insisted, 'I feel much better than I sound.'

He gave a thumbs-up to reporters when asked how he was feeling.

In his previous update on Bidens health, OConnor said the president had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday evening, but it returned to normal after taking Tylenol.

The White House has sought to underscore Biden's ability to work through his illness.

On Thursday it released a video of the president reassuring Americans he was doing fine, and on Friday he participated in virtual meetings with White House staff.

Biden's schedule showed no presidential events over the weekend. The president's wife, first lady Jill Biden, is at their home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Liz Truss has said she will extend the controversial Rwanda asylum scheme, in a move to firm up support among Tory party voters in the race to succeed Boris Johnson.

The Foreign Secretary, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, suggested that as Prime Minister she would extend the Rwanda policy, despite it currently being in legal limbo.

Britain currently stands to lose 120 million it has paid to Rwanda if the plan to deport migrants is ruled unlawful by the courts.

Officials for the east African nation's government confirmed this week it had received the entire initial payment for the agreement signed in April and that the funds are already 'committed', with some money spent on preparations for arrivals.

Liz Truss has said she will extend the controversial Rwanda asylum scheme, in a move to firm up support among Tory party voters in the race to succeed Boris Johnson

The first deportation flight was grounded in June after a series of legal challenges, and another attempt is yet to be scheduled.

Ms Truss, who has vocally backed the Rwanda plan, told the newspaper: 'The Rwanda policy is the right policy. I'm determined to see it through to full implementation, as well as exploring other countries that we can work on similar partnerships with. It's the right thing to do.

'I'm also determined to make sure that we have the right level of forces at our border. I'm going to increase the border force to make sure that we have the proper protection in place directly at the border.'

Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak is also set to unveil his immigration plans in the days to come.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Ms Truss said that if she defeats the former chancellor in the vote of party members she will increase border force staff levels from 9,000 to 10,800.

The Foreign Secretary (pictured centre) in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, suggested that as Prime Minister she would extend the Rwanda policy, despite it currently being in legal limbo

She would also bring forward a strengthened UK Bill of Rights to provide a 'sound legal basis' to tackle illegal migration, the paper reports.

'I'm determined to end the appalling people trafficking we're seeing,' she told the paper.

'I make sure things get done, and I will be working with my colleagues to deliver this as an absolute priority.

'I understand it's a priority for people and we need to make sure our immigration system is fair, and this illegal immigration that we're seeing across the Channel is both unfair and incredibly dangerous, and it is one of my priorities to make sure it is sorted.

Truss told Mail on Sunday that if she defeats former chancellor Rishi Sunak, she will increase border force staff levels from 9,000 to 10,800.(Pictured: A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent)

'I know from my work as Foreign Secretary that there are more countries who we want to work with and we will be moving forward on those efforts very strongly under my leadership.

'We need to make sure that the British Bill of Rights fully delivers on giving the UK government the powers and UK parliament the sovereignty to be able to deliver the policy in full. That's very important for me.

'Britain's borders will be protected under my leadership and I will do what it takes to make the Rwanda deal fully implemented and also look to other arrangements with other countries. '
According to sources, US sanctions were bypassed by the Chinese chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC). The company had made chips comparable to Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung tech firm.

China Manufactures Advanced Chips

The story, verified by Bloomberg on Thursday, said SMIC, China's biggest chipmaker, had quietly developed semiconductors to the highest Western standards, disregarding US restrictions aimed explicitly at inhibiting the development of such technology.

Based on Tech Insights, an industry site, the Shanghai-based firm began fabricating Bitcoin-mining semiconductors using 7-nanometer (nm) technology last July, reported RT.

Bloomberg validated the claim, citing an unnamed source who could not comment on the news. The nanometer figure on a chip relates to the transistors' size. The lower this number, the more transistors that can fit on a single chip, and the faster and more effective it is, noted the Press United.

It previously manufactured chips at 14nm, and the US has particularly sought to limit advancement beyond this level.

The Trump administration prohibited the sale of technology used to manufacture 10nm and higher semiconductors to SMIC in 2020, but now that US firms are barred from assisting the Chinese company, the Biden administration is pressuring Dutch equipment supplier ASML to stop supplying the firm.

It is still unknown whether the Dutch government will tighten this prohibition in response to Biden's request. ASML is already prohibited from selling its most sophisticated chipmaking tools to SMIC, citing Trending Town.

Read Also: Joe Biden Children: Who Are the POTUS' Kids? Does He Have a Daughter?

US Sanctions Restricts China

While US-based Intel is anticipated to debut its 7nm chip next year, Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung have employed these cutting-edge techniques to fabricate 7nm semiconductors.

Although the analysts mentioned above have speculated that SMIC might have modified its 14nm techniques, it is unclear precisely how the company overcame US export constraints to achieve 7nm.

Additionally, it constitutes a substantial breakthrough for China, that have traditionally lagged behind the US in the advancement of chips.

SMIC's achievement raises a new geopolitical dilemma for Washington since the institution of foreign policy is also striving to impede Russia's access to Western innovation.

US Department of Commerce threatened SMIC in March with revoking production tools if the industry continues to supply chips to Russia and Belarus. The government partially controls it and has stated that it will not join the West's sanctions campaign against Moscow and will retain normal trading, economic, and financial ties with Russia.

While China has maintained its position, SMIC has said it's never had any Russian customers and has continuously operated under US sanctions.

Sanctions Affects Global Chip Production

Russian government prohibitions on the export of gases used in semiconductor production may aggravate the global chip shortage and drive-up costs even more. Russia announced noble gas limits last week in retaliation to EU sanctions threatening technology supplies to the country.

According to Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, the constraints may influence China's indigenous chip industry. The imposition of US sanctions has not stopped Chinese chipmaker SMIC; from even making better chips that Washington does not want.

Related Article: Computer Repairman Who Discovered Hunter Biden's 'Laptop from Hell,' Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, Media Outlets

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are reportedly asking for a meeting with leadership at a Sesame Street theme park after video showing a costumed character waving off two six-year-old black girls during a parade went viral.

Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls, first shared the nine-second video clip last weekend, showing the Sesame Place character Rosita high-fiving a white child and woman, then gesturing 'no' and walking away from the two black girls who had their arms out for hugs.

Black Caucus members are seeking a meeting with the theme park's general manager Cathy Valeriano to 'discuss the changes, plans of action, and training the park plans to implement,' Fox News reporter Chad Pergram said on Saturday.

The caucus said: 'Over the past week, we've seen multiple glaring examples of racism coming from the park, including the viral video in which two beautiful little black girls were blatantly rejected by a character they idolized while white children were embraced.'

Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls who was snubbed at Sesame Place, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to discuss the incident

Brown has claimed that Rosita immediately hugged a white child after snubbing her daughter and niece, though those events are not seen in the video.

On Saturday, Brown appeared on MSNBC and said she rejected the apologies that had been issued by Sesame Place, the theme park outside Philadelphia.

'I don't believe it was genuine, I believe they were just putting out statements due to how viral the video has gone,' Brown said.

Brown's attorney B'Ivory Lamarr appeared alongside the mother and reiterated his threat to sue the theme park and demand that the unidentified employee in the Rosita costume be fired.

'It's very important that there is accountability when it comes to corporations. What we've seen is excuses over accountability, and there is just no room for that especially when it deals with racism,' said Lamarr.

LaMarr, the family attorney, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the family is appalled and disturbed by the incident and 'the injuries propagated to their children.'

The theme park has already issued several statements about the incident since the video was posted last weekend by Jodi Brown - who took her daughter Skylar and niece Nylah, both 6, to the park on Saturday.

The video shows Rosita high-fiving a white woman and child

The character then waves a no gesture at the two black girls reaching for hugs

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.

Sesame Place confirmed the incident occurred in a statement posted to Instagram on Saturday, but said it was a 'misunderstanding'

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

However, many people expressed outrage online and some called for a boycott of the amusement park.

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.'

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.'

LaMarr, the family attorney, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the family is appalled and disturbed by the incident and 'the injuries propagated to their children'

One of the young girls, Nylah Brown, stood silent at a press conference this week

'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.'

Lamarr 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.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted the Chinese Communist Party on Friday for buying up huge chunks of farmland and other properties in the Sunshine State.

Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, DeSantis - considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate and currently running for re-election in Florida - said Beijing purchasing American real estate is a growing concern.

'I don't think they should be able to do it. I think the problem is these companies have ties to the CCP, and it's not always apparent on the face of whatever a company is doing - but I think it's a huge problem.'

The governor's solution has been to begin banning what he calls 'undue influence from rogue states,' like China's ruling party.

The state has already banned what's known as a 'Confucius Institutes,' public educational and cultural promotion programs designed to educate people about China, thereby giving the CCP undue influence over systems of higher learning.

DeSantis added that there's likely more legislative action to come: 'We're also probably going to do legislation next legislative session about our pension investments, with things that may be linked to the CCP. We don't necessarily have a lot of it, but we want to make sure that we're cutting ties so that we're not funding our number-one adversary.'

This isn't the first time the Florida Republican has gone in on the CCP.

DeSantis used Communist China to point out Disney's hypocrisy during the controversy over the so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill, slamming the House of Mouse for failing to condemn China's genocide of the Uyghurs and allegedly bowing to its censorship requests, which he called 'worse than silence.'

'Disney has actively endorsed the CCP's mistreatment of ethnic and religious minorities,' DeSantis' spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, told FOX Business.

'Disney's live-action film "Mulan" (2020) was filmed in Xinjiang, with Uyghur internment camps edited out of the background. Disney actually thanked Xinjiang CCP officials in the credits of the movie.'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in a speech, slammed The House of Mouse for trying to dictate policy and for hypocrisy regarding China

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a parental rights bill that bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on 'sexual orientation' or ' gender identity' in kindergarten through third grade

DeSantis also previously called it a 'mistake' not to fully boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and called out NBC for 'whitewashing' the 'genocide Olympics.'

In a Fox News Digital interview, DeSantis called China the US' 'number-one geopolitical foe' and indicated he believed the Biden administration's diplomatic boycott of the winter Olympics didn't go far enough.

'If you look at what they're doing, they're amassing huge amounts of power. And it's not just that they're building up their military, they are, they command huge influence within the United States,' DeSantis said of China.

DeSantis' tough talk on China comes with the continuing rumors that his re-election campaign in Florida may be a stepping stone to the White House in 2024.

Chatter of a possible presidential run is gaining steam with voters in the battleground state of Michigan, according to a poll released Tuesday, where more than four in 10 Republicans said they'd prefer him over Donald Trump.

Winning Michigan was critical to President Joe Biden's 2020 victory, after the state narrowly went to Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

And it appears the former president's influence over GOP voters there is continuing to slip, the new survey from WDIV and Detroit News suggests.

Out of a choice between DeSantis and Trump in the 2024 Republican primary, 45.2% said they would back the commander-in-chief.

DeSantis is less than four points behind with a 41.6% share of support. Just over 12% said they were undecided.

Florida's Republican leader has built a national brand for himself as one of the most vocal opponents of the Biden administration.

He's clashed with the president on a number of fronts, from refusing to implement COVID-19 measures to Florida's Parental Rights In Education law, which Democrats and other critics have dubbed the 'Don't Say Gay' bill.

But despite clinching the governorship with Trump's endorsement in 2018, DeSantis has not ruled out challenging the ex-president for the White House.

In his home state of Florida, a poll taken on July 15 projects DeSantis soundly walloping Trump at the ballot box.

Donald Trump helped DeSantis win the Florida governorship with his endorsement, but the popular Republican leader has since carved out his own name as one of the biggest Biden administration critics

This poll taken of Michigan GOP voters shows Ron DeSantis' national profile rising in key battleground states

Just 33% of Republican Sunshine State voters said they'd back Trump, while 51% support DeSantis, according to the Victory Insights survey released Monday. The rest were undecided.

A straw poll in Wisconsin taken in May also shows DeSantis with a 38% share of a wider pool of GOP candidates. Trump followed closely behind with 32% and Nikki Haley came in at a distant third.

In New Hampshire, where the first presidential primary is traditionally held, DeSantis bests Trump by a modest two points to secure 39% support among voters there. The poll was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center in June.

But in Tuesday's Michigan poll, it appears Trump has voters' support to run again - at least for now.

Sixty-four percent of Republicans surveyed said they support Trump running for re-election a third time - 48% who 'strongly' believe in him, while 16% said they 'somewhat' back him.
The boss of a housing association has apologised after a woman lay dead inside her south London flat for two-and-a-half years.

The remains of Sheila Seleoane, 58, were found in her Peckham flat in February this year - two and a half years after she was last seen alive in August 2019.

Residents had complained of a foul smell in the late summer of 2019 and repeatedly told landlords Peabody of concerns over the flat.

Despite this, an inquest into Ms Seleoane's death found that Peabody only made one 'proactive' attempt to contact their tenant before cutting off her gas, the BBC reports.

'We weren't asking the fundamental question: is Sheila OK?' Peabody's chief executive Ian McDermott said.

'We've apologised to the family. We're deeply sorry for what happened.

Sheila Seleoane's (pictured) skeletal remains were discovered in her one-bedroom flat in Peckham, South London, in February

'The biggest apology though I think does go to the residents of Lord's Court. They did tell us that something was wrong.'

A detailed timeline released by Harriet Harman's office, the Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, reveals messages between tenants where they question 'Is she dead?' as early as June 2020.

Ms Seleoane had not been seen since August 14, 2019, when she spoke to her GP to organise an appointment for the following day, which she failed to attend.

Her bank records show that her last 'active' transaction was that month, after she paid her rent to the Peabody Trust via debit card.

In a new detail, the woman living below her flat reported to the neighbourhood manager that maggots and flies were entering her flat from Sheila's windows as early as September 2019.

Harriet Harman, Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, has demanded a full investigation into why Peabody ignored repeated calls from neighbours who complained of a horrendous smell more than two years ago. Pictured: The Lord's Court flats where Ms Seleoane's body was discovered

She was told by Peabody however that their pest control 'don't deal with maggots'.

WhatsApp messages between Lords Court tenants were sent on June 25 2020 raising concerns that she had died, with one individual asking 'is she dead'.

Ash Fox, deputy chief executive of Peabody, wiped away tears as she told Ms Seleoane's inquest in Southwark this week that everyone at the housing group was devastated by the circumstances surrounding her death.

She told the inquest an independent investigation into why Ms Seleoane's body had been undiscovered for over two years had resulted in 37 recommendations to the way they deal with their tenants.

'It is clear from the investigation that processes were followed successfully, but perhaps there was an opportunity where the dots could have been joined up sooner and done more to raise the alarm,' she said.

The housing executive said one of the recommendations was to make contact with all their tenants who have not been spoken to for a year.

Despite promises to sensitively refurbish and re-let the flat in which her body was discovered, residents have reported that Peabody has not yet taken any action (Pictured: Flowers left at Ms Seleoane's door)

Staff would also look for changes in regular behaviour, such as the failure to pay rent.

She said so far only nine people who rent homes from the housing group have not been spoken to while there are 25 others who have recently had their gas supply cut off.

Ms Ash said it was now up to the Peabody to apply the 'human touch' as a social landlord.

She wiped away tears as she was asked by the coroner the effect of the death had on staff. 'Everyone is devastated, she said. 'We recognise more could have been done.'

The Peabody housing group sent a letter to all tenants in the block apologising for the missed opportunities in Ms Seleoane body being undiscovered for two and half years.

Ian McDermott. CEO of Peabody wrote: 'This is incredibly distressing, and we are so sorry we didnt support you enough.

He said an independent report into their failings had identified what changes needed to be made. A report by Altair is being released recommending changes to the way the group interacts with their tenants.

Before delivering his verdict the coroner said the cause of death was unascertained due to the decomposition of the body.

Dr Julian Morris said the cause of death would remain open. The coroner did not make any recommendations.

However, he remarked that a body could lay undetected for over two years was 'difficult to fathom in 2022.'
The Queen 'has reportedly invited Prince Harry and Meghan to spend time at Balmoral this summer.

If they accept, it would mean that the duke and duchess' children Archie and Lilibet would spend time with their great-grandmother.

However, it is claimed that the Sussexes would not spend time with other royals such as Charles and William.

The Queen arrived in her Highlands home on Thursday and is reportedly planning to stay in Craigowan Lodge on the Balmoral estate for ten weeks.

A Balmoral source told The Sun on Sunday: 'Staff have been told to expect the full list of royals including Harry, Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet.

'They are preparing for the Sussexes.'

Another palace insider claimed that Prince Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, 'barely had 15 minutes' with The Queen during the hectic arrangements of her Platinum Jubilee this summer.

Another sources is reported to have said: 'I would be stunned if they did turn up.'

The Queen has reportedly invited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (pictured) and their children to spend time with her at Balmoral this summer

It is understood that the couple could spend quality time with the monarch (pictured) while other senior royals are away

The Queen arrived at her Highlands estate (pictured) at Balmoral on Thursday and is said to be staying at the seven-bedroom Craigowan Lodge

News of the Sussex's potential visit comes days after the author of a new royal biography made bombshell claims about the Duchess of Sussex.

Tom Bower, author of a new insider's account of the royal couple titled Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors, said the Duchess 'thought the royal family would be like Hollywood.'

Speaking to Ben Shephard and Charlotte Hawkins on Good Morning Britain he claimed that once Meghan realised the royal family was 'lots of work and little reward', she didnt like it anymore.

The author said: 'It's wrong to say she was a famous actress, she wasn't, she was a third rate actress, Suits was only watched by a million people.'

During the interview, the author admitted that many of his sources were people who don't like Meghan because she'd warned her nearest and dearest her not to speak to him.

The author of a new bombshell royal biography today claimed Meghan married Prince Harry to become famous - saying 'Suits wasnt that popular' (pictured on Suits in 2017)

Tom Bower, author of a new insider's account of the royal couple titled Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors, said the Duchess of Sussex 'thought the royal family would be like Hollywood' (pictured, announcing their engagement in 2017)

Host Ben said to Tom: 'She was a very famous actress. She had a high profile in Hollywood and Suits is a series that was streamed all over the world, so people knew who she was.'

Tom disagreed with the host, referring to Meghan's cover story with Vanity Fair while she was dating Prince Harry.

'Well we wont argue but I disagree with you,' he said. 'The point is, until she met Harry, even Graydon Carter the editor of Vanity Fair who commissioned the article never heard of her and never heard of Suits.

'He was just told that anyone who marries Harry is going to be famous and she indeed was.'

During the interview, the author admitted that many of his sources were people who don't like Meghan because she'd warned her nearest and dearest her not to speak to him

'She said to her father "I want to be famous, I want to walk down the red carpet" and marrying Harry she achieved exactly that ambition.'

The biographer went on to say he believes the royal family tried very hard to accommodate Meghan and include her in the family.

He claimed: 'People were very excited by the fact that there was a mixed race girl coming', adding: 'It was going to be a great development for the royal family.'

However, he said 'it went wrong' and why it went wrong he said he has 'explained fully' in his new book.

Tom claimed the Duchess had told her father she 'wanted to walk down red carpets' and marrying Harry allowed her to 'achieve that ambition' (pictured, at the Lion King premiere in London in 2019)

'Both sides are to blame but I believe the blame lies mostly with Meghan, who I don't think understood the monarchy,' he claimed.

The author went on to admit he got a lot of his information for the book from people who don't like Meghan because she had warned the people closest to her not to speak to him.

He said: 'She made it pretty clear to all her friends and people who work for her not to talk to me, so it was quite an uphill struggle but I got enough people to speak to me, more than enough, I got about 80 people.'

To which Ben asked how the book is going to be an unbiased account if we know the people interviewed already don't like Meghan.

The author said: 'Because I sifted through, I never put in stuff that isn't true and can't be checked.

Speaking to Ben Shephard and Charlotte Hawkins on Good Morning Britain, Tom claimed that once Meghan realised the royal family was 'lots of work and little reward', she didnt like it anymore (pictured, the Duke and Duchess earlier this week in New York)

'You know I have some admiration for Meghan she succeeded quite well in her life with her ambitions and I was able to balance it all.'

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 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.

The book was released on July 21.

The Queen once deliciously said of the Sussexes, 'recollections may vary'... so what will she make of an eye-popping new biography of Meghan that's the talk of the Palace

By Richard Kay for the Daily Mail

Smiling into the camera like the iconic hooded figure from the Scottish Widows TV adverts, her appearance in the scene was one to savour. But, despite the striking similarities, the then actress Meghan Markle was not shooting a commercial.

She was in Malta researching her roots and the headdress she was wearing was an essential prop.

Her visit to the Mediterranean island was in 2015, a year before she met her future husband Prince Harry, and the trip has since become an essential waypoint in the narrative of the Duchess of Sussexs life. She later wrote that its purpose was about trying to understand where I came from, my identity, adding: There is something so lovely about fitting in a piece of the puzzle.

The Royal Family are bracing for a new biography of Meghan Markle, written by Tom Bowyer, in which he talks to more than 80 people who have known the princess for many years

Smiling into the camera like the iconic hooded figure from the Scottish Widows TV adverts, her appearance in the scene was one to savour. But, despite the striking similarities, the then actress Meghan Markle was not shooting a commercial. She was in Malta researching her roots and the headdress she was wearing was an essential prop.

In a blog post at the time Meghan said: Before I came people were telling me, When you go to Malta, everyone will look like you, and I started to say, Oh, my gosh, I do sort of blend in and its the loveliest of feelings.

She recalled her Markle grandmother saying that her fathers great-great-great grandmother Mary lived in Malta with a British soldier called Thomas Bird. They married and had a child born in 1862. The story had the added piquant twist that Mary was said to have been employed as a cook at Windsor Castle. A remarkable tale, you might think, for someone who was to marry the Queens grandson. But is it true?

According to the investigative writer Tom Bower, Meghan had no ancestry in Malta. The 19th-century soldier Thomas Bird did marry Mary but in Dublin in 1860  clearly excluding any employment in Windsor Castle.

Bird, he says, was posted with his wife to India and briefly to Malta. Soon after a son was born and they moved to Canada, where Thomas died.

Bower, whose explosive book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry And The War Between The Windsors, is published this week, adds: Thomas Markle would dispute that his mother ever conjured the story about the Markles connection to Malta.

So why does this matter? After all, Meghan is hardly the first person to perhaps over-elaborate a family myth. But to Bower, who has written a string of exposes of famous names, the episode is characteristic of the woman whose marriage to Harry has plunged the monarchy into its greatest crisis since the death of Princess Diana.

Nothing illustrates that more clearly than the competing  and vastly different  family recollections he has uncovered relating to the Los Angeles race riots of 1992. Video emerged of four white policemen beating Rodney King, an African-American motorist, during his arrest for driving while intoxicated the year before.

After the officers were acquitted of assault, large swathes of the city erupted in protest with neighbourhoods torched.

Bower says that Meghans father, by then divorced from her mother Doria, took immediate action to protect his ten-year-old daughter. During the afternoon that the riots started he drove with her to Palm Springs, he writes.

His ex-wife declined to join them. I feel quite safe, she had told Thomas in a telephone conversation.

Bower continues: There are serious doubts that Meghan saw any violence, not even the minor looting near the ABC studio (where Markle worked as a TV lighting engineer). After five days the curfew was lifted and they returned to Los Angeles.

Thomas Markle, pictured with his daughter, is said to dispute the family's connection with Malta

The new explosive book disputes whether Meghan Markle witnessed any of the violence following the Rodney King beating at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department

The new book disputes many of the claims made by the Duchess of Sussex, pictured, as author Tom Bowyer speaks with more than 80 people

Yet Meghans account, more than 20 years later, was of a different experience. I remember the curfew, she said, and I remember rushing back home and on that drive home, seeing ash fall from the sky and smelling the smoke and seeing people run out of buildings carrying bags and looting.

She said she had seen men in the back of a van holding guns and rifles. Those memories dont go away, she insisted.

Later still, in an interview for Vanity Fair she recalled that as the ash from street fires sifted down on suburban lawns . . . she exclaimed, Oh my God, mommy, its snowing. No, Flower, Doria answered. Its not snow. Get in the house. 

Bower says Markle was incredulous when he read his daughters version of those events.

Meghan, he claimed, didnt see Doria for the duration of the riots.

Of all the stories Meghan has promoted about her childhood, few are more familiar than that of the boxed set of Barbie dolls. But even that, according to Tom Bower, is not without dispute.

She recalled fawning over them as a seven-year-old. The set, known as the Heart Family, included a mom doll, a dad doll and two children, which she described as a perfect nuclear family sold only in sets of white dolls or black dolls.

Bower claimed Meghan changed outfits between 'poses' and brought a fashion photographer on the charity trip to Rwanda

On Christmas morning swathed in glitter-flecked wrapping paper, I found my Heart Family: a black mom doll, a white dad doll, and a child in each colour. My dad had taken the sets apart and customised my family.

Thomas Markles recollection was different. I gave her the dolls at her fourth birthday party in a park with her school friends, he said. Pointedly, Bower says that until she publicised the gift 30 years later to illustrate her problems with race, Markle could not recall Meghan ever mentioning the issue.

In an article for Elle magazine in 2015, Meghan described how she was asked every week of her life, often every day what she was and where she came from. Her father tells Bower: Race was never an issue throughout Meghans childhood or her years in Hollywood. I was surprised when she brought it up.

Bower claims Meghan flew to Rwanda first class and was accompanied by fashion photographer Gabor Jurina

The book also focuses on another key moment that Meghan has made much of in interviews both before and after she met Harry. It is the saga about her protest over a Procter & Gamble (P&G) advert for washing-up liquid.

Aged 11 she wrote to P&G, as well as to the then First Lady Hillary Clinton, complaining about the way the sexist ad stereotyped women with its strapline Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.

After weeks of protest the giant corporation changed the word women to people. For years Meghan has used the story as her first success as an aspiring activist.

Bower claims that when the Duchess received no reply from Procter & Gamble or Clinton, her father wrote follow-up letters demanding that they acknowledge his daughter but that nothing happened. Significantly, when it was unable to prove that Mrs Clinton had responded to her letter, Vanity Fair removed the reference from its 2018 interview.

According to her father, Bower says, both Mrs Clinton and Procter & Gamble ignored Meghans letters. To Bower, this embellishing of her background was an essential ingredient of the trajectory of Meghans life story and how she has controlled it.

Or is it, to borrow the Queens memorable phrase after Harry and Meghan used their Oprah Winfrey interview to claim there was a racist in the Royal Family, that recollections may vary?

Writing in his new book Revenge, Tom Bower detailed how the Duchess of Sussex was invited on the trip in January 2016 by World Vision Canada to be part of a film to promote the charity's work building water wells in the African country

One part of the Meghan narrative is that as a schoolgirl she had to take a $4-an-hour job at a yoghurt shop in Beverly Hills and grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler, a U.S. fast-food chain. Her father, says Bower, is emphatic. He quotes him saying: She never worked when she was at school. I would not have allowed it. And she didnt need to.

As for her diet, she did not survive on Sizzler food. She ate farm-fresh food and loved fish tacos, Bower writes. Over more than 400 pages, Bower ruthlessly pulls apart the carefully constructed image of a woman he labels self-centred, manipulative and demanding.

Many working on the advertising campaign she was hired to front as the face of Reitmans, Canadas largest womens clothing retailer, might be tempted to agree. They complained she was a bully filled with a narcissist entitlement complex

He likens her to Rachel Zane, the ambitious character she played in the cable TV series Suits that brought her fame, a sexy, shallow fashionista.

Not that Harry comes out much better. He is, in Bowers words, spoiled, badly educated, simple-minded and demanding. Together, the biographer says, they are agents of destruction.

But it is Meghan who is the scheming focus. Page after page drips with what he claims are examples of her diva behaviour. Some of it is familiar, of course, from newspaper accounts and other books.

A story first related by the Mails Rebecca English of seeing one royal aide with tears running down her face during the Sussexes overseas tour of Fiji, for example, is part of the misery endured by the Kensington Palace staff assigned to look after her as she adjusted to royal life.

They were not the only ones exasperated. According to the book, one of the Queens longest-serving aides warned that the Sussex marriage would all end in tears. Lady Susan Hussey, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen since 1960, is alleged to have made the comment at a lunch with a group of theatre executives a few months before the couple got married.

Bower writes: While discussing the possibility that Meghan might become linked with the National Theatre after the wedding, Hussey became unexpectedly serious about the couples future. That will all end in tears, she is alleged to have warned. Mark my words.

Lady Susan, 83, was said to have been part of a Palace team directed to help the duchess settle into life within the Royal Family. She was said to have visited the duchess at Nottingham Cottage, the home she shared with Harry in the grounds of Kensington Palace, to offer help and advice, the book claims.

In response, the Americanborn actress was said to be insistent that she would not allow Buckingham Palace to shape her, dictate her thoughts or activities.

Bower, who is best known for his unauthorised biographies of Britains most controversial tycoons such as Robert Maxwell, Richard Branson and Mohamed Al-Fayed, has approached the Harry and Meghan story with the steady gaze of the investigator, interviewing more than 80 people in the U.S., Canada, Britain and Ireland. All the revelations, he says, are from eye-witnesses.

Meghan Markle 'used a charity trip to Rwanda as a backdrop for a fashion shoot' after bringing 'suitcases of clothes' and 'insisting' she could bring a Canadian photographer with her, an explosive biography has claimed today

Some are tantalising. He claims that the Queen was relieved that the Duchess of Sussex did not attend Prince Philips funeral in April last year. Thank goodness Meghan is not coming, he reports the monarch saying in a clear voice to her trusted aides.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on this or other claims Bower makes and there has been silence  so far  from the California-based Sussexes. Some are bound to be upset at his brutal assessment of Meghans character but there will be those who find his account of her berating Harrys old friends during a shooting weekend convincing.

According to Bower, soon after the couples relationship was revealed Harry invited his then girlfriend to a Sandringham shoot. Harry was looking forward to endless banter, jokes  and a lot of drinking, Bower writes. He had not anticipated Meghans reaction.

He claims that as jokes involving sexism, feminism and transgender people ricocheted around the living rooms and dining rooms . . . Meghan challenged every guest whose conversation contravened her values.

According to the friends, says Bower, she reprimanded them about the slightest inappropriate nuance. They later exchanged texts saying: OMG what about HER . . . And Harry must be f****** nuts . . .

As for her behaviour at the Jamaica wedding of Harrys friend Tom Inskip, it is described as princessy. She quibbled about the food and refused to engage with Harrys friends.

Bowers forensic examination also homes in on the duchesss role as a campaigner and humanitarian. And this, according to him, is also suspect. Her apparent all-consuming passion for the empowerment of women was in reality focused on self-promotion and the empowerment of Meghan Markle, he concludes.

Her exacting style was not to everyones taste. London literary agent Adrian Sington, who met her to discuss a book proposal based on her lifestyle blog The Tig, was distraught by the behaviour he witnessed. He says he saw a young woman reduced to tears by what she called the duchesss passive aggressive tone.

When the book project collapsed, Sington told Meghans then agent Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne: Shes one of the most unpleasant people weve ever dealt with.

Many working on the advertising campaign she was hired to front as the face of Reitmans, Canadas largest womens clothing retailer, might be tempted to agree. They complained she was a bully filled with a narcissist entitlement complex.

Unhappy with the suite hired for her in a Montreal hotel, she demanded a bigger one at a more expensive hotel. She also insisted that she be booked under an alias even though, as Bower writes, no one in French-speaking Montreal really knew Meghan.

Inside the hotel room, ignoring the flower displays, bottles of her favourite wine and even a special calligraphy pen carefully laid out on the tables, she criticised the hotels Tempur-Pedic bathrobe and slippers, Bower says. She wanted Dior. The tea was the wrong blend and the vegan juice was warm.

To satisfy another demand, the advertising staffs wardrobe team purchased a pair of expensive Aquazzura beige suede shoes. But from her dressing room Meghan was heard complaining about the production, the clothes, the style and the script.

Asked during filming to name Canadian women who inspired her, she laughed and asked for examples. None of them inspires me, she replied. You cant make me say something I dont want to or dont believe in. One of the production team, Jean Malek posted on Facebook: She is definitely the meanest person Ive ever met. Just saying.

When filming was over, Bower says Meghan forgot to leave behind the Aquazzura shoes.

In post-production of the commercials, Meghan sent countless demands about changes to the colour of her lipstick and her waistline. One request related to some open-toe sandals she was wearing was said to have generated particular mirth.

Please fix my feet for me, she wrote. I get slaughtered online for [sic] people picking apart my feet, sadly. Theres a scar on my left foot + my right foot isnt the prettiest (long toe etc) . . .

When the dust settled the ad was a success and Meghan spoke of her face being splashed on billboards across Canada as life-changing.

But she had only just begun. The real life-changing moment came when she married Prince Harry, ushering in the most polarising chapter in recent royal life.
Novelist and ardent Labour backer Kathy Lette is threatening to turn her back on Sir Keir Starmers party after claims that it tried to gag her daughter over sexual harassment claims.

The outspoken author and mother of ex-Labour staffer Georgie Robertson said that she was contemplating cancelling my life-long Labour Party membership over their appalling treatment of my darling daughter.

She tweeted, This is straight from the Torys [sic] playbook. Totally unacceptable alongside the hashtag MeToo  a reference to the movement against sexual abuse which began in 2018.

INTERVENTION: Kathy Lette

Ms Lettes impassioned intervention comes amid allegations that Labour is lying by insisting it did no try to gag Ms Robertson and fellow ex-party employee Laura Murray over their complaints of sexual harassment.

In a letter sent to Sir Keir last week, the two women accused the party of making false statements, while their lawyer Mark Stephens called on Labour to admit it had tried to use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and hush money to cover up their allegations.

The damaging row centres on sexual harassment claims made against a senior male Labour official by former party press officer Ms Robertson and ex-Labour head of complaints Ms Murray.

Shortly before Sir Keir succeeded Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in April 2020, the two women reported the official for inappropriate behaviour.

Ms Robertson, whose father is human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, has said that included pressuring her to go for drinks and spreading false rumours that I was sleeping with a married man at work.

Ms Murray  daughter of trusted Corbyn aide Andrew Murray  said the man had made inappropriate comments about her love life. The official concerned is understood to have strongly denied the claims.

But the two women say their complaints were never dealt with seriously and that party lawyers asked them to sign confidentiality agreements when they were negotiating severance terms in November 2020 that would have prevented them from speaking out over the claims against the party or the official. The women refused to sign the agreements and left without payouts.

Kathy Lette's daughter Georgie Robertson

When challenged by The Mail on Sunday two weeks ago, Labour categorically insisted that no NDAs have been proposed to any member of staff alleging sexual harassment since Starmer took over as leader.

But in a letter sent last week to Sir Keir and to members of Labours governing National Executive Committee, Ms Robertson and Ms Murray branded the denial false and claimed that it had further compounded the significant hurt and distress we have suffered.

Mr Stephens, their lawyer, also took the extraordinary step of writing to the Guardian newspaper to accuse Labour of spin and dissembling.

He insisted the two brave women had been asked by the party to sign NDAs covering up their complaints that they had experienced sexual harassment during their employment.

He added: As a matter of principle, both women resigned, rejecting the NDAs and the hush money that came with them.

The Labour Party responded last night by repeating that it takes any complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously.

Party sources said Labour did not use NDAs that would stop anyone speaking out about sexual harassment.
Firebrand GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told an audience of young conservatives on Saturday to add a monkey emoji to their social media profiles in light of the World Health Organization's emergency declaration on monkeypox.

She also labeled herself a 'Christian Nationalist,' which earned appreciative noises from the crowd at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida.

Greene gave a brief but fiery speech on the second day of the conference. Her popularity among Republican teens and young adults was clearly evident in the standing ovation she received both before and after her speech.

'We have a new global pandemic, have you heard about this? Monkeypox, that's right,' the congresswoman said. 'It's the newest thing.'

'Listen, you guys have to update your social media, right next to your Ukraine flag emoji and your vaccine shot emoji, you need to make sure you have a monkey emoji.'

She appeared to be taking a shot at left-wing Twitter personalities who add emojis to their profiles to show allegiance with certain causes.

Greene joked, 'I want you all to be with it, you can't be behind, you have to have full outrage over everything that the left and the media tells you.'

Just a few chuckles could be heard from the crowd.

It comes hours after WHO declared the global monkeypox outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. Nearly 3,000 cases have been reported in the US so far - including, recently, two children.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene got a standing ovation both before and after her remarks at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit

Her comment about monkeypox came hours after the World Health Organization labeled it a global emergency

A line that was more warmly received was Greene proudly labeling herself a 'Christian Nationalist.'

Being a nationalist, she said, means 'you care about your country.'

'That's not a bad word,' she said as the audience cheered. 'That's actually a good thing. There's nothing wrong with leading with your faith.'

She added that leading with that Christian Nationalist mentality is 'what the Republican Party should be about' and encouraged the millennial and Gen Z Republicans to lead with their 'proud Christian faith.'

'If we do not live our lives and vote like we are nationalists - caring about our country, and putting our country first and wanting that to be the focus of our federal government - if we do not lead that way, then we will not be able to fix it,' Greene said.

Greene also blasted her colleagues in Washington for caring more about 'corporate welfare' than 'American workers,' earning appreciative applause from the crowd.

But the audience erupted in cheers when Greene called for the impeachment of President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

'Our government right now, the Biden administration, is completely corrupt, and I'm going to tell you something right now - Joe Biden should be impeached,' she said.

'And I'm also going to add, so should Nancy Pelosi.'

Greene's call to jail the president's son, Hunter Biden, prompted chants of 'Lock him up' that caught on across the nearly-full room.

A cardboard sign with the likeness of former President Donald Trump is viewed during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Friday, July 22

Hundreds of young Republican voters descended on Tampa for the multi-day event

'I think we should,' she added after the chants subsided, before pivoting to making fun of her political rival Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

'Speaking of getting locked up, let's talk about someone that was arrested just this past week - AOC.'

The progressive New York lawmaker was arrested with 16 other House Democrats during a pro-abortion protest outside of the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

She sparked widespread mockery when images and videos of her arrest appear to show Ocasio-Cortez holding her hands behind her back as if she was handcuffed - despite pumping one fist in the air to supporters in a show of solidarity. Ocasio-Cortez has denied faking being handcuffed.

'You don't play in the road like AOC and her girlfriends, right?' Greene asked the crowd.

'They were out there playing in the road, laying in the road in front of the Supreme Court and the Capitol Police had to tell him to get off the road. But what did they do? They got arrested.'

Of the handcuffs controversy, she added: 'See? It's all fake, it's a great big lie.'

'Because you know what? That's what a lot of people in Congress are. They're great, big liars. And that's what we have to change,' Greene said.
Boris Johnson has not spoken to Rishi Sunak since the morning of the former Chancellors dramatic resignation from the Cabinet, Government sources have revealed.

In the most vivid sign yet of the cold war estrangement between the two former colleagues, the pair failed to even acknowledge each other when they passed in the Commons recently.

It came as No 10 released pictures of Mr Johnson wielding high-powered weaponry while visiting Ukrainian troops training on a British Army base in Mr Sunaks North Yorkshire constituency.

At the centre of the dispute is the issue of whether Mr Sunak gave the Prime Minister any notice of his intention to quit on July 5  which set in train the sequence of events that led to Mr Johnson being ousted from office.

The Prime Minister donned a camouflage jacket as he took part in a training exercise on Thursday in which he hurled a dummy grenade and manned a machine gun during his trip to the base

Despite claims that Mr Sunak had phoned the Prime Minister minutes before he resigned, Government sources say the last time the two men spoke before Mr Sunak quit was at that days Cabinet meeting.

A source close to Mr Sunak said last night that it was true they had not communicated since then  but only because Mr Johnson had not picked up Mr Sunaks call before his resignation.

The Prime Minister donned a camouflage jacket as he took part in a training exercise on Thursday in which he hurled a dummy grenade and manned a machine gun during his trip to the base.

The symbolism of Boris the bazooka turning up in Mr Sunaks constituency in fatigues was thrown into stark relief by the words of one of the Prime Ministers loyal MPs, who said: Rishi hasnt been to see these Ukrainians, even though its in his own back yard.

Mr Johnson said: This week I visited Ukrainian troops being trained by British Armed Forces in North Yorkshire.

Last week Mr Sunak was accused of rewriting history after he took credit for vetoing a national lockdown during the Omicron Covid variant wave last winter

The UK is committed to doing all we can to help Ukraine continue to repel Russian aggression.

After posting a video of himself in action, Mr Johnson added: I just want you to know that the people of the United Kingdom support the people of Ukraine and support you in your fight. And I am absolutely convinced that you can win and that you will win.

It comes as allies of rival candidate Liz Truss questioned Mr Sunaks claims about the furlough scheme during lockdown.

In a new wave of so-called blue-on-blue infighting, they suggested the former Chancellor should not claim full credit for the successful rollout of the scheme, which provided a lifeline to workers throughout the pandemic.

Last week, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries questioned Mr Sunaks account of the scheme at a Conservative Party dinner.

One Tory donor recalled Ms Dorries suggesting: Sunak being this maestro economist is absolute b******s.

Ms Dorries told those present that BBC chairman Richard Sharp, who was Mr Sunaks boss at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, was probably the one who came up with furlough  not Mr Sunak.

Mr Sharp was brought into the Treasury in 2020 as an adviser when Mr Sunak was Chancellor during the pandemic. He was previously on the Bank of Englands financial policy committee.

A spokesman for Mr Sunak categorically denied Ms Dorries suggestion and said Mr Sharp was never involved in policy-making for furlough.

Last week Mr Sunak was accused of rewriting history after he took credit for vetoing a national lockdown during the Omicron Covid variant wave last winter.

He told LBC radio: What I did in December was fly back from a Government trip overseas... to stop us sleepwalking into a national lockdown. We were hours away from a press conference that was going to lock us down again. I came back and fought very hard against the system.

A Whitehall source said: He is rewriting history. It was a massive call and it was made by the PM.
Liz Truss today vows to implement a hard line on immigration if she wins the keys to No 10  including extending the scheme under which migrants who cross the Channel in small boats can be sent to Rwanda.

The Foreign Secretary uses an interview with The Mail on Sunday to try to cement her early lead over Rishi Sunak by promising to increase frontline border staff by 20 per cent, and by striking Rwanda-style deals with more countries.

Her pledges come as Mr Sunak  who has denied claims he tried to block the controversial policy while in Cabinet yesterday set out his own ten-point plan to tackle immigration, which he promised would be one of five major emergency responses he would enact during his first 100 days as Prime Minister.

Ms Truss says: The Rwanda policy is the right policy. Im determined to see it through to full implementation, as well as exploring other countries that we can work on similar partnerships with. Its the right thing to do.

Im also determined to make sure we have the right level of forces at our border. Im going to increase the Border Force to make sure that we have the proper protection in place directly at the border.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss promised to be tough on immigration if she wins the Conservative leadership candidate

Ms Truss said that she would organise more Rwanda-style deals to control immigration (pictured: Migrants at Gatwick detention centre before the halted flight to Rwanda)

Ms Truss also said she would introduce a strengthened Bill of Rights to give a sound legal basis to address illegal immigration

The clash came as:

Mr Sunak denounced Ms Trusss tax cuts as immoral and railed against the forces that be who are trying to install her in Downing Street in an apparent dig at Boris Johnson loyalists;

The former Chancellor used a speech in Margaret Thatchers hometown of Grantham to denounce the Foreign Secretarys plans to reverse his tax increases. But allies of Ms Truss said it was daft to argue there was no headroom for tax cuts;

An MoS poll of Tory voters put Mr Johnson top of the Best Prime Minister rankings, followed by Ms Truss in second place and Mr Sunak in third;

The outgoing Prime Minister was pictured in fatigues and handling an anti-tank missile launcher during a trip to an Army base in Mr Sunaks North Yorkshire constituency  as the MoS learned new details of the cold war between Mr Johnson and his former Chancellor. The pair have not spoken since Mr Sunaks resignation on July 5, and blanked each other when they recently passed in the Commons;

Tory donor John Caudwell backed Ms Trusss economic policies.

Truss told Mail on Sunday that if she defeats former chancellor Rishi Sunak, she will increase border force staff levels from 9,000 to 10,800.(Pictured: A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent)

In todays interview, Ms Truss also takes aim at former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings, who is supporting Mr Sunak, distances herself from comparisons with Baroness Thatcher and reveals her love of Bruce Springsteen and Honest Burgers.

Her intervention over immigration came after the initial stages of the Tory leadership campaign were dominated by rows over tax policy, with Ms Truss promising to axe Mr Sunaks National Insurance rise to stimulate growth. The Foreign Secretary says that if she beats her rival in the ballot of party members on September 5 she will increase frontline Border Force staff from 9,000 to 10,800.

Ms Truss will also introduce a strengthened Bill of Rights to give a sound legal basis to address illegal immigration.

Liz Truss has said she will extend the controversial Rwanda asylum scheme, in a move to firm up support among Tory party voters in the race to succeed Boris Johnson

Ms Truss tells the MoS: Im determined to end the appalling people trafficking were seeing. I make sure things get done, and I will be working with my colleagues to deliver this as an absolute priority.

I understand its a priority for people and we need to make sure our immigration system is fair, and this illegal immigration that were seeing across the Channel is both unfair and incredibly dangerous, and it is one of my priorities to make sure it is sorted. She adds: We need to make sure that the British Bill of Rights fully delivers on giving the UK Government the powers and UK Parliament the sovereignty to be able to deliver the policy in full. Thats very important for me.

Britains borders will be protected under my leadership and I will do what it takes to make the Rwanda deal fully implemented and also look to other arrangements with other countries.

Mr Sunaks plan includes new laws to tighten the definition of who qualifies for asylum, the introduction of an annual cap set by Parliament on the number of refugees the UK accepts and withholding aid from countries that fail to co-operate over the return of migrants.

The former Chancellor has also promised to hold the French to account with clear targets for stopping boats while ending the farce of using hotels to house migrants. Mr Sunak said: Our immigration system is broken and we have to be honest about that.

Whether you believe that migration should be high or low, we can all agree that it should be legal and controlled.

Right now the system is chaotic, with law-abiding citizens seeing boats full of illegal immigrants coming from the safe country of France, with our sailors and coastguards seemingly powerless to stop them. It must stop and if I am Prime Minister I will stop it.

The Foreign Secretary suggested that as Prime Minister she would extend the Rwanda policy, despite it currently being in legal limbo

The Rwandan Government has conceded that it currently only has the capacity to take 200 migrants from the UK, although spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said officials would be able to scale up quickly and were ready to take as many as the UK is willing to send.

Britain has paid 120 million up front to Rwanda as part of the deal and could be liable for the cash even if the policy is ruled unlawful in a judicial review before the High Court in September.

Officials also confirmed migrants were free to leave Rwanda once they had arrived and could attempt new journeys back to the UK.

More than 10,000 migrants have arrived in the UK in small boats since the deal was signed in mid-April. In total, more than 15,000 have crossed the Channel this year, almost double the number that had arrived by this time last year.

Last week it emerged in a report by David Neal, the chief borders inspector, that Channel migrants who triggered alerts on security databases have been allowed to vanish after arriving in the UK.

Others were found to have arrived with guns or other weapons.

The Home Office sat on Mr Neals findings for five months until publishing them last week.

The report came a month after the first scheduled flight to Rwanda was blocked from departing after an 11th-hour ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

Ms Truss adds: In all of the areas that Ive had direct responsibility for, whether its putting the toughest sanctions regime on Russia, whether its dealing with the issues in Northern Ireland and putting the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to Parliament, whether its the trade deals Ive negotiated, Im somebody who gets things done and Im prepared to take on the Whitehall orthodoxy, Im prepared to take on the naysayers and the doubters around the country, and that is what I will absolutely do in this case because it is a priority to stop the appalling abuse thats taking place in the Channel.
The Government announced plans to privatise Channel 4 in April this year

'People are going to lose their jobs and there she is parading around' said staff

As well as her Channel 4 salary, she is a board member at fashion house Chanel

Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon has triggered fury by appearing in a Vogue photoshoot wearing a Cartier ring and a 50,000 watch amid the threat of job cuts at the station.

While staffing levels at the network remain uncertain because of its proposed privatisation, the chief executive has been pictured in the magazine wearing designer clothes and expensive jewellery.

Ms Mahon, who was paid 1.2 million last year, is included in the magazines August edition in a feature on the 25 most influential women of the year.

Alex Mahon has triggered fury by appearing in a Vogue photoshoot wearing a Cartier ring and a 50,000 watch despite staff suffering job uncertainty

Wearing a burnt orange dress by Victoria Beckham in the pictures, the mother of four sported a gold-and-diamond Cartier ring and a 50,800 Audemars Piguet watch.

The outfit and accessories were provided by Vogue, but some of Ms Mahons employees accused her of hypocrisy because she said in an accompanying interview that her mission was to challenge the status quo, adding that Channel 4 spoke up for the under-represented.

One staff member told The Mail on Sunday: How can she say that Channel 4 is there to speak up for the under-represented when she is wearing a 50,000 watch and thousands of pounds of jewellery, all with a Victoria Beckham dress?

She may not have owned them, but it is hardly the right optics.

People are going to lose their jobs and there she is parading around in clothes and jewellery which those who are under-represented could only dream of wearing.

Ms Mahon, 48, has previous form when it comes to expensive jewellery. In June last year, she wore a diamond necklace worth nearly 50,000 by Chelsea-based designer Jessica McCormack while she was quizzed by MPs about the obscene salaries the broadcaster paid its senior staff.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said that Government ownership is holding Channel 4 back

As well as her salary from Channel 4, Ms Mahon is a non-executive board member at fashion house Chanel.

In April, the Government announced that it wanted to privatise Channel 4, which broadcasts programmes such as Gogglebox and Countdown. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has said that Government ownership is holding it back.

Explaining the reason for Ms Mahon taking part in the photoshoot, a spokesman for Channel 4 said: As chief executive, Alex successfully led Channel 4 through the pandemic, delivered record-breaking results and launched world-leading menopause, child-loss and carer initiatives for staff.

All the participants were costumed and styled by Vogue, which is standard practice.
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A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of California's largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

The Oak Fire started Friday afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by Saturday morning had rapidly grown to 10.2 square miles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

'Fire activity is extreme,' Cal Fire said in a situation report on Saturday, noting that the wildfire is at zero percent containment. 'Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters.'

The origin of the wildfire is under investigation. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.

A home burns as the Oak Fire moves through the area on Saturday near Mariposa, California

Firefighters work as the site of the Oak Fire near Mariposa, California on Saturday

Firefighter Joanna Jimenez holds a dog she found wandering in a fire evacuation zone as the Oak Fire burns on Saturday

An aerial view from an aircraft of the Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park, taken from above Yosemite Valley, California

The burn zone of the Oak Fire near Midpines is seen on Saturday after the wildfire exploded in size

Evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

Cal Fire described the Oak Fire's activity as 'extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.'

By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five others and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said.

The blaze prompted numerous road closures, including a shutdown of Highway 140 between Carstens Road and Allred Road - blocking one of the main routes into Yosemite.

More than 400 firefighters, along with helicopters, other aircraft and bulldozers, battled the blaze, which was in a sparsely populated, mostly rural area of the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of California's largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people

A home burns as the Oak Fire moves through the area on Saturday near Mariposa, California. The fast moving Oak Fire burning outside of Yosemite National Park has forced evacuations

The Oak Fire started Friday afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by Saturday morning had rapidly grown to 10.2 square miles

'Fire activity is extreme,' Cal Fire said in a situation report on Saturday, noting that the wildfire is at zero percent containment. 'Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters'

Hot weather, low humidity and bone dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades was fueling the blaze and challenging fire crews, Patterson said.

California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years.

Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.

'The fire is moving quickly. This fire was throwing embers out in front of itself for up to 2 miles yesterday,' Patterson said. 'These are exceptional fire conditions.' The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Allison Baggett watches the Oak Fire burn close to her Mariposa, California home before evacuating on Friday night

Residents of Mariposa County prepare to evacuate as the Oak Fire grows in size on Friday evening

A home burns as the Oak Fire moves through the area on Saturday near Mariposa, California

Firefighters mop up a hot spot as the Oak Fire moves through the area on Saturday

By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five others and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said

A plane drops retardant while battling the Oak Fire in Mariposa County on Friday evening

Pacific Gas & Electric said on its website that more than 2,600 homes and businesses in the area had lost power as of Friday afternoon and there was no indication when it would be restored.

'PG&E is unable to access the affected equipment,' the utility said.

A shoeless older man attempting to flee the blaze on Friday crashed his sedan into a ditch in a closed area and was helped by firefighters.

He was safely driven from the area and did not appear to suffer any injuries. Several other residents stayed in their homes Friday night as the fire continued to burn nearby.

Meanwhile, firefighters have made significant progress against a wildfire that began in Yosemite National Park and burned into the Sierra National Forest.

Firefighters look on as the Oak Fire burns in Darrah in Mariposa County on Saturday

A Cal Fire firefighter lights a backfire while battling the Oak Fire on Saturday near Mariposa, California

More than 400 firefighters, along with helicopters, other aircraft and bulldozers, battled the blaze, which was in a sparsely populated, mostly rural area of the Sierra Nevada foothills

A firefighter extinguishes flames as the Oak Fire crosses Darrah Rd. in Mariposa County on Friday

A view of a burned home after the Oak Fire moved through the area on near Mariposa, California

The Washburn Fire was 79 percent contained Friday after burning about 7.5 square miles of forest.

It was one of the largest fires of the year in California, along with the Lost Lake Fire in Riverside County that was fully contained in June at 9 square miles.

The fire broke out July 7 and forced the closure of the southern entrance to Yosemite and evacuation of the community of Wawona as it burned on the edge of Mariposa Grove, home to hundreds of giant sequoias, the world's largest trees by volume.

Wawona Road is tentatively set to reopen on Saturday, according to the park website.
China sees rapidly growing coffee market

11:24, July 23, 2022 By Wang Wenzheng ( People's Daily

What would it be like when a post office turns into a coffee place?

A crew member on train G10 delivers a cup of freshly-ground coffee to a passenger, Jan. 29, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Wang Chu)

In June this year, post provider China Post opened its first Post Coffee campus store in Southeast University, east Chinas Jiangsu province. It soon became a photogenic spot for social media.

The coffees great here, and so is the decoration, said Li Wendong, a doctoral student of the university. He said the crossover cafe is interesting and students need such a place on campus where they can alleviate their pressure.

Post Coffee is only a miniature of crossover cafes. In China today, coffee shops are seen everywhere, such as gas stations, and even pharmacies. Many renowned enterprises have set foot in the coffee industry.

According to statistics, China is home to nearly 160,000 coffee-related enterprises, with an average of 20,000 emerging on an annual basis in the past five years. As of May 1 this year, a total of 117,300 coffee shops were operational across the country, and the number kept increasing despite impacts from COVID-19.

The involvement of renowned enterprises in the coffee industry mirrors the huge attractiveness of the Chinese coffee consumption market, which is like a tempting big cake.

Statistics indicate that the value of the Chinese coffee market was around 381.7 billion yuan ($56.53 billion) in 2021, and is expected to keep an annual growth of 20 percent in the next five years, which is way higher than the global average of 2 percent. The market value will be likely to hit 1 trillion yuan in 2025.

In recent years, coffee consumption has gradually grown into a habit among Chinese consumers. The group of coffee lovers with high consuming intention and brand loyalty is constantly expanding, represented by the middle- and high-income earners in urban areas.

Millennial Han Xiao is quite a fan of coffee who knows all the differences between coffee drinks, such as espresso, latte, mocha and cappuccino. For her, drinking coffee is not only for refreshing, but also a lifestyle.

A coffee shop should be available within five minutes of walk from everywhere. Coffee shops are the third space for me following home and office, she said.

In addition, Chinese consumers demand for premium coffee products, such as fresh coffee, is rising rapidly as the group of middle-income earners expands.

A citizen buys drinks from a coffee shop beside a policy station in Hangzhou, east Chinas Zhejiang province, June 15, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Long Wei)

Last year, China imported 122,700 tons of coffee beans, 74 percent more from a year ago. In particular, the import of raw coffee beans surged 87 percent to 106,000 tons, accounting for 86 percent of the total import.

Insiders estimate that China currently has a coffee consumer group of more than 300 million people.

Young consumers from both first-tier cities and lower-tier ones are shaping a consumption habit for fresh coffee. Many of them are fans of premium coffee beans and freshly-ground coffee, and want a fancy consumption environment. They even have purchased exquisite coffee ware and powerful coffee machines.

For instance, the sales of coffee machines on Tmall, an online retail platform under Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, recorded growth for six months in a row in the first half of this year. The highest year-on-year growth exceeded 200 percent.

Last year, the per capita consumption of fresh coffee among adult consumers in Chinese mainland stood at 1.6 cups, and the figure among young consumers in first- and second-tier cities was 3.8. The market enjoys a huge potential though theres still a gap between itself and mature markets in the U.S. and Europe. Bright prospects await the emerging business as coffee products are seeping into the daily life of the Chinese people.

A foreign tourist orders a cup of coffee at an unattended coffee booth on the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, Aug. 12, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Yang Jianzheng)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
There are secret planet killers out in space, such as near-Earth asteroids poised to attack Earth, but some are concealed in the Sun's glare. Because no telescope can see against the Sun's light, most are aimed away from the solar system's center.

However, this is where a planet killer can whiz by and destroy the Earth in a single devastating impact, killing all life and shattering the globe.

Near-Earth Asteroids Threaten Planets

Mankind now scans the sky for near-Earth objects (NEOs), including asteroids and any celestial body that is close to the Earth.

Technical resources have been used to learn more about the solar system and planet accretion, as well as to develop methods for tracking dangerous space debris, reported Science Alert.

Astronomer Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC remarked that these NEOs are found between the expanse of the Earth and the Sun.

Sheppard wrote in Science Journal that more telescopes are trained on the Sun during twilight to avoid glare while searching for killer space rocks. These surveys have detected hidden near-earth asteroids in the inner Solar System.

One of the discoveries is one asteroid in an interior orbit to Venus called 'Aylo'chaxnim 2020 AV2. The asteroid with the shortest known orbital period around the Sun (named 2021 PH27)

While modeling anticipates that these hidden world killers should exist, telescopes with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) attached, such as the Zwicky Transient Facility camera in California and the National Science Foundation's Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile, are now beginning to locate them.

Read Also: Asteroid Alert: NASA Detects Four Asteroids Passing Earth's Orbit With One Closer Than Others

All space rocks get classified where they are, such as Atiras, an orbit interior to Earth, and Vatiras, an interior Venus orbit, and hypothetical Vulcanoids, an interior Mercury orbit.

Astronomers have concluded that craters on planets and moons show that NEOs are fairly common and have been impacting for several billion years with no abating, states IOP Science.

These cosmic bodies have had chaotic orbits in the last 10 billion years and have been unpredictable due to the Sun's impact. Also, these near-earth objects are constantly replaced by some unknown mechanism.

He explains that the motion of these space rocks is how they rotate, size, albedo, and distance from the Sun. Smaller space rocks absorb more sunlight and have broader movement.

These asteroid discoveries should help us understand their movement and how the number of NEOs has remained stable over such extended periods. Many of these NEOs are asteroids that have been loosened from the asteroid belt that lies in between Jupiter and Mars.

Inner Reservoirs of Near-Earth Objects

Sheppard remarked that these planet killers or NEOs have reservoirs that replenish the orbit of Atiras and Vatiras. It replaces and feeds asteroids that are orbiting into the Solar System, waiting to obliterate a world or fall into the solar mass and burn up.

Smaller asteroids are hard to find, but scientists speculate that 90% of planet killer NEOs sized about 1 kilometer or more have been accounted for. A few of them are unknown 1-km NEOs with close solar orbits or high inclination that are hard to detect in surveys.

These hidden world killers are near-earth asteroids orbiting where they cannot be seen. Due to the limitations of current science, these outer space threats are still out there.

Related Article: Planet-Killing Asteroid Currently Hurtling Towards Earth, ETA Saturday Morning

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz thinks that if ex-President Donald Trump were to announce his intention to run for president in 2024, it would force other GOP hopefuls to reassess their plans.

Speaking to Fox News at the Turning Point USA conference in Tampa on Friday, Cruz said: 'I'm sure it clears it out significantly.'

He added: 'We'll see what happens. Look, the lay of the land is everyone is waiting to see what Trump decides to do. Anyone who tells you they're not is lying to you. And he's going to decide on whatever time frame he desires.'

Trump remains hugely popular in the Republican party, although Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is fast emerging as a new star. Many have professed a fascination to see a contest between the two men should both decide to run for office.

Earlier in the interview, Cruz continued to demonstrate his admiration for Trump saying that the twice-impeached ex-president would 'do what he wants' in 2024.' He continued: '[Trump] will remain an 'incredibly important leader in the United States.'

Senator Ted Cruz pictured during his interview with Fox News on Friday said that Donald Trum will 'do what he wants' in 2024

Trump is pictured in Arizona on Friday night. He gave yet another hint he plans to run for office again in 2024, but has yet to formally announce a presidential bid

Famously, Trump and Cruz butted heads on a consistent basis in the 2016 Republican primary race.

At one point, Trump retweeted a professional photo of his former model wife, Melania, side-by-side with an unflattering picture of Cruz's wife, Heidi.

The caption read in part 'the images are worth a thousand words.'

The Texas lawmaker responded by saying: 'Donald, real men don't attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life.'

When Trump ascended to the presidency, Cruz, who became known as 'Lyin' Ted' in MAGA circles, became one of the former 'Apprentice' host's most ardent supporters.

In his recent Fox News interview, Cruz said of his former sparring partner: 'I think he accomplished an enormous amount as president, and I was proud to work hand in hand with him in achieving results for the American people.'

He also said that despite the media's 'hatred' of Trump, voters were ready to 'move back to the direction of common sense.'

Cruz also took aim at the media calling them 'biased' in their attempts to 'cover up the miserable failures of the Biden administration.'

The Turning Point conference draws 5,000 young conservatives from across the country to hear speakers such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Ted Cruz, and of course, Donald Trump.

Senator Cruz was among the speakers on Friday night, where he poked fun at New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and said that 'pronouns can kiss my a**.'

Turning Point's founder, Charlie Kirk, appeared to hold DeSantis in high regard following the Florida Republican's speech on Friday night.

Kirk, who founded Turning Point in 2012, introduced DeSantis at the conference by saying that the governor was 'a man that has been courageous on every single issue.'

He continued: 'I don't know what is in the future for this man, but it's something pretty special.'

Ahead of his appearance at the Turning Point conference on Saturday night, Trump offered one of the strongest suggestions yet that he plans to run for president again in 2024, referring to his past campaigns and saying 'we may have to do it again.'

Trump made the remarks while addressing a boisterous rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona on Friday, where he repeated his unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

'I ran twice, I won twice, and did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions. more votes in 2020 than we got in 2016,' Trump claimed. 'And likewise, getting more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far.'

'And now, we may have to do it again,' he continued. 'I mean, look at, look at what has happened to our country in less than two years. Our country is like a different -- it's like a different place. It's so sad to see.'

Trump was in Arizona to stump for former television anchor Kari Lake, a GOP candidate for governor who supports his discredited election claims.

In a sign of the party's growing rifts, his former vice president Mike Pence held a dueling rally in Arizona on the same day, supporting rival Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson.

Trump was in Arizona to stump for former television anchor Kari Lake, a GOP candidate for governor who supports his discredited election claims

Earlier this month, 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 he'd pull the trigger before or after the November midterm elections.

'Do I go before or after? That will be my big decision,' he said.

Some Republican strategists fear that if Trump throws his hat in the ring before the midterms, it could upset the GOP's chances of winning back majorities in the House and the Senate.

'Of all the selfish things he does every minute of every day, it would probably be the most,' one GOP strategist told the Washington Post this month.

'Everything we are doing that is not talking about the economy is going to be a disaster.'

Trump appeared to suggest on Friday that he would wait to announce until after the midterms, saying: 'But first we have to win a historic victory for the Republican Party. this November when we retake Congress.'

In Arizona, Trump continued to tout claims that the election was stolen from him and said that despite receiving a 'record number of votes,' he has been the most 'persecuted person' in America.

'A friend of mine recently said that I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country,' Trump said. 'I thought about it, and I felt, you know, he may very well be right.'
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Princess Diana's brother said last night he was groomed by disgraced BBC reporter Martin Bashir, as he renewed his demand for Scotland Yard to investigate the broadcaster.

Writing exclusively for The Mail on Sunday, Earl Spencer urged the Metropolitan Police to 'reconsider their responsibilities' and launch a probe as he revealed lawyers had told him that 'unlawful and criminal behaviour' had been committed by figures at the BBC.

In a series of hard-hitting comments, Earl Spencer said only the police 'have the power to get to the bottom of this terrible scandal' as he detailed how Bashir deceived him over three weeks to get close to his sister.

His bombshell intervention comes days after the BBC paid out around 200,000 to former royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke for 'shocking' smears made against her by Bashir as part of his campaign to secure his now discredited 1995 Panorama interview with Diana.

Bashir showed Earl Spencer forged bank statements to gain access to the Princess and then tricked her by peddling a string of lies, including the slur that Prince Charles was having an affair with Ms Legge-Bourke  now Alexandra Pettifer  and that she became pregnant and had an abortion as a result.

Princess Diana sat down for an interview with BBC reporter Martin Bashir for Panorama that was aired on November 20, 1995. Bashir was subsequently disgraced over the deceitful method he used to gain access to the princess

Earl Spencer, 58, is determined to continue to wage his campaign to win justice for his sister. Pictured in 2021

Princess Diana photographed with her brother, Earl Spencer, at their home in Berkshire when they were children in 1968

Pictured: Princess Diana in 1995. Earl Spencer, 58, is determined to continue to wage his campaign to win justice for his sister after the force said it had 'not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offence and will therefore be taking no further action'

Last year, following a devastating report into the scandal by former Supreme Court Judge Lord Dyson, the Met considered whether to launch an investigation into a range of potential offences, including forgery, misconduct in public office and blackmail. But in September, the force said it had 'not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offence and will therefore be taking no further action'.

The decision has left Earl Spencer, 58, determined to continue to wage his campaign to win justice for his sister. He writes: 'The question I am repeatedly asked by concerned members of the public, furious at what my sister was put through, is why have the police not prosecuted those involved for what various senior lawyers have told me is clearly unlawful and criminal behaviour?

'I hope the police will reconsider their responsibilities in this matter. Only they have the power to get to the bottom of this terrible scandal, which led Diana to feel even more exposed and alone, and deceived her into forgoing those who cared for her and would have protected her.'

Earl Spencer's insistence that the Met probe the scandal represents one of the first major tests for the force's new Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley. It is also a devastating blow for BBC bosses hoping that a string of compensation payments to Bashir's victims would allow the Corporation to move on from its biggest scandal.

The affair threatens to continue to dog BBC Director-General Tim Davie as he tries to save the licence fee and make swingeing cuts.

Bashir (left) showed Earl Spencer forged bank statements in 1995 to gain access to the Princess and then tricked her by peddling a string of lies. Alexandra Pettifer (right), better known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke, won substantial damages over 'false and malicious' allegations about her used to obtain Martin Bashir's 1995 Panorama interview

Tunnel de l'Alma in Paris, which was the site of the car accident that killed Princess Diana on August 31, 1997. It was two years to the day after Earl Spencer first met Bashir that Diana was killed with 'no Royal Protection Officers on hand, having chosen to dispense with the services of those who she should have been able to trust implicitly with her safety'

How the BBC was finally forced to admit Bashir deceit AUGUST 31, 1995: BBC Panorama journalist Martin Bashir meets Earl Spencer and shows him fake bank statements that freelance designer Matt Wiessler mocked up for him. SEP 19, 1995: The Earl introduces Bashir to Princess Diana. NOV 5, 1995: The sensational Panorama interview with Diana is broadcast. LATE NOVEMBER 1995: Wiessler expresses concern to Panoramas series producer that the fake bank statements may have played a role in obtaining the interview. Bashir is asked for clarification. DEC 22, 1995: Bashir passes a note from Diana to his bosses in which she says: I was not shown any documents nor given any information by Martin Bashir that I was not already aware of. MAR 23, 1996: Bashir admits to BBC bosses that he had lied about not showing the fake bank statements to anybody. Yet two months later, he is sent a note  signed off by Tony Hall, then head of BBC News  that his dealings with Diana were absolutely straight and fair. APR 7, 1996: The Mail on Sunday publishes a story about the fake statements. The BBC denies they were used to obtain the interview, but Hall opens an inquiry. APR 25, 1996: Hall tells BBC governors that Bashir commissioned fake statements because he wasnt thinking, adding: I believe he is, even with this lapse, an honest and honourable man. Bashir leaves the BBC, but returns in 2016 as religious affairs editor. AUG 28, 1996: Dianas divorce from Prince Charles is finalised. AUG 31, 1997: Diana dies in a car crash in Paris. NOV 3, 2020: The Daily Mail publishes a letter written by Earl Spencer in which he accuses the BBC of sheer dishonesty. NOV 18, 2020: The BBC asks former Supreme Court Justice Lord Dyson to independently investigate the scandal. MAY 20, 2021: Lord Dysons report condemns Bashir as dishonest and criticises Halls investigation as flawed. Prince William condemns the BBCs incompetence. JUL 21, 2022: The BBC pays about 200,000 to royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke and admits she was subjected to baseless smears by Bashir. Advertisement

The Panorama interview, watched by 23 million people, saw Diana declare 'there were three of us in this marriage' was a worldwide sensation. In April 1996, however, the MoS revealed that Bashir had faked private bank documents just weeks before the interview. Those statements suggested Earl Spencer's former head of security was receiving money from a tabloid newspaper and the security services to spy on Earl Spencer and Diana.

The Earl says: 'I feel that I was groomed... shown forged bank statements; I was told of undferhand payments, of spying, and of appalling deception. But, all along I was the one being deceived in order for Mr Bashir to get to my late sister.'

Using his pet name for her, he recalls how, after the three met in September 1995, he tried to warn her about some of the holes he had spotted in Bashir's stories. 'After Bashir left, I said, 'I'm sorry, Duch  I've wasted your time  what that man has just said doesn't add up'.' He says his sister was 'extremely vulnerable' when she met Bashir because her secrets were appearing in the press. He assumed he would never hear from Bashir again and was shocked when, a few weeks later, the BBC announced that it had landed its Panorama interview with the Princess.

The Bashir scandal was reignited in November 2020 when the Daily Mail published revelations about the deception the BBC reporter deployed to obtain his scoop.

Then, in May 2021, Lord Dyson's damning report found that an internal inquiry into Bashir in 1996, led by Lord Hall, who was then head of news and current affairs and later became the Corporation's Director-General, had been woefully ineffective. It also ruled that the BBC had covered up what it knew. In his article today, Earl Spencer questions 'who else at the BBC knew of Mr Bashir's work at the time?' He adds: 'In a story of such unique importance as this, it is reasonable to believe that the chain of command must have gone very high indeed  beyond Panorama to the upper reaches of the BBC.'

He highlights that two years to the day after he first met Bashir, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris with 'no Royal Protection Officers on hand, having chosen to dispense with the services of those who she should have been able to trust implicitly with her safety'.

In devastating comments, he links the Panorama interview  which only took place because of Bashir's lies  with her death. 'The agonising lies that she was told by the BBC before their cameras finally rolled ensured that she came into that Panorama interview with a very skewed and false view of the situation she was in, having been lied to repeatedly,' he writes.

'This led to her speaking in a way that set her on a course where she was without due protection when she needed it most. All those responsible must be held to account.'

Last night the BBC declined to comment on Earl Spencer's article, referring instead to an apology made last week by Mr Davie after it was announced that it had agreed to pay Mrs Pettifer 'substantial damages'.

'Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained I have decided the BBC will never show the programme again; nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters,' he said.

Mrs Pettifer's payout follows those to graphic artist Matt Wiessler, who was made a scapegoat by the BBC after Bashir asked him to forge bank statements, producer Mark Killick and Diana's private secretary Patrick Jephson, whom Bashir falsely claimed was paid to leak information about the Princess.

EARL SPENCER: My sister was the victim of an appalling deception that left her alone, more exposed and in danger

Earl Spencer (pictured) urged the Metropolitan Police to 'reconsider their responsibilities' and launch a probe

By Earl Spencer

Twenty-seven years ago this summer, I received a letter on BBC Panorama writing paper from Martin Bashir, a man I had never heard of, asking to see me. In his letter, he reassured me by saying that he had senior colleagues at the BBC who could vouch for him.

At the time I was reporting for NBC, the American network, and we often worked alongside the BBC, who were our news partners. I had the greatest respect for the BBC, and knew Panorama to be its flagship programme.

Mr Bashir and I had our first meeting on August 31, 1995. Two years later, to the day, my youngest sister would be dead  killed in a car crash, with no royal protection officers on hand, having chosen to dispense with the services of those who she should have been able to trust implicitly with her safety.

What Mr Bashir told me was shocking  a series of tales so extraordinary that, as soon as he left, I called Panorama's executive producer, who confirmed it was all true and that I could trust Mr Bashir.

Over the following three weeks I feel that I was groomed: I was shown forged bank statements; I was told of underhand payments, of spying, and of appalling deception. But, all along I was the one being deceived in order for Mr Bashir to get to my late sister, through me.

At this time, Diana was extremely vulnerable. She was finding that some of her secrets, shared only with close friends, were appearing in the Press. She was understandably rattled by this. Looking back, I suspect she was a very early victim of 'phone-hacking' by unknown perpetrators, but nobody knew about this criminal practice in 1995, so she was accepting of the outrageous claims that dark forces were at work.

On September 19, 1995, I introduced Diana to Mr Bashir. In that meeting, I was struck by a number of discrepancies between what he told my late sister and what he had told me previously. After Mr Bashir left, I said, 'I'm sorry, Duch  I've wasted your time. What that man has just said doesn't add up', and highlighted some of the discrepancies with what he'd told me before. She said, 'Don't worry, Carlos [her name for me], it doesn't matter  it was lovely to see you anyway.' '

When we parted that afternoon, I assumed I'd never hear anything about Mr Bashir again.

When the BBC trumpeted that they had secured their Panorama interview with my sister, a few weeks later, it was the first I knew that anything had resulted from that troubling meeting. The programme was in the can. The BBC's settlement last week with Alexandra Pettifer (Tiggy Legge-Bourke), the nanny of my sister's children, once again shone a light on the appalling, deceitful conduct of those pursuing the interview.

'While Mr Bashir is, of course, held up for his unspeakable conduct, serious questions remain about others at the BBC. First, who else at the BBC knew of Mr Bashir's work at the time?

In a story of such unique importance as this, it is reasonable to believe that the chain of command must have gone very high indeed  beyond Panorama to the upper reaches of the BBC.

When there was what the BBC termed an investigation into the matter in the spring of 1996, into how the interview was procured, senior managers in the BBC knew that I was the go-between that introduced Diana to their reporter. Yet they chose not to let me know of the investigation at all. Who, therefore, chose not to approach me for my evidence? Why did they not want to hear it? Who were they covering for?

In 2005, the BBC approached me to be interviewed for a programme they were making to celebrate the tenth anniversary of what they still saw as their Panorama coup.

I wrote back saying I was stunned that they wanted to celebrate a programme that had been secured by such dishonest means. I copied the then director-general into my reply, telling him I was happy to share my evidence of the BBC's conduct. I heard nothing back from him or his BBC colleagues.

My friend Andy Webb  a top investigative journalist who has pursued the truth in this matter for many years  has been greeted with a set of defences by the BBC's lawyers that stretches credulity. But one thing I know for sure is that there is so much more that has not been revealed, that shows even murkier depths that the BBC stooped to in order to get its interview with Diana. It's time for that to come out. Hopefully that will be a matter for the police, and I am here to help them.

The question I am repeatedly asked by concerned members of the public, furious at what my sister was put through, is: why have the police not prosecuted those involved for what various senior lawyers have told me is clearly unlawful and criminal behaviour?

I hope the police will reconsider their responsibilities in this matter. Only they have the power to get to the bottom of this terrible scandal, which led Diana to feel even more exposed and alone, and deceived her into forgoing those who cared for her and would have protected her.

She may well have chosen to grant the media an interview anyway  and if she had, I'd have fully supported her  but the agonising lies that she was told by the BBC before their cameras finally rolled ensured that she came into that Panorama interview with a very skewed and false view of the situation she was in, having been lied to repeatedly.

This led to her speaking in a way that set her on a course where she was without due protection when she needed it most.

All those responsible must be held to account.
Twenty-seven years ago this summer, I received a letter on BBC Panorama writing paper from Martin Bashir, a man I had never heard of, asking to see me. In his letter, he reassured me by saying that he had senior colleagues at the BBC who could vouch for him.

At the time I was reporting for NBC, the American network, and we often worked alongside the BBC, who were our news partners. I had the greatest respect for the BBC, and knew Panorama to be its flagship programme.

Mr Bashir and I had our first meeting on August 31, 1995. Two years later, to the day, my youngest sister would be dead  killed in a car crash, with no royal protection officers on hand, having chosen to dispense with the services of those who she should have been able to trust implicitly with her safety.

What Mr Bashir told me was shocking  a series of tales so extraordinary that, as soon as he left, I called Panorama's executive producer, who confirmed it was all true and that I could trust Mr Bashir.

Earl Spencer, the brother of the late Princess Diana, has linked the death of the Princess to the infamous Newsnight interview with disgraced Martin Bashir

Diana died two years to the day that Earl Spencer first met Martin Bashir. Pictured: Diana Princess of Wales attends Royal Ascot on June 18, 1987

Over the following three weeks I feel that I was groomed: I was shown forged bank statements; I was told of underhand payments, of spying, and of appalling deception. But, all along I was the one being deceived in order for Mr Bashir to get to my late sister, through me.

At this time, Diana was extremely vulnerable. She was finding that some of her secrets, shared only with close friends, were appearing in the Press. She was understandably rattled by this. Looking back, I suspect she was a very early victim of 'phone-hacking' by unknown perpetrators, but nobody knew about this criminal practice in 1995, so she was accepting of the outrageous claims that dark forces were at work.

On September 19, 1995, I introduced Diana to Mr Bashir. In that meeting, I was struck by a number of discrepancies between what he told my late sister and what he had told me previously. After Mr Bashir left, I said, 'I'm sorry, Duch  I've wasted your time. What that man has just said doesn't add up', and highlighted some of the discrepancies with what he'd told me before. She said, 'Don't worry, Carlos [her name for me], it doesn't matter  it was lovely to see you anyway.' '

Princess Diana photographed with her brother, Earl Spencer, at their home in Berkshire when they were children in 1968

When we parted that afternoon, I assumed I'd never hear anything about Mr Bashir again.

When the BBC trumpeted that they had secured their Panorama interview with my sister, a few weeks later, it was the first I knew that anything had resulted from that troubling meeting. The programme was in the can. The BBC's settlement last week with Alexandra Pettifer (Tiggy Legge-Bourke), the nanny of my sister's children, once again shone a light on the appalling, deceitful conduct of those pursuing the interview.

'While Mr Bashir is, of course, held up for his unspeakable conduct, serious questions remain about others at the BBC. First, who else at the BBC knew of Mr Bashir's work at the time?

Former BBC reporter Martin Bashir has been accused of 'grooming' Earl Spencer, by showing him forged bank statements and telling him of underhand payments, spying, and appalling deception

Tunnel de l'Alma in Paris, which was the site of the car accident that killed Princess Diana on August 31, 1997. It was two years to the day after Earl Spencer first met Bashir that Diana was killed with 'no Royal Protection Officers on hand, having chosen to dispense with the services of those who she should have been able to trust implicitly with her safety'

In a story of such unique importance as this, it is reasonable to believe that the chain of command must have gone very high indeed  beyond Panorama to the upper reaches of the BBC.

When there was what the BBC termed an investigation into the matter in the spring of 1996, into how the interview was procured, senior managers in the BBC knew that I was the go-between that introduced Diana to their reporter. Yet they chose not to let me know of the investigation at all. Who, therefore, chose not to approach me for my evidence? Why did they not want to hear it? Who were they covering for?

In 2005, the BBC approached me to be interviewed for a programme they were making to celebrate the tenth anniversary of what they still saw as their Panorama coup.

I wrote back saying I was stunned that they wanted to celebrate a programme that had been secured by such dishonest means. I copied the then director-general into my reply, telling him I was happy to share my evidence of the BBC's conduct. I heard nothing back from him or his BBC colleagues.

My friend Andy Webb  a top investigative journalist who has pursued the truth in this matter for many years  has been greeted with a set of defences by the BBC's lawyers that stretches credulity. But one thing I know for sure is that there is so much more that has not been revealed, that shows even murkier depths that the BBC stooped to in order to get its interview with Diana. It's time for that to come out. Hopefully that will be a matter for the police, and I am here to help them.

The question I am repeatedly asked by concerned members of the public, furious at what my sister was put through, is: why have the police not prosecuted those involved for what various senior lawyers have told me is clearly unlawful and criminal behaviour?

I hope the police will reconsider their responsibilities in this matter. Only they have the power to get to the bottom of this terrible scandal, which led Diana to feel even more exposed and alone, and deceived her into forgoing those who cared for her and would have protected her.

She may well have chosen to grant the media an interview anyway  and if she had, I'd have fully supported her  but the agonising lies that she was told by the BBC before their cameras finally rolled ensured that she came into that Panorama interview with a very skewed and false view of the situation she was in, having been lied to repeatedly.

This led to her speaking in a way that set her on a course where she was without due protection when she needed it most.

All those responsible must be held to account.
Lucian Freud left an indelible mark on Kate Moss when he inked a tattoo on her thigh while she was sitting for a portrait.

Recalling their friendship, she says that the celebrated artist, who died in 2011 aged 88, originally suggested a chicken upside down in a bucket for a design, but they settled on a more traditional image.

She says: He gave me a bottle of really good Rothschild wine, and he got out his etching needle and scraped into my thigh a flock of birds which now look like varicose veins. But I am still probably the only living person with a Lucian Freud on my thigh.

Lucian Freud left an indelible mark on Kate Moss when he inked a tattoo on her thigh while she was sitting for a portrait

Kate Moss also caused a sensation earlier this year when she gave video evidence in support of ex boyfriend Johnny Depp in his libel trial against Amber Heard, who had mentioned a rumour that the model had been pushed down the stairs by the actor when they were dating

For Freuds acclaimed 2002 portrait, Moss posed nude while heavily pregnant with daughter Lila. The painting took around nine months to complete and was later sold to an anonymous bidder for 3.9 million.

Moss prides herself on her loyalty to friends. In 2011, she publicly defended fashion designer John Galliano when he was found guilty by a French court of making antisemitic comments.

She also caused a sensation earlier this year when she gave video evidence in support of ex boyfriend Johnny Depp in his libel trial against Amber Heard, who had mentioned a rumour that the model had been pushed down the stairs by the actor when they were dating.

Explaining her stance, Moss says: I believe in the truth, and I believe in fairness and justice. I know that John Galliano is not a bad person  he had an alcohol problem and people turn. People arent themselves when they drink, and they say things that they would never say if they were sober.

She adds: I know the truth about Johnny [Depp]. I know he never kicked me down the stairs. I had to say that truth.

Depp, who was in a relationship with Moss between 1994 and 1998, won the lawsuit against his ex wife Heard last month.
The British Armys elite Parachute Regiment is set to be grounded because the introduction of new parachutes was delayed by Whitehall bungling, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The famous Red Berets are expected to suspend combat parachute jumps and training for new paratroopers next year in an embarrassing blow to one of the Armys most formidable units.

The move comes as the Parachute Regiment prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary and is understood to have infuriated senior officers.

Based in Colchester, Essex, the Paras are the only force in the world to use the so-called Low Level Parachute (LLP), which allows them to jump at just 450ft from the C-130J Hercules aircraft.

The famous Red Berets are expected to suspend combat parachute jumps and training for new paratroopers next year. File image

The RAFs fleet of 14 Hercules will be axed by next year as part of defence cuts announced in 2021, and replaced by 22 Airbus A400M Atlas aircraft .

But the Paras, part of 16 Air Assault Brigade, have been told they cannot jump with the LLP from the Atlas and must instead use a canopy called MC-6, which has been tested and approved for use from the Airbus plane.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace last week revealed the Ministry of Defence has bought a significant number of the new parachutes which, the MoS understands, were only purchased after he demanded action by Whitehall mandarins.

As a result, it is understood the RAF has not completed the training required to carry out mass paratroop drops using A400m aircraft and the new parachutes before the last Hercules are retired.

One senior source said: While our resources are already restricted, from next year we will have no planes, and there has been no movement to resolve the issue and start jumping from the A400. We have pressed the chain of command for a decision and I doubt there is now time to equip the aircraft, train pilots and generate jump instructors before the Hercules is retired. You would think that with such an unstable situation in Europe this would be a priority.

The decision means a month-long training course at RAF Brize Norton for new paratroopers will also be suspended. Paratroopers are required to complete eight descents, one at night, to qualify for their coveted wings.

The move comes as the Parachute Regiment prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary

The Atlas has long been dogged with problems that have prevented its use for low-level jumps. The propeller-wash from its engines meant that troops risked getting blown into each other. But French and German armed forces have perfected new techniques that allow soldiers to jump safely out of the Atlas with the MC-6 canopy. Quizzed in the Commons by Labours Dan Jarvis last week, Mr Wallace voiced his frustration at the delay, adding: We are making sure we have the right equipment and training for pilots. Like him, I think it is incredibly important that the RAF gets on and does this.

An MoD spokesman said that the A400 will have high-altitude parachuting capability  used by the SAS  before the Hercules goes out of service with low-level parachuting capability shortly thereafter.

Labour Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said: Those who wear the maroon beret have always done the job for Britain. It looks like theyre about to have their wings clipped. Their motto is Ready for anything  a message the Defence Secretary should heed.
Foreign criminals are whining that electronic tags are causing them 'anxiety and stigma'.

But many aren't being monitored due to a shortage of devices.

A report by David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, says tagged crooks were 'concerned how they would be perceived in society' and found the devices 'big and bulky'.

The GPS surveillance of foreign criminals awaiting deportation was launched last August. At the time of the inspection carried out for the report, 1,732 devices were fitted.

But it warns: 'There will be fewer devices available than the number of individuals subject to the duty. As a result, there will be a need to regulate the use of devices.'

The Ministry of Justice said that there was 'strong evidence' that electronic tags act as a deterrent (stock image)

The number of foreign criminals breaching tagging conditions has been steadily rising, mainly due to battery failures and staff shortages at the monitoring hub in Liverpool.

Tony Smith, a former Director General of Border Force, called for more investment in tagging technology, adding: 'Where these guys are and what they're up to becomes a problem when they're in the community. You need to know where they are and keep tabs on them.

'We are going to have to do more and more tagging. It's harder and harder to send many of these criminals back. You need readmission agreements and the Home Office is trying to negotiate more of them.'

Twenty-eight per cent of tagged criminals are Albanian nationals.

Another Albanian, an illegal migrant, was one of the final seven to avoid being sent to Rwanda on the first planned removal flight. The 26-year-old, who crossed the Channel on a small boat, was released earlier this month without a tag despite a Home Office application to fit one.

A spokeswoman said last night: 'Since August 2021, the Home Office has successfully tagged over 2,000 foreign criminals, reassuring victims that their perpetrators cannot escape the law and will be removed from the UK at the earliest opportunity. Since January 2019, the Government has removed more than 10,000 foreign criminals.'
The UK has shelled out billions of pounds in subsidies to France since Brexit  including huge sums to keep its borders safe.

As part of the 'divorce' agreement with the EU, Britain must continue to pay into European schemes, with the final bill expected to soar to as much as 42.5 billion.

The UK has so far paid 55 million to bolster France's border security patrols between Boulogne and Dunkirk and around the port of Dieppe, as well as reinforcing air patrols to target small boats attempting to cross the Channel.

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels

And it has committed 10 million towards border security following a Joint Declaration with France in 2015, with extra payments of 17 million being made in 2016 and 36 million in 2017.

In January 2018, London and Paris signed the Sandhurst Treaty, with the UK committing to spending of 45.5 million.

A year later, the Joint Action Plan on Combating Illegal Migration Involving Small Boats saw the UK agree to a further 3.25 million and an additional 2.25 million in 2019-20.

As well as receiving its cut from the centralised EU pot, France is also one of the biggest recipients of the Horizon research fund, receiving more than 6 billion in grants between 2014 and 2020.
A man has been charged with murder days after making a desperate appeal for the safe return of his model girlfriend.

Vincent Carlino, 37, told Daily Mail Australia earlier this week that he was 'extremely worried' about his missing partner, 43-year-old Shereen Kumar.

Mr Carlino told police Ms Kumar was last seen leaving her home on Taylors Road, in Dural in Sydney's north west, in her pyjamas about 9pm on Wednesday.

After days of searching, detectives found a body matching the woman's description just four minutes from her home in bushland off nearby Laurie Road on Saturday at 5.50pm.

A crime scene was established, which is still teeming with specialist forensic officers. The body has not yet been formally identified, but police believe it is Ms Kumar.

Just after 11.30pm on Saturday, police arrested 37-year-old Mr Carlino at the home he shared with Ms Kumar.

Vincent Carlino told Daily Mail Australia earlier this week that he was 'extremely worried' about his missing partner, 43-year-old Shereen Kumar. He's since been charged with her murder

He was taken to Hornsby police station and formally charged with murder (DV). He was refused bail to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday.

Mr Carlino earlier told Daily Mail Australia he saw Ms Kumar leaving their home about 9pm on Wednesday. He alleged she left wordlessly and hadn't been seen since.

'She left and didn't take her phone or the van,' he said. 'I'm extremely worried.

'I've told police all of the places I think she could be.'

Ms Kumar was last seen leaving her home on Taylors Road, in Dural in Sydney's north west, in her pyjamas about 9pm on Wednesday

Mr Carlino and Ms Kumar took over as the franchises of the Hornsby Mad Dogs & Englishmen pet walking service in October last year.

Ms Kumar has since become the Director of the Chatswood Mad Dogs and Englishmen franchise while Mr Carlino runs the Hornsby business.

The couple's businesses appeared to be booming with Ms Kumar just last week issuing a recruitment post for a 'hardworking, trustworthy and reliable' dog walker in a local group chat.

Carlino and Ms Kumar took over as the franchises of the Hornsby Mad Dogs & Englishmen pet walking service in October last year

'We operate Monday to Friday with most walks conducted between 7.30am to 3pm,' the post reads.

'This role is perfect for individuals seeking flexibility or for those who require stable and long term employment.'

According to her social media profiles, Ms Kumar finished a degree at Western Sydney University in 2015 before launching her own HR business.

She is also a model, frequently posing for Sydney photographers and gracing the pages of magazines, including French fashion publication Malvie and Amsterdam-based Selin Magazine.

Earlier this month, she participated in a shoot for Australian creative group Hunter Creative, wearing a warrior-princess style costume and clutching a sword.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Kuring-Gai Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
China could attempt to interfere in the Tory leadership election in a similar manner to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 Brexit referendum, British security sources fear.

For the first time, Conservative Party members will have the opportunity to change their postal vote online  once only  if they have a rethink and want to back a different candidate in the contest.

But the security sources have raised the prospect that the reform could leave the process vulnerable to foreign cyber-hacking.

A 2020 report by the Intelligence and Security Committee found substantial evidence that Russian interference was commonplace, including in the 2016 referendum on withdrawing from the EU.

Chinas President Xi Jinping delivers a speech as the head of seven-member Communist Party of China's new Politburo Standing Committee, the nation's top decision-making body, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 25, 2017

While Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has adopted a hard line on Russia and China, Rishi Sunak has taken a more emollient approach, on the grounds that it is in the interests of international trade.

After the former chancellor launched his leadership bid, Chinas largest state tabloid praised him for his record on strengthening ties with the country.

The Global Times, a sister publication of the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the Peoples Daily, said that while most of the candidates hold a tough stance on China, he was the only one with a clear and pragmatic view on developing UK-China ties.

In her interview with todays Mail on Sunday, Ms Truss trumpets her record on both countries, saying: We made a huge mistake as the free world in being too close to Russia, allowing Russia into the G8, Europe becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas, and allowing Russian business culture to influence places like London.

While Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has adopted a hard line on Russia and China, Rishi Sunak has taken a more emollient approach, on the grounds that it is in the interests of international trade

Now we have fixed that with the toughest sanctions regime that any country in the world has on Russia and I urge Europe to get off Russian gas as soon as possible because that is funding Vladimir Putins war machine, and I think we need to be very clear that Russia is working with China.

We shouldnt be strategically dependent on China  we should be very careful in areas such as technology that were not enabling the threat against us.

Ms Truss added: We need to be working more with like-minded nations to build our resilience and whether thats in energy, whether its in food, what we cannot be is dependent on those authoritarian regimes.

Mr Sunaks wife, Akshata Murty, holds a financial interest in two Chinese technology services businesses. She is linked to the companies through Infosys, the IT consultancy group set up by her father the billionaire Indian businessman N.R. Narayana Murthy. The group owns Infosys Technologies (China) Co Limited and Infosys Technologies (Shanghai) Co Limited.

Several other family members, including Murtys father, have a stake in Infosys, which is worth around 67 billion.

The Chinese subsidiaries of the group generated 12.9 billion rupees (134 million) in total turnover last year and are believed to employ around 3,300 workers at offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Hangzhou and Jiaxing.
Eden Hazard was left screaming in pain after a ruthless tackle from team-mate Antonio Rudiger in Real Madrid training.

Footage has emerged of the reckless challenge which left several Los Blancos stars holding their heads in their hands.

Hazard let out an audible scream after Rudiger crashed into him during a rondo which would have left staff fearing another potential spell on the sidelines for the Belgian winger.

Rudiger taking out Hazard in training  pic.twitter.com/xi9aEkMUgE  WolfRMFC (@WolfRMFC) July 22, 2022

Antonio Rudiger joined Real Madrid as a free agent this summer after departing Chelsea

Rudiger joined the European champions as a free agent in the summer after his Chelsea contract expired.

The switch has seen the German defender link-up with his former-Chelsea team-mate Hazard in the Spanish capital.

The pair spent two seasons together at Stamford Bridge, winning the Europa League and the FA Cup before the Belgian departed for the Bernabeu in 2019.

Eden Hazard let out an audible scream after Rudiger crashed into him during a rondo

The pair spent two seasons together with Chelsea, winning the Europa League and the FA Cup

Hazard has won two La Liga titles and the Champions League since joining from Chelsea three years ago, although he has played an extremely limited role in those triumphs.

The 29-year-old made just 18 appearances in the Spanish top-flight last term as his time in Madrid has been plagued by injuries.

Madrid will be hoping that Hazard doesn't feel any effects from Rudiger's crunching tackle during the rondo in training.

Hazard made just 18 appearances in La Liga last term following an injury-hit campaign

Hazard will be looking to play a part in Real Madrid's upcoming friendly with rivals Barcelona in Las Vegas on Sunday.

The Belgian has failed to feature in a single El Clasico fixture since moving to Madrid.

It is uncertain whether Hazard will be fit to play on Sunday after finishing the small-sided game but failing to complete the entire training session.
Several countries have opted to buy the stealth killer S-400 Triumf System, also owned by China, Turkey, and India, who got them earlier. Until now, these systems are handled by Russian crews, which are not their units.

Premium Anti-Stealth Missile System

Belarus wants to own the system to boost their defense systems with cutting-edge arms, reported EurAsian Times.

In an interview with Belarusian television station CTV, Dmitry Mikholap, Deputy Commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of the Belarusian Armed Forces, announced on July 17 that they would be supplied with an S-400 air defense system in addition to a Mi-35 attack helicopter, noted TASS.

Belarus' president, Alexander Lukashenko, asserted in May that Minsk had acquired the Iskander and S-400 air defense systems from Moscow, per Belta.

The President of Belarus also made a statement, saying that he had reached a deal with Putin to purchase as many S-400 and Iskander missile systems as required to arm the army.

The army has completely changed thanks to such weaponry. It can at least cause enormous, catastrophic damage. Near the state border of Belarus, unmanned aerial vehicle flights, including combat and surveillance missions, have been spotted.

According to Mikholap, the country's armed forces routinely claimed to be monitoring combat and reconnaissance flights of unmanned aerial vehicles near the border.

Furthermore, Belarus claimed to have witnessed the MQ-9 Reaper take off from the Campia Turzii airport in Romania up close. The country also claimed to have followed a Turkish Bayraktar drone as it flew over the southern boundary of the adjacent territory, detected by the stealth killer S-400 Triumf System.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Net Worth 2022: Does Anyone Know Russian President's Hidden Wealth?

Given all these instances, he hopes to strengthen the country's air defense capabilities by quickly placing the S-400 into service. He noted that Belarus already possessed Tor M2 missile defense systems and multi-role fighter jets.

The S-400 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system was created by the Russian Almaz Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering in the 1990s as an upgrade to the S-300 family.

Launchers, targeting systems, anti-aircraft missile systems, multifunction radars, autonomous detection, and anti-aircraft missile systems are all included in its arsenal.

Such a system has a 400 km range and can launch three different kinds of missiles to build a layered defense. It can strike airborne targets up to 30 km away, including aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and ballistic and cruise missiles.

Tracking the F-35 or F-22

According to reports, the system's key benefits are its capacity for tracking stealth targets as well as its high flexibility and mobility, which allow for speedy rollout and engagement of targets.

The command post is provided with LCD consoles that manage data from the air space surveillance system as well as control and monitor the long-range surveillance radar.

The S-400 was referred to as among the most sophisticated air defenses available by Siemon Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and one of the greatest air defense systems currently being developed by The Economist in 2017. (SIPRI).

Among the countries that have procured S-400 systems from Moscow are China, Turkey, and India. China was the first overseas buyer to order the S-400 in 2014. In 2018, Russia launched the first S-400 regimental set deliveries to Beijing for Belarus to operate the stealth killer S-400 Triumf System as its weapons system that is a deterrent to the West to mess within its borders.

Related Article: Ankara Calls Out the US Over Arbitrary Sanctions as Unfair To Turkey, India Due to Russian S-400 Arms Purchase

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Bruce Willis is dancing his way into the weekend, with a little help from his 10-year-old daughter Mabel.

On Friday, Emma Heming Willis took to her Instagram page and shared a video of the Die Hard star shaking his bootie alongside their oldest daughter.

But after seeing her dad's initial moves, Mabel quickly takes over and begins to give the longtime leading man a lesson or two in dancing.

Bustin' moves: Bruce Willis, 67, danced his way into the 'weekend strong' alongside his 10-year-old daughter Mabel in a new video that was posted on his wife's Instagram page on Friday

'Bringing that weekend in strong! #TGIF #happyfriday,' Emma wrote in the caption.

In the clip, Mabel kicks things off by shuffling her hips forward and back as she mimics holding onto something with her hands in front of her around waist high.

As Bruce looked on to learn the moves, a snippet from the Lizzo song About Damn Time starts to play. The chorus line 'it's about damn time' is repeated a couple of times, along with a sort of children's nursery rhyme.

Within seconds, Bruce takes his turn and tries to mimic daughter's moves, all while flashing a big beaming smile, but he doesn't have quite the same flare.

Not happy with her dad's interpretation, Mabel then begins to give the longtime movie action hero a dance lesson, and repeats her same moves.

Showing him how it's done: Mabel kicks things off by shuffling her hips forward and back as she mimics holding onto something with her hands around waist high

'It's about damn time": As Bruce looked on to learn the moves, a snippet from the Lizzo song About Damn Time starts to play

Bust a move: The longtime leading man took his turn and tried to mimic his daughter's moves, but he doesn't have quite the same flare

The The Sixth Sense actor would go on to take a second turn at the dance and begins to shake his hips back and forth again.

While he appeared to get the actual moves down, Bruce didn't show the same smooth movements that his baby girl showed.

It's at this point that Mabel bursts out into laughter, which in turn made her father start laughing at himself.

Amusing: The Sixth Sense star gave it a second try, moving his hips back and forth with his hands in front of him

Hilarious: Mabel burst out into laughter when her father's gave the dance a second try

Family moments: Mabel's laughter was infectious enough to male Bruce laugh at himself, all while he continued on with his dance moves

Back in March, the Willis family shocked Hollywood and the world when they announced Bruce's retirement from acting following his aphasia diagnosis. Aphasia is a brain disorder that affects the ability to effectively communicate, including speech and writing.

'To Bruce's amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him,' the post read that was attributed to Emma, Mabel, and her eight-year-old sister Evelyn, as well as Bruce ex-wife Demi Moore, and their daughters Rumer, 33, Scout, 31, and Tallulah, 28.

During his career, which dates back to 1980, Bruce starred in such hits as Die Hard (1988), Look Who's Talking (1989), Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Jackal (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Sin City (2005), The Expendables 2 (2012), among others.

Family matters: Bruce turned to the camera and continued to laugh at the moment

Quality time: Along with Mabel, Bruce and Emma also have eight-year-old daughter Evelyn
The upcoming animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year has been confirmed to be premiering in 2024.

The news about the forthcoming program was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, where the show's title card was also shown to the public.

The program's development was previously confirmed during last year's Disney+ Day, which took place in November.

Future release: The upcoming animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year has been confirmed to be premiering in 2024

The program is believed to be set before the events of Captain American: Civil War, during which Spider-Man, also known as Peter Parker, was a sophomore in high school.

According to IGN, villains such as Dr. Octavius, Chameleon, Speed Demon, Scorpion and Butane the Pyromaniac will be featured in the program.

Harry and Norman Osborn, the latter of which is better known as the Green Goblin, are also set to appear.

The scientist and supervillain will also serve as Parker's mentor, according to Deadline.

Making it known: The news about the forthcoming program was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, where the show's title card was also shown to the public

Amadeus Cho, who is one of the many incarnations of the Hulk, has been confirmed as one of the supporting characters.

Doctor Strange will make an appearance, while Charlie Cox will reprise his role as Daredevil.

Deadline previously reported that the show would focus on 'Peter Parker on his way to becoming Spider-Man in the MCU, with a journey unlike we've ever seen.'

It was also noted that the program would be animated in 'a style that celebrates the character's early comic book roots.'

Storyline: Deadline previously reported that the show would focus on 'Peter Parker on his way to becoming Spider-Man in the MCU, with a journey unlike we've ever seen'; still from Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

The show's presentation at Comic-Con was led by series writer and executive producer Jeff Trammell.

The industry figure showed off several images of concept art, some of which showed off the web-slinger's various outfits.

He remained guarded about plot points during the presentation, stating: 'I don't want to spoil anything, but expect the unexpected.'

Spider-Man: Freshman Year's official release date in 2024 has not been revealed as of yet.

Uncertain premiere: Spider-Man: Freshman Year's official release date in 2024 has not been revealed as of yet; Tom Holland and Zendaya are seen in 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home

The first animated series to focus on Spider-Man premiered in 1967 and has since become the basis for numerous memes.

Several other shows based on the superhero were released to the public in the subsequent decades.

The newest Spider-Man focused show was entitled Spidey and His Amazing Friends, which premiered on Disney Junior last year.
Declan Donnelly is set to lay his beloved brother to rest at a funeral next Friday before flying off to film I'm A Celebrity.

The 46-year-old TV star raced to be by his sibling Father Dermott Donnelly's side after he collapsed earlier this month but the priest's death was later confirmed by the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle.

Friends and family of Father Donnelly, who died at the age of 55, will gather in Newcastle next week to bid an emotional farewell and pay their respects.

Paying respects: Declan Donnelly, 46, is set to lay his beloved brother to rest at a funeral next Friday before flying off to film I'm A Celebrity (pictured in May)

In addition to loved ones from Dec's parents' native Ireland, priests and clerics from across the North East region of England, where Dermott served in the Catholic church, will attend, according to the Mirror.

The Donnelly family said in a statement: 'Due to limited space, we would encourage those who wish to participate in the Requiem Mass on Friday 29 July to gather at St Michaels church.

'The Mass will be live-streamed and Holy Communion will be made available. Following the Requiem Mass, Fr Dermotts cortege will pass St Michaels for those who wish to pay their respects.'

Sad news: The TV star raced to be by his Father Dermott Donnelly's side after he collapsed earlier this month but the priest later died after a serious illness (Father Dermott pictured in 2015)

Father Dermott was taken into hospital after a series illness and his body will be received into St Michaels, Newcastle on Thursday.

In a statement after Dermott's death, the Donnelly family said in a statement: 'It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death of Fr Dermott Donnelly who died peacefully this afternoon in hospital.

'This has come as a great shock to all of us.

'Please pray for the repose of his soul and keep his family, especially his mother, in your prayers at this difficult time.'

Siblings: Declan Donnelly's brother (centre) died aged 55 after being rushed to hospital with a 'mystery illness' (Pictured: Ant and Dec with Dec's brother Dermott)

Heartache: The TV presenter wrote on Twitter: 'I am heartbroken to tell you that my darling brother Fr Dermott, @TweeterPriest, sadly passed away this afternoon'

An insider had earlier revealed to The Sun how Dec  one half of the presenting duo Ant and Dec  had returned to the north east of England to join his family at Father Dermott's bedside.

They told how the priest's loved ones had been praying that he would 'pull through' after becoming 'extremely unwell' in hospital.

The source said: 'Dec arrived with other family members. There are around 12 of them there at the hospital.'

Father Dermott conducted Dec's wedding to Ali Astall in 2015 in front of a star-studded guest list, which included the star's TV sidekick Ant McPartlin and presenter Dermot O'Leary.

The parish priest from County Durham was also recently pictured outside 10 Downing Street after being invited by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to join religious leaders to pray for peace in Ukraine.

Dec is due to fly to South Africa to begin filming a brand new all-stars version of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which is due to run as a stand alone show in addition to the usual annual event.

ITV bosses have signed up Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, both 46, to host the show and legendary contestants from the past will compete, taking part in trials while living in camp in South Africa.

Campmates will be doing trials and living in the camp environment - votes will be internal, rather than by the public.

It is expected to air in 2023 with the usual I'm A Celebrity series airing separately later this year.
Her Love Island journey came to an abrupt end when she wasn't chosen to join the original islanders following Casa Amor week.

Yet Mollie Salmon revealed she'd made some firm friends during her time in the villa as she reunited with dumped Casa Amor stars Jack Keating and Jazmine Nichols for a night out at Menagerie bar in Manchester on Friday.

The 23-year-old make-up artist seemed in high spirits as she joined her fellow islanders on their night out, seemingly over her short-lived romance with Davide Sanclimenti.

Reunited: Mollie Salmon reunited with dumped Casa Amor stars Jack Keating, Jazmine Nichols, Samuel Agbijl and George Taske for a night at Menagerie bar in Manchester on Friday

Mollie looked sensational for the outing as she donned a skintight brown midi dress that highlighted her incredible frame.

The blonde bombshell boosted her frame with a pair of clear barely-there heels and accessorised with a chunky gold watch.

Looking equally as sensational was Jazmine, who wowed in a busty orange dress with sexy cut outs on the bodice.

Moved on: The 23-year-old make-up artist seemed in high spirits as she joined her fellow islanders on their night out, seemingly over her short-lived romance with Davide Sanclimenti

The girls were joined by the male islanders they didn't get a chance to socialise with while on the show, Ronan Keating's son Jack and Samuel Agbijl and George Tasker.

The outing came after Mollie hit out at islander Davide for choosing to recouple with his original partner Ekin-Su despite enjoying a flirty week in Casa Amor with her, in which they enjoyed several kisses.

Speaking after her exit from the villa, Mollie revealed she wasn't shocked by his choice but was confused as he didn't mention the Turkish actress in the villa.

Gorgeous: Mollie looked sensational for the outing as she donned a skintight brown midi dress that highlighted her incredible frame

Recoupled: The outing came after Mollie hit out at islander Davide for choosing to recouple with his original partner Ekin-Su despite enjoying a flirty week in Casa Amor with her

She told The Sun: 'I had my doubts but he didn't really mention Ekin-Su to me.

'I always knew going for Davide was a risk but I'd rather go for someone who is a risk rather than someone I wasn't attracted to.'

Despite not finding love, the beauty confessed she wouldn't do anything differently.

Meanwhile, Jazmine slammed show bosses for failing to 'show her on screen' with viewers even joking that they 'filed a missing persons report' following her scarce scenes.

The stunning brunette took to Instagram to thank fans for the 'love and support' and added that it was 'only the start.'

In the caption, she said: 'Hi guys, it's Jaz, I'm back. Just want to say a huge thank you for all of the love and support I've seen so far.

'I'm so overwhelmed with all the lovely messages I've seen and the funny memes! I'm excited for all of you to see my personality that was not shown on screen and the Jaz that the villa saw, this is only the start.'

Stunning: Looking equally as sensational was Jazmine, who wowed in a busty orange dress with sexy cut outs on the bodice

Meanwhile, at Duo Shoreditch in London, Coco Lodge caught the eye in an orange tie-dye halter neck mini dress as she arrived at the first anniversary celebration of the venue.

The television personality wore showed off a healthy glow as she stood tall on a pair of white strappy heels.

She carried a grey handbag and wore her brunette hair on a long brown plait.

Strike a pose: At Duo Shoreditch in London, Coco Lodge caught the eye in an orange tie-dye halter neck mini dress while Chloe Veitch wore a white body suit and over knee boots

Arm-in-arm: Love Island's Coco stood next to Too Hot To Handle and The Circle star Chloe outside the venue

She posed with Too Hot To Handle and The Circle Chloe Veitch who wore a white body suit and over knee green and black snakeskin boots.

Chloe carried a bright yellow handbag with a chunky white chain strap and confidently stood with her hand on her hip.

They were joined by Coco's Love Island co-stars from this year's series Josh Le Grove and Chyna Mills.
Production is expected to begin again Monday on the set of Justified: City Primeval in Chicago, according to Deadline.

The set was shut down Wednesday after after two cars broke through barricades where the drama was filming. According to witnesses the people in the cars were in the middle of a rolling gun fight.

The cast and crew reportedly hit the ground and took cover when they heard the bullets. No one on the set was injured in the incident that took place near Douglass Park, but shell casings were found on the ground near the scene.

Back to work: Timothy Olyphant, 54, is expected to return to work Monday, along with the rest of the cast and crew to the set of Justified: City Primeval, after production was shut down following a shooting near the set Wednesday

No arrests have been made.

The Chicago Police Department released a statement following the incident which read, 'The Chicago Police Department is committed to ensuring members of the citys vibrant film and television community are able to do their jobs safely.'

'We work in close coordination with the Chicago Film Office, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications to ensure production crews have the resources necessary to feel safe and secure while filming in the citys neighborhoods.'

Shooting: The cast and crew took cover when two cars engaged in a rolling gun battle crashed through barricades designed to keep people away from the set. No one was injured; seen in 2015 in Hollywood

Reprise: The actor is reprising his role as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, which played for six years on Justified. In City Primeval, the plot is set several years after Givens leaves Kentucky for Miami

In Justified: City Primeval, Timothy Olyphant, 54, reprises the role as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, which he played for six years on Justified.

In this spin-off, the plot is set several years after Givens left Kentucky for Miami.

A chance encounter on the highway takes him to Detroit, where he runs into bad guy Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook), aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopath whos already given Detroit police the slip and he plans to do it again.

Just one day before the incident in Chicago, violence erupted on the set of Law & Order: Organized Crime in New York.

Tragedy: The set of Law & Order: Organized Crime, starring Christopher Meloni as Det. Elliot Stabler, was shaken on Tuesday, when a crew member was gunned down while saving parking spaces for the production crew. No one has been arrested; seen Wednesday in NYC

Police there confirmed that Johnny Pizarro, a 31-year-old crew member, was gunned down in his car as he was saving parking spaces for the production Tuesday. The set was shut down for the day so police could investigate, but at this time investigators have no suspect and no motive for the killing.

Christopher Meloni, 61, stars as Detective Elliot Stabler, in this franchise spin-off.

In a statement from NBC Universal the company said, '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. 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.'
She has strutted her stuff on runways all over the world.

And Bella Hadid put her supermodel credentials on display when she was spotted stepping out in New York City this week.

The 25-year-old flashed her sculpted midriff in a sleek monochrome crop top as she surfaced in the city that never sleeps.

Legging it: Bella Hadid put her supermodel credentials on display when she was spotted stepping out in New York City this week

She modeled a pair of wide-set denim shorts with a boho chic design, swanking about on a pair of high black leather boots.

Sweeping her dark hair back into a fashionably messy bun, she warded off the rays with a pair of sleek sunglasses.

Bella went for a naturalistic look where her makeup was concerned, bringing out her screen siren features to full advantage.

She accessorized the look further with a stylish colorful handbag as she headed out to take in a breath of fresh air in Manhattan.

When you got it: The 25-year-old flashed her sculpted midriff in a sleek monochrome crop top as she surfaced in the city that never sleeps

Bella is currently involved with the art director Marc Kalman, with whom she recently enjoyed a steamy getaway to the Caribbean destination of St. Barts.

She and Marc went Instagram official last July in a picture Bella posted from France, where she was attending the Cannes Film Festival.

A Page Six source claimed that Bella and Marc's relationship began in July 2020 and that the dynamic duo 'hid it well' for the first year.

Aglow: Bella went for a naturalistic look where her makeup was concerned, bringing out her screen siren features to full advantage

They are said to have carried on the romance in New York amid the coronavirus pandemic while assiduously making sure they never got caught together.

Bella rarely discusses Marc in interviews even now, and she attributes the longevity of their relationship to the fact that they have stayed discreet.

'I think thats why things have been able to last. When you give other people room to have opinions on things that are so personal to you, it poisons it,' she told Vogue.
She has been enjoying an extended summer break in Europe for the past few weeks.

And Kris Jenner spent her time in Saint-Tropez catching up with an old friend as she enjoyed a boat trip on Friday.

Although the momager, 66, has been holidaying with boyfriend Corey Gamble, 41, he stayed away as Kris enjoyed a day out on the water.

Kris Jenner spent her time in Saint-Tropez catching up with a friend as she enjoyed a boat trip on Friday

The mother-of-six looked in high spirits as she flashed a peace sign while cruising around the crystal clear waters.

Stylish as ever, Kris opted for a scarlet colour scheme with a patterned silk blouse and large boxy handbag.

She completed the look with a white trilby hat and gold hooped earrings.

Loving life: The mother-of-six looked in high spirits as she flashed a peace sign while cruising around the crystal clear waters

Red alert: Stylish as ever, Kris opted for a scarlet colour scheme with a patterned silk blouse and large boxy handbag

Kris is enjoying some time off after a busy few months of filming for her reality show The Kardashians.

The matriarch and her family released the trailer for the second season of the Hulu show last week, in which Kris alluded to a mysterious medical issue.

About one minute into the trailer, Khloe Kardashian, 38, tells her mother that she doesn't 'know what's happening' with her

Kris says in a talking head to the camera: 'I can't tell my kids I'm scared. They have enough problems. They don't need to worry about mom.'

Shots of Kris laid out in the hospital bed are interwoven with the talking head clips and Khloe's comments to her mother.

Her beau Corey leaned over the side of her bed and held on to his better half as she laid back in bed.

Season two of The Kardashians is set to begin streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK beginning on September 22.
Addison Rae looked cool and relaxed as she left a hot yoga class in Los Angeles Friday.

The 21-year-old put her toned abs and legs on display in a pair of black boy shorts and a black and white bra top as she left her workout.

The influencer appeared makeup free as she strolled in a pair of black slide sandals and carried a black-and-white striped coverup and black shoulder bag as she made her way to her car.

Cool: Addison Rae, 21, looked cool and relaxed as she left a hot yoga class in Los Angeles Friday, putting her toned abs and legs on display in a pair of black boy shorts and a black and white bra top

Addison let her hair down and wore a pink scrunchie on her wrist.

The TikTok star has recently been dealing with allegations of infidelity concerning her father, Monty Lopez, 45.

Videos that appear to show him chatting flirtatiously with young women over FaceTime and patting another woman's backside have been shared on social media.

No makeup: The influencer appeared makeup free as she strolled in a pair of black slide sandals and carried a black and white striped coverup and black shoulder bag as she made her way to her car

Monty has not released any comments regarding the allegations.

Since his daughter's success Monty has launched his own agency to promote TikTok stars, although three people who are reportedly close to his business circle told NBC news that Monty was not responsible for any of Addison's deals and he was seeking to take advantage of her success.

The Louisiana native was catapulted to stardom via Tik Tok in 2019 via dance videos uploaded to the platform. She dropped out of Louisiana State University and moved with her family to Los Angeles, where she has recorded music and starred in the Netflix film He's All That.

Addison and her family, including her dad and mom, Sheri Easterling, 42, were featured as a loving couple in the Snapchat series, Addison Rae Goes Home. Her brothers, Enzo, 14, and Lucas, 8, were also featured in the web show.

Focused: The social media is focusing on her career, instead of family drama after he father was accused of cheating. She has designed a line of dolls for the Bonkers Toy Company which will be sold in Walmart

The entire family has a large social media presence with millions of followers. Sheri has since changed her status on social media to Single Mom.

For her part, Addison has continued focusing on her latest deals. She has signed an agreement with Bonkers Toy Company to created a line of dolls that will be sold at Walmart beginning August 1.

The brand spokesperson wrote that the project was 'close to my heart because we are working with an incredible organization, @girlsinc, who work to lead & inspire ALL girls to be strong, smart, and bold!'
They went down in history when they starred in an award-winning play as young actors.

Now James Corden and Dominic Cooper have shown their friendship is still going strong 18 years later.

Corden, 43, and Cooper, 44, played schoolboys in writer Alan Bennetts The History Boys in London and on Broadway before starring in a 2006 movie version.

Corden went on to become a top US chat show host while Cooper starred in the Mamma Mia! films.

James Corden and Dominic Cooper have shown their friendship is still going strong 18 years later

The friends were reunited for drinks and cigarettes at swish London restaurant Scotts. They then threw caution to the wind as they cycled off without helmets on matching electric bikes amid busy traffic in the capital.

Despite their casual attire and dark sunglasses, they failed to go unnoticed by fellow diners who spotted the old friends as they left.

With an estimated combined fortune of more than 60million, Corden and Coopers jaunt to Scotts is a far cry from life in their 20s when they shared a humble London flat.

The friends were reunited for drinks and cigarettes at swish London restaurant Scotts

Corden, 43, and Cooper, 44, played schoolboys in writer Alan Bennetts The History Boys in London and on Broadway before starring in a 2006 movie version

We only had one bed, and one piece of cutlery which was a spatula, Cooper revealed on Cordens show last year. And I remember a really depressing evening where he caught me. He came home and I was just eating baked beans with a spatula out of the can.

Corden added: For about three weeks all that was in our fridge was a chocolate Lindt bunny and half a vitamin water, that was it in the whole fridge.

Corden, who has three children with his wife Julia Carey, found further success as Smithy in BBC comedy Gavin And Stacey before heading to the US in 2015.

He is currently planning to end his stint on The Late Late Show  which features him singing with stars in Carpool Karaoke  and return to the UK next year.

Ben Turner, a founding partner of Cordens production company Fulwell 73, said last month that he is really excited to get James back in the UK.

Cooper, who introduced Corden to Julia, is the godfather of their first child Max.
Elizabeth Hurley looked sensational as she posed in a white bikini and tropical print coverup in pictures shared on her Instagram on Friday.

The actress, 57, wore some swimwear from her Elizabeth Hurley Beach range and opted for a blue and white sarong covered with palm leaves as she stood outside in the grounds of her home in Herefordshire.

Film star Elizabeth put her arms behind her head and threw her head back to bask her face in the warm sunshine.

Strike a pose: Elizabeth Hurley, 57, looked sensational as she posed in a white bikini and tropical print coverup in pictures shared on her Instagram on Friday

The star showed off her fit physique as she posed for the snaps, captioning the post: 'Another glorious day #vacationathome.'

In another image, she could be seen smiling as she looked at the camera.

She opted for a full face of make-up to show off her pretty features and went for a dramatic look with her eyeliner.

Fun in the sun: The actress wore some swimwear from her Elizabeth Hurley Beach range and opted for a blue and white sarong covered with palm leaves as she stood outside

It comes after Elizabeth posed beside her 20-year-old son Damian at his graduation party earlier this month.

She wowed in the sleek number as she proudly beamed in a group snap with her ex-husband Arun Nayar.

Arun is not Damian's biological father, but Elizabeth has previously said she always considered him his dad after getting married when Damian was five.

Together: Elizabeth looked glamorous in a gold halter neck dress as she posed at her 20-year-old son Damian's graduation party earlier this month with her ex husband Arun Nayar

Arun was married to Elizabeth from 2007 to 2011 but they remained good friends after they divorced.

In the picture Elizabeth looked youthful in the silky dress which had a tiger stripe design on the lower part and was teamed with a gold bag and black jacket.

Beside her Damian looked dapper in a black suit teamed with an unbuttoned shirt and cross chain necklace.

The look: Damian looked dapper in a black suit teamed with an unbuttoned shirt and cross chain necklace

He also shared various photos with his glamorous friends in the happy day as they attended a party in a glamorous marquee after the ceremony.

Elizabeth said of Arun during an interview with You magazine in 2018: 'Arun is Damian's daddy and a very good one too, they see each other a lot.'

The pair have a close relationship and during some summers they have holidayed together alongside Damian.

Damian's biological father is Steve Bing.

On June 22 2020, the movie producer, 55, committed suicide by jumping from his 27th-floor apartment in LA.
Steve Bannon, a former member of the Trump White House staff, was found in contempt of Congress for ignoring a summons from a Jan.6 House committee. For each of the two misdemeanor accusations against Bannon, the potential sentence is a year in jail.

It was mandated that the jury start deliberating on Friday morning. After hearing the prosecution's and the defense's final statements, US District Judge Carl Nichols dismissed the jury.

DOJ Files 2 Charges Against Steve Bannon

In response to Bannon's refusal to comply with a subpoena from a House committee on January 6, the Department of Justice filed two charges of contempt against him. Bannon entered a not-guilty plea. Bannon said he was barred from testifying before the committee to discuss the attack on the United States on January 6, 2020 due to executive privilege.

However, the defense informed the jury that Kristen Amerling, a staff member of the January 6th Committee, was "the entire foundation of the government's case," Fox News reported. The jury was also reminded by Corcoran of the testimony that Amerling and Gaston had a romantic relationship outside of the workplace since they were both in the same book club. Additionally, Corcoran informed the jury that this case involves politics.

Following Bannon's not guilty plea, there was a heated legal battle between the defense and the prosecution over which evidence could be used, Bannon's attempts to postpone the trial, and the ongoing televised hearings showcasing the evidence presented by the House Jan. 6 select committee, which frequently mentioned Bannon.

Per CBS News, the House committee, which wrapped up its final session of the summer on Thursday night, issued the subpoena in September 2021. The panel questioned Bannon on 17 important topics, ranging from his interactions with former President Donald Trump to his awareness of right-wing extremist groups' involvement in the Capitol attack.

The prosecution informed the jury that Bannon felt he was "above the law" and "thumbed his nose" at congressional requests, despite the fact that Bannon did not testify and his defense team did not present any witnesses. The main attorney for the Jan. 6 committee stated that it is "very unusual" for witnesses who receive a congressional subpoena to plainly refuse to testify, as Bannon did.

Kristin Amerling, one of the two witnesses mentioned by the prosecution, asserted that despite being informed that Bannon would be charged, the committee considered the referral of Bannon to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress as a "very harsh step."

Bannon said that the reasons given by the departing president barred him from testifying at the time. Amerling, however, said that the committee never heard from Trump on this obstruction to Bannon's removal and that the committee would not have first accepted such a claim.

Bannon told the Jan.6 committee that he would be pleased to appear in public, days before the trial began in a remarkable about-face after his attorney Robert Costello said Trump had changed his mind about those executive privilege claims.

Read Also: Secret Service Says Deleted Texts During US Capitol Riot Can't Be Recovered Despite Requests from Congress, Federal Investigators

Bannon's Team Urges Other Jan.6 Committee To Testify

In both witness cross-examination and closing remarks, the judge clearly informed the jury that the reversal had no bearing on Bannon's alleged past lack of cooperation.

Additionally, Bannon's team provided the court with many justifications for why the Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, the chair of the committee, and other committee members should have been permitted to testify on hearing. In response to a House motion to prevent their appearance, citing constitutional limitations on when lawmakers may be summoned, the court declined to let Bannon to bring them to the witness stand.

The House staffer who testified about the several exchanges between the committee and Bannon's lawyer over the subpoenas and the House's requests that he comply by the dates mentioned was called to the stand by the Justice Department throughout the trial. The second witness for the prosecution was an FBI agent who gave a brief statement on Bannon's social media posts sharing news stories reporting his non-compliance, as per CNN.

Related Article: Jan 6. Committee Rejects Steve Bannon's Request To Delay Trial After Longtime Donald Trump Adviser Offers Testimony

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Kimberly Stewart looked incredible on Friday as she stepped out for a meal at celebrity hotspot Nobu in West Hollywood.

The American socialite, 42, who is the daughter of rocker Rod Stewart, put on a very leggy display in a blue denim mini skirt.

Fashion designer Kimberly added a simple black top and chic blazer to the look, while boosting her height in a pair of pointed heels.

Stunning: Kimberly Stewart put on a very leggy display in a blue denim mini skirt on Friday as she stepped out for a meal at celeb hotspot Nobu in West Hollywood

Kimberly sported a natural dewy makeup look with a nude lip, while styling her blonde locks straight.

She carried a small black shoulder bag and accessorised with dainty gold jewellery.

Kimberly's pal Scott Disick didn't appear to be present, after the two have been spending a lot of time together lately.

Stylish: The American socialite, 42, who is the daughter of rocker Rod Stewart, added a simple black top and chic blazer to the look

Last month, the pair were spotted after enjoying a meal at Papi Steak in Miami Beach.

Scott and Kimberly hung out at Nobu Malibu the week before, alongside Kimberly's brother Sean Stewart, 41.

Kimberly was also seen in the passenger seat of Scott's luxurious Rolls-Royce.

She recently organized Scott's pantry with the help of her famous father, Rod Stewart.

Gorgeous: Fashion designer Kimberly boosted her height in a pair of pointed heels and accessorised with dainty gold jewellery

Scott posted video of Kimberly, who runs the organizational company The Realm, sorting through his pantry with Rod to his Instagram Stories last week.

'That is some pantry Kim that you have made...get to work!' Scott said in the video. 'At least its Rodrick approved,' he added.

Kimberly also posted a shot of Rod admiring the newly organized space to her Instagram account.

'@sirrodstewart in his realm @therealm_ks @letthelordbewithyou #happyfathersday,' she captioned the shot.

Scott and Kimberly previously sparked dating rumours in 2015 after his split with Kourtney Kardashian, but the model's mom denied speculation by revealing their just old 'friends' and there was 'absolutely no truth to' the claims.

'They [the Stewarts] introduced Scott to Kourtney,' Alana Stewart told People at the time. 'I was there when it happened, so I can tell you they're all great pals.'

She noted: 'Scott and Kimberly and Sean are great friends and they have been for many years and Kimberly and Sean love Kourtney.'

Scott was spotted hanging out with Kimberly, Rod, and Sean last month as Kourtney prepared to tie the knot with Travis Barker in Italy.
Ulrika Jonsson has slammed the Love Island boys for their alleged 'misogyny and sexist behaviour' in the villa.

The Swedish-British television presenter and model, 54, expressed concern over some of the boys' behaviour towards the girls in her latest Sun column.

Ulrika added that she's glad Women's Aid are kicking up a fuss about what viewers have witnessed and encouraged more people to hit back at this type of behaviour.

Speaking out: Ulrika Jonsson has slammed the Love Island boys for their 'misogyny and sexist behaviour' in the villa

Ulrika said: 'This series has not only been hugely frustrating but deeply worrying. Especially as we know a huge chunk of its audience is young and impressionable and could think certain behaviour is acceptable.

'So much of their behaviour may seem like harmless banter, a bit of fun, but it feels like they have abandoned any sense of a moral compass and fairness.'

She alleged that after Casa Amor, the boys tried to make the girls look like the bad ones, despite their own actions being much worse.

Ulrika said that these men have an influential platform once leaving the villa and she wouldn't want her own son viewing them as role models.

Concerned: Ulrika added that she's glad Women's Aid are kicking up a fuss about what viewers have witnessed and encouraged more people to hit back at this type of behaviour

Worried: The Swedish-British television presenter and model, 54, expressed concern over their behaviour towards the girls in her latest Sun column

She ended by asking her readers to worry more about what goes on inside the villa, rather than what the Islanders will have to deal with when they come out.

MailOnline has contacted Love Island for comment.

Women's Aid have revealed that they are in talks with ITV over the 'misogyny and controlling behaviour' being shown in the Love Island villa.

A statement from the charity insisted that 'specific information on abusive relationships and an understanding of controlling behaviour in relationships' is missing from the channel's 'inclusive training' ahead of the series.

Meanwhile the women's charity Refuge issued a separate statement highlighting the 'gaslighting and coercive control' shown by some of the boys.

In hot water: In recent episodes, Luca accused partner Gemma of 'flirting' with Billy after being shown clips of her during Movie Night - despite her repeatedly denying anything happening

It comes as many have taken to Twitter in the last week during the fall out from Casa Amor to call out certain behaviour from the boys.

In recent episodes, fishmonger Luca Bish accused her partner Gemma Owen of 'flirting' with Billy Brown after being shown clips of her during Movie Night - despite her repeatedly denying anything noteworthy happening between them.

Meanwhile after Movie Night, Davide Sanclimenti branded Ekin-Su Culculoglu a 'liar' yet again for her brief flirtation with George in Casa Amor, despite him kissing two girls during the time away from her.

Dami Hope has also landed himself in hot water with fans after calling Summer Botwe 'fake' and hitting back at Indiyah Polack after his blatant wandering eyes during Casa Amor.

Shock: Luca was left seething after watching Gemma have a 'flirty' chat with Billy during Casa Amor - however he persisted with shouting at her after she insisted nothing happened

Reaction: In response Women's Aid's statement said: 'At Women's Aid we are being tagged into a stream of Twitter posts, with viewers of Love Island highlighting the misogyny and controlling behaviour being shown on screen'

In response Women's Aid's statement said: 'At Women's Aid we are being tagged into a stream of Twitter posts, with viewers of Love Island highlighting the misogyny and controlling behaviour being shown on screen.

'This is clearly more than talking about any individual contestants, and a programme based around the formation of romantic relationships must have guidelines on what behaviour is acceptable and unacceptable in those relationships.

'We are talking to ITV, and they have shared with us information on their inclusion training, but what appears to be missing is specific information on abusive relationships and an understanding of controlling behaviour in relationships.'

The women's charity Refuge also wrote on Twitter in a statement: 'The misogyny and casual sexism witnessed on this series of #LoveIsland is extremely concerning.

'The double standards, gaslighting and coercive control being displayed by the men in the villa is hugely problematic.'
Jake Quickenden has shared a comical clip of his mother Lisa giving him advice for his upcoming stag party.

The former X Factor star, 33, took to Instagram on Saturday morning with the short video, where Lisa is heard listing things that Jake shouldn't do when he goes away.

He captioned it: 'This was my mums talk to me about my stag do!! She didnt know I was filming and this is what I have to deal with!! What is wrong with her'

Funny: Jake Quickenden has shared a comical clip of his mother Lisa giving him advice for his upcoming stag party

During the comical video, Jake has the camera on his face and asked: 'Where do you think I'm going and when do I ever fight?'

His mother, who didn't seem to know he was filming, responded: 'Someone might pick a fight against you and you would fight.'

He replied: 'No I wouldn't, I'd say excuse me I don't know what the issue is, I'm on my stag do can you just give me a break. I don't know where you think I'm going.'

Comical: The former X Factor star, 33, took to Instagram on Saturday morning with the short video, where Lisa is heard listing things that Jake shouldn't do when he goes away

She added: 'I'm just telling you that's all because sometimes I think you need telling.'

Jake jokingly implied he is too old for advice from his mother: 'I'm 33. Anything else?'

She then hilariously said: 'No loose women because you don't want to be picking up a disease.'

He captioned it: 'This was my mums talk to me about my stag do!! She didnt know I was filming and this is what I have to deal with!! What is wrong with her'

Not prepared: He then shared an update on his Instagram Stories about the wedding, admitting he still needs to write his vows

He responded: 'I'm on my stag do! Loose women? Why would I be after loose women? What is a loose women?'

She quipped: 'A prostitute!'

Jake pulled a funny face and said: 'Mum I'm not going to sleep with prostitutes, I'm getting married. Any other advice for the stag do?'

They were both laughing by then end when she gave her last piece of advice: 'Just be careful!'

They were both laughing by then end when she gave her last piece of advice: 'Just be careful!'

Jake proposed to his girlfriend Sophie Church, who he shares his one-year-old son Leo with, in August 2021.

He shared the happy news on his Instagram page on Saturday afternoon, as he posted a sweet snap of himself sharing a passionate kiss with his bride-to-be Sophie, alongside the caption: 'She said yes!'

The star wrote: 'The love of my life the mother to my beautiful Leo and Freddie, I love you so much this isn't a drill it's actually happening.'

Wedding bells! Jake proposed to his girlfriend Sophie Church in August 2021

The couple appeared completely loved-up in a stunning snap they both shared to their respective Instagram pages.

Therapist Sophie, who was flashing her dazzling engagement ring in the image, looked lovely in a pretty printed dress and sandals.

Meanwhile, Jake also looked stylish in a black shirt and distressed denim shorts, while he tied the look together with a black fedora.

Jake and Sophie, who are currently holidaying with their children in Rhodes, Greece, posed against a picturesque seascape backdrop.
Naomi Watts stepped out for a spot of shopping in The Hamptons this week.

The actress made her way through an outdoor flower market in a summery, casual ensemble.

The 53-year-old donned denim shorts, white sandals, and a white tank top with a blue shirt thrown on over the top.

Naomi Watts stepped out for a spot of shopping in The Hamptons this week. The actress made her way through an outdoor flower market in a summery, casual ensemble

She accessorised with a trucker cap and a large pair of sunglasses.

The star recently revealed the shocking piece of advice she received in Hollywood.

At a preview for her new menopausal wellness brand Stripes, Naomi said she was once told she'd become irrelevant if she got too old and was no longer 'f***able'.

'This is pretty much an ageist industry that has been branded as such,' she told a small audience at the Stripes preview in New York City in June.

The 53-year-old donned denim shorts, white sandals, and a white tank top with a blue shirt thrown on over the top

'And we have been told multiple times going into it that you're pretty much done by the time you hit your mid-forties,' she continued.

'If you're not f***able - that's the word I got told once - you're no longer relevant.'

The Mulholland Drive star is fighting ageism with her own beauty and wellness line which will 'address the skin and body changes of menopause'.

Naomi has just started previewing the product to influencers and members of the media, although it's unclear when it will officially launch.

She accessorised with a trucker cap and a large pair of sunglasses

The actress wants to conquer the stigma around menopause, saying it's a phase of life that should be better represented in the mass media.

She noted in an Instagram post recently how many women experience feelings of shame as they age past the point where they can have children.

'Getting older is a privilege and a time for us to feel proud of our cumulative experiences,' she wrote alongside a makeup-free selfie.
He's well known for his love of kooky fashion.

And Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, 37, was certainly no wallflower when he appeared at the French Grand Prix in Le Castellet on Thursday.

The Mercedes driver stood out from the crowd in a 290 yellow vest and 315 trousers by Homme Plisse Issey Miyake as he strolled around the famous Circuit Paul Ricard.

Mellow yellow: Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton , 37, was certainly no wallflower when he appeared at the French Grand Prix in Le Castellet on Thursday

He had his muscly and tattooed arms on display in the top and completed his summery look with chunky black boots.

Lewis accessorised with stylish black sunglasses after arriving on site, with the Grand Prix lasting from Friday until Sunday.

The racing star wore his short dark hair styled into his usual braids and sported some facial hair.

Style: The Mercedes driver stood out from the crowd in a 290 yellow vest and 315 trousers by Homme Plisse Issey Miyake as he strolled around the famous Circuit Paul Ricard

The outing comes after Lewis showed his support behind the climate activists who invaded the track at this years British Grand Prix earlier this month, where he took a record 13th podium at a single race.

Northamptonshire Police said seven people were arrested after the invasion on the opening lap of the Silverstone contest, after five protestors stormed the Wellington Straight before sitting down.

The race had already been suspended following Zhou Guanyu's high-speed crash, followed by a 53-minute delay before the restart in a high octane, action-packed day at Silverstone.

Getting ready: Lewis takes part in the first practice at the Circuit Paul Ricard ahead of the Formula 1 Lenovo Grand Prix on Friday

Hamilton, perhaps to many fans' surprise, backed the protests on Twitter - understood to be from climate activist group Just Stop Oil - although he warned that storming the track on race day was far too dangerous.

The seven-time world champion said: 'As we've seen today, this is a very dangerous sport.

'I wasn't aware of the protests today, and while I'll always support those standing up for what they believe in, it must be done safely.

'Please don't jump onto our race circuits to protest, we don't want to put you in harm's way.'

The quintet were swiftly dragged away by marshals to huge cheers from the watching crowd.

But in a race that saw ambulances and emergency crews called to the scene, there could very nearly have been further incidents after the protestors stormed the fastest part of the track.
An Australian reality show has been struck down due to an outbreak of thrush on set.

On Saturday, The Daily Telegraph claimed that contestants on an unnamed 'dating show' are struggling with yeast infections, making romantic scenes difficult.

The thrush outbreak followed a scourge of gastroenteritis among the cast, with both conditions making filming challenging.

An Australian reality show has been struck down due to an outbreak of thrush on set. On Saturday, it was reported that contestants on a 'dating show' are struggling with yeast infections, making romantic scenes difficult. Pictured: Cast of Love Island Australia

The Daily Telegraph has reported that representatives for Channel Nine, Seven and Ten denied that the outbreaks happened on the sets of Love Island, Beauty and The Geek, Heartbreak Island or The Real Love Boat.

It is unknown which show has been afflicted with the conditions, but the paper claims that 'a large number of cast and crew... became stricken with thrush while on location in recent weeks'.

The report goes on to say that 'tensions are said to have then flared' after contestants were told to abstain from alcohol while being treated for the ailments.

It is unknown which show has been afflicted with the conditions, but the paper claims that 'a large number of cast and crew... became stricken with thrush while on location in recent weeks'. Pictured: The cast of Heartbreak Island Australia

Thrush is a very common infection caused when a yeast called Candida albicans, which normally lives at manageable levels in the body, overgrows inside the vagina or other parts of the body.

Symptoms can include intense itching, thick discharge and redness and soreness.

Treatments include a choice of anti-yeast pessaries or creams which can be bought over the counter.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that representatives for Channel Nine, Seven and Ten denied that the outbreaks happened on the sets of Love Island, Beauty and The Geek, Heartbreak Island or The Real Love Boat. Pictured: The Real Love Boat

The new series of Beauty and the Geek, hosted by Sophie Monk, is now airing on Channel Nine.

Love Island Australia is returning later in 2022, while a premiere date is yet to be announced for Heartbreak Island.

The Real Love Boat, hosted by Darren McMullen, is also yet to announce when it will air.
Downcast Yazmin Oukhellou headed to the hair salon with her arm in a sling on Saturday and was joined by her supportive mother Lisa for the low-key outing.

It comes as she continues to come to terms with the death of her ex-boyfriend Jack McLean and her near-death experience after a horror car crash earlier this month.

The TOWIE star, 31, was a passenger in the vehicle which plunged 70ft off a cliff in Bodrum, Turkey on Sunday July 3 which killed Jake and left her with serious arm injuries.

Tough: Downcast Yazmin Oukhellou headed to the hair salon with her arm in a sling on Saturday and was joined by her supportive mother Lisa for the low-key outing

For her outing, Yazmin cut a casual figure in comfortable flared black trousers and an off-the-shoulder matching vest top.

She completed the look with Christian Dior sliders and a black and white bag from the same French designer while sporting a no-makeup look.

Yazmin scrapped her hair back into a low pony and had a pair of stylish sunglasses perched on top of her head.

Shock: It comes as she continues to come to terms with the death of her ex-boyfriend Jack McLean and her near-death experience after a horror car crash earlier this month

It comes after it was reported that Yazmin fears being banned from Jake's funeral over tensions with his family.

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.

However Yazmin, who was seriously injured, has insisted there was no argument.

Tragic: The TOWIE star, 31, was a passenger in the vehicle which plunged 70ft off a cliff in Bodrum, Turkey on Sunday July 3 which killed Jake and left her with serious arm injuries

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.

'With time it's hoped they can come together and mourn their loss. But for now it is a fractured relationship.'

Stepping out: For her outing Yazmin cut a casual figure in comfortable flared black trousers and an off-the-shoulder matching vest top

Casual: She completed the look with Christian Dior sliders and a black and white bag from the same French designer while sporting a no-makeup look

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.

Breaking her silence following her arrival back home, Yazmin admitted: 'This will live with me forever' as she processed what happened.

Outing: Yazmin scrapped her hair back into a low pony and had a pair of stylish sunglasses perched on top of her head

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.'

Difficult: It comes after it was reported that Yazmin fears being banned from Jake's funeral over tensions with his family

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.

Lucky to be alive: Last week, Yazmin told how she's 'scarred for life' following the horror car crash

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'.

Perspective: Breaking her silence following her arrival back home, Yazmin admitted: 'This will live with me forever' as she processed what happened

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.

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'.

Grief: 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.

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.

Close: Yazmin said the grief and shock have left her needing therapy and she hasn't left her mother Lisa's side since the accident

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.

Relationship: 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

Crash: The television personality had been on holiday with Jake in the resort of Bodrum where the terrifying incident took place

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.

Shocking: 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.

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.
Australia's most famous escort Samantha X is no more.

The former high class call girl has left sex work behind and is now going by her real name, Amanda Goff.

The 48-year-old tells this week's issue of Stellar that she is 'ashamed' of her former career and has changed her ways after being diagnosed with bipolar II disorder.

Samantha X is no more. The former high class call girl has left sex work behind and is now going by her real name, Amanda Goff. Pictured in Stellar Magazine

'Now the fog has started to clear, I am ashamed of some of my choices, especially about going public,' she said.

'I don't recognise the woman who did that and it's mortifying for me.'

She went on: 'I am not blaming my bipolar or saying it was all down to my bipolar at all. But would I have made those choices if I was diagnosed and medicated? Most likely I wouldn't have been so public about it'.

The 48-year-old tells this week's issue of Stellar that she is 'ashamed' of her former career and has changed her ways after being diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. 'I don't recognise the woman who did that and it's mortifying for me,' she said

Amanda has now reclaimed the 'very traditional and conservative' person she is at heart

Amanda says that creating her alter ego Samantha 'was a way of dealing with certain trauma in my life' and she felt she was 'acting' when engaging that side of herself.

'I felt invincible as Samantha. At the time, I had no issues with going public despite the shock from friends and family,' she says.

'It was like I couldn't understand their concerns. I was closed off to it. I was on some kind of high, which now I understand is mania'.

The Sydney-based influencer was once described as the country's highest-paid sex worker. She dropped her successful career as a journalist to embark on a controversial path

Amanda has now reclaimed the 'very traditional and conservative' person she is at heart.

The Sydney-based influencer was once described as the country's highest-paid sex worker.

She dropped her successful career as a journalist to embark on a controversial path that quickly garnered her an entirely new fan base.

Amanda established herself as Australia's most recognisable escort, writing two memoirs, creating her own lingerie label, adult toys and agency.

Amanda established herself as Australia's most recognisable escort, writing two memoirs, creating her own lingerie label, adult toys and agency

In 2018, Amanda revealed her regrets about making compromises for her short-lived relationship with Channel Seven news reporter Ryan Phelan, 47.

She said that she regretted giving up her career as a high-class escort.

'I learnt a valuable lesson in my recent break-up and that was never, ever to give anything up for a man,' she told Confidential.

In 2018, Amanda revealed her regrets about making compromises for her short-lived relationship with Channel Seven news reporter Ryan Phelan (right). She said that she regretted giving up her career as a high-class escort

'What I thought my future was going to be changed in the matter of seconds, so it took me a while to regroup and refocus.

'I learnt never to rush into making huge life choices with someone I had known for a matter of weeks.'

The pair first confirmed their relationship in October 2017, with the blonde sharing sweet snaps from their European getaway before calling it quits three months later.

Amanda hung up her heels and walked away from escorting after six years in the business, but returned to it soon after the split

Amanda hung up her heels and walked away from escorting after six years in the business, but returned to it soon after the split.

She continued to run her escort agency with her business partner.

In addition to taking care of the behind-the-scenes of her agency, Amanda was also busy completing a Masters Degree in counselling and psychology.
She relocated to the US in 2014 alongside her husband Richard Merkell and their children.

And Patsy Palmer was spotted filling up her car at a gas station in Malibu on Saturday near her home during a low-key outing.

The actress, 50, cut a casual figure in a summery green top which was covered in white stitching.

Out and about: Patsy Palmer was spotted filling up her car at a gas station in Malibu on Saturday near her home during a low-key outing

She completed her look with baggy grey trousers, olive green sliders and wore a navy cap with the French word Oui on it in white letters.

Patsy accessorised with a pair of orange tinted sunglasses and carried a daisy design shopping bag across her body.

She wore her red tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted to go makeup free as she held the pump and put it into the car.

Stepping out: The actress, 50, cut a casual figure in a summery green top which was covered in white stitching

It comes after last month Patsy shared a rare snap of all three of her children as she celebrated son Fenton's 22 birthday.

The star took to Instagram to upload an image of sons Fenton, Bertie and daughter Emilia, 20, captioning the shot: 'Happy birthday Fenton, we love you'.

Patsy shares the trio with with husband Richard, while she also has Charley Palmer Rothwell, 30 - her UK-based son with former partner Alfie Rothwell.

The image sees Patsy's offspring beaming at the camera as they draped their arms over each other's shoulders.

Her pride and joy: It comes after last month Patsy shared a rare snap of all three of her children as she celebrated son Fenton's 22 birthday (L-R Emilia, Bertie, Fenton)

Model Emilia showed off her toned midriff in a black bralette and a sheer shirt, while her brother's opted for casual ensembles.

Patsy, who gained fame for her role as Bianca Jackson in the BBC soap, also shared a throwback family snap to her stories, this time featuring herself and husband Richard.

She penned: 'Happy birthday to our beautiful boy Fenton. We love you so much.'

It comes after Patsy celebrated her own 50th birthday in May, heading out in Hollywood to acknowledge the milestone.

The actress, who has now turned to DJ'ing and wellness influencing, headed to swanky The West Hollywood Edition Hotel with some pals for her birthday night out.

Patsy sported a pink sequin-embellished maxi dress for the evening, which featured a long sleeve, cinched waist and plunging cross-over neckline.

The birthday girl added a matching bralette underneath the dress, and preparing for a night on the dance floor, dressed her glam look down with a pair of Nike Jordan high top trainers.
Aaron Paul was spotted filming scenes for series six of Black Mirror on the streets of Rye in East Sussex this week.

The actor, 42, was spotted on location with Kate Mara, 39, who signed up for the new season earlier this month along with fellow actor Josh Hartnett, 44.

Screen star Aaron was seen dressed in a brown jacket and a shirt with black trousers as he walked through the typical British town, which is located near the South Coast of England.

Action! Aaron Paul, 42, was spotted filming scenes for series six of Black Mirror on the streets of Rye in East Sussex this week

The cast and crew were seen gathered near the fictional shop, Al's Bait & Tackle, which had a Stars and Stripes flag hanging outside.

Al's Bait & Tackle is usually a real-life cafe called The Old Grain Store.

A bright red classic American truck was also seen parked on location, suggesting the area could be decked out to portray New England.

On location: The actor was spotted on location with Kate Mara, 39, who signed up for the new season earlier this month along with fellow actor Josh Hartnett, 44

Bright and shiny: A bright red classic American truck was seen on the street while filming was taking place

One producer told a local: 'Rye is great for filming these period dramas - its like youre stepping back in time, even before weve added the set, props and signs.'

According to The Sun, another local said: 'Parking bays were suspended and film crew began clearing the road of anything that identified the place as an English town.

'We saw American road signs going up and crates of boxes and fishing nets being unloaded around the cafe opposite Mermaid Street.

Setting the scene: The cast and crew were seen gathered near the fictional shop, Al's Bait & Tackle, which had a Stars and Stripes flag hanging outside

'They made the cafe look like an angling shop and turned the antiques shop into a book shop. Everyone could see what was happening, it was all very exciting. Then Aaron Paul and Kate Mara arrived and we knew it was for Black Mirror.'

It emerged Aaron, Josh and Kate had joined the Black Mirror cast earlier this month.

Sources indicate that other stars joining the show include Zazie Beetz, Paapa Essiedu, Danny Ramirez, Clara Rugaard, Auden Thornton and Anjana Vasan.

Perfect: One producer told a local: 'Rye is great for filming these period dramas - its like youre stepping back in time, even before weve added the set, props and signs'

The casting specifically spans three episodes and it is understood that more actors will join for further episodes of the show.

Specific details about stories are yet to be revealed but season six will have more episodes than season five  which comprised of just three parts and starred Andrew Scott, Anthony Mackie and Miley Cyrus.

The new season will be the first since the show's creator Charlie Brooker and his creative partner Annabel Jones left the production company House of Tomorrow  which was backed by Endemol Shine Group - in 2020 and started working with new banner Broke and Bones.

All stars: It emerged Aaron, Josh and Kate had joined the Black Mirror cast earlier this month ahead of the new series

Talent: Sources indicate that other stars joining the show include Zazie Beetz, Paapa Essiedu, Danny Ramirez, Clara Rugaard, Auden Thornton and Anjana Vasan

New horizons: The new season will be the first since the show's creator Charlie Brooker and his creative partner Annabel Jones left the production company House of Tomorrow

Fans feared that the pair's exit could mark the end of the show as the rights remained with Endemol Shine but a deal was reached to allow the Banijay Group, which acquired Endemol Shine in 2018, to license the show to Netflix.

Charlie previously revealed he hoped to revisit his 'comic skill set'.

The 51-year-old star told the Radio Times: 'At the moment, I dont know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so Im not working away on one of those. Im sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so Ive been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.

'Im sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so Ive been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.'
Russia is struggling to counter Ukraine's newly acquired HIMARS rocket launchers that were sent by the United States and have already destroyed more than 100 "high value" Russian targets.

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) was used to take down ammunition depots, long-range artillery positions, command posts, air-defense sites, and radar and communications nodes, a senior U.S. defense official said.

Ukraine's HIMARS Rocket Launchers

The HIMARS was provided by the U.S. as part of billions of dollars in military assistance to support the Eastern European nation as it continues to fend off Moscow's advance. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion nearly five months ago, claiming that Kyiv was being led by the Nazis.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and had family members who were killed in the Holocaust. On Friday, a senior U.S. defense official said that the HIMARS were having a significant impact on Ukraine's defense against Russia. He added that Ukraine's military was able to take advantage of the weapons system to strike back at Moscow's forces, as per Newsweek.

Furthermore, the defense official noted that Ukraine has managed to take out "hundreds" of colonels, "many" generals, and "thousands" of lieutenants and captains. They added that Russia "can't keep it up forever," referring to the country's aggression against Ukraine.

The official added that Moscow has already expended a lot of their smarter munitions in the invasion, arguing that their capabilities were getting "dumber." The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said on Wednesday that Ukraine's use of the HIMARS was "degrading" Russia's capabilities.

Read Also: Russia Threatens G7 Zero Oil Exports If West Imposes Oil Price Cap

According to Yahoo News, Milley added that Russia has not destroyed any of the HIMARS artillery despite them causing so many problems. During a press conference on Wednesday, he said that the "systems have not been eliminated by the Russians."

Russia's Continued Aggression

The official also acknowledged that the systems were at risk, adding, "I knock on wood every time I say something like that." Milley's statement contradicted several claims by Russian officials and media outlets that Russia has destroyed some of the prized weapons, which Ukraine lobbied hard for and says give it a much-needed way to defend against Moscow's invasion.

The truck-like mounted units can fire precision-targeted heavy artillery about 50 miles away, depending on the rounds used. The U.S. has provided Ukraine with 12 units so far, and another four are on the way, said Milley.

The American official's remarks followed several Russian claims that Moscow has successfully destroyed as many as four of the units. A Russian defense ministry representative said that Russian military troops destroyed four HIMARS launchers from July 5 to Wednesday.

A Telegram post on July 6 said that two of the systems were taken out in Malotaranovka in the Donbas along with two ammunition depots for the weapon. Milley did not specifically address the Russian claims during his briefing but said in broad terms that the HIMARS had not been destroyed.

When approached for comments, a Pentagon representative pointed to a July 8 briefing during which an unnamed senior defense official said that the Russian claims were "not correct." On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the situation, Business Insider reported.



Related Article: Russia "About To Run Out of Steam" in War, Ukraine Could Strike Back, Predicts UK Intel Chief

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Sofia Richie put on a fashionable display on Friday as she continued to enjoy her vacation in the South of France.

The 23-year-old influencer modeled a white mini skirt with ruffles, and a black bikini top, and she accessorized with a visor.

The newly engaged star was joined by her fiance, Elliot Grainge, 28, as they enjoyed a boat ride.

Fashionista: Sofia Richie put on a fashionable display on Friday as she continued to enjoy her vacation in the South of France

The blonde beauty looked typically gorgeous as she showed off her fit figure in the dainty pieces, and a pair of flashy, thick-rimmed sunglasses from Loewe.

Sofia donned large diamond stud earrings, a necklace with a row of beads, and stacked bracelets.

She carried a woven handbag with thin, brown, leather straps over her shoulder.

Summer style: The 23-year-old influencer modeled a white mini skirt and black bikini top and she accessorized with a visor

It nicely complemented her headpiece, which had a woven brim with a soft pink and blue scarf attached.

Meanwhile the music industry executive wore a black t-shirt and dark, round sunglasses as he took time off with his love.

His lustrous, dark hair was in a neat tapered cut with tousled curls sitting atop his head.

Charmed life: Richie was joined by her fiance, Elliot Grainge, 28, as they enjoyed a boat ride

Sofia, whose father in Lionel Richie, has been documenting the trip on Instagram, where she hosts 7.6 million followers.

Earlier this week she posted a photo with Grainge as she posed in a black, floral-patterned dress from Matteau.

She sat on her beau's lap while they lovingly wrapped their arms around each other and softly smiled.

The model dropped a single yellow heart emoji in the caption, and the upload racked up more than 100,000 likes.

Young love: Earlier this week she posted a photo with Grainge as she posed in a black, floral-patterned dress from Matteau

Sofia, Elliot and their vacation crew are currently staying at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France.

The Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc has long been a celebrity haunt, with the likes of Paris Hilton, Kate Moss, Elizabeth Taylor and John Lennon all checking in over the years.

Sofia shared news of her engagement to Elliot, who is the son of Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge, with her 7.6million followers in late April.
Millie Mackintosh showed off her incredible figure as she posed up a storm in a chic pink bikini in Corfu on Saturday.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 32, turned up the heat in the high waisted ribbed number as she lay on a sun lounger on the beach soaking up the sun.

The reality star shared a series of snaps of her lavish trip on Instagram with her 1.4 million followers.

Looking good: Millie Mackintosh, 32, showed off her incredible figure as she posed up a storm in a chic pink bikini in Corfu on Saturday

She beamed looking away from the camera while hiding behind a pair of coordinated pink sunglasses.

The TV favourite and her husband Hugo Taylor, 36, seemed in high spirits ahead of their close pal Binky Felstead's upcoming nuptials to Max Darnton.

Millie and Hugo put on a loving display as they beamed for the camera while standing in the sea.

Soaking up the sun: The former Made In Chelsea star, 32, was joined by husband Hugo Taylor, 36, as they posed in the water in their holiday attire

Millie looked simply stylish in a colourful cut out crochet maxi dress which she flashed her legs through a thigh high split.

The MIC star donned a large sunhat and sunglasses as she styled her highlighted tresses in beach waves.

Meanwhile Hugo showcased his incredible abs in a black patterned pair of swimming shorts and dark sunglasses.

Wow: The couple have been busy celebrating heir close pal Binky Felstead's upcoming nuptials to Max Darnton in the lavish destination

Earlier this week, the pairs Made In Chelsea co-star Ollie Locke shared a snap on Instagram as he posed alongside the bride-to-be Binky, Millie, Hugo and Rosie Fortescue.

All five shot to fame on the first series of the reality show back in 2011.

And 11 years on, the OG cast members of the E4 reality show reunited for their first photo together 'in many, many years' as they celebrated Binky's upcoming wedding.

OGs: 11 years after first appearing on screen together Made In Chelsea original cast members Millie, Rosie, Ollie Locke, Binky and Hugo reunited for their first photo together

The fun snap showed the group on a dock as they prepared for a pre-wedding boat party, with Binky and Rosie rocking skimpy bikinis.

'If you know you know OG MIC! The first photo together for many, many years!! @binkyfelstead @milliemackintosh @hugotaylorlondon @rosiefortescue,' a nostalgic Ollie captioned the snap.

The five all appeared in Made In Chelsea from the first episode in 2011, with the series following their lives in the affluent London neighbourhood.

Binky and Ollie have remained best friends, with Ollie godfather to Binky's daughter India, five, and Binky acting as bridesmaid at his 2020 wedding to Gareth Locke.

Back then: The five all starred in the original series of MIC which hit screens back in 2011 (L-R: Amber Atherton, Francis Boulle, Millie Mackintosh, Caggie Dunlop, Hugo Taylor, Spencer Matthews, Fredrik Ferrier, Rosie Fortescue, Binky Felstead, Ollie Locke, Gabriella Ellis and Cheska Hull)

Memories: Ollie Locke shared the snap on Instagram as he reminisced about their decade-long friendships

Millie meanwhile has been married to her Made In Chelsea boyfriend Hugo since 2018, with the couple sharing two children together.

Millie and Hugo originally dated in 2011 while on Made In Chelsea, but split up when it emerged he had cheated on Millie with Rosie.

They reunited in the second half of 2016 and Hugo proposed during a holiday in Mykonos, Greece, in July 2017. She was previously married to musician Professor Green, real name Stephen Manderson, in September 2013.

BFFs: Binky and Ollie have remained best friends, with Ollie godfather to Binky's daughter India, five, and Binky acting as bridesmaid at his 2020 wedding (pictured 2012 on the show)

The couple announced their split in February 2016 after two-and-a-half years of marriage and finalised their divorce in May 2016 - the same week that Millie went public with Hugo during a trip to Monaco.

There's no lingering tension between Millie and Rosie, 11 years on from the infamous MIC series two finale scene which saw Millie humiliate her boyfriend and best pal by announcing their deceit to all their mutual friends at a party.

The group are in Corfu for Binky's second wedding ceremony to husband Max Darnton after they previously delayed her overseas nuptials due to Covid.

Here's to friendship: Millie and Hugo originally dated in 2011 while on Made In Chelsea, but split up when it emerged he had cheated on Millie with Rosie. She announced their deceit in dramatic scenes in the series 2 finale

Drama: There's no lingering tension between Millie and Rosie, eleven years on from the infamous MIC series two finale scene, with the trio remaining pals

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.

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.

Boat party: The fun snap showed the group on a dock as they prepared for a pre-wedding boat party in Greece

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.
Bethenny Frankel took advantage of the summer heat as she went to the beach in the Hamptons on Saturday.

The 51-year-old media personality flaunted her toned figure in a blue and tan patterned swimsuit.

The one-piece beachwear featured a deep v neckline that highlighted her busty cleavage.

Beach babe: Bethenny Frankel took advantage of the summer heat as she went to the beach in the Hamptons on Saturday

The former Real Housewives of New York star bared her endless legs in the look and displayed a white pedicure.

It matched her manicure and she accessorized with a gold double-strap chain wristwatch.

The NYC-bred multihyphenate topped the summer look with a natural colored wide-brimmed sun hat.

It had a black strap that hung below her chin, and her wet hair flowed out underneath it.

Fit! The 51-year-old media personality flaunted her toned figure in a blue and tan patterned swimsuit

Bethenny appeared on Instagram earlier this week to share outtakes from her time outside the Big Apple.

In one photo she stretched out on a large inflatable pool float as she wore a navy blue swimsuit.

Her dark hair was pulled back and she showed half of her face as the photo was snapped.

Vacay: Bethenny appeared on Instagram earlier this week to share outtakes from her time outside the Big Apple

Frankel recently returned from a trip to Europe with her daughter Bryn Hoppy, twelve.

The proud mom took to social media to share a small photo album from their time in Italy, writing in a caption: 'Arrivederci Italy! Thanks for the memories!!!! Back to work!!!!'

She used her go-to hashtag, '#mommyandme,' and added '#summerinitaly.'

Included in the roundup of images was a selfie with Bryn as she held a snack on a cobblestone street.

Quality time: Frankel recently returned from a trip to Europe with her daughter Bryn Hoppy, twelve

In another photo the entrepreneur wore a striped red, white, and blue frock while standing back to back with her mini me.

The mom and daughter duo wore similarly styled white sandals, with Hoppy's having a small platform.

Bryn wore a white dress with an eyelet pattern throughout and carried a plush white shawl.

Bethenny shares Bryn, her only child, with ex-husband Jason Hoppy, 51.
She's made millions climbing the showbiz ladder from Coronation Street to Dr Foster, but Suranne Jones isn't too proud to join the ranks of celebrities taking cash for autographs and selfies with fans.

The star of Gentleman Jack  the BBC drama about a 19th Century lesbian landowner which was cancelled last week after just two seasons  is topping the bill at a convention where fans will have the chance to 'meet and greet' her for 80.

The appearance of Ms Jones, who is worth an estimated 3.6 million, is a sign, say observers, that even the most successful actors have come to recognise the need for financial security after the havoc wreaked by the pandemic.

Before Gentleman Jack, Ms Jones, 43, spent four years on Coronation Street. She hit the big time in ITV's Scott & Bailey and with the lead role in the BBC's Dr Foster.

Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle in the TV series Gentleman Jack

She will be joined at the FanFusion convention in Birmingham next month by Sophie Rundle, her co-star in Gentleman Jack in which they shared steamy love scenes.

As the biggest name at FanFusion, Ms Jones's fees are the highest  37.50 for an autograph and 54 for a selfie  and she is only appearing on the final day.

Fans can pay to have their photograph taken with 34-year-old Ms Rundle and Ms Jones for 90.

While the idea of stars with thriving careers charging for autographs and selfies offends some, fans have been paying to meet actors since the first Comic-Con convention in 1970 in California.

But few working actors from traditional TV series or period dramas would star at fan conventions. That all changed with Covid, according to a leading talent manager.

Professor Jonathan Shalit said: 'Covid was a wake-up call for a lot of actors.

'Actors with no savings suddenly had no work for over a year.

Suranne Jones in the acclaimed TV series Gentleman Jack

'Elite actors wouldn't touch this kind of thing in the past but now people realise that being able to pay your bills and having financial security is really important.'

He added: 'Suranne Jones is a fantastic Bafta-winning actor, but she's not a global star. The money she earns is not going to be as big as you might think. Television dramas in the UK do not pay a fortune.

'Signing autographs is a win-win  you get to make money and the public gets to meet you, it gives them a lot of pleasure.'

The FanFusion convention is billed as 'a three-day convention with the aim of celebrating women in television, film and the arts'. The organisers claim it will be run 'on a minimal margin', although tickets cost between 120 and 1,000. On its website, the organiser added: 'FanFusionUK is dedicated to bringing a safe and positive environment for all fandoms to honour representation.'

Eight lesser known female actors from shows such as The 100, Xena, Lost Girl, Good Witch and Wynonna Earp will attend.

Ms Jones and Ms Rundle, who both declined to comment, have attracted a cult following for their on-screen romance in 1830s Yorkshire in Gentleman Jack, which became a hit for the BBC but was pulled by its US backers HBO.

Two years ago, The Mail on Sunday revealed Ms Rundle, whose credits include Peaky Blinders and Bodyguard, had made more prime-time terrestrial TV appearances than anyone else in the preceding two years.
Hollywood megastar Margot Robbie is set to feature in the soaps historic final episode.

The 32-year-old, who played Donna Freedman from 2008 to 2011 filmed the Zoom appearance sometime after the show wrapped filming on June 10.

Fellow Aussies Delta Goodrem, Jesse Spencer, Holly Valance, Carla Bonner, Natalie Imbruglia and Kym Valentine, who all had their start on the show, will all return to the finale.

Hollywood megastar Margot Robbie, 32, (pictured) is set to make a cameo appearance in the Neighbours finale after filming a special scene

'Everyone working on the soap was determined that Neighbours would end on a real high and when they reached out to Margot she said ''yes'' straight away,' a source told The Sun.

'There was no way she wasn't going to be a part of the historic big finale as she's always spoken so fondly about her time on the soap and how it helped to launch her movie career.

'Sadly, she couldn't get to Australia for filming but recorded a special clip that will be shown in the big finale.'

Fellow Aussies Delta Goodrem (left), Jesse Spencer, Holly Valance (right), Natalie Imbruglia and Kym Valentine who all also had their start on the show will return to the show for the finale

Margot instead sent 37 bottles of champagne to the set - one for each year that the show has been in on television.

The show's executive producer Jason Herbison announced Robbie had sent a gift of pricey bubbles.

The cast raised a toast following the end of filming on the show's final ever day of production.

It comes after Robbie gifted the cast and crew of long-running soap stacks of pricey champagne as they wrapped production on the show after 37 years

Alan Fletcher, April Rose Pengilly and Emerald Chan were among the cast to thank Robbie on Instagram for the thoughtful gift.

Robbie shot to fame in the Australian soap playing aspiring fashion designer Donna Freedman, before swapping Melbourne for Hollywood.

She previously credited the show and said it was 'brilliant training' for her Hollywood career and admitted that she could never learn lines at the speed she used to during her soap days.

The cast raised a toast following the end of filming on the show's final ever day of production

But she cannot believe how quickly she used to get through her scripts during her time in the serial drama.

She said: 'I always said after walking off a soap everything would be easy after that.'

'It was a brilliant training ground. I used to sit down with 60 pages in my lap in a morning and just fly through it, read it once. Got it. I don't think I could do that now.'

Robbie says Neighbours was 'brilliant training' for her Hollywood career and admits she could never learn lines at the speed to she used to during her soap days. Pictured here in 2009 with co-star Jackie Woodburne

The Birds of Prey star is also grateful for working on a soap because that time has made her more 'aware' of other departments when she is on a movie or a TV set.

She said: 'I think the biggest thing about working on a soap and working with a multi-camera scenario was being so aware of every other department, and working within the bigger machine.'

The finale will air in both Australia and the United Kingdom on Friday.
On Friday morning in Turkey, Ukraine and Russia struck a deal pledging to let millions of tons of essential food supplies to leave Ukraine's long-blocked southern ports. Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia has shut the Black Sea ports, prompting claims from the United States and Europe that President Vladimir Putin has weaponized food.

As part of the agreement, which was mediated and co-signed by the Turkish government and the United Nations, Russian food and fertilizer that the Putin dictatorship claims it has been unable to ship because of sanctions against his nation imposed over the Ukraine war may also be exported.

Grain Exports Deal Signed Between Russia, Ukraine

The deal, which was signed on Friday in Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace, does not directly address the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, but it is anticipated that by increasing supply and reducing the rising prices of essential commodities throughout the world, it would help ease the current global food crisis.

According to CBS News, the agreement asks for the creation of secure shipping lanes for grain to travel through the Black Sea's heavily mined seas. It includes pledges from Russia and Ukraine that they won't strike any ships recognized as being a part of the program as they sail through the maritime lanes and that they'll enable Turkey to inspect the ships.

As a result of the conflict in Ukraine, the World Food Programme (WFP) believes that 47 million people are now experiencing severe hunger, and Western authorities have accused Russia of using food as a weapon during its invasion.

The agreement will also permit unrestricted access for Russian fertilizers to international markets. Fertilizers, which are essential to boosting food production and which Russia is a significant producer of, have become increasingly expensive since the invasion, CNN reported. The agreement, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will alleviate "millions of people of this risk of famine."

Read Also: Maine Authorities Release Chilling Images of Missing Parents, 2-Year-Old Girl, Who Never Returned from Camping Trip

Global Grain Exports Affected With Russia-Ukraine War

In accordance with the agreement reached on Friday, grain ships would travel through a secure passageway in the Black Sea under the control of Ukrainian pilots in order to access international markets. They would then travel through the Bosphorus Strait, a crucial maritime route in northwest Turkey.

Russian, Ukrainian, and Turkish officials would examine ships before they arrived in Ukraine to make sure no weapons were being smuggled into that country. A Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), which will be set up right once in Istanbul and include representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey, will keep an eye on the ships.

Both parties have agreed that no one should attack any ships leaving those ports and entering the Black Sea from beyond their respective territorial waters. Russia and Ukraine both contribute significantly to global food supply. Typically, Ukraine, one of the world's major producers of bread, would export around 75 percent of the grain it produces. Nearly 90% of these exports, according to data from the European Commission, came from Black Sea ports in Ukraine and were transported by sea.

The war and its impact on grain exports therefore has major implications, particularly in the global South which relies heavily on them. Between disrupting Ukrainian agricultural production and blocking the export of products that remain, Russia's war in Ukraine could push 49 million people into famine or famine-like conditions, the United Nations warned last month.

A Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), which will be set up right once in Istanbul and include representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey, will keep an eye on the ships. Both parties have agreed that no one should attack any ships leaving those ports and entering the Black Sea from beyond their respective territorial waters.

Per Big News Network, Russia and Ukraine both contribute significantly to global food supply. Typically, Ukraine, one of the world's major producers of bread, would export around 75 percent of the grain it produces. Nearly 90% of these exports, according to data from the European Commission, came from Black Sea ports in Ukraine and were transported by sea.

Related Article: Vladimir Putin Announces Resume of Russian Gas in Key Pipeline, Warns Europe Deliveries Could Keep Dwindling

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This page may be updated if the event is repeated

Past Event - Saturday, August 6, 2022 This page may be updated if the event is repeated

Afghan refugees settling in the Dayton area are invited to a special reception at the Dayton Metro Library. Light refreshments, information and networking.

Afghan refugees to be welcomed at special event Aug 6

Afghan refugees settling in the Dayton area are invited to a special reception on Saturday, Aug. 6, where they can connect with each other and learn about resources and opportunities available as they establish lives in the local community.

The Afghan Welcome Event will take place at the Dayton Metro Library (215 E. Third St., second floor community room), from 10 a.m. to noon.

The event will be hosted by Welcome Dayton in collaboration with Ohio TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Dayton Metro Library.

Between October 2021 and July 2022, 119 Afghan refugees have settled in the Dayton region through the refugee resettlement program of Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley.

Organizations present with resource information will include Dayton Public Schools, Catholic Social Services, Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio, Miami Valley Career Technology Center/Aspire, ABLE (Advocates for Basic Legal Equity), Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton Metro Library, and Project Read.
HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: Transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar on Tuesday held Andhra Pradeshs Polavaram project responsible for the flooding of the Godavari river at Bhadrachalam, sparking off a row with the neighbouring Telugu state.

The comments evoked a strong response from AP ministers Botsa Satyanarayana and Ambati Rambabu, and led to a series of exchanges, through press statements, between the ministers of the two states.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, TRS leaders demanded a reduction in the height of the Polavaram project, accusing the AP government of changing the original plan, to increase the height by three metres. They alleged negligence on the part of the AP government for releasing water from the Polavaram project, claiming it resulted in Bhadrachalam being flooded.

The TRS leaders demanded the intervention of the Centre to address the issue as the Polavaram project was conferred the status of a national project. Further, they demanded that the Centre pass a Bill in the ongoing monsoon session of the Parliament for the demerger of five villages of AP located in the vicinity of Bhadrachalam, and handover the same to Telangana.

AP ministers condemned the comments made by TRS leaders, with Botsa telling media persons at a press meet in Vijayawada that AP lost revenue as it lost Hyderabad during bifurcation. Can we ask now to merge Hyderabad in AP? It is not right to say such things now and resolving the present problem should be the first priority, he said.

Botsa said that ministers and CM must speak responsibly and that speeches should not be made to provoke others. He also dismissed the claims that water released from APs Polavaram project flooded Bhadrachalam. He told Puvvada Ajay not to make unnecessary comments, about revisiting the bifurcation of villages, claiming that the AP government would take necessary relief measures in the five villages.

Botsa said that the height of the Polavaram project was determined as per the approved design and that no change was made to it. He said that Ajay must take care of flood-hit areas in Khammam, while the AP government will take care of flood-hit mandals in its state.

AP water resources minister Ambati Rambabu said that it was not appropriate to politicise the Polavaram issue whenever floods occur, claiming that even a water height of 45.72 feet at the Polavaram project would not affect Bhadrachalam. Rambabu said that Telangana must get any doubts about the Polavaram project clarified by the Centre.

However, Puvvada Ajay hit back at the AP ministers comments on Hyderabad. It's ridiculous that AP ministers have raised an irrelevant issue of Hyderabad's merger with AP... Our CM has sanctioned Rs 1,000 crore to find a permanent solution to Bhadrachalam flooding. These works cannot be taken up effectively unless the surrounding villages of Bhadrachalam, which were merged with AP, are handed back to Telangana. They should handover at least five villages to Telangana.

Ajay said, The Bhadrachalam Sri Rama temple is a holy place for devotees of both Telangana and AP. If AP ministers are really sincere about protecting the Bhadrachalam temple from floods, they should take the initiative to convince their CM to hold talks with our CM to resolve this issue amicably.
Some of the gates of Srisailam dam in Andhra Pradesh are thrown open to let off flood-water on Saturday. (Photo by arrangement)

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is likely to visit flood-hit areas of coastal districts and interact with people next week, most likely on July 26, for two days. Various crops in 11,990.48 hectares were damaged in the incessant rains in six districts namely ASR, Konaseema, Kakinada, Eluru and two Godavari districts in the state in which horticulture crops were damaged in 8627.71 hectares and agriculture crops in the rest of the area. A total of 3,60,468 people were affected in the six districts.

The Chief Minister has been monitoring the flood-affected districts and giving instructions to the officials to provide relief measures to the affected people. Leaders of various Opposition parties including Telugu Desam chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu visited the flood-affected areas and criticised Jagan Mohan Reddy for not visiting the affected areas.

Advisor to the government (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and several YSRC ministers stated that Chief Ministers visit would disturb the relief, rescue and rehabilitation works hence Jagan would visit after completion of the tasks.

They stated that the Chief Minister reviewed the preparedness of the flood situation with the revenue department, line departments concerned and district collectors on July 13 and further undertook an aerial survey of flood-affected districts on July 15, followed by a review meeting with the revenue department, line departments concerned and collectors of the flood-affected districts.

As many as 347 villages were inundated out of the 465 villages in 54 mandals of six flood-affected districts. The highest number of population affected during the floods was in Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema with 1,96,072, while the least affected was Kakinada with 1,243 victims.

About 70,000 people were affected in 228 villages in seven mandals in Alluri Sitharama Raju district while 163 villages were inundated. As many as 60,000 people were affected in 93 villages in seven mandals in Eluru district while 76 villages were inundated. In West Godavari district, more than 27,000 people were affected in eight mandals. In East Godavari district, about 6,000 people were affected in 13 mandals. The least affected district was Kakinada with 1,243 people affected by floods in two villages of one mandal.

Ten NDRF teams with 217 personnel were deployed for search and rescue operations in six villages besides 11 SDRF teams with 417 personnel in 10 villages. The NDRF teams rescued 182 people and evacuated 3,000 while the SDRF evacuated 6,246 in six affected districts.

AP disaster response & fire services department (APDR&FS) undertook search and rescue operations and relief measures in the flood affected districts. About 1,017 people were rescued from flood-affected areas and 10,531 people evacuated from inundated villages. The APDR&FS also distributed food and essential commodities like rice, dal, oil, onion etc., in the flood-affected areas.

About 8,627 hectares of horticulture crop was damaged while 3,362 hectares agriculture crop was damaged in the flood affecting six districts. The highest 6,405 hectares of horticulture crop was damaged in Ambedkar Konaseema district followed by 1,950 hectares in East Godavari and 260 hectares in West Godavari districts. In Alluri Sitharama Raju district, 1,502 agricultural crops were damaged, followed by 1,145 hectares in East Godavari, 217 hectares in Ambedkar Konaseema, 276 hectares in Eluru and 222 hectares in West Godavari districts during the floods.
HYDERABAD: Heavy downpour lashed Hyderabad city on Friday, bringing vehicular traffic to a halt in many places, and forcing pedestrians and two-wheeler riders to run for cover. Low-lying areas were inundated causing major inconvenience to motorists. Office goers had to undergo a lot of hardship as roads witnessed chaos and confusions as the rains continued to lash since morning.

The Wazu Khana wall within the historic Mekka Masjid adjoining Charminar collapsed due to rain. No one was injured.

Trees were uprooted at many places and roads were waterlogged in various parts of the city. The police issued an advisory, urging people not to venture out immediately after the rainfall receded. Metro Rail commuters also faced inconvenience as online and offline ticketing facilities were shut for a few hours due to technical snag, caused by heavy rains. Passengers had to wait in long queues cursing the metro while some posted their grievances online. With India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicting heavy to moderate rainfall for the next two days, the city is on high alert.

Busy roads turned into cesspools as manholes and storm water drains overflowed. There were severe traffic snarls at Hafeezpet, Masab Tank, Lakdi-ka-pool, Tolichowki, Mehdipatnam, Bachupally, Miyapur, Ramnagar, Shaikpet, Madhapur, Begumpet, Secunderabad, Nacharam, Srinagar Colony, Bowenpally, Maredpally, Begum Bazaar, Chilkalguda, Boudhanagar, Langerhouz, Nampally, Mozamjahi Market, Aramgarh bridge, Raj Bhavan Road, Khairatabad, Saroornagar, Kukatpally, Banjara Hills and several others areas.

Houses in many low lying areas were submerged in the rainwater. Several colonies in Mohammad Guda, Prakashnagar, Abids, Hayathnagar, Ganganagar, Barkatpura, Hastinapuram, Shalivahana Nagar, Moosarambagh, Babu Jagjivan Ram Nagar, Srinagar Colony, Ashoknagar, Kavadiguda, Lower Tank Bund, Shivam Road, Raj Bhavan Road and others were submerged.

The water level in these areas reached more than 5 feet causing severe inconvenience to the residents. Adarshnagar, near New MLA Quarters, the colonies inundated with knee-high water, and the same was the case with Talab Katta in the Old City. Rajendranagar, Attapur and many areas witnessed knee-high water, and the road below PVNR Expressway witnessed traffic snarls and bumper to bumper traffic.

A four-hour traffic jam was reported between Nizampet and Bachupally stretch due to waterlogging. Lakhs of rupees worth fruits were washed away at Batasingaram fruit market. As many as 419 trees were uprooted and 1,456 water logging points were formed.

Hussainsagar reached its full tank level (FTL) again and irrigation department officials released water from Kukatpally diversion and informed that they would release excess water through sluice gates if the rainfall continued. Hussainsagar, of which FTL is 513.41 metres, reached 513.18 metres as of 4:30 pm on Friday.

Osmansagar and Himayatsagar received water from the catchment areas, As of 6 pm on Friday, two gates of one feet were opened at Osmansagar. Its FTL is 1,790 feet which is 3,900 tmcft of water, and now it is 1,786 feet (3,093 tmc ft). One gate of Himayatsagar was opened. Its FLT is 1,763.50 (2,970 tmcft) and the present level is 1,760. 40 (2,347 tmcft).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that there could be no ceasefire with Moscow unless they can recover territory that was lost to Russia's advance in the region.

The official said that Ukrainian forces have successfully prevented Russian troops from advancing in what he described as the first stage of the conflict. He added that in the second stage, Ukraine would expel Russian troops from its territory, and in the third, they would move to fully restore its territorial integrity.

Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire

Zelensky noted that he would not accept a peace deal with Moscow that would allow Russian military troops to remain in their current positions. He insisted that Ukraine will not accept a "frozen conflict" but gave no further details as he addressed the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian president warned that his country would be drawn into a "diplomatic quagmire" like the peace agreement for eastern Ukraine that was brokered by France and Germany in 2015. The deal came after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and cast its support behind a separatist rebellion in the Donbas region, as per Aljazeera.

On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin has named Ukraine's recognition of the Russian sovereignty over Crimea and its acknowledgment of the separatist regions' independence as key conditions for halting hostilities.

Read Also: Turkey Announces Planned Resumption of Ukrainian Grain Exports After Signing of Deal With Russia

Zelensky emphasized that Putin must agree to meet him to negotiate any form of deal to put an end to the fighting. The Ukrainian president argued that it was important to continue talks, but noted, "Until the Russian president signs it or makes an official statement I don't see the point in such agreements."

According to Reuters, the Ukrainian leader added that despite receiving HIMARS rocket launchers from the United States that have somehow turned the advantage to his country for a little while, they are much lower than what his country needs to completely turn the tide of battle.

Resuming Grain Exports

He noted that freezing the conflict would only allow the Russian Federation to break for rest amid the intense battles. Zelensky added that society believes that all the territories must be liberated first before they can negotiate a peace deal and how to move forward.

The Ukrainian president said, "a more pressing need is air-defense systems that could prevent Russia from raining long-range missiles on otherwise peaceful cities hundreds of miles from the front lines." He added that diplomatic concessions to Moscow might stabilize the markets somewhat, but would be temporary, referring to the deal signed with Moscow to resume grain exports.

The deal was signed separately on Friday by Russia and Ukraine and was brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. It clears the way for the export of millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain to the outside world, including some Russian grain and fertilizer that would travel via the Black Sea.

The UN plan will enable Ukraine to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural goods that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to Russia's invasion. In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the deal a "beacon of hope" for millions at risk of hunger and starvation, the Associated Press reported.



Related Article: Russia Furiously Struggling To Counter Ukraine's HIMARS Rocket Launchers That Destroyed 100 'High Value' Targets

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The travel agency assured them that they wouldn't have any trouble obtaining a visa despite the Covid-19 situation in Europe. The complainant claimed that the UK Embassy turned down the visa application due to the pandemic.  Representational Image/By arrangement

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-I ordered Mumbai-based SOTC Travel Limited to repay a businessman the fee he had paid for visa processing for a European tour after the travel agent failed to arrange a visa.

Kotha Suresh, proprietor of Shiv Shakti Electronics in Chenoy Trade Centre, Parklane, Secunderabad, complained to the commission that a SOTC Travel Limited agent coaxed him and his wife into buying an Europe tour package.

Suresh said that he, along with his wife, had paid Rs 1.3 lakh to the travel operator on December 13, 2019, including Rs 18,168 towards visa processing charges. The UK visa / immigration Authorities charged Rs 750 per person for the appointment of an officer for visa processing on February 11, 2021.

The travel agency assured them that they wouldn't have any trouble obtaining a visa despite the Covid-19 situation in Europe. The complainant claimed that the UK Embassy turned down the visa application due to the pandemic. After their application was turned down, Suresh said that he cancelled the tour and asked the travel agency for a refund. The operator offered a credit voucher for Rs 92,200. The complainant refused to accept the credit voucher.

SOTC refuted the claims and said that as a tour operator it not be held accountable for visa rejection. It argued that the complainant had agreed to the terms and conditions. The commission ordered the travel agency to refund Rs 18,132 as well as Rs 15,000 in compensation, and Rs 5,000 in litigation costs after examining the case.
Lal Darwaza Mahankali temple in Hyderabad decked up on Saturday for the Bonalu festivities on Sunday and Monday. (R. Pavan/DC)

HYDERABAD: With the rains back in the city, and festival fervour gripping citys Durga temples, organisers of Old Citys famed Lal Darwaza Bonalu have made elaborate arrangements to keep devotees in good spirits as the shrine is all set to celebrate one of the Telanganas biggest festivals on a grand note on Sunday and Monday.

Five lakh devotees are expected to visit the temple on Sunday to take part in the Bonalu festivities and have darshan of the Goddess.

The Lal Darwazas Mahankali temple has been all decked up and government authorities along with the temple committee have arranged temporary sheds to protect the devotees in case of rains.

With huge celebrations on the cards for the first time post-pandemic, the historic temples premises are illuminated with colourful lighting and imposing arches are in place to welcome devotees. A medical camp is also being set up and queue lines are properly marked besides special queues for Bonams to be offered to the deity. Several VVIPs are also expected to visit the temple on Sunday.

All preparations are made to ensure smooth conduct of festivities and easy access for devotees to have darshan. The Hyderabad police are also prepared for grand celebrations and are ready to protect and guide devotees. Some 100 women police officials from She Teams will be deployed to ensure women safety during the festivities, informed S. Raj Kumar, chairman of the temple.

We expect around five lakh devotees from Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and neighbouring districts and also states like Andhra Pradesh. All arrangements for Bonalu have been made including parking facilities for devotees. Only a few civic works are pending, said K. Venkatesh, former chairman of the temple.

Devotees and regular visitors are ecstatic about Sunday's event. I am a resident of Shalibanda and have been visiting this temple since I got married in 1998 every year. This goddess is powerful. All my prayers have been answered, said Srivastav Pushpa, a devotee.

On Saturday, the organisers conducted a special programme on the temple premises where over 500 women from the Dharmo Rakshati Rakshata Trust were facilitated with mementos and sarees. Shivananda Swamy of the trust delivered a talk on the Bonalu festival and its importance. Women from different areas offered Bonam to the Goddess on the occasion.

I am very happy and blessed to be here. This is the first time I am visiting Lal Darwaza Mahankali temple and was facilitated by the temple committee, said G. Suma, secretary of the trust.
Board of Intermediate regional joint director V. Subba Rao said that more than 70 vocational educational courses are running in intermediate and vocational institutions.  DC Image

VIJAYAWADA: An Apprenticeship Mela 202122 was organised on Saturday for students who have completed their intermediate vocational education in medical laboratory technology, multi-purpose health worker, physiotherapy and computer science courses in Prakasam, Nellore, Krishna and Guntur districts.

Addressing a gathering at Girls Vocational College, Guntur, venue of the mela, Intermediate Education director R. Satyanarayana advised students to make good use of their apprenticeship to hone their skills acquired during vocational education. He pointed out that central and state governments are paying special attention to help youth stand on their feet through vocational courses in intermediate education.

Satyanarayana said by ensuring personal discipline and punctuality during their apprenticeship, students can gain appreciation from managements of their respective organisations. This will subsequently help them excel in government or private organisations that they join.

Regional Skill Development and Entrepreneurship deputy director S.P. Revaskar said educational institutions should not become machines for just teaching. Instead, they should impart practical education. He underlined that central government is bringing in a New Education Policy so that every person can stand on her / his own feet.

Board of Intermediate regional joint director V. Subba Rao said that more than 70 vocational educational courses are running in intermediate and vocational institutions. Apprenticeship fairs help poor and middle class students of these institutions find employment and financially support themselves.

Apprenticeship Mela coordinator T. Sekhar Babu said 222 prominent hospitals have been selected in four categories for Vocational Apprenticeship Mela this year. He underlined that after completing one-year apprenticeship at these hospitals, students will be given a certificate by central or state governments, which would help students get better job opportunities, whether in the public or private sector.

Government Vocational College principal Anand Babu presided over the programme organised on the occasion. Krishna district DVEO B.S.R.V. Prasad, Government Girls College principal G. Sunitha, Dr. Sanakkayala Uma Shankar, State Institute of Vocational Education professors Sandhya Madhuri and Sarath Chandra, in-charges of various vocational colleges, candidates, their parents and others officials participated in the mela.
He also took a dig at Centre's decision to do away with concessions for senior citizens in train fares.  (Twitter)

Hyderabad: TRS working president and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Friday took potshots at BJP state president Bandi Sanjay for his warning that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will soon probe all irregularities committed by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. In a sarcastic response, Rama Rao thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for appointing Sanjay as ED chief.

Rama Rao Tweeted, "Thanks for appointing your BJP state president Sri BS Kumar as the Chief of ED also. Now we realise double engine is actually "Modi & ED" (sic)".

Rama Rao was referring to Sanjay's comments at Thursdays bike rally as part of Janam Gosa-BJP Bharosa at Nancharpally in Siddipet district.

He also took a dig at Centre's decision to do away with concessions for senior citizens in train fares. In a Tweet to railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Rama Rao said, " Taking care of our elderly people is not just a responsibility but our duty. Was saddened to read that Govt of India has decided to remove the senior citizen concession in train fares. Request you to review the decision & take a compassionate view (sic)."

In another Tweet, Rama Rao congratulated Droupadi Murmu on being elected the countrys 15th President. He hoped that the long-pending women and tribal issues would be taken up earnestly during her tenure.

"I hope with your presidential assent, the much awaited women's reservation bill, tribal reservations enhancement in Telangana and RoFR amendment Bill will be cleared," he tweeted.
NEW DELHI, HYDERABAD: Congress MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday demanded that the BJP and the TRS governments at Centre and the state clarify their stand on national project status for the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS).

"Both TRS and BJP governments must clarify as to why a project built at a cost of Rs 1.2 lakh crore and called Asia's biggest irrigation project is not eligible to be included in the list of national projects. If the project is not economically viable, then all those involved in its designing, construction and execution should be severely punished by ordering a high-level probe," he demanded.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Uttam Kumar Reddy, a former state Congress chief, said that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao should reply on the Centre's stand that the Kaleshwaram project was not eligible to get national project status.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the TRS government did not seek investment clearance for the Kaleshwaram project as its benefit-cost ratio was too low, which makes it highly unviable.

By redesigning the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Pranahita Chevella Project, the TRS government doubled the project cost to over Rs 1 lakh crore. It was built not to bring water to farmers but to fill the pockets of the KCR family, he alleged. The TRS government was always hesitant to answer real questions on the exact capital cost, operational cost, cost-benefit ratio, viability and justification of taking high-cost loans for the Kaleshwaram Project.

"The Kaleshwaram project has benefited only the KCR family while the people of Telangana and their future generations are now forced to repay loans and interest from their hard-earned money," the former TPCC chief said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the submergence of two pump houses of Kaleshwaram in recent rains had exposed the poor quality of work. "To cover up this failure, KCR came up with a ridiculous, utterly silly, immature and unscientific explanation of a foreign conspiracy behind cloud burst in Telangana," he said.

" BJP leaders are maintaining a strange silence on the irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project. The Centre has the proof of this big scam. Then why is the BJP government not ordering an inquiry, Uttam Kumar Reddy asked.

"The TRS government did not seek investment clearance and BJP government did not insist on it. Therefore, both TRS and BJP are equally involved in the scam," he alleged.
Not every President has lived up to the expectation of guarding the values enshrined in the Constitution. Indeed, some have been content to sign on the dotted line.  PTI

The election of Droupadi Murmu, a tribal woman, as President of India suggests, at least symbolically, that even people from the most deprived sections of the country may realistically have the same aspirations as those born in better circumstances.

This is not to say that a woman tribal as President will produce such ripple effects as to transform the socioeconomic landscape, and act as an enabler for the poor. Far-reaching changes need multiple levers operating in a connected way. However, in a diverse country such as ours, the election of a tribal to the countrys highest constitutional office may be seen as a good in itself. It confers legitimacy to the system we chose upon emerging from colonial rule, and also deepens the sense of democracy.

To a considerable degree, the prospects of positive change come down to the individual. If Ms Murmu acts as the custodian of the Constitution in the true sense of the word, and not only in a technical or formal way, she would have done enough. That would send a message down the line and may result in benefits and ameliorative action in favour of those in need.

Not every President has lived up to the expectation of guarding the values enshrined in the Constitution. Indeed, some have been content to sign on the dotted line. True, the President must eventually sign as per the wishes of the council of ministers, or return a bill for reconsideration of Parliament only to sign it if Parliament does not amend its stance.

However, the mere fact of the President tendering advice, and not appending her signature as demanded, sends off messages to the political system as a whole and to the electorate. It is primarily in that sense that the Indian President does not have to be a rubber stamp. Going a step further, it may even be said that India can do without a rubber stamp President.

In the case of Ms Murmu, she has been a part of the BJP (and RSS) universe from an early age and owes her political rise to that factor in a very basic way, her personal abilities notwithstanding. She obviously has ideological commitments. Can she rise above these if the situation demands? That is a question that cannot be answered now. However, espousing the cause of her own tribal community as well as that of other poor people from public forums is likely to go a long way to help the cause of India.

There is a dimension of democratic life that goes beyond the socioeconomic. This has to do with the wider morality of things, with political ethic, with the idea of justice in a philosophic sense. A good President should adhere to these too as she endeavours to rise above humdrum politics. We extend our good wishes to President-elect Murmu to be on the side of the people and the Constitution.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and U.N. Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, sit as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, top left, and Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, top right, exchange documents during a signing ceremony at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. (Vadim Savitsky, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

ISTANBUL: Ukraine and Russia on Friday signed a landmark deal aimed at relieving a global food crisis caused by blocked Black Sea grain deliveries, ending months of negotiations and sending wheat prices tumbling to levels last seen before Moscow's invasion.

The first major deal between the warring parties since the February invasion of Ukraine should help ease the "acute hunger" that the United Nations says faces an additional 47 million people because of the war.

The hostility between Moscow and Kyiv spilled over into the signing ceremony -- delayed briefly by disputes about the display of flags around the table and Ukraine's refusal to put its name on the same document as the Russians.

The two sides eventually inked separate but identical agreements in the presence of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace.

"Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea -- a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief," Guterres said moments before the signing.

Erdogan -- a key player in the negotiations who has good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv -- said the deal would "hopefully revive the path to peace".

But Ukraine entered the ceremony by bluntly warning that it would conduct "an immediate military response" should Russia violate the agreement and attack its ships or stage an incursion around its ports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said the responsibility for enforcing the deal would fall to the UN, which along with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.

20 million tonnes of wheat

The agreement includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe corridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.

Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

Zelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year's harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement, estimating the value of Ukraine's grain stocks at around $10 billion.

Following the deal, wheat prices tumbled to levels last seen before Russia's invasion -- even as some analysts expressed scepticism about the accord.

In Chicago, the price of wheat for delivery in September dropped 5.9 percent to $7.59 per bushel, equivalent to about 27 kilograms. Prices in Europe fell by a similar amount.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media after attending the signing ceremony that he expected the deal to start working "in the next few days".

He pointed out that Russia had managed to secure a separate pledge from Washington and Brussels to lift all restrictions on its own grain and other agricultural exports.

The United States and European countries hailed the agreement while urging Moscow to abide by its rules.

A US official said the deal was "well-structured" enough to monitor Russian compliance.

The European Union called for the deal's "swift implementation" while British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said London "will be watching to ensure Russia's actions match its words".

Guarded hope

Diplomats expect grain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.

The four sides must first set up a joint command and control centre in Istanbul that monitors the ships' passage and addresses disputes.

They have yet to finalise how the ships will be checked for weapons before returning empty to Ukrainian ports.

Ukrainian farmers who have been watching their silos fill up with grain that they cannot sell met the Istanbul deal with guarded hope.

"It gives some hope but you can't believe what the Russians say," said farmer Mykola Zaverukha.

His silos were already filled with 13,000 tonnes of grain and in danger of overflowing because this year's harvest was beginning to come in.

"Russia is unreliable, they have shown themselves to be year after year," he told AFP in the southern Mykolaiv region.

Global alarm about that grain has been accompanied by European fears that Russia is starting to use its stranglehold on energy exports as a geopolitical weapon in its standoff with the West.

The grain deal was signed one day after Russia's restart of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline eased concerns in Europe of a permanent shut off after a 10-day maintenance suspension.

Analysts say that the partial resumption of gas supplies was insufficient to ward off energy shortages in Europe this winter.

More US military aid

The ornate halls of Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace felt far removed from east Ukraine's Donbas war zone on another day of relentless shelling across the front.

Russia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone's Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk.

On Friday, the United States signed off on another $270 million in military aid to Ukraine, including rocket systems, artillery ammunition and armoured command posts.

The Ukrainian presidency said five people were killed and 10 wounded in Russian attacks around the Donetsk region the previous day.

In the Donetsk village of Chasiv Yar -- hit by a strike on July 10 that killed more than 45 people -- 64-year-old Lyudmila was gathering apricots near the wreckage.

"There is nothing anymore. The officials have left. We have to fend for ourselves to stay alive," she said, giving only her first name.

The military toll on both sides has remained speculative since Russia invaded on February 24.

US and British spy chiefs believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was suffering greater losses than expected.

Ukraine's war effort has been particularly helped in recent weeks by the delivery of US high-precision weapons that allow Kyiv to destroy Russian weapons silos at long range.
Food delivery workers across the city staged protests against the recent decision by food delivery companies to cut payments. They were also protesting against assignment of long-distance delivery tasks and setting targets that are impossible to meet.

Food delivery workers have been protesting the arbitrary rating system introduced to decide the incentives. However, things have come to the head over the last few weeks as rising input costs, especially fuel costs, and decreased earnings have forced these workers to stage protest.

Vinay Sarathi of the United Food Delivery Partners Union said hundreds of workers logged off from work to drive home their demands for better payments and working conditions.

Delivery workers are made to travel hundreds of kilometres to meet the daily targets failing which they will not get any incentive, which is essential in view of rising costs. Earlier, a delivery worker would meet the daily target by riding 100 km. Now, even after 220 km, they are finding it difficult to make the cut, he said.

Kantaraju, a food delivery worker from Yeshwantpur zone, said about 50 workers in the zone have been protesting since morning but no one from the food delivery companies have reached out to them.

He said meeting targets is like chasing shadows. We need to earn Rs 600 from food delivery to earn an incentive of Rs 200. However, the delivery assignments are assigned in such a way that we never reach the target. As a result, we are forced to take long-distance delivery orders and ride to these places at high speed to be ready for the next pickup, he said.

"It has been two years since we stopped receiving monthly incentives and yearly bonus", he added.
The scene in Rockland County, New York, on Friday morning, might well have been from a time capsule: residents rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccinated for polio, the highly infectious and sometimes fatal disease that has made an unexpected appearance in New York Citys suburbs.

The sudden interest in such inoculations came a day after county authorities announced that a local adult, unvaccinated, had tested positive for the disease. The case prompted alarm from local officials and residents, some of whom couldnt remember whether or not they received the vaccine, which has been widely available since the 1950s.

Among them was Todd Messler, 64. He was one of 18 people who received a shot at a pop-up clinic set up by the county health department in Pomona, New York, about 35 miles northwest of midtown Manhattan.

It hurt like hell, but I feel better, he said. Its definitely the way to go.

Also Read | US records first polio case in almost a decade

On Friday, state and county health officials were investigating the case, interviewing immediate family members of the patient and urging immunizations for anyone among the general public who had not received one.

Bryon Backenson, director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control at the state health department, said that there was no indication yet of additional cases, though he noted that the state was trying to acquire as many samples as possible to test and was checking wastewater for signs of the virus.

Officials were also trying to spread the word about the seriousness of the infection, as people are not familiar with polio, Backenson said, noting that he was not exactly conversant with it.

The last real polio case I saw in a person is probably pictures of FDR, he said, referring to the Depression-era president. I think for a lot of people, they dont necessarily understand the gravity of what polio actually is.

It was still not clear exactly when or where the patient had contracted the disease, though health officials believe the person was infected by someone who received the oral polio vaccine, which contains a weakened live virus.

Such vaccines have not been administered in the United States since 2000, suggesting that the virus may have originated in a location outside of the U.S. where OPV is administered, according to county officials. The oral vaccine is safe, but people who are unvaccinated can become infected if the vaccine-derived virus is circulating in a community.

County officials said the strain in question can be spread by those who come in contact with stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an infected person.

The person exhibited symptoms about a month ago, according to Rockland Countys health commissioner, who said Thursday that the patient had suffered from weakness and paralysis.

Backenson noted that only a tiny percentage of cases develop into severe paralysis, but that many of those infected with the polio virus are asymptomatic, which could make it difficult to detect to what degree the disease has spread.

Thats probably the biggest concern: You may have a lot of people out there who may never have severe paralytic polio but could potentially be spreading it to others, he said. Thats the reason for the urgency.

On Friday, Rockland County officials said that the person did not travel outside the country during what would have been the transmission window, adding that up to 95% of people infected have no symptoms, which makes tracking down the transmission difficult.

Backenson said the Rockland case had been discovered after state officials had raised the alarm about a different neurological disease  acute flaccid myelitis  which can cause poliolike symptoms in children and lead to paralysis. In June, the department had distributed a notice about the disease to clinicians, asking them to be on the lookout for cases. The patients doctor then sent a sample to state authorities, who  rather than finding AFM  discovered polio.

County officials were alerted to the positive identification of polio by state officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday night. The county is disclosing little personal information about the patient, though several local officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of patient privacy concerns, said he was a man in his 20s and a member of the countys large Orthodox Jewish community.

That community was also a nexus of a measles outbreak in 2018 and 2019, with hundreds of cases in the county and in Brooklyn, which is also home to many Orthodox residents. Rockland Countys rate of polio vaccination for small children is significantly lower than the rate for other counties outside of New York City, according to state data. (Misinformation about vaccines has circulated in the Orthodox community, although most Orthodox rabbis encourage vaccination among their congregants.)

The measles outbreak led to a new law, passed in June 2019, that ended religious exemptions for immunizations amid a heated debate in Albany, New York, a dispute that presaged even broader fights nationwide over Covid vaccinations after the pandemic began in 2020.

In Monsey, Yechiel Teichman, 27, an Orthodox father of two young daughters, said he was alarmed by the news of the polio resurgence even though he and his daughters were vaccinated.

It reminded me of elderly family members who are still suffering from polio they had as children, Teichman said, as he walked his girls, ages 2 and 4, home from getting a pizza. I advise everyone to get vaccinated.

Like other residents, Teichman also confessed to a sense of exhaustion and a lack of patience with talk of diseases, including the coronavirus and recent cases of monkeypox. Still, he said, I worry a lot more about polio than Covid. Polio could do a lot more damage.

Layla Deutsch, 21, said that though she grew up ultra-Orthodox, her parents were sufficiently terrified of polio to have her vaccinated. However, many of her friends had not been vaccinated, leaving her worried and anxious.

Its a little bit freaky, she said. Anything could come up; we dont know whats next.

Likewise, local elected officials said the community and government response to polio should be as aggressive as possible.

This cant wait, said Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, a Democrat from Rockland, who said he was shocked to be informed of the polio case. They need to be attacking this on whiteboards in a war room.

Zebrowski, who has three children, seemed frustrated that his district was once again dealing with a disease, like the measles, that had seemingly been conquered by modern medicine, only to flare up again in an unvaccinated person.

Are you going to be at risk if you take your kids to the mall? he said. We honestly havent had to worry about this for decades.

Aron B. Wieder, a member of the Rockland County Legislature who is a Hasidic Jew, said he had been encouraged by the response of residents in his community, and he encouraged unvaccinated people to be inoculated as soon as possible. This can save lives, he said.

Once one of the worlds most feared diseases, polio was largely tamed using vaccines developed in the 1950s. The last known case of polio in the United States was in 2013, believed to have been brought in from abroad. The last case that originated in the U.S. was in 1979, according to the CDC.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and 10 cabinet ministers survived no-confidence votes in parliament on Saturday, with the government emerging on top in Prayuth's last major test ahead of a general election due within 11 months.

The 68-year-old former army chief, in power since a coup he led in 2014, received 256 votes in favour and 206 against with nine abstentions, securing his position as premier until his term ends in March. Three deputy prime ministers and seven other cabinet members also survived the censure motion.

The Opposition had needed more than 239 of the 477 parliamentary votes to oust the prime minister.

"During the censure debate in the past few days, the issues raised by the Opposition contain some incorrect information and the government has used this opportunity to clarify things," said government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana.

"Now that the censure debate is completed we urged the Opposition to work with us for the people and the country."

The prime minister and 10 cabinet members underwent four days of grilling live on television from an Opposition that accused them of corruption and economic mismanagement, in an effort to discredit the ruling 17-party coalition before the next polls.

It was the fourth time Prayuth's performance had been put to a vote since he was chosen by the house to remain prime minister in 2019, following an election the Opposition said was held under rules designed to keep him in power. Prayuth has rejected that assertion.

Despite recent opinion polls showing his popularity declining, Prayuth had been expected to prevail, according to political analysts, some of whom saw the censure motion as a move by the Opposition to court public support ahead of the next election.

"We know that in parliament we cannot compete but we have faith in the people because we did not lose and the deciding factor will be the election," the leader of the Opposition bloc, Chonlanan Srikaew, told reporters.

Youth-led protest groups that emerged in July 2020 to challenge the government gathered in front of parliament through the censure debate and held a parallel vote of no-confidence resulting in 16,690 votes against the government and only 251 in favour.

Prayuth has given no indication of when an election will be called.
After a storm with 50 mph winds went through Birmingham on Thursday night, a large tree fell on a residence in Alabama, killing two small children and wounding at least three others.

Shortly after 5:30 pm, Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service was called to the house, an official informed regional media. Reporters were informed by Fire Battalion Chief Sebastian Carrillo that a large tree had fallen onto the house when first responders arrived.

Tree Falls Onto Alabama Home, Killing 2 Babies

Jalaia Ford, 3 months old, and Journee Jones, 11 months old, were rescued from the house and sent to a hospital where they were later pronounced dead. Another individual trapped in the devastation was an 11-year-old kid. As rescuers waded through debris to rescue a second lady from the house, one woman was rushed to the hospital, an official said. According to Carrillo, the 11-year-old and the two ladies were both rushed to a hospital with "severe" wounds.

What the relationship was among the family members is still unknown. On the first floor, the two ladies were discovered together entrapped under the tree. To prevent additional harm to them, authorities had to cut beneath the floor that was directly above them. Five further occupants of the house were able to flee uninjured, as per Fox News.

The National Weather Service in Birmingham reported that winds reached up to 70 mph. Additionally, according to AL.com, more than 50,000 individuals were left without electricity. Social media users posted images of collapsed automobiles with trees on top of them. There was also an extensive flooding as seen by video of the roadways being overwhelmed by the water.

Dramatic images showed the Hoover skyline being illuminated by lightning. A severe thunderstorm watch would remain in effect until 1am local time on Friday, according to meteorologists.

Read Also: Rio De Janeiro Gang Raid: 18 Killed Including Police Officer, Innocent Woman in Brazil's Major Deadly Encounter

Tree Collapses Over a Camper Van, Killing a Man

Forecasters warned that places including Greenville, Thomasville, Monroeville, and Hattiesburg might experience hail up to half an inch in diameter and speeds up to 65 mph. As they approach the shore, storms are anticipated to gradually diminish.

Days before millions of Americans are expected to bake in temperatures exceeding 90F, storms hit the country. In more than 24 states, there are heat advisories for almost 100 million people. On Friday, temperatures might get as high as the low 100s, according to forecasters.

Heat-related health emergencies have already been declared by authorities in Philadelphia and Washington, DC. Additionally, Jackie Bray, the director of New York's emergency services and homeland security division, has warned citizens to remain indoors.

During a severe storm in Minnesota, Mark Bunney, 72, was killed when a tree collapsed over his camper van. According to the Douglas Sheriff's Office, a storm caused a tree to fall onto a woman's camper, and she called 911 yelling for aid. Mark and his wife Debra, both 66, were found locked inside by police who rushed to the scene. Due to the strong winds, many trees were uprooted, including one that was more than 50 years old, The Sun reported.

Related Article: Maine Authorities Release Chilling Images of Missing Parents, 2-Year-Old Girl, Who Never Returned from Camping Trip

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Ghana announced the countrys first outbreak of Marburg virus disease after two people who were not related died on June 27 and 28. Word of a new outbreak of a lethal disease caused by viral infections added to the concerns of a public weary from battling the coronavirus pandemic and recently alarmed by the spread of monkeypox and a new case of polio.

Doctors and public health experts in the country immediately started searching for anyone who had been exposed and investigating the cause of the spread in an effort to contain infection. For now, health researchers in Ghana and in other parts of the world said that there was no indication that the virus had spread further.

What is Marburg virus disease?

Marburg was first detected in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, in what is now Serbia  in cases that were linked to African green monkeys imported from Uganda. Other cases have since been found in Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, according to the World Health Organization. Last months cases in Ghana were the first recorded in that country.

Also Read Monkeypox: From beginnings in Africa to global spread

The Marburg virus is the pathogen that causes Marburg virus disease in humans, health experts said.

There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for the disease, medical experts said, but hydrating patients and treating their specific symptoms can improve their chances of survival.

The disease is clinically similar to Ebola in its spread, symptoms and progression, although it is caused by a different virus, according to WHO. In Marburgs case, fruit bats are considered to be the hosts of the virus, although researchers say it does not cause them illness. Researchers believe that Ebola is likely carried by bats or by nonhuman primates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even though it has not spread widely, Marburg has been deadly, with case fatality rates ranging from 24% to 88%, depending on which strain people contract and the management of cases, according to WHO. Ebola case fatality rates are nearly the same.

Marburg virus can spread through direct contact with blood, secretions or other bodily fluids from infected people, according to WHO. It can also spread through contact with contaminated surfaces and materials like bedding or clothing.

What are the symptoms of Marburg virus disease?

Marburg can cause severe viral hemorrhagic fever, which interferes with the bloods ability to clot. The incubation period ranges from two to 21 days, and symptoms begin abruptly with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise, according to WHO. Other symptoms can include muscle aches, diarrhea, nausea, lethargy and bleeding through vomit, feces and from other body parts.

Marburg is not contagious during the incubation period, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Severely ill patients often die eight or nine days after the onset of symptoms, according to WHO.

Also Read Why is monkeypox evolving so fast?

Mortality is very high, said Dr. John Amuasi, who leads the global health and infectious disease research group at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine in Kumasi, Ghana. And theres no asymptomatic Marburg.

A patient can confirm their condition is Marburg through antibody, antigen and polymerase chain reaction tests, health organizations said.

How many cases have there been this year?

There have only been two cases of Marburg virus disease this year, both reported in Ghana. The people who contracted the virus were not related and they were in different parts of the Ashanti region of Ghana, Amuasi said. They both died.

Both patients were men who worked on farms, he said. One was a 26-year-old farmhand who had recently been to a different part of the country for work, and the other was a 56-year-old subsistence farmer. Contact tracing by local authorities led them to conclude that the men had not been in the same places.

Fruit bats, known to be the carriers of the virus, are common in the Ashanti region.

How does the outbreak compare to previous ones?

More than 200 people died in an outbreak in Angola from 2004 to 2005 and more than 100 died of the disease in Congo from 1998 to 2000, according to the CDC. Other outbreaks of Marburg have not involved as many cases.

In 2021, there was one case in Guinea, which resulted in that persons death, and three of four people who had the disease in Uganda in 2017 also died, according to the CDC.

Experts want to know how the two people contracted the virus in Ghana, said Dr. Francis Kasolo, the WHO representative to the country.

The current investigation is not only focusing on contacts, Kasolo said. We are also going back to medical records in these areas to see if there were unusual events in terms of cases that presented with symptoms. That is why we are holding back in saying that this is just a one-off event.

Should we be worried?

The CDCs office in Ghana is working with local health authorities to assist with testing and epidemiological investigations, said Dr. Jonathan Towner, who leads the Virus Host Ecology Section at the CDC.

People in the United States are not at high risk for exposure, Towner said.

Its a very, very low risk probability at this point that there will be some travelers, for example, coming into the country with Marburg right now, he said.

So far, Amuasi said, the public health response has been appropriate and transparent. Contacts of the two infected people were monitored, particularly in the 21 days after the two died.
Breaching the party stand seems to have become a habit for MLAs belonging to the two main Opposition parties in Assam: Congress and Badaruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF.

The alleged cross-voting during the elections for two Rajya Sabha members in March and the President's election on July 18 made the picture clearer when opposition MLAs voted for NDA candidates, contrary to the stand taken by their parties.

In the Rajya Sabha elections held for two members from Assam in March, the NDA candidates won easily even as the ruling alliance did not have the numbers for the second seat. Both Congress and AIUDF had blamed each other and alleged that their members cross-voted despite an understanding for voting for the candidates put up by the Opposition.

Also Read: Himanta claims 15-16 Assam Congress MLAs voted for NDA nominee in Prez poll

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday claimed that NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu received 104 votes even as the ruling alliance had 79 votes and two MLAs remained absent. He claimed that at least 15 to 16 Congress MLAs had voted for Murmu. This despite the fact that the Opposition parties in Assam had promised that all their votes would go to UPA candidate, Yashwant Sinha.

Since he became the CM in May last year, Sarma has several times claimed that he still has "MLA friends" in Congress. Sarma, who was a senior minister in Congress government led by late Tarun Gogoi for years, switched over to BJP along with a few other MLAs in August 2015, months before the Assembly elections. BJP wrested power from Congress in 2016 and retained power for the second term in May 2021. Several MLAs from Congress including ministers, who are believed to be Sarma's loyalists, also switched over to BJP.

President of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee, Bhupen Borah told reporters in Guwahati on Saturday that six Congress MLAs cross-voted for Murmu. "There is nothing to hide. I will raise this with the party high command later this month. We can't stay with the pro-BJP MLAs and we must take a decision," he said.

Congress and AIUDF have 27 and 15 MLA respectively in the 126-member Assembly. Although AIUDF has not made any reaction to the CM's claim about cross voting, Congress leader, Gaurav Gogoi on Friday claimed that many AIUDF MLAs take Sarma's directive before casting their votes.
The Delhi BJP on Saturday held massive protests outside the residence of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia against the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) new liquor policy.

The protesters were detained by the police, news agency ANI reported.

#WATCH | Delhi BJP leader and workers protest against the new Liquor Policy of the AAP Government, outside the residence of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. The protesters are being detained by Police. pic.twitter.com/wammLOVxFC  ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2022

More to follow...
Chinks in the Opposition unity came to the fore again following cross-voting in several states in favour of Droupadi Murmu during the presidential election and the Trinamool Congress' decision to abstain from the vice presidential election.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC), while announcing its decision, said it does not agree with the way the Opposition candidate was decided without keeping it in the loop. Leaders of Opposition parties, however, contended that they were in touch with Mamata Banerjee on the issue.

Terming the TMC's decision "disappointing", the Opposition's candidate for the vice presidential election Margaret Alva said this is not the time for "whataboutery, ego or anger".

Also Read | Margaret Alva describes TMC's decision to abstain from VP polls as 'disappointing'; says not the 'time for ego'

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said he will reach out to Banerjee on the issue and try to convince her to support Alva's candidature.

According to sources, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Mamata Banerjee on the night of July 15 where the TMC supremo is learnt to have given no indication that she would not support the joint opposition candidate.

Later, Gandhi again tried to establish contact with her on July 16 night after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) declared then West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar as its vice presidential candidate, but Banerjee could not be reached, sources said.

They also said that Sharad Pawar also tried to reach out to Banerjee on July 17 evening after Margaret Alva's name was announced but was unable to do so.

Pawar told reporters after the meeting of 17 opposition parties that he was in touch with Banerjee as well as Arvind Kejriwal, claiming "both are on board" with the Opposition.

CPI's D Raja said even during the meeting of opposition leaders, Pawar contacted Banerjee but was told that she is in an official online meeting.

He said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also spoke to TMC MPs and it was understood that the ruling party in West Bengal would come in support of joint opposition candidate Margaret Alva.

"This (TMC's decision) definitely shows or exposes cracks in the Opposition unity. But it is now for Mamata Banerjee to answer what kind of message she is giving out. She has to justify her political plank and why she is going away from Opposition," Raja said.

A sizeable number of MLAs cross-voted in support of President-elect Droupadi Murmu, defying their parties' stated support for Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, sources have said.

BJP sources said around 125 MLAs cross-voted in Murmu's support. The counting of votes also suggests that Murmu was the beneficiary of cross-voting from 17 MPs.

Assam, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh assemblies witnessed a significant number of Opposition MLAs voting for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's candidate.

Around 22 MLAs in Assam and 20 in Madhya Pradesh assemblies are likely to have cross-voted. Six opposition MLAs each from Bihar and Chhattisgarh, four from Goa and 10 from Gujarat may also have voted for Murmu.

Murmu's tribal background appeared to have drawn support from Opposition MLAs from Jharkhand too, where the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had already announced support for her.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that of the 22 opposition MLAs of the state who voted for Droupadi Murmu in the presidential election defying their party line, 15-16 are from the Congress.

Of the 22 "extra" votes that the NDA candidate received, "15 to 16 are from the Congress and the remaining may be from the AIUDF or Independent", Sarma said.

Assam state Congress president Bhupen Bora admitted that there was cross-voting in the presidential poll and claimed that at least six MLAs from his party voted in favour of Murmu, defying its stated support for the opposition candidate.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has also claimed that three state legislators from the Opposition side cross-voted in favour of the NDA's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Friday claimed that several TMC MLAs and MPs voted in favour of President-elect Droupadi Murmu.

Of the 291 West Bengal MLAs who voted in the presidential poll, 216 were cast in favour of opposition presidential nominee Yashwant Sinha, while 71 votes were cast in favour of Murmu. Four votes were declared invalid.
After Droupadi Murmu, the National Democratic Alliances (NDAs) Presidential candidate, unexpectedly received a Kerala MLAs vote, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala was jubilant.

In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, NDA has no representation. Hence, all votes were expected to go to Opposition parties candidate, Yashwant Sinha. But Murmu got one vote from Kerala, with a value of 152, even though she never even visited Kerala for campaigning.

State leaders of Congress and CPM maintained there was no chance of any of their MLAs voting for Murmu.

The one vote for the BJPs Presidential candidate came at a time when Congress and the CPM have been accusing each other of being part of the RSS-BJP nexus. And, because the voting for the Presidential election was through a secret ballot, both parties could safely maintain that their MLAs did not vote for Murmu.

Also read: Droupadi Murmu wins presidential polls with over 64% votes

Amidst this, BJP leaders in Kerala claimed that the one vote to Murmu from Keraladespite having no BJP MLAs  revealed a tacit support for Narendra Modi government. Minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan said that the single vote was a message against the blind anti-Modi stand being maintained by the CPM and the Congress in Kerala.

BJP state president K Surendran also said that the one vote to Murmu was the only positive vote from the state, and was more valuable than the 139 votes that went to Sinha.

Murmu scripted history on Thursday by becoming the country's first tribal President, defeating Opposition's joint candidate Yashwant Sinha in an election where the MPs and MLAs voted to pick the country's constitutional head. The BJP neither has representation in the state Assembly nor in the Lok Sabha. The single vote polled to Murmu from Kerala has kicked up a debate in the Left-ruled state as the BJP valued it higher than the other 139 votes that went to Sinha while the ruling CPI(M) and opposition Congress did not want to pin the blame on anyone without knowing facts.

Reportedly, Janata Dal (Secular), a coalition partner of the ruling CPM, was in fix. While the partys national leadership supported Murmu, state leaders had maintained that being a part of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala, the two JD(S) MLAs would support Sinha.

Also read: Congratulations pour in from states for Droupadi Murmu as she wins Presidential election

JD(S) state leader Neelalohithadasan Nadar told DH there was no chance either of the MLAs voted for Murmu. He said it was decided that the state unit would stay with LDFs decision, especially since the JD(S) won Kerala elections with LDFs support.

Although some sources pointed out there were some differences of opinion within the CPM and the Congress over Sinhas candidature because he used to be a BJP leader at one point.

Responding to the matter, senior Congress leader V D Satheesan said no one actually knows what had happened in the presidential election. "It is not right to insult anyone without knowing the things properly," the Leader of Opposition told reporters in Kozhikode. When the media asked whether the ruling CPI(M) would look into any suspected incident of cross voting and probe who did it, party state secretary Balakrishnan asked how could it be done.

"If you(media) know a way please let us know," he told reporters here. When asked whether the party doubts any particular MLA, the Left leader said it was not right to blame anyone without any proof. "Normally you people (reporters) guess and write about such matters. But in this case, I couldn't find any such articles. CPI (M) MLAs will not do this," he added.

(With PTI inputs)
A man in his 20s, from Derry, has died following a two-car Road Traffic Collision in County Louth early on Friday morning.

The incident happened on the N33 at Richardstown, Dunleer, at around 5am.

The man was a front-seat passenger in one of the cars involved and was pronounced dead at the scene.

His remains have been removed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, where a post-mortem examination will be carried out at a later date.

Two other men in the car, also believed to be from Derry, received non-life threatening injuries and are being treated in hospital in Drogheda.

A woman, who was the driver and only person in the other car involved, has been brought to the Mater Hospital in Dublin, where she is said to be in a critical condition.

The road is closed for a technical examination and local diversions are in place.

Gardai are appealing for any witnesses to contact Drogheda Garda Station on 041 9874200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.

They are particularly keen to hear from those with camera footage and who were travelling on the N33 at Richardstown between 4.40am and 5.15am.
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The Michigan-headquartered automobile manufacturer is reportedly slicing off one-fourth of its workforce to focus on electrification.

Amidst the increasing demand for electric vehicles or EVs, Ford is preparing to lay off up to 8,000 salaried workers or about one-fourth of its current workforce in the US, reports say. The Blue Oval is hoping to reduce $3 billion in operational costs by 2026 to help fund its push into manufacturing electric vehicles.

According to The Verge, Bloomberg reported that while the Ford layouts have not been finalized and may still change, the 119-year-old automobile manufacturer is looking to slice off its workforce from Ford Blue, the company's legacy internal combustion engine business.

In 2021, Ford split into two entities, namely Ford Blue, which covers ICE vehicles, and Ford Model E, which is focused on electric vehicles and software projects. The company said at the time that Ford Blue would generate the revenue for Ford Model E to continue developing and innovating new products.

Ford is made up of about 31,000 workers in the US, and around 8,000 are in danger of losing their jobs in the face of an impending recession.

Auto Manufacturer CEO Did Not Deny Ford Layoffs for Shift to Electric Vehicles

On Thursday morning, Ford CEO Jim Farley sent a video message to employees in which he did not deny the layoffs report, Newsweek reported. In it, Farley addressed plans that Ford was looking to cut 8,000 employees in North America and did not deny the rumors.

Farley allegedly said in the video message that reports on the Ford layoffs were creating high anxiety and that the company needed to reduce structural costs in order to compete in the market. Ford spokesperson Mark Truby told the Detroit Free Press that he could not confirm the Bloomberg report on the layoff of 8,000 employees.

The news comes after Michigan awarded Ford a $100 million tax-funded incentive package in June as part of a plan to provide more jobs in the state. Farley previously expressed plans to reduce billions in costs by 2026 and transform Ford Blue into "the profit and cash engine for the entire enterprise."

Read Also: Ford CEO Jim Farley Wants ALL EV Sales To Be Online - But Why?

Who will be affected by the Ford Layoffs?

Bloomberg's report revealed that the Ford layoffs will affect several operational functions in the automotive manufacturer's white-collar workforce and may be rolled out in phases. The Ford layoffs will likely begin this summer, with most of the cuts occurring in the US.

Ford spokesman T.R. Reid said in an email to DFP that the company is "reshaping our work and modernizing our organization across all of the automotive business units and the entire company." In April, the company cut 580 engineering jobs and earlier this month, followed by a layoff of about 150 workers in Ford's driverless startup called Argo AI.

Back in March, Farley increased Ford's EV spending from $30 billion to $50 billion through 2026. He also announced a plan to build two million electric vehicles annually beginning in 2026. In 2021, the company sold 27,140 EVs.

Farley admitted in February's Wolfe Research auto conference that Ford was overstaffed and that workforce reduction is key to increasing profits.

Related Article: Ford EV Sales in the US Skyrockets by 77% - Thanks to F-150 Lightning?
Kyprios and Order Of Australia will spearhead what could be a select Qatar Goodwood Festival team for Aidan OBrien.

The Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup is Kyprios target after he announced his arrival as the latest star of the staying scene with victory in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last month, with Stradivarius and Princess Zoe poised to renew rivalries while reigning champion Trueshan could also lie in wait on Tuesday.

Order Of Australia returned to form with a Group Two win at the Curragh last Sunday and is primed to step back up to the highest level in Wednesdays Qatar Sussex Stakes  in which the unbeaten Baaeed and 2000 Guineas winner Coroebus are two of the headline horses.

OBrien said: We are happy with Kyprios and the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup has always been the plan since Ascot.

The plan is for Order Of Australia to run in the Sussex Stakes, provided everything goes well between now and then. He has come out of the Curragh well.

OBrien has a clutch of entries across the week, with Concert Hall set to tackle Thursdays Qatar Nassau Stakes after finishing fourth in the Belmont Oaks earlier in the month while New York City could move up in trip for the seven-furlong World Pool Lennox Stakes after coming home last in the Sapphire Stakes over the minimum trip last Saturday.

Irish Oaks fourth Emily Dickinson is another who could make a swift return stepping back up to 14 furlongs in the Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes.

The Ballydoyle handler said: The plan at the moment is for Concert Hall to run in the Nassau Stakes. She is just back from America and seems very well, so we are thinking of letting her take her chance.

New York City has a couple of entries and, if he is to go anywhere, it would probably be the World Pool Lennox Stakes. We will speak to Ryan (Moore) closer to the time and see what the race looks like.

Emily Dickinson is a possible for the Lillie Langtry Stakes. She only ran last weekend and we are just going to see how she is, but she is in good form and the trip will suit.

OBrien has three contenders for the Japan Racing Association Vintage Stakes headed by last Saturdays impressive Curragh scorer Hans Andersen.

Age Of Kings was a beaten favourite in the Tyros Stakes on Thursday evening, with his other entry Greenland yet to get his head in front.

OBrien added: We have not decided about the Vintage Stakes yet.

Hans Andersen only won last weekend whereas Greenland is still a maiden and the other horse (Age Of Kings) ran at Leopardstown last night. We will decide nearer the time.

The Vintage Stakes is a prestigious race and we like to have something good for it. If a horse does go to stud, it looks very good on their CV.
Google fired its AI researcher Blake Lemoine, who recently claimed that its LaMDA or Language Model for Dialogue Applications gained sentience or human-like characteristics.

The renowned search engine firm initially put Lemoine on paid administrative leave.

(Photo : Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

BERLIN, GERMANY - JUNE 09: A participant wearing an earring walks past a Google logo at a stand at the 2022 Re:publica digital society festival on June 09, 2022 in Berlin, Germany.

It comes after the AI researcher allegedly breached its confidentiality agreement as he has reportedly reached out to the government regarding what he believes to be the sentience of the LaMDA, as per a news story by The Verge.

And now, Lemoine says that Google has officially let go of him.

Google Fires AI Researcher Blake Lemoine

According to the latest report by the Big Technology newsletter, the now ex-Google researcher, Lemoine, revealed that the tech giant has fired him.

The news report says that the AI researcher informed Big Technology that Google dismissed him after weeks of being underpaid administrative leave.

Lemoine disclosed t during the taping of the upcoming episode of the Big Technology Podcast that Google fired him.

The spokesperson of Google, Brain Gabriel, swiftly confirmed to The Verge that the renowned tech giant has already formally let go of its former AI researcher, who believes its AI chatbot is sentient.

The Google spokesperson also says in his email to the online news outlet that they "wish Blake well."

(Photo : KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

A picture taken on April 15, 2022 in Moscow shows the US multinational technology and Internet-related services company Google's logo on a tablet screen.

But besides that, the search engine firm also states that its former AI researcher "persistently violated clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information."

The Google spokesperson further states that they have reviewed the claims of Lemoine "extensively," but have concluded that they were "wholly unfounded."

The tech behemoth discloses that it has clarified it with him for several months, noting that discussions such as this are part of the open work culture at Google.

The tech giant further reiterates that its LaMDA has been subjected to a total of 11 "distinct reviews."

And on top of that, the renowned firm adds that it has already published a research paper, which explicitly details its "responsible development."

Read Also: Google Wallet Rolls Out For Wear OS; Expect More Features Soon

Google AI Researcher Who Claims LaMDA is Sentient

As per the latest report by Engadget, the ex-researcher of the tech giant reached out to the Washington Post last June, claiming that one of their AI projects has become human-like.

Lemoine, who was part of the Responsible AI project at Google, believes that LaMDA, a conversational chatbot, has become sentient.

The now former AI researcher of the tech giant also stated in an interview with Wired that he believes that "LaMDA is a person."

Engadget also notes that Lemoine subsequently wondered if the Google AI has a soul.

After he shared his claims to the Washington Post, Google immediately suspended him, and now the tech giant has confirmed that they are parting ways.

Related Article: Google Internally Announces Temporary Hiring Freeze - How Long Will It Last?
A recent court filing stated that Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Meta Platforms Inc., and Sheryl Sandberg, the departing chief operating officer (COO), are scheduled to respond to questions from lawyers as part of the San Francisco federal court litigation regarding the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal.

(Photo : Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Meta Executives Will Give Depositions on September

According to a joint filing late Tuesday, attorneys for the plaintiffs and Meta-owned Facebook have agreed that the plaintiffs' counsel can depose Zuckerberg for six hours and Sandberg for five hours as part of the lawsuit, Reuters and The Verge reported.

The parties also concurred that the plaintiffs will get three hours to examine Javier Olivan, the company's chief growth officer who will succeed Sandberg as COO.

As per the filing, the case has depositions set through Sept. 20.

What Did Facebook Allegedly Violate?

Reuters said that the now-defunct British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica and others were given users' personal information by Facebook, according to the four-year-old proposed class action lawsuit.

In 2018, The Guardian reported that the company had collaborated with the Donald Trump campaign team and obtained access to the personal information of 50 million Facebook users, which was then used to profile voters. The outlet also mentioned that the social media giant was also involved in the U.K.'s 2016 Brexit referendum.

Regarding the underlying lawsuit, Facebook has stated that its privacy practices "do not support any legal claims" and are consistent with its disclosures.

The parties' case management statement on Tuesday comes amid the discovery that has been tainted by plaintiffs' claims of misconduct in the litigation.

In a recent sanctions motion, the plaintiffs' attorneys demanded $854,000 in fees and costs from Facebook, Gibson Dunn, and the firm's case-leading partner, Orin Snyder. In a response filing, the company and firm stated that no sanctionable conduct had occurred.

Read More: Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg is Leaving the Tech Giant: Here's What She Has to Say About It

Recent lawsuit attempts by at least one other plaintiff to force Zuckerberg to respond to legal inquiries on the Cambridge Analytica incident were unsuccessful, as per Reuters.

Plaintiffs have collected hundreds of exhibits from the tech giant dating back 13 years during the course of the case's discovery process. Facebook has retaliated against the in-depth inquiry, calling the plaintiffs' actions "constant and continuing overreach" in a court filing.

The Guardian said the lawsuit might shed new light on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which devastated the company's reputation and resulted in congressional hearings where Zuckerberg was interrogated for hours about Facebook's data privacy practices.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) imposed a record $5 billion fine on the company in 2019 as a result of the scandal, but detractors have advocated for greater legal accountability, pointing out that financial penalties are insignificant for the behemoth company.

Possible Witnesses

According to filings, additional witnesses may be called during the depositions, including platform partnership executive Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, former director of product management Eddie O'Neil, and Facebook privacy officer Rob Sherman.

A witness speaks under oath at a deposition in a civil matter while being recorded exactly by a court reporter. The witness is testifying under penalty of perjury because the testimony was given under oath.

Related Article: Meta is Investigating Sheryl Sandberg's Use of Company Resources
Township in E China turns into globally renowned violin manufacturing center

11:29, July 23, 2022 By Wang Hanchao, Bai Guangdi ( People's Daily

When farmers in Huangqiao township learned to carve the very first batch of violin scrolls 60 years ago, no one was expecting that the small township in Taixing, east China's Jiangsu province would become a globally renowned manufacturing center of the stringed instrument.

Xu Xiaofeng, a provincial-level artisan, and senior technician and chief violin maker of Finelegend in Huangqiao township, Taixing, east China's Jiangsu province, measures the position of violin sound columns. (People's Daily Online/Tang Dehong)

Today, the township, though a latecomer to development, accounts for 70 percent of China's violin production and over half of the world's. Besides, it also produces around 700,000 guitars annually.

There are over 230 enterprises in the township engaged in violin manufacturing, and more than 30,000 people out of the township's 200,000 residents are working in the industry.

The township's history of violin making started with two former workers of the Shanghai Violin Factory, who returned to their hometown Huangqiao in 1962 and taught locals the skills of scroll carving - the basics of violin manufacturing.

The unplanned craft grew into a business. In 1971, an instrument factory was established in a township near Huangqiao to supply violin parts for manufacturers in Shanghai. Fourteen years later, the factory became a branch of the Shanghai Violin Factory, and the two signed a 10-year contract.

Li Shu, then manager of the factory, went to Frankfurt, Germany in 1992 for an international musical instrument exposition, where he found a big gap between his factory and its global peers. Therefore, he brought home violins made in Germany, Japan and South Korea and showed these foreign products to his employees, in the hope to improve the quality of their own products.

When he attended another exposition, he confidently introduced his violins to various producers and offered a competitive price of $15 for each violin. The appearance of the Huangqiao violin left a deep impression on the international instrument market.

A worker of Finelegend in Huangqiao township, Taixing, east China's Jiangsu province installs a bridge to a violin. (People's Daily Online/Tang Dehong)

In 1995, the 10-year deal with Shanghai Violin Factory expired and the factory started soaring. In that year, the factory made over 60,000 violins independently, outpacing some of the best violin manufacturers in Shanghai and Guangzhou to become the largest violin manufacturer in China.

Also in that year, the factory embraced a new opportunity by establishing a joint venture Finelegend with American company AXL Beats Instrumentals.

The cooperation straightened the sales channel. Over half of Finelegend's products are sold to the European and American markets through AXL Beats Instrumentals. In addition, the international industrial standards are also brought to Finelegend through the American company.

Thanks to reliable quality and favorable prices, violins produced in Huangqiao township are welcomed by the international market. At the peak of its production capacity, Finelegend had over 1,100 employees and could produce more than 300,000 violins in a year. The joint venture nurtured more than 60 managers of violin factories in Huangqiao township. The township even attracted an enterprise from the UK to establish its factory in Huangqiao.

As violin learning got popular in China, more factories in Huangqiao started making middle- and high-end products for innovative development.

Today, almost every student in Huangqiao's primary schools can play an instrument under the citys musical influence. So far, over 85 percent of the students in primary and junior high schools in the township have learned to play an instrument, such as gourd flute, ukulele, guitar and violin. Even lobby managers and waiters in a random hotel can establish a mini band. Musical instrument performances are always seen on the street.

The instrument makers in Huangqiao, turning from farmers who knew nothing about music to workers making instruments that are popular around the world, are contributing to the music dreams of the next generation and making instruments more and more common in daily life.

Huangqiao is a major host of the international instruments playing day of China, which falls on every June 21. On this day, local people would play all types of instruments everywhere in the township, together with musicians from all over the world. It has developed into a festival for the township over the past seven years.

"Music will be a rigid demand in the future. We hope that instruments can be as indispensable as furniture in China, so that music would be brought to more and more people," said Li Xiaochen, head of Finelegend.

A worker of Finelegend in Huangqiao township, Taixing, east China's Jiangsu province spray-paints a violin. (People's Daily Online/Tang Dehong)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
The International Space Station (ISS) might not have an immediate replacement once it retires.

NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) recently warned the space agency of a "precarious trajectory" wherein a replacement for the ISS may not be fully operational or even in orbit at all by the time the aging space station is deorbited, per Space News.

NASA plans to retire the ISS by the end of the 2020s, at which point, the space station would be at least 24 years old.

NASA's 'Precarious Trajectory' Details

At a July 21 meeting, members of NASA's ASAP voiced their concern that the space agency might not have a replacement for the ISS in time for the aging space station's retirement, which could cause a gap in American human spaceflight in low Earth orbit.

To be more concrete, NASA's ASAP is worried that the commercial stations whose development NASA is supporting may not be ready in time to replace the ISS in Earth's orbit.

The development of these commercial stations is also affected by insufficient budgets that could delay their launch, which may exacerbate the gap between the ISS and the US' new space station.

As such, the efforts NASA is doing to switch from the ISS to commercial space stations, the Commercial Leo Earth Orbit (LEO) Destinations, are on a "precarious trajectory" to be realized in time and within the projected resources needed to maintain a NASA LEO presence. This gap between space stations is an area of concern for ASAP, according to its chair, Patricia Sanders.

You may remember that NASA selected two proposals from teams led by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and from Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman in December 2021 to give them funding and support to further develop their commercial space stations.

However, NASA plans to issue formal requirements that these space stations are ready to use in late 2024, a plan which may leave Blue Origin and Nanoracks, and Northrop with not enough time to fully develop them, per panel member Amy Donahue.

Read More: ISS Experiments: Here Are What Astronauts in Space Will Work on Next; Cancer Drug Delivery and More





"There is very little margin for ensuring a continuous US presence in LEO is maintained," Donahue said.

She then stated that the current schedule requires speeding up development at a pace faster than any other human spaceflight program since Project Mercury during the space race.

Donahue is concerned about the things NASA might do to mitigate the risk of failing to meet its schedule, which is the panel's concern from a risk perspective.

Another problem is funding. Space.com mentioned in its article that the transition from ISS to commercial stations might not have enough funding to keep them in space.

Donahue, again, said that if interest is low, the space agency may have to find funding to serve as a "bridge" while commercial stations begin operations during the transition period.

She also added that maintaining a continuous human presence in orbit now and into the future will require a "significant government investment."

The First Space Gap

Donahue and Sanders' concerns aren't without merit. NASA suffered its first gap with the retirement of its space shuttles, which NASA used to send astronauts to space in the past.

Astronomy.com stated that the space agency was forced to retire these spacecraft due to high costs, slow turnaround, few customers, and safety problems involving the vehicle itself and NASA at the time.

Unfortunately, when the shuttles were retired in 2012, NASA astronauts were forced to go to space using Russian rockets, which is a situation many were uncomfortable with.

Related Article: Is the ISS an Ideal Place to Grow Billions of Stem Cells? Scientists Seem to Think So
KERRY-based Breda Joy wrote Under A Skellig Sky during the heatwave of 2018 and set it in that summer, drawing directly from the weather conditions as she wrote.

A romantic comedy which doles out quick-fire laughs as well as confronting issues such as rural crime and depopulation, it makes for an intriguing mix that reels in the reader.

As part of my research, I took a boat trip to the Skellig on a day when the sea was like a billiard table and the sky was a sapphire blue, Breda says. I had been on the island previously but it was my first time visiting when the puffins were in residence and it was wonderful to see them.

That idyllic day informed my descriptions of the island and sets the background to the visit of my two main characters there.

When planning the novel, she explains she set out to write a romantic comedy to provide readers with some escapism.

I wanted to write a kind of Kerry-based Fawlty Towers, she says. Humour is very much at the heart of both my fiction and journalism. When I want to get a serious message across, humour is my lure.

My debut novel, Eat The Moon, was set in 1969 and had a serious theme. I wanted to try something entirely different and contemporary for the second book.

I had quite a lot of experience in working in a farm guesthouse as a secondary school student and as a college student.

Breda drew heavily on those experiences for inspiration.

Under A Skellig Sky by Breda Joy

One memorable little character from a work stint in the 1980s was a Dublin girl aged six or seven who was filled with boundless curiosity about farm animals, she says. She wanted to know why the sheep didnt have names.

This fragment inspired the child character, Lisa, who took wings as the book progressed.

Im both amused and intrigued by the challenges faced by returned emigrants as they try to settle back into a rural community. My main character, Carol, returns to Kerry after a nomadic existence. She is filled with good intentions but things go drastically wrong.

All is not lost, though, because she finds romance with an unlikely love who checks into the guesthouse she is running.

Carol OConnells return to Glenoshen overlooking the famed craggy Skelligs turns into one more in a series of halfbaked decisions that pass for her life. Through the sultry heat of that summer, we read how she searches for peace to recover from a broken relationship.

The timing couldnt be worse, as her sleepy valley homeplace has woken up to Star Wars fever and mass tourism. An experiment with Airbnb in her mothers old farm guesthouse on the Wet Atlantic Way, a disastrous reunion with an ex and a rescue of a troubled friend set her tumbling through the year.

Carols saga keeps the reader intrigued as a trip to the stunning Skellig Michael with a mystery guest called Oliver turns the tide in the love stakes for Carol.

We are drawn into Carols new life. Does she find new love - or a new way of living?

Using her mothers old guesthouse as a bolt hole, Carol walks the tight rope of catering for international guests while following her dream to become a successful artist before she hits 40.

One of the bright lights under the ever-changing Skellig sky is a mystery New Zealand guest called Oliver. Tensions rise with the arrival of a eccentric bingo-loving B&B inspector who sets all the guest- house owners on edge.

Friendship and the promise of a new relationship sustain Carol when she unwittingly introduces danger to the valley through her venture into tourist accommodation.

Carols mother, Mary, stands for all the strong Irish women who carved out businesses of their own from farm guesthouses, says Breda.

She is one of my favourite characters in the book because she is independent-minded and shrewd. She plays a two-hander with a workman, Timmy, who epitomises the wit and colourful idiom of sSouth Kerry.

Breda became familiar with the Kerry lingo.

A short stint at the writers and artists retreat, Cill Rialaig, sharpened my ear for this rich use of language.

Under A Skellig Sky is a charming and humourous read with intriguing story strands throughout the plot that keep the pages turning swiftly.

Breda has previously published two non-fiction books, Hidden Kerry: The Keys To The Kingdom and The Wit & Wisdom Of Kerry with Mercier Press in Cork.

She published Brian Crowley: Against The Odds, A Biography with Brandon Press in 1996.

Breda is researching a third novel while writing two weekly columns for a regional newspaper, Kerrys Eye.

Under A Skellig Sky is available from book shops nationwide, priced 9.99.
WE live in an age where language and communication is both a minefield and a fast-moving battle-ground.

Is it still OK to call a female actor an actress? In fact, is it still OK to call a female a woman? What are your personal pronouns? He/him, they/their, or up/yours?

Words matter, we are told. They appear to carry more force today than the fabled sticks and stones of my childhood - those bone-breaking weapons my parents generation used to reassure us whenever we complained to them that we had been called names.

The pleas to mind our Ps and Qs can be hard enough to heed when we meet someone in person, at a wedding, in the office, or in a pub.

But in the less personal world of instant remote communication, of texts/WhatsApps, and emails, the language barrier can often break down completely - to comic and/or tragic effect.

Take this simple example.

Your niece has offered to do your shopping, and you send her a list, concluding that you would really like some juicy peaches.

Remembering that your niece is from the younger generation, you send on the peach emoji, alongside one of a drooling face. Clever you.

Uh oh.

Said niece is not happy, not happy at all. Because the emojis you sent, to her, mean you have passed a distinctly unsuitable compliment about her backside.

Half-assed or what?

Yes, there is a generational gap between what the peach emoji on the right means to us silver fogeys, and what it means to millennials. A stone fruit or a bottom!

It gets worse.

Lets just say its best never to send an aubergine emoji to anyone, for any reason. The shape is too suggestive for words (literally).

To those in their twenties, it can be an indication of someones impressive manhood, or even, apparently, an invitation to partake in some hot sex (the only kind on offer this week, to be fair).

My ratatouille will never quite taste the same again...

For those in Generation X - born between the mid-1960s and early-1980s, it can be a case of Generation XXX for all those innocent emojis. The young uns have hijacked them for their own code - and left us high and dry.

Take the cheeky wink emoji, which us oldies will often use to express the fact we are joshing. Harmless, yes?

Not to a 20-something, as it is a sexy, suggestive come-on - which will either send them into raptures, or trigger them to within an inch of their life.

On one level, this is quite funny and harmless. On another level, though, it could lead to all manner of sexual harassment allegations and awkward conversations with family, friends, and HR.

The wink emoji is innocent enough for us oldies, but can be very suggestive to younger people

The miscommunications are not all one way either. A younger person hoping to get frisky with someone a little older may find their aubergine or peach emoji sends their puzzled quarry to the supermarket.

These eye-opening examples of the emoji minefield were revealed in a report this week by the workplace messaging service Slack.

In a survey of 9,400 office staff worldwide, it found the most common emoji faux pas in workplaces were pictures of lips, the tongue, a smiling poo  yikes!  and that perky aubergine.

Many of the oldies surveyed had no idea of these hidden meanings - nearly half had no clue a peach left them the butt of a joke.

Olivia Grace, a director at Slack, warned: The findings of our research are very clear. Be mindful when communicating with emojis across generations  its good to be aware that different meanings may exist to avoid any awkward interpretations.

Yes, but how are us older wans meant to keep up with the ever-evolving word of emojis?

In writing this, I am naively starting to ponder why the world needed a peach or aubergine emoji in the first place - were they intended to be sexualised from the off? In which case, who failed to send me the memo?

Back when they were invented, 25 years ago, in 1997, there were 90 emojis - now there are 3,633, according to UNICODE  the emoji world governing body. (Emoji, by the way comes from the Japanese for picture character).

Ten billion are sent daily - and a good few of those will be badly misjudged, by the look of it.

Of course, to us reactionary parents and grandparents, this is another example of the modern world being a bit rubbish.

In the days before iphones and connectivity, people used to use their actual face to communicate their emotions to another person. Wild, I know.

I suppose that is the problem with communication these days - it is so impersonal and often open to interpretation, because you usually cannot see the other persons body language and cues. One persons amiable banter could be viewed as creepy and alarming at the receiving end, and be difficult to shut down.

You might recall a survey a few years ago which showed young people even view a full stop in a text or WhatsApp message as aggressive, insincere and rude.

This will be anathema to people like me, who treat grammatics very seriously, but Erika Darics, a lecturer in linguistics at Aston University in Birmingham, told the BBC a few years ago of the dangers of the simple full stop

If you and your friends dont normally use full stops in a WhatsApp group and then somebody does, they are probably trying to tell you something about how they feel, she said.

The skull emoji to young people can mean something is so funny, you nearly died laughing

Its a bloody dot! Is there a danger of over-thinking all this?

Of course, young people have always adapted language to their own devices, so stuffy old farts do not know what theyre discussing. Words and phrases come in and out of fashion - my teenage son often wearily responds to one of my nags by telling me to cry about it.

But there is a serious side to this communication failure too.

A few years ago, gardai were urged to produce a guide for parents on various codes being used by their children to hold highly-sexualised interactions with their friends.

Anne Rabbitte TD, Minister for Children, Equality, and Youth, said few parents would know the letters GNOC, in teen text speak, mean get naked on cam while IWSN is shorthand for I want sex now.

The emoji language is always changing and adapting too - who would have thought early in 2020 that the syringe one would soon be so pervasive?

The manicure emoji is now said to signify waiting for gossip, and the skull one - far from signifying death - means something is so funny, you nearly died laughing.

Give me strength. Keeping up with all of this is a right pain in the... peach.
THE Peoples Rights Association (PRA) invited all members of the current and previous Dail to a crisis meeting today at 3pm in the Harbour Board Room in Cork, the Echo reported 100 years ago today, on July 22, 1922.

The aim was to discuss means of bringing about an immediate assembly of Dail Eireann and the proclamation of an armistice.

It was called by Frank J. Daly, chairman of the Harbour Board. Other PRA attendees were George Nason (Cork Workers Council), M. OCuill (Rural District Council), Prof. ORahilly (UCC), Barry Egan (Egans), Mrs Scott (Board of Guardians) and representatives from Fermoy, Cobh, Midleton and Youghal Urban District Councils.

Among the TDs were Lord Mayor of Cork Donal OCallaghan, Miss MacSwiney, Sean Moylan, Thomas Hunter, David Kent, Liam de Roiste, Sean Hales and Seamus Fitzgerald.

Prof ORahilly asked if a TD at present in Cork Gaol had been sent an invitation, and was told that member of the Dail, Sean Hayes, is not here. The Lord Mayor made some remark in Irish. The invitation had been made.

Mr Kent said he would like to know if Sean McEntee in Mountjoy Prison was sent one. He was on the other side of the national dispute to Hayes. Mr Moylan said: I have become very used to this sort of thing in the Dail. This petty fault-finding. I came here today with the genuine desire to find a way towards peace and we wont get it with this kind of thing. (Hear, hear).

The chairman said the TD in Cork Gaol had been consulted and did not want to come and proceeded to reiterate the purpose of the meeting: that, in the interests of peace, Dail Eireann must meet on July 28, to proclaim a suspension of the present lamentable hostilities and institute a conference to complete arrangements for the unification of the army and its subordination to the sovereign people of Ireland.

Mail Notice

The following notice was issued today by Cork Post Office. The mail for Dublin, the north and the west of the country is being forwarded by steamer to Liverpool. Mail for Great Britain is being forwarded by steamer to Fishguard. The Post Office is taking advantage of all steamers leaving Cork to advance the delivery of mail. The latest hour to post is about two hours before a scheduled hour of sailing.

Signed, R.E. Gardiner, Postmaster.

Women of Cork

Dear Sir - Will you kindly allow a little space in your paper to ask Sir John Harley Scott to apologise to the women of Cork for his letter in this mornings Examiner.

I, for one plain woman, consider it an insult, and am sure I am speaking for hundreds of my class. Would Sir John like to be confined to two bedrooms? The working people of Cork generally have large families, and we had long enough to huddle them into small spaces. But now we are to have a country managed by our own people, we certainly expect to be treated as the people and not as slaves.

I hope when the Building Committee meets again it will take a few suggestions from the women of Cork. - M.

City Hall on Grand Parade?

It is incomprehensible that any Corporation should have ever selected a site such as out-of-town Albert Quay for a City Hall. It is possible the site was originally agreed to because the conversion of the old Cornmarket building afforded cheap and easy (we are inclined to say cheap and nasty) materials for the job. Now the old City Hall has been burned and a new one must be built, various other sites have been proposed.

On closer examination, sound objections to these have been advanced by those with a thorough knowledge of the city. But we say the best site would be a portion of the English Market on the Grand Parade. If the Corporation will put the Coal Quay market in better order and make it available for a good class of trade, the centrally located English Market would be ideal.

A building could be put up which would be a lasting credit to the city. Cork can rise to a position of great commercial importance again, beyond the far from mean one it occupies today.

Let there be no half-hearted measure as if one has no confidence in the future. There is no more foolish action on the part of a municipality than to erect official buildings which are poorly located and which, within a decade, have become quite unsuitable and discreditable to a city of importance.

The Sport of Kings

An overflowing meeting of the followers of The Sport of Kings was held between Parnell Place and the GPO and the following resolutions were passed.

No.1: That this mighty throng of indignant and outraged humanity demands the suspension of all wars, disputes, strikes and disruptions in newspaper and post office services. So too, the suspension of parliamentary debates, elections and other such interferences during the flat and steeplechase racing seasons.

No. 2: Any who resist this demand be placed outside the pale of cultured and civilised society as beings incapable of recognising and appreciating the mission of the human race.

A Joint Committee from among the millions present was then formed to co-operate with the turf authorities to ensure provision of a special post office and sufficient newspapers to meet universal demand.
Following a cyberattack in August 2021 in which a hacker breached T-Mobile's systems and stole private information relating to millions of customers, the company has agreed to pay $350 million to settle class-action lawsuits.

(Photo : Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

An SEC filing on Friday afternoon states that the wireless carrier also consented to invest an extra $150 million in data security and associated technology this year and the following year.

T-Mobile Will Pay $500 Over Data Breach Incident

In order to settle a class-action lawsuit arising from the 2021 attack, which T-Mobile says exposed the data of around 76.6 million U.S. citizens, the company has agreed to pay $500 million.

T-Mobile has agreed to pay $350 million to settle class action lawsuits that were filed after a hacker breached its computer systems in August 2021 and stole private information about millions of users. Claims made by class members, plaintiffs' legal fees, and administrative expenses will all be covered by the $350 million payout, GeekWire reported.

According to a Friday afternoon SEC filing, the wireless carrier also agreed to invest an extra $150 million in data security and related technologies this year and the following year.

The Verge mentioned that T-Mobile will have ten days to deposit money into the fund to pay the costs of alerting those who are entitled to claim if the proposed settlement deal is approved by the judge, which is still pending.

The company said in its SEC filing that if the court approves the settlement, it "will resolve substantially all of the claims brought by the Company's current, former and prospective customers who were impacted by the 2021 cyberattack."

The settlement agreement doesn't provide projections on how much each claimant may expect to get.

According to a T-Mobile spokesperson, the company continues to work with other regulators who are looking into the incident separately.

Read More: T-Mobile Data Breach 2021 Hacker Slams 'Awful' Security; Mobile Company Facing New Major Problems

What Happened During the Data Breach Incident

In a separate report by The Verge, T-Mobile acknowledged that its servers had been compromised and that illegal access to some of its data had taken place.

The outlet cited a Motherboard report claiming that information stolen from T-Mobile's servers was advertised for sale on an underground forum. The seller of the information claimed that it contained Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and driver's license details for more than 100 million individuals.

The company stated last year that it is certain that the entry point used to obtain access has been shut down and that it is continuing a thorough technical assessment of the problem across the systems to determine the type of data that may have been illegally accessed. Although the probe will take some time, the company is moving with the utmost urgency.

Several data breaches have affected T-Mobile in recent years. Some of its users' phone numbers and call-related information may have been made public during an incident in December 2020, although the company insisted at the time that it did not include names or Social Security numbers.

Related Article: T-Mobile Data Breach 2021: 100 Million Users Exposed in Latest Hacking, Is There a Fix?
NASA awards Draper a mission to the far side of the Moon to assist with a successful Artemis launch.

NASA has been working towards going back to the moon for several years now with its Artemis mission. NASA's Artemis will not just touch down on the lunar surface, but instead, build a long-term human presence.

Artemis is an extensive mission split into three, but before that, payloads for science experiments and essential needs will need to get to the far side of the Moon first.

NASA to the Far Side of the Moon

NASA announced that it will give Draper of Cambridge, Massachusetts the contract to transport the scientific necessities of Artemis on its lunar mission in 2025.

This mission's initiative is still under the umbrella of NASA Artemis. The commercial delivery will become a component of the NASA project known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).

According to NASA's announcement, the contract for the payload services will be worth $73 million. The scope of the contract will include payload operations, payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface of the Moon, and end-to-end delivery services.

The mission's primary goal is to transport a suite containing science and technology payloads to the Moon's Schrodinger Crater, a basin located on the far side of the Moon.

The Draper Series-2 is expected to launch and deliver somewhere in 2025. The success of this mission will be significant to NASA as this will mark their first trip down to the far side.

Schrodinger Basin

The Schrodinger Basin can be found on the far side of the Moon, which spans over 200 miles in diameter, in close proximity to the lunar South Pole.

The Schrodinger Basin is one of the youngest impact basins on the surface of the Moon. Its inner ring is made up of both impact melt and volcanic material, while the outer ring basin is formed from impact melt meteorites.

The basin was created after an impact elevated the Moon's deep crust and upper mantle, creating the peak ring. In later times, a significant volcanic explosion took place within the inner basin.

The objective of the research is to investigate the thermal and geophysical qualities, as well as the electric and magnetic properties, of a landing spot that is insulated from the electromagnetic fields of the Earth.

Read Also: China Embarks on an Asteroid-Deflecting Mission - What About NASA?

Reaching the Far Side of the Moon

The far side of the moon is a difficult area to land on. As reported by Space, so far, China has been the only country that has successfully landed on the location.

On Jan. 2, 2019, China's Chang'e 4 lander carrying the Yutu 2 rover arrived in Von Karman Crater on the far side.

The complexity of landing on the far side of the moon is that there is no direct radio connection with Earth. NASA operators would need to relay information to Earth through satellites in order to make the landing possible and safe.

According to Joel Kearns, of NASA's science mission directorate in Washington, "Understanding geophysical activity on the far side of the moon will give us a deeper understanding of our solar system and provide information to help us prepare for Artemis astronaut missions to the lunar surface."

NASA has stated that the uncrewed far-side mission will gather scientific data in a region that is considerably different from the areas that the crewed Artemis lunar missions will explore.

Related Article: #SpaceSnap NASA Spitzer Space Telescope Shows Helix Nebula Eerily Resembling Giant Eye
It is possibly one of the most significant images in the development of human culture.

(Photo : NASA)

Taken aboard Apollo 8 by Bill Anders, this iconic picture shows Earth peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon, with astronauts Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell aboard.

How Was This Famous Shot of Earth Taken?

On Christmas Eve of 1968, Apollo 8, the first manned lunar mission, was launched into lunar orbit. The astronauts, Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders, conducted a live transmission from lunar orbit that evening. During the broadcast, they displayed images of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft, according to NASA.

The crew took turns reading from the book of Genesis as the broadcast came to a close, as you can hear on the video above.

Why Is This Photo Taken?

The Guardian mentioned that in order to find the best lunar landing locations, the Apollo 8 needed high-resolution photographs. The photo was taken by Anders using a Hasselblad camera.

The Importance of Earthrise

Possibly one of the most significant images in the development of human culture is Earthrise. Our understanding of our location in space was transformed when astronaut Anders captured a photograph of a delicate blue orb set in deep space peeking over the Moon. This image also increased environmental awareness throughout the world.

The Conversation stated that for the first time, the image allowed us to observe our planet from a great distance.

Read More: #SpaceSnap: Hubble Space Telescope's Photo of a Segment of the Chamaeleon Cloud Complex

The Beauty Depicted on Earthrise

The planet is lit up to a little over half its surface. As the image shown, Africa is split down the line dividing night and day. The planet has white and blue hues. It initially gives off the impression of having blue marble's luster. The spherical perfection, though, begins to wane as you get closer, according to The Guardian.

The blue is light that the sky and the water have dispersed. The white represents the gaseous layer that covers our planet and enables life to exist.

Earthrise is unique even if it wasn't the "first" picture of the Earth taken from our Moon. However, as The Conversation noted, the Earthrise beautifully demonstrates how human perception is a dynamic phenomenon that frequently changes in tandem with technological advancements.

The Solemness of Space

The living Earth appears delicate and vulnerable with resource constraints when it is encircled by the darkness of space. When we look at the small, blue Earth against the black background of space and the barren moonscape, we feel so small.

The Conversation pointed out that the image evokes feelings of fragility because Earth is unique mainly because it is the planet where humans live.

According to NASA, Lovell said during the broadcast in 1968 that: "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth."

The Apollo missions' primary goal was to explore the Moon, but they also starkly exposed the boundaries of our own planet.

What Has Changed a Half-Century Later?

More than five decades since the Earthrise photograph was taken, the climate of Earth has undergone significant changes. The past 50 years have seen a significant portion of the temperature rise in Australia and around the world. With a rise in the frequency of extreme occurrences like heatwaves and substantial changes to the oceans and polar ice caps, this warming is already having an impact on us.

Related Article: #SpaceSnap The First Close-Up Photo of Venus May Not Look Like What You Think It Does
Uber has officially accepted responsibility for hiding a 2016 data breach that exposed the data of 57 million passengers and drivers. On Friday, the company entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice, reports Reuters. As part of the deal, Uber admitted it failed to inform the agency of the cyberattack. It also agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of former chief security officer Joe Sullivan who was fired by the company shortly after the incident came to light.

Uber did not immediately respond to Engadgets request for comment. The company first revealed the details of the data breach in 2017. Instead of sharing what it knew about the incident with the government and users, the company paid hackers $100,000 to the delete the information and stay quiet. None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it, said Dara Khosrowshahi, Ubers then recently appointed CEO, at the time of the disclosure. While I cant erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes. In 2018, Uber paid $148 million to settle allegations by US state attorneys general the company was too slow to disclose the incident.

Correction 07/25 5:20 PM ET: A previous version of this article mistakenly said Uber reached a non-prosecution agreement with the Federal Trade Commission. We regret the error.
Far from being driven by a vision for the reform of the armed forces, the Agnipath scheme is an outcome of compulsions born out of severe financial and strategic shortcomings. It could have a destabilising impact on the militarys ethos, war-preparedness, and the ability of its leadership to stand by their personnel.

There are four key highlights of the Agnipath scheme. One, the defence services will recruit 46,000 personnel annually in the age group of 17 and a half to 21 years for four years. Of these, 25% will be selected for permanent induction and 75% will be released from service with a government-recognised Class 12 certificate. The selected 25% will start their military careers afreshthe four years of Agnipath will not be counted.

Two, upon selection, the Agniveers will undergo 26-week training, roughly six months at the respective regimental centres before deployment (with effective service of three and a half years) into their field areas. The current training period for recruits is 42 weeks.

Three, while they will not be eligible for gratuity, forget pension, they will get a consolidated amount of under `12 lakh. This will partly be their income, and partly forced saving to which the government would make an equal contribution. For example, in the first year, an Agniveer will get the salary of `30,000, with the take home of `21,000. The rest would be forced saving of 30% to which the government will contribute 30%, something akin to a provident fund. Upon discharge, this consolidated amount would be handed over to the Agniveer. The government would also provide them with life insurance during the term of their service.

Four, the government will impress upon other government organisations, like public sector undertakings, central police and paramilitary forces as well as the private industry to give preference in employment to the released Agniveers.

Even to a non-expert, it is evident that the Agnipath scheme is not only ill-conceived but also removed from the Indian reality. When the Indian Air Force (IAF) claims that it has received 2 lakh applications in response to their Agnipath advertisement, it is not a matter a pride but shame that we continue to push our young towards desperation.

Financial and Strategic Compulsions

Two compulsions and one assumption steered the government towards the Agnipath recruitment scheme.

In 2013, once Narendra Modi was declared the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, he addressed an ex-servicemen rally in Rewari accompanied by the former army chief and by then a BJP politician, General V K Singh. He assured the exultant crowd that once he came to power, he would favourably resolve the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) issue. Thereafter, the BJP election manifesto promised implementation of OROP (Pubby 2015).

The problem with the promise was that the scheme made no economic sense. That was the reason the previous government, despite repeated assurances, could not implement it. In a move to placate the protesting ex-servicemen, the United Progressive Alliance government did increase the old pensions in a manner that the gap between them and the current was significantly reduced. But it refused to equalise the pensions in perpetuity between, say, a colonel who retired in 1990 and one who retired in 2010; the logic being that a persons pension depended upon the salary they drew upon retirement and not what that salary would be 20 years later.

But once the BJP chose populism over reason, it had to fulfil its promise, which it did in November 2015. Sure enough, defence allocations shot through the roof. A brief pause is necessary here to understand the nuances of the defence budget. The defence budget is divided between the revenue and the capital. The revenue is for pays and pensions; and the capital is for the purchase of defence equipment, basically the modernisation of the forces. Even before the implementation of the OROP, the ratio between the revenue and the capital allocations was skewed in favour of the former.

However, with the OROP imposing a recurring expenditure of nearly `7,123 crore every year, the total spending on pays and pensions crossed 70% of the total spending on defence (Radhakrishnan et al 2022), leaving even less money for buying new equipment. Worse, the remaining 30% is not available for buying new stuff alone. It also has to cater for instalments on the already bought weapon platforms. Now, if the economy was growing at a rate of 10%, as once we thought it would, this expenditure would not have hurt so much. But given the way things are and are likely to be in the foreseeable future, claims of a $5 trillion economy notwithstanding, it is impossible for the government to meet this expenditure.

In 2019, former military advisor to the National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon, Lieutenant General Prakash Menon and deputy director of the Takshashila Institution Pranay Kotasthane wrote a paper on A Human Capital Investment Model for Indias National Security System in which they proposed several measures to contain the growing burden of defence pensions. Though not officially accepted, the Agnipath scheme is loosely based on their tour of duty (ToD) model (Mehta 2022). One major difference being that while ToD included the officer cadre as well, the Agnipath is limited to jawans.

So, to say that Agnipath is about reforms is either being willfully ignorant or deceptive. It is basically driven by financial considerations. A testimony to this is the carcasses of innumerable procurement programmes which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been stalling for years on some pretext or the other. All kinds of theoretical changes in the procurement procedure have happened, including renamingfrom defence procurement procedure (DPP) to defence acquisition procedure (DAP)yet neither the Indian industry has been able to produce anything, nor have we been able to buy the critical equipment that the services wanted through global tendering for want of money (Wahab 2022).

Take two cases, for example, the fighter planes for the IAF and the submarines for the Indian Navy. A simple Google search would throw up the chronology, so I will not waste valuable space on that. Given where we are on these programmes today, even if we are able to conclude one of these tenders soon, say, the 114 fighters for the IAF, by the time we will be able to induct them, the technology would have become near obsolete (Sachdev 2022). The IAF has been seeking a fourth-generation-plus fighter aircraft for the last decade and a half. The United States (US) and Russia are already operating the fifth-generation fighters. Even China has a fifth-generation fighter now, which is likely to find its way to Pakistan Air Force too. What is more, the Americans and the Europeans have proven technology of fighters flying in concert with uncrewed flying vehicles, whereby the capabilities of the crewed fighters would be multiplied by the accompanying uncrewed aerial vehicles referred to as the loyal wingman. Of course, several countries, including Russia and China, already have the capability of uncrewed vehicles carrying out aerial strikes, which they envisage will replace the need for human fighter pilots in the future.

Hence, the criticality of the MoD taking serious and sustained interest in defence modernisation, whether through indigenous research and development or partnership with foreign companies, cannot be overemphasised. And this can only be done if there is money for long-term investment.

The second compulsion was Chinas sauntering in into Indian territory in Ladakh in April 2020 and firmly establishing itself there. This has been no routine transgression for three reasons.

One, they came in a certain distance and no further and pitched themselves there, thereby creating a new Line of Actual Control (LAC). By all accounts, this new line is actually the old line that Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai had proposed to the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959, but the latter had rejected it. So, China has imposed their version of the LAC upon India and we have accepted it. Hence, Prime Minister Modis mystifying statement in the all-party meeting on 19 June 2020 that neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of our post captured. Because what we held as ours all these years is now theirs (Sawhney 2022).

Two, such has been the Chinese governments determination to not concede any ground in Ladakh, that it allowed the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to escalate the situation in the Galwan Valley, when the Indian Army tried to forcefully remove their tents. Without using any weapons, the PLA soldiers managed a fatal assault upon unsuspecting Indian troops, killing 20, including the commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu, on 15 June 2020. The Indian Army, which traditionally seeks revenge in such instances to ensure that the morale of the troops remains high, did not rise to this provocation.

Three, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi got his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar to sign a joint statement on 10 September 2020, which replaced the LAC in Ladakh with border areas, thereby permanently obliterating the line that the Indian Army had been holding as sacrosanct for decades.1 It has also put the onus of maintaining peace in the border areas on India, implying that we quietly accept the Chinese occupation of our territory.

Given this, the Indian Army and the Government of Indias (GoI) anxiety is understandable. Caught napping, they now want to try and not cede any more ground, even if it means that soldiers stand hand in hand at an imaginary line, presenting their bodies as resistance to the PLA. For this, one does not need much training. All that is needed are young, desperate men eager to grab anything, which offers a semblance of income.

The inclusion of the IAF and the navy in the Agnipath scheme is mere tokenism because their human resource is built around machinesaircrafts and shipsunlike the Indian Army where a lone soldier with a rifle is both the human and the machine.

Implicit Ideological Assumption

In order to discern the assumption driving the scheme, one should refer to the NSA Dovals address at the National Police Academy in November 2021. He said,

Wars have ceased to become effective instruments for achieving political or military objectives. They are too expensive

and unaffordable, and at the same time, there is uncertainty about the outcome. (Pisharody 2021)

The government believes that war is unlikely; even against China which it believes to have been deterring by committing more and more to the US-led Quad. With the US watching Indias back, China is unlikely to indulge in any more mischief against us. Hence, the governments reasoning that if the war is unlikely, why do we need such huge and recurring investment in human resources? For our threats, we need numbers, not necessarily highly trained or educated.

Refer to another statement by the NSA at the same event:

The new frontier of warwhat we call fourth generation warfareis civil society. But it is the civil society that can be subverted, that can be suborned, that can be a divided idea, that can be manipulated to hurt the interest of a nation.

To understand the full import of the enemy that the GoI is preparing against, one needs to recall a series of statements made by both the Prime Minister as well as the NSA.

In October 2014, the Prime Minister addressed the top commanders of the Indian military at an annual event called the Combined Commanders Conference. He told the militarys whos who that the threats may be known, but the enemy may be invisible.2 Neither Pakistan nor China could have been the invisible enemy that the Prime Minister was warning the military about. Recently, after the announcement of the Agnipath scheme, the NSA, in an interview with Asian News International, also referred to the invisible enemy. The NSA said,

The whole war is undergoing a great change. We are going towards contactless wars, and also going towards the war against the invisible enemy. Technology is taking over at a rapid pace. If we have to prepare for tomorrow, then we have to change.3

When the pieces are put together, it is clear why the government believes that the Agnipath scheme, which will create Agniveers, is a winning idea. Clearly, for the kind of threats and enemy it envisages, Agniveers are adequate, both in and out of uniformone stone, multiple birds.

A Disastrous Experiment

Nevertheless, Agnipath could prove to be a disastrous experiment, and here is why.

One, worldwide militaries are moving towards being lean and mean; favouring quality over quantity. Even China has cut down 3,00,000 from its army over the last few years. Almost a decade ago, the concept of the future infantry soldier as a system (F-INSAS) emerged, which envisaged a highly trained, technologically savvy, multitasking trooper capable of not only handling intelligent weapons but also handheld computer devices that kept them connected both with the battlefield but also the headquarters. At one point, the Indian Army aspired for certain characteristics of F-INSAS, but could not do much because of the prohibitive cost involved, not only in terms of buying equipment but training the personnel power.

However, now the training has been further downgraded. The fact that a four-year Agnipath tenure would not be counted when 25% Agniveers will be recruited is testimony to what the military thinks of the training it would be imparting to these men. It is true that with 25% retention every year (after four years), the overall numbers may eventually come down, but with 75% under-trained recruits, what qualitative advantage can the service have? After all, the speed of a team is determined by the slowest member, not the fastest.

The world is moving towards military technologies that ensure fewer humans in harms way because nothing is more sacred than a human life. India, on the contrary, is not only putting more humans on the front line, but also is not even training them adequately for the job. Should not putting undertrained men in harms way be considered treating human beings as fodder? Should it not be regarded as a criminal act? Thereafter, imagine these people with some experience of combat, some exposure to debilitating violence, even death, floating in a highly polarised society, trying to fit in, trying to find employment commensurate to what they think they deserve after having served the nation, without the regimentation or discipline of the military.

Two, 75% of Agniveers will be released after four years with a Class 12 certificate without having studied a word of what a regular school would have done. This not only undermines the GoI certification but also raises the hope of decommissioned men, who would expect to get admission in universities for a higher degree. Even if they do, it is unlikely that most will be able to cope. This will obviously add to their frustration and bitterness.

Three, a vast majority of young men who join the Indian Army, risking life and limb, do so for the job security and, in case they die, for the security of their families, not for the motherland. That sentiment is cultivated during training, because the motherland for a villager is the village, not the amorphous notion of a nation, which is a theoretical concept. Moreover, for the majority of the youth, military service is a family tradition. They join it because everyone in the family did so. For others, it is the only way out of poverty and ignominy. For them, the financial security that the military career offers is paramount. The moment a young boy is recruited, his family fixes his marriage. What is more, one job improves the marriage prospects of the recruits sisters as well. So, those who say that a demobbed Agniveer can use the `12 lakh windfall for higher education or starting a business do not realise that it will be used for paying off family debt or marrying the sisters. Clearly, the MoD mandarins live on another planet.

Four, in India, everyone wants a permanent job, or pucci naukri, because many of ones life decisions hinge on that. The Short Service Commission (SSC) concept, both for men and women, only led to dissatisfaction and disillusionment. While the male SSC officers demanded and got the extension of tenure to 10+4 years plus the option of permanent commission, the women officers fought and won the right to permanent commission. No one wants to commit to a job that has the potential to give better but does not because of the terms of your recruitment.

Five, even today, the armed forces are struggling to ensure lateral induction of their personnel in the civil domain, but without much success. Most end up with jobs much below their expectations and capabilities. Most defence public sector units or private sector companies prefer technical employees, if not always engineers. There is hardly any place for generalists, especially those who earned their matriculation certificate in the military. As far as the Central Armed Police Forces/Central Para Military Forces are concerned, their own personnel are facing disillusionment and dissatisfaction with their jobs because of the stagnant hierarchy and poor promotional prospects. Where is the space for lateral induction of Agniveers, year on year?

However, the impact of the Agnipath scheme on the Agniveers and on the society thereafter are secondary issues. The foremost concern is the impact on the militaryits ethos, war-preparedness and the ability of its leadership to stand by their personnel. As is evident by the genuflectory statements by several military leaders, the military edifice is in danger of crumbling. What demonetisation did to Indian economy in 2016, Agnipath will do to the Indian national security in the years to come.

Notes

1 Joint press statementmeeting of external affairs minister and the foreign minister of China, 10 September 2020, https://mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/32962/Joint_Press_Statement__Meeting_of_External_Affairs_Minister_and_the_Foreign_Minister_of_China_September_10_2020.

2 The Prime Ministers address at the Combined Commanders Conference, https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pms-address-at-the-combined-commanders-conference/.

3 https://www.aninews.in/videos/national/nsa-ajit-doval-backs-agnipath-scheme-says-need-to-change-to-prepare-for-tomorrow/.

References

Mehta, Maj Gen Raj (2022): Guts, Grit and Glory: Army Deserves the Best, Force, https://forceindia.net/guest-column/guts-grit-and-glory/army-deserves-best/.

Pisharody, Rahul V (2021): Civil Society, the New Frontiers of War, Can be Manipulated to Hurt a Nations Interests: Ajit Doval, Indian Express,

12 November, https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/hyderabad/ajit-doval-nsa-warfare-civil-society-7619555/.

Pubby, Manu (2015): The Politics of One Rank One Pension: Will Modi Government Bite the Bullet? Economic Times, 29 August, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com//news/defence/the-politics-of-one-rank-one-pension-will-modi-government-bite-the-bullet/articleshow/48717460.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst.

Radhakrishan, Vignesh, Rebecca Rose Varghese and Jasmin Nihlani (2022): Data | Agnipath: With 34 Lakh Military Pensioners, Pensions form >50% of Defence Budget, Hindu, 20 June, https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-agnipath-34-lakh-military-pensioners-pensions-form-50-defence-budget/article65545319.ece.

Sachdev, A K (2022): Procurement Problems, Force, https://forceindia.net/guest-column/procurement-problems/.

Sawhney, Pravin (2022): One Year of Ladakh, Force, https://forceindia.net/cover-story/one-year-ladakh/.

Wahab, Ghazala (2022): The Roadmap Is in Place, Force, 13 July, http://forceindia.net/cover-story/roadmap-is-in-place/.
Korean tattoo artist Kim Do-yoon, also known as Doy, gives a tattoo to a client. Courtesy of Kim Do-yoon





By Lee Hae-rin







Tattooing has continued to spark debate after a long history of social stigma in Korea.







Since the 20th century, tattoos have long been negatively associated with organized crime in Korea. Gangsters adopted the Japanese yakuza's practice to ink frightening drawings of tigers, snakes, goblins and dragons on their skin, often big enough to cover their entire arms and upper bodies.







Tattoos have since been widely seen to instill fear, and tattooed people have been discouraged from revealing their ink in public. The country's deeply rooted Confucian culture also means that it is expected that people should refrain from altering their parent-given bodies. This notion undoubtedly also contributed to the intolerance of tattooing one's body.







Until recently, tattoos even hindered young men from fully serving their mandatory military service. It wasn't until February last year that the Military Manpower Administration abolished the regulation to exempt those with tattoos larger than seven centimeters in diameter and 30 centimeters square in size from serving as active-duty soldiers.







In this combined photo, the tattoos of Monica, a Korean dancer, are made less visible with tape and blurring for Mnet's popular dance competition show "Street Women Fighter." Captured from internet





Tattoos remain taboo in the mainstream media. Television producers cover up actors' tattoos with skin-colored tape, although the Korea Communications Commission has no specific regulation on televising tattoos on screen.







Ironically, the country saw the birth of its contemporary tattoo culture amid this hostile environment.







To differentiate themselves from the organized crime stereotype and reshape the public's negative perceptions, modern Korean tattooists have mastered sophisticated techniques that enable more detailed and sentimental designs and created a new tattooing style of their own, Kim Do-yoon, a veteran tattoo artist with 16 years of experience who founded and leads a local tattooist labor union told The Korea Times in a recent interview.







"In today's tattoo industry, Korean artists are known as among the best technicians in the world," Kim said, citing the high demand for Korean artists at internationally renowned tattoo studios in New York and Los Angeles.







Pictures of tattoos inked by Kim Do-yoon / Captured from Kim Do-yoon's Instagram





With his experience as a first-generation tattoo artist, Kim said he witnessed how Koreans have been growing more open and tolerant. Tattoos are no longer seen as a menace or an emblem of criminality but as a form of art and self-expression, popular among ordinary young people including students, office workers and housewives.







However, the country's legal system remains at odds with this reality. Kim and the country's estimated 250,000 fellow artists are criminalized for performing "an act of medical service" that is limited to being performed by licensed doctors under the current Medical Service Act.







In Thursday's ruling by the Constitutional Court, Kim's tattoo on a Korean actor has been upheld as a criminal act because it could "endanger public health" and may bring potential side effects and safety issues.







The case dates back to 2019, when a viewer who watched a YouTube video of the actor getting a tattoo from Kim filed a complaint against her for undergoing an "illegal cosmetic procedure."







But receiving a tattoo is not illegal, and so the complaint was forwarded to Kim, the tattooist. Kim was given a summary indictment of a 5 million won fine, but with his fellow artists and a group of attorneys, he decided to take the case to the Constitutional Court hoping to overturn the repeated rulings against the tattoo industry.







The court's rulings on the matter have been consistent since 1992, but come as a surprise to many tattoo artists overseas.







Kirk Martin, a Canadian tattooist who lived in Korea from 2006 to 2018, thinks the law fails to reflect the hygienic standards and professionalism of Korea's tattoo artists and forces the industry underground where artists and their customers are less protected.







Canadian tattoo artist Kirk Martin gives a tattoo to a client at his studio in Halifax, Canada. Courtesy of Sin on Skin Tattoo Studio

"If they (the court) were really concerned about people's health, they would establish a system that protects the clients and the artists that tattoo  If it is properly regulated, it would be safer for both parties, which is what tattoo artists in Korea have been pushing for for years."







Kim confessed that he is perceived as an activist within the international circle of tattoo artists, struggling against one of the world's last nonsensical regulations against them. When he joined the meeting of over 150 international tattooists in Spain earlier in July, many artists expressed their regrets about Korea's situation and showed their support for him, Kim said.







As the domestic tattoo industry exists outside the purview of the law, the artists face risks in their everyday lives.







According to Kim, at least six of the over 700 members of his labor union have been sentenced to jail and many others have had to pay fines, as the current law prohibits them from tattooing without a medical license, which very few of the country's over 250,000 tattooists possess. Punishments include up to two years in jail or fines up to 10 million won ($7,462).







"Some clients even threaten practitioners after getting a tattoo and refusing to pay, saying 'If I report you, you'll have to pay a fine and become a criminal,'" Kim said. Female artists are especially vulnerable to sexual violence and other crimes, as they choose not to reach out to police due to the fear of being reported for running an illegal business.







Tattoo artist Kim Do-yoon, leader of the tattooist labor union / Courtesy of Kim Do-yoon





Attorney Kwak Yae-ram from the Korean law firm Ohwol, who has been representing Kim in court, said Korea is the only developed country in the world that defines tattooing as an "act of medical service" and criminalizes its trade.







Other countries often have heavy regulations on granting tattooists licenses and run regular inspections. Martin, who apprenticed in Korea and now works as a tattoo artist in Canada, explained that Canada requires various certifications to show that tattoo practitioners like him have been trained properly, and they are subjected to regular health checkups and inspections.







"The Constitutional Court decided that alternative policies (to regulate tattooing and protect public health) that have been implemented and practiced in other countries are inadequate to protect public health," Kwak said.







"Even when done by a fully licensed doctor, tattooing is still illegal here because tattooing machines and inks have never been certified and registered as medical devices," Kim said. "That is because no country (that produces and exports tattooing devices) in the world defines tattooing as a medical practice."







Kwak confirmed that even an act of medical service performed by a medical practitioner would be illegal if performed with a non-medical device.


Despite the overall achievements, Keralas handling of its first case of community transmission in the coastal village of Poonthura came under severe criticism. In this article, the potential pathways to the resistance raised by the fisherfolk in Poonthura are explored, thereby placing their responses as historically and politically embedded ones.

Kerala has long been a favourite among development economists and scholars for the important lessons it holds. It has improved its position in the Human Development Index rankings, achieved a high female education status, and implemented decentralised planning and governance consistently over the years (Jeffrey 2016). As expected, it has also received praise for its overall health system preparednessnot only for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic but also for its recent efforts at early detection and containment of other zoonotic disease outbreaks. Its timely actions against the spread of COVID-19 and its decentralised planning and governance of control measures have also been highlighted in several papers (Isaac and Sadanadan 2020; Jalan and Sen 2020; Pinarayi 2020).

On 17 July 2020, the Kerala chief minister announced that there was community transmission of COVID-19 in Poonthura, a coastal fishing village under the administration of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation.1 This was the first area in the country where community transmission was officially acknowledged by the government. While the government must be applauded for its openness to acknowledge community transmission in a context where states were under pressure to downplay the gravity of COVID-19, the way community transmission was handled in Poonthura raises questions about the apparently equitable governance and effective response of the states health system. In this article, we examine the events through an inclusivity lens. We consider the specific history and characteristics of the community to understand how socially and culturally insensitive COVID-19 containment strategies might have amplified pre-existing vulnerabilities, resulting in the Poonthura conflict.

Structural Exclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts are not randomly distributed. Patterns from several countries show that the poor and marginalised bear a disproportionate share of the consequences of the pandemic and its control measures. A combination of pre-existing vulnerabilities and containment strategies that are not adapted or sensitive to individual and community contexts have amplified impacts and risks among poor and marginalised communities globally (Van Damme et al 2020).

In addition, the crisis seems to have aggravated polarisation and othering where poor and underprivileged communities are viewed as the locus of infection. This furthers victimisation, even though the seeds of the pandemic were sown in multiple countries by international air travel, a modality available almost exclusively to economically better-off people. The stigma and discrimination faced by marginalised communities during this period, along with the higher risk of disease exposure and economic precarity, indicate the multilevel dynamics that set in motion the social, political, and economic processes that resulted in the unequal impact of COVID-19 on the poor. While the forces that drive unequal economic impact and the high disease exposure of the poor are perhaps similar across several communities in the world, there are crucial differences in how the crisis is experienced by individual marginalised communities.

In this context, understanding the diverse ways by which the COVID-19 pandemic is unfolding across the world, and affecting marginalised sections, in particular, constitute important ecological evidence to protect the poor from its devastating impact. In line with global evidence, reports from different parts of India suggest that the overwhelming attention to testing, healthcare, containment, and contact tracing, though well justified, also takes away the scarce policy and public attention accorded to the socio-economic determinants of disease vulnerability among marginalised communities. These include housing, livelihoods, food security, and access to information, the latter further colluding with biomedical determinants and reducing the ability of these individuals and communities to follow and adhere to health advice that could protect them and control the spread (Chetterje 2020; Prasad et al 2020). Hence, COVID-19-related vulnerabilities in marginalised communities cannot be seen as a matter of coincidence or place but as rooted within social and historical processes. Response strategies that do not integrate this contextual understanding could indeed jeopardise the most important values underlying our health systems and upheld by the Indian national health policyadvancing fairness and social justice (MoHFW 2017).

The Intersection of Inequalities

Like most coastal communities in Kerala, Poonthura is densely populated and has overcrowded neighbourhoods. With more than one family living under a single roof, houses are crammed, and families have limited access to basic amenities. Due to the lack of access to piped water supply, people collect drinking water from a common tap in the neighbourhood. Erosion and episodic wave run-up continue to eat away at the coast on one side, while the looming metropolis of the state capital moves inward on the other. Over the years, the intertidal area has decreased, forcing fisherfolk to depend on the nearby Vizhinjam fishing harbour for fishing and related livelihood practices. This further worsens the situation; even when local authorities permitted fishing, the people of Poonthura could not resume their occupations during the lockdown (P K Rosi Foundation 2020).

Multiple exclusionary structures intersect in the neighbourhoodcaste, gender, religion, economic position, occupation, and geographical location. Therefore, living in the neighbourhood means living at the crossroads, in a maze of unequal identities and their effects. These might have also modulated peoples exposure to COVID-19 and influenced control measures. The majority of the people in the district belong to the Mukkuva Latin Catholic denomination, which comes under the Other Backward Classes category according to the Indian Constitutions affirmative action policies. The people of this community bore the brunt of the 2017 Ockhi cyclone35 people were killed or never found, several houses were damaged, and numerous trees uprooted. Many families lost their sole breadwinners, and those who survived suffered severe trauma and could not return to fishing for years (FAO and ICSF 2019).

Dissent as the Last Resort

The following is an account of the events that occurred in Poonthura between 1 July 2020 and 17 July 2020, until the declaration of community transmission by the state government, presented from the perspectives of the residents of the local coastal community. One of the authors hails from the community and has first-hand experience of the events; the other authors interacted with members of the community through several virtual meetings and telephonic interviews.

On 1 July, when a wholesale fish dealer from a fish market in Thiruvananthapuram city tested positive for COVID-19, many from Poonthura were identified as primary contacts. Their family members automatically became secondary contacts. As per the protocol, from 6 July, they were summoned for a massive COVID-19 testing programme organised at a local health centre. Subsequently, those who tested positive for COVID-19 were transferred to a facility about 30 kilometres away, allegedly without providing prior information or acquiring consent, triggering uncertainty and anger among the patients and their family members. The facility had been non-functional for a long time and had only recently been converted into a COVID-19 first-line treatment centre (CFLTC) with bare minimum facilities. There were limited amenities and few attendants to provide information and medical support. Pregnant and lactating women were denied essential services like milk and hot water. Despite these conditions, the facility was the only one catering to this community, which resulted in overcrowding. For instance, up to 30 patients in a single ward shared a poorly maintained common toilet (P K Rosi Foundation 2020). These conditions caused outrage and a video clip from the facility uploaded to the internet quickly went viral, further fanning the communitys anger towards the government. Furthermore, many patients admitted into the CFLTC developed only mild or no symptoms, raising suspicions about the status of their illness. Subsequently, when the media started questioning the accuracy of the antigen test, the coastal community also started suspecting the intentions of the government. Those who tried to access other health services for routine check-ups were not given access to them because they were from Poonthura, which was known to have community transmission (P K Rosi Foundation 2020).

On 8 July, commandos were deployed to the village where people were already battling the triple lockdown enforced by the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation and a fishing ban imposed by the fisheries department of Kerala. Shops in the village were not allowed to open and offer essential services, including provision of newspapers, water, and milk. Interestingly, shops in the nearby Puthenpally and Manikkavilakom wardswhich also had a spike in cases at the time and most of whose residents belonged to non-fishing communitieswere allowed to open.

In Poonthura, however, physical distancing and other COVID-19 control measures were enforced strictly. Caught between the anxiety of contracting the virus, strict and degrading policing, hunger, and uncertainty surrounding livelihoods due to the fishing ban, community members attempted to defend themselves. They broke the curfew and purchased provisions from a nearby ward, resulting in further conflicts with the police. The insults and discriminatory behaviour of public servants on the one hand and the vicious media portrayal of the residents as superspreaders on the other, pushed the community to a tipping point far beyond their fear of the virus itself. Amid this mounting anger, the arrival of health workers made things even worse. Defying social distancing norms and the mask mandate, crowds swarmed around the police and health workers vehicles to express their anger and demanded the release of the patients forcefully admitted in the hospital (P K Rosi Foundation 2020). The following week, the COVID-19 virus spread throughout the coastal regions of Thiruvananthapuram.

Caste and Gender

The popular characterisation of Kerala as a progressive society often obfuscates deep-rooted casteist and patriarchal social structures that frequently manifest as subtle and nuanced condescension and insults thrust upon individuals and communities on the lower rungs of social hierarchy (Devika 2010). This is further reflected in, and even amplified through, existing public services wherein oppressed sections are severely underrepresented, further consolidating these disparities in everyday practices and within state policies. Despite its apparent progressiveness, Keralas society still retains assumptions of inferiority and stereotypical notions regarding the dialects and vocations of those from lower social orders. This can be discerned from the perceptions and attitudes of non-coastal people towards coastal communities who, along with their cultures, are still considered lowly or impure.

These deep-rooted social constructs have important implications for the purportedly biomedical features of the

COVID-19 pandemic, both in shaping health workers responses to such communities and in governing interactions within and across neighbourhoods. For instance, it could manifest as a caste-based stereotype that attributes health-related negative behaviours to entire communities or groups of individuals/neighbourhoods. Although the transmission started at a wholesale fish market in the city and more people tested positive in adjoining areas, the media narrative framed the Poonthura community as the superspreader or epicentre of COVID-19. This portrayal confused and insulted the residents (P K Rosi Foundation 2020).

The condescending attitude towards coastal communities is also evident in the language usedfor instance, in the use of the term chantha pennu (woman who sells fish in the market). Since coastal women belonging to traditional fishing communities also engage in selling their hard-earned catch in open markets, they breach patriarchal norms of women as bound, pliant housewives. Getting a good price for their fish requires them to be vocal and assertive while bargaining. However, autonomy and agency are seen as undesirable qualities in a woman. Thus, the term chantha pennu is considered derogatory.

Another common stereotype attributed to fisherfolk is that they are seen as rude and unrefined. Such stereotypes became evident in the way the wider community responded to the media coverage of the confrontations between health workers and the local community. The news reports instigated the wider community to run hate-filled campaigns against the fisherfolk on various social media platforms. Online posts and media coverage featured name-calling and broad-brush stereotyping that branded the Poonthura community as illiterate and irrational. Venal politicians deemed them Christian criminals, mentally ill, and traitors who were intentionally spreading disease and sabotaging the efforts of health officials. Some even wanted to have the members of the community shot at sight (Malayali Vartha 2020).

It is important to note here that during the 2018 floods, when Kerala was in distress, the timely intervention of fisherfolk in rescuing several non-coastal communities was applauded. The fisherfolk deployed their boats to save many people from their marooned houses. Assertions such as if it was not for them, we would have drowned, appeared in the press (Chacko 2018). However, this camaraderie was short-lived. The abusive words directed at the community during COVID-19 demonstrate the superficiality of the reverence shown to them and an inability to rise beyond deeper stereotypes associated with the coastal community. Drawing from Krieger (2011), we argue that these stereotypes did not originate de novo due to specific behaviours manifested by Poonthura residents but drew from pre-existing prejudices and stereotypes. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fear and uncertainty of infection compounded the prejudice and stereotypes against coastal communities and perpetuated scapegoating and othering.

Public Services and Trust Deficit

These previously conditioned responses became institutionalised and amplified when health workers and public servants endorsed them, aggravating the historical trust deficit between the community and the state. Close geographical proximity to several government agencies, including the coast guard, navy, and air force, only adds to their consternation because they do not experience the apparent benefits of this proximity through timely rescue of fisherfolk during disasters. For instance, the community attributed deaths in the Ockhi cyclone to a lack of active and timely intervention. The communitys mistrust of the meteorological department was cemented by their failure to avert the disaster by providing timely alerts of the approaching cyclone. Although many promises have been made over the years, the government has not paid much attention to the issue of beach erosion and related livelihood difficulties. Such historical neglect during crises, thus, shaped the communitys attitude towards the governments COVID-19 control efforts.

The events around the current COVID-19 crisis in Poonthura shed light on these dimensions of community mistrust and suspicion towards government interventions, and the disorganised approaches that the state has adopted towards these communities. The history of violent conflict and police firing in the area added to their woes. In 1992, coastal Thiruvananthapuram witnessed communal riots, and the subsequent police firing resulted in the deaths of five people (Punathil 2019). Given their history, during the recent COVID-19 control efforts, the deployment of commandos to patrol streets gave rise to feelings of terror and insult in the community. The arbitrary deployment of forces on 8 July and the use of commandos to control and quarantine the area point to the very stereotypes that the wider community holds and how they are reflected in state interventions. The use of commandos for disease containment does not have precedence anywhere else in the state, including the northern districts where similar panic had errupted earlier due to the spread of COVID-19.

Repeated instances of conflict and rebellion within the state call for an examination of these events through the lens of communal resilience and agency born out of oppression and exclusion that have accumulated over the years. Many of these instances illustrate the communitys struggle for autonomy and control in their own lives, often resulting in more conflict. The sudden announcement of a triple lockdown, without giving residents enough time to purchase even basic supplies, was bound to lead to conflict, especially in communities that cannot cope with a rapidly enforced lockdown. Their anger, frustration, and subsequent confrontations with the police and health workers need to be viewed in this context. If not for these efforts by the community to resist the imposition of pandemic control measures, the subsequent conflict resolution discussions, relaxations by the district administration permitting shops to open, and the institution of a quarantine centre closer to the community might not have happened.

Lessons from Poonthura

The COVID-19 control measures in Kerala have been implemented through a well-established network of decentralised planning and local governance. However, Keralas pandemic response targeting one of the most marginalised groups in the state continues to reflect the Poonthura communitys outlier status (Kurien 1995). There are important lessons to be learnt from this experience, particularly regarding the implementation of decentralised planning in vulnerable communities during public health emergencies. Pre-existing socio-economic and cultural vulnerabilities, a history of state neglect of the community during disasters, and negative stereotypes about coastal communities among state actors have shaped the inequitable power relationship and trust deficit between the Poonthura coastal community and the state. This suggests that despite the existence of a declared state policy of decentralised planning, poor and marginalised communities could be left out if key stakeholders do not acknowledge their social and cultural vulnerabilities.

The imposition of a strict lockdown in a place like Poonthura, with its high population density and inadequate water and sanitation facilities, without addressing these conditions can only be viewed as further oppression. The approach to contain COVID-19 in Dharavi, Mumbai, with a comparable population density and neighbourhood characteristics, greatly benefited from decentralised planning measures adopted from Keralas model containment strategy (Golechha 2020). However, Kerala, one of the earliest and more established implementers of decentralised planning and local governance in the country, appears to have failed to effectively apply a similar approach among one of its most vulnerable populations. As proposed by Prasad et al (2020), an overarching principle of equity is an important consideration in disease control measures and treatment.

The Poonthura incident reminds us not to problematise conflicts between and within communities without acknowledging their unique realities and histories. If Poonthura is seen as an isolated incident, devoid of its wider social and historical context, then we will not learn anything. Just as individuals who are addicted to substances are often in denial about the samecities, neighbourhoods, and societies that do not explicitly acknowledge deep divisions and fractures will not address them, allowing crises to feed off these divisions. Indeed, given their location on the edge of both the climate change and COVID-19 crises, coastal communities will benefit from research focusing on the historical pathways and mechanisms of disadvantage. Such work will help in addressing deep-rooted causes of inequalities.

Note

1 The area administered by a municipal corporation is known as a municipal area. Each municipal area is divided into territorial constituencies known as wards. A municipal corporation is made up of a wards committee. Each ward has one seat in the wards committee.

References

Chacko, Jacob Tharakan (2018): Its a Flood of Heroes and Super Heroes, Onmanorama, 21 August, https://www.onmanorama.com/news/columns/straight-talk/2018/08/21/flood-heroes-kerala.html.

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This article analyses the spectrum-winning bid prices in simultaneous multiple round ascending auction held across the world for 700 MHz and indicates how it had an impact on the winning bid prices in other countries. It also analyses the spectrum prices of the mid-band (3.33.6 GHz) and the millimetre wave band (26 GHz) that are essential for the rollout of 5G services and makes a similar remark on reserve prices. Based on the analysis, it predicts the possible outcome in the forthcoming spectrum auction.

The fifth-generation (5G) communication services are being rolled out worldwide with 135 commercial launches covering about 235 million subscribers. It is estimated that 5G services will cover 3 billion users by 2025. Apart from the popular views about 5G providing high-speed data transfers, it is more about bringing a paradigm shift in ways in which things and humans are interconnected. The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI 2020) has estimated an increase in global gross domestic product (GDP) by about $2 trillion through the use of the 5G connectivity paradigm in key sectors such as healthcare, retail, mobility, and manufacturing alone.

In India, we have made remarkable inroads by covering close to 800 million subscribers with 4G network services. In order to cover the rest of the population, including rural areas with 4G/5G, it is imperative that the government make every effort to sell the radio spectrum, which is a critical resource in the forthcoming auctions. Since radio spectrum cannot be stored for future use, it is important to make effective and efficient use of it. By not being able to utilise about 1,200 megahertz (MHz) of the 700 MHz spectrum since 2016, we have lost a huge value of this scarce resource.

In this article, we analyse the worldwide trends in the prices of two spectrum bands that are most likely to be put into auction soon in India. First, we look at 700 MHz, the low-frequency spectrum that provides coverage across wide areasthe coverage spectrum. Subsequently, we analyse 3.33.6 gigahertz (GHz) and 2,628 GHzthe capacity spectrum that provides a high-capacity in dense urban areas.

The Sub-GHz Band

The 700 MHz radio spectrum went unsold for the second time during the last spectrum auction in February 2021; the first such failure was in 2016. This sub-MHz radio spectrum is normally considered as the golden band as it has superior propagation characteristics, with good penetration inside buildings and is also suitable for both rural and urban coverage. Many countries, including Europe, have prioritised the allocation of 700 MHz for 5G services. The GSMA (2019), the industry body of mobile operators around the world, has specified that the number of sites used in 2,500 MHz (that has been auctioned in India recently) is seven to eight times more than that required in 700 MHz for covering the same area, thereby indicating the superior coverage capabilities of this spectrum band. Given all these benefits, it begs a question as to why no bidder picked up this band during the last two auctions. Is the culprit the reserve price set for this band in these auctions?

Reserve price is the opening minimum bid price in simultaneous multiple-round ascending (SMRA) auctions and setting it appropriately determines whether the auction will be successful or not. Setting too high a reserve price will dissuade the bidders from bidding as it might exceed their valuation of the spectrum; too low a reserve price might be seen as the auctioneer giving away the scarce spectrum at a minimal price.

We analysed the SMRA auctions held worldwide for the 700 MHz spectrum using the spectrum database of DotEcon (2020). The mean reserve price per MHz per population is about $0.05 (in dollars adjusted for purchasing power parity [PPP]). However, the mean winning bid price is about $0.54. The average winning bid price is about $0.33 per MHz per population in the United States (US) that conducted a number of SMRA auctions for 700 MHz during 200211. Figure 1 (p 21) provides the variations in winning prices of 700 MHz bands auctioned across different countries in various auctions conducted over the years.

On the contrary, the average reserve price fixed by the Government of India for 700 MHz in the forthcoming auction is about $0.24 per MHz per population (adjusted for PPP), that is several times higher than that set internationally and is also higher than the mean winning bid price witnessed worldwide. A closer analysis indicates that the reserve price in metros is about $1, around twice the mean winning bid prices in other countries. Only the category C circles had the reserve price set at $0.08, which is a bit closer to the mean reserve price in other countries. Though the reserve price set in the 2022 auction is much lower compared to that fixed in the 2016 and 2021 auctions, it is still very high for the operators to place their bids in the first clock stage. The same is true for the newly released 600 MHz spectrum.

There have been many studies on the determinants of winning bid prices in auctions, the notable one being Milgrom et al (2017). The ordinary least square (OLS) regression of the winning price with the explanatory variables such as (i) the reserve price; (ii) the population covered in the spectrum licence area; (iii) the total amount of available spectrum put on auction; (iv) the total amount of allocated spectrum in the auction; (v) the number of bidders in the auction; and (vi) the duration of spectrum licence, as in Sridhar and Prasad (2021), indicate a strong positive correlation between the reserve price and the winning price. Results of the regression are presented in Table 1.

As indicated, for every 1% increase in the reserve price, there is a corresponding increase of almost 1% in the winning spectrum prices. However, it must be pointed out that the lower reserve prices do not necessarily mean lower winning prices. For example, in the 2011 auction conducted in the US, the average winning bid price was 10 times more than the reserve price. Even Germany witnessed more than two times the reserve price as the winning price in the auction held in 2015. However, Finland that conducted the auction for 700 MHz in 2016 witnessed only marginal increase in the winning price. Hence, it all depends on how the bidders value the spectrum (Sridhar and Prasad 2021).

The Mid Band

We also analysed worldwide prices of the spectrum in the 3.33.6 GHz range that is slated for auction soon. This spectrum band is ideal for providing spot coverage of high capacities and ideally suited for dense urban areas of the country. Thus far, nine countries have auctioned this spectrum using SMRA for mobile services and more than 30 operators are providing 5G services in this band. Figure 2 provides an illustration of the spread of the winning bid prices across countries over time. There is a trend towards an increase in prices as 5G networks get rolled out by the carriers in different countries and the consequent effects on demand for spectrum.

The mean reserve price per MHz per population or this band in auctions conducted worldwide is about $0.02 per MHz per population, while the mean winning bid price is about $0.11. As expected, the price of this high-frequency spectrum is about one-fourth of the low-frequency 700 MHz spectrum prices. The reason for this variation in spectrum prices between coverage and capacity spectrum is due to the trade-off the bidders make between spectrum and the mobile access infrastructure as illustrated by Prasad and Sridhar (2014).

The regression analysis of the awards of this mid-band spectrum, much similar to what is done for 700 MHz, do not indicate significant correlation between reserve price and winning price, with a few exceptions. In Germany, though the auctioneer had set a very low reserve price of $0.002, the winning price reached 100 times to about $0.24.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI 2018) has recommended a mean reserve price for the mid band at $0.02, which is in-line with the mean reserve price worldwide. At metros, the reserve price, much similar to the 700 MHz, is high at $0.08. However, this is still less than the mean winning price in this band.

The Millimetre Wave Band

The millimetre wave band in the high frequencies of 2628 GHz is ideal for creating micro and pico cellular deployment of 5G. Worldwide, about 52 countries have completed auctioning this band for 5G. The average reserve price recommended for this band is about $0.0004 per MHz per population, which is about the world average (Sridhar 2022). Overall, we see muted response to all bands in the forthcoming auction, except for 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands.

Policy Implications

Since 1994, when Nobel Prize laureates Paul R Milgrom and Robert B Wilson along with McAfee proposed to the Federal Communications Commission the conduct of the first-ever SMRA auction as the mechanism design for allocating radio spectrum for commercial mobile services in the US, it has been used successfully worldwide. However, as indicated, an unrealistic reserve price can upset the apple cart. In a recent cross-country study of spectrum prices, Sridhar and Prasad (2021) indicate that the reserve prices have a significant and positive effect on the winning bid prices.

The other factor that is important as a determinant of spectrum prices is the availability of spectrum. As indicated in Table 1, an increase of 0.8 kilohertz (kHz) of available spectrum decreases the spectrum price by 1%. Though the effect is less, at least, in the auction of 700 MHz, Lewis (2008)in one of the recommendationsindicates that making more spectrum available is necessary to make spectrum auction successful. Prasad and Sridhar (2014) also argue extensively that a shortage of available spectrum is one of the important reasons for high prices witnessed in India. Since the quantum of spectrum in this auction is much larger (about 35 times more than in 2021), including the new bands in 600 MHz, 3.3 MHz and 26 GHz, we expect that it will have substantial negative effects on spectrum prices (Sridhar and Prasad 2022).

As Kirkpatrick (2021) points out, the mid-band spectrum is being used by various government agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD) in the US and the Department of Space (DoS) in India. There have been hurdles in freeing up the unused/underutilised spectrum for commercial mobile services from the current spectrum holders. In India, talks are still going on between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), DoS and the DoD for the release of unused and underutilised spectrum in the 3.33.6 GHz band. The parliamentary standing committee on information technology recommended expediting the deliberations for the earliest identification and release of adequate spectrum for 5G services (Lok Sabha Secretariat 2021).

India leapfrogged into digital 2G technologies and subsequently had exponential growth on mobile services, surpassing the US to be the second largest, next only to China in subscriber base in the world (Sridhar 2012). It is time that we migrate to 5G and not lag behind other countries and to reap the benefits of super-connectivity between humans, and devices.

References

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 (2022): Are Spectrum Reserve Prices Too High? Business Line, 26 April.

Sridhar, V and Rohit Prasad (2021): Analysis of Spectrum Pricing for Commercial Mobile Services: A Cross Country Study, Telecommunications Policy, Vol 45, No 9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2021.102221.

 (2022): Analysing Spectrum Auction, Hindu, 22 June.

TRAI (2018): Recommendations on Auction of Spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3400 MHz, 3400-3600 MHz Bands, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Maria Aurora Couto, the Goan litterateur and cultural activist who passed away on 14 January 2022, brought out the facets of her cosmopolitan outlook and her abiding faith in the synthetic traditions of Goan/Indian culture. She remained steeped in the cultural demands of high nationalism embodying the values of her times.

Sometime in 2004 as the late Alito Siquera and I were waiting at the office of the vice chancellor of Goa University, I saw a woman climbing up the stairs of the building. She was panting, and without giving us a glance entered the vice chancellors chamber, as we discovered later, to join the experts as the chancellors nominee. Of course, Alito knew her well but decided to mention her as the famed author of Goa: A Daughters Story (Penguin, 2004). The book was creating waves, and I was yet to read it. In my nervousness, I asked Alito to give me a gist of the book lest I get asked a few questions about it. He made me realise that I had committed a grave mistake by appearing so indifferent to a great sociological work coming as a fiction from a native Goan. The conversation then turned into the follies of mainstream nationalism and how north Indians like me look at Goa just as a tiny dot in the larger map of India without feeling any need for serious intellectual engagement. Alito would never let an opportunity pass to remind us that we were the carriers of stereotypes about Goa, thanks to the Bollywood films and the images spawned by the tourism industry.

In any case, our interactions with the committee got over, and we got our respective promotions. Maria Couto just asked me one simple question if Maithili was my mother tongue. Later, I did borrow Marias book from the library and read it. In fact, it was my first serious reading about Goan society and culture save few stray sociological pieces. Subsequently, Alito and I wrote a joint piece for an edited volume concerning sociological practices in Goa, and he managed to get her comments on the draft paper. At Goa University, she was instrumental in conceptualising the Visiting Research Professors Programme commemorating Goan icons from varied fields like D D Kosambi, Dayanand Bandodkar, Baki-baab Borkar, Mario Miranda, Anthony Gonsalves, Nana Shirgaonkar, Sant Sohirobanath, and Joaquim Heliodoro da Cunha Rivara. The nomenclature of these chairs, and the attendant delineation of the fields, is a living testimony to the fiftyfifty nationalism that Maria Couto championed throughout her life: a conscious bridge-building across the perceived binaries of HinduCatholic, MarathiKonkani, and IndianGoan identities. It called for a certain catholicity of vision and cosmopolitanism of approach to devote chairs to Marathi sant sahitya and IndoPortuguese studies at the same time, as also to Hindustani and Western music. Those who are conversant with the looming threats of communal and linguistic polarisation in Goa can retrospectively appreciate the inclusiveness that was sought to be articulated through the very act of naming these chairs. It was an act of great intellectual courage to devote a chair to Marathi in the only university of a state whose distinctiveness emanate from its growing political and cultural distancing from Maharashtra and Marathi. Likewise, it was not easy to have a chair in IndoPortuguese studies in a rather apologetic context where the elite Catholic Goan is misperceived as the closet defender of Portuguese colonialism.

Be that as it may, I left Goa University for another job in Kolkata and Maria Couto ceased to be an active presence in my intellectualinstitutional world, till I met her in Shimla in 2013. This was possible because another eminent Goan, Peter Ronald deSouza, who as the then director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, had the uncanny talent to attract some of the best minds to the institute, and to facilitate conversations across a wide range of themes. He had succeeded in persuading Maria Couto to be a guest fellow at the IIAS for three months. I was a regular fellow there and thus our paths crossed once again.

Her husband Alban Couto served as the district collector of Gaya, and based on his experience had published a piece on the growing HinduMuslim polarisation in the district. Maria shared that piece with me. Thereafter, she would share reminiscences of her days in Patna, her husbands great admiration for Shrikrishna Singh, the first chief minister of Bihar, and how he had relatively less regard for Jayaprakash Narayan. I would regularly meet Maria at the observatory guest house of IIAS, where she would sip her brandy with hot water. It is over these meetings that I learnt a great deal about her writings, her nationalist vision, her concerns for Goa and India, and her boundless warmth and generosity. She would often joke that it was Alban who had arranged from the heaven my company for her in Shimla. These conversations continued in Goa, where I worked for a decade, occasionally over lunch in her beautiful house in Aldona and, at times, in Mandovi hotel where everyone knew her personally.

In Shimla, Maria was putting together her second memoirFilominas Journeys: A Portrait of a Marriage, a Family and a Culture (Aleph, 2013). The work focused more on her mother, as a woman of immense grit and sagacity. It was around this time when she was giving finishing touches to her book, she laughingly told me about her being a fiftyfifty nationalist. As she would explain gently that most of her relatives find her a fiftyfifty person, and even laugh behind her back: half Goan-half Indian, half Catholic-half Hindu. Since she had not lived in Goa consistently before she moved there in 2000, her Goanness was suspect in their eyes. Because of her stay in Dharwad, Delhi, Patna, London, Chennai, she had acquired a long list of Indian friends whose first port of call was her house in Aldona. Also, for any occasion of some importance, she would purposely don a sari and a mangalsutra. That would annoy her relatives as they would read this as an attempt to appear half-Hindu. But then, Maria would not miss a single Sunday mass in Shimla which I could never understand. Her choice of Indian first names for her children was a conscious one: Veena, Vinay, and Vivek. And every now and then, she would bring in the lost world of Goan village both Hindu and Catholic, its fragile ecology, the growing threats to its value system, and the violent modern world of mining and tourism. After a formal presentation, I had asked her that question: if her writings could be seen as nostalgic remembrance of a lost world. She vehemently denied that and did indicate about retrieving the elements of harmony and togetherness in that world to construct a blueprint for a desirable complementarity of Goan and Indian identities. Genteel and graceful to a fault, she would often talk of natural confluence of different worlds as it happened in her case because of her sojourns in Dharwad and Delhi.

Without being explicitly political, she would lament about the unnecessary nationalistic test that Indians with non-Hindu names are expected to pass these days. She firmly believed that Nehruvian India had created possibilities where a Veena Couto would appear as normal as a Veena Sardesai, and where an Aurora Couto from a distant Goa could feel as comfortable in a household in Patna full of Maithili/Bhojpuri-speaking cooks and helps. Maria Couto represented that world and that vision. It is easy for us to simply proclaim alas! That world is disappearing, and disappearing fast! A true tribute to Maria Couto would be to ask some of the most difficult questions about our nationalism that she herself hesitated to ask. I would often tease her by saying that her fiftyfifty nationalism could be sustained because of a host of favourable factorsshe being an upper-class Bammon Catholic so what if she had an alcoholic father, she having met a Bombay-based Goan IAS officer as husband, her husbands posting in London at a time when access to foreign shores was severely constrained, in short, her membership of an upwardly mobile English-speaking class that Nehruvian India had helped create. That India really served her well, so naturally she would be all praise for it.

She would gently refute my assertion by saying that she equally contributed to that India by learning English (and not Portuguese, which anyway she was fluent in) and teaching the language at colleges in Goa and Delhi. More generally, she would say, people of her class did help select elements of varied regional cultures to create a national one that a newly independent India was in earnest need of. Here, she would talk of different types of academies and art institutions that were created in the 1950s and the 1960s. She would invoke the contributions of her friend Girish Karnad and allude to Gangubai Hangals recognition as a national icon. She would frequently draw upon Albans work in Goa as development commissioner in the aftermath of liberation in 1961, and underline the way Alban Indianised things there. Her another favourite topic would be her sari. She would talk of different weaves and the way they were sourced from different parts of the country, and the way it had come to stand for a kind of nationalist dress for women in India without demeaning her trousers and shirts that she would wear to the church. She wanted that India where she could frequently switch between a church and a temple, a sari and a dress, Konkani and Portuguese, English and Hindi without any duress.

But then, why do we find it difficult to sustain an India that Maria lived in and also wished for us? It is not fair to look for an answer in her oeuvre. With all her literary greatness, Maria Couto was no political theorist. May be successes of Marias India have unleashed forces which are undermining her vision. The vernacularisation of Indian democracy has created a political class which did not have the privilege of getting groomed in the composite traditions of the Karnads and Coutos as they belong to different structures of opportunities. The high ideals of nationalism did give everyone an overall sense of anticipated emancipation from the life of drudgery and indignity. Without concrete gains for the multitudes over the past seven decades after independence, those ideals themselves appear sectoral and exclusive. An aspirational India without the requisite avenues of upward mobility for her millions will always remain explosive and vulnerable to multifarious appeals of identity politics. Maria did have an intuitive sense of all that, but did not wish to venture in that direction. In that sense, she belonged to a group of people who always looked at things with great affection, warmth, care, and love but inadvertently end up giving us too sanitised and too gentle a view of the worlda world bereft of its conflicts and its materiality.
Novel public health experiments from Maharashtra in the pandemic times, involving co-production of healthcare, interventionist regulation of private hospital rates and popular initiatives to ensure social accountability of private hospitals, demonstrate significant potentials to advance people-centred health system changes.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and highlighted the deep contradictions in our health systems, like never before. This was especially true in the case of Maharashtrathe Indian state that was worst-affected by COVID-19 in terms of the number of cases and deaths. Despite massive distress caused to ordinary people due to health system inadequacies, this crisis also generated certain novel public responses. As we move into a post-COVID-19 situation, drawing upon experiences from Maharashtra, we will attempt to identify some approaches that demonstrate significant potentials to advance people-centred health system changes in the coming period.

Co-production of Healthcare

One of the critical interfaces during the pandemic was between public health systems and people. Here, the dominant dynamic was, of course, centrally directed procedures such as lockdowns, testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine measures, and vaccination drives. Largely framed in a militarised public health discourse, these measures were designed and implemented by the national and state governments in highly centralised manner, requiring strict compliance by populations, and were complied with in varying degrees by ordinary people.

At the same time, less visible but important participatory initiatives came up in many areas, which emerged not through central directives but parallel to them. These involved panchayats, frontline health workers, grassroots activists, and civil society groups, occupying the interstices that emerged on the ground during the crisis. While many of these were short-lived, such participatory efforts (forms of publicpublic partnership) provided much-needed support to patients, migrant workers, and various groups of affected people during the pandemic.1

One common form of such initiatives in rural areas of Maharashtra was numerous actions taken by panchayats and village-level dakshata samitis (vigilance committees) to set up local isolation and quarantine centres while providing essential support to the occupants in terms of food and other arrangements. In some instances, local groups and village health committees actively supported front-line health workers like accredited social health activists (ASHAs) and anganwadi workers, enabling them to reach out to people more effectively for health measures and also arranging essential supplies.

One remarkable form of civil societystate cooperation was the running of patient support desks in rural public hospitals, with 40 such help desks across various talukas of Maharashtra operated during the second wave. Help desk volunteers in dozens of blocks came forward and assisted patients and caregivers in the face of considerable personal risk. Not waiting for state-level official endorsement, block and district health officials enabled this initiative to be rapidly replicated in each block where it was proposed. As a result, during July 2020 to August 2021, over 80,000 patients and caregivers were provided information and guidance related to accessing COVID-19-related care and general health services through such civil society-run help desks working in public hospitals across the state (Patil 2021).

Within Maharashtra, Pune has been the most affected district in terms of COVID-19 cases and mortality. Within this setting, a broad-based coalition of civil society organisations and community groups in Pune catalysed the formation of a joint task force on social action for COVID-19 control in August 2020, in collaboration with the divisional commissioner and local officials. This joint task force worked at the health systempeople interface by launching campaigns for mass awareness, supporting outreach measures in communities, and enabling community feedback to the health system (Mascarenhas 2020). A notable spin-off of this initiative emerged in the Velhe block of Pune district, where a similar block-level joint task force on social action took several collaborative initiatives on healthcare and nutrition, including provision of nutritious food for malnourished children in large number of villages during the lockdown situation.

One aspect needing emphasis here is the autonomous agency of front-line health workers who often acted beyond the call of duty and struck up wider social collaborations during peak periods of the pandemic. This includes primary healthcare staff and semi-formally employed ASHAs working under considerable constraints with inadequate honorariums. These front-line workers often reached out to panchayats and local social groups with the recognition that collaborative action was essential in this situation.

Similar ground-level initiatives emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic in many states, notably in Kerala where the state government actively promoted the engagement of panchayats, womens groups, social organisations, and local volunteers in pandemic control efforts. Such initiatives that involved close collaboration between public functionaries and community-based actors on the ground can be regarded as examples of co-production of healthcare. Historically, the co-production of health approach has been developed in clinical settings, advocating for close, continued partnerships between health professionals and patients to improve health outcomes (Hart 2010). More broadly applied, the co-production approach recognises that healthcare cannot be optimally produced either by health services alone or by communities on their own. Only an equitable, reciprocal, and democratic collaboration involving public health systems (including front-line health workers) and communities can create optimal conditions for provisioning of healthcare towards enhancing peoples health status. This involves configuring a major, equity-oriented shift in the power relations between health systems and people and provides an alternative to dominant top-down, militarised, and bureaucratic public health approaches. Co-production of healthcare does not imply any abdication or dilution in the essential role of the state to provide health services to the entire population. While the state remains fully accountable to fulfil its range of roles in service provisioning, community-based actors and groups and ordinary people would be treated as equitable partners in planning and implementation. Co-production would be focused at the primary healthcare level, linked with complementary participatory processes at higher levels.

Regulation of Private Hospital Rates

A second important front of interaction during COVID-19 has been between public systems and private healthcare providers. The backdrop of large-scale privatisation of healthcare in India, especially in states like Maharashtra, is well known. Inadequate capacities of public health services to deal with the spiralling number of COVID-19 patients presented the spectre of large-scale exploitation of people by commercialised hospitals, a potential market disaster. Given this context, Maharashtra was the first state in India where regulatory measures to standardise rates for treatment of COVID-19 as well as non-COVID-19 patients were decreed by the state government through orders issued in April and May 2020.2 All private hospitals were required to implement specified rates concerning 80% of their beds, covering treatment of both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. This was the highest proportion of rate-regulated hospital beds among all Indian states during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These measures were notable and unprecedented, since during the previous decade until COVID-19, various state governments in Maharashtra had not managed to take forward legal regulation of private healthcare. Maharashtra has neither adopted the national Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 nor has it enacted an equivalent, updated state regulatory act to govern private healthcare providers.3 Yet, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state moved rapidly and decisively to regulate rates in private hospitals across the board, and official auditors were appointed to scrutinise private hospital bills especially in larger cities, in attempts to keep COVID-19-related hospital bills within specified limits.

The results of these regulatory directives were mixed due to multiple reasons. Sections of the private healthcare lobby challenged the validity of regulatory orders, which had been hastily stitched together based on laws, such as the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005.

These laws provide certain general powers to the state in emergencies, but their jurisdiction in the area of hospital rates was not clear. Responding to a public interest litigation filed by a private doctor with the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, the state government orders to regulate rates for non-COVID-19 patients were declared invalid by the high court, and this stipulation was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court (Ganjapure 2021). Concerning the regulation of rates for the care of COVID-19 patients, the orders were continued and did have an impact in larger cities like Mumbai where the government was able to effectively deploy a number of special auditors who reduced crores of rupees from COVID-19-related hospital bills, providing some relief to patients (Parab-Pandit 2022).

However, inadequate public regulatory capacity, especially in smaller cities and towns, combined with multiple stratagems used by many commercial private hospitals to circumvent these regulations limited the effectiveness of these regulatory orders in many parts of the state.

While these regulatory measures were temporary in nature and had mixed effectiveness, this shift from minimalist regulation prior to COVID-19 to the hands-on regulation of private healthcare during the pandemic was potentially significant. Ongoing compulsions of the Indian state to promote capital accumulation in the healthcare sector are reflected in the usual minimalist regulation approach even in states where the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010-type legislations are operative. Such regulations so far have tended to mostly focus on registration and the fulfilment of some infrastructural standards by private hospitals, thus streamlining the healthcare market, rather than reshaping the market towards public goals. Maharashtra governments decision to regulate rates for vast majority of beds in private hospitals, covering non-COVID-19 as well as COVID-19 patients (only the latter getting operationalised due to legal constraints), highlighted the potential for an alternative approach of interventionist regulation of private healthcare. Fourteen other Indian states also adopted similar rate regulation measures during the pandemic, though these orders were limited to COVID-19 treatment and covered small proportions of hospital beds in these states. We need to learn lessons from the attempted interventionist regulatory approach, including analysing the reasons for ultimately limited effectiveness of rate-regulation measures. Based on this, an expanded, legally strengthened, and sustained version of interventionist regulation, including standardisation of rates, could help check the widespread market failures and commercial exploitation of patients by the private healthcare sector. This could be an important component of a larger process for reshaping healthcare in a pro-public direction.

Ensuring Social Accountability

A third significant interaction highlighted during the pandemic in Maharashtra was between private hospitals and people. The mentioned rate-regulation orders did have some impact, but numerous commercial private hospitals found ways of circumventing these and massively overcharged patients for COVID-19 care while violating various patients rights.4 Major evidence for such overcharging emerged from the participatory survey covering 2,579 COVID-19 cases, with respondents being women who had lost their husbands to COVID-19 and other family members of patients who had been treated for COVID-19. This rapid survey conducted in September 2021 across 34 districts of Maharashtra by the social networks Corona Ekal Mahila Punarvasan Samiti and Jan Arogya Abhiyan, demonstrated overcharging by private hospitals in 75% of the covered COVID-19 cases, taking state-mandated rates as the benchmark.5

While such overcharging, especially by larger private hospitals, was widespread, there was also a unique social response to the situation from below. This started with organisation of Santap Sabhas (anger assemblies) by Jan Arogya Abhiyan and Corona Ekal Mahila Punarvasan Samiti, involving women who had lost their husbands to COVID-19, and other family members of COVID-19 patients. These assemblies were organised in Nashik and Pune during SeptemberOctober 2021 where striking testimonies of COVID-19-related overcharging by private hospitals were presented, and the demand was voiced that huge excess charged amounts must be refunded. This expression of social outrage was taken forward through dialogue with the state health minister, leading to official audits of private hospital bills for 480 complaints across Maharashtra related to COVID-19 treatment overcharging (Shukla 2022). This audit process (currently underway) is rather unique, since, though the auditing is anchored by public officials, the mentioned civil society networks are playing a major role in collectivising affected patient families, analysing the often complex and cleverly inflated hospital bills, and even technically supporting local officials for effective conduction of these audits.

This publicpublic collaboration for private healthcare accountability has led to major and unprecedented refunds to patients from various private hospitals, significantly benefiting over 60 COVID-19 patients across the state until now, with the average refund amount in each case being over `25,000. It may be argued that public regulatory efforts from above remain inadequate unless accompanied by such enforcing of social accountability of private hospitals from below. These processes can be located within a wider framework of social embeddedness of private healthcare providers. The COVID-19 pandemic punctured the corporate mantra that healthcare should be treated like any other industry (with minimal social obligations), reminding both people and providers that even private hospitals must function as social institutions, having definite public responsibilities. Today, powerful tendencies promoting corporatisation of healthcare seek to completely subjugate healthcare providers to market forces, wrenching them away from all social moorings. In this context, experiences like the overcharging audit in campaign mode strengthen the counter-discourse that even private healthcare providers must be held socially accountable.

Shaping Post-covid-19 Health Systems

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We have seen how during the COVID-19 crisis certain novel public health responses emerged in Maharashtra. These related to interactions between each of the components of the health system triangle consisting of the public health system, the private healthcare sector, and people. Co-production of healthcare emerged through interactive processes between public health systems and people; interventionist regulation dealt with the interface of public systems with private healthcare providers; and social accountability processes sprung from interactions between private healthcare providers and people. Obviously during COVID-19, the dominant dynamics along each of these axes reinforced pre-existing power inequities, reproducing hierarchies and commercialised behaviour. However, the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis also shook up the system, created new spaces, and generated novel interactions, though these were on smaller scale and have been nascent in character. As we move towards post-COVID-19 health systems in India, each of these emergent directions need to be carefully studied, since these form precedents that deserve upscaling as part of the crucial processes for health system change.

Probably the most important health system lesson from COVID-19 has been to heavily underline the importance of robust public health systems. While demands are made for the strengthening of public health services, we should be cognisant of the dominant direction that is being currently rolled out for public health systems in the form of securitisation and digitalisation. While public provisioning remains underfunded, highly centralised mechanisms of health sector control and surveillance are being prioritised, further marginalising front-line providers and communities, and excluding participatory processes. There is apprehension that the new public health act being formulated at the national level might reinforce such tendencies.

In this context, the experiences and vision of co-production of healthcare can provide a powerful counterbalance, emphasising the irreducible role played by communities and ordinary people in public health processes, who must be equitably involved and consulted as active subjects, rather than being reduced to objects of top-down directives and surveillance. We need further discussion about how components of co-production can be integrated within the larger, essential process of public health strengthening in the post-COVID-19 situation. Such an approach can point the direction for reconfiguring relationships between various health authorities, front-line healthcare staff, panchayats, and communities in a democratic framework, countering autocratic designs in the health sector.

Concerning the private healthcare sector, the dominant discourse supported by influential bodies like Niti Aayog is to accelerate transnational and domestic investment, fuelling further private sector growth. The Niti Aayogs document Investment opportunities in Indias healthcare sector6 rolls out the red carpet for multinational capital to further marketise Indias already hyper-privatised health system but does not even mention the need for regulation of private healthcare. In this context, the lessons from interventionist regulation of private healthcare during COVID-19 need to be built upon, strengthening the argument that reining in commercialisation of healthcare through public action is not only necessary but is also feasible as an option, provided there is political will to do so.

At the same time, challenging unbridled commercialisation of healthcare will not be effective if limited to demanding top-down regulation of the private sector by historically weakened public systems. Here, initiatives for social accountability of private hospitals show us how ordinary citizens and grassroots civil society organisations can confront commercialised private hospitals and demand accountability, overcoming huge asymmetries of power and knowledge. In this process, new allies are emerging such as middle-class sections who have been maltreated by private and corporate hospitals. While the trajectory of regulatory action from above remains uncertain, options for social action from below will continue to remain relevant for pushing back exploitative processes linked with commercialisation of healthcare.

Crises inevitably throw up major challenges, but often they also provide glimpses of novel paths to transcend these challenges. While we chalk out directions for a post-COVID-19 health system in an increasingly contentious political environment, let us not lose sight of these promising experiences and resultant hard-earned insights. Each of these directions represents a concrete dimension of strengthening publicness7 of healthcare (an approach encompassing the public system, as well as publicprivate interactions in the health sector). The approach of promoting publicness offers a comprehensive alternative to bureaucratic capture, privatisation, and corporatisation of health systems. Today, as we challenge the constriction of democratic spaces and critique the dominant framework in healthcare, we also need to pose action-oriented alternatives that embody real democracy based on peoples initiatives. These provide us grounded hope in difficult times and ensure that while moving beyond the COVID-19 crisis, its most valuable lessons are not left behind.

Notes

1 For description of several such initiatives in Maharashtra, see Vedh Arogyacha (www.sathicehat.org/vedh-arogyacha) and Dakhal, www.kalpakhosting.co.in/Sathi/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dakhal-Covid-Yoddhyanchi.pdf).

2 See https://fmesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Restriction-on-Charges-by-Hospital, pdf and https://www.maharashtra.gov.in/Site/Upload/Acts%20Rules/Marathi/Restriction%20of%20Charges%20by%20.Pvt%20Hospital%20RevisedFinal1%20(1).pdf .

3 Private hospitals in Maharashtra are registered under the Maharashtra Nursing Homes Registration Act, which is a slightly modified version of the archaic Bombay Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1949.

4 For striking patients testimonies during COVID-19, see www.sathicehat.org/wp-content/uploads/

2022/04/Compendium-Patients-voices-during-the-pandemic_email.pdf.

5 www.janarogya.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/English-report-on-overcharging-survey.pdf.

6 https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/ 2021-03/InvestmentOpportunities_HealthcareSector_0.pdf.

7 For discussion on the concept of Publicness, see Mcdonald and Ruiters (2012).

References

Ganjapure, Vivek (2021): Government Can Not Fix Rates for Non-covid Patients in Private Hospitals: Supreme Court, 20 July, Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/govt-cant-fix-rates-for-non-covid-patients-in-private-hospitals-sc/articleshow/84565884.cms .

Hart, Julion Tudor (2010): The Political Economy of Health Care, Bristol: The Policy Press.

Mascarenhas, Anuradha (2020): Flash Mobs, Community Participation: Punes Peoples Campaign to Halt Covid to be Launched on 16 October, Indian Express, 13 October, www.indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/flash-mobs-community-participation-punes-peoples-campaign-to-halt-covid-to-be-launched-on-oct-16-

6722492 .

McDonald, David and Greg Ruiters (2012): Alternatives to Privatisation, Cape Town: HSRC Press.

Parab-Pandit, Shefali (2022): Mumbai: BMC Axes `21 Crore from Overcharged Private Hospital Bills to Covid Patients, Free Press Journal, 24 April, https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/mumbai-bmc-axes-rs-21-crore-from-overcharged-pvt-hospital-bills-to-covid-patients.

Patil, Hemraj (2021): Aarogyaseveche Lokdoot, Loksatta, 21 April, www.loksatta.com/vishesh/article-on-health-service-envoy-abn-97-2449630/?utm_source=whatsapp_web&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialsharebuttons .
Demographic constraints will continue to weigh down on growth and development.

The World Population Prospects (WPP) 2022 published by the United Nations has revived the debate on Indias population problems. This is because the revised estimates show that in 2023, Indias population of 1.428 billion will exceed Chinas 1.425 billion, four years earlier than anticipated. At the global level, the WPP 2022 revised the global population numbers for 2022 to 7.9 billion.

Trends show that the global population growth will continue through most of the century and will turn negative only after it reaches 10.4 billion in 2086. However, some countries with large populations would see their populaces decline much earlier. This would include China (in 2024), Brazil (2047), Indonesia (2061), and India (2064). Other populous nations like Pakistan and Nigeria will see their population grow even in the next century, while the United Statess (US) population will largely stabilise from 2085.

A major consequence of Indias growing populace is the continued increase in population density. This is a major hurdle as it severely limits the per capita resource availability, especially land, water, minerals, energy and so on, and constrains growth. Today, Indias population density of 477 people per square kilometre is around eight times higher than the global population density. In contrast, the population density of China and Indonesia was around one-third that of India. And the population density in both the US and Brazil has less than a tenth than that of India. Indias growth will continue to be hampered by this high population density, which will remain six to 12 times larger than that of China and the US by the turn of the century. The only consolation is that the population density of Pakistan and Nigeria will exceed that of India by then.

Another reason for caution is that Indias advantage of a relatively young population will slowly get eroded over the coming decades. The median age of the Indian population has gone up from 20 years in 1950 to 21.6 years in 2000 and further to 27.9 years in 2022. It will increase to 38.1 years by 2050 and touch 47.5 years by the turn of the century. The average age of the Indian population will exceed that of the global population by 2037. Though Indias average age will remain significantly lower than that of China, it will almost come at par with that of the US by the end of the century. Indias ageing population would certainly reduce the competitive edge provided by a relatively younger workforce in the early decades of the century.

The WPP 2022 also contains a few other indicators of the long-term demographic trends that affect the quality of life of people, especially women. This would include the total fertility rate (TFR), infant mortality rate (IMR), the crude death rate (CDR), and the life expectancy of people. The TFR or live births per woman in India has always exceeded the global average right from the 1950s. Though Indias TFR fell from 5.7 to 3.3 during the second half of the last century, it was only in 2011 that it went below the global average. Today China, the US, Indonesia, and Brazil still have lower TFRs than India and Pakistan and Nigeria have higher TFRs. However, Indias TFR is expected to edge closer to that of China, the US, and Indonesia by 2050 and will remain so till the end of the century. The continued reduction in Indias TFR will hopefully help increase female work participation in income-earning activities, reduce inequalities, and boost growth.

As regards IMR or the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births, the Indian numbers were much higher than the global average with the gap even widening to around half during the 1960s and the 1970s. However, the Indian IMR has dipped sharply since then and even gone below the global average by 2019. Today, Indias IMR (26.3) is still around four to five times higher than that of China and the US, but is substantially lower than that of Pakistan and Nigeria. However, the gap between Indias IMR and that of the US and China is expected to narrow significantly by the turn of the century. This would imply a slow and steady enhancement in the nutritive and health status of women and improved availability of medical services and childcare.

Coming to the CDR or the deaths per 1,000 population, Indias numbers have fallen sharply by around two-thirds since independence and even dropped below the global rate of around eight by 2003. Though COVID-19 has increased Indias CDR marginally above the global average, it is now lower than that of the US but higher than China. By 2050, Indias CDR is expected to be lower than most of the other nations with large population. The fall in CDR has improved Indias life expectancy at birth, which had been around one-tenth lower than the global average till the early 1980s. However, the disparities have come down and Indias life expectancy is expected to exceed the global average in 2043. But it will continue to remain lower than that of China, the US, and Brazil by the end of the century.

To sum up, the slowdown and decline in population growth over the century will be a major gain for India. But the huge population density and the ageing population will weigh down development efforts. The continued reduction in IMR and TFR will hopefully encourage more women to join the workforce, reduce inequalities, and even stimulate growth. Indias low life-expectancy levels, however, call for urgent interventions to implement new social welfare initiatives.
Like other informal work activities, handloom weaving also underwent a deep crisis during different phases of the COVID-19 lockdown in India. Lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the pandemic resulted in a grave economic shock to the Indian economy and the handloom industry was severely affected by it. Unable to procure raw materials on time and market their finished products, the handloom weavers in India became unemployed involuntarily, which led to the total or partial loss of livelihood for a long time. Due to the lack of savings, the weavers became heavily debt-burdened (mostly through informal sources of credit) and survived because of the governments mercy in terms of food rations and nominal financial assistance. Though the handloom industry has its own resilience mechanism, it could not withstand the current economic crisis caused by the ongoing health disaster in the absence of government support. Therefore, given the present situation of the handloom weavers, this industry needs a big push for its revival.

The household-based handloom industry, which comes under micro industries, has been an informal occupation since centuries. After farming activities, the second-most employment-generating sector in the unorganised economy has been handloom weaving. The importance of the handloom industry lies in its cultural relevance, employment opportunities, and export potential. This sector is mainly capable of providing employment to the unskilled and semi-skilled masses of the rural and semi-urban areas. The artistic works on the fabrics are so exquisite and the colour combinations so unique that the handloom products of India are highly acknowledged and demanded across the globe. This has made India the highest producer of handloom fabrics as 95% of the woven cloth in the world comes from India. The major importers of Indian handloom products have been the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc. The labour-intensive handloom industry mostly employs family labour. The technology used is simple, power consumption is minimal, and the production process is non-hazardous either to the human beings or to the environment.

After demonetisation and the defective implementation of the goods and services tax, the COVID-19 lockdown has been an unanticipated shock to the handloom industry in India. The major issues encountered by the handloom weavers during the lockdown were the unavailability of raw materials due to a ban on public transportation facilities, lack of marketing facilities due to the closure of internal and external markets, and financial crunch because of meagre income earnings and poor access to institutional credit. On the one hand, the weavers experienced a hefty increase in raw material prices up to an extent of 40% in hank yarn and 30% in dyes. This price rise was excused by the yarn manufacturers due to the increasing prices of raw cotton and cocoons. But, instances of distress sale of cotton were observed during the lockdowns in India which question the yarn manufacturers claims. On the other hand, the closure of markets and shopping malls resulted in up to a 20% decline in the price of woven fabrics that led to the depletion of savings and increased informal debt burden of the weavers.

The handloom industry and the workers have been neglected since its inception due to the lack of a strong trade union of the handloom weavers in India. Also, due to the lack of bargaining power, the handloom weavers are exploited by the master weavers (MW) and middlepersons in the absence of well-performing weavers cooperative societies (WCS). The report of the Fourth All India Handloom Census, 201920 shows that there is an increase in the number of handloom weavers households to 31.45 lakh from 27.83 lakh in the previous Handloom Census, 200910. But at the same time, the central budget allocation for the handloom sector has decreased massively from `604 crore in 201718 to `304 crore in 202021. The fourth handloom census report also reveals that 65% of the handloom weavers do not know about the existing government schemes for them. Very few of them who are aware of the government assistance have actually benefited from them. There is no special provision made for the handloom sector in the relief package of `3 lakh crore announced by the central government for the micro, small, and medium enterprises in May 2020. The abolition of the All India Handloom Board in July 2021, which was working for the welfare of the handloom weavers, seems to have ruined the bargaining power of this industry.

All these illustrations show the apathy of the government towards the handloom sector and weavers as a whole. Therefore, in this context, a big push by the government and/or civil society is necessary to revive the handloom industry at the earliest. This can be done by insistent financial infusions to this sector in terms of credit facilities to the weavers, regulating raw material prices, checking unfair practices in hank yarn trading, and proper marketing facilities. Approaching more online marketing practices would also be beneficial for this industry.

Ashish Kumar Meher

Thiruvarur
This paper examines the job-seeking behaviour, various traits of labour employability, and the nature of mobility to achieve employment aspirations of the North East migrant workers in Bengaluru. It shows that migrants extensively use social networks for finding employment. The use of social networks and flexibility in job search shortens the waiting period. Their skill levels and the major factors that influence their hiring are discussed in detail.

The labour market information imperfection and job information asymmetry have rendered many jobseekers dependent on social networks. Social networks, which are a rich resource, are widely used to collect employment information on available avenues, remuneration and working conditions by jobseekers to find a job (Davern 1999; Livingston 2006). Both migrants and non-migrants have the potential to use social networks for obtaining a job. The North East migrant workers were expected to use social networks to search for jobs in the cities. Flexibility in job search shortens unemployment period. Rapid migration to urban centres is expected owing to slow and uneven economic growth (IOM 2015) even in India. North East labour migration is caused by unemployment issues at the origin of migration, that is, north-eastern region or NER (Usha and Shimray 2010; Remesh 2012; Marchang 2017, 2018). The North East migrants have some educational qualification and skills (Usha and Shimray 2010; Ramesh 2012; Marchang 2017, 2018) that motivates them to out-migrate for employment to cities where opportunity flourishes and prevailing wages are relatively higher. In India, new employment opportunities are mushrooming and available in selective sectors, some urban regions and some urban centres (Kundu 2007). The argument that propensity to migrate increases with an increase of acquired educational qualifications (Cote 1997) appears to apply for North East migrants too. The North East migrant workers worked in various cities of India to meet their expenses of stay, to pay for their education, support their siblings education and their families back home (McDuie-Ra 2012; Marchang 2018).

However, obtaining a job is constrained by an intrinsic skill to qualify the labour as employable. Employability, a psycho-social construct, is the basic set of skills and abilities necessary to find a job, remain in a job or obtain a new job (Robinson 2000; Misra and Mishra 2011). It is determined by the job-related qualifications, willingness to develop new competencies, willingness to change jobs and knowledge of the labour market (Wittekind et al 2010). Understanding labour employability manifests the recognition of Beckers (1975) human capital theory. The issue of employability is well related to labour discrimination (Arrow 1971) based on tastes and perception of the employer that reflected wage differences between races, genders or school diplomas. Labour employability traits revolve around the skills, experience, expectation, attitude, flexibility, willingness and competency among other factors of the employees and its interaction in the labour market, particularly with the employers (Arrow 1971; Hodge 1973; Becker 1975; Bricout and Bentley 2000; Grip et al 2004; Wittekind et al 2010; Misra and Mishra 2011; Cai 2013; Likhitkar 2016). Similar traits of labour employability are expected for North East migrant workers. Employers consider the level of educational attainment to measure labour quality or ability (Cai 2013) that determines labour employability. Moreover, many North East migrant workers kept on changing their jobs mainly to obtain their expected remuneration. Labour mobility or switching is imperative to wage growth as per its job-matching theories (Even and Macpherson 2003). The ability to switch jobs primarily depends on workers employability skills such as flexibility.

This paper examines the job-seeking behaviour, various traits of labour employability and the nature of mobility to achieve the employment aspirations of the North East migrant labour in Bengaluru.

Data and Method

The study is largely descriptive based on the primary data collected during August and September 2018 in Bengaluru. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, research questions were canvassed through a personal-interview method. A mixed method of sampling technique was adopted due to difficulty in locating, reaching, and identifying North East migrant workers in Bengaluru. Using simple random sampling and snowball sampling techniques, a sample of 255 workers on the job were drawn. Out of the total sample, 150 workers were randomly drawn from workplaces like salons, malls, restaurants, music institutions, and educational institutions; from residence; and from North East community functions, meetings, and churches in Bengaluru. And the rest were selected following Goodmans (1961) snowball sampling technique. The initial referees were drawn through individuals from various North East social organisations, such as Rongmei Welfare Organisation, Naga Students Union, North East Solidarity and others. The field data is analysed comprehensively covering the aspects of job search, labour employability skills, job dissatisfaction, and job mobility.

Demographic Characteristics and Education

The North East migrant workers surveyed in this study, based on field data result, were those who are currently employed in Bengaluru. The field sample (255 workers) comprises workers from Manipur (31.8%), Nagaland (20.0%), Assam (12.5%), Mizoram (11.0%), Meghalaya (8.2%), Tripura (6.7%), Arunachal Pradesh (5.5%), and Sikkim (4.3%). It consists of almost an equal representation of males (50.6%) and females (49.4%) indicating that there is no gender discrimination by their family and parents for outmigration and they are equally engaged in economic activities for their livelihood. They were in the most economically productive age group (18 to 46 years) having high job expectations. Migrants were largely never-married bachelors (78%), followed by married (21%), and divorced or separated (1%).

Similar to the findings of Rameshs (2012) study of the North East migrants in Delhi, those in Bengaluru were mostly (94%) educated who have completed matriculation and above qualification. And the rest of the workers have qualification below matriculation. Over half (55%) of the workers have studied arts and humanities subjects that may cause employability issues in the modern technology-driven employment. The remaining workers have studied science, including engineering and allied subjects (18.5%), commerce and management (6.3% each), theology (2.4%), and up to matriculation without any specialisation (12%). Above half (60%) of the workers have migrated to Bengaluru after completing studies in the North East. And the rest have studied in other cities, including Bengaluru.

Thus, many North East migrants initially migrated to cities for education, and after completion of their education, they moved to other cities to find employment. It also implies that out-migrants for education in the cities either do not want to return to their native place or have further migrated for jobs to other cities. Intercity migration (outside the North East) for employment is prominent. Moreover, migrants predominantly have studied in English medium (95% in school education and 89% in higher education) that enhance English communication skills for a job. English communication skills, in particular, enhance the chance of finding and keeping a job.

Outmigration for Work

Census of India data shows that outmigration from NER to Bengaluru has substantially increased sixfold in number and migration for employment has increased from 16% to 46% between 1991 and 2011 (Table 1). Unemployment problems in the North East and employment opportunities in the cities are the primary reason for outmigration for employment (Usha and Shimray 2010; Ramesh 2012; Marchang 2018). The unemployment problem has aggravated in most of the North East as its unemployment rates (usual principal status) have considerably increased between 199394 (NSSO 1997) and 201112 (NSSO 2014).

Further, it is validated, based on field data results, that initially most of the North East workers have migrated to Bengaluru for job-related reasons, some for education and a very few for other reasons such as marriage across different age groups (Table 2, p 62). Over half of them migrated to the city primarily in search of (better) employment due to lack of opportunities at the place of origin of migration. That indicates either the severity of unemployment issues, inability to find a job or the shortage of the expected job at the origin. Conversely, they migrated to Bengaluru due to the availability of job opportunities in the city. Moreover, over a quarter of the workers migrated to take up a better job in the city highlighting dissatisfaction from previous employment primarily associated with low remuneration. This further indicates that their aspired jobs were not obtainable at their places of origin. A similar situation prevails for various age groups and categories of the place of last residence (POLR) (Table 2).

Migrants tend to keep on migrating to achieve their job aspirations that ultimately affect their well-being. It is evident from the proportion of the POLR of migrants (Table 2) that a considerable share has migrated to Bengaluru from places other than the North East as forward migrants. However, a majority of the migrants to Bengaluru were the first-time out-migrants from the North East for almost all the reasons for migration. A majority of the migrants have migrated primarily for employment. Education is the second prominent reason for migration. About 36% of the migrant workers initially migrated primarily for education in Bengaluru indicating that after completion of their studies, they continue to stay back in the city and enter into the labour market. Thus, the North East migrant workers are fairly employable in the available job

opportunities of the city.

Social Networks, Job Search Flexibility, and Waiting Period

Social networks, which supplement publicly available information, provide employment information faster than non-network job-seeking methods (Livingston 2006). It is used extensively both by jobseekers to find a job and by employers to acquire information concerning potential employees (Davern 1999). The North East migration to the cities has been largely in the form of chain migration through a social network for various reasons, including job search (Marchang 2018). Social networks through friends, colleagues, social media, seniors, teachers, and relatives are a prominent medium for disseminating and gathering job vacancy information since 70% of the North East migrant workers got their job vacancy information through it. This reaffirms the findings of Davern (1999) and Livingston (2006) that social networks are widely used to collect employment information by jobseekers to find a job. Further, only 13% of them got their job through a proper advertisement. And the rest (17%) was facilitated by brokers, agents, placement consultancies and direct enquiry about the job.

Workers mostly do not wait for long to get their present jobs largely because of the nature of job-search processes through social networking that somehow has job assurance. The workers job waiting period, that is, the job-searching period ranges from one to 18 months. On an average, migrants, who were mostly educated, sought their present job for two months only. The inverse relationship between duration of unemployment of a person and level of educational qualification (Prasad 1979) holds true for these educated migrants. However, the job waiting period varies between migrants depending on their type, nature and level of educational qualifications, and the nature of job search. Most workers (91%) got a job within three months perhaps due to flexibility in seeking or choosing their occupation. Even among the new workers (that is, on the first job), who are mostly educated (93%), about 86% got their job within three months. It contradicts the finding of Visaria (1998) that the unemployed, especially the educated, went through a long waiting period for employment before their first job is found. It is because the opportunity cost for the unemployed migrants is higher than the unemployed non-migrants. Moreover, jobseekers cannot afford to remain unemployed for a long period if they are living in poverty and human capital endowment is poor, which would eventually force them to take up lower-profile jobs (Mitra and Verick 2013). Thus, most migrant workers remain unemployed for a shorter period owing to job search flexibility. Their flexibility and adjustability depend upon their economic condition and the prevailing labour-market condition. Being a modest middle-income migrant, their opportunity cost of remaining unemployed is very high. The issue of employability of North East migrants in the city is associated with their household economic condition where workers usually made a downward adjustment of job and income aspirations (Marchang 2017).

The existence of long-term unemployment is negligible among the North East migrant workers. According to Krueger et al (2014), long-term unemployment means being without a job for more than seven months. The long-term unemployed are on the margins of the labour market as they are either self-discouraged accompanied by skill erosion or discriminated against by employers. They find it harder to get and keep jobs. They, after experiencing greater difficulty in finding work, often compromise their job aspiration and trade down to accept the lower-graded job (Roberts 1985; Todaro 1991; Mitra and Verick 2013) implying they had a false job aspiration that otherwise was employable at the lower-graded job.

The educated seek a specific job or white-collar jobs and remain unemployed till they get their aspired job (Callaway and Bettenhausen 1973; Gumber 2000). Because it is evident that the majority (63.5%) of the North East migrant workers do not seek a specific job or wait for a particular job till they get their aspired job, implying their readiness to take up any remunerative job irrespective of occupation. It shows that they searched for multiple jobs and chose the jobs they felt best suited with their interest, outlook and skill. The rest (36.5%) have sought a specific job such as in the information technology (IT) sector, teaching, banking, nursing, air hostess, etc.

Migrant workers who do not seek a specific job and are flexible got a job relatively easier and faster when compared to those who seek a specific job. Among those who do not seek a specific job, 92.6% of them got their job within one to three months, 6.8% within four to six months and 0.6% within 1318 months. However, in the case of migrants seeking a specific job, 88.2% of them were unemployed for one to three months, 9.7% for four to six months, and 1.1% each for 712 and 1318 months. To some extent, it shows that aspiring and seeking a specific job takes a longer waiting period.

It takes a relatively long time to find a job for some of the business process outsourcing (BPO) (2.5%), IT (5.9%) and airline (12.5%) workers, owing to their nature of professionalism, as they remain unemployed for over seven months before getting a job. The remaining majority of the BPO, IT, and airline workers got their present job in less than six months. For the rest of the jobs as retail executive or manager, teacher, security personnel, corporate employee, banker, hospital staff and others, the period of waiting has been less than six months. It shows the North East migrant workers are attracted and have higher employability traits in these occupations.

Over-qualification and Job Search Flexibility

The widespread upgradation of minimum hiring educational qualification for a job (Todaro 1991) because of the deterioration in the quality of education (Visaria 1998) remains applicable even for the North East migrants. Thus, over-qualification is prevalent for the North East migrant workers as 14.5% (37 workers) of the total 255 workers in Bengaluru claimed to have possessed qualifications higher than that prescribed for their job. This is associated with the deterioration of employment prospects (Roberts 1985; Visaria 1998) because the education system has failed to produce employable labour (Visaria 1998). It indicates that they have traded down their job aspiration below their acquired qualification, and were not employable in a job that was commensurate with their level of education. Usually, after a spell of unemployment, the unemployed, after experiencing greater difficulty in finding their aspired job, are often obliged to trade down and accept the second or third best job (Roberts 1985). It calls forth for improved educational quality to enhance labour employability and generate adequate employment avenues. Additionally, among them, about 73% did not seek a specific job, which means they were ready to take up any job of their interest; and the rest 27% sought a specific job of finance-related, IT, human resource, teaching, security, cosmetic, government job and aviation.

Employment, Job Agreement, and Job Security

The North East migrant workers, largely educated, mostly worked in the private (predominantly organised) sector (97%) and some of them (3%) work in the semi-government organised sector. It is aligned with the findings of Parthasarathy and Nirmala (2000) that educated people seek employment primarily in the public or private organised sectors. The low employment in the public sector shows that many of the migrants cannot afford to wait for a public sector job for long due to economic pressure. Immediate employment is prioritised due to their modest household economic condition and financial pressure.

Similar to the findings of Gooptu and Sengupta (2012), the North East migrant workers were engaged in various occupations ranging from retail, corporate, hospitality, spa, airline to educational institutions in Bengaluru. The single largest occupation was as corporate workers, including BPO, corporate, and IT employees (37.3%), followed by retail executives (19.6%), make-up artists (6.7%), security and restaurant workers (6.3% each), teacher, including music and secular (4.3%), nurse and airline workers (3.1% each), bank employees (2.0%), self-employed and retail managers (1.6% each), outreach officers (college) (1.2%), spa, graphic designers and self-employed (0.8% each) and visualise merchandising, vendor managers in office campus, room service waiters, research assistants, nursing tutors, laboratory assistants, interior designers, human resource, housekeeping, fitness instructors, English editors and bartenders (0.4% each). Male workers predominantly work in retail, corporate, restaurant, and security services; while females largely work in retail, corporate, make-up studio, educational institutions, hospitals, and airlines.

On average, a worker earns `25,001 to `30,000 per month. Migrants normally have a higher expectation in terms of wellbeing and job remuneration. Around 45% of the workers got their expected salary, 50% of them received salaries lesser than expected and about 5% of them got more than the expected salary. Workers who have accepted and received lesser-than- expected salary indicate their difficulty in getting the desired job or having employability issue for the desired job thereby traded down job and salary expectations after a spell of unemployment and financial difficulty. Over-expectation of job and salary is one of the problems of labour employability (Bricout and Bentley 2000; Likhitkar 2016).

The majority (90.6%) of these workers have been employed for less than five years, and the rest (9.4%) for more than 10 years in their current job. The majority of them were working for a period of less than five years across a different period of migration (Table 3). Many workers have lived in the city for longer years but are working in their current job for a shorter period indicating partly that the workers tend to change their job frequently either voluntarily due to dissatisfaction or involuntarily due to lay-off or termination by the employer. For example, there were about 34% of those who were working for less than a year or 36% of those who were working for a period of one to less than five years among those who have lived in Bengaluru for a period of five to less than 10 years.

Moreover, migrants do not continue in their same job as they keep on changing their job. The proportion of migrants employed for various periods do not correspond to various migration durations (Table 3). For example, 92 migrants have lived in Bengaluru for five to less than 10 years but only 10.9% were working in their present job for the same period. It indicates that many of them faced job insecurity or have unsatisfactory terms and conditions of employment, salary, working environment and others.

Having job terms and conditions agreement between the worker and employer for job security is important. About 61%, 32% and 7% workers claimed to be on permanent, temporary and contractual job, respectively. Only over half (52%) of the permanent workers (155), 54% of the temporary workers (82) and all the contract workers (18) have a job agreement. Overall 56% have a job agreement. The rest, which constitutes a considerable 44%, do not have a job agreement. Without any job agreement, the terms and conditions of their job are susceptible and vulnerable to the discretion of their employer. Job insecurity and job loss, under situations like the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, is undeniably due to the absence of job agreements.

Employability Skills

Employability is a construct of attributes that enhance the opportunity of getting employment, such as individual qualities, occupation-related and specific skills, labour-market conditions, government policies, wage policies, employer training policies, etc (Hodge 1973; Grip et al 2004; Misra and Mishra 2011). Employability depends upon employment-related traits, such as loyalty, commitment, morale, honesty and integrity, enthusiasm, common sense, positive self-esteem, motivation, performance, reliability, adaptability, effectiveness, pressure management, aspirations, biases and attitudes towards the employment of a person (Bricout and Bentley 2000; Likhitkar 2016). According to Likhitkar (2016), employability issue originated from the mismatch of skills possessed by the person and that required by the employer in the labour market. The mismatch arises from the appropriateness of the choice of qualification, adequacy of subject knowledge, sufficient skills for a particular job and adequacy of practical and technical knowledge. In India, the problem of labour employability includes the mismatch of demand for (practical) and supply of (possessed) skills and the problem of over-expectation of job and salary among others. Further, factors that influence labour employability include training and mentoring an employee, work experience, flexibilities, abilities, competencies, willingness to learn new things and working functions, skill development programmes that possibly enhance the chances of gaining reemployment after having been laid off, improved labour market elasticity, and educational qualification. Employers expectations from the employees are many ranging from the ability to work, dedication, motivation, commitment, and communication, flexibility and creativity.

Labour competency is a mental ability to execute work. Having a competency and willingness to develop new competencies partly determines labour employability (Wittekind et al 2010). For North East migrant workers, the nature of competency was multifaceted for their current work. All workers felt competent to either manage or execute the work. Their competency includes ability to manage, plan, organise, guide, coordinate, execute and motivate among others. It was derived from their confidence, skills, ability, experience, and education. Skills required for the workers current job are many and varied across establishments. Only some workers (3.5%) expressed that specific skills, such as communication, teamwork, confidence, responsibility, positive attitude or management skills were primarily required to execute their current job. The rest (96.5%) needed a combination of multiple skills for it. The various skills needed for work include multiple combinations of the following: communication, initiative, teamwork, planning, guidance, confidence, appreciation, adaptation, negotiation, organisational, thinking, technological, work safety, responsibility, positive attitude, resilience, willingness to learn, self-management, motivation, problem-solving, pressure management, valuing diversity, numeracy, and patience.

For the current job, communication was the foremost skill required as the majority of workers (89%) have opined. The ability to guide and have the skill to take any responsibility were the second largest needed skills. Having confidence in executing work, organisational skills and a positive attitude towards work, co-workers, employers and other people were also considered important skills. A quarter of the workers felt that skills of teamwork, planning, appreciation, adaptation, technical knowledge and willingness to learn from colleagues and others were needed for their job. Skills such as the ability to take initiative for any activity, negotiate, think, work safety, resilience, self-management, motivate others, problem-solving, pressure management, valuing diversity, numeracy skills, and patience were also needed but considered as not so important by many workers. Hence, having good communication skills along with other job-related skills, mainly who can guide or help others and execute the work with responsibility, may enhance labour employability.

On-the-job Skill Training

Migration can address labour and skill shortages by making migrants in the labour pool more employable (IOM 2015) through skill training. Most workers enhance their human-capital stock after education, mainly through on-the-job training programmes (Borjas 2005). Development of employability skills is required for enhancing labour employability (Visaria 1998; Sermsuk et al 2014) through education. Employability issues can be addressed by changing the entire educational system and content of the curricula orienting towards skill development and practicals considering the changing structure of the economy (Visaria 1998). Thus, the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 attempts to link skills development to improved employability and productivity in India (MSDE 2015). Subsequently, the National Education Policy, 2020 aims to provide opportunities for job and research internships to students to improve the labour employability potential of higher education programmes (MHRD 2020).

Evidently, only 18% (46) of the migrant workers working skills and knowledge were acquired from their formal school or college education. However, for the rest, it was not acquired directly from their educational syllabus. Their working skill was acquired mostly through on-the-job training (66%) that was followed by both job training and self-learning by observation and self-learning by observation (16.3%), self-learning by observation (8.1%), training from colleagues and self-learning by observation (4.3%), employment training and from colleagues (3.3%), from colleagues (1.4%), and through experience (0.5%). It shows that labour is employable after a worker is trained, tried and tested on the job. Thus, most workers (90%) have acquired the required skill and knowledge to perform their current job partially or entirely through on-the-job training. It highlights that job training builds the capacity and ability to perform an activity and stay on the job. Eventually, it may enhance the employability of labour and also increase labour productivity. Therefore, on-the-job training is primarily necessary skill developmental training for workers to be employable. The ILO (2013) has established that development of targeted skills training or apprenticeship programmes enhances workers employability.

Workers received job training for skill development and employment stability from the employers, while employees voluntarily agree to remain with that employer to allow the employer to earn returns from such skill investment in employees (Burea 2003) remains practical. Out of the 255 workers, most have received on-the-job training at the workplace from employer (79.6%), some received it from elsewhere (6.7%), and some did not receive training (12.2%). And a few got it through self-training or self-employment (1.6%). Hence, job training is largely essential for workers to be employable.

Job Dissatisfaction and Mobility

New entrants in the labour market whose present job is their first and continuing in it constituted 31.4% (80) of the total North East migrant workers. And the rest (68.6% or 175) were working in their second or subsequent job that shows that they did not continue to work in their same job but willingly changed it. The willingness to change a job is one of the characteristics of labour employability (Wittekind et al 2010). Many North East migrant workers willingly kept on changing their jobs. Among them, 32.0%, 59.4%, and 8.6% have changed their job for the first time, few times and many times, respectively, before joining in their present job. It was due to the issues related to job security, working environment, remuneration, work timing and others. Nevertheless, they are relatively more employable because of work experience. They often switch between jobs to achieve their aspired job or salary that is similar to the findings of Even and Macpherson (2003). The workers of corporate and retail sectors have a higher tendency to change their job because the workers in their second or subsequent job have previously worked mostly as corporate/BPO workers (35.4%) and retail executives (25.1%). And the rest of the workers have previously worked in other occupations. It portrays that they either do not have a steady job or have raised job aspirations.

Intra-change of employment (for example, from BPO to BPO) is more common than the interchange of jobs (for example, from retail to hospitality). A large number of workers continue in the same profession or job description. However, many workers have changed their occupations. For example, some earlier corporate or BPO employees are currently working in the banking sector, and some earlier make-up artists, hairstylists and songwriters are currently working in aviation. It indicates some possess the skill, expertise and knowledge that suit the job that was unexplored or they develop it over some time through experience that enhances their labour employability and make them relevant for multiple occupations. It shows that there is untapped employable knowledge and skills among some people which can be ascertained only after they are tried and tested in some job. However, most workers existing skill, expertise and knowledge revolve around their previous occupation that hinders interchange of jobs.

Evidently, 35%, 55%, 6.3%, and 3.8% of workers in their first job have worked in their present job for <1 year, 1 to <5 years, 5 to <10 years and >10 years, respectively. Contrarily, among workers in their second or subsequent jobs, 29.1%, 61.7%, and 9.1% have worked in their present job for <1 year, 1 to <5 years, and 5 to <10 years, respectively. This highlights that the majority of the new entrants and experienced workers worked in the same job for a short period of up to five years. It shows that their jobs are insecure and not permanent, irrespective of their claim as a permanent job, and they tend to leave their job or get laid off after a few years of employment.

Employment instability is partly owing to the employers policies of constantly changing the workforce to maintain low-wage bills (Papola 1968). Low remuneration and working environment issues encouraged switching between jobs for most of the migrant workers. Workers in second or subsequent jobs sought an alternative job while they were on the previous job. About 32% of them did not spend time waiting for their current job. But a majority (68%) of them had to wait for a period between one month and four years for their current job after their previous employment. Thus, most of the current workers did not continuously work primarily due to inadequate access to job vacancy information, break taken on health issues or to go home, and had difficulty in getting a new job. However, the majority workers got a new job within six months owing to the possession of the required skill for their aspired job. It is just a matter of locating, identifying and applying at the right place for the right opportunity. Noticeably, as the waiting period between jobs increases, the proportion of persons who have previously worked decreases almost consistently. This pattern indicates that some workers are very much employable in their aspired job and some trade down their job expectations as job-seeking period increases. Others remained voluntarily unemployed for a longer period, self-supported from previous employment savings, as they could not compete and achieve their aspired job. They are employable at a lower-profile job but did not trade down their expectation.

Sizeable workers continuously attempt to change their jobs due to dissatisfaction. As much as 20.4% (52) of the total 255 workers were currently seeking another (new) jobs due to dissatisfaction. Workers were concurrently seeking for a new job primarily because of their desire of stable, permanent, decent and more remunerative employment. It indicates that the salary expectation is unmet, difficult to move or get a new job, and labour employability is doubtful in other more remunerative jobs. They were also seeking it for their professional and career growth, and to work in a pleasant working environment with better working hours. Besides these, unprofessionalism at the workplace among some employers is another factor that causes them to seek new jobs. These factors essentially influence the workers job aspiration that affects the prospect of their labour employability. Labour employability is affected by both the intrinsic skills and exogenous factors such as the remuneration. It includes both intrinsic individual quality and labour-market conditions that limit the accessibility of some people to some jobs (Hodge 1973). Provision of a good working environment and salary by the employer appears to be imperative to retain labour.

Conclusions

Unemployment issues are causing outmigration from NER to Bengaluru. Migrants extensively use social networks to search for jobs. The use of social networks and flexibility in job search shortens the waiting period. Some workers, including educationally overqualified, tend to lower their aspirations after facing difficulty in obtaining their aspired job. Migrants worked predominantly in the private sector earning a modest income. Their employment in corporate, retail and hospitality sectors were considerable. They change job frequently due to lay-offs or termination by the employer as many workers do not have job agreements. In the absence of a job agreement, the terms and conditions of the job are susceptible and vulnerable to the discretion of the employer causing job insecurity and job loss.

Workers derive labour competency from confidence, skills, ability, experience and education. Communication was the foremost skill requirement. Labour employability is attributed to intrinsic personal skills as well as by exogenous factors such as remuneration and working environment. The latter immensely determines the prospect of the worker to continue in the same job. Most workers acquired their working skill and knowledge from on-the-job training. Job training enhances labour employability and job stability. Moreover, job dissatisfaction, low remuneration and job instability caused job mobility. Corporate and retail workers in particular largely kept on switching their jobs willingly. Job mobility is to achieve the workers aspired wage due to the low labour wage bill mandated by employers. Work experience enhances labour employability. Intra-job mobility is more prominent than inter-job change. Flexibility in seeking and choosing a job essentially enables job mobility. Labour was found employable after it was tried and tested on the job.

Hence, it is necessary to promote English-medium education, link and bridge the educational syllabus with the skills demanded by industry, create flexibility in job search, avoid long-term unemployment, encourage job switch, avoid over- expectation of salary, enter a job contract agreement, provide extensive skill development training, provide on-the-job training, and promote compulsory internship and apprenticeship after graduation to enhance the labour employability.

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S

ome of the worlds largest gold refineries are located in Switzerland: Metalor in Neuchatel (NE); Cendres + Metaux in Biel/Bienne (BE); Pamp in Castel San Pietro (TI); Valcambi in Balerna (TI); and Argor Heraeus in Mendrisio (TI). Some 70% of the worlds gold is processed in Switzerland, according to various sources.

One of these companies is located at the heart of the watchmaking ecosystem, in Marin in the canton of Neuchatel. A visit to the Metalor factory gives an idea of the extent of the challenges facing this industrial group, one of the worlds largest gold smelters. The issues are numerous: traceability and social impact of supply, electricity consumption in production, transport of materials, and use of chemicals. How does Metalor manage these challenges? And what are the consequences of the choices it has already made?

One of these companies is located at the heart of the watchmaking ecosystem: a visit to the Metalor factory gives an idea of the extent of the challenges facing this industrial group.

The complexity of managing multiple certifications

Antoine de Montmollin, Metalors CEO, insists that his company does not rely solely on the standards established by existing certifications, which are so numerous that they can become impossible to understand. We actually have only one standard: our own. We go beyond local legislation through our group standards. Some countries, such as Russia, are even excluded from the lists of potential customers. Our partners have to meet our requirements and we organise regular on-site compliance visits to ensure that our standards are met  for gold and for all other precious metals.

Metalor was the first refiner to be granted Code of Conduct and Code of Practice certification by the Responsible Jewellery Council (an organisation now in turmoil as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict  read our article on this subject). It is also one of the founding members of the Swiss Better Gold Association, launched in 2013, and the first in the industry to be accredited as a referee by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the London Platinum and Palladium Market (LPPM). The company nevertheless continues to collect certifications  it has 29 to date!

The Metalor ecosystem

This high number of certifications requires continuous monitoring. An entire department is dedicated to this activity and we carry out audits all year round, explains Antoine de Montmollin. This is the cost of guaranteeing the ethics and quality of our work. All Metalors production sites are certified to ISO 9001, which covers quality management. The group was also the first refiner to obtain an ISO 17034 certification, which authorises it to produce reference metals for quality control.

The company continues to collect certifications  it has 29 to date. An entire department is dedicated to monitoring them.

A photovoltaic experiment in Mexico

Antoine de Montmollin sums up his approach: Our business is based on knowing our customers and suppliers. Performing our due diligence in depth is essential. Only 50% of the worlds gold production has guaranteed provenance. We therefore restrict ourselves to this identifiable part and refuse to source gold beyond this. We have to be as transparent as possible.

For the past two years, Metalor has published a comprehensive CSR report disclosing targets, whether met or missed. The group has three fundamental pillars: transparency and responsible sourcing, social responsibility and environmental impact.

Manufacturing uses a lot of electricity, which is a major source of CO2 emissions. Metalor wants to reduce its electricity use from 45,695 MWh in 2021 to 38,389 MWh in 2030, i.e. by 16%. To achieve this goal, the company plans to deploy photovoltaic parks at 9 of its 14 production sites. A successful experiment in Mexico in 2021 (a site that today is almost 80% photovoltaic) has convinced the company of the merits of this approach, for which a budget of CHF 12 million has been made available.

As the head of Metalor for three years, Antoine de Montmollin has opted for dialogue with stakeholders: suppliers, customers, NGOs and the press. In a world where secrecy is the rule, this strategy is unusual.

The decision was taken very quickly by Tanaka [the Japanese owner of Metalor], explains de Montmollin. They understand what is at stake and support the investments. Family governance is an accelerator in this context. The group has already seen its carbon emissions reduced by 30% between 2018 and 2021, down from 22,552 tonnes to 15,552 tonnes, even as its turnover increased by 27%. The current objective is to continue to reduce emissions by 11% per year until 2030.

This objective also encompasses improvements in heat recovery, cooling system efficiency and the reduction of water consumption. We are also looking at how to improve the efficiency of our furnaces around the world and minimise the impact of transport on our operations, adds the CEO.

A passport to trace gold

Improving traceability is a top priority for Metalor, which is investing in innovative solutions. In 2019, it developed the Geoforensic Passport for its mining activity  a scientific validation of the DNA of the gold that identifies the exact mine from where it was extracted. This small revolution aims to avoid grey flows of gold from countries in conflict, or from mines known for their harsh working conditions or links with drug money laundering (such as the Rinconada mine in the Peruvian Andes, the highest mine in the world).

Pessimistic observers will see this as an a posteriori certification; the more optimistic as an unfalsifiable guarantee of origin. The tool is clearly useful, especially as Metalor has decided to open up the passport to anyone who wishes to use it. The authorities concerned were quick to recognise its value: Brazil and Tanzania saw it as a means to help combat illegal practices that are dangerous for indigenous populations and harmful to the environment.

This will not necessarily prevent illegal exploitation of these places, but it will make it much more difficult for them to distribute their gold and therefore potentially, in the long term, render them unprofitable to operate, notes Antoine de Montmollin.

Recycled gold accounts for almost 64% by volume of the material refined at Metalor. Its traceability is more complex, concedes Antoine de Montmollin.

Beyond the supervision of gold extraction, what happens when it arrives on site? How is it identified? Each batch is treated separately, for one obvious reason: we first have to sample and evaluate each batch so that we can settle the invoice with the supplier before refining them to 999.9, Metalors CEO replies.

What about recycled gold, which accounts for almost 64% by volume of the material refined at Metalor (as well as 87% of silver, 99.83% of platinum and 99.84% of palladium)? Its more complex, concedes de Montmollin. Recycled gold comes from various sectors, such as medical, aeronautics, electronics and scrap jewellery, but it is impossible to know where it was mined. Once it is out of the ground and into the system, it is unclear. Its impact in terms of CO2 emissions is obviously very low compared to mining, but for traceability we have to rely on standards like the RJC Codes of Practices and Codes of Conduct. And we segregate the sources that we are totally sure of. All this information is then integrated into our Metalor Check app, which enables us to identify Metalor gold (bars, ingots, etc.). Were working to put in place a complete ecosystem.

Watchmaking roots

To understand the path taken by Metalor, lets take a look at its history. It all began in 1852, in Le Locle, with the foundation of Martin de Pury & Cie, which melted down the gold used to manufacture pocket-watch cases. The companys structure evolved over time; it was first bought by the Banque du Locle in 1864, then by the Societe de Banque Suisse in 1918. In 1998 it was taken over by a group of private investors led by Ernst Thomke and became independent.

The factory floor of Metaux Precieux SA, an ancestor of Metalor

The name Metalor Technologies was introduced in 2001. The company was resold to a private equity group, Astorg Partners, in 2009. The latest change came in 2016 when the Japanese group Tanaka Kikinzoku, established in 1885, took over. Like Metalor, the Japanese company is one of the biggest players in the precious metals sector and one of the five referees of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the London Platinum and Palladium Market (LPPM). This purchase positioned the company to pursue global industrial objectives.

The dilemma of artisanal mines

Clear governance allows difficult decisions to be made more quickly. For example, when Antoine de Montmollin wanted to stop sourcing from artisanal mines (known as ASM  Artisanal and Small-scale Mining) at the end of 2019, at the risk of being accused of abandoning the local populations that depend on them (nearly 100 million people), the decision was made in a matter of days.

This is the price we had to pay to ensure transparency, which is essential for our business, explains the CEO. We were no longer able to guarantee the real origin of the ASM gold, nor the quality of the extraction methods, nor the working conditions. This created a small earthquake in our discreet world. We have withdrawn from ASM with regret, as we are well aware of the need to support the millions of people who depend on it. But our primary desire is to guarantee traceability.

The door is not completely closed to collaboration with artisanal mines, de Montmollin stresses: We are still open to projects put forward by potential partners and we have already re-committed to two projects.

The first of these projects is the refining of gold from the Peruvian mine of Yanaquihua, whose gold Metalor has been refining since 2020 in partnership with Swiss Better Gold and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

The second is a philanthropic project which has seen the refiner partner with the Alliance for Responsible Mining NGO. This project finances part of the Fairmined certification process for an artisanal mine in Colombia. The aim is to accompany this type of mine towards certification in order to guarantee the production of ethical ASM gold and increase gold miners awareness of environmental concerns.

We were no longer able to guarantee the real origin of the ASM gold, nor the quality of the extraction methods, nor the working conditions.

For Antoine de Montmollin, the change of ownership has proved beneficial to the steps initiated by his company: Being part of a family group like Tanaka allows for quick action. Decisions such as getting out of ASM, investing 12 million francs in photovoltaics or financing a mine in Colombia to secure Fairmined certification  without using the gold afterwards  would not have been possible elsewhere. Philanthropy, or any decision where the return on investment is not immediate, are foreign concepts to large investor groups.

As the head of Metalor for three years, Antoine de Montmollin has opted for dialogue with stakeholders: suppliers, customers, NGOs and the press. In a world where secrecy is the rule, this strategy is unusual. We want to be transparent at all levels, he explains. We want to show that we have nothing to hide. Our CSR report is part of this logic. We are aware that there is still a long way to go, but we believe that talking openly about it helps to spread best practices.

Local or global circuits?

Metalors business has grown strongly around the world since the 1960s, with the opening of multiple sites  first in France (1963), then in the USA and Mexico (1989 and 1997), in China in Suzhou (2003 and 2014) and Hong Kong (2007), and finally in Japan, South Korea (2011) and Singapore (2013).

Wouldnt opening facilities on multiple continents run counter to reducing Metalors carbon footprint? Not at all, replies de Montmollin. On the contrary, these factories have been set up in the regions where their output is used. We avoid intercontinental transport and its major impact.

What about the chemical treatments used for production? That remains one of the areas for improvement, the manager says. We are working on solutions other than chlorine, such as the use of hydrogen peroxide. On the other hand, as our chemicals are mainly inorganic acids and bases, we carry out acid-base neutralisation operations in our wastewater treatment plant. This process allows us, after carrying out daily analyses as per the Water Protection Ordinance (OEaux), to transfer the effluent to the municipal wastewater treatment plant under the supervision of the energy and environmental authorities. In other specific cases, our chemical residues are treated as special waste by an authorised and certified partner.

There are many parameters that are driving change. Any environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach is ultimately linked to the companys own governance and long-term vision. In this respect, Metalor is demonstrating a transparent approach, on its own initiative, at the urging of the general public, and at the behest of end users who are themselves under increasing pressure to bring about change, in the watch industry as elsewhere.
Russia, Ukraine, NATO member Turkey and the United Nations signed a landmark deal to unlock Ukrainian grain and fertilizer exports from Black Sea ports, to help relieve a growing food crisis worsened by the war.
Ferns N Petals has rolled out a new brand film on the occasion of Rakshabandhan, featuring actor Adah Sharma.

The campaign has been launched across multiple digital platforms in India and in other countries like the US, Canada and UAE. The 60-seconds brand film presents Rakhi brand Sneh by FNP has also hit the screens of 1000 multiplexes across 20 cities.

Speaking on the association, Adah Sharma said: I am delighted to partner with FNP for the Sneh Rakhi Campaign. The campaign is close to my heart as it highlights a meaningful bond between 2 people. A bond which is very special to most of us and surpasses all societal labels

Sai Thota, Head of Digital Marketing FNP comments, India's first Rakhi brand Sneh by FNP is a worthwhile effort to touch upon the beautiful occasion of Rakshabandhan, which celebrates every sibling duo. In our latest campaign the talented Adah Sharma plays her part with elan. The kaarigars of FNP have designed a beautiful box of Sneh for every generation of siblings, who wish to celebrate this festival differently this year.

He further adds, While we have launched Sneh Rakhi in 2021 as the first ever Rakhi brand in India, the primary purpose of this year's campaign is to communicate that anyone who protects us (raksha) are like our siblings. We also wanted to emphasize on the experience of sending a rakhi to the brother  rakhi wrapped in sister's love, rakhi encased in our Sneh boxes and not just random items delivered in brown box(es). While this campaign is going to be digital first, we are also launching it in countries like the USA, Canada & UAE targeting the overseas Indian community. Sneh Rakni is now available in 70+ countries. We have also made arrangements to make last minute/same day delivery in over 20 cities outside India"

On the campaign, Azaz Haque, Chief Content Officer, Media, Monks India said, FnP will always stand for making gifting special, especially when you are celebrating special relationships. Rakhi celebrates a special bond between a sister and a brother, a special bond of care and protection. The film narrates this relationship which can develop between anyone, even if it's not relationship by blood. It conveys the message that special occasions, special relationships deserves a special gift. Which is FnP.

Read more news about (ad news, latest advertising news India, internet advertising, ad agencies updates, media advertising India)
Passengers headed to Beijing check in at the departure lounge of Incheon International Airport Terminal 1, Saturday, as Asiana Airlines Inc.'s Inheon-Beijing route resumes after two years and four months. Newsis





Asiana Airlines Inc., Korea's second-biggest carrier, resumed its Incheon-Beijing route Saturday after suspending it for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.







An Asiana plane carrying 141 passengers left Incheon International Airport in the morning and arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport, the company said.







Before the pandemic, the Incheon-Beijing route was a key route between the two countries used by some 1.1 million passengers annually.







It was suspended in March 2020 under the Chinese government's COVID-19 restrictions.







Asiana said it will offer one flight a week on the route every Saturday and consider increasing the number of flights as the Chinese government has shortened the mandatory quarantine period for overseas arrivals to 10 days from two to three weeks. (Yonhap)


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Democrats on both the east and west coasts are attacking Gov. Greg Abbott this week, blasting the Texas Republican for his views on abortion, gun rights and immigration.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom took out full-page ads in major Texas newspapers Friday, criticizing Abbott for banning abortion and rejecting calls from the left to restrict gun access. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams denounced the governor for busing migrants to the nations capital.

IN-DEPTH: How Texas became the testing ground for Post-Roe America

Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze hit back at all of them, saying Newsom should focus on all the jobs and businesses that are leaving California and coming to Texas, while the mayors in Washington and New York City should call on President Biden to do his job and secure the border, instead of attacking Texas with baseless political accusations.

The national attention is not unfamiliar for Abbott, who has at times been floated as a possible presidential contender. And as Abbott runs for re-election against former U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke this fall, the public scuffles with out-of-state Democratic officials are raising his profile, political experts say.

Whether the attacks from afar benefit Abbott is another matter.

The race for Texas governor is a national race now, and that has implications for fundraising and for mobilization and for turnout, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. If (Abbott) is a national villain, well see ORourkes fundraising numbers continue to spike, with donations coming in from across the country.

But Abbotts position, in the center of the GOP discussion nationally, gives him exposure and credibility. That will also help his fundraising members  not that he needs it  but itll give him a lot more opportunities to spread the Abbott brand.

IN-DEPTH: Democrats gain steam in Texas, Florida, Georgia governors races despite red wave forecasts

Over the past year, Abbott has painted Texas as the leader of red-state battles against the Biden administration. Texas has championed major conservative priorities, including implementing the countrys most restrictive abortion ban nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Newsoms advertisement, published in the Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman and El Paso Times, quoted Abbott on the subject: Our creator endowed us with the right to life. And yet  children lose their right to life every year because of abortion. In Texas, we work to save those lives.

Newsom then crossed out abortion and replaced it with gun violence, and he switched out Texas for California and Abbotts name for his own. Democrats have been sparring for weeks with Republicans who oppose gun safety measures despite a string of mass shootings across the United States, including the May 24 massacre at a Uvalde elementary school that left 21 dead and 17 injured.

GUN RIGHTS WIN: 2021 was a study in how Texas Republicans quash gun control proposals after mass shootings

Abbott, who once supported red flag laws that permit courts to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, has since steered away from any measures that would reel in firearms access. Last year, he signed the so-called permitless carry bill, which allows nearly all Texas adults to carry handguns in public without licenses.

If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives, Newsoms ad reads. If Gov. Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow Californias lead.

Newsom had similarly targeted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in TV ads earlier this month.

Confrontations like the one occurring between Gov. Abbott and Gov. Newsom can, in fact, work to the advantage of both, because their local constituencies are going to love their thrust and parry, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. When Newsom goes after Abbott, Californians love it. When Abbott goes after Newsom, Texans love it.

Its a similar platform for the Texas governor when he fights with mayors from notoriously liberal cities, Jillson said.

In that case, Bowser and Adams have criticized Abbotts policy to transport people seeking asylum from the Texas border to Washington. Local officials have said volunteer groups in Washington are overwhelmed, and Bowser alleged that asylum-seekers are being tricked into taking free bus rides that dont get them close enough to their final stops.

Arizona has followed Abbotts lead, busing immigrants who cross the border to a train station near the U.S. Capitol since May. Adams, who called Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey cowards for sending migrants away, incorrectly claimed that Texas was also sending migrants to New York.

Mayor Adams problem is not with Texas, Abbott said in a Friday afternoon news release. It is with President Bidens refusal to stop this border crisis and secure our southern border.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week that the administration would look into the mayors concerns, calling it shameful that some governors are using migrants as a political tool, as a political play.

cayla.harris@express-news.net
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UVALDE A couple dozen people gathered at Jardin de los Heroes Park on Saturday to buy plates piled high with barbecue chicken, beans, rice, bread and sweets.

Profits from the $10 meals went to support the families of victims of the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

The fundraiser was put on by a new group called Keep All Righteous Minds Aware, or KARMA.

I wanted to help however I could, said KARMA leader Adam Martinez, whose son was at Robb Elementary on the day of the shooting but was uninjured. I thought there might be families out there who are in need.

As country music played in the background, parents whod lost children in the mass shooting greeted each other with big hugs and talked for hours under the oak trees.

Stacks of Austin American-Statesman special reports, which translated a Texas House committees investigation of the police response to the gunmans attack into Spanish, sat on tables next to the food.

Released a week ago, the report described a cascade of systemic failures that resulted in law enforcement officers waiting more than 70 minutes to confront and kill the mass shooter in a fourth-grade classroom. One of the most damning findings: some officers knew that victims  wounded but still alive  were trapped in Classrooms 111 and 112 with 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos, of Uvalde, and they still waited for more agents and better equipment.

Pedro Pete Arredondo, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School Districts police chief, was the on-scene commander that day, and hes taken the brunt of many Uvalde residents anger over law enforcements response.

Earlier Saturday morning, the Uvalde school districts board was supposed to have met to consider firing Arredondo. The announcement was welcome news to parents who have spoken out at board meetings since the massacre demanding Arredondo  and the entire school district  be held accountable.

But Friday afternoon, district officials canceled the meeting at the request of Arredondos lawyer.

I was disappointed because the people that have been working hard to try to bring accountability and justice to the families and victims are getting thrown these little glimmers of hope  and then they pull the rug out from under you, and you are right back to square one, said Diana Olvedo-Karau, a former employee of the school districts transportation department. How long does the school district expect these families to grieve? It is like the grief starts again because once again they are not getting any accountability."

Abelardo Castillo, who was born and raised in Uvalde and attended Robb Elementary as a child, said he wasnt surprised the meeting was canceled.

They couldve done all the (firing) on Monday when the board held a three-hour session to hear from residents, Castillo said. But they chose to do it today and then canceled it.

Brett Cross, a guardian of one of the students who died, also expected the cancellation.

I expected them to do whatever they could do to not do right by us, he said.

Some parents were more understanding, saying the school board has to follow certain legal steps before they can act.

We are of course disappointed they didnt have it, but I totally understand if they are waiting  but hopefully soon, said Gloria Cazares, whose daughter Jackie was among the 19 children killed, said at the fundraiser.

One Uvalde resident, Nikki Astling, posted on Facebook after the meetings cancellation that the school district had to be careful because it already had been sued for wrongfully firing an employee in 2019.

I know that this doesn't seem fair, all things considered, but there's a reason for the hold up in proceeding forward against Pete, Astling wrote. The school district has already been sued for wrongful termination and has in fact had to deal with the legal ramifications of failing to following these sort of safeguards and procedures. I trust in the law, and fully believe that Pete will pay for the choice and (in)actions that day.

Many of the people at the park remained hopeful that Arredondo will be fired.

Olvedo-Karau said the district has a vested interest maintaining the image that they projected to our community for years and years that things are good.

For (the firing) to happen, we the people who are invested in this goal of accountability, we are going to have to work really hard because (the district is) going to work really hard to keep it from happening, Olvedo-Karau said.

claire.bryan@express-news.net
J.J. Trevino

A man was killed by two people who broke into an apartment early Saturday morning on the North Side, San Antonio police reported.

The intruders kicked in the door of an apartment at 16400 Henderson Pass and demanded money from the man, according to a San Antonio Police Department preliminary report.
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Debra Watts took only the bare necessities when she vacated her home at Seven Oaks Apartments to stay at a nearby Motel 6.

Her beloved dog, Baby, her medicine and a few dresses were among the few items that made the cut.

Watts, 59, is one of several Seven Oaks tenants staying at the motel because of what they see as inhuman living conditions. Watts has been there for a week and a half because of a broken air-conditioning unit in her apartment while San Antonio has experienced a streak of high temperatures.

Ever since weve been in this situation, weve become like family, Watts said. We draw closer to each other.

On ExpressNews.com: Tenants of troubled Seven Oaks Apartments want mayor to step in

District 7 City Councilwoman Ana Sandoval used campaign funds to pay for 15 motel rooms for five days so Seven Oaks tenants without air conditioning could have a place to stay while their units were repaired. The city and the county funded a few more days for those still waiting on repairs.

As of Friday, 19 motel rooms for tenants were paid for through Monday, according to Andrew Solano, Sandovals chief of staff.

Residents have been vocal about their experiences with broken air conditioning, water leaks, mold and other problems that many said have gone unaddressed for months.

They partnered with Texas Organizing Project representatives last month to push for apartment repairs and to protest evictions. They have demanded change from the owner, Achieve Investment Group, and called on Mayor Ron Nirenberg for help.

Colin Strother, a consultant for Achieve Properties, said the company is doing its best to respond to tenant concerns as quickly as possible.

Strother said the company is creating a new tenant hotline to add another avenue for tenants to report problems and will be conducting individual assessments Monday and Tuesday to get a list of all deficiencies in the units.

There currently are four open work order requests for air-conditioning units, Strother said. Two units were being repaired Friday, and the other two are scheduled to be fully replaced next week.

Sandoval spent Friday morning and early afternoon meeting tenants of Seven Oaks Apartments  first while accompanying San Antonio code enforcement officers as they inspected several units at the Northwest Side complex and then going to the motel parking lot to help distribute San Antonio Food Bank meals to residents.

I almost wish we had gotten involved sooner, Sandoval said. Nobody deserves to live in these conditions and certainly not for as long as theyve been doing.

Mike Shannon, director of the citys Development Services Department, said complaints about Seven Oaks started coming in last month.

On ExpressNews.com: Seven Oaks Apartments residents, Texas Organizing Project protest poor living conditions, eviction notices

The complex has 254 units, 140 of which are occupied. Code enforcement officers have inspected about one-fourth of the occupied units, city public relations manager Ximena Copa-Wiggins said.

They issued 22 citations earlier this month to the complex for problems such as broken air-conditioning units, lack of hot water and dumpster maintenance issues.

When code enforcement officers checked 15 of the units Friday, five still had violations. Repairs had been made in three units, and seven units could not be reinspected because tenants were not present to let the officers in. Four additional apartments also were inspected because of new complaints.

Copa-Wiggins said one of the new units inspected Friday had a broken air-conditioning unit, but the parts to repair it have been ordered.

Another issue that code enforcement officers addressed was a leak outside one of the buildings. Water covered the nearby sidewalk, muddying a large patch of grass nearby. Shannon said it is wasting water and causing major problems for tenants, likely reducing water pressure in the building.

We understand that things happen in units from time to time, but the number that were seeing and the lack of quick response by the owner is unacceptable, Shannon said early on during Fridays inspection process. So thats why were here. Its not a good thing. We think that residents deserve better.

On ExpressNews.com: I can die. ... And they dont care: Vista Del Rey residents form union, demand fixes from management

When Achieve took ownership of the Seven Oaks Apartments in November, Strother said, there were a couple dozen nonpaying tenants and the property was in a terrible state of disrepair.

Achieve is looking to upgrade the property with a $2 million rehabilitation budget. Strother said the new ownership has spent about $208,000 so far on cosmetic upgrades, such as power washing and painting building exteriors, cleaning up the property and improving the sites landscaping.

The plan is to continue making improvements over the next 12 to 15 months, he said. Achieve also is renaming the property: Seven Oaks Apartments will become Colinas at Medical.

They want to have different branding, Strother said, because they feel that its going to be a wholly different experience for the tenants.

megan.rodriguez@express-news.net
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For six months, Susan Korbel knew that she would be the Democratic nominee for Bexar County commissioner. The only problem was that she had no idea who her opponent would be.

That mystery was solved two weeks ago when GOP precinct chairs sorted through a nine-candidate field and picked Grant Moody  a 42-year-old Marine pilot, Valero director of innovation and low carbon fuels and former USAA executive  to represent the Republican Party in the November election.

While Korbel has been active on the campaign trail since the beginning of this year, its not easy to build a case against a nonexistent opponent. For that reason, it feels like the North Side-based race for Precinct 3 county commissioner is just beginning.

This is the seat that Trish DeBerry vacated last December in order to seek the Republican nomination for county judge.

DeBerrys appointed interim replacement, former Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Marialyn Barnard, competed for the Republican nomination, but her greatest strength also turned out to be her biggest liability with party activists: the incumbency that had been provided by Democratic County Judge Nelson Wolff. Barnard ultimately finished second to Moody in the GOP precinct-chair vote.

More from Gilbert Garcia: Grant Moody emerges from a crowded field to get Commissioners Court nod

Korbel is running on an idea that has been kicked around for years (most notably by outgoing Republican state Rep. Lyle Larson): the consolidation of county and city services, to avoid duplication and free up taxpayer funds.

Whats really been interesting as Ive gotten to know people is just how seriously we have to start planning for the future, Korbel said. The county commissioners are in a perfect position to do that.

If were going to go from over 2 million people to 4 million people in 30 years, I dont have a clue how that works right now. As Ive gotten to know everybody from developers to people in transportation planning and human services, I can see many ways that we really need to take charge and do a lot of interagency planning.

Korbel jokingly refers to consolidation as this horrible word that youre not supposed to use, but adds, Honestly, when you look at the replication of different services, we cant afford to just let things keep going the way they are.

She also emphasizes the need to tackle the root cause of skyrocketing property appraisals in Bexar County: a shortage of available housing.

Korbel, 72, became politically active as a Cornell University undergrad who joined the protest movement against the Vietnam War.

She would go on to study labor relations and public-sector employment at the University of Michigan and receive her doctorate in public administration.

She runs a consumer research business and has lived with her family in the same Castle Hills home for 36 years.

Precinct 3 has been the one reliable GOP seat on the Commissioners Court, which might explain why nine Republicans battled for that partys nomination, while Korbel was the lone Democrat to step forward.

Its easy to make a case for a Moody victory.

After all, the closest recent race in Precinct 3 occurred in 2020, when DeBerry defeated Democratic candidate Christine Hortick by more than 9 percentage points.

DeBerry pulled off that win during a strong Democratic election cycle in which the partys presidential nominee, Joe Biden, carried Bexar County by 18 percentage points over Republican incumbent Donald Trump.

If, as many have predicted, Bidens low presidential approval ratings boost Republican fortunes this year, Korbel would have to defy political gravity to achieve an upset win.

She doesnt see it that way. For one thing, Korbel points out that Trump barely defeated Biden in Precinct 3 in 2020. She also expresses hope that Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Beto ORourke  for whom Korbel relentlessly campaigned during ORourkes exciting 2018 U.S. Senate bid  can provide strong coattails.

Korbel seems prepared to use Moodys success in the corporate world against him.

I definitely respect his service, she said. I know what type of person he is. Hes been a hard worker.

She added, Hes working for large corporations. Ive owned a small company, but it had longevity. I think I represent the people who are trying hard, the women whove owned their own companies or aspired to.

I think he may have the interests of the larger corporations that hes been working with over the interest of basic homeowners.

Those basic homeowners are the voters Korbel is counting on to reverse decades of Democratic futility in Precinct 3.

ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470


Greeces Aegean Airlines has said it is interested in acquiring more carriers in Southeastern Europe, among which is Croatia Airlines. Aegeans Vice President, Eftychios Vassilakis, said this week that on a broader scale, the carrier aims to strengthen its regional role in Southeast Europe through possible new acquisitions. The airline purchased a 51% stake in Romanias Animawings in October of last year. Aegean Airlines is on track to end 2022 in profit and is operationally expected to see a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic with a record summer. Greeces Aegean Airlines has said it is interested in acquiring more carriers in Southeastern Europe, among which is Croatia Airlines. Aegeans Vice President, Eftychios Vassilakis, said this week that on a broader scale, the carrier aims to strengthen its regional role in Southeast Europe through possible new acquisitions. The airline purchased a 51% stake in Romanias Animawings in October of last year. Aegean Airlines is on track to end 2022 in profit and is operationally expected to see a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic with a record summer.





Aegean Airlines has said it is continuing to look into opportunities of aligning itself closer with Croatia Airlines, which could potentially lead to a strategic partnership between the two Star Alliance members. Just prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, Aegean confirmed it had submitted a non-binding bid for the acquisition of Croatias national carrier. The next phase was to include direct talks between the Greek airline and the Croatian government. However, the process was halted in March as the global health emergency hit the aviation and tourism sectors. Last September, the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, noted that negotiations between the two carriers over a strategic partnership agreement would be renewed, although this is yet to occur.





Aegean Airlines participated in the previous attempt to privatise Croatia Airlines as well, back in 2015. It entered into the second round of talks with then privatisation advisor International Finance Corporation, however, a change in government in Croatia put an end to the companys privatisation drive. As an airline registered in the European Union, Aegean can purchase a majority stake in its Croatian counterpart. The two carriers share a similar fleet structure, with both operating Airbus A320-family jets and Dash 8 turboprops. Furthermore, both navigate in similar and competitive seasonal environments.





The similarities between the two mostly end there. Aegean has been continuously profitable since 2013 up until the Covid crisis, registering a record 79.5-million-euro profit in 2019. It employed some 2.900 people that year, carried fifteen million passengers and registered an average cabin load factor of 84.8% across a fleet of 64 aircraft at the time. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines registered a loss of over ten million euros in 2019, had 1.000 employees on the books, carried 2.1 million passengers on twelve aircraft with an average annual cabin load factor of 73.6%. Aegean has been exemplified as an airline that makes effective use of tourism growth in its home country, which the Croatian carrier is perceived to be missing. Croatias Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic, said earlier this month that the countrys national carrier will have to undergo restructuring and a fresh attempt will be made at privatising the airline once the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have subsided. Mr Butkovic said, Croatia Airlines had issues even before Covid. Prior to the health emergency, the airline was in the final stages of securing a strategic partner. We had two very serious offers, but the pandemic halted all activities. We expect that with the return to normality, Croatia Airlines business will stabilise but not in its entirety. The challenge remains finding a strategic partner. If we fail to succeed, the state will be responsible.
Point Blank body armor (Photo via Picryl | Creative Commons).

BUFFALO, N.Y.Calls for new gun restrictions inevitably follow most American mass shootings, including the one that killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket six weeks ago. But in the wake of the Tops supermarket massacre, legislators in New York and in several other states also have turned their attention to a new target, civilian body armor.

Such equipmentincluding helmets, bulletproof vests and armor platesis designed to protect soldiers and law enforcement officers in the line of duty. Until recently, however, no state but Connecticut had restricted how ordinary citizens buy and sell military-grade tactical gear. The armor has, critics say, empowered violent criminalsincluding mass shootersto return fire at law enforcement and extend their rampages.

During the past 20 years, sales of body armorlike sales of guns and ammunitionhave grown steadily among the general population, said Aaron Westrick, a professor of criminal justice at Lake Superior State University who has worked extensively with body armor companies and law enforcement. That has complicated some procedures for police officers, who now must train to shoot around body armor, and alarmed some lawmakers and advocates, who question why so many Americans now own tactical gear intended for combat.

In Buffalo, a bulletproof vest allowed the accused 18-year-old gunman to continue his attack even after being shot by a store security guard, retired police officer Aaron Salter Jr. Salter was among those killed. According to the Violence Project, a nonpartisan research center, 21 mass shooters in the past 40 years have worn body armor.

The shooter in Uvalde had it, in Buffalo, in Aurora, in Boulder, in Sutherland Springs, New Jersey state Sen. Joseph Cryan, a Democrat and former county sheriff, said of the Tops shooting and other massacres in Texas and Colorado. Cryans proposed civilian body armor ban is in committee. Why do we have to wait for another one?

New York passed the nations first body armor ban June 6; it is a narrow prohibition on soft body vests that legislators have said they will soon expand. New Yorks ban earned votes from both parties, though 46 of the 63 Republicans in the legislature opposed it. Pennsylvania Democrats also have promised to introduce body armor legislation this session. On June 16, three of New Yorks U.S. representativestwo Democrats and a Republicanintroduced a bill to nationally bar the sale of high-performance body armor to civilians.

Already, however, these measures have proved deeply controversial. At least one body armor manufacturer has promised to sue New York, arguing the state has no right to outlaw protective equipment.

Even among researchers who study gun violence, theres some doubt that restrictions on body armor sales will make shootings less deadly or less frequent. Instead, Democratic lawmakers have sometimes described the bans as a kind of policy fallback: Given the deadlocked politics of gun control, theyve said, regulating body armor is one rare area of possible bipartisan consensus.

Mass shootings are horrificdont get me wrongbut theyre such an insignificant part of the violence were confronting, said Warren Eller, a public policy professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The probability of having an armed offender wearing a body vest get into a firefight with law enforcement is really, remarkably insignificant.

Guns killed more than 45,000 Americans in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan data collection group. Only 705 of those deaths took place during mass shootings.

Few Existing Restrictions

Lawmakers have attempted to regulate body armor before, but without much success. In 2019, Democratic U.S. lawmakers in the House and Senate proposed two separate, federal body armor bills that never made it to a vote. New York state also has repeatedly considered, but never adopted, a proposal to create a central registry of body armor sales and distributors.

This time, however, proponents have been bolstered by the back-to-back tragedies in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, where both gunmen wore some type of tactical gear. In Buffalo, a set of law enforcement-grade hard armor plates saved the shooter from a bullet that police say might have ended his attack much earlier. In Uvalde, the gunman wore a plate carrier vest without its bulletproof insertsa nonprotective get-up that some legislators have nonetheless said illustrates the threat of mass shooters and body armor.

In addition to Uvalde and Buffalo, shooters recently wore bulletproof vests during the 2015 attack on a county Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people; the 2017 attack on the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, that killed 26; and the 2019 attack outside a Dayton, Ohio, bar that killed nine.

Some rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, also wore body armor, a fact reinforced by testimony in a House congressional hearing this week that recounted Secret Service concerns about then-President Donald Trumps security at a rally that day.

We shouldnt be giving civilians equipment that makes them think they can get in a firefight and return fire, said Adam Skaggs, the chief counsel and policy director at the Giffords Law Center, which advocates for gun safety legislation. When you give people all this tactical gear made for offensive tactical assaults, its not a surprise when some percentage of people use it for the purpose it was designed for.

Few laws restrict civilians rights to buy or own body armor. Federal law prohibits people with violent felony records from owning it, and in many states, people who wear body armor while committing certain crimes can receive longer prison terms or lose the opportunity for parole. Connecticut also bans online body armor sales, requiring such transfers to happen in person.

In an online diary, the Buffalo gunman wrote that he bought his armor plates on a manufacturers website and his carrier vest on eBay.

In the absence of stricter regulations, body armor vendors and manufacturers have been left on their own to decide how to vet their customers, if they vet them at all. Some companies require that buyers provide a reference, a reason for purchasing tactical gear or a copy of their government-issued identification.

But its far more common for manufacturers who market to civilians to sell openly and to anyone, much like any other retailer, said Willie Portnoy, the vice president of sales and marketing at the body armor maker Buffalo Armory.

All types of companies sell on the internet, or to anyone who has a credit card or cash in hand, said Portnoy, whose company does not sell to civilians. That is not something were comfortable with.  We dont want to run the risk of a bad actor using our product for ill intent.

An Unlikely Deterrent

Body armor bans seek to minimize that risk by criminalizing the sale or possession of civilian body armor, with some narrow exceptions for people whose jobs require it. In both New York and New Jersey, it will fall to either the attorney general or the department of state to determine which occupations qualify.

But the legislation has drawn questions and criticismsand not only from Second Amendment groups, who have argued that body armor restrictions impinge on Americans rights to protect themselves. Although New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul touted her states legislation as a response to the Buffalo shooting, the law omitted the type of body armor used by the gunman, an oversight that lawmakers have since said they will fix.

Several journalism organizations also have opposed the law because it may prevent reporters who cover protests, wars or other dangerous situations from obtaining protective equipment. During a June 2 debate in the New York Senate, Republican Sen. George Borrello questioned why bulletproof vests shouldnt be available to taxi drivers or people working overnight shifts.

In an interview with Stateline, Borrello argued that the measure would do little to prevent mass shootings or make them less fatal.

This was a slapdash, last-minute bill they [wrote] because of the Buffalo shooter, he said. And the law they passed wouldnt even address that.

Experts agree that body armor bans are unlikely to deter mass shooters from using tactical equipment, or from reducing gun violence overall. Body armor is so widely available, and in such large quantities, that local bans will simply push buyers into neighboring states, Westrick said. Several manufacturers already have reported a jump in sales, and neither the New York nor New Jersey bills require current owners to surrender equipment, though the federal proposal would also outlaw body armor possession.

On top of that, only a tiny fraction of the more than 100,000 shootings that take place in the United States each year are committed by a perpetrator wearing body armor. There also is little evidence to suggest that people who are highly motivated to purchase tactical equipment will be dissuaded by the possibility of a misdemeanor, said Eller.

These are meant to be deterrents, but they dont work that way, he said. If you get a plate carrier and plates, thats a couple hundred dollars.  If somebodys decided to do that, theyre probably not someone whos worried about consequences.

In the current political climate, however, some Democratic lawmakers see body armor bans as one of the few gun safety policies they can get passed. On the national level, some Republicans also have signaled theyre open to body armor legislation.

U.S. Representative Tim Briggs, the Pennsylvania Democrat who leads the House Judiciary Committee, is preparing to introduce a body armor bill that mimics New Yorks. Briggs told Stateline News that he began looking for more creative ways to address gun violence after the chambers Republican majority blocked universal background checks and other, more conventional legislative measures.

Briggs isnt giving up on those policies, he said. But the attacks in Buffalo and Uvalde convinced him of the need for immediate action to prevent mass shooters from outgunning security personnel and law enforcement.

We are at an inflection point, he wrote in a memo seeking cosponsors for the ban, where we either become part of the solution or we have blood on our hands.

This article was originally written and produced by Stateline News, a division of Pew Charitable Trusts. The original article may be found here.

The post After mass shootings, some states mull body armor bans appeared first on Daily Montanan.
In the first half (H1) of this year, Cambodias total exports to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member nations were worth $3.28 billion, up by 10 per cent from $2.99 billion over the same period last year. Its top three export destinations were Vietnam, China and Japan with shipped products worth $1,174 million, $612 million and $542 million respectively.

The countrys exports to the RCEP member countries during this period accounted for 28.8 per cent of its total exports worth $11.37 billion, according to data from the ministry of commerce.

The trade volume between Cambodia and the RCEPs member countries topped $16.24 billion, up 9 per cent compared to the same period last year, ministry under-secretary of state Penn Sovicheat was quoted as saying by Cambodian media reports.

In H1 this year, Cambodia's total exports to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership members were worth $3.28 billion, up by 10 per cent from $2.99 billion over the same period last year. Its top three export destinations were Vietnam, China and Japan with shipped products worth $1,174 million, $612 million and $542 million respectively.#

The RCEP free trade agreement entered into force on January 1, 2022.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)




By Kwak Yeon-soo







Song Kang-ho, who recently won the Best Actor award at the 75th Cannes Film Festival for his performance in director Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Broker," has donated 200 million won ($152,000) to disadvantaged communities.







According to the Hope Bridge Association of the National Disaster Relief, the actor donated 100 million won in March to the victims of massive wildfires that hit the country's eastern coastal region. He also donated 100 million won in March 2020 to help people in the fight against COVID-19.







The 55-year-old actor is now a member of the Honor Society, a club for those who donate more than 100 million won to the organization.







"Song has been thinking about how to return some of the love he has received from the public," his management agency, Sublime, said in a statement, Friday. "He realized one way to do it was to donate money to neighbors in need. He will be engaged in the sharing culture."







Song made his screen debut in Hong Sang-soo's 1996 directorial debut, "The Day a Pig Fell into the Well." He has built an extensive filmography since then, starring in nearly 40 films.







He has starred in various films of director Bong Joon-ho, including the 2006 sci-fi action film "The Host," the 2013 sci-fi film "Snowpiercer" and the 2019 Oscar-winning dark comedy "Parasite," as well as director Lee Chang-dong's 2007 drama film "Secret Sunshine," and director Park Chan-wook's 2009 film "Thirst."


China and Nicaragua are moving ahead for a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) and have formally established a bilateral intergovernmental economic and trade cooperation mechanism. Both the countries have begun negotiations to achieve the goal, according to Chinas ministry of commerce. This may boost textile trade between the two countries.

Last week, Chinese minister of commerce Wang Wentao and Nicaraguas foreign minister Moncada, on behalf of the two governments, signed the Arrangement between the Government of China and the Government of Nicaragua on the Early Harvest of Free Trade Agreements, jointly announcing the launch of the China-Nicaragua comprehensive FTA negotiations.

In addition, both countries also signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of a Mixed Committee for Economic, Trade and Investment Cooperation, formally establishing the bilateral governments economic and trade cooperation mechanism.

China and Nicaragua are moving ahead for a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) and have formally established a bilateral intergovernmental economic and trade cooperation mechanism. Both the countries have begun negotiations to achieve the goal, according to China's ministry of commerce. This may boost textile trade between the two countries.#

The latest steps by both the governments are likely to result in increased trade, including apparel and home textiles trade, between both nations. Although the current China-Nicaragua textile and apparel trade is negligible, China has surplus trade with the Central American country.

Nicaragua imported mere 0.02 per cent apparel of Chinas total exports in year 2021. In terms of home textiles, Nicaragua has share of 0.01 per cent in Chinas total exports to the world, according to Fibre2Fashions market insight tool TexPro.

China exported apparel worth $3.240 million to Nicaragua in May 2022 which was higher than $2.361 million of April. China exports dipped to 0.555 million in February from $2.443 million in January. The export was 0.965 million in March 2022. Annually, Chinas apparel exports were $27.796 million in 2021, $20.015 million in 2020 and $22.558 million in 2019, as per TexPro.

China exported home textiles of $0.127 million in May 2022 which was higher than $0.071 million of April. Annually, China exported home textiles worth $2.736 million in 2021, $6.988 million in 2020 and $2.040 million in 2019.

On the other hand, Chinas imports of textile products from Nicaragua were meagre in terms of value.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 22, 2022) - Canadian Nexus Team Ventures Corp., (CSE: TEAM) ("Canadian Nexus", "the Company" or "TEAM") has issued 6,407,000 million units in a non-brokered private placement at a price of five cents per unit for gross proceeds of $ 320,350. There were no finders' fees payable on this private placement.

The private placement is subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange and the securities will be subject to a four-month hold period under securities laws. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the private placement for working capital purposes.

Each unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company and one common share purchase warrant, each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company, at an exercise price of 10 cents per share, for a period of five years from the date of issuance.

Total proceeds from insider participation in the private placement are $200,000. Insider participation in the private placement is a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101. The Company has determined that the transaction is exempt from formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 because neither the fair market value of any shares issued to or the consideration paid by insiders exceeded 25 per cent of the Company's market capitalization.

The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected closing of the private placement as the details of the private placement and the participation therein by related parties of the Company were not settled until shortly prior to closing and the Company wished to close on an expedited basis for sound business reasons and in a time frame consistent with usual market practices for transactions of this nature.

About Canadian Nexus Team Ventures Corp.

Canadian Nexus (CSE: TEAM) is an investment issuer that actively invests in a diversified portfolio of early-stage to mid-level companies and projects. Canadian Nexus leverages its extensive network of operators and global thought leaders to provide investors with a unique multi-opportunity portfolio. From time to time the Company may acquire or dispose of shares in the open market. The Company is deploying a strategy of organically building positive cash flow companies with the goal of redeploying this non-dilutive captive into high growth sectors as defined in the Company's investment policy that can be found on Sedar under Canadian Nexus Team Ventures Ltd.

Contact:

Arni Johannson

604-960-1878

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, 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", "will", "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. 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 statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining regulatory approvals (including of the Canadian Securities Exchange), changes in laws, regulations, and policies affecting the Company's operations and the Company's limited operating history.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this presentation or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131725
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 22, 2022) - Majuba Hill Copper Corp. (CSE: JUBA) (OTC Pink: JUBAF) (FSE: 4NP) ("Majuba Hill Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has closed a non-brokered private placement financing for total gross proceeds of $2,100,000 (the "Placement").

The Company has allotted and issued 10,500,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.20 per Unit. Each Unit is comprised of one common share and one transferable warrant ("Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share for a period of twelve (12) months at a price of $0.25 per share, subject to accelerated expiry.

In the event that the Company's common shares trade at a closing price at or greater than $0.45 per share for a period of five (5) consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof, and in such case, the warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date on which such notice is given by the Company.

Company CEO, David Greenway, purchased an aggregate 3,850,000 of the Units sold.

The Company will use the proceeds from the Placement towards exploration on its Majuba Hill Property and general working capital. All securities issued are subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period expiring on November 23, 2022.

About Majuba Hill Copper Corp.

Majuba Hill Copper Corp. is engaged in the identification, review and acquisition of latter stage copper and copper/silver/gold assets. This is in direct response to the growing worldwide demand and lack of supply for precious metals fueled by the Green New Deal in the US and most other developed nations with similar programs aimed at addressing climate change. Such programs are heavily reliant on silver, gold and especially copper to produce Electric Vehicles and other renewable power sources, as well as building infrastructure to provide clean and affordable electricity.

The flagship project is the Majuba Hill copper, silver and gold District located 156 miles outside Reno, Nevada, USA. Management has been mandated to focus on safe, mining friendly jurisdictions where government regulations are supportive of mining operations.

On Behalf of the Board of Majuba Hill Copper Corp.

"David Greenway"

David C. Greenway

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Joel Warawa

VP of Corporate Communications

E: jw@majubahillcopper.com

P: 1 (855) 475-0745

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Majuba Hill Copper Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Majuba Hill Copper Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Majuba Hill Copper Corp. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131728
LONDON, July 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Polls of Conservative party members show Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has a double-digit lead over rival Rishi Sunak in the race to become Britain's next PM. But new research from System1 looking at the brand strength of the Tory leadership candidates and Sir Keir Starmer suggests Rishi Sunak is the better known, better liked and more distinctive candidate - and best placed to beat Labour's Sir Keir Starmer in an election.

System1's Test Your Brand accurately predicts the electoral prospects of politicians, not via voting intention (notoriously inaccurate) but by measuring their Fame, Feeling, Fluency with the public, and turning it into a 1-5 Star Rating (which predicted, Trump's victory over Clinton in 2016, Boris Johnson to be party leader in 2017 and Biden's victory over Trump in 2021):

Fame - how easily the politician comes to mind?

Feeling - how people feel about them?

Fluency - how distinctive and recognisable they are?

This is not a prediction of the decision of the 200,000 Conservative party members (0.4% of UK voters) but of who would win a general election if one was called now. The results suggest Tory members should pick Rishi Sunak (4.3 Stars) over Liz Truss (3.6 Stars), although both of them are currently more electable than Keir Starmer (3.3 Stars).

That said, the study shows some major weaknesses for the former chancellor. Sunak's huge personal wealth and tax-avoidance arrangements come up repeatedly, as did his lack of support for Johnson and perceived "backstabbing" of the outgoing PM.

Rival Liz Truss scores lower than Sunak on Fame, Feeling, Fluency, with only 14% of respondents feeling happiness towards her. There was a degree of negativity around her perceived competence, but equally she doesn't suffer from the tax and treachery perceptions associated with Sunak. The majority of the public are neutral about her - so if she does win, she may have 2 years before the next election to create a more positive impression.

Regarding Starmer, Labour are currently ahead in the polls, but Test Your Brand shows that isn't down to its leader. His 3.3 Star score reflects the difficulty opposition leaders have in getting noticed by the public, and he's criticised by respondents for being "smarmy" and lacking charm. But there are reasons for Labour supporters to be optimistic. While he lags behind on Fame, Starmer beats both Truss and Sunak on Feeling. In the Test Your Brand model, higher than expected Feeling leads to future growth - indicating Starmer is likely to improve his score and his standing with the public, underlining why it's crucial the Tories pick their strongest candidate against him.

Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer at System1, comments: "In the last two leadership elections, the candidate the Tory membership backed was also the strongest in the Test Your Brand model. This time they may reject Rishi and turn to Truss. Test Your Brand shows what a massive risk that would be if they want their party to keep winning elections. On the underlying factors which drive electoral success, Rishi Sunak is the safer bet."

For more information and to learn more about this research please contact Kate Chaundy in the System1 team at Propeller Group on systemone@propellergroup.com

About System1

As the world's leading marketing decision-making platform, System1 helps predict and improve the commercial impact of ads and innovation. Our fast, cost-effective Test Your Ad/Idea platform empowers brands to test creative early and often, compare ads/ideas and access expert guidance to improve long-term brand building. System1 was founded in 2000 by CEO John Kearon and has operations in Europe, North America, Brazil, Singapore, and Australia. For additional information, visit system1group.com or follow us on LinkedIn at @system1.
Press release

Paris, 23 July 2022

ORANGE and MASMOVIL sign an agreement to combine their operations in Spain

Following the period of exclusive negotiations that began on March 8 th 2022, ORANGE and MASMOVIL (LORCA JVCO) have signed a binding agreement to combine their businesses in Spain 1 .

2022, ORANGE and MASMOVIL (LORCA JVCO) have signed a binding agreement to combine their businesses in Spain . The transaction is based on an enterprise value of 18.6 billion, 7.8 billion for ORANGE Spain and 10.9 billion for MASMOVIL.

The transaction is subject to approval from antitrust authorities and other relevant administrative authorities and is expected to close during the second half of 2023 at the latest.





As outlined in the prior announcement, the combination of the activities of ORANGE Spain and MASMOVIL would take the form of a 50-50 joint venture co-controlled by ORANGE and MASMOVIL (LORCA JVCO), with equal governance rights in the combined entity. The agreement between parties includes a right to trigger an IPO under certain conditions for both parties after a defined period and, in such a scenario, an option for ORANGE to take control of the combined entity at IPO price.

The joint venture between MASMOVIL and ORANGE will create a sustainable player with the financial capacity and scale to continue investing to foster the future of infrastructure competition in Spain for the benefit of consumers and businesses.

A joint venture between the two complementary businesses would lead to significant efficiency gains, allowing the combined company to accelerate investments in FTTH and 5G that will benefit Spanish customers.

As part of the final agreement, ORANGE Spain's enterprise value is set at 7.8 billion (7.2x 2022E EBITDAaL and 37.1x 2022E EBITDAaL - eCapex)2 and MASMOVIL's (which includes the acquisition of EUSKALTEL) at 10.9 billion (8.7x 2022E EBITDAaL and 14.9x 2022E EBITDAaL - eCapex)2.

Due diligence conducted since March shows potential synergies in excess of 450m per annum to be reached by the fourth year post closing.

The transaction is supported by a 6.6 billion non-recourse debt package that will finance, among other things, a 5.85 billion payment up-streamed to the ORANGE Group and MASMOVIL shareholders. This distribution to the shareholders will be asymmetric as it also embeds an equalization payment in favor of ORANGE to reflect the different levels of indebtedness of the two standalone businesses. This debt package is mainly comprised of bank debt, provided by a large pool of banks. MASMOVIL's existing debt will remain in place. Post closing, the financial policy agreed between ORANGE and LORCA JVCO includes a leverage target of 3.5x net debt/EBITDA ratio to facilitate an IPO of the joint venture in the medium term.

The transaction is subject to approval from antitrust authorities and other relevant administrative authorities and is expected to close during the second half of 2023 at the latest. Until such approvals and closing conditions are satisfied, the two companies will continue to operate independently.

Christel Heydemann, CEO of ORANGE, commented: "I am very happy to announce the conclusion of these negotiations today. This deal paves the way for the creation of a joint company that combines the forces of ORANGE and MASMOVIL into a single, stronger operator that will enable investments in 5G and Fiber, benefiting customers across Spain. I strongly believe that the creation of this new company is of fundamental importance for the Group, the Spanish telecoms market and for our customers."

Meinrad Spenger, CEO of MASMOVIL, commented: "This is a great day for Spanish consumers as well as for our stakeholders. Together with ORANGE, we plan to form a strong operator with a sustainable business model and the capacity to invest in world-class infrastructure, technology and talent. We anticipate this will drive competition, digitization and innovation in the Spanish market."

More information

See presentation on orange.com (https://newsroom.orange.com/?lang=en) for the main facts and figures concerning this transaction.

DISCLAIMER

This press release contains prospects, hypothesis, estimates and other forward-looking statements or anticipations that involve risks and uncertainties, including references concerning expected future savings, synergies, as well as its future positioning in the market, financial structure, growth and profitability, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in such estimates and forward-looking statements.

Many of these risks and uncertainties are related to factors that can be neither controlled nor estimated with certainty, such as future market conditions, approvals to be granted by relevant competent authorities, or the responses from investors or other market actors and there can be no assurance that anticipated events will occur or that the objectives set out will actually be achieved. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Other than as required by law, there is no undertaking of any obligation to update forward-looking statements in light of new information or future developments.

About Orange

Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with sales of 42.5 billion euros in 2021 and 137,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2022, including 76,000 employees in France. The Group has a total customer base of 278 million customers worldwide at 31 March 2022, including 232 million mobile customers and 24 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 26 countries. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies under the brand Orange Business Services. In December 2019, the Group presented its new "Engage 2025" strategic plan, which, guided by social and environmental accountability, aims to reinvent its operator model. While accelerating in growth areas and placing data and AI at the heart of its innovation model, the Group will be an attractive and responsible employer, adapted to emerging professions.

Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).

For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com and the Orange News app or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.

About MASMOVIL Group

MASMOVIL Group is the operator that has led the growth in Spain for the last years which offers fixed, Internet broadband, Mobile, tv and new services such as 100% green energy, e-health, home security and personal finance services for residential, businesses and wholesale through its main brands: Yoigo, MASMOVIL, Pepephone, Lebara, Llamaya, Lycamobile and Virgin telco and the regional brands Euskaltel, R, Telecable, Embou and Guuk.

In Portugal, MASMOVIL owns the brand Nowo which offers fixed, and mobile services for residential customers.

The Group has fixed FTTH networks and 3G,4G and 5G mobile network infrastructure. It has a coverage of more than 27M available fiber households and 18M with ADSL, and its 4G/5G mobile network covers 98,5% of the Spanish population.

MASMOVIL has launched its 5G services covering more than 900 cities in the Spanish territory. The Group has close to 15 million mobile and fixed services in Spain after the Euskaltel acquisition.

MASMOVIL has achieved zero net carbon emissions in 2020, positioning as the first telecommunications operator in Europe to achieve such a goal and the lowest absolute residual level emissions. In addition, it is the first telecommunications operator in Europe to become a B-Corp Company.

MASMOVIL is participated by Cinven, KKR and Providence Equity Partners since November, 2020 with the aim of accelerating the investment strategy of the Group.

Follow us:

MASMOVIL Group website: https://www.grupomasmovil.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/grupomasmovil

Press contacts:

ORANGE Group - Tom Wright; tom.wright@orange.com; +33 6 78 91 35 11

ORANGE Spain - Beatriz Valverde; beatriz.valverde@orange.com; +34 616 093 913

MASMOVIL Group - Fernando Castro; fernando.castro@masmovil.com; +34 656 160 378

1 The contemplated transaction does not include notably TOTEM Spain and MASMOVIL Portugal.

2 ORANGE multiples proforma, post TOTEM carve-out. MASMOVIL multiples proforma including acquisition of EUSKALTEL (based on EUSKALTEL run-rate synergies).

Attachment
WOLFSBURG (dpa-AFX) - Volkswagen AG (VKW.L) announced that it has appointed Oliver Blume takes over as new Chairman with effect as of 1 September 2022 and remains at the same time Chairman of the Board of Management of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG The company stated that the curent chairman Herbert Diess will leave the Board, effective September 1, 2022. The company also specified that CFO Arno Antlitz assumes additional role as Chief Operating Officer and thus support Blume with day-to-day operations. 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.
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - July 23, 2022) - XTrend Speed has kept in mind the principle of "providing high-quality services to customers" since its foundation. It acts on the philosophy of "Trade bigDream big" to help more customers realize their dreams. In 2022, XTrend Speed lived up to expectations and won five awards such as Most Transparent Broker, Best Forex Trading App and Best Mobile Broker Award. XTrend Speed owes these achievements to customers' trust and support, and works harder to provide a better platform and high-quality to customers.

XTrend Speed is a professional broker that supports customers trading more than 140 symbols including Forex, commodities, indexes and stocks. It has been popular in more than 170 countries, and there have been more than 10,000,000 customers over a few years. The rapid development of XTrend Speed is owned to many features it has been embodied with. Investors can trade with a small amount of money and invest from $2. They can also receive real-time news alerts and watch live-streaming analysis online. In addition, XTrend Speed is led and guided by Michael Rezaie (the CEO of XTrend Speed) who is up-and-coming and result-oriented. He has more than 12 years of experience in finance and investment service industries. Over the years, he has undertaken several projects at CEO/Senior management levels, with start-up business brands, using his knowledge of Risk Management, Business Development and Project management. He will lead XTrend Speed to better provide services to customers.

About XTrend Speed Team

XTrend Speed, a professional and service-oriented broker .

XTrend Speed always takes customer experience and demand as top priority, and is committed to providing to customers a professional and service-oriented investment platform that is user-friendly and advanced.

Download link: https://static.xtrendspeed.com/activity/mail/callback/index.html

Links of public announcement on awards:

https://www.globalbrandsmagazine.com/award-winners-2022/

https://panfinance.net/category/award-winners/

https://www.forex-awards.com/

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/573258995/xtrend-speed-wins-best-mobile-broker-award-in-europe-for-2022

Company Name: Rynat Capital (Pty) Ltd

Contact Person: Kai

Email: support@xtrendspeed.com

Country: South Africa

Website: www.xtrendspeed.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131373
Acquisition of Securities of Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd.

Surrey, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 23, 2022) - This press release is being disseminated as required by National Instrument 62-103 The Early Warning System and Related Take Over Bids and Insider Reporting Issues ("NI 62-103") in connection with the acquisition of securities of Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd. (the "Company") by David Schussler (the "Acquiror").

The Acquiror announces that on July 20, 2022, the Acquiror purchased 2,857,145 units ("Units") of the Company at $0.07 per Unit for an aggregate purchase price of $200,000.15 as part of a non-brokered private placement (the "Acquisition"). Each Unit consisted of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") and one common share purchase warrant of the Company (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one Common Share (each a "Warrant Share"), at $0.10 per Warrant Share for 36 months.

Immediately prior to the Acquisition, the Acquiror owned 3,409,690 Common Shares representing approximately 20.17% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company on a non-diluted basis and 643,000 Warrants of the Company representing approximately 23.10% of the Company on a partially diluted basis. Immediately following the Acquisition, the Acquiror owns 6,266,835 Common Shares representing approximately 25.82% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company on a non-diluted basis, and 3,500,145 Warrants representing approximately 35.18% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company on a partially diluted basis.

The Acquiror acquired the Units pursuant to the terms of a subscription agreement on a private placement basis. The Acquiror's current intention is to hold the Units for investment purposes only and not with a view to materially effecting control of the Company. Depending upon market conditions and other factors, and subject to compliance with applicable law, the Acquiror may, from time to time, acquire or dispose of additional shares of the Issuer, in the open market, by private agreement or otherwise, or acquire interests in or enter into related financial instruments involving a security of the Issuer.

For the purposes of NI 62-103, the address of the Acquiror is #104, 19286 - 21st Avenue, Surrey, BC V3Z 3M3.

A copy of the Early Warning Report filed under applicable securities laws is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Contact:

Helder Carvalho

hcarvalho@pacificbayminerals.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131741
Cryptocurrency exchanges are platforms where crypto traders buy and sell digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. Whether you are new to trading or a veteran, it is important to understand cryptocurrency. This means opening the right crypto exchange platform to sell and buy your cryptocurrency. Yet, with its growth comes the challenge of getting a stable and trusted platform free of scammers.

Other than the security, you also need to consider aspects like fees, supported assets, and payment methods when setting up a cryptocurrency exchange account. Most of the right platforms offer institutional services, staking rewards, and margin trading, with some even crypto-backed loans. For a better trading experience, you need the right exchange cryptocurrency account that will meet your needs better. We performed a cryptocurrency overview to help you choose the best cryptocurrency exchange to invest in.

Coinbase

If you are a new trader in the market then the Coinbase platform is your best pick to sell, trade, and buy cryptocurrency. This exchange is one of the well-known trading platforms in the US. t is simple to buy, sell, and trade because of its user-friendly interface and comprehensive educational content. If you are a user, it is preferable to take advantage of these learning materials through Coinbase Earn Program. Through the program, you will learn how to trade different cryptocurrencies and earn the free crypto reward by watching educational videos.

It also provides different investment options for institutional and individual investors and can work well for professional traders because of the advanced trading platform it offers. These high-net-worth accounts include Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime. In addition, it supports numerous cryptocurrencies, including Ripple, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum. With Coinbase Pro, you will get access to more advanced features like real-time order books, secure trading bots, and charting tools. As a public company trader, you will pay more trading fees. Coinbase keeps 98% of its crypto assets in cold storage to protect user funds and an insurance policy that protects specific custodial accounts.

Changelly

Changelly is a noncustodial cryptocurrency exchange that offers a wide range of cryptocurrencies of over 400. This means that it does not store your assets, and you need to have a wallet of your own to trade on the platform. You can trade cryptocurrencies at low fees, and its easy-to-use preface allows you to seamlessly trade. Although many traders prefer smaller coins with the hope of getting in before the currencies get more price gains, the smaller coins bear more risks than digital currencies.

Changelly also accepts three fiat currencies USA/EN Dollar (USD), British Pound (GPB), and Euro (EUR). The platform charges low rates for crypto-to-crypto exchanges, unlike when buying cryptocurrency in dollars. Some wallet partners of changelly.com include Trust wallet, Ledger, Exodus, and Trezor. This makes the platform a perfect choice if you want to trade directly from your wallet and not lose your keys.

To exchange cryptocurrency when using Changelly, you have to provide your email address. Other times you will be required to give out more details to exchange with a traditional coin. Despite the few drawbacks, Changelly remains one of the best exchange cryptocurrency platforms. You can easily find the best price at any time due to the numerous types of currencies.

Binance

Binance cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2017 in China and later moved its operations to Japan. It is the largest exchange worldwide in terms of Coin market cap. Binance and Binance.US are sister companies and have the same interface and experience. Binance.US operates in 45 counties and offers the lowest exchange fees, unlike other crypto exchanges. However, for new crypto traders, the exchange is not the best option.

It offers trading options for both individuals and institutions and supports more than 50 cryptocurrencies. You will also enjoy other benefits such as crypto trading pairs, staking rewards, recurring buys, and OTC trading.

FTX

FTX.COM is a cryptocurrency exchange which provides derivatives, options and volatility products, tokenized stocks, prediction markets, leveraged tokens and an OTC desk.

In January, the company raised $400M in Series C funding at a $32 Billion valuation from such backers as Temasek, Paradigm, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board, NEA, IVP, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, Tiger Global, and Insight Partners, among others. This brought total funding raised to date to $1.8 billion.

CoinGecko

As an investor or a crypto trader, you can find useful features and tools on CoinGecko. The platform started operations in 2014. It provides educational materials to welcome beginner traders through the website and mobile apps. CoinGecko acts as a hub for information such as links to websites, social media accounts, and blogs with over 6000 crypto assets. The crypto assets are ranked by market capitalization, with the largest asset ranking highest.

Some features are filters to refine the searches for what you need to know. This makes CoinGecko a one-stop shop for traders and investors seeking reliable information to make informed trading decisions. It also monitors the growth of the crypto industry and various other events.
The port of Jemulpo (modern Incheon) in the late 1880s or early 1890s Robert Neff Collection



By Robert Neff



When Arthur H. Heath (a journalist for the Illustrated London News) and his two companions (Charles Joseph Uren and Lionel F. Gowing) traveled to Korea in late September 1885, they expected a great adventure and were not disappointed.



Heath wrote:



"It was in very unsettled times that we paid this visit to the Hermit Kingdom, and [on Oct. 3], the day we returned to Jemulpo (modern Incheon) from Seoul, we found the long-expected and notorious "Daewongun" (Prince) had just arrived in a Chinese gunboat. The port was quite lively with British, Russian, American, Japanese and Chinese men-of-war"



While the Daewongun's arrival may have been long-expected and welcomed by much of the general public, many in the Korean court  including the queen  opposed it. George C. Foulk, an American naval officer in charge of the American Legation in Seoul, wrote:



"The possible return of the Tai Won Kun has for some time been the subject of much speculation and has excited much interest in the east. However, no exact or probable date for his return to Korea would seem to have been fixed or at least been intimated to the public or the government of Korea. His arrival therefore at [Jemulpo] on the third instant [Oct. 3] was a sudden surprise in Korea."



Heath's, Gowing's and Foulk's accounts all state that when the general public learned of the Daewongun's return to Korea, a large number of people (7,000 or 8,000) traveled to Jemulpo to greet him. It is safe to assume finding accommodations was no easy matter, as the port's permanent population was 8,000 Koreans, 500 Japanese, 300 Chinese and 40 Westerners  not to mention the large number of sailors from the warships.





An image of Heungseon Daewongun from Homer Hulbert's 1906 book, "Passing of Korea"

According to Gowing:



"A dense crowd of Coreans, with a sprinkling of Japanese, had collected in front of the Chinese Consulate, where his Royal Highness was staying. Corean officials, wearing peacocks' feathers in their hats, were hurrying to and fro and a double line of marines from the Chinese man-of-war kept order and prevented the rabble from blocking up the path, along which officials were continually arriving to pay their respects to the Prince. It sounded very strange, and somewhat significant, to hear the words of command, 'shoulder arms!' 'Order arms!' 'Right turn!' and so forth, delivered in our Western barbarian tongue, and responded to with military promptitude. Crowds of Coreans had collected along the road in the hope of seeing the Prince start on his march to the capital"



Early in the morning of Oct. 5, the Daewongun set out for Seoul, accompanied by a guard of 40 Chinese marines, a multitude of supporters and the new Korean Customs commissioner, an American named Henry F. Merrill. When the procession arrived at Namdaemun, the southern entrance to the capital city, they proceeded to a temporary pavilion where the elderly Daewongun met with his son, King Gojong, was "screened from the public's gaze."



Horace N. Allen, an American missionary doctor, watched the event but seemed unimpressed, describing "the procession of the king [as] the usual thing," with the only point of interest being the Chinese marine escort. After the short ceremony, King Gojong returned to his palace and his father proceeded to his own residential palace, still escorted by the Chinese marines.



Foulk reported "the streets of Seoul were thronged during the day by the excited multitudes of people" and he noted that "the general expression of the people over the return of the (Daewongun was) one of joy mingled with apprehension evinced in many ways. Among the officers of the government anxiety amounting almost to consternation is evinced, numbers of these and some of the people as well, left the city, and the offices of government [were closed] for several days following the arrival."



This was not the only event going on. A large dinner was held at the palace to celebrate the third anniversary of Queen Min's return to Seoul following the failed attempt upon her life during the Imo Incident of 1882. In his report to the State Department, Foulk explained that the handful of foreign representatives who attended  "though not without some misgivings"  were entertained with a series of games as well as Korean court intrigue. According to Foulk, the queen began a campaign of "ferreting out persons supposed to have aided" the Daewongun's attempt to seize power during the Imo Incident and that by Oct. 5, "the prisons were filled with suspects whose names had been divulged under the severe torture applied to the first few arrested."





Seoul's Namdaemun in the early 1900s Robert Neff Collection



In his diary, Allen also wrote about the party and how the queen had a poor underling tortured until he provided 30 names of suspected participants of the Imo Incident. As evidenced by his entry, Allen was not a very tactful missionary and, unsurprisingly, when he later became a diplomat he was equally as undiplomatic.



"(A) banquet (was) given to the foreign representatives at the Palace. King and Queen enjoyed the sight behind the screens of a pleasure boat in the large lotus pond. The bloody 'Jezebel' was unusually gracious to her lord and wormed out of him a royal decree that all persons supposed to have participated in the troubles of [1882] when she came so near [to] losing her life should die."





Condemned prisoners are conveyed to their execution site, circa 1890s or early 1900s. Robert Neff Collection
Hubei Media Group: According to a study released on July 19 by the Inter Region Economic Network, a Kenya-based think tank, a poll of more than 1,000 policy makers from 25 African countries finds that Chinas infrastructure projects on the continent are seen as better than those of the EU in terms of completion speed and reliability. What is Chinas comment?

Wang Wenbin: Infrastructure is one of the bottlenecks in Africas development. China has been doing its utmost to work with African countries to improve local infrastructure and contribute to Africas self-driven sustainable development. Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Chinese companies have built over 10,000 kilometers of railway, up to 100,000 kilometers of roads, nearly 1,000 bridges and almost 100 ports in Africa, and many hospitals and schools as well. Some forces have been denigrating China-Africa cooperation and peddling what they call quality infrastructure. What counts as quality infrastructure? Who is truly committed to the well-being of African people? The people of Africa know better than anyone. China always sees Africa as a continent with great potential for international cooperation. All countries should respect Africas sovereignty and listen to Africas voice, and on that basis, use their respective strengths to deliver tangible benefits to the African people.

CCTV: According to reports, Japans Nuclear Regulation Authority approved the Tokyo Electric Power Companys plan to pipe nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power station into the ocean at a meeting held today. Do you have any comment on this?

Wang Wenbin: Since the Japanese government made this wrong decision in April last year, the international community and the Japanese people have not stopped questioning and speaking out against it. There is widespread concern about the possible impact on the marine environment and public health of countries around the Pacific. Questions have been raised about the legitimacy of the disposal plan, the reliability of Japans data, the efficacy of the treatment system and the uncertainty of environmental impact. The IAEA technical task force has made two field trips to Japan and has yet to reach any conclusive opinion on Japans plan. The IAEA has made a list of clarification requests and improvement recommendations. China and Russia gave Japan a joint list of technical questions but have received no response. Not long ago, serious concern was also expressed at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting and the Foreign Ministers Meeting.

Regrettably, Japan has turned a deaf ear to the legitimate concerns and reasonable demands of the international community and its own people. Without adequate and meaningful consultations with stakeholders and relevant international institutions, Japan has pushed ahead with the construction of the discharge pipeline and the approval of the discharge plan. Japan is being extremely irresponsible by ignoring these concerns and trying to create a fait accompli. We are firmly against this.

The disposal of nuclear-contaminated water in Fukushima could affect the global marine environment and the public health of Pacific-rim countries. It is by no means a private matter for Japan. The Chinese side once again urges the Japanese side to earnestly fulfill its due international obligations, dispose of the nuclear-contaminated water in a science-based, open, transparent and safe manner, and stop pushing through the plan to discharge the water into the ocean. Japan should not start the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea before consensus is reached through full consultation with stakeholders and relevant international organizations. If Japan insists on putting its own interests above the public interest of the international community and insists on taking the dangerous step, it will surely pay the price for its irresponsible behavior and leave a stain in history.

Dragon TV: Over the course of this year, COVID-19, extreme weathers and geopolitical conflicts have been hitting the global food industrial and supply chains. Global food prices have been hovering at record levels, and many low-income countries are in a food crisis. Can you share Chinas contribution to alleviating the world food crisis?

Wang Wenbin: As we say in China, food is a paramount necessity for the people. As the worlds largest food producer, China grows a quarter of the worlds food with less than 9% of the worlds cultivated land and feeds about one fifth of the worlds population. This in itself is a major contribution to global food security.

We not only have a secure food supply for the Chinese people, but also contribute actively to tackling global food security issues. Food security is listed as one of the eight priority areas of cooperation in President Xi Jinpings Global Development Initiative. China has provided more funding and experts and undertaken more projects under the framework of the Food and Agriculture Organizations South-South Cooperation Programme than any other developing country. We have set up the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Trust Fund to help developing countries to enhance their capacity in poverty alleviation, agricultural production and food security. We have actively participated in food assistance projects advocated by the UN. We supported the World Food Programme (WFP) in setting up a global humanitarian response depot and hub in China. We set up multinational food companies in recipient countries to drive local food economy. Since the beginning of this year, China has offered more than 30,000 tonnes of emergency humanitarian food aid to developing countries in need.

Over the years, Chinese agro-tech expert teams have joined farmers and villages in developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the South Pacific region, including going into the fields, to teach them face-to-face farming techniques, no matter how difficult the task may be. They are warmly received in these countries. China has carried out agricultural cooperation with more than 140 countries and regions, and provided more than 1,000 agricultural technologies to other developing countries, driving their crop yield up by 30% to 60% on average and benefiting more than 1.5 million small agricultural households.

At the recent G20 Foreign Ministers meeting, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi put forward Chinas initiative on international food security cooperation to contribute Chinese solution to the current global food challenge. Facts have fully proved that China is a reliable partner of the UN and other developing countries when it comes to food security, and a positive force in safeguarding global food security.

NHK: The Japanese government released the Defense of Japan 2022 white paper, which says that China has become a grave security concern to the region and the international community. What is Chinas comment?

Wang Wenbin: The new Defense of Japan white paper contains groundless accusations against Chinas defense policy, normal defense development and legitimate maritime activities, deliberately plays up the so-called China threat, and grossly interferes in Chinas internal affairs on the Taiwan question. China strongly deplores and firmly rejects this. We have made stern demarches to the Japanese side.

China is committed to the path of peaceful development, and follows a defense policy that is defensive in nature. Chinas defense building is aimed at upholding our sovereignty, security and development interests. It is legitimate, reasonable and beyond reproach. Military cooperation including joint naval patrol between China and relevant countries is consistent with international law and established international practice. It does not target any particular country. Diaoyu Dao and its affiliating islands have always been part of Chinas territory. The Chinese sides maritime activities in the waters of Diaoyu Dao are legitimate exercise of sovereign rights. Taiwan is an inviolable and inalienable part of Chinas sovereignty. The Taiwan question is purely Chinas internal affair that brooks no foreign interference.

I would like to stress that due to the recent history of overseas aggression waged by Japanese militarism, Japans moves in the military and security fields have always been closely followed by its Asian neighbors including China and the international community. In this latest white paper, Japan has openly added content about revising relevant defense documents by the end of this year, further increasing its defense budget, and developing so-called counter-strike capabilities. All these give rise to the concern that Japan is deviating further from the path of pacifist and exclusively defense-oriented strategy. We urge the Japanese side to immediately stop the erroneous practice of arbitrarily hyping up security threats in the neighborhood to justify its military build-up, heed the voice of the international community, deeply reflect on the history of aggression, stay committed to the path of peaceful development, and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community with concrete actions.

CCTV: The spokesperson for Turkiyes President said recently that the grain export agreement will be signed in Istanbul on July 22 under the auspices of President Erdogan and UN Secretary General Guterres together with Ukrainian and Russian delegations. Do you have any comment on this?

Wang Wenbin: We welcome this.

We hope the parties concerned will maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiation and accumulate conditions for a quick end to the conflict and early realization of peace. This is in the shared interest of countries in the region and the international community.

There needs to be continued international support for the Russia-Ukraine dialogue and negotiation process for there to be more potential positive outcomes.

Kyodo News: US President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: President Xi Jinping today sent a sympathy message to US President Joe Biden on his COVID-19 infection. In the message, President Xi said that he learned that Mr. President is infected with COVID-19, and would like to extend my sincere sympathy and wish you a speedy recovery.

Bloomberg: Did Xi call Biden to deliver this message or is it sent in a different way?

Wang Wenbin: As I just said, President Xi Jinping expressed sympathy to President Biden today by sending a message.
Courtesy of Mathieu Jarry





By David A. Tizzard







Because people all over the world wear similar clothes, vibe on the same YouTube videos, and speak similar hashtags, it's all too easy to think of them wanting the same things. We try to equalize values globally as much as possible. Often placing them in the universal frame of human rights (an important development, yet at the same time perhaps just a secularized version of the Christian narrative). We also tend to project our own values onto societies. Seeing everything and everyone through the lens we deem most important at that particular time. As individuals, our education, upbringing, and habitus shape how we see the world. Not exclusively, but it certainly plays a role.







Countries with different cultures, histories, and political systems also naturally tend to place greater or lesser emphasis on values. Whether a country's 20th century was marked by colonization, oppression, war, famine, democracy, fascism, capitalism, destitution, individualism or collectivism will shape the national narrative in the modern age. None is static, all are changing. Each is unique.







South Korea's story is well known. From the psychological trauma of Japanese colonization and suffocating grip of military dictatorships, it achieved economic growth, technological modernization, and a transformation of its physical spaces. Hanbok and calligraphy replaced by hoodies and cameras. People in Korea run to the cinema in their millions to see Tom Cruise's white teeth, drink chocolate milkshakes, and wear crop tops. But despite the physical and cultural similarities, it can be suggested that the undercurrents flow in different directions.







Parts of the west are associated with the values of freedom and individualism. The singular person is given primary status in society, not to be impeded upon. This has meant that western societies often (but not always) first sought to realize the practical equality of women, promote free speech, champion democracy, grant gay and lesbian rights, and address trans issues. But this focus on individual liberation is not the central tenet of every country. There are a host of reasons why South Korea has its own position vis-a-vis gender equality, free speech, LGBTQ rights, and other issues. One that should be considered is that the paramount goal for many here is not freedom, but fairness.







How can South Koreans talk about fairness when the country is marked by such inequalities as X, Y, and Z you will no doubt shout. A fair comment. But just as western societies are not characterized by immaculate freedom, so is it here. There is a great deal of economic and social imbalance. This has been brought to life by many, including the work of director Bong Joon-ho and his constant focus on class and capitalism. But just because the country isn't fair doesn't mean that people are not focused on that issue. Consider the 4-character Chinese idioms (sa-ja-song-o) released each year designed to encapsulate social trends: they often address inequality and hypocrisy. Then take a look at the neologisms written about each year in the mainstream press. These too demonstrate an emphasis on wealth disparities and class consciousness: jipgap, yeong-ggeul.







Some analysts and Twitter users viewed the last presidential election purely through the lens of gender. However, this was more likely a reflection of their own interests than the majority of Korean people's. It was important to some, of course. But not the majority. In contrast, the values of fairness and equality frequently appear as the most important or very important values in social surveys and elections. Justice Ministers lose their position if they don't act properly, presidents are overthrown, people are sent to prison. Even personal acts of suicide in the country can be motivated by protest and the search for greater equality. Sit in a physical class with hundreds of young Korean adults in their 20s each year and you will be struck by how fairness and equality come to dominate many issues. Solutions proposed are not found in an individual's right to wield an automatic rifle or smoke a bowl. Instead, it's about securing the same system for everyone. That requires a deal of homogenization of experience. Be it pleasure or pain.







There are nearly 51 million people in the country so you will no doubt know many who value personal freedom over fairness and equality. Moreover, there will be those who care little for any of the concepts mentioned thus far and instead have their own take on things. But spend a week talking to Korean people about fairness and equality and listen to what they say. Watch the Korean news and the Korean dramas and see if you notice these values manifesting. Read Korean comments on Korean language articles and see if, like me and others, you observe the insistence on "pyung-dung" (equality). After all, if we want to understand Korea through Korean eyes, it's only fair to try.











Dr. David A. Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the Korea Deconstructed podcast, which can be found online. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.




By Baek Byung-yeul







Korea Post President Son Seung-hyun shared his agency's efforts to improve service quality globally during a meeting of international postal service agencies in Madrid, Spain, Korea Post said Friday.







The president took part in a meeting of CEOs for the Kahala Post Group, an international meeting of postal operators from 11 countries including Korea, the United States, Japan, China, Australia, Hong Kong, Spain, the U.K., France, Thailand and Canada.







"At the meeting, I shared our efforts to improve the quality of international mail and emphasized the continued cooperation of each postal organization to enhance the reception rate of pre-clearance information as countries are strengthening their customs measures," Son said.







Since its establishment in 2002, member countries of the Kahala Post Group have shared examples of business innovation and promoted cooperation in expanding postal services.







During this year's meeting, each postal service shared their perspectives on the worsened international mail environment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and discussed ways to improve the quality of international mail transportation.







Korea Post said that the volume of express mail service among the Kahala Post Group member countries decreased from 31.56 million packages in 2019 before the pandemic to 26.15 million in 2020 and 23.39 million in 2021.







The postal agency presumed that the reason for the decreased volume stemmed mainly from temporary factors such as the suspension of services due to the lack of flights.







"Korea Post will continue to actively take part in related programs organized by the Kahala Post Group," the Korea Post president said.


What day is it?

What day is it on Earth over the vast sweep of Time? What day is it out there in the universe?

As a lad, I used to amuse myself by asking friends after a deep movie or heavy exam, What day is it? Have you ever awoken after a dream and wondered what day it was?

Have you considered what power time plays in our reality? Here is a perennial question: Do you have enough, or is it too little or too much, time?

Time tells us when to be born and when to die. Time and timing play the leading role in who we meet, what we can do, how our aspirations transpire. Yet do we give reverence to time itself?

Shamans do not have nor need documents or doctrines, yet some shamans have a calendar. With a shamanic calendar, what is tracked is not workdays and paydays; rather they track the energies that vary in a regular pattern day by day over the course of time.

With an energetically accurate calendar, shamans can act with the greatest effectiveness available. One might say that shamanism is all about being (or becoming) in balance and harmony with nature as the creator. Time as Father creates the impetus, Mother as creator brings into manifestation the timing impulse from the Father. This is how shamans see the cooperative aspects of God as both Father and Mother.

Shamanism is full on 100% spirituality day and night, acting by day, dreaming by night, always in the Light of Spirit. From the eagles perch of the shamans viewpoint, the condition of life on Earth can be seen and assessed. And there is a universal view; the sacred Feminine divinity has been neglected and besmirched.

How often have we heard commentators blaming Mother Nature and her wrath for disasters? How greatly are women disempowered in societies worldwide today? How little voice is there to the Divine Feminine in the religions of our world? Shamanic cultures have kept alive their connection to the Mother Goddess. The world today desperately needs to reconnect to the sacred Feminine. A sacred calendar can do exactly that.

Calendar change has been a part of many social revolutions; the French revolution and Russian revolution resulted in calendar changes. When Augustus Caesar defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra once and for all, his victory celebration in Alexandria on Aug. 30, 30 BCE, a Sunday, set forth the weekly pattern of days we employ still today, more than two millennia later.

The holidays we experience today have been over-commercialized and exploited to the point where many of us feel exhausted and depressed afterward. Shamans believe that every day is sacred and should be honored as created by Father Time and Mother Mystery.

The Mayan sacred calendar recognizes 20 different energies that cycle with 13 different frequencies, presenting 260 different combinations equal to the 260 days of human gestation. Each day imbues the unborn with the qualities they will need during their lifetime. Shamans see how all life is made from living awareness and never has been dead.

Light does not know darkness, and similarly life does not know death. We are continuous beings living in the precious here and now. What a wonder! What a mystery! How do we not know such important and powerful truths?

Time is sacred. Time is utterly personal. My timing and yours are different, we see different things, do different things and feel differently, yet we are all immersed in the vast flow of now, sharing the here, each in our own space and place.
China renews yellow alert for high temperatures

Xinhua) 13:06, July 23, 2022

BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- China's national observatory on Saturday continued to issue a yellow alert for high temperatures as intense heat waves linger in many regions of the country.

During daylight hours on Saturday, parts of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi are expected to experience temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius, the National Meteorological Center said.

Temperatures in parts of Xinjiang, Zhejiang and Fujian may surpass 40 degrees Celsius, the center said.

The center advised against outdoor activities during high-temperature periods in the afternoon and suggested workers exposed to high temperatures or who need to work for a long time outdoors take necessary protective measures.

China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, U.S., June 17, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap





Alphabet's Google said on Friday it has dismissed a senior software engineer who claimed the company's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot LaMDA was a self-aware person.







Google, which placed software engineer Blake Lemoine on leave last month, said he had violated company policies and that it found his claims on LaMDA to be "wholly unfounded."







"It's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information," a Google spokesperson said in an email to Reuters.







Last year, Google said Language Model for Dialogue Applications was built on the company's research showing Transformer-based language models trained on dialogue could learn to talk about essentially anything.







Google and many leading scientists were quick to dismiss Lemoine's views as misguided, saying LaMDA is simply a complex algorithm designed to generate convincing human language.







Lemoine's dismissal was first reported by Big Technology, a tech and society newsletter. (Reuters)






NEW YORK, July 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IndexBox has just published a new report: U.S.  Solid Biofuels - Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights'. Here is a summary of the report's key findings.



U.S. Solid Biofuel Market Statistics

Imports 154.1 Million USD Exports 1,077.6 Million USD Top Foreign Suppliers Mexico, Canada, Paraguay Top Export Destinations UK, Netherlands, Denmark

After two years of growth, the U.S. solid biofuel market was estimated at approx. $978M in 2021. This figure covers the total market size for charcoal and wood pellets. Over the past decade, consumption saw a relatively flat trend pattern. U.S. SOLID BIOFUEL MARKET

U.S. Solid Biofuel Production

In 2021, approx. 9.4M tonnes of solid biofuels were produced in the United States. In general, the total production indicated a strong increase from 2012 to 2021: its volume increased at an average annual rate of +8.4%. U.S. SOLID BIOFUEL MARKET

In value terms, solid biofuel production was estimated at $1.9B in 2021. Over the period under review, the total production indicated tangible growth from 2012 to 2021: its value increased at an average annual rate of +8.4%. U.S. SOLID BIOFUEL MARKET

U.S. Solid Biofuel Exports

In 2021, solid biofuel exports from the United States totaled 7.5M tonnes, with an increase of 2.7% against the previous year. In general, exports showed a strong expansion over the last nine years.

In value terms, exports amounted to $1.1B in 2021. Overall, exports saw a strong increase over the last nine years.

Exports by Country

The UK (5.3M tonnes) was the main destination for solid biofuel exports from the United States, accounting for a 71% share of total volume. Moreover, solid biofuel exports to the UK exceeded the volume sent to the second major destination, the Netherlands (1.2M tonnes), fivefold. Denmark (446K tonnes) ranked third in terms of total exports with a 6% share.

In value terms, the UK ($714M) remains the key foreign market for solid biofuel exports from the United States, comprising 66% of total supplies. The second position in the ranking was occupied by the Netherlands ($185M), with a 17% share of total exports. It was followed by Denmark, with a 7.5% share.

From 2012 to 2021, the average annual rate of growth in terms of value to the UK stood at +23.2%. Exports to the other major destinations recorded the following average annual rates of exports growth: the Netherlands (+12.5% per year) and Denmark (+39.3% per year).

Export Prices by Country

In 2021, the average export price for solid biofuels in the United States amounted to $144 per tonne, picking up by 4.7% against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices for the major external markets. In 2021, the country with the highest price was Denmark ($181 per tonne), while the average price for exports to Belgium ($87 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. From 2012 to 2021, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was recorded for supplies to Denmark (+3.1%), while the prices for the other major destinations experienced mixed trend patterns.

U.S. Solid Biofuel Imports

Solid biofuel imports into the United States amounted to 385K tonnes in 2021, growing by 5.8% against the previous year's figure. Over the period under review, total imports indicated a buoyant increase from 2012 to 2021: its volume increased at an average annual rate of +10.0%.

In value terms, imports rose sharply to $154M in 2021. Overall, total imports indicated a prominent expansion from 2012 to 2021: its value increased at an average annual rate of +10.0%.

Imports by Country

Canada (196K tonnes), Mexico (126K tonnes) and Paraguay (24K tonnes) were the main suppliers of solid biofuel imports to the United States, with a combined 90% share of total purchases.

In value terms, Mexico ($64M), Canada ($43M) and Paraguay ($14M) constituted the largest solid biofuel suppliers to the United States, with a combined 78% share of total imports.

Paraguay, with a CAGR of +32.7%, saw the highest growth rate of the value of imports, among the main suppliers over the past nine years. Purchases for the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Import Prices by Country

The average import price for solid biofuels stood at $401 per tonne in 2021, increasing by 8.5% against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major supplying countries. In 2021, the country with the highest price was Indonesia ($718 per tonne), while the price for Canada ($220 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. From 2012 to 2021, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Mexico (+4.1%), while the prices for the other major suppliers experienced more modest paces of growth.

About IndexBox

IndexBox is a market research firm developing an AI-driven market intelligence platform that helps business analysts find actionable insights and make data-driven decisions. The platform provides data on consumption, production, trade, and prices for more than 10K+ different products across 200 countries.

For more information, please visit

Website https://www.indexbox.io

Twitter https://twitter.com/indexbox

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/IndexBox



LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/indexbox-marketing/

Product Coverage

Wood pellets and wood charcoal.

Related Links

Solid Biofuel Market

Wood Pellets Market

Wood Residues Market

Wood Pulp Market

Wood Charcoal Market
HOUSTON, July 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allison Wood Ventures is excited to announce an additional $4 million investment in property management software company Innago, cementing the role of the venture capital firm in the success of the impressive business.

Innago has transformed the rental process for property owners and turned the once tedious tasks of signing leases, collecting payments, managing work orders, and more into simple, manageable to-dos. Through their free and easy-to-use property management software, company founders Dave Spooner and Yasir Drabu have continued to redefine what it means to be a property owner.

The latest investment brings Allison Wood Venture's total backing of Innago to $7.7 million over the last five years, a clear indicator that CEO Allison Wood truly believes in the fledgling tech company. In addition to the most recent investment, Allison Wood Ventures invested $1.2 million in 2017 and $2.5 million in 2020.

"I have been impressed by Dave and Yasir at every turn over the last five years," Wood said. "Not only did they create this groundbreaking software and make it accessible to all, but they've also worked to truly better the lives of their users. I am so excited to see them continue to grow and am grateful to be a part of this next step forward."

Spooner and Drabu launched Innago in 2017 after tinkering with pricing models, user interfaces, and other important components of what makes a management software valuable to landlords and their tenants. Not only does Innago allow property owners to create applications, screen tenants, sign leases, collect rent, manage work orders, organize finances, and communicate with renters, but it also provides world-class customer service that gives users peace of mind.

Innago is, in a word, simple. Unlike other management software and websites, it provides only what is necessary and cuts out the often-redundant features that drive up the cost and slow down processing. Last year, Innago launched a mobile app that allows landlords to track applications, maintenance requests, payments, and more from a smartphone.

"We are confident that, at this point, we have the best product, the best marketing, and the best customer support of any similar company on the market," Spooner said. "As a landlord now myself, I couldn't manage my properties without the ease our service provides. We know we are poised to continue to grow and improve, and we are so grateful to Allison Wood Ventures for helping to make that a reality."

About Allison Wood Ventures

Allison Wood Ventures is a global investment company focused on creating growth opportunities for industry game-changers. The firm invests largely in information, consumer, retail, and energy technology, as well as in real estate, media, and other sectors. Founder and CEO Allison Wood takes a personal interest in each and every investment opportunity, and Allison Wood Ventures is built on a culture of vision and value creation above all.

For more information about Allison Wood Ventures and its projects, visit allisonwoodventures.com and Facebook.com/AllisonWoodVentures.

Media Contact:

Allison Wood Ventures

info@allisonwoodventures.com

+1 713-654-9633

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) investors who suffered significant losses to submit your losses now. A securities fraud class action has been filed and certain investors may have valuable claims.



Class Period: Mar. 30, 2021  May 2, 2022

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Aug. 1, 2022

Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/IONQ

Contact An Attorney Now: IONQ@hbsslaw.com

844-916-0895

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) Securities Fraud Class Action:

The lawsuit focuses on IonQs statements about its 32-qubit machine which the company claims is the worlds most powerful quantum computer. IonQs representations allowed the company to go public through a SPAC-merger in late Sept. 2021.

Specifically, the complaint alleges Defendants misrepresented and omitted that: (1) IonQ had not yet developed a 32-qubit quantum computer; (2) the companys 11-qubit quantum computer suffered from significant error rates, rendering it useless; (3) IonQs quantum computer is not sufficiently reliable, so it is not accessible despite being available through major cloud providers; and, (4) a significant portion of IonQs revenue was derived from improper round-tripping transactions with related parties.

The truth emerged on May 3, 2022, when activist short-seller Scorpion Capital published a 183-page scathing report alleging the companys claims of a 32-qubit machine are a brazen hoax, that IonQs only actual machine is an old 11-qubit toy computer for demonstration purposes that ex-employees, leading quantum experts, and key partners all described as primitive, useless, doomed by fatal error rates inherent to the technology, unreliable with low uptime, and so slow that a useful calculation could take 3 years, and it created the illusion of commercial momentum via sham related-party transactions.

Were focused on investors losses and proving IonQ misrepresented the existence of- and commercial prospects for- its 32-qubit computer, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.

If you invested in IonQ and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman.

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding IonQ should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email IONQ@hbsslaw.com.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.
TUCSON, Ariz., July 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) decries the political prosecution and conviction of conservative Steve Bannon. On July 22, a D.C. jury found Bannon guilty under 2 U.S.C.  192 of contempt of Congress.



Political prosecutions are what dictatorships do, and should never happen in the United States, declared Andrew Schlafly, general counsel of AAPS. Being a supporter and adviser to Donald Trump is not a crime.

Steve Bannon as a private citizen was targeted by the House Select Committee while it was spending millions of dollars for more than a year targeting Trump supporters about protests on Jan 6, 2021, Schlafly notes. The Department of Justice (DOH) rejected a recommendation by this Democrat-controlled committee to prosecute former congressman Mark Meadows for the same charges as Bannon.

When the Republican House voted that Democrat-appointed Eric Holder was in contempt of Congress, DOJ immediately announced its refusal to prosecute him, Schlafly said. Yet DOJ went after Steve Bannon, and he was prevented at trial from calling any of the House Democrats who initiated this against him.

This prosecution and conviction of Bannon are unprecedented, Schlafly observed. This prosecution merely advances the political goals of enemies of Donald Trump.

During jury selection in Bannons case, many potential jurors expressed their political views against Bannon. They were excused from the jury, but the prevalence of their views in D.C. indicated that the trial should not have proceeded there, Schlafly states.

D.C. is not a fair venue for a trial pitting Democrats in Congress against a critic of them. The incoming new Congress, predicted to be Republican, should change the law so that trials are held where the defendant resides, not where federal government employs so many.

The incoming House of Representatives should enact a resolution to pardon Steve Bannon on its first day in session in January, stated Jane Orient, M.D., the executive director of AAPS.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943. Its motto is omnia pro aegroto (everything for the patient).
Andrew Shovlin has provided more detail on its position regarding the possible upcoming rule changes for 2023 at the press conference prior to the third free practice session in France. The German racing team emphasises the importance of safety in Formula 1.

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Christian Horner told the Paul Ricard paddock on Friday that the new rules are not about safety, but only about helping one team (Mercedes). Red Bull has to adapt its car, while they are not bothered by porpoising or anything else. Shovlin responds to Horner's words. "We are working to solve our problems ourselves."

He then stresses that it is not about Mercedes gaining an advantage. Shovlin also says that for some time now, rule changes have meant that one team may be hit just a little harder than another. As an example, he points to the 2021 rule changes, which benefited the teams with a high-rake more. Mercedes, on the other hand, was thrown back a few steps.

Mercedes plays the card safety

"These cars will always drive as close to the ground as possible. If a driver hits the ground and then loses control and ends up in the crash barrier, it's more a question of safety than comfort," said Shovlin, who believes a middle ground will eventually be found when it comes to the rules for next season. "Some teams wanted the change, some didn't. The compromise is: change, but as minimal as possible."

There is some haste in whether or not changes to the rules will be made, as development of the 2023 cars is now beginning and budgets for that season are also being made. Shovlin also says at Motorsport-Magazin.com Shovlin also stated that he would rather have clarity today than tomorrow.
Zimbabwe will start receiving 100MW from Zambias state-owned power utility, Zesco, early next month under a five-year deal, while a delegation from Mozambique is expected in the country today to finalise negotiations to supply additional 150MW to ease ongoing power cuts.

The delegation from Electricidade de Mocambique (EDM), which is providing 50MW to Zesa Holdings, will be here for a week-long visit.

The local power shortfall was worsened by depressed generation at Hwange and Harare thermal power stations, including the loss of a unit that produces 125MW at Kariba Power Station.

Zesa has since facilitated the creation of a group of intensive energy users to finance power imports from the region.

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) acting managing director Engineer Howard Choga told The Sunday Mail that the power imports were imminent.

We signed power import deals with Zambia a long time ago, but we had not been getting electricity from the country because of cash flow challenges, said Eng Choga.

Now, because we have prepaid, we expect this to be settled in the coming weeks and we will start receiving 100MW from Zambia.

We have to prepay them a month before we receive the electricity.

The power import deal with Zesco has a three- to five-year tenure.

Currently, we are getting 50MW from Cahora Bassa and 50MW from EDM in Mozambique.

We had signed a deal for 200MW with EDM, but we were only accessing 50MW.

So they are sending a delegation into the country tomorrow (today) and they will be in the country for the whole week so we will discuss how we can access the remaining 150MW.

In relation to the 150MW, a high-powered delegation is coming to discuss the creation of an Intensive Energy User Group comprising companies that will be accessing power directly from Mozambique.

This will significantly reduce the burden on Zesa.

Private sector has been clamouring for this to ensure constant supply.

Zimbabwe, he said, needs at least US$15 million per month to import power.

Zesa has also begun switching off defaulters.

Zimbabwe often gets about 400 MW daily from Eskom, but they are facing crippling challenges and have been unable to supply us.

The Zimbabwe Power Company  Zesas power generation arm  is currently producing 1 201MW at its five power stations against peak winter season demand of 2 200MW.

Last week, the biggest power generation plant in Zimbabwe, Kariba South, was generating only 758MW against an installed capacity of 1 050MW.

Hwange Power Station was generating 411MW against an installed capacity of 920MW.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Mr Kurai Matsheza said the current power problems were threatening industrys survival.

That Zesa has unlocked some 300MW in imports is a welcome development and as industry we expect that to start feeding into industry, and (we) also hope that its a firm arrangement, he said.

Whilst the 300MW is welcome, we need to hear from the power utility when 2 100MW will be sustainably supplied and also to grow in line with demand growth.

At last weeks post-Cabinet briefing, Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda said equipment breakdowns at major power stations were affecting generation.

We lost one unit at Kariba Power Station which produces 125MW, that is unit 6, and the fault that was detected requires that the thrust bearing be taken to South Africa, and the bearing will be brought back on August 12.

We also had challenges from Hwange but we have since recovered two units.

Hwange Power Station, he said, was running on two units last week, but it is now back to four units and as of Monday generation stood at 407MW.

We also had problems with Harare station three. It was also out of service but it has been brought back to service this afternoon (Tuesday).

Completion of Unit 7 in November this year and Unit 8 at Hwange Power Station by March next year will add 600MW to the grid and help ensure reliable and sustainable supplies to meet growing demand. Sunday News
Gevo announced a new fuel sales agreement with American Airlines for the sale of 100 million gallons per year of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for five years from Gevos future commercial operations.

Gevos delivery of SAF under this agreement is expected to begin in 2026. Gevo estimates that the agreement should generate approximately $2.75 billion of revenue over the five-year term, inclusive of the value of environmental benefits. The Agreement with American Airlines is the single, largest fuel sales agreement ever entered into by Gevo with a customer.

American Airlines is a member of oneworld global alliance (oneworld), and this agreement falls under the purview of memoranda of understanding (MoU) that oneworld members and Gevo signed earlier in 2022, laying the groundwork for the 14 airlines in the alliance to purchase 200 million gallons of SAF per year, from Gevos future commercial operations.

This SAF purchase agreement expands the list of committed airline partners and supports Gevos pursuit of its stated goal of producing and commercializing a billion gallons of SAF by 2030.

In September 2020, oneworld became the first global airline alliance to announce a target of carbon neutrality by 2050, establishing its commitment to long-term sustainability for the industry. The alliance followed up that commitment with an intermediate goal to achieve 10% SAF use across the member airlines by 2030.

The agreement with American Airlines is subject to certain conditions precedent, including Gevo developing, financing, constructing and operating one or more production facilities to produce the SAF contemplated by the agreement.
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  Bestselling author Wes Moore won the Democratic primary for Maryland governor on Friday, setting up a general election contest against Republican Dan Cox, a hard-line conservative endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Moore, the author of the book The Other Wes Moore and the former CEO of an anti-poverty nonprofit, defeated a long list of other high-profile Democrats, including Tom Perez, the former U.S. labor secretary and ex-Democratic National Committee chair, and Peter Franchot, the state's longtime comptroller.

Moore will be the strong favorite in the November election against Cox, a right-wing member of the Maryland House of Delegates whose extreme brand of politics is considered a liability in a heavily Democratic state that twice elected centrist Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Moore would be the state's first Black governor if elected.

A political novice, Moore was boosted in his campaign by Oprah Winfrey, who hosted a virtual fundraiser for him. He also had the support of U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.

Cox was declared the winner of the Republican primary on Tuesday night. It took until Friday to call the Democratic primary for Moore because the margins were tighter and a larger number of mail ballots were cast in the race. Maryland law prohibits counties from opening mail ballots until the Thursday after election day.

Cox, an acolyte of Trump and supporter of right-wing causes, has promoted Trumps lies of a stolen 2020 election, organized buses to Washington for the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and tweeted during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that then-Vice President Mike Pence was a traitor."

Democrats see Moore as a strong candidate with a compelling personal story.

He was raised by a single mother after his father died when Moore was 3. Moore graduated from Valley Forge Military College and Johns Hopkins University and won a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University.

He later served as a captain and paratrooper with the U.S. Armys 82nd Airborne and saw combat in Afghanistan.

He started and eventually sold a small business called BridgeEdU, which, according to his website, reinvents freshman year of college for underserved students to increase their likelihood of long-term success. During his four years as CEO of the anti-poverty nonprofit Robin Hood Foundation, the organization distributed more than $600 million to help impoverished families.

Moore has written a number of books, including The Other Wes Moore, a memoir that juxtaposes his life with that of another man with the same name and a similar background who ended up serving a life sentence for murder.

GOP voters' decision to nominate Cox dashed the hopes of Hogan and other establishment Republicans that the party could hold on to the governors mansion in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1. Hogan was able to draw bipartisan support with his moderate policies and his willingness to criticize Trump when he felt it warranted  a significant act in a party that expects its members to fall in line behind its leader.

Hogan, who was prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, endorsed his former Cabinet member Kelly Schulz in the four-way Republican primary. Hogan has not been shy in his distaste for Cox, denouncing him as a nut and a QAnon whack job. Cox sued over Hogan's stay-at-home orders and regulations at the start of the pandemic and introduced a resolution to impeach Hogan for what Cox called malfeasance in office.

Hogan will not vote for him in November, his spokesperson said Wednesday.

Trump gloated over Cox's success over Schulz on Tuesday night, writing in a statement, RINO Larry Hogans Endorsement doesnt seem to be working out so well for his heavily favored candidate."

Hogan shot back Wednesday, tweeting that Trump lost Republicans the White House, the House, and the Senate. He said Trump will cost us a Governors seat in Maryland where I ran 45 points ahead of him.

Hes fighting for his ego, Hogan said. Were fighting to win, and the fight goes on.

Jim Dornan, a Republican political strategist with experience in Maryland politics, described Coxs victory in the primary as a disaster for down-ballot GOP candidates relying on a strong gubernatorial nominee to draw voters to the polls. He said any satisfaction Trump gleaned from defeating Hogans candidate would be short-lived because Republicans are now likely to lose the general election.

I guess it can be put this way: Trump won the battle, and Hogan is looking to win the war, said Dornan, who managed Republican Ellen Sauerbreys 1998 gubernatorial campaign and ran former Republican Party chair Michael Steele's exploratory committee for governor last year before he decided against a bid.

Still, the fact that Hogan's handpicked successor lost to a Trump-backed rival is an ominous sign for any national political ambitions Hogan may have, said Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Hogan, like Trump, has been considering a Republican bid for president in 2024.

I think the harsh reality is going to be, if thats the case in a state that youve represented for the last eight years, a state that reelected you, its going to be that much harder for you to find success when you move beyond the borders of that state seeking a national nomination, Eberly said.

Democrats have long viewed Cox as the weaker candidate in a general election. The Democratic Governors Association went so far as to spend more than $1 million to air an ad intended to help Cox in the Republican primary by stressing his Trump endorsement and his conservative bona fides.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat who has had plenty of disagreements with Hogan in recent years, said he and Hogan could sit down and discuss their differences and negotiate. Marylanders, he said, are not well represented by the winner of Tuesdays GOP primary for governor.

While it may be politically advantageous for the Democrats for that to be the case, I do worry what it means to have somebody who has such extreme views have a platform for the next four months, Ferguson said.

___

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.
NEWTOWN  Alex Jones favorite Texas lawyer will be allowed to sit at his defense table during the Sandy Hook defamation awards trial in Connecticut in September, as long as the out-of-state attorney doesnt actively try the case.

The reason: the same attorney, Andino Reynal of Houston, will be busy defending Jones in separate Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits next week and again in September in Texas  a fact that state Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis does not like much.

Attorney Reynal is not required to attend jury selection or trial on a daily basis (in Connecticut), Bellis ruled this week. While Attorney Reynal may sit at counsel table on the days he is attending jury selection or trial, he may not present evidence, examine witnesses, or argue matters to the court.

Instead, the judge ruled, Jones case in Connecticut will be managed and presented by New Haven attorney Norm Pattis.

If it sounds unusual to admit an out-of-state attorney who cannot devote himself full time to the case in question on the condition that he not take too active a part in the defense, it is.

Bellis at a pretrial conference earlier this month said she had never permitted such a thing but would keep an open mind on the strength of Pattis argument that he needed Reynal to present Jones best defense.

Pattis explained to the judge that Jones had lost trust in him and as a result, Pattis needed the access to Jones that Reynal enjoys.

There has been some turbulence in my relationship with (Jones) and there has been a rearrangement of counsel where  Reynal is playing the role that I hitherto played, Pattis told Bellis in mid-July. Given the intricacies of this case, we need (Reynal).

Bellis ruling to admit Reynal came with a further condition: The unavailability of attorney Reynal shall not be used as a basis for a motion for continuance.

Translation: Pattis agrees not to argue that because Reynal wont be available for the entire Connecticut case, its grounds to ask for postponement since Jones is being deprived of his counsel of choice.

Pattis decision comes as the parents of a boy slain in the Sandy Hook massacre prepare for a jury trial on Tuesday in Texas to determine how much Jones will pay them in compensatory and punitive damages for defaming them last year.

Jones called the 2012 massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School staged, synthetic, manufactured, a giant hoax, and completely fake with actors.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
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WASHINGTON (AP)  To understand how Donald Trumps desperation and lies became a potent danger to democracy, consider the ginger mints.

Mints featured in one of the absurdist but toxic episodes fleshed out in the Jan. 6 hearings, which now pause even as the Justice Department presses ahead on a parallel criminal investigation that it calls the most important in its history.

Here's how one conspiracy theory, in a dark sea of them, was born:

A mother-daughter team at a Georgia elections center shared the treat during a long election night. Someone videotaped them and chose to believe the mint mother gave to daughter was a USB port. Trumps lawyer spread the accusation that the video caught the women using the device to try to corrupt the election against the president.

Frantic to stay in power, Trump ran with the lie. He attacked the mother by name, branded her a professional vote scammer, and soon vigilantes showed up at a family home to execute a citizens arrest, the committee was told. For the love of mints.

The episode fed into a web of fabricated stories, melting under scrutiny like snowflakes in a Georgia summer. The hearings illustrated how those stories fueled the anger of Trump's supporters across the U.S. and especially those who stormed the Capitol, many armed and out for blood.

Long before the committee called its first witness, scenes of the rampage had been burned into the public consciousness. What new information could possibly come from it? Plenty, it turned out. And as the inquiry continues, with more hearings planned in September, still more evidence is being gathered.

With seven Democrats working with two Republicans on the outs with their party, the committee did what Trump's two impeachment trials couldn't  establish a coherent story out of the chaos instead of two partisan ones clawing at each other.

American carnage, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, lead manager of the second Trump impeachment and a committee member on this inquiry, said of the latter's bottom line. "Thats Donald Trumps true legacy.

The panel exposed the lengths Trump and his enablers went to keep him in power and the extent to which his inner circle knew his case about a stolen election was bogus. Some told him that to his face; others humored him.

At every turn the hearings made clear Trump was willing to see the legislative branch of government and democratic processes in state after state consumed in the bonfire of his vanities.

He was told the rioters were out to find his vice president, Mike Pence, at the Capitol and hang him. And he was said to believe Pence deserved to be hanged.

Trump was told many of his supporters that day bore arms. He didn't effing care."

Theyre not here to hurt ME, he said, according to testimony.

The committee pinpointed a range of renegade if not criminal options that were floated in the White House as Trump and his allies contemplated an executive order to seize voting machines and other steps that democracies don't take.

The idea that the federal government could come in and seize election machines, no, Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, said as he recounted a White House meeting that devolved into a screaming match. I dont understand why we even have to tell you why thats a bad idea for the country.

Trump leaned on Republican-led states to find more votes for him and or appoint fake electors. He hectored Pence to do what he didn't have the power  or the will  to do, when called upon to certify the election.

When all else failed, Trump told his supporters to fight like hell and encouraged them to march down to the Capitol, saying hed be joining them.

Trump's plotting was foiled by Republicans in the states that mattered, conservative aides, bureaucrats and loyalists-to-a-point who ultimately said no to him.

When Trump pressed his vice president to derail the certification of Joe Biden's election, Pence said no.

The Republican election official in Georgia said no to cooking the results to deliver Trump the state. The Republican House speaker in Arizona, pressed to appoint fake electors, invoked his oath and said no way.

Two Justice Department leaders in succession said no to him. When he moved to appoint a compliant third, Justice officials told him in the Oval Office that if he did so, they would quit and the new man would be left "leading a graveyard.

All of that left the president with an inept cadre, mostly of outsiders. One sells pillows.

Weve got lots of theories, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Rusty Bowers, Arizona House speaker. We just dont have the evidence.

Attention now shifts to the Justice Department, where Attorney General Merrick Garland says its criminal investigation of the matter is its most important ever.

Some legal experts have identified a range of potential crimes for which the ex-president might conceivably be prosecuted. Corruptly obstructing an official proceeding. Conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Inciting a riot. Even seditious conspiracy.

But these crimes are easier to talk about than to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, especially against a former president and one who might run again.

As the hearings unfolded, Democrats found themselves standing in admiration, if not awe, for the deeply conservative Rep. Liz Cheney, the poker-faced Republican on the committee who, despite her measured words, made clear her icy disdain for Trump and the many Republicans in Congress who appear to remain in thrall to him.

She did not countenance the Trump defenders who argued he was manipulated by outside crazies."

President Trump is a 76-year-old man," she said. "He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.

Facing a Trump-backed primary opponent in August, her congressional seat in deep-red Wyoming in danger, she framed the stakes for fellow Republican lawmakers at the first hearing: I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.

___

Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Turns out, Jan. 6 was more than just the day when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.

It was the culmination, but also the start, of an enduring challenge for American democracy.

The House committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021 has shown how the deadly Capitol attack was sparked months earlier on Election Night 2020, when the incumbent president, Donald Trump, refused to admit he was trailing Joe Biden, and instead spewed false claims of voter fraud and declared himself the winner.

The defeated president spent the next eight weeks orchestrating an unprecedented attempt to overturn the election results and summoned supporters to Washington on Jan. 6 to finish the job.

And even after the blood, mayhem and deaths at the Capitol, Trump still refused on Jan. 7 to say the words that all those around him knew needed to be said: the presidential election was over.

The Jan. 6 committee cannot charge anyone with crimes, but it has produced a public record for history, one that's still being written. It is showing how the insurrection at the Capitol is testing the resiliency of the nations democracy.

As Trump contemplates another White House run, he has denounced the proceedings as so many lies and misrepresentations.

Rep. Liz Cheney, a fellow Republican who is vice chair of the panel, said the case against her party's president is being made not by Trump's political enemies, but rather his own friends, campaign officials, people who worked for him and his own family.

They have come forward and they have told the American people the truth, Cheney said.

Heres what we know from eight summer hearings of the House Jan. 6 committee.

TEAM NORMAL WARNS TRUMP NOT TO CLAIM ELECTION VICTORY

Election Night did not look good for incumbent Trump, as battleground states he had won four years earlier began to fall to Biden.

Campaign manager Bill Stepien testified this summer that it was no time to declare victory. But Team Normal, as some of Trump's more experienced political aides called themselves, was no match for Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer who encouraged Trump to fight.

This is a fraud on the American public, Trump said in an election night speech. Frankly, we did win this election.

For the next eight weeks Trump battled in court challenging the election results. When one judge after another rejected or declined to take up Trump's claims of voter fraud, the defeated president latched on to another plan, from a conservative law professor John Eastman, to challenge the results when Congress met to certify the election, scheduled for Jan. 6.

Trump met privately with members of Congress who would reject the election results from their states, and encouraged hundreds of electors to send Congress his name as the winner, rather than Biden.

But over and over again, Cheney said, the president was told there was no voter fraud that could have tipped the election.

This is bull-, former Attorney General Bill Barr testified that he told the president.

When told of Barr's interview to an AP reporter declaring there was no fraud, the president threw his lunch in the Oval Office dining room. There was ketchup dripping down the wall, testified former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who helped the president's valet mop it up.

'WERE GOING TO WALK DOWN TO THE CAPITOL'

The committee revealed new evidence that the attack on the Capitol was not a spontaneous event but one set in motion by the president's actions.

Summoning supporters to Washington for a big rally Jan. 6, Trump spoke before the crowd at the Ellipse outside the White House and sent them marching to the Capitol.

We're going to walk down  and I'll be there with you, Trump told the crowd. We're going to walk down to the Capitol.

The committee revealed in text messages from rally organizer Kylie Kremer that there were plans for a second stage to be set up outside the Capitol, which sits across from the Supreme Court.

Alarmed, White House counsel Pat Cipollone scrambled to prevent Trump from going to the Capitol, desperately worried that if he did, it would be seen as the president interfering with the U.S. election.

Were going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen, Hutchinson recalled Cipollone telling her.

After Trump left the rally stage, he had a confrontation with the security agent driving the presidential SUV, demanding to be taken to the Capitol, Hutchinson said. It's an account that the Secret Service denies. But the service has not publicly testified about it as Hutchinson has under oath.

Instead, the security detail drove Trump back to the White House, where an aide told him about the riot at the Capitol.

Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack, Cheney said.

And then Trump went into the Oval Office dining room and for the next three hours refused to call off the mob, watching it all on TV.

You know, Commander in Chief, you got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And theres nothing? No call? Nothing? Zero? testified Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

For hours, Donald Trump chose not to answer the pleas from Congress, from his own party, and from all across our nation to do what his oath required," Cheney said. "He refused to defend our nation and our Constitution.

THE ATTACK: IT WAS CARNAGE, IT WAS CHAOS

From the opening hearing, the Jan. 6 committee showed that the attack on the Capitol was not some visit by tourists, as some Trump allies have since maintained, but a gruesome, grisly, deadly fight.

U.S. Capitol Police officer Carolyn Edwards testified about the war scene as she stood on the Capitol's West Front trying to push back the mob  some armed with shields, flag poles, stun guns, bear spray, and guns.

It was carnage, it was chaos," she said. "I was slipping in people's blood.

The panel showed how extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, whose leaders now face rare sedition charges, had been planning for Jan. 6 for weeks, including a stunning parking garage meeting the night before filmed by a documentarian who testified before the committee.

Among the more than 100 officers injured that day some have sat in the front row through the hearings.

Nine people died in the attack and its aftermath, including a Trump supporter shot by police.

More than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.

UNSUNG HEROES, ENDURING QUESTIONS FOR DEMOCRACY

Throughout the six weeks of public hearings, the Jan. 6 has shown just how fragile is the U.S. hold on democracy.

Lower-level Republican officials, including Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who refused Trump's demands to find 11,740 votes" or Arizona Speaker Rusty Bowers who rejected the scheme for an alternative slate of electors from his state, endured threats as they stood up the president's pressure.

Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman recounted their fear, sadness and anger over a president who publicly and falsely accused them of voter fraud, leaving the mother and daughter still afraid to live their lives.

Vice President Mike Pence withstood the howls of rioters chanting Hang Mike Pence! as he refused Trump's demands to reject the electors. Pence also refused to leave the Capitol. Instead, he called the Pentagon to bring in the National Guard to secure the building  so Congress could resume certifying the election.

Pence did not want to take any chance that the world would see the Vice President of the United States fleeing the United States Capitol," his top counsel Greg Jacob testified. "He was determined that we would complete the work that we had set out to do that day.

The day after the election, Trump was convinced by his team to deliver an address to the nation, but he would not stick to the script.

I dont want to say the elections over, Trump said during outtakes of a video address shown by the committee. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, can be heard off camera, encouraging him to try again.

Chairman Bennie Thompson has said the committee will continue its work, with more hearings in September, as it prepares its reports.

January 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup, said Thompson, D-Miss. The violence was no accident. It represents seeing Trumps last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power.

___

Follow APs coverage of the Jan. 6 committee hearings at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.
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LONDON (AP)  The expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an extraordinary situation that qualifies as a global emergency, the World Health Organization chief said Saturday, a declaration that could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.

A global emergency is WHOs highest level of alert but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal. Similar declarations were made for the Zika virus in 2016 in Latin America and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision on calling monkeypox a global emergency despite a lack of consensus among experts on the U.N. health agency's emergency committee, saying he acted as a tiebreaker. It was the first time a U.N. health agency chief has unilaterally made such a decision without an expert recommendation.

We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, Tedros said. I know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views."

WHOs emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said the director-general declared monkeypox a global emergency to ensure that the world takes the current outbreaks seriously.

Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May, when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

Last month, WHOs expert committee said the monkeypox outbreak did not yet amount to an international emergency, but the panel convened this week to reevaluate the situation.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries since about May. To date, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where a more dangerous version of the virus is spreading, mainly in Nigeria and Congo.

In Africa, monkeypox mainly spreads to people by infected wild animals like rodents in limited outbreaks that typically have not crossed borders. In Europe, North America and elsewhere, however, monkeypox is spreading among people with no links to animals or recent travel to Africa.

WHOs top monkeypox expert, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, said this week that 99% of all the monkeypox cases beyond Africa were in men and that of those, 98% involved men who have sex with men. Experts suspect the monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were spread via sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.

Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern for the moment, this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners," Tedros said. "That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies.

Britain recently downgraded its assessment of monkeypox after seeing no signs of widespread transmission beyond men who are gay, bisexual or have sex with other men and noting the disease does not spread easily or cause severe illness.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was supportive of WHO's emergency declaration and hoped it would galvanize international action to stamp out the outbreaks. The U.S. has reported more than 2,800 monkeypox cases and sent more than 370,000 vaccine doses to U.S. states reporting cases.

Some experts had questioned whether such a declaration would help, arguing the disease isnt severe enough to warrant the attention and that rich countries battling monkeypox already have the funds to do so. Most people recover without needing medical attention, although the lesions may be painful.

Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said WHOs emergency declaration could help donors like the World Bank make funds available to stop the outbreaks both in the West and in Africa.

In the U.S., some experts have speculated whether monkeypox might be on the verge of becoming an entrenched sexually transmitted disease in the country, like gonorrhea, herpes and HIV.

The bottom line is weve seen a shift in the epidemiology of monkeypox where theres now widespread, unexpected transmission, said Dr. Albert Ko, a professor of public health and epidemiology at Yale University. There are some genetic mutations in the virus that suggest why that may be happening, but we do need a globally-coordinated response to get it under control."

Ko called for testing to be immediately scaled up, saying there are significant gaps in surveillance.

The cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg, he said. The window has probably closed for us to quickly stop the outbreaks in Europe and the U.S., but its not too late to stop monkeypox from causing huge damage to poorer countries without the resources to handle it.

WHO's Tedros called for the world to act together in solidarity regarding the distribution of treatments, tests and vaccines. for monkeypox. The U.N. agency has previously said it's working to create a vaccine-sharing mechanism for the most-affected countries, but offered few details of how it might work. Unlike the numerous companies that made COVID-19 vaccines, there is only one maker for the vaccine used against monkeypox, Denmark's Bavarian Nordic.

Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congos Institute of National Biomedical Research, said he hoped any global efforts to stop monkeypox would be equitable. Although countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and the U.S. have ordered millions of monkeypox vaccine doses, none have gone to Africa.

The solution needs to be global, Mbala said, adding that any vaccines sent to Africa would be used to target those at highest risk, like hunters in rural areas.

Vaccination in the West might help stop the outbreak there, but there will still be cases in Africa, he said. Unless the problem is solved here, the risk to the rest of the world will remain.

___

Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.
Last week Realme announced the GT2 Explorer Master flagship armed with the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and a bespoke design developed in collaboration with fashion designer Jae-Jung. Weve received a review device now and these are our first impressions before the review team gets going with its tests.

Design is the one aspect where the GT2 Explorer Master definitely stands out from other phones. Weve got the Travel Trunk model on hand here and it features a distinct look inspired by the vintage luggage carrying equipment. The phone features a light grey vegan leather back and copper brown elements and a flat metal frame. Its a solidly built device though its weight is kept sane at 195 grams.

Theres a flat 6.7-inch OLED screen upfront with FHD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and a centered punch hole for the 16MP selfie camera. Realme is also bringing capacitive shoulder triggers on the side where the power button is housed. These buttons allow you to perform certain actions in games like steering a car but oddly enough there are no markings to them so you could completely miss out on the feature.

The retail box consists of the phone, a black silicone case, a 100W Realme charger and a USB-C cable. The software side is covered by Realme UI 3.0 on top of Android 12 though since this is a China-exclusive release you dont get Google services out of the box. Thats all for now but stay tuned to our homepage for the Realme GT2 Explorer Master edition full review.
US carrier T-Mobile has agreed to pay out $500 million as part of a class action lawsuit settlement for a data breach that took place in 2021. Customer data of approximately 76.6 million U.S. residents identified by T-Mobile was compromised as per the court filing on Friday. A report from Motherboard back in August of 2021 identified that the customer data involved in the breach included Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and driver license information of affected customers.

Of the settlement amount, $350 million will be divided between customers and lawyers (to pay fees and legal costs). The amount paid out to individual customers will depend on how much money lawyers are paid and how many customers respond to the class action settlement. Affected customers will be notified by T-Mobile about the settlement soon.

T-Mobile will be required to spend the other $150 million towards security improvements from now through 2023 to minimize the possibility of another data breach (the company has had five breaches involving customer data in the last four years).

The class action lawsuit accused T-Mobile of being unable to protect its customers information, failing to notify those who were impacted, and having inadequate data security. By settling the lawsuit, T-Mobile does not admit guilt to any of these accusations.

Sources 1  2
PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Guahan Academy Charter School

July schedule:

Monday-Friday: Summer school.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Daniel L. Perez Elementary School

Summer school 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday to Friday. Call 671-635-2177/0404.

Orientation at 10 a.m. at the cafeteria:

Aug. 2: Kindergarten students.

Aug. 3: Second- and third-grade students.

Aug. 4: Fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Faneyakan Sinipok program

A CHamoru Immersion Program for next school year is open to all kindergarten students 5 years old by July 31. The program will take place 8:30 a.m.-2:45 p.m. at P.C. Lujan Elementary. Transportation must be provided by parent or guardian.

Fill out an application and provide necessary documents at rb.gy/8uubxk, followed by interview. Families will need to commit to:

Active participation.

Parents and family members must take CHamoru immersion classes.

Provide eight hours of in-kind service to the program per month.

Contact 671-300-2498 or 671-300-1367 or email jsteria@gdoe.net.

SCHOLARSHIPS

GCC Foundation LGBTQ Leadership scholarship

Guam Community College students who self-identify as part of the LGBTQ community can apply for the LGBTQ Leadership scholarship. Must be a resident of Guam who is a full-time new or continuing student with a GPA of 2.5 or higher at GCC.

Two awardees will receive $500 for the fall 2022 semester. Deadline to apply is Aug. 31. For more information contact the Financial Aid Office at 671-735-5543/5544 or email financialaid@guamcc.edu.

Atilana Rambayon scholarship

Guam Community Colleges Atilana Rambayon scholarship is open to full-time or part-time new or continuing students who are a single parent pursuing a GCC associate degree program. Must have a 3.0 GPA or higher, be a graduate of the GCC GED or Adult Education program, and be a resident of Guam.

The awardee will receive $500 for the fall 2022 semester. Deadline to apply is 5 p.m. Aug. 31. For more information contact the Financial Aid office at 671-735-5543/5544.

The Society of Emeritus Professors and Retired Scholars scholarship

Full-time undergraduate or graduate students attending the University of Guam with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA can apply for the Society of Emeritus Professors and Retired Scholars scholarship.

The awardee will receive up to $1,000 for the academic year with $500 given per semester and be invited to attend an award ceremony. Deadline to apply is 3:00 p.m. Aug. 26. For more information, contact finaid@triton.uog.edu.

The Filipino Ladies Association of Guam scholarship

Guam residents or U.S. citizens who are full-time undergraduate students at the University of Guam with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA can apply for the Filipino Ladies of Association of Guam scholarship. Additionally, applicants can not be a recipient of any other private scholarship and not have a criminal record.

Two awardees will be given $500. Deadline is 5 p.m. Aug. 22. For more information contact finaid@triton.uog.edu.

Dave J. Santos scholarship

The Guam Chamber of Commerces Dave J. Santos scholarship is open to full-time juniors or seniors at the UOG School of Business and Public Administration. Must have a 3.0 GPA, be a graduate of a Guam high school or resident of Guam for at least two years, and have a genuine interest in promoting entrepreneurship.

Awardee gets $1,000 per semester and a paid internship with the chamber. Apply until Aug. 12. Contact the UOG Financial Aid office at 671-735-2288 or Guam Chamber at 671-472-6311/8001 or email info@GuamChamber.com.gu.

COLLEGES

University of Guam

Applications for Fanuchanan semester are accepted until Aug. 8. Classes begin Aug. 17; most classes are in person.

Residents ages 50 and older are eligible for the tuition waiver program. Call the Office of Admissions and Records at 671-735-2210/1 by Aug. 12.

For more information, contact the Office of Admissions and Records at 671-735-2202 or email admitme@trition.uog.edu.

Guam Community College

Apply for fall semester until Aug. 12. Classes begin Aug. 17.

Register in person or online at www.guamcc.edu/apply. Call 671-735-5531 or email gcc.registrar@guamcc.edu. GCC will be open from 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays until Aug. 7 for students who need help with registering. Placement testing will not be available Saturday.

Students are encouraged to complete and submit a Free Application for Student Aid form. Call 671-735-5543/5544 or email financialaid@guamcc.edu.
The Guam Judicial Center is shown in this file photo. Julia Candaso Castro was charged with family violence as a misdemeanor, according to a magistrate complaint filed in the Superior Court of Guam.
The Guam Police Department has identified the two men found dead in Yigo after a reported shooting and police are looking for a person of interest.
A building has been acquired for a new homeless shelter that will be owned and operated by the government of Guam.

An apartment building on Bradley Street in Hagatna will be the site of the shelter, according to Stephanie Flores, administrator of the Guam State Clearinghouse.

The facility is being renovated with $3 million through the Investment Para Hamyo program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Currently there is no date for when renovations will be completed because of a shortage of building materials on island, said Rob San Agustin, the acting director for the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention.

There is some expected delay due to the supply chain and contractor availability, but we are optimistic that this can be done in three to six months, said San Agustin.

Renovations

Renovations, such as changing old floors and cabinets, are necessary to comply with federal regulations including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Flores said.

We appreciate everyones patience and we just want to make sure the project is done correctly and that we have everything in place so when we open we dont have to close and do more renovations, Flores said.

The idea for this shelter is to have a safe stable place where homeless people can live temporarily before transitioning into Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority or Guam Housing Corporation units, said Flores.

The Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention will determine who will be eligible to stay at the shelter and establish the rules for determining the length of stay.

San Agustin said while renovations are taking place, the office will be assessing the current homeless situation in Guam to determine what services and programs will be most needed at the shelter once it opens.

Ideally we would like to have units available for different programs such as emergency shelter, transitional shelter, a medical step-down unit if someone is discharged from a hospital and more, but that will be determined as we continue observing the gaps in housing moving forward, said San Agustin.
Almost nine months after Michael Castros body was found in a drum buried in Yigo, his mother, 9-year-old daughter and other family members have been waiting for his body to be returned.

She has asked, When is daddys funeral? Castros mother, Melanie Guerrero, recalls her granddaughter Serenity asking.

Missing

Guerrero first reported her 27-year-old son missing on Nov. 8, 2020. He had been seen the week before driving a beige 2013 Lexus.

For the next eight months, Guerrero called Guam Police Department every day for updates on her sons disappearance.

Eventually, Nicholas Wayne Moore became a suspect in the case.

Castros car was found on the property of Unitek Environmental Group, a company owned by Moores father, Leroy Moore, a day after Castro had last been seen.

The car had multiple gunshot holes and blood that matched Castros DNA, court documents stated.

Nicholas Moore was charged with murder in connection to Castros death. At the time, investigators thought Castros body was dumped in the ocean, documents stated.

Troy Damian was later charged with murder in connection to Castros death. A recording captured Damian describing a car chase with Castro on Cross Island Road the night he was last seen. He also said Castro was placed in a drum after he was killed, court documents state.

Remains

A year after Castros initial disappearance, GPDs Chief of Police Stephen Ignacio announced in a press conference Castros remains were found in a container buried at a ranch in Yigo.

At the time, Guerrero felt relief finally knowing what had happened to her son.

Since then, Guerrero says the release of Castros remains has been delayed by defense attorneys in court.

His remains continue to decompose in the morgue, where he has been for the last nine months. I have waited patiently for this process, and it comes with heavy psychological trauma and physical and emotional pain I deal with every day of my life, Guerrero said.

Defense

A check of Superior Court of Guam records showed no formal documentation made by defense attorneys opposing the release of Castros remains.

After a hearing on Moores violations of his pretrial release conditions, which put him in the Department of Corrections, Moores attorneys Michael Phillips and William Gavras said they were unsure of any opposition.

I think if there is an issue, its because were certainly entitled to retain our own DNA expert, Gavras said. If its on our end, its because our DNA expert has not been able to look at things. And as much as we would like to help out the family  we have an obligation to our client.

Prior to Moores violations, which included testing positive for drugs and making an unauthorized stop despite being placed on house arrest, he was set to begin trial for charges connected to a shooting in Agana Heights that occurred two weeks before Castros disappearance.

The trial involving Castros death is expected to begin after the Agana Heights shooting trial.

Funeral

Although Castro died almost two years ago, Guerrero said there has not been a service for him.

The only thing I have to say now is, release my son Michaels remains, Guerrero said.

No one can possibly understand the enormity of pain this experience has impacted my health as Michaels mother, living with the reality of the loss of Michaels life, and what I feel was a senseless act of violence. Show me please, as Michaels mother, some sense of compassion, deny further defenses request to delay the release of Michaels remains. Please release my boy and let me take him and give him the proper respectful burial Michael does deserve.




Haiti - Education : The single school book, well received by teachers' unions





Friday, July 22 at the Oasis hotel, a meeting chaired by Nesmy Manigat, the Minister of National Education brought together the heads of teachers' unions and those of the Ministry of National Education around the single school book for pupils of 1st and 2nd fundamental year (A.F.), a key file for the start of the 2022 school year.



The different aspects of the single school book were then presented to union officials by the director of the Curriculum and Quality Department (DCQ), Marie Marjorie Telusma. Body in charge of the file of the school book unique to the ministry, the DCQ ensures the technical management of this file since its launch. The specifications for the single school book, submitted to authors and publishers as part of the call for applications, were reviewed and provided answers to several questions asked by union officials



Very animated, the debates around the single school book revealed the great enthusiasm of trade unionists but also three major concerns : the limited time between now and September for the availability of the document, a good understanding of this dossier by educational agents and the training of teachers



But for all union representatives, it is a promising project for the education sector that they support. Some even speak of a revolutionary project but wish to have the necessary time to successfully complete it.



For Minister Manigat, some concerns are legitimate and he understands them. However, it is necessary to act and quickly, according to him. Because, doing nothing and pretending is worse when you see that a child in 1st year and 2nd year can have around 20 books, including at least three to four books for a single subject...



"In other words, having a single school book based on the foundation of skills, knowledge and culture for the five key subjects, namely: Creole, French, Mathematics, Experimental Sciences and Social Sciences, either in one publication or in several by subject, aims to relieve parents financially while building equity in learning and promoting the same chances of success for all children without distinction," explained Manigat.



To respond to certain concerns, the Minister proposes to gradually improve the single school book which will be tested, based on the evaluation of the first year of implementation and the relevant proposals from the actors. Instead of waiting three years before making a new purchase from publishers, we will do another operation from the second year of the experiment while making the necessary corrections.



A proposal well received by unionists.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Bandit arrested in the morning released the same day

Frinot Techelot, an active member of the armed gang Baz Gran Grif in Savien, arrested earlier this week by the police in the commune of Petite-Riviere de l'Artibonite and transferred to Saint-Marc was released the same day on the orders of Me Sovereign Verissaint Substitute for the Government Commissioner of Saint-Marc.



Artibonite : Gang war at least 20 dead

The partial assessment of the clashes between Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite : the gang of Savien "Grand Grif" to that of "Ti contempt" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37201-haiti-news-zapping.html is on the rise and would have caused at least one death according to Fritznel Joasil, Director of the NGO "Concerted action for the promotion of Human Rights" (ACPRODDH).



No extraordinary session for the baccalaureate this year

The Ministry of National Education and Training informs that there will be no extraordinary session for the baccalaureate this year. Eliminated candidates will have to contact the permanent evaluation centers which will have to set a date for the retake exams in the subjects concerned, specifies the MENFP.



Weather : Thunderstorms NOTICE

The Hydrometeorological Unit of Haiti (UHM) informs that a tropical wave has been located in the Southwest region which will cause stormy showers and episodes of winds until Sunday, July 24. The departments concerned are North, North-West, Center, Artibonite, South-East, South, Nippes and Grand'Anse.



"Neges Mawon 2022" feminist festival

As part of the 5th edition of the Feminist Festival "Neges Mawon 2022" will take place on Sunday July 24, a screening of the hit film "FREDA", followed by a meeting-chat with the director Gessica Geneus, the actresses Nehemie Bastien, Gaelle Bien-Aime and Fabiola Remy, at the cinematheque of Turegeau (Piment rouge) Se also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35317-haiti-cinema-the-film-haiti-freda-prize-for-the-best-film-tv5-quebec-canada.html



Fuel Status

Friday at the Varreux oil terminal 493,364 gallons of diesel, 15,000 gallons of kerozene and 500,077 gallons of gasoline were loaded into 129 tank trucks for delivery.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















A SCHOOL has revived plans to erect a 7ft 8in (2.4m) high boundary fence that critics say would make it look like a prison camp.

Gillotts School, a secondary academy in Henley, says it is concerned about undesirables entering the site off Gillotts Lane.

But residents claim the fence would be unsightly and harmful to wildlife.

A former deputy of the school who is now a town councillor says it is not necessary anyway.

Three years ago, the school applied for permission for a 6ft 6in high fence but South Oxfordshire District Council, the planning authority, did not make a decision on the application.

The school says the fence is needed to keep the children safe and provide additional security out of hours.

A design and access statement by planning consultants Ridge says: The open nature of the site has been a continued cause of concern for many years as it is impossible to stop children leaving the school fields during break time.

However, the most significant risk and concern is undesirable people entering the site who can interfere with the wellbeing of the children as well as presenting situations whereby site lockdowns must be implemented.

To delineate boundaries previously, the school has erected timber posts and straining wire fencing.

However, while visually the least obtrusive option, this was vandalised very quickly, hence it proved ineffective in preventing access.

The statement says the design and height of the fence would meet Department for Education guidelines and be sensitive to the surrounding environment.

It would be a rigid welded mesh-panel fence coloured green that is typically found at schools.

Ridge says the school noted the objections to the previous application and suggests that the fence would be concealed or have its appearance softened by trees and other vegetation, apart from on the southern boundary. But residents have again opposed the plans.

Former assistant head Stefan Gawrysiak, who is now a town, district and county councillor, told the Henley Standard: A school that is at the heart of the community should not put in a 2.4m security fence to make it look like a prison camp.

The fields around it are beautiful and are bordering the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This ugly steel fence would do nothing for the natural environment.

In the application there is no habitat report. How do foxes, badges and deer traverse the playing fields, which they have a perfect right to do, when there is a great 2.4m fence round it?

Gillotts should be educating students on the natural world, not putting up a fence to lock out the natural world. To destroy wildlife corridors is shocking.

He said the fence was not needed anyway.

I was a teacher there for 30 years and in that time there was just one incident and the person doing the trespassing went through the front door, he said. This fence wont change a thing. If someone was so determined they would climb over the fence anyway.

Cllr Gawrysiak, who lives in Elizabeth Road, added that if the fence had to be erected it should be put closer to the school around the hardstanding rather than the edge of the field and along the bridleway.

David Dickie, of St Katherines Road, said: Having been the chair of governors at Gillotts, I understand the need to protect children but a 2.4m high fence that allows no access for wildlife and stops non-existent troublemakers is just over the top. [It] should be refused.

Michael Turnill, of Blandy Road, said the fence would have a major impact on the view from the adjacent footpath of the trees and grass.

He added: It would completely change the character of the area and give it a prison-like appearance.

We would urge the school to reconsider the necessity of a fence of this type, given that the main trespassers into their grounds are children, who are inside the fence anyway during the day and just want to kick a ball around at weekends. Anne Johnson, also of Blandy Road, said: This suggested fencing seems totally out of proportion to the area. There has never been any serious crimes  you would think this was a high crime area on a par with South Africa.

We have lived here for about 40-plus years and have never experienced vandalism that would warrant such extreme fencing.

The sheer cost of this must be horrendous, I feel this fencing will be an attraction to vandalism. It is certainly not a neighbourly act.

James Knight, of Makins Road, said: My wife and I believe the fencing needs to be located on the inside of the tree line next to the fields and buildings in order to protect the attractiveness of the local environment.

In addition, the fencing needs to have wider holes at the bottom to enable wildlife to move around freely.

Gordon McBride, of Wootton Road, said: With the school so short of funds, this is a disgraceful waste of money on an unjustifiable project.

Henley Town Councils planning committee has recommended the application is refused.

Councillor Laurence Plant said: There has been no safety issue. Safety hasnt been an issue for as long as I can remember.

In a statement, headteacher Catharine Darnton said: There has been a growing awareness of the need to keep children safe in school by limiting access to school sites by unauthorised persons.

As the community will be aware, the Gillotts site is very open, allowing anyone to come on to it and leave it without coming through reception.

It is the schools view that, in the interests of safeguarding our students, we need to fence the complete perimeter of the site as is as soon as possible.

The design of the fence will reflect the Department for Educations guidelines as to height and will also be sensitive to the varying environments that surround the school.

If and when the school is successful in selling the remote part of the playing field that is earmarked for housing in the neighbourhood plan, the relevant portion of the fence will be re-positioned.

The district council is due to make a decision next month.
PAST pupils of Henley Grammar School flew in from all over the world for a reunion on Saturday.

More than 170 former students gathered at the school, now the Rotherfield campus of The Henley College, for an afternoon of sharing memories and renewing old friendships.

The event drew attendees from as far away as California, Canada, Florida, Germany, Switzerland, France, Scotland and the Channel Islands as well as across the UK.

It was organised by past pupils Lynn Hart and Sandra Wickens, who were in the last cohort at the Grammar School before it became King Jamess Sixth Form College in the Seventies.

The pair, who have known each other since school, are part of a group of eight former pupils who have kept in touch for 40 years and try to meet annually.

They started planning the reunion three years ago and it was originally due to be held in 2020 but had to be postponed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Hart said: We wanted to mark our 60th birthdays and thought what better way to do it than a school reunion. It had to be called off twice but each time we cancelled, the publicity helped to spread the word even further and we reached more people. We ended up with 300 people on a database we built from scratch.

The reunion saw four past pupils from the Thirties and 12 from the Forties. The largest contingents represented pupils from the Fifties and Sixties with a strong showing from the Seventies. Four former members of staff also attended.

Mrs Hart said: We were in the last cohort of the grammar school. We were always the babies as no one ever followed us. We were the youngest at 62. The oldest there were Joan Edwards, who is 99, and Dan Seymour, who is 98, started school on the same day in 1935. She produced a school photo and Dan said thats me when he saw the boy sitting in the front row.

Also among the guests was actor Brian Hewlett, who plays Neil Carter in Radio 4s The Archers.

Mr Hewlett said: Saturday turned out to be one of those red letter days in life for me. I made the journey from Norfolk to attend. How I enjoyed wandering the corridors of the past, re-living memories, and then, best of all, meeting people with whom one had lost touch so long ago and then renewing those associations once again.

Having left the school in 1956 I entered on three more years of education and experience at a drama school in south-east outer London, and it was in company with Annette, one of the grammar schools students and a leading actress in school plays, that I had done so.

Three years we spent with a new bunch of learners, forging friendships anew, some of which were to prove enduring to the present day, but at the end of our three years study in 1959 we went our separate ways, knowledge of each others progress lost to both.

What a joy then to discover each others existence and intention to be at the reunion, after a gap of silence stretching out to 63 years. A list of potential attenders had been supplied some few days before the event and there was Annettes name.

I had hoped to meet up with yet more people from the past but, alas, search as I might amongst a sea of friendly faces, I could not find them present. I do hope they continue to be well.

At 3pm all the guests went to the hall to sing the School Hymn, with some who were unable to attend joining in via a Zoom link. Afterwards, everyone gathered together for a group photograph on the lawn in front of the school, a recreation of a school photo from 1974.

Visitors also had the opportunity to explore the school building and exchange stories about the characters, events and pranks, most of which ended with someone being caned.

Tales included a teacher accidentally knocking over a fire extinguisher which went off, filling the classroom with foam; a pupil lighting a fire by the air inlet pipes for the school organ so the hall filled with smoke when it was played and a boy being caned twice and afterwards having to shake hands with the headmaster and say no hard feelings.

Ms Hart said: The joy and reward of all the work was seeing the pleasure of people meeting old friends they had not seen for so long. The feedback from people has been wonderful. You could not put a price on it. It was one of the best days of my life.

Henley Grammar School is now part of the 2,000-strong Henley College, created in 1987 following the merger of King Jamess College and the South Oxfordshire Technical College.
Time bank promotes elderly care in China

13:14, July 23, 2022 By Wang Xinyue, Sun Chao, Yao Xueqing ( People's Daily

Zhao Xiuying, a 61-year-old resident in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, picked up the prescription medicine at a community health center early in the morning and bought some vegetables on her way back.

Two senior citizens in Tonglu county, Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province show their "bankbooks" of a time bank, May 31, 2021. (People's Daily Online/ Xu Junyong)

She did not take the medicines and vegetables home, but to the home of He, an 84-year-old woman who lives alone in the same neighborhood. Zhao runs errands for He twice a month.

After saying goodbye to He, Zhao opened a time bank mini program on her mobile phone and "saved" this volunteer service in her account.

"My balance stood at over 3,000 hours at most. I traded some of them for groceries and I'm planning to get some massage and health services with the rest," Zhao told People's Daily.

Zhao lives in the Yaohua neighborhood, Qixia district of Nanjing, where senior residents aged 60 years and above make up more than 20 percent of the local population. The neighborhood was the first to set up a time bank in Nanjing in 2014, to explore a new elderly care model - a reciprocity-based work trading system with which "the old serve the older."

The time bank encourages people to bank their service hours through voluntary works, in order to trade the hours for elderly care services or materials when they get older.

Wang Xiaohua is a lobby manager at the head office of Yaohua neighborhood's time bank. According to her, 7,666 volunteers have opened an account in the time bank. They have saved a total of around 420,000 service hours in the bank and traded for services more than 690,000 times, Wang said.

Wang introduced that the time bank was developed to a "3.0 version" in 2019 as its management platform was updated and a mini program launched.

Volunteers from the Nanmen community, Jinzhou, northeast China's Liaoning Province provide services for Yuan Peizhi, a 103-year-old woman living alone, Feb. 27, 2018. (People's Daily Online/ Li Tiecheng)

Volunteers can open an account, apply for services and check their service hours on the mini program, and the program automatically matches their information to demanders according to time, locations, as well as the age and gender of the service providers.

The mini program has a simple user interface and adopts a big font size so that it's easy for seniors to use. Instruction activities were held in the neighborhood to help the seniors get familiar with the mini program, while the traditional manual bookkeeping method is also kept in the bank, said Wei Yingbao, head of Yaohua neighborhood's time bank.

In October, 2021, relevant departments of China jointly issued an action plan to further promote the development of the smart health and elderly care industry between 2021 and 2025. The plan aims to strengthen information technology support, upgrade relevant platforms, promote intelligent health services and carry out other elderly care measures.

According to the plan, new-generation information technology and smart devices will be applied in homes, communities, nursing homes and other elderly care scenarios. Innovation shall be made in "internet plus" elderly care, time bank and more smart elderly care services.

Volunteers instruct senior citizens to use fitness equipment at a day-care nursing facility in Aoling community, Gaojia township, Meishan, southwest China's Sichuan province, May 7, 2022. (People's Daily Online/ Zhang Zhongping)

So far, the successful experience of the time bank model has been promoted to more areas in China, encouraging the society to participate in volunteer services for the elderly and community governance.

The Beijing municipal government issued a work report in January this year, which takes the development of the time bank model as a task. It said every service hour could be traded for a "time coin" in the account, which could be used to buy services or donated to immediate relatives. Volunteers with 10,000 time coins will be entitled to live in government-funded nursing facilities.

Apart from time bank, other new elderly care models are also being explored across China, such as a "caring map" that shows the locations of empty nesters and disabled seniors for better voluntary services, and a platform of home-visiting doctor service where the elderly can place orders online.

A smart elderly care service system is being improved with the assistance of technology, promoting high-quality development of the elderly care industry and enhancing the sense of happiness for the senior group.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
MOSQUITO RANGE, Colo. (AP)  Colorado Fourteeners Initiative trail builder Sarah Barringer looked up from her trail work on the switchback heading to the ridge below Mount Bross. A man was taking a shortcut, causing the kind of erosion that she was repairing.

Please stay on the trail, Barringer said.

Dont tell me what to do, the man answered. Its a free mountain.

Actually, its not. The top of the 14,178-foot Mount Bross is owned by several people who are worried about liability and do not want hikers on the summit. Owners of the summits and trails leading to next-door 14ers Mount Democrat and Mount Lincoln share the same concerns, worried they could be sued if a hiker is injured in one of the many mine shafts and dilapidated mining structures on the mountains.

Ive had enough damage to the doors we try to keep secure on the mines. Ive had gates cut. I dont know if Ive ever been up there without seeing people standing on top of Bross, walking right by the sign that says Private property. No trespassing, said landowner John Reiber, whose father began assembling mining claims on the peaks in the Alma Mining District in the 1950s. I definitely have concerns over the willingness of people to not follow the rules. I think from a safety standpoint, Im not sure there is any way to really make folks stay on the trail. But were trying.

Reiber in April 2021 closed the summits of Lincoln and Democrat to hikers. But a unique partnership uniting trail advocacy groups, the Town of Alma, the Forest Service and Reibers ownership group has forged a tenuous plan that allowed hikers to return to the peaks late last summer. With regular surveys, education campaigns and a bunch of signs warning hikers to stay on the trail and not enter dangerous structures, the effort has helped assuage owner concerns over safety and possibly being sued by hikers who are injured on the peaks or in the century-old mine shafts and shacks.

But the agreement is temporary and Reiber is not convinced its working. Thats why the rude hiker was so troubling.

Its the kind of behavior that can shut down these mountains, said Kendall Chastain with the Colorado Mountain Club.

 The bike crash case that changed liability in Colorado

The partnership of trail advocates, municipal leaders, federal land managers and private landowners who own the Decalibron peaks, near Kite Lake in the Pike National Forest, could set a path for the many other locations around Colorado where landowners are growing increasingly wary of allowing recreational access.

There are a handful of these areas where you have private lands that play out with major recreation destinations, said Lloyd Athearn, the head of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. Hes working with the owner of Mount Lindsey  a 14er in the San Luis Valley  who closed access to the peak last year over safety and liability issues. You would hope that stewardship groups closely tied with the outdoor community have the credibility to help recreationalists follow rules and not do dumb things that aggravate landowners.

For decades, private landowners in Colorado have been protected from lawsuits if they allow recreational access for no charge. That Colorado Recreational Use Statute was shaken in 2019, when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held the U.S. Air Force Academy liable for injuries suffered by a cyclist who crashed on a washed out section of paved trail on the campus in Colorado Springs. State law gives landowners immunity unless they act willfully in failing to guard or warn of known dangerous conditions that are likely to cause harm.

That decision prodded Reiber to close Lincoln and Democrat. The owner of Trinchera Blanca Ranch in the San Luis Valley  billionaire conservationist Louis Bacon  closed trails leading to Mount Lindsey on his property as a result of the ruling  which limited the scope of the Colorado recreational use statute and increased landowner exposure, a ranch spokesman told The Sun last year.

More than 30,000 hikers scramble up the Decalibron Loop every summer and visitation is growing for the easily accessible hike that traverses four 14ers. The impact of those crowds is growing.

The Colorado Mountain Club, the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, the Mosquito Range Heritage Initiative and the Town of Alma have joined the Forest Service to not just repair damage and erect signs, but educate and enlist visitors in helping protect not just access but the fragile alpine ecosystem that defines the Mosquito Range.

The Pike National Forests South Park Ranger District last December began collecting public input on possible improvements to the area. The Kite Lake Improvement Plan calls for adjustments based on changing use and needs.

Resource damage in the Buckskin Gulch corridor leading to Kite Lake is getting to the point of unacceptable, said Alix Jensen, a natural resource specialist with the forest.

Ive heard the comment that its about time, Jensen said. We are at a critical point where we can start doing something and all of us involved are on the same page and working in the same direction. Im excited to see how this partnership evolves.

The trail groups are working with The Conservation Fund to possibly develop a funding system that could acquire old mining claims in the Alma Mining District that could then be added to the Pike National Forest. (The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative in 2016 acquired mining claims on 14er Mount Shavano in the Collegiate Range near Salida, rebuilt the peaks trails and donated the land to the Forest Service.)

All summer, the groups volunteers are in mountain ranges across the state, rebuilding trails hammered in a century ago by miners mules. Earlier this summer, crews with the Colorado Fourteener Initiative used a helicopter to drop 62 300-pound timbers at 13,000 feet on the twin Grays and Torreys 14ers. Those 12-foot logs will help support an eroding trail on one of the most trafficked 14er routes in the state.

The Colorado Mountain Club is surveying hikers again at Kite Lake this summer, just as the club did in 2020 and 2021. Last year the group surveyed 727 visitors and found 86% knew the summit of Bross was closed. The previous summer only 66% of hikers surveyed were aware the summit was privately owned and not open to the public.

Last summer 71% of hikers at the trailhead were unaware that the summits of Lincoln and Democrat were also privately owned.

The clubs surveyors also asked where hikers researched the 14er routes and most said 14ers.com and AllTrails.com. So trail advocates work closely with administrators of those websites to make sure there is up-to-date information regarding closures and routes available online.

The club also built the Recreation Impact Monitoring System, an app that gives hikers the ability to report issues on trails and at campsites. The data is shared with land managers who can identify trouble areas and deploy crews.

We need people to do more than just no harm, said Chastain, who counted 73 cars lining the road to the Kite Lake Trailhead on a recent Tuesday morning. We need people to do good and actively participate in the protection of these places. We need people to educate themselves about their impacts and then start giving back.

 Great strides but more to do

I do think we have made great strides, said Cara Doyle, the executive director of the Mosquito Range Heritage Initiative, a conservation group that serves as an on-the-ground go-between for the different groups working in the range and also offers year-round education programs in the areas schools and communities. One big way we can get people conserving our mountains and following rules on trails is to start with families and young children so they are educated from early on what that matters and what their role could be. If you are not raised with this conservation mindset that recognizes your impacts, it takes longer to understand.

Alma Mayor Sam Golgoon said increasing use, safety issues and resource damage in Almas watershed pushed the town to take over the concessions contract several years ago. The towns agreement with Colorado Mountain Club has helped protect the actual trails and better monitor use and hiker numbers on the peaks.

The clubs work and insights are helping to inform discussions about possibly requiring reservations to access the trailhead or maybe even a shuttle between town and the Kite Lake Trailhead. Reservations are a popular tool for managing crowded locations like Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon and Mount Evans. Shuttles like the publicly operated buses that connect Breckenridge with the Quandary Peak trailhead or the city-operated shuttles between Aspen and the Maroon Bells trailhead, have eased parking woes at overwhelmed lots in the woods.

The only way we can do these things is through these partnerships,Golgoon said. We try to be proactive about managing the impacts in our watershed. This is a very big deal for a little community of less than 300 residents.

 A legislative fix

Hail about the size of peas, but getting bigger, started to fall as Chastain and her colleague Jedd McClure reached the social trail leading to the summit of Mount Bross. Although Colorado Mountain Club and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative have spread the word far and wide to not climb Bross, many hikers do anyway.

Thats not surprising. Its frustrating for peak-bagging hikers to stop and turn around 100-meters below the summit of Bross. Reiber said Bross was heavily mined decades ago and there are all kinds of mine shafts that could collapse on the peaks highest points.

Sooner or later things tend to cave in and no one can predict exactly when thats going to happen, Reiber said. The expansive amount of mining on Bross makes a lot more exposure for the owners.

Chastain pulled a No Trespassing sign from her pack. Theres a stub of a post at the intersection of a faint, illegal trail and the Decalibron Loop trail, which winds about 8 miles across the summits of Mount Democrat and Mount Lincoln as well as 14er Cameron Peak, which is managed by the Forest Service. A previous sign was gone. So was the post that held it.

Maybe it was a rockslide. Or wind or snow. I guess we will do the best we can with what we have, Chastain said as McClure pulled a drill out of his pack to mount the new sign. This is just a Band-Aid solution to let people keep hiking these peaks while we work out a long-term solution for future generations.

Athearn, whose team has walked every trail on every 14er in Colorado, creating a daunting to-do list of repairs and rebuilds, is working not just with landowners but lawmakers, hoping to get support for adjustments to the Colorado recreational use statute. An attempt in 2019, which cut the exemption for landowners who demonstrated willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a known dangerous condition, did not gain any traction.

We need modifications that will bring us back to the place where the law truly protects well-intentioned landowners, said Athearn, who hopes to enlist support for a legislative adjustment from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which works closely with private landowners to allow hunting and fishing access. Colorado is growing and we will need to look at other opportunities for recreation and many of those will be on private land and if we cant get landowners to feel secure about access, we will have fewer opportunities for new trails or even protecting existing trails that cross private land. We need a change to the states recreation access law to do that.

Reiber is hopeful the new signs are working but hes not optimistic. He wonders if the signs and Band-Aid fixes are potentially slowing legislative action.

That thought has crossed my mind over and over and over again. If I truly advocate for legislative change why am I allowing this to happen? he said. If I just leave it closed, is there a better chance legislators will produce a bill? Look, we want to reduce or eliminate our liability and still allow people to enjoy these 14ers. After this year we will find out how everything has worked. Im not really positive the signs are going to get the results we want. I think it will require a legislative fix.

Reiber said hes planning a trip to the peaks soon.

If I see significant abuse when I go up there I might just stop this mid-stream and shut it all down, he said. We cant keep assuming the liability risk for other peoples bad behavior.
A man charged with murder in a 2004 fatal shooting was extradited Friday to the Houston area after living in Mexico for almost 20 years, according to authorities.

Antonio Balencia Davalos, 53, arrived Friday night after being transported by the U.S. Marshals Service and remains in the Harris County jail Saturday on charges of murder in the death of 31-year-old Santiago Gonzalez, according to court records.

Davalos is currently being held on $30,000 bond, court records show.

More on Crime: Authorities kill carjacking suspect who shot an officer in Missouri City, HPD says

Bringing fugitives back to Harris County shows that we will do whatever it takes to get justice for a victims family, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. Our law enforcement partners worked hard to find, detain and extradite this accused killer, and our prosecutors will work just as hard to get the right result in a court of law.

Davalos is accused of shooting Gonzalez on Aug. 19, 2004 after the victim returned to a west Houston apartment at the 6300 block of Windswept Lane, according to a press release from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Witnesses told investigators Davalos drove up to the apartment complex, got out of his truck and confronted Gonzalez before an argument ensued and he was shot several times with a pistol, killing him, the press release added. Davalos has allegedly been living in Mexico since the incident.

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Kim Bryant, head of the Cold Case Fugitive Apprehension Section of the Harris County District Attorney's Office, credited Houston police, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs and the government of Mexico with getting Davalos into custody.

Were pleased to see this defendant brought back to face justice, and now we have the potential for closure for the victims family, Bryant stated in the release.

Davalos is expected to appear before Harris County Judge Frank Aguilar in the 228th District Court on Monday, court records show.

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Joel.Umanzor@Chron.com
Law enforcement officials shot and killed a carjacking suspect Saturday morning who shot a Missouri City police officer in the face a few hours earlier, according to authorities.

Officer Crystal Sepulveda was in stable condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital after she was shot twice  once in the face and once in the foot, officials said Saturday during a press conference. Multiple agencies responded to the scene.

Missouri City officers spotted the man around 2 a.m. at the Texaco gas station on the 1400 block of South Main near Fondren, according to Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner. The suspect, described as 25 to 30 years old, was sitting inside of a vehicle that was stolen in an aggravated robbery in north Harris County on Friday.

He took police on a 4-mile pursuit that ended with a chase alongside a residence on the 15500 block of Corsair Road, where he then shot at Missouri City officers, injuring Sepulveda, Finner said.

"Once he shot, multiple agencies, and I'm so proud of them, set up a perimeter and began to search," Finner said.

They located him in the 1500 block of Winter Briar Drive."

More on Crime: Man shot inside Metro bus in west Houston, authorities say

Two HPD K-9 officers, a Fort Bend County Sheriffs deputy, and a Texas Department of Public Safety officer apparently engaged at the suspect and shot him multiple times, according to Finner. He was taken to a Ben Taub Hospital where he was pronounce dead.

The man's identity is not being released at this time, pending medical examiner verification, according to authorities. There were no injuries to any law enforcement officials during the fatal shooting.

Houston police will be in charge of the criminal investigation, Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office will conduct the independent investigation into the shooting and each agency involved in the incident will be conducting their own administrative investigations, Finner added.

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The suspect, according to Finner, was armed with two semi-automatic pistols that had extended magazines.

"We never celebrate the loss of life but what could you do when a suspect is so violent, and I'm not here to put him down. He has a family and we are praying for the family but let's not forget what happened out here. This suspect carjacked somebody the previous day, shot a police officer at another location then shot at officers over here at this location."

This is the tenth fatal suspect shooting involving Houston police in 2022, according to the department's officer involved shooting statistics.

No other information is available at this time.

Joel.Umanzor@Chron.com
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A Houston police officer was injured and taken to a hospital Saturday morning after a pursuit of a stolen truck ended with a police cruiser in a north Houston ditch, according to authorities.

It is unclear where the pursuit began but officers spotted the truck around 1 a.m. and ran the plates which showed it had been stolen out of Humble, HPD Lt. Ronnie Wilkens said. The driver fled after officers attempted to pull the vehicle over.
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Lucy waited patiently as her trainer Kortney Vincent fed her a handful of treats. The 7-month-old English Pointer was about to enter the ring in her first-ever dog show in Houston  only the second of her lifetime  but there were no signs of nervousness. She was super relaxed.

At home, we call her loosey-goosey because she is funny, said Vincent, who traveled to Houston from her home in Arkansas. Shes just entertainment and were just here for the experience.

But at Saturdays conformation competition, it was all business for Lucy as she faced off against other dogs, as part of the 44th annual Houston World Series of Dog Shows. The event, which runs through Sunday at NRG Center, was expected to draw more than 40,000 people, organizers said. About 14,000 dogs were expected to compete.

A central feature of the show was the conformation competition, in which dogs like Lucy are judged based on their breed standard, organizers said. Other events included flyball, Frisbee and canine musical freestyle. In one event, dogs sniff out carefully protected rats concealed in haystacks and the winners earn a special Find the Rat ribbon. Some events were open to family dogs, no matter their bloodlines, organizers said.

Most major shelters and rescue groups were in attendance, as well as dog groomers and others who care and love dogs.

The shows goal was to educate the public about responsible dog ownership through seminars.

Alyson Coleman, a dog groomer in Houston, arrived shortly before 9 a.m. with Winston, a 1-year-old Australian Shepherd, German Shepherd mix. She hoped to offer support to a friend, who is a professional dog trainer and will be participating in the competition with her dog, Pulse. Pulse, who is an Australian Shepherd, vied for a top spot in the barn hunt competition, she said.

Coleman last attended the Houston World Series of Dog in 2018 to learn more about dog grooming. She is back this year to meet and share her experiences with other groomers.

I see a lot of groomers coming and learning from other groomers, she said. And then a lot of folks just come to look at the dogs and the different breeds.

Moments before she entered the ring for judging on Saturday, Lucy munched on some chicken while her trainers checked out the competition.

Those folks over there - theyve got some really nice dogs and thats going to be our competition, weve definitely got competition, said Hunter Harris, Vincents fiance who supplements Lucys training with vigorous exercise.

Lucy was more than ready to perform when she entered the ring. Her gait was steady, her head held high. She stood motionless, feet perfectly and evenly apart, as the judge examined her head, her ears, peaked at her teeth and lips and touched her legs, her back and tail.

The judges will pick something, like in particular, the feet, Harris said. Make sure the feet are exactly right, where theyre really tight. Or the tail, make sure the tail is not too high. Its actually set low. Theyll tell you exactly what the standard is whether they have a height restriction. These judges are extremely knowledgeable.

Lucy is no stranger to competition. In her first-ever show, which took place in Oklahoma City earlier this month, she won a Best in Sweepstakes award. She is now about 30 pounds and likely to double her weight as an adult, her trainers said.

On Saturday, Lucy came in second, her trainers said. Since she is among the youngest dogs in the competition and has had strong early performances, her trainers have high hopes in future competitions.

Well be back tomorrow for more, Harris said.

The show continues from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Adult tickets are $15. Seniors over 55 and active/retired military with ID get a $5 discount. Children 12 and younger are free with purchase of an adult ticket. Parking is $20 daily, cash only.

The event was sponsored by local kennel clubs, including the Houston Kennel Club. The main sponsor was Purina Dog Food.
Associated Press

The special Texas House committee investigating the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde released a Spanish translation of its preliminary report on the incident online Friday.

Hard copies are expected Monday in Spanish for families of the victims, according to Matt Crow, spokesperson for committee Chairman Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock.
At the first ever State of Public Safety event in Houston last month, a bipartisan group of our regions top law enforcement leaders joined with Crime Stoppers of Houston, other nonprofit groups and, most importantly, the families of crime victims, to enhance efforts to address the crime epidemic that is devastating businesses and families and destroying too many lives in southeast Texas.

Even the mere act of our standing together, people from different backgrounds and of diverse political persuasions, showed that it is possible to find common ground and unity of purpose when it comes to the most fundamental issue in any community: public safety.

We were brought together by our shared belief that crime in Houston and Harris County is out of control  and that actions taken by our justice system and local leadership are not adequate to reverse the deadly trends everyone can see. Were writing to offer some common-sense solutions.

First, we must come together in acknowledging that crime grew dramatically between 2020 and 2021, with only some small decreases in the past year. We cannot solve a problem if we are unwilling to accept that a problem exists. Put simply, crime is too high. Using data from the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriffs Office, Crime Stoppers compared January to May of 2022 with the same months in 2020 and 2021 for a mid-year crime report. We found the following changes:

 36 percent increase in firearm-related offenses

 24 percent increase in homicides

 11 percent increase in aggravated assaults

Making matters worse, right now we have a criminal backlog of some 135,000-plus local cases. And too many violent felony defendants are being released back onto our streets. Since 2018, in fact, Crime Stoppers has been tracking the cases of over 170 of our fellow citizens who have been murdered allegedly by criminals out on multiple felony bonds, personal recognizance bonds or are in bond forfeiture. A majority of the 170-plus victims have occurred since 2020. This is unacceptable, and our unified message is: that needs to change.

Indeed, all elected officials at all levels of government need to recognize that a serious crime problem exists, and that we must make public safety our highest funding priority. Our local law enforcement leaders told us they need more boots on the ground, and we must commit the necessary resources to put more police on our streets. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told us that just making sure there is a certainty of punishment for any person caught carrying a weapon illegally will save lives. Lets make it happen.

From there, we need to give our district attorney the resources needed to prosecute these criminals. Since 2018, our district attorney has asked for additional resources to hire and train more prosecutors. The Harris County Commissioners Court has only granted temporary and insufficient increases. Lets change that. And when the Harris County District Attorneys Office asks for higher bail, we hope local judges make that happen, too.

There are other steps we can take. For example, the City of Houston has night courts. Harris County should dedicate resources to launch its own night court program  and run it on weekends, too. One interesting idea voiced by Constable Alan Rosen is to create three or four specialty courts to identify the 500 most dangerous felons in our community, and then focus on expediting their cases through the trial process within 90 days.

Before any criminal commits a crime, they weigh the risks. Our law enforcement leaders told us that criminals in our area today are emboldened because they know our justice system is broken. They know our law enforcement agencies are stretched thin. They know cases are backed up, and if they have four, or five, or six charges pending against them they can plead down to one. They know current punishments are lenient.

In short, there is a lack of accountability. And the results are deadly, unacceptably deadly.

Just recently, ads started running in Montgomery County warning criminals that in their county they do prosecute. Their goal? They want to keep criminals coming from Harris County out of Montgomery County. They are sending a strong message to criminals.

In Houston and Texas, we do things big. If Houston can put a man on the moon, if we can build the worlds first indoor stadium, then surely, we can come up with an action plan to reverse this crime crisis. Lets come together, recognize the problem for what it is, and then work together to fix it. If we put our minds to it, Harris County can become the safest in the country.

Whitmire chairs the Texas Senates criminal justice committee; businessman McIngvale owns Gallery Furniture; and Mankarious is CEO of Crime Stoppers of Houston.
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Nick Burchard, right, and Kewan J. Harrison on the set of 'The Uncredited' in 2020. Burchard and Harrison, cinematographer and producer, are teaming up on Burchard's latest film 'Ghost Light.'

Drury Alumnus Seeks Funding for Upcoming Film Production



Nick Burchard, a Drury High graduate, is raising funds for 'The Ghost Light' that he hopes to film at the Colonial Theatre. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Drury High School alumnus Nick Burchard is back behind the camera with his newest film, "The Ghost Light," this time in the historic Colonial Theatre with a plan to start production in the fall.

This short film follows high school theater geek Winnie who has a horrible experience during an audition due to her stage fright.

Feeling defeated at the end of the day Winnie is helping her teacher clean and flicks on the "ghost light" and starts to hear the voices of ghosts doomed to purgatory in the high school auditorium.

A ghost light is a bulb left on to ensure safety when someone is working in a theater late. This safety feature has accumulated a lot of superstition over the course of its history.

According to Playbill some argue that "it's function is to chase away mischievous spirits" while "others insist it lights the way for the ghosts that are said to inhabit virtually every theatre, keeping them happy and contented."

In Burchard's film one of these ghosts, Esper, teams up with Winnie in the hopes to save her from the same fate while also getting the help he needs to move on to the afterlife.

"What we're really aiming for is to create a project that is pretty universal. You don't have to be a theater person to relate to the characters in this film," Burchard said.

"This is an underdog story, and really explores the idea that anyone in any stage of life can achieve their goals with a little bit of help."

Burchards has teamed up with the founders of 10 out of 10 production company Kewan J. Harrison and Edward Soto to bring this story to life. Harrison was the cinematographer on Burchard's last film short.

Burchard was inspired to write this in 2020 during the lockdown because of the pandemic.

"I remember thinking about all the empty theaters and my friends who were pursuing musical theater as a career, it made me sad to think about theaters being empty," Burchard said.

"I became obsessed with the image of it. It's a liminal space in a way, a place that is usually full of life and people was suddenly closed off."

The preserved architecture that the Colonial Theatre has had during its lifetime with each tenant is one of the factors that influenced Burchard's decision to film there. Its history and preservation relates to the film's theme "of not being forgotten, and becoming who you were always meant to be."

Not only that, Burchard had the opportunity to perform on the Colonial stage in youth theater productions with Berkshire Theatre Group.

"A lot of friendships were made there. We're really lucky to live in a place with so many great

stages ... but something about the Colonial Theatre in particular grabs me," Burchard said.

"Now I want to clarify that nothing is set in stone yet about the final shoot, and we have to

raise quite a bit more in order to achieve our goal but it was really exciting to film our promotional video there!"

Currently he is in the pre-production stage. What this entails is almost "anything that you can think of that needs to go into a production before it starts" including funding, scouting for locations, renting equipment, casting, and more.

He recently launched fundraising on Indiegogo and has already received 9 percent of the $40,000 flexible goal.

Those who donate receive perks including shout outs, original art, stickers, and credits in the final film.

Following production, the film will be screened in festivals all over the world. This production is a big step for him as a director, he said, because it is much longer than his previous work "The Uncredited" and he hopes someday soon to make it into a full-length feature film.

"The Uncredited" was filmed in Dalton and North Adams last year and has been screened at film festivals including The Mile High Horror Film Festival in Colorado, The New York Shorts, and most recently the Tokyo International Short Film Festival.

"I really want to make the point that none of this was possible without the cast and crew and the generosity of our supporters, indie film is a labor of love and we really felt the love on that one! It was a fantastic project in terms of networking," Burchard said.
North Adams resident Tara Jacobs is running for the District 8 seat on the Governor's Council. Jacobs held her campaign launch in late June at Norad Mill. PreviousNext

Jacobs Looks to Bring Berkshires Representation to Governor's Council



Daniel Bosley, former state representative, says the county needs more voices in Boston and someone who will represent its interests. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Tara Jacobs sees potential for effecting change in the justice system through the Governor's Council.

That's why she's running for the open seat on the council in District 8

"It's an extension of the work I've been doing for a long time in supporting our community, working toward equity, working to improve the lives of those in our community, in our commonwealth," the School Committee member said at her campaign kickoff. "The things that I've been doing up to now are rewarding and I intend to continue doing them.

"But this is a unique and different opportunity that is so important to work that [the council does] and it's so little understood by the general population."

The Governor's Council, or Executive Council, is comprised of eight representatives and the lieutenant governor. It plays a critical role in the justice system in advising and consenting on certain warrants, pardons and gubernatorial appointments.

"The work they actually do is so incredibly important and impactful in the quality of ... the foundation of our society  confirming judges, putting Parole Board members in place, clerk magistrates  there's so many elements of roles in the judiciary that go through the Governor's Council for their confirmation, and have a direct impact on our lives and just the nature of our society," Jacobs said.

In introducing Jacobs, former state representative Daniel Bosley said people are far more aware now of the importance of fair and intelligent judges in every level of state government "because we're being failed at the federal level."

"People don't have faith in government anymore because of decisions that are made because we politicize the court, because people just don't think that they're being represented," he said. "We need people close to us that will represent us. That will say what they believe, regardless of whether it's a popular thing or not ... It's important that we get out and work as hard as we can and that job starts today with Tara Jacobs as our candidate for Governor's Council."

She's the only woman running in the Democratic primary, she's the only candidate from Berkshire County and she's the only candidate without a law degree. Those differences, she says, will help her bring a singular perspective to a state body that few voters think about.

Jacobs pointed to decisions like overturning Roe v. Wade that makes "it super clear how important it is who sits on that bench."

"It is an opportunity that is often served by lawyers and I am not a lawyer. I also think that's a benefit. It actually serves us as the people to have a voice that represents all of our needs, not just the legal point of view," she said.

Jacobs is active in the community and local politics, serving in her second term on the School Committee, as chair of the library trustees and chair of the Democratic City Committee. She's also served on the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women and the Northern Berkshire Cultural Council.

She's hoping to fill the two-year seat being left vacant by Mary E. Hurley, retired judge and former Springfield mayor. District 8 encompasses 96 municipalities in the state's four western counties.

Councilors have generally been holders of law degrees, like seven of the eight current members. The council is probably best known for confirming judges but Jacobs pointed out that those candidates get vetted by plenty of lawyers before they even reach the council. The lawyers know about the council's work but it's another group she said that also needs a voice  the people who have interacted with the justice system as defendants, or their family members, or people seeking parole or just the public in general.

"The stories are diverse, but they're all similar in that there's an enthusiasm for someone who's not a lawyer being at that table representing all of us, all of our needs and concerns and issues," Jacobs said. "And coming at it from the standpoint of a representation that really matters."

She said she wants to ensure judges are aware of their biases and those implicit in the court and carceral system, and the need for racial and gender equity.

"I want to do this work from the standpoint of dismantling that injustice to promote the standpoint of social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, which is particularly an issue in many of our communities here in Western Mass, and gender and economic justice," said Jacobs. "All of these are issues that I intend to promote in every decision that the Governor's Council does."

She thinks its important for the far western part of the state to have some say in these decisions. There hasn't been a Berkshire representative on the council since at least 1970.

"It's extremely important to have another voice from Berkshire County. You know, we're down with three state representatives in Berkshire County. There's about 17 or 18 in Boston proper," said Bosley. "So every voice that we have is extremely important."

She's been endorsed by the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus and by a number of local Democratic and civic leaders. She's also received the endorsement of the last two former mayors. Thomas Bernard described her as someone "who thinks very critically, and very deliberately and so she'll take time to process and talk through and make sure that what she's doing is ethical, that it's equitable, that it's appropriate, that it's responsible."

Richard Alcombright, now a colleague on the School Committee, said Jacobs does her homework and doesn't back down. "When we think about the importance of this office, and what it can bring to Berkshire County, I think we all need to stand behind her," he said.

Jacobs will be vying for the nomination in September against three other candidates, all attorneys from the Springfield area: Shawn P. Allyn of Agawam, Michael Anthony Fenton of Springfield and Jeffrey S. Morneau of East Longmeadow. The Republican candidate is John Comerford of Palmer, a retired investigator and veterans service officer.
A McDonald's in Marshfield, Missouri created millions of dollars of free publicity for itself and other local businesses by starting a sign war with a neighboring Dairy Queen. Other retailers quickly joined in. The local Chamber of Commerce began posting the signs to its Facebook page, and the whole thing went viral, garnering--as of this writing--more than 19 million social media views.

That's pretty impressive when you consider that the cost of the effort was $0 and the population of Marshfield is about 7,500. It's a lesson in how a little creativity and a focus on fun can make a huge difference to a business. That's a mindset you can use to raise the profile of your own business, no matter how big or small it is.

It all began simply enough with the Marshfield McDonald's declaring its intentions on its marquee sign:

HEY DQ! WANNA HAVE A SIGN WAR

Dairy Queen shot back:

WE WLD BUT WERE 2 BUSY MAKIN ICECREAM

McDonald's answered:

THAT'S CUTE OUR ICECREAM MAKES ITSELF

To which DQ responded:

YOU MEAN IT ACTUALLY WORKS SHOCKER

The sign war was on. And it was about to ratchet up a notch.

McDonald's:

WHATS A MILKMAN IN PANTYHOSE

A DAIRY QUEEN

DQ:

WHY DINE W A CLOWN WHEN YOU CAN W A QUEEN

Many local small businesses took note and gleefully jumped in. A bank put this sign on the sidewalk outside its entrance:

Roses Are Red

Violets Are Blue

We Want In On The Sign War too...

A Mexican restaurant posted this:

NACHO AVERAGE SIGN

PS-WE HAVE FRIED ICE CREAM

Pretty soon, just about every store and restaurant in Marshfield had put out a sign with a quip of some kind, including Domino's Pizza and Wendy's. The Chamber of Commerce posted them all to its Facebook page, and soon the sign war was getting national media attention, along with lots and lots of social media.

The magic in this is that all these businesses, beginning with the Marshfield McDonald's franchise, were able to see the potential for a mundane, often underused resource--the humble business sign--to surprise and engage customers. Sure, the whole purpose of the sign is to grab customers' attention and get them to come into your store, but the sign war was a chance to entertain them them in a personable way that had nothing to do with limited-time special offers.

Other companies have seen this kind of potential in the past. You probably couldn't name a single brand of shaving cream that was around in the 1920s and is gone today. Except, maybe, one: Burma-Shave, which famously decorated every highway in America with its rhyming billboards from 1925 to 1966.

A MISTAKE

MANY MAKE

RELY ON HORN

INSTEAD OF BRAKE

BURMA-SHAVE

Those billboards are gone from the highways, but not from our collective memory or our imaginations--they're now considered an iconic bit of Americana. That company, too, used the boring and ubiquitous billboard by the side of the road to engage with customers and the general public in surprising, fun, and whimsical ways.

Will a sign war or a similar bit of nonsense always lead to national attention, millions of social media shares, and television coverage? Of course not. Viral lightning only strikes once in a great while, and no one can predict when or explain why. But even if there had been no hoopla, the sign war would have accomplished what it was meant to do--insert a little fun into a depressingly hot summer, get customers smiling and engaged with your brand, and just maybe bring some of them through your door.
The Excise Commissioner of Goa has issued a show-cause notice to Silly Souls Cafe and Bar in North Goa for allegedly running an illegal bar following the complaint.

The restaurant in question is run by Zoish Irani, the daughter of Union Minister Smriti Irani.

License in the name of a person who died in 2021

The notice issued by Excise Commissioner Narayan M Gad said that the license was renewed last month, despite the license holder having passed away on May 17, 2021.

Silly Souls Goa Cafe and Bar

According to Aires Rodrigues, a Goa-based lawyer who filed the complaint, the liquor license was issued in June 2022, in the name of one Anthony Dgama, a native of Mumbai who passed away in 2021.

Sack Irani, demands Congress

The Congress on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack Union Minister Smriti Irani, alleging that an "illegal bar" was being run in Goa by her daughter.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that there are serious charges of corruption against Irani's family and her daughter is allegedly running a restaurant in Goa, in which a bar is functioning on a "fake licence".

Silly Souls Goa Cafe and Bar

"The licence by Smriti Irani's daughter is in the name of a person who died in May 2021, and the licence was taken in June 2022 in Goa. But the person in whose name the licence is, had died 13 months ago. This is illegal," he said.

According to Goa rules, a restaurant can get only one bar licence but this restaurant has got two bar licences.

"We demand from the prime minister that Smriti Irani should be immediately sacked as a minister from the Union cabinet. You owe it to this country, to the youth of this country," he said.

Silly Souls Goa Cafe and Bar

Baseless allegations, says lawyer

In a statement, the lawyer of Irani's daughter, Kirat Nagra, said his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa, and has also not received any show cause notice from any authority whatsoever as alleged.

Nagra said various "erroneous, frivolous, malicious and defamatory social media posts being made by various vested quarters trying to settle political scores with our client's mother, the renowned politician Smriti Irani each of which are predicated on blatant falsities".

Terming the charges as "baseless", Nagra said, "It is unfortunate that they have resorted to spreading a false propaganda only to sensationalize a non issue without ascertaining true facts and with a predetermined objective of defaming Our Client for solely being the daughter of a political leader."

Targeted for being my daughter

On Saturday, minister Irani also rejected the allegations calling it as malicious , and said the college student was targeted because of her mother's vocal stand on the Sonia and Rahul Gandhi's "Rs 5,000-crore loot" in the National Herald case.

BCCL

The Congress "assassinated" and "publicly mutilated" her daughter's character, Irani said in a press conference.

She asserted her 18-year-old daughter is a first-year college student and does not run any bar.

"My daughter's fault is that her mother holds a press conference on the loot of Rs 5,000 cr by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Her fault is that her mother fought against Rahul Gandhi in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls," she said.

For more on the news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
The protests against the Agnipath scheme in several states across India were one of the most violent demonstrations the country had witnessed in recent years.

Despite it having no relation to Agnipath recruitment scheme, the Indian Railways was the prime target of mobs that went on a vandalising spree.

BCCL

Railways suffered a loss of Rs 259.44 crore

On Friday, the government told the Railways had suffered a loss of Rs 259.44 crore due to damage or destruction of railway assets during agitations against the 'Agnipath' scheme.



In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Union Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said "a separate data regarding the amount of refund granted to passengers due to disruption of rail services on account of public disorder consequent to agitation like those held after launching of Agnipath scheme is not maintained".

Rs 102.96 crores refunded

However, Vaishnav said, during the period from "June 14, 2022 to June 30, 2022, a total refund of approximately Rs 102.96 crores was granted on account of cancellation of trains".

BCCL

He informed the house that 2132 trains were cancelled between June 15 and 23.

Public order is state subject

The Minister also said that police and public order are state subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Therefore, Vaishnav said, state governments are responsible for preventing, detecting, registering, and investigating crime and maintaining law and order on Railways through their law enforcement agencies. Government Railway Police (GRP) and District Police. Railway Protection Force (RPF) supplements the efforts of GRP/District Police to provide better protection and security to railway property, passenger area, and passengers and for matters connected therewith.

BCCL

"Cases of damage, destruction of government property including railway property are registered and investigated by the concerned GRP and State Police under IPC and Railways Act."

How Agnipath protest turned violent

Amid the mass protests in several parts of the country against the recently launched Agnipath Scheme, railway properties were vandalised, torched or attacked from Bihar to Telangana.

The worst-hit East Central Railways -- covering Bihar, Jharkhand, and parts of Uttar Pradesh, witnessed widespread protests.

BCCL

On Wednesday, the minister had told the Lok Sabha that two people died, 35 were injured and 2,642 were arrested from railway premises during the agitation against the Agnipath scheme.

In June minister Vaishnaw had said that the government will take action towards further strengthening the Railways Act to protect the property of the national carrier.

BCCL

"I think there is a need to further strengthen the Railways Act, and we will take action on this so that railway property can be further protected," Vaishnaw said.

Currently, those found guilty of damaging railway property are charged under section 151 of the Indian Railway Act, which provides a maximum of seven years of imprisonment.

For more on the news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
In a shocking incident, a woman was gang-raped by two men inside the New Delhi Railway station.

The incident happened in the wee hours of Friday in a train lighting hut meant for railway electrical maintenance staff.

The incident came to light after the woman who was found on platforms 8-9, narrated her ordeal to officials, and they informed the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

PTI/ File

One of the accused was known to the victim

According to the 30-year-old woman, she was brought there by one of the accused, a railway employee who she had met two years ago.

The woman is separated from her husband and is in the process of getting divorced.

According to her the railway employee Satish Kumar, whom she had befriended had promised to get her a job there.

Both continued talking over phone calls. On July 21, he asked her over a call to come to his home as he was hosting his son's birthday party and housewarming. She came via metro to Kirti Nagar at around 10:30 p.m., from where she was picked up by the accused and brought to PF 8-9 of New Delhi Railway Station. He asked her to sit in a hut meant for electrical maintenance staff.



"Then he and his friend came inside the room and bolted it from inside and sexually assaulted her one after another. Two of his accomplices facilitated the assault by guarding the room from outside," the police said.

AFP/ Representational Image

Cops find her after the second call

The crime came to light after the woman called the police helpline.



"The call was earlier received at PS ODRS at around 2:27 p.m. The staff there checked for the caller but could not find her. Upon contacting her on the given mobile number, it was known that she was standing at PF No. 8-9 of the station. Immediately, the SHO and the staff reached platforms 8-9 where he met the victim," police said.

BCCL/ FILE

All four arrested

DCP of Railways, Delhi Police, Harender K. Singh said that all the four accused, identified as Satish Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Mangal Chand Meena and Jagdish Chand have been arrested.

For more on news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
A man's life turned upside down after he ate a ham roll five years ago. He hasn't been able to stop farting since then. So, now he is suing the stall that sold it to him for 200,000 (Rs 1,91,70,090).

A man couldn't stop farting after eating a ham roll five years ago

46-year-old Tyrone Prades brought the food item at a Christmas market in Birmingham that he visited with his wife and children. The man suffered stomach cramps, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea within hours of eating the ham roll in December 2017. He was also bed-ridden for five weeks, his lawyers told the High Court.

Representational Image/medicalnewstoday.com

But things didn't end for him there. The man has been afflicted with regular and uncontrollable flatulence that wakes him at night and embarrasses him in public ever since his lawyers said.

The man's lawyer told the court that even after the sickness subsided months later, his stomach was still making awkward churning noises in his gut.

Parkin said: "The claimant continues to suffer from excessive flatulence, which causes him a great deal of embarrassment. "The symptoms are, primarily, fatigue and altered bowel function associated with 'churning' within his abdomen and flatulence.

"The claimant's stomach continues to make frequent churning noises to the extent that his sleep can become disrupted. "The extent of the symptoms has been life-changing."



iStock/ Representational image

He sues the stall for over Rs 1 crore

He claims he contracted salmonella from the bap and says the market operator, Frankfurt Christmas Market Ltd, should pay more than 200,000 in compensation for its negligence. But the food company denies these claims.



Its barrister, Philip Davy, said Birmingham City Council environmental health officers had attended the stall to do tests but no salmonella was found, only the presence of e.coli on a knife  and the man had not claimed he suffered an e.coli infection, he said.

Daily Mail

The case will now go to trial later.



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Cover Image Attribute: The Karakoram Highway, also known as the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway. Source: Alamy





On Friday, July 22, 2022, Pakistan and China agreed to a "mutually beneficial collaboration" with any third country joining the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).





According to a statement released by Pakistan's Foreign Office, the decision was jointly taken during the 3rd meeting of the CPEC Joint Working Group (JWG) on International Cooperation and Coordination (JWG-ICC). The meeting was co-chaired virtually by China's Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao and Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood.





During the meeting, both countries discussed the ongoing implementation of CPEC and its expansion to the mutually agreed upon key areas. It was noted that the CPEC, the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), had broken new ground in strengthening international and regional connectivity, especially concerning Afghanistan.





Last year in September, Pakistan held talks with the Taliban to expand the China-Pakistan infrastructure scheme to Afghanistan. However, since the Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the country has been thrown into an economic catastrophe because it has not received nearly as much aid from the international community. Therefore, the Taliban is trying to woo China via Pakistan for significant investments; nevertheless, many anticipate Beijing will take a cautious approach because of long delays in the completion of CPEC projects in Pakistan and building up arrears. In addition, the reluctant Chinese approach to further funding has influenced the CPEC Phase-II projects, especially the socio-economic ones, as it has prompted Pakistan to reevaluate whether building local infrastructure with Chinese investment is worthwhile.





Note: CPEC was initially estimated to be worth $46 billion; however, as of 2017, the projects have a total value of $62 billion. In the past, India has lodged complaints with China over CPEC because it is passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Cover Image Attribute: During a signing ceremony held at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sat together while two representatives of Ukraine and Russia delegations signed the agreement / Source: Turkish President Press Service/TASS





On Friday, July 22, 2022, Russia and Ukraine announced a United Nations-backed agreement to resume shipments of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. Turkey served as the mediator, which was finalized and signed in the city of Istanbul. The accord is scheduled to be implemented within the next few weeks. Ukraine is one of the world's biggest wheat exporters, and Russian forces have been blocking the Black Sea, where the grain silos at key Ukrainian ports are located.





Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were in attendance. Russian and Ukrainian officials signed the documents of the deal at separate tables. This is the first significant agreement between the two parties since Moscow's unwarranted invasion (of Ukraine) on February 24.

The signatories

Sergey Shoigu, the Defense Minister of Russia, signed the agreement on behalf of Russia,

Hulusi Akar, the Defense Minister of Turkey, signed the agreement on behalf of Turkey.

Alexander Kubrakov, the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure, was the one to sign the document on behalf of Ukraine, and

Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, was the one to sign the grain export arrangement on behalf of the UN.

The war-torn country has been stranded with millions of tons of wheat. As a result, grain exporters in Ukrainian port cities like Odesa have been unable to ship their supplies, contributing to a worldwide commodity shortage and pushing food prices up.





Details of the agreement are yet unknown, although it was anticipated that it would permit Ukrainian vessels to navigate through mined waters, with a localized truce in place to prevent Russia from attacking. In addition, it is anticipated that Turkish officials will inspect the ships and the cargo to rule out any weapons smuggling.





International observers are wary of the pact, and Russia will be closely monitored to ensure that it abides by its obligations. Under the terms of the agreement, Moscow, which points the finger of blame at Ukraine for laying the mines, is also expected to resume its own grain exports in the Black Sea.





Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are among the most important markets for Ukrainian wheat. Wheat futures for December that were traded on the Paris exchange plunged by more than 5 percent after the deal's announcement.




For almost half a century Kieran Rose has been a constant voice in advancing LGBT+ rights in Ireland, a lifetime dedicated to the cause of a progressive, inclusive and diverse society.

Dating back to his early years with the Cork Gay Collective in the 1980s, where he led the successful efforts to get the Irish Trade Union Movement to support gay rights, his involvement with the Gay Lesbian Equality Network successfully lobbied for the 1993 Criminal Law Amendment Act that finally decriminalised sexual activity between males in the Republic of Ireland.

Add to that his role in securing an amendment to the Unfair Dismissals Act in 1993 to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, the introduction of the Employment Equality Act 1998, and more recently his contribution to the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act in 2010, later paving the way for Marriage Equality in 2015. So much of the success that came through in the 90s and 2000s began with the first public Gay Pride event in Cork in 1982 organised by Cork Gay Collective.

It is 40 years ago this year that the Cork Gay Collective was set up. We had huge ambitions and determination to achieve great progress as soon as possible. We organised the first national Gay Conference in Cork at Connolly Hall which really set the agenda for years to come. It was also a time of political ferment and optimism generally, Kieran recalls.

In his 1994 book, Diverse Communities, Kieran recounts another of the pivotal moments in Irish society on June 30th 1993, when the Minister for Justice, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, crossed the floor of the Senate chamber and shook hands with the lesbians and gay men in the public gallery.

The Seanad had just passed all remaining stages of the Bill decriminalising homosexuality and providing for equality with heterosexuals.

Cutting through decades of judicial and political fretting and centuries of criminalisation, the Bill stated with elegant simplicity that any rule of law by virtue of which buggery between persons is an offence is hereby abolished. The same legal regime would now apply to homosexual and heterosexual behaviour with a common age of consent of seventeen years and the same privacy codes. The atmosphere in the Senate during the two-day debate was one of joy, relief and excitement.

He remembers the handshake as symbolising the end of a twenty-year law reform campaign and the beginning of a new relationship between the Irish state and its lesbian and gay community. In the concluding chapter of Diverse Communities, Kevin presents solidarity as a two-way process: The granting of equal citizenship to lesbians and gay men expands the confidence of Irish society to deal with other controversial issues on a rational and principled basis. It is a welcome sign that we will not only tolerate but welcome diversity and equality in our society.

Equality liberated the energy of the lesbian and gay community, signposting the opportunity for a much more creative relationship with the wider community.

As a society we have come a long way, and while many issues have yet to be resolved, it seems that we can look to the future with great hope.
A respected Cork climate change activist has called for new ways to communicate the climate crisis  to instill hope rather than despair and let people know that change is possible.

Speaking in a week that saw record temperatures, wildfires and floods all over the world, Dr Tara Shine, international climate negotiator and scientist, said she recently became a stand-up comic to communicate her climate change message in a new way that may resonate with new audiences.

I really believe that we communicate poorly as a scientific community and thats part of the reason we havent made more progress [on climate change], she told The Business on RTE.

She was challenged to perform by Bright Club, an international initiative which runs events in Galway and teaches scientists and academics to perform comedy to communicate their knowledge in new ways.

I did it on why I was a failure basically in my work because I had been working at that stage on the climate for over 20 years and in all that time the problem had got steadily worse. And in anything else, I would have been fired, yet it was still my job. That was the start of my comedy stand-up which was one of the most terrifying things Ive ever done.

Once I was up there and got going I did quite enjoy it. I had a friendly audience in the front few rows. But it is fun. Its fun to not take yourself too seriously. I do think thats important. We have to find ways to talk about climate change that are not all filled with despair and doom but that are hopeful. We need to be light about it as well. We need to find ways to engage everybody.

If its comedy that works for some, if its theatre for others, if its music and art. All of these are the tools we have not yet adequately used.

Weve just thrown science at the problem. And while science is the bedrock of everything we need to do around climate change, from that we need to communicate and share the message in a whole lot of more inventive ways than weve done up to now.

Dr Tara Shine, Change by Degrees, says we need to change the conversation on climate change to get the message through to people.

Dr Shine, co-founder of Change by Degrees, an organisation which helps businesses become more sustainable, said that her stand-up experience was way more terrifying than climbing into caves with crocodiles in west Africa.

She encountered a previously undocumented species of crocodile surviving in a very dry, desert-like environment in Mauritania, camping out for nights on end and sleeping on rocks above their caves to try to find them.

I was living in Mauritania in the late 90s. The local people with whom I worked in a very remote part of eastern Mauritania told me stories about crocodiles hiking through their fields.

I thought this is very bizzarre because theres very little surface water in that part of the world, its very dry.

I was humble enough as a western scientist to believe them and go out in search of them. And they were quite right. There were crocodiles in the most unlikely of places.

The first place I saw them was in a dried-up river bed, sandy base, red rocks all around them.

I slept out on top of the rocks for three nights. Finally, on the third night, the crocodiles came out of a cave and sat on the cool sand for a few hours and went back in again.

The crocodiles were quite shy, disappearing into their caves as soon as the noise of other animals and herders first broke through the morning air, she said.

I remember thinking how prehistoric they looked, mini dinosaurs, and how peaceful they were sitting there still, relaxing on cool sand.

In these most unlikely of environments these crocodiles were able to survive and to reproduce."

Dr Tara Shine campaigning for climate action in the Antarctic

Dr Shine says she has hope for the future.

I still believe that humanity will do this, if only in its own self-interest to protect itself, she said.

Climate change is caused by us and the only species that can solve it is also us.

The status quo is broken. The status quo is heatwaves and floods and extreme weather, inequality and broken supply chains. When we stop being so afraid of change that we keep clinging to a broken system and were ready to be creative and imaginative about another system, then I think society can start to show what its capable of.

Sometimes I get really angry and frustrated when we have all the evidence we need of what the problem is and how its caused. We know exactly what we need to do to solve the problem, yet we cant get a team approach to just getting on with the job.

We need more leaders who are more servant leaders. Mary Robinson told me about this, they are there to serve the people, they are there to serve the common good. They are not just there to serve to make themselves more important. And thats where I think womens leadership and more diverse forms of leadership can bring a new model to what it is to be a good leader and a brave leader for this century.

She said that there are already lots of innovations to tackle the climate crisis which gives her hope.

Offshore wind, creating renewable energy that can be converted to green hydrogen to solve problems in other sectors, like transport is really exciting, she said.

Anaerobic digestion to turn waste into fuel and energy also offers great hope, she said.

But its not all down to technological innovations.

Examining how best to use the resources we have like land is also exciting she said.

Land can be turned from a source of emissions into a carbon sink, absorbing and locking away carbon dioxide.
Water service workers took to the streets of Cork city on Saturday to protest a sectoral reshuffle and call for a referendum on the public ownership of Irish Water.

More than 150 local authority water service workers protested amid an extensive restructuring of the sector and fears of privatisation, job losses and water charges down the line.

Some 3,200 local authority workers will be asked to move from semi-state body Ervia Group, which manages water and gas infrastructure, to a newly rebranded Irish Water under the name Uisce Eireann. Much of the details have not yet been made clear to water services workers.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, spokesperson for Cork water service workers John Mullins said Siptu and the Government prematurely ended a service level agreement due to stay in place until 2026.

If this agreement ends prematurely, the Government will have no reason to bring in a referendum on the [public] ownership of Irish Water, he said. We feel that will lead to privatization and water charges are back on the agenda.

Mr Mullins said the transfer of workers would also bring strain on local authorities with already depleting numbers.

Last week, the Minister for Housing, Local Government, and Heritage, Darragh OBrien, announced a new bill that rebrands Irish Water to Uisce Eireann and serve as a standalone national authority for water services.

The bill is set to be brought before the Oireachtas later this year with a view to be enacted before the proposed changeover on January 1, 2023.

The minister said the bill reflects the Governments commitment to retain Irish Water in public ownership as a national, standalone, regulated utility and the separation of Irish Water from local authorities was in the best strategic interests of the water services.

Published plans by the Department said that most shares of Uisce Eireann are intended to be owned publicly. However, Mr Mullins said that until we get a date for a referendum, we wont be happy and stressed that the issue has been kicked down the road as it has been promised since 2013.

Although the department has published detail on pensions carrying over from local authorities to Uisce Eireann, workers remain very worried about it.

Finbar Harrington, 63, said he doesnt have too far to go before retirement after working in the water services for 20 years. He said: There's people with young families and mortgages, its really worrying for them.

The uncertainty has been hard on us. Nobody in the 31 local authorities in Ireland wants to move to Irish Water."

Mr Harrington said he will absolutely stay with his local authority and urged the Government to bring forward a referendum to keep the water in public ownership, or the water charges could be astronomical in the face of privatization.

A plan for the future delivery of water services published by the Government last month said Irish Water will invest 8.8bn in the coming years to upgrade and build new water infrastructure across the country.

Local authority water service workers do a range of jobs such as repairing water leaks and ensuring that domestic houses and business have a clean supply of water.
It was 135 years ago that the hottest day in Ireland's history supposedly took place, but doubts around the veracity of that record means this week's 33C in Dublin is almost certainly the true holder.

It was Kilkenny Castle in 1887 that saw a recorded temperature of 33.3C, since converted from the old Fahrenheit system. That has been used as the standard-bearer in the 135 years since, and is considered hallowed by Met Eireann.

Head of forecasting at Met Eireann Evelyn Cusack this week called the 1887 Kilkenny Castle record "sacred", and disputed questions around its accuracy. It is a "proper temperature", she told Newstalk's Hard Shoulder programme.

However, one of Ireland's leading climate change authorities, Prof Peter Thorne of Maynooth University, is convinced the 33C seen in Dublin's Phoenix Park this week is the true champion, albeit of an unenviable title in the context of a globally warming planet.

Kilkenny record

The professor of physical geography (climate change), who was a contributing lead author on the recent UN-backed International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, assigned a masters class in 2019 a project to robustly reevaluate and reanalyse the Kilkenny record.

Their findings were convincing, so much so that Prof Thorne said the 1887 temperature record was akin to a world record 9.50 seconds being run in the 100m Olympic race, but with race officials unsure if runners started at the actual white line or 60m down the track.

"One group looked at the instrument in Kilkenny Castle, what we know about it, how it was measured. One group looked at the weather going on at the time around the country, using very recent reanalysis products, that is retrospectively looking at it, back in time. The last group looked at comparisons of other stations.

"The station existed for decades, but the records were destroyed after three years because they were not deemed to be useful. So we only have in glorious isolation an observation of 33.3C following conversion from Fahrenheit, it is just one daily maximum taken in complete isolation from any time series.

"We know it was taken somewhere in Kilkenny Castle, but dont know where in the grounds. We know from available documentation that it was taken in what is termed a Stevenson screen, which is the wooden screens in weather stations. It was likely liquid in a glass thermometer, because that was standard at the time. Those screens were smaller than they are today, and more susceptible to heating effects such as direct sunshine. There are many things we dont know much about the site," he said.

Met Eireann head of forecasting Evelyn Cusack this week called the 1887 Kilkenny Castle record 'sacred'. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The difference between the 1887 record and this week's Phoenix Park high of 33C is that today's records are taken using guidance and principles from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It is Prof Thorne's "100% certain contention" that this week was indeed the hottest recorded date in Ireland.

"The reanalysis, looking at historical and documentary data from 1887, showed there was no doubt it was hot at the time. The weather set-up was remarkably similar to the weather we had this week.

"But to me, the killer line is the comparison to other stations. We didnt have anything like the same weather stations in 1887 that we have today.

"There are some stations that exist today, but at the time we had stations like Phoenix Park, Galway, Roches Point, and the likes of Sheffield. When you look at those stations, they all peaked on the day in the high 20s, none of them peaked in the mid 30s.

"Its physically implausible Kilkenny could have been so different to other stations. Its such an extreme outlier to modern daily differences. The record is not robust. Im not saying it could not have occurred, but there is grossly insufficient evidence to support it," he said.

Met Eireann had not responded to questions around the 1887 record at the time of print.

Warming world

Whether or not the record of 1887 is robust or not, it is inevitable in today's globally warming world that Ireland will soon exceed 33.3C, according to Prof Thorne.

"It is undoubtedly the case that we will break records with increasing frequency as we move forward, unless and until we stop using heat-trapping gases. What we have seen over the past few decades is the emergence of the signal of climate change from the variability of weather.

"We're just starting to see that with these extremes of temperature. Arguably, this is one of the first extremes of temperature in Europe that could not have occurred without human influence.

"The UK Met Office had an analysis a couple of years ago looking at the probability of exceeding 40C and it found that it was likely at some point this century. It was far closer than they thought, obviously.

"The conclusion was that it was effectively impossible without human influence that it would have happened once in a thousand, or even million, years."

Ireland is unlikely to see 40C, but it is not inconceivable, he said.

"I think we would have to have very considerable global warming to hit 40C here in Ireland, and only if we had a very dry summer, so that the vegetation was parched and the ground was very, very dry, and we had a set-up like this week. It would not be dynamically impossible to hit 40C, but it is very unlikely we would hit 40C in the foreseeable future.

"But if we are mad enough to continue on our current trajectory globally in terms of emissions, and I would caveat that if every person in the world had the historical emissions profile of Ireland, we would already be sitting pretty at 3C or so of global warming. We've played more than our part in warming to date.

"If we go 3C, 4C, 5C of global warming, then you would say all bets are off, but it would require significant factors to occur such as drying of soil and vegetation for us to hit 40C."

Britain surpassed the 40C mark for the first time this week, with Heathrow taking the previous hottest day title from Cambridge for a few hours, before 40.3C was recorded in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

'Remarkable week' Britain surpassed the 40C mark[/url] for the first time this week. Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said: This week has been a remarkable week for the UKs climate. We have seen temperature records tumbling. A new UK national climate temperature record should be a rare occurrence, and we would normally expect a new record to only exceed the previous one by a fraction of a degree. However, we saw 39 stations across a large swathe of England exceed the previous highest daily temperature extreme, with the highest exceeding the previous record  set in Cambridge in July 2019  by a remarkable 1.6C." The extreme temperatures in the UK are unprecedented in recorded history, according to Met Office chief scientist Professor Stephen Belcher. "In a climate unaffected by human influence, climate modelling shows that it is virtually impossible for temperatures in the UK to reach 40C. Climate change, driven predominantly by accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, has warmed the average climate by more than 1C. So, when we see atmospheric circulation patterns conspiring with the background warming, we experience even hotter conditions. "Under a very high emissions scenario, we could see temperatures exceeding 40C as frequently as every three years by the end of the century in the UK. Reducing carbon emissions will help to reduce the frequency, but we will still continue to see some occurrences of temperatures exceeding 40C and the UK will need to adapt to these extreme events.

New normal

The heatwaves that gripped Western Europe must now be seen as a 'new normal'. Picture: Philippe Lopez/Pool Photo via AP)

The heatwaves that gripped Western Europe must now be seen as a "new normal", WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said.

"We will see stronger extremes. We have pumped so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the negative trend will continue for decades. We havent been able to reduce our emissions globally. I hope that this will be a wake-up call for governments and that it will have an impact on voting behaviours in democratic countries," he added.

Temperatures in Europe reaching 50C are now inevitable if data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service is any guide.

A previously unthinkable 48.8C became reality last summer, and with the intensity and frequency of this summers heatwaves across the continent, that record could be shattered sooner rather than later.

Asked by the Irish Examiner if the temperature could exceed 50C in the near future in Europe, Copernicus senior scientist and report lead author Freja Vamborg said: Were not necessarily in the business of extrapolating into the future, mainly focusing on monitoring what has happened, but of course, as temperatures warm, not only are the average temperatures expected to increase, but so are the maximums.

"48.8C in not that far away from 50C, and the 48.8C was already 0.8C warmer than the previous European record. I wont give a timeframe, but, for sure, this is not going to be the last temperature record weve seen in Europe.
Veteran British broadcaster and author, Andrew Marr, this week reached the end of his tether.

I for one have had enough of being told by pallid old businessmen and lazy, ignorant hacks and sleazy lobbyists who arent real scientists, any of them, that the science is wrong, he railed on LBC radio.

As the UK boiled in the hottest temperatures ever recorded on the island, with buildings ablaze and red alert warnings from the Met Office, this in no way deterred the climate deniers and their media shills.

This was perfectly captured in a surreal exchange on the right-wing GB News channel last week, where meteorologist John Hammond explained that with temperatures in Britain set to breach 40C, I think there will be hundreds if not thousands of excess deaths. The charts I see in front of me are frightening. We all like nice weather but this will not be nice weather, it will be potentially lethal weather for a couple of days.

The heatwave will, he warned, be brief but brutal. The response of presenter Bev Turner was to ridicule her guest.

I want us to be happy about the weather; I dont know whats happened to meteorologists to make you all a little bit fatalistic and harbingers of doomhavent we always had hot weather, wasnt the summer of 1976 as hot as this?.

Hammond shook his head as he replied that, no, this was anything but normal, adding that he didnt think we should be too light-hearted about the fact that many are going to die.

Three blazes near the village of Wennington in east London this week as the UK boiled in the hottest temperatures ever recorded on the island. Photo: Yui Mok/PA

This segment could have been lifted straight from the recent satirical film, Dont Look Up starring Leonardo di Caprio, where scientists who had identified an incoming planet-killing asteroid were derided in television interviews and dismissed as self-serving alarmists.

The heatwave that was the cause of such mirth for GB News has already led to at least 1,000 fatalities in Portugal and Spain to date  these countries are well used to high temperatures, but the latest heatwave is altogether more dangerous, with temperatures having topped 45.7C in Spain.

Tabloid reactions

In the British tabloid press, pre-heatwave mockery was much in evidence. Last Tuesday, the Daily Mail, a paper with a long track record in promoting climate denial, led with the headline: Sunny day snowflake Britain had a meltdown.

The following day, the front page screamed Nightmare of the wildfires over a photo of a row of houses in suburban London in flames triggered by the record heat.

Daily Mail front page mocking heatwave panic aged really badly in just 24 hours

"Many climate scientists attribute the extreme heat to global warming causing a change in climate. But many people refuse to acknowledge any scientific evidence of this."https://t.co/hRCWKaNjvf  Weaky Lynam  (@WeakyLynam) July 21, 2022

An almost identical scenario played out in the Daily Express, which gleefully front-paged an image of a beach packed with people enjoying the sunshine on Monday last, with the headline Its not the end of the world  just stay cool and carry on.

Two days later, the same front page was dominated by scenes of devastation, under the headline Britain burns in 40.3C heat  wildfires rage in hottest day in history.

Reality bites.

While it may seem absurd that both editors would choose to ignore the overwhelming meteorological evidence that a deadly heatwave was fast approaching, it follows a pattern over many years of right-wing media actively campaigning on behalf of their billionaire owners and advertisers to discredit climate science and ridicule environmentalists.

The sheer force of habit may have led them to once again assume their deception would not be called out. Of course, there was no apology  there never is.

Climate-deniers in Ireland

While it is easy to point across the water to these egregious examples of media enabling climate denial, what about Ireland?

David Horgan, chairman of a fossil fuel company, Petrel Resources, was on RTE Radio Ones flagship magazine programme with Brendan OConnor at the weekend, having already been on both NewsTalk and TodayFM to deny the climate emergency and taunt the treehuggers calling for action.

Horgans unqualified comments about ruminant methane were completely scientifically inaccurate, including his false statement that cattle recycle carbon while dismissing the dangerous impacts of biogenic methane.

In response, OConnor admitted he was not qualified to get into the detail of this with you, thus letting this stand uncorrected on RTE.

Horgan is a signatory to an international climate denier group styling itself Clintel, which declares there is no climate emergency and goes on to describe the dangerous planet-warming gas, carbon dioxide as plant food.

Despite now being able to witness climate breakdown in real time, our media continues to platform well-connected climate deniers with a vested financial interest in spreading propaganda, whether about oil or cattle.

Its hard to escape the conclusion that many in the media as well as politics and wider society are living in a bubble and still fail to grasp the existential nature of this crisis.

RTE News, for instance, was criticised last year for its woeful coverage of the 2021 heatwaves and its repeated failure to join the dots between extreme weather and climate change. Its managing director of news, Jon Williams accepted that the station had failed and promised to do better.

In some respects, it has. Prime Time, for instance, used to cover climate around once every three to four years, usually in the form of hosting a glorified shouting match, whereas now it has committed to quarterly climate specials.

These are modest steps when in reality a truly revolutionary approach is now required of all media.

Elsewhere in Montrose, big-name broadcasters like Joe Duffy carry on as if they have literally never heard the term global warming while playing to the gallery in attacking moves to limit either aviation or dairy expansion.

Influential British journalist and author George Monbiot made a rare appearance on RTE this week, in a quite surreal Prime Time debate with the president of the IFA. As Monbiot outlined the probable collapse of human civilisation, Tim Cullinan discussed Teagasc projections.

On a separate occasion, Monbiot was asked which industry presents the greatest environmental threat, oil or media?

His reply: I would say the media. Every day it misdirects us. Every day it tells us that issues of mind-numbing irrelevance are more important than the collapse of our life-support systems.

Is he wrong?
Liz Truss has said she will extend the UK's controversial Rwanda asylum scheme, in a move to firm up support among Tory party voters in the race to succeed Boris Johnson.

The British foreign secretary, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, suggested that as Prime Minister she would extend the Rwanda policy, despite it currently being in legal limbo.

Britain currently stands to lose 120 million it has paid to Rwanda if the plan to deport migrants is ruled unlawful by the courts.

The Rwanda policy is the right policy

Officials for the east African nations government confirmed this week it had received the entire initial payment for the agreement signed in April and that the funds are already committed, with some money spent on preparations for arrivals.

The first deportation flight was grounded in June after a series of legal challenges, and another attempt is yet to be scheduled.

Ms Truss, who has vocally backed the Rwanda plan, told the newspaper: The Rwanda policy is the right policy. Im determined to see it through to full implementation, as well as exploring other countries that we can work on similar partnerships with. Its the right thing to do.

Im also determined to make sure that we have the right level of forces at our border. Im going to increase the border force to make sure that we have the proper protection in place directly at the border.

Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak is also set to unveil his immigration plans in the days to come.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Rwanda only a few weeks ago, where he heralded his Governments policy (Dan Kitwood/PA)

According to the Mail on Sunday, Ms Truss said that if she defeats the former chancellor in the vote of party members she will increase Border Force staff levels from 9,000 to 10,800.

She would also bring forward a strengthened UK Bill of Rights to provide a sound legal basis to tackle illegal migration, the paper reports.

Im determined to end the appalling people trafficking were seeing, she told the paper.

I make sure things get done, and I will be working with my colleagues to deliver this as an absolute priority.

I understand its a priority for people and we need to make sure our immigration system is fair, and this illegal immigration that were seeing across the Channel is both unfair and incredibly dangerous, and it is one of my priorities to make sure it is sorted.

I know from my work as Foreign Secretary that there are more countries who we want to work with and we will be moving forward on those efforts very strongly under my leadership.

We need to make sure that the British Bill of Rights fully delivers on giving the UK government the powers and UK parliament the sovereignty to be able to deliver the policy in full. Thats very important for me.

Britains borders will be protected under my leadership and I will do what it takes to make the Rwanda deal fully implemented and also look to other arrangements with other countries. 
Junta Watch Junta Watch: Regime in Fantasyland on Electric Cars, Economics

Myanmar regime chief Min Aung Hlaing gives cash rewards to traditional artistes in Novosibirsk during his visit to Russia on July 16. / Cincds

Coup leaders electric vehicle fantasy indulged

The military regime still cant supply electricity round the clock, even in the commercial capital Yangon, but that hasnt stopped it from forming a national-level committee on electric cars in a bid to fulfill one of Min Aung Hlaings most persistent fantasies.

According to the July edition of the Gazette of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the national committee leading the development of electric vehicles and related businesses, chaired by Defense Minister General Mya Tun Oo, a member of the regimes governing body the State Administration Council (SAC), was formed in June.

While it remains unclear when the electricity supply will be restored to normal, Gen. Mya Tun Oo and the committees vice-chairman, ex-admiral Tin Aung San, who is also an SAC member and the regimes transport minister, have even drawn up plans to promote their castle in the air project.

These include exempting toll and parking fees for electric vehicles; setting up charging stations at shopping centers, bus stops, and parking facilities; and building separate roads and parking facilities for the vehicles.

In April, Omni Focus Co. Ltd., owned by grandsons of the late military dictator Ne Win, presented their plans for the operation of electric buses to Tin Aung San. Meanwhile, automakers including Japans Suzuki and Koreas Hyundai have suspended operations in Myanmar due to the regimes misguided economic policies.

Min Aung Hlaings economic lessons

While Myanmar has to import almost everything from medicines to fuel, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, like his predecessors, eyes building the economy based on agriculture and livestock farming. Myanmar has rich agricultural land and abundant rivers and creeks, the junta boss boasted at a meeting of his regimes governing organ, the SAC, on Thursday.

Myanmars economy has been in recession due to the COVID-19 outbreak and post-coup turmoil. The rise in the cost of living is taking a heavy toll on people, with the prices of fuel, cooking oil and medicinesall of which Myanmar has to importhaving shot up. Unemployment has increased and so has the crime rate. To make matters worse, the regimes economic policies are forcing local businesses to halt their operations and foreign companies to leave the country, and commodity prices rose even further when the regime introduced its latest restrictions on US dollars.

While the junta boss claims that Myanmar has rich agricultural land, the sown acreage of paddy has significantly declined this year because of the political instability and increased fertilizer and fuel prices.

The outlook for Myanmars economy remains weak, says the World Bank, and the country leads the Fragile State Index issued by the US-based Fund for Peace.

Junta chiefs nasty habit: slamming the NLD

More than one year after the military coup, it has become increasingly obvious that Min Aung Hlaing is really good for nothing except killing people, harming the country and speaking ill of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Whenever he visits military units around the country, he never fails to speak ill of the ousted ruling party. But recently, he even took the opportunity to do so on foreign soil. During his recent visit to Russia, he brought traditional Myanmar snacks including Mohinga along on his special MAI flight to hand out to military personnel undergoing training in the country. The snacks were shared around, and the Mohinga was cooked and fed to the trainees, according to an article featured in the July 21 issues of the junta-run newspapers.

Min Aung Hlaing has had to rally the Myanmar military, whose fighting capability and morale are in decline. Even though he was in Russia, he ordered local commanders back home to hold feasts for their respective units in a display of fatherly benevolence. In Russia, over 120 Myanmar military trainees were fed the Mohinga and traditional snacks, along with Min Aung Hlaings narrative of how the NLD government broke laws and rigged the 2020 general election, making it necessary for the Myanmar military to seize power and save the country.

Soldiers play bankers at CBM

As Myanmar grapples with a foreign currency crisis thanks to the regimes financial mismanagement, six lieutenant colonels were appointed deputy directors at the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) in June, according to the recently published Union gazette.

It has become customary after coups in Myanmar for military personnel to intervene in sectors they know nothing about. Myanmars economy has failed many times since the 1962 coup because of military meddling in the economic and financial sectors.

Recently, the junta-controlled CBM ordered companies and individual borrowers to suspend repayments of foreign loans, both of interest and principal.

Moreover, the regime has seized US dollars from companies registered with the Myanmar Investment Commission by ordering them to convert all their foreign currency into kyats. To preserve the countrys dwindling foreign currency reserves, it has also imposed restrictions on import permits.

All those measures will only further worsen Myanmars economy, which has been spiraling downward since the coup, and drive more people into poverty. The World Bank said in its latest report that the recent policy shifts have added to the challenges for businesses. Burdensome trade license requirements, the abandonment of the managed float exchange rate regime, and the imposition of foreign currency surrender rules have resulted in shortages of key imported inputs and inhibited exporters, it said.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will soon discuss how they will go about getting Perseverance's Mars rock samples to Earth.

The two space agencies recently announced they would hold a press conference to discuss the architecture of their planned Mars sample return mission next week.

NASA and the ESA previously asked the public for their opinion on its Mars sample return mission in early May following the revisions they made to their original plan.

(Photo : NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This illustration shows a concept for a proposed NASA Mars lander-and-rocket combination that would play a key role in returning to Earth samples of Mars material collected by the Perseverance rover.

NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Mission Press Conference Details

NASA and the ESA mentioned in their announcement that they would reveal new details and more information about its planned Mars sample return mission on July 27 at 11 AM EDT.

This announcement follows the same theme the two space agencies started with them asking for the public's opinion on the return mission in early May.

Back then, NASA stated that the public meetings it would hold would reveal what planners were doing to ensure a "safe and secure return of the samples" in pursuit of backward planetary protection.

Experts from Cambridge University said in a report published in the journal "International Journal of Astrobiology" defined backward planetary protection as the practice of protecting life on Earth from being contaminated by objects from space and vice versa in pursuit of preserving them as they are.

"One of the key factors in understanding any potential extant or extinct biology on Mars is that it is not to be irrevocably contaminated before its existence can be confirmed, a critical facet of forward planetary protection," the experts wrote. "Should life exist, it becomes critically important to prevent harmful backward contamination from a putative extraterrestrial life form, during sample return missions to Earth."

Read More: Apple Explains Removing Games From the Apple Arcade; What Happens Next?

Although there have been other sample returns missions launched in the past, what makes the one from Mars unique is that the samples could hold signs that life existed on the Red Planet in the distant past. This uniqueness is in contrast to the other return missions (i.e. Hayabusa Itokawa asteroid sample return mission), which are from celestial bodies that are confirmed to be unable to support life even in the past.

Additionally, if a return sample mission would be launched from a celestial body that was confirmed to be unable to support life, experts would classify it as an "unrestricted Earth return" mission.

Interestingly, there has been one such instance of a restricted Earth return mission in 1969, when Apollo 11 and 12 astronauts returned from the moon and were quarantined until the dust and rocks from the moon did not present a biological threat to Earth.

Current Mars Sample Return Mission Details

Following the revisions made to the original plan, NASA and the ESA now plans a split in the Mars lander missions into two separate spacecraft to reduce the overall risk of the program. One of them would carry the rover that would take Perseverance's samples, while the other contains the vehicle needed for the samples to exit Mars.

Once the rover collects the samples, it would then deposit them to the ascent vehicle, which would take off from its landing site in Mars to await pick up by an Earth Return Orbiter. The orbiter would then seal the canister in a biocontainment system and then return to Earth.

Once in Earth's proximity, the orbiter would release the entry capsule for it to end up in a specialized handling facility at the US Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range.

Using the two-lander design would allow the two space agencies to use the same landing system that Perseverance and Curiosity used when they landed on Mars.

This method will allow the space agencies to avoid the complexity of a single-lander design, which was the original plan, according to the American Institute of Physics.

Related Article: NASA Asks Public for Opinion on Its Mars Sample Return Mission
Xi extends congratulations on Egypt's 70th national day

Xinhua) 13:33, July 23, 2022

BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a congratulatory message to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Egypt's 70th national day.

In the message, Xi said that in recent years, Egypt has steadfastly followed the path of independence, made vigorous progress in national development, and played an important role in regional and global affairs.

Noting that he and Sisi both attended the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development held recently, Xi said they have pushed for fruitful results of the event, and sent a strong message of the times for common development and prosperity.

Stressing that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Egypt relations, Xi said that he is ready to work with Sisi to firmly support each other, advance the joint construction of the Belt and Road, conduct cooperation on the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and firmly march towards the goal of building the China-Egypt community with a shared future in the new era, so as to bring benefits to the two countries and their people.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
Kim Tae Hee transforms into a donation fairy once again! The "Stairway to Heaven" star shows generosity to help people in need amid the resurgence of the life-threatening COVID-19. Keep on reading for all the details.

Kim Tae Hee Makes Heartfelt Donation To People in Need

Apart from her beauty, grace, and talent, actress Kim Tae Hee possesses a big heart filled with love.

On Friday, July 22, Kim Tae Hee made another heartfelt donation to people in need amid the resurgence of the never-ending COVID-19.

The actress' agency, Story J Company, shared that the actress donated 1.1 million KF94 masks which amounts to 980 million KRW (approximately 747,000 USD) to the non-governmental organizations G Foundation with SB Global Healthcare and Blue D&M.

"I hope the masks will be safely delivered to the families in need, especially those with growing children and teens," Kim Tae Hee said. "Let's all be safe and healthy against COVID-19!"

The masks will be delivered to families, single mothers, single-parent families, and senior citizens, according to a representative from G Foundation.

Lee Seung Hyun, the CEO of SB Global Healthcare, said, "It's truly an honor that I can extend a helping hand to the needy with Kim Tae Hee."

Thanks to Kim Tae Hee's warm heart, people who cannot buy sturdy and safe masks will be able to ensure the safety of their families.

Kim Tae Hee Transforms Into a Donation Fairy

Actress Kim Tae Hee is truly South Korea's donation fairy! Apart from the millions worth of masks she donated, the actress also showed generosity to wildfire victims earlier this year!

There's no doubt that Kim Tae Hee is loved. She gives back and spreads her blessings, positivity, and love to the people in need.

Earlier this year, Kim Tae Hee made a generous donation to the victims of wildfire in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province.

It was a huge wildfire that began near the seaside of Uljin and spread to Samcheok City, creating mass destruction and taking away hundreds of homes and livelihoods.

Kim Tae Hee donated 200 million KRW (approximately 160,000 USD) to the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association for wildfire recovery and prevention in the affected neighborhoods.

At first, she was reluctant to announce her kind gesture as the media could shift their focus on her donation instead of the important destruction that took place.

Kim Tae Hee recognizes the importance of initial responses and ensures that her donation will be used for prevention.

The money will be used to set up emergency fire extinguishers in 30 different villages in Uljin and other affected areas.

What Keeps Kim Tae Hee Busy This 2022

After marrying her equally talented and gorgeous husband, Rain, Kim Tae Hee took a break from the limelight to focus on her family.

She last appeared in the melodrama "Hi, Bye Mama!" in 2020. However, the popular actress is still active on social media, flaunting her timeless beauty and figure.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Former Conservative MP Ron Cannan is shown here on federal election night in 2015 when he lost the riding of Kelowna-Lake Country to Liberal challenger Stephen Fuhr. Cannan picked up nomination papers Friday at Kelowna City Hall, signalling his intention to run for one of the eight city councillor positions.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh speaks at a press conference in Gatineau, Quebec on Friday, April 1, 2022. Singh says he is confident there are tangible solutions to challenges facing the North following his first trip to the Northwest Territories. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle
Kenosha Creative Space is hosting an all-day music event from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today (July 23).

Creative Space Fest 2.0 takes place Downtown in the street in front of Creative Space, 624 57th St.

This years lineup features some of Kenoshas own talent, as well as regional acts that have been nationally noticed, said Creative Space Executive Director Francisco Loyola.

Loyola said the goal of the event is to bring the community together with art and music, while raising funds for Creative Space.

Tickets are $15 at the gate for adults; free for people under age 18. Advance tickets are $10, available through the Kenosha Creative Space Facebook page.

The schedule

11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Family fun. Lots of hands-on activities including painting, a community mural project, lawn games, a photo booth, face painting, flash mobs, tie dyes, art demonstrations and more. Many of these activities will continue throughout the day, as well.

12:30 to 10 p.m.: Live music on two two stages  six full bands on the main stage and solo artists during set changes on the side acoustic stage.

There will be also be artist vendors.

Main Stage music lineup:

12:30 to 1:30 p.m.: Mykal Baas & The Delivery Men: Mykall Baas is a well-rounded musician and a man of many projects and a history of material drawing back to his high school years.

2 to 3 p.m.: Indigo Canyon: Indigo Canyon is native to Kenosha. They offer an eclectic mixture of blues, funk, folk and many other different music styles. They have a large emphasis on vocal harmonies and infectious guitar grooves. They frequently can be found playing a wide array of cover music all over the southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois. However, this show will be a rare performance of all original music.

3:30 to 4:30 p.m.: Miles Over Mountains: A talent from Illinois, these musicians also play an interesting blend of progressive music and bluegrass. With mandolin guitar, banjo and bass and years of touring under their belt, this band wont fail to amuse you with their original style of instrumental music and songs.

5 to 6 p.m.: Spare Change Trio: Spare Change Trio is known largely for their eclectic live performances that incorporate the Australian yidaki (didgeridoo) into flowing soundscapes of reggae, funk, and jazz-fusion.

6:30 to 8 p.m.: Bodhicitta: With their blend of funk, rock, jazz fusion, bluegrass and a vast range of influences, Bodhicitta is sure to please the senses. Opening for groups like Los Lobos and the Wailers, and The String Cheese Incident, you never know what to expect from this band. They are known to change it up in various performances.

8:30 to 10 p.m.: Peace Tree All Stars: This eclectic group of local musicians takes the stage for a prime-time performance.

Acoustic Stage music lineup:

1:30 to 2 p.m.: Brent Mitchell: He has been featured on television and has played all over the world introducing his interesting blend of blues country and Americana.

3 to 3:30 p.m. and 4:30-5 p.m.: Billy Farmer: Solo artist from Lake Geneva who plays folk style songs with jam band, and jazz style instrumentals.

6 to 6:30 p.m. and 8-8:30 p.m.: Kyle Young: Solo artist, who covers songs from many different styles of music with his guitar and keyboard.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - A total of 16 people died, including six civilians, while 34 others were wounded during the armed clashes in Tripoli on Thursday night, the spokesperson of the Relief and Emergency Body, Osama Ali announced
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Government of National Unity (GNU) has rejected the attempt by UN Secretary General's Special Adviser on Libya to impose a foreign vision on the state's management of the oil sector, describing it as "an attack on the country's sovereignty"
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U.S. State Department Under Secretary for Public Affairs Victoria Nuland speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., in this January 27 file photo. Reuters-Yonhap





A senior U.S. State Department official will visit Seoul next week to discuss issues including Russia's war in Ukraine and North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the department said.







Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland will visit Japan and South Korea from Monday to Thursday to meet with her counterparts from the foreign ministries and other government agencies of the respective countries.







Nuland will "coordinate on regional and global issues, including economic security, food security, Russia's war against Ukraine, and the threat to regional stability posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the department said in a press release, referring to North Korea by its official name. (Yonhap)


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With the turn of the calendar page to July, the 50-member Geneva Lake West Rotary Club began its new programming year.

Elected to board leadership positions at the clubs July 7 luncheon meeting at Abbey Springs Country Club were as follows: Phill Klamm, president; Rich Hildebrandt, vice president; Bill Ring, president-elect; Mary Hinske, treasurer; Heidi Alten, secretary; Don Vandello, executive secretary; Don Holst, past president; and Dave Collins and David Rowland, board members.

New president Phill Klamm recognized outgoing president Don Holst for his service to the Geneva Lake West Rotary Club, presenting him with a plaque and lapel pin.

On behalf of the members of the Geneva Lake West Rotary Club, I would like to thank Don Holst for his leadership as president for the 2021-22 Rotary year, Klamm said. You have served our club and our community well and we are thankful. We are excited to have you continue on the board as past president for the 2022-23 Rotary year. Please accept these tokens of our appreciation as recognitions of your service to our club and community.

In his speech, Holst thanked the club for the honor and privilege of serving as president for the past year.

It has truly been a wonderful experience for me, Holst said. This club would not exist except for each and every one of you. Each of you in your own way make a contribution to this club and make a difference in the lives if others. You contributed your time and expertise to the betterment of your fellow Rotarians and in the lives of people in our community and the world we live in. I salute you.

Klamm expressed his appreciation for being elected club president for the 2022-2023 program year.

Thank you for bestowing in me the honor to serve as the Geneva Lake West Rotary Club president for 2022-2023, he said. Throughout the years, Rotary has supported me and causes that I care about. That support created in me a strong desire to serve our community and the world by serving as a Rotarian.

Klamm outlined his focus areas for the clubs 2022-2023 program year  respecting, appreciating and continuing the rich traditions and history of the club; continuing a focus on youth and projects and services that serve area youth; and uniting the community around Rotarys four-way test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

There are a lot of great people and organizations in our community, not all of them in Rotary, Klamm said. We can be better together.

In other news, club member John Ring, president-elect for 2023-2024, was feted by Geneva Lake West Rotary Club leaders for his 23 years of service as club treasurer.

Corn and Bratwurst Festival

In other news July 7, it was announced that the Geneva Lake West Rotary Clubs annual Corn and Bratwurst Festival fundraiser will be held on Saturday, Aug. 6 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Devils Lane Park in Walworth.
Ahmedabad, Jul 23 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah is on a two-day Gujarat visit from Saturday, during which he is scheduled to launch a host of projects, including the "e-FIR" service and a CCTV-based command and control room for police in Gandhinagar, officials said.

Also Read | Kanwar Yatra 2022: Death Toll Rises to 6 After Truck Mows Down Kanwar Devotees in Uttar Pradeshs Hathras.

Shah will inaugurate this state-level control room for surveillance and traffic management at an event to be organised in the campus of National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar on Saturday morning, they said.

Also Read | Kanwar Yatra 2022: 5 Dead, 1 Injured After Few Kanwar Devotees Mowed Down By Truck in Uttar Pradeshs Hathras.

At the same event, Shah will also launch the state Home Department's "e-FIR" project. Using this service, people can now lodge complaints on the department's website or mobile application to report theft of their vehicles or mobile phones, a government release said.

The minister will also launch there the state-wide rollout of the body-worn cameras for field policemen.

Later in the day, Shah will visit Mansa town in Gandhinagar district to inaugurate a newly-built library, a community kitchen for providing cooked food to anganwadis and a hall built by Mansa municipality, the officials said.

Shah, who represents the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, will also visit the civil hospital and Chandrasar lake in Mansa, his native place.

On Sunday, he will inaugurate several projects of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, they said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 23 (ANI): With the tussle between the Centre and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal intensifying, the AAP convenor asked party legislators to be prepared to be jailed as Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur alleged that the AAP government in Delhi has set new records of corruption.

As the Centre has levelled a series of allegations, Kejriwal has been defending his government while claiming his government to be taint-free but the conflict flared up after Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the AAP government's Excise Policy 2021-22 over alleged violations of rules and procedural lapses.

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Speaking to ANI, AAP leader Atishi Marlena said that the Central agencies have not been able to prove a single charge of corruption against any leader of the party over the years.

"The registration of cases by the Centre on the leaders and Ministers of our party is not new. Despite using all the central agencies against us, they could not prove a single charge of corruption against us. The CBI can probe this matter (excise policy). The world is seeing how Arvind Kejriwal is being stopped, and false cases are being imposed against the leaders of his party," she said.

Also Read | Telangana Rains: Flood-Like Situation Again in State; Heavy Rainfall Disrupts Normal Life in Hyderabad.

In May, Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain in a 4.8 crore money-laundering case.

Kejriwal defended the Minister lauding Jain's contribution of providing the model of mohalla clinics to the world, ensuring uninterrupted and free power supply in Delhi, and questioned the intent behind the arrest.

The BJP has also gone all-out against the Delhi CM asking if Manish Sisodia, who is named to have provided undue benefits to liquor licensees, would "lose his memory too?"Notable, the Delhi government's excise department is headed by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

However, the Delhi CM has come out in open support for his deputy calling the latter "honest" and alleged that the BJP cannot see the AAP "rise to the national level", and therefore the party is resorting to such measures.

Delhi BJP leaders and workers protested against the new Liquor Policy of the AAP Government, outside the residence of Manish Sisodia on Saturday. Following the incident, the protesters were detained by the Police.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur attacked Kejriwal and accused him of shielding the "corrupt" after Delhi's lieutenant governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the Delhi Excise Policy over alleged violations of procedural lapses.

Union Minister further said that "AAP government has set new records of corruption.""You've sheltered the corrupt and the way in which you lied on TV yesterday and couldn't respond to any of BJP's allegations shows that LG's recommendation to MHA holds ground. Corrupt ministers should resign. A corrupt man like you has no right to be in power," Union Minister Anurag Thakur told ANI.

Highlighting Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain, who's in judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case, Thakur said," You're (Arvind Kejriwal) silent on LG's letter to MHA for CBI probe into corruption allegations. It shows corruption by your people under your nose. There were allegations against Satyendar Jain who lost his memory in jail. Will Manish Sisodia too lose memory?"

Atishi further said that the court would slam the government after the case is over for "filing a case without any proof". She also claimed that if there is one person PM Modi is "scared of", it is Arvind Kejriwal.

"When the case would be over in a few months, the court would slam them for filing a case without any proof. The entire country can see that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared of Arvind Kejriwal and therefore he is after him. PM Modi has proved that if he is scared of one person in the country, it is Kejriwal," she said.

"Kejriwal ji should give full details of this scam on the basis of facts," Union Minister Lekhi said at a press briefing.

"Before you give yourself a certificate of integrity you have to be honest. Not answering the questions will not work, because in a democracy questions are asked and it is necessary to answer them," Lekhi said on CM Kejriwal.

There are other issues that have become matters of major friction: the delay in holding MCD elections and Delhi LG rejecting Kejriwal's permission to visit Singapore for a summit on cities.Recently, the Delhi LG returned the proposal regarding the Singapore visit of Kejriwal to attend the 'Eighth World Cities Summit and WCS Mayors Forum', and advised him not to attend a conference that is prima facie a conference of mayors not befitting attendance by a Chief Minister.

However, ignoring the LG's suggestion, the AAP convener said he differs with the former's advice and would go ahead with the visit.

After this, Kejriwal skipped the weekly meeting called by LG Saxena on Friday.

In return, the AAP sources alleged that the LG had "skipped" a similar meeting on July 8.Responding to the claims by the party, the LG office sources said that Saxena had not "skipped" the meeting on the said date, rather he was in Jaipur to attend the Northern Zonal Council Meeting.

"Delhi LG convenes such meetings. He doesn't need to 'skip' them. If at all, LG will cancel such meetings. Besides, LG had not 'skipped' the meeting. He was in Jaipur that day to attend the Northern Zonal Council Meeting. Dy CM Manish Sisodia was also there," said the LG office sources. (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 23 (ANI): Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday said that West Bengal has become a hub of corruption, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a mute spectator to the situation.

Thakur's statement came after the arrest of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate earlier Saturday.

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On being asked about the ED seizing Rs 21 crore from the flat of actress Arpita Mukherjee, who is a close aide of Partha Mukherjee in Bengal's SSC scam, Thakur said, "under Mamata Banerjee's rule, whether it is a cheat fund scam or a coal scam or cut money, and now the way teachers have been scammed, if Rs 21 crore is found at a colleague's house, then imagine how big a scam will be."

"Mamata Banerjee is breaking the record of corruption. Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal are in competition as to who does more corruption," he stated.

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Taking a jibe at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he said, "Kejriwal used to talk about ending corruption, today, they are so immersed in corruption that they are unable to answer, sometimes Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain, sometimes Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and sometimes some other minister, one after the other, their leaders are being found immersed in corruption.

"Instead of taking his resignation, Kejriwal comes to Delhi to defend himself, he is afraid to resign because he himself is a participant in him, he should answer all of them but could not do so," he added.

Enforcement Directorate arrested Chatterjee following the raids by the central probe agency which seized Rs 20 crore in cash from the premises of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.

Notably, the arrests were made at Chatterjee's residence in Kolkata. The ED team was at the spot since Friday.

Earlier on Friday, ED officials raided the residences of Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari and several others and recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee.

The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of said SSC scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines.

More than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which are being ascertained, said the probe agency.

Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Nagpur, Jul 23 (PTI) A 13-year-old boy whose body was found in a hostel room in Maharashtra's Amravati district died of "smothering" as per the post mortem report, a police official said on Saturday.

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Adarsh Konge, who was studying in the Vidyabharti High School and stayed in the institution's hostel, was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Thursday morning by staffers.

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The child's parents had told police he had a fight with some friends and they may have been behind the death, he added.

"The post mortem report has revealed Adarsh died of smothering. On the complaint of the parents, a case of murder was registered against Ravindra Tikhade, the warden of the hostel," Inspector Aasaram Chormale said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 23 (ANI): A compact disc (CD) containing CCTV footage of Sharjeel Imam's jail cell was played in the courtroom on Saturday which showed Imam being pushed and slapped by inmates.

It is seen in the CD that Tihar Jail inmates pushed and slapped him during the search.

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Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma court said that slapping cannot be called assault after watching the CD.

Now the court has called the Assistant Superintendent and jail Superintendent to explain the stand taken by them on August 1.

Also Read | UIDAI Seeks 20 Ethical Hackers To Protect Its Aadhaar Data Amid Rise in Cyber Attacks.

Advocates Talib Mustafa and Ahmad Ibrahim, counsel for Sharjeel said that whether he was slapped or hit by a stick, it amounts to assault.

Sharjeel who was present during the hearing said that the inmate who hit him was part of the search team. There were 15 inmates. No entry was made in the register though it is mandatory according to the rules.

He also said that "The same inmates made a search again and they were not stopped by the Assistant jail superintendent who was present there."

Earlier on July 20, the Tihar Jail Superintendent produced a CD containing CCTV footage of the cell where Sharjeel Imam has been lodged.

The court had also adjourned the order on the interim bail application of Sharjeel Imam in the sedition case till Saturday.

Superintendent of jail number one Gaurav Yadav appeared before the court and produced the CD. He had 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. It had also summoned the Superintendent of Tihar Jail.

Sharjeel had alleged assault on him by jail officials and convicts during a search. He had alleged that 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 also 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 and he made the complaint simply to attract media attention.

Jail authorities stated the entire incident is recorded in the CCTV and the same has already been preserved. It will be produced in the court as and when directed.

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 organised 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.

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, 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 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)

(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 23 (ANI): After the Election Commission of India asked Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to submit documentary evidence to prove their majority in Shiv Sena, Sanjay Raut on Saturday, while recalling party founder Bal Thackeray's idea of Hindutva behind the formation of the outfit, alleged that "Delhi wants to destroy" the party.

"It's shocking for Maharashtra's people. Balasaheb Thackeray formed the party 56 years ago, thinking about Hindutva and EC is raising questions on his organisation. Delhi wants to destroy our party. Uddhav Thackeray is the only leader of Shiv Sena today," Raut said.

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Notably, the Thackeray and Shinde factions had approached the EC to stake claim over Shiv Sena.

The EC sent to the Thackeray camp the letter written to the EC by the Shinde faction and the Thackeray camp's letter to the Shinde faction and sought replies from both the camps by August 8.

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The poll body would hear the claims made by both the factions after receiving the reply from both sides.

The Shinde faction, which gained power with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has 40 out of the 55 Shiv Sena MLAs. It has requested the EC to recognise the faction as the 'real' Shiv Sena while also urging the poll body for allocation of the bow-and-arrow poll symbol to the faction.

In another jolt to the Uddhav faction in Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday accepted the demand of the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena to change the party leader in the House. Now the leader of Shiv Sena in the house will be Rahul Shewale.

12 Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena met the Lok Sabha Speaker and requested him to change the leader of the party in the lower house of Parliament.

Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shawale said that a letter to change the party leader in the lower house of Parliament has been sent to the Lok Sabha Speaker as he will be giving recognition to the party, once legal actions are taken.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday posted for hearing on August 1 the petitions filed by both factions of the Shiv Sena relating to the control of the party and the recent political crisis in Maharashtra which brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP) government in the state. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Rairangpur (Odisha), Jul 23 (PTI) As Taranisen Tudu and his wife Sukri Tudu leave for New Delhi to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the county's first tribal president Droupadi Murmu on Monday, the people in her Upabeda village are praying for her prosperity. Taranisen is the brother of President-elect Droupadi Murmu, who lives along with his family at Uparbeda village, about 20 kilometres from Rairangpur in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district.

Though the residents of Uperbeda village are poor, they are highly satisfied that Murmu has made them proud. Her being sworn in as the President of India in the 75th year of Independence has added to their joy.

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Most of the residents of Uparbeda, her birthplace, and Pahadpur, her in-laws' house, have basic facilities like electricity, drinking water, phone service, schools, hospitals and others. They just want Murmu to earn a separate and unique identity for herself and the state as the President.

We pray for her prosperity more than anything else, said Saunta Majhi, an elderly priest of the Santhal community.

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Is not it sufficient for us to remain satisfied? Human wants are unlimited. Every girl and woman of our village and the tribal community have now gained confidence which no government or leader can do, said Chandramani Hansda, a 25-year-old mother of one.

However, when insisted that they say what they want from the new President for the village, a number of suggestions were put forth.

A group of boys and girls said that they need a college at Uparbeda as they have to travel at least 5 kilometres to go to the nearby institute of higher learning.

Some women said that they have a government public health centre (PHC), but not a full-time doctor or a female nurse there.

Women are reluctant to go for institutional delivery due to the lack of a female nurse at the hospital, pointed out Jamuna Hembram, the Sarpanch of Uparbeda Gram Panchayat.

She said a skill development centre for youths may help check large-scale migration from the village.

A pregnant woman, who did not want to be identified said that if she gives birth to a girl, her name will be Droupadi.

Sukhlal Murmu, who is two years senior to Droupadi Murmu at the Government Upper Primary School, said, We have roads, schools, a hospital and phones in the village. If she wants, we will like to have a dam on the natural spring to irrigate our agricultural fields. Our cultivation mostly depends on rain.

The headmaster of the President-elect's school, Manoranjan Murmu, also said they do not want any major project.

We want better infrastructure for the school. It should be made a model school. We will name a classroom after Droupadi Murmu when its construction is completed, he said.

Villagers said Uparbeda and Pahadpur have bank kiosks and a full-fledged bank branch is required.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kolkata, Jul 23 (PTI) Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) interrogated West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee overnight in connection with the teacher recruitment scam case.

The agency sleuths, who started the interrogation at the residence of the minister at 8 AM on Friday, are still continuing with the process.

Also Read | Kanwar Yatra 2022: 5 Dead, 1 Injured After Few Kanwar Devotees Mowed Down By Truck in Uttar Pradeshs Hathras.

ED officials have recovered Rs 20 crore in cash from one of the properties of Chatterjee's close associate Arpita Mukherjee in south Kolkata.

Chatterjee was the state education minister when the scam took place and ED is probing the money laundering aspect of those allegedly involved in it.

Also Read | National Herald Case: Sonia Gandhi Gets Fresh Summons To Appear Before ED on July 26.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hathras, July 23: The district administration announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh each for the six kanwariyas from Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior who died after they were mowed down by a truck in Hathras district, said the officials on Saturday. The deputy collector in a statement identified the deceased as Ranveer, Jawar Singh, Naresh Pal, Manoj Kumar, Ramesh Pal, and Vikas Sharma.

"One lakh rupees each to the nearest heirs of the above deceased Kawar yatris. The action to provide assistance has been taken by the District Administration, Hathras," read a statement by the Office of Deputy Collector, Sadabad (Hathras).

Six persons, part of a group of Kanwar Yatra pilgrims on their way to Bhopal from Haridwar, were mowed to death by a speeding truck in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district in the early hours of Saturday, police said. The incident took place at 2:15 am today, and while five persons died on the spot, one person succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

"5 dead, 1 seriously injured after seven Kanwar devotees were moved down by a truck around 2.15 am today, at Sadabad Police Station in Hathras. They were en route to Gwalior from Haridwar with their Kanwars," said Additional Director General of Police (Agra Zone), Rajeev Krishna. Kanwar Yatra 2022: Death Toll Rises to 6 After Truck Mows Down Kanwar Devotees in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras.

The ADG said that a probe is underway and that they have received information about the driver who managed to flee from the spot. "He will be nabbed soon," the police official said.

'Kanwar Yatra' is an annual pilgrimage undertaken by Lord Shiva's devotees in which devotees known as 'Kanwariyas' visit places like Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to fetch the holy water of the Ganges and then worship the God with the same water.

The Kanwar Yatra has resumed this year after a gap of two years due to Covid-19 restrictions. Administrations of several areas are adopting necessary measures to avoid any untoward incidents during the holy pilgrimage.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chennai, July 23: Assorted gem stones totaling 1,746 pieces worth Rs 94.34 lakh was seized at the airport here and a Sri Lankan national was arrested in this connection, the customs department said on Saturday.

Acting on specific inputs, the authorities intercepted the passenger who arrived here from Colombo recently, a press release from Commissioner of Customs K R Uday Bhaskar said. Uttar Pradesh: Customs Officials Arrest Two Men For Smuggling 224 Grams Gold at Lucknow Airport.

Initial examinations revealed that the passenger had swallowed packets containing the precious stones. The officials recovered as many as 56 packets containing 1,746 assorted gem stones from him under relevant sections of Customs Act, 1962. Further investigation was on, 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)
Bhadohi (UP), Jul 23 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh minister and the BJP's state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh on Saturday hit out at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, alleging had he become chief minister the state would have been looted.

At a public function, he said that since Narendra Modi became prime minister, his focus has been on the development of every section of the society.

Also Read | Delhi LG Directs CS to Submit a Report Detailing the Role of Officers and Civil Servants   Latest Tweet by ANI.

"The people of Uttar Pradesh did not make any mistake (during the recently concluded Assembly election). Had they made even the slightest mistake, Akhilesh Yadav would have become chief minister and looted (the state); dacoity would have taken place in the state," Singh said.

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said with people's blessings, the central and state governments are providing all facilities and resources to the people.

Also Read | Fuel Costs Rise: Bad News for Air Travellers As Ticket Prices To Soar Due to High Price of Oil.

Talking to reporters about the uneven distribution of rains, the Uttar Pradesh Jal Shakti Minister said, "If there is less rainfall, our priority is to provide irrigation facilities to the farmers by running the canals at full capacity."

Asked if Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Omprakash Rajbhar, who had joined hands with the Samajwadi Party during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, would join the BJP, Swatantra Dev Singh said only Rajbhar can answer that question.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Raipur, July 23: Authorities in several parts of Chhattisgarh, including Raipur, were on Saturday asked to stay alert for flood-like situations due to heavy rains since the previous day. Bijapur in south Bastar is worst-affected with several smalls rivers and rivulets flooded, leading to disruption in normal life for people, an official said.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has asked district collectors, superintendents of police and urban bodies to be on alert in view of cyclonic rains in the state, an official statement said. "The CM has directed them to ensure all disaster management related measures are in place to deal with any situation like water logging and floods," the official said. Chhattisgarh Govt to Soon Start Process to Recruit 10,000 School Teachers, Says CM Bhupesh Baghel.

The release said there is possibility of heavy rain in all divisions of the state, except Surguja, due to a cyclonic circulation over interior Odisha. "Bijapur has been witnessing continuous rainfall from two days. State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams and police have been deployed for timely evacuation of people. The district collector and SP visited affected areas," the official said.

Meanwhile, 11 members of a family, including women and children, who were trapped in Jhadigutta village in Kutru area of Bijapur on Friday night amid heavy rains were rescued by SDRF and police personnel this morning, he added. Water from the swollen Mingachal river entered the camps of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) in Mingahcal and Darba villages after which personnel stationed there had to be shifted to safety, the official said.

The Meteorological Centre Raipur has predicted light to moderate rainfall in several parts on Sunday and heavy rainfall at one or two places.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kallakurichi (Tamil Nadu) [India], July 23 (ANI): The last rites of the deceased Class 12 girl, who died by suicide after alleged torture by teachers were performed in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi Veppur on Saturday.

Earlier, the ambulance carrying body of the deceased met with a small accident almost 10 km away from Veppur on the Trichy Bypass road.

Also Read | Chhattisgarh Rains: After Heavy Rainfall In Several Parts CM Bhupesh Baghel In Action Mode, Instructs Officials to Be Ready with Relief Measures.

Both the ambulance and its escort vehicle collided with a container lorry but were then on their way again.

Earlier, the mother of the deceased signed the official documents at Kallakurichi Government Hospital as her body was handed over to the family for last rites. And later the body of the deceased was taken to her native village in the Cuddalore district.

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The death of the girl led to violence and vandalism at a school in Kallakurichi on July 17.

The Madras High Court on Friday ordered the family of the Class 12 student who died in Kallakurichi, to accept her body which is currently in police custody, and asked the parents not to draw the case out further.

The Court was hearing a plea by the Tamil Nadu government, seeking direction to the parents to collect the student's mortal remains and conduct the last rites.

The High Court Bench ordered the parents to collect the body no later than 11 am on Saturday, July 23, failing which police action would be taken. The parents have agreed to collect the body between 6 am and 7 am on Saturday.

Following the violence that erupted in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi after the death of a Class 12 student, who purportedly jumped to her death from the terrace of her hostel at a private school, the district Superintendent of Police, S Selvakumar was on July 19 transferred with immediate effect.

Triplicane Deputy Commissioner of Police Pakalavan has been appointed as Kallakurichi Superintendent of Police.

On July 18, the Madras High Court 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 a haemorrhage.

The father of the deceased girl had moved to the Supreme Court, seeking an amendment of the Madras High Court order on the second autopsy.

The Class XII student who purportedly jumped from the terrace of her hostel at a private school in Tamil Nadu's Kallakuruchi sparked violent protests in the district, prompting the Salem police to deploy heavy security around the school and other areas.

Section 144 had to be imposed in several areas. A Class 12 student in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi died by suicide after alleged torture by teachers.

Violence broke out in parts of Tamil Nadu after the Class 12 student jumped off her hostel building on July 13. She was allegedly tortured by a teacher, as stated in the girl's suicide note.

Meanwhile, a notice has been issued to all private nursery, matriculation and CBSE schools that remained closed on Monday following violent protests over the death of the schoolgirl.

Relatives of the girl and people belonging to her village in the Cuddalore district have been protesting outside the school. On Sunday, protesters clashed with the police and set several buses on fire. Her family alleges that two teachers had mentally harassed and humiliated her. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Interview: China's energy transition to help improve economic performance, says IRENA head

13:59, July 23, 2022 By Martina Fuchs ( Xinhua

GENEVA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China's energy transition will help improve its economic performance and achieve a steadier growth pattern, the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has said.

Bullish on China's economic prospects, Director-General of the IRENA Francesco La Camera said in a recent interview that the Chinese economy "has been steadily growing in the first six months of the year."

The Chinese government has been very wise in the sense that it is "trying to do the best to get COVID under control, but it has also allowed them (the factories) to produce ... so they have been able to export," said the chief of the IRENA, an intergovernmental organization that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future.

The latest data from China's National Bureau of Statistics showed that the country's GDP secured positive growth in the second quarter and expanded 2.5 percent year on year in the first half of the year.

Apart from that, in the first half of this year, China's value-added industrial output went up 3.4 percent, fixed-asset investment jumped 6.1 percent, and foreign goods trade shot up 9.4 percent.

Stressing the growth was made "in this very critical situation" amid the pandemic and the Ukraine crisis, La Camera forecast China's energy transition could further accelerate its growth.

"Energy transition is taking place in China as in every other part of the world," said the IRENA chief. "Naturally, China is one of the main actors in the energy transition."

"Renewables are the most effective way to produce electricity. They are the most competitive way. Absolutely, from an economic point of view ... renewables give more contribution to the GDP of the country," La Camera explained.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
New Delhi, July 23: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced a "free" Spoken English programme for youngsters with an aim to enhance their communication skills and help improve their job prospects.

The programme can be availed by people falling into the age group of 18 and 35, with a deposit amount of Rs 950. This amount will be refunded after the successful completion of the course. The programme will be conducted by Delhi Skill Entrepreneurship University.

"We are announcing a Spoken English programme for youngsters who lack communication skills. Our Delhi Skill Entrepreneurship University will conduct this course. The students who have completed their education up to standard 12 and have poor communication skills can opt for the course. People who are also facing problems in seeking jobs and have a basic knowledge of English of up to standard 8 can also join the course," Kejriwal said.

"This would help develop one's personality, and improve the student's job prospects," the Delhi CM added. The Chief Minister said that the training would be provided to nearly 1 lakh students in Phase 1 of the programme which would be expanded subsequently. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Promises 300 Units of Free Electricity in Gujarat If AAP Wins State Assembly Elections.

"In Phase-1, we would be providing training to as many as 1 lakh students in one year at 50 centres across Delhi. Subsequently, it would be expanded. Youths aged 18-35 years can get enrolled in this 3-4 month-long course," he said.

"The timings would be flexible. It is completely free. However, an amount of Rs 950 would be kept as a security deposit which would be refunded after successful completion of the course," Kejriwal added.

(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 23 (PTI) Outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind's journey from a small Uttar Pradesh village to India's top constitutional post is a wonderful and inspiring achievement of the country's democracy, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Saturday.

Addressing a farewell function organised on behalf of Members of Parliament for the outgoing president, Birla said Kovind's commitment to political fairness and making Rashtrapati Bhavan accessible to citizens will inspire generations to come.

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Addressing the gathering at the historic Central Hall of Parliament, the Lok Sabha speaker said the President's address in Parliament reflects his vision, deep understanding of political and social issues and his clear thought process towards their solution.

His addresses to MPs inspired all political parties alike, Birla said.

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This why Kovind received the full support of leaders of all parties and all MPs see him as the guardian of constitutional values and ideals, the Lok Sabha speaker said.

Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were also present at the farewell function in Parliament which was addressed by President Kovind.

Birla said President Kovind's unwavering commitment to important issues of public interest is a testament to his dedication to public service.

"Rashtrapati Ji" has proved that he is a multi-faceted and sensitive public servant through his efforts towards national interest and the welfare of the common man, he said. On this occasion, a signature book was gifted to the outgoing president.

(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 23 (ANI): The body of a 50-year-old man was found stuffed in a refrigerator at his house in Northeast Delhi's Seelampur area on Friday, Delhi police said.

According to the police, a caller informed them on Friday around 7.15 pm that her relative was not attending phone calls. When the caller reached Gautampuri, she found him dead in the fridge.

Also Read | Kallakurichi, Tamil Nadu | Mother of the Deceased Class 12th Girl Signed the Official   Latest Tweet by ANI.

Police reached the spot and found the body stuffed in the refrigerator, a senior police officer said. The man was identified as Zakir, they said.

Crime investigation and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) teams were called for the inspection of the scene of the crime.

Also Read | National Herald Case: Sonia Gandhi Gets Fresh Summons To Appear Before ED on July 26.

Primary inquiry reveals that the deceased was living alone in the house while his wife and children are living separately at a distance.

Police indicated that they are developing a clue about a suspect in the murder.

Further investigation is underway, they added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Payal Mehta

New Delhi [India], July 23 (ANI): Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said that "no judiciary in the world is as independent as India's."

Also Read | Chhattisgarh Rains: After Heavy Rainfall In Several Parts CM Bhupesh Baghel In Action Mode, Instructs Officials to Be Ready with Relief Measures.

This remark comes after Chief Justice of India Justice NV Ramana spoke about trial by the media in multiple cases.

"The comments made on the media trial by the CJI Ramana by electronic and social media are his observation as per the situation that exists in India and across the world...if anybody feels that way we can discuss this in the public domain and I don't want to comment on what he said right now," Rijiju said.

Also Read | 'President Ram Nath Kovind Emphasised on Higher Participation of Women in Nation-Building', Says Om Birla As MPs Bid Prez Kovind Farewell.

"Indian judges and judiciary are completely protected and I can say clearly that no judge or judiciary is as independent anywhere in the world as it is in India," he added.

Earlier, on the issue of the rising number of media trials, CJI Ramana said, "New media tools have the enormous amplifying ability but appear to be incapable of distinguishing between the right and the wrong, the good and the bad and the real and the fake."

Chief Justice Ramana also cautioned that the judges may not react immediately and this should not be mistaken for weakness or helplessness.

"Biased views being propagated by media are affecting the people, weakening democracy, and harming the system. In this process, justice delivery gets adversely affected," the CJI added.

"By overstepping and breaching your responsibility, you are taking our democracy two steps backwards. Print media still has a certain degree of accountability. Whereas, electronic media has zero accountability as what it shows vanishes into thin air. Still, worse is social media," he said.

The CJI also highlighted that these days, there is an increasing number of physical attacks on judges.

The Chief Justice also stressed that it becomes a challenge to accept the false narrative surrounding the supposed easy life of a judge.

"There exists a misconception in the minds of the people that judges stay in ultimate comfort, work only from 10 am to 4 pm and enjoy their holidays. Such a narrative is untrue. When false narratives are created about the supposed easy life led by judges, it is difficult to swallow," Justice Ramana said. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kolkata, Jul 23 (PTI) The five-decade-long political career of senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee seems to have come to a huge jolt with the Enforcement Directorate arresting him on Saturday in connection with its investigation into the alleged school jobs scam in West Bengal.

Chatterjee, 69, who presently holds the industry and state parliamentary affairs portfolios of the Mamata Banerjee government, was the education minister from 2014 to 2021, during which the alleged irregularities in teacher recruitment occurred.

Also Read | UIDAI Seeks 20 Ethical Hackers To Protect Its Aadhaar Data Amid Rise in Cyber Attacks.

Chatterjee stepped into politics as a leader of Congress students' wing  Chatra Parishad- in the late sixties during his college years, inspired by then firebrand youth leaders Subrata Mukherjee and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.

His political career halted after he decided to take up a high-profile corporate job in the mid-seventies. Chatterjee decided to take a plunge into active politics after Banerjee broke away from the Congress and formed the TMC on January 1, 1998.

Also Read | Tamil Nadu: Gem Stones Worth Rs 94.34 Lakh Seized, Sri Lankan National Arrested.

He went on to win from the Behala Paschim Assembly constituency for five consecutive terms since 2001 on a TMC ticket.

Chatterjee's high point in his political career came in 2006 when he was appointed as the leader of the TMC party in the assembly and later leader of the opposition.

As Banerjee fought against the mighty Left Front regime on the streets of Bengal on the issue of forcible land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, Chatterjee became the voice of the opposition in the assembly.

Chatterjee was at the forefront when his party took on then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in the assembly on the issues of land acquisitions. During that period in 2007, he was appointed as TMC's secretary-general by Banerjee. After the party came to power four years later, he was given charge of industry and parliamentary affairs. However, in a cabinet reshuffle in 2014, he was removed from the industry department and given charge of education. Considered a loyalist of the party supremo, Chatterjee, along with a few others, was at the forefront in leading the old guards during the alleged inner-party struggle between the young brigade and the veterans that broke out in the TMC in January-February this year. After the party returned to power for the third consecutive time in 2021, he was given the charge of industry and parliamentary affairs departments. He is known as an affable and approachable leader in political circles. His name had also cropped up in a Ponzi scheme, which was being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. He has, however, denied the allegations as politically motivated.

(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 23 (ANI): The ceremony of assumption of office by President-elect Droupadi Murmu will be held on Monday in the Central Hall of Parliament.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and members of the Council of Ministers, state Governors, Chief Ministers, Heads of Diplomatic Missions, Members of Parliament and principal civil and military Officers of the government of India will assemble in the Central Hall for the ceremony on July 25.

Also Read | Chhattisgarh Rains: After Heavy Rainfall In Several Parts CM Bhupesh Baghel In Action Mode, Instructs Officials to Be Ready with Relief Measures.

President Ram Nath Kovind and President-elect Droupadi Murmu will arrive in the Central Hall in a ceremonial procession. The President-elect will take the Oath of Office in the presence of the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, followed by a 21-gun salute.

The President will then deliver an address. On the conclusion of the ceremony, the President will leave for Rashtrapati Bhavan where an Inter-Services Guard of Honour will be given to her in the forecourt and courtesies will be extended to the outgoing President.

Also Read | 'President Ram Nath Kovind Emphasised on Higher Participation of Women in Nation-Building', Says Om Birla As MPs Bid Prez Kovind Farewell.

The National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu was officially declared as the 15th President of the country after the conclusion of the counting of votes on Thursday.

The term of President Ram Nath Kovind comes to an end on Sunday.

Murmu will be the first member of the tribal community and the second woman to hold the top constitutional post in the country.

Murmu was the first woman governor of Jharkhand and served in the post from 2015 to 2021.

Born in a poor tribal family in a village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Droupadi Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances. She taught at Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur.

She has also served as a minister in Odisha. (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 23 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party's Bharatpur MP Ranjeeta Koli on Saturday demanded Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death of a seer, who set himself ablaze against illegal mining in Rajasthan and hit out at Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over inaction of the government for not looking into protests for over 500 days.

"I request CBI enquiry into it. Why did they delay looking into protests for over 500 days? Seers had been fighting for people, not for some personal gain".

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Her remarks came after the seer, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital. His body is being transported to Barsana in Uttar Pradesh for last rights.

"Sadhu Vijay Das (who set himself ablaze on July 21) was shifted from Rajasthan to Delhi for better treatment, but he succumbed late last night. Post-mortem to be conducted. Body will be taken to Barsana," said SDOBharatpur, Sanjay Goyal.

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BJP State president Satish Punia also held the state accountable over the death of the sadhu and highlighted the "chief minister's carelessness".

"It is the Rajasthan govt which is responsible for the death of Sadhu. They had been protesting for over 500 days but they did not care. The govt is under the rule of the mining mafia. Why are the state, the Chief Minister and the Home Minister so careless," said Punia.

The seer, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital, said the officials on Saturday.

"Sadhu Vijay Das died at around 2.30 am in the hospital where he was undergoing treatment after his self-immolation attempt. The post-mortem has been scheduled for 9 am," informed Sub Divisional Officer, Sanjay Goyal.

Earlier on July 21, his condition was said to be stable.

The incident was reported in Deeg on July 20 when Sadhu Vijay Das attempted self-immolation amid protests over illegal mining in the area.

The city officials had rushed to the spot to put out the fire and rescue Das.

The locals and sadhus had been demanding a ban on the mines for a long time.

The administration also assured the sadhus that mines will be shifted from the area and informed them about the state government's plans to transform the vicinity into a religious tourist spot.

"These mines will be shifted and about 2,500 people who will be unemployed as a result, will be employed somewhere else...The state govt intends to make it (stone mining area) into a religious tourism spot," Ranjan added.

On Tuesday a sadhu climbed atop a mobile tower in the district's Deeg on Tuesday morning to protest stone mining in the area.The man was persuaded to come down eventually. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], July 23 (ANI): Hours after being remanded to Enforcement Directorate custody, West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee was taken to SSKM hospital in Kolkata on complaining of chest pain.

Earlier today, the Bankshall Court in Kolkata granted two days of Enforcement Directorate custody to West Bengal cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee. However, Chatterjee developed heart pain.

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ED has prayed before the magistrate to allow Chatterjee to be taken to Command Hospital instead of state-run SSKM. ED said that Chatterjee is a senior minister and his roots are deep in government hospitals, where he can be influential. However, the court today ordered Chatterjee to be taken to SSKM Hospital.

Chatterjee, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday, developed heart pain and earlier today demanded "proper medical facilities" if ED's custody is granted, Chatterjee's lawyer Somnath Mukherjee had told the media persons in Kolkata.

Also Read | Bihar: 11 Kanwarias Booked for Being Drunk During Kanwar Yatra in Jamui.

"Partha Chatterjee (West Bengal cabinet minister and former Education Minister of the state) is not feeling well. He has developed heartache. We demanded that proper medical facilities should be given to him if ED's custody is granted," said Chatterjee's lawyer.

Enforcement Directorate, earlier today, arrested Chatterjee following the raids by the central probe agency which seized Rs 20 crore in cash from the premises of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.

Notably, the arrests were made at Chatterjee's residence in Kolkata. The ED team was at the spot since yesterday.

Earlier on Friday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided the residences of Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari and several others and recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee, who is a close associate of Partha Chatterjee.

The said amount is suspected to be the proceeds of crime of said SSC scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines.

A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which are being ascertained, said the probe agency.Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam. (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, July 23: The seer, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital, said the officials on Saturday.

"Sadhu Vijay Das died at around 2.30 am in the hospital where he was undergoing treatment after his self-immolation attempt. The post-mortem has been scheduled for 9 am," informed Sub Divisional Officer, Sanjay Goyal.

Earlier on July 21, his condition was said to be stable. The incident was reported in Deeg on July 20 when Sadhu Vijay Das attempted self-immolation amid protests over illegal mining in the area.

The city officials had rushed to the spot to put out the fire and rescue Das. The locals and sadhus had been demanding a ban on the mines for a long time. The administration also assured the sadhus that mines will be shifted from the area and informed them about the state government's plans to transform the vicinity into a religious tourist spot.

"These mines will be shifted and about 2,500 people who will be unemployed as a result, will be employed somewhere else...The state govt intends to make it (stone mining area) into a religious tourism spot," Ranjan added.

On Tuesday a sadhu climbed atop a mobile tower in the district's Deeg on Tuesday morning to protest stone mining in the area. The man was persuaded to come down eventually.

(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 23 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and party's West Bengal vice president Saumitra Khan on Saturday slammed chief minister Mamata Banerjee over Minister Partha Chatterjee's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and asserted that "TMC has emerged as the party of thieves and scamsters under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee."

"Partho Chatterjee has been arrested, tomorrow Firhad Hakim will be arrested then Abhishek Banerjee will be arrested, this will continue. All the leaders of India who support Mamata Banerjee, I request them that Mamata Banerjee is a thief. She has become the queen of dacoits, never believe her, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee has done a scam of Rs 50000 crores in West Bengal Abhishek Banerjee himself is the owner of 50000 crores Because of TMC, today West Bengal is getting smaller," said Khan.

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He also highlighted that coal smuggling is on a rise in the state and said," Coal smuggling happens every day, her(Mamata Banerjee) nephews do scams everywhere, as much money goes to the Government of India, MPs are never called to the meeting. They (TMC) do not approve of any scheme of the central government."

He also sought an explaination from Banerjee over her alleged involvement in various scams."Mamata Banerjee is herself involved in the Sharda scam. Her nephew is involved in a coal scam, cow smuggling, he's involved in rape case etc. Will you explain?. What can be said if the leaders of TMC have made West Bengal a thief state. All TMC leaders have many girlfriends, this is a very shameful thing."

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Khan's remarks came after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested former West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board recruitment scam.

The arrest comes following the raids by the central probe agency where it seized Rs 20 crore in cash from the premises of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.

The arrests were made at Chatterjee's residence in Kolkata. The ED team was at the spot since yesterday.Earlier on Friday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided the residences of Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari and several others and recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee, who is a close associate of Partha Chatterjee.

The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of said SSC scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines.

A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which is being ascertained, said the probe agency.

Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam.

It is noteworthy to note that the High Court of Calcutta in a slew of writ petitions had recently directed the CBI to carry out investigations into the recruitment scam of Group 'C' & 'D' staff, Assistant Teachers of classes IX-XII and primary teachers. In these cases, involving the illegal appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C & D), teaching staff [Assistant teachers (Class IX-XII) and teachers in Primary school, ED is investigating cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)]. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
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Udhampur (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], July 23 (ANI): The vehicular movement on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH 44) was stopped after the heavy rainfall lashed the Udhampur area of the Union Territory on Saturday.

Earlier, hundreds of trucks remained stranded in the Udhampur district due to the landslides caused because of heavy rainfall in the Ramban sector.

Also Read | Karnataka Engineers Suspended Over Substandard Road Work During PM Narendra Modis Bengaluru Visit.

Recent incidents of heavy rainfall in the Union Territory, in July, have caused great damage to lives and property.

The India Meteorological Department in Srinagar issued warnings for heavy rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir.

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The weather forecasting department has predicted fairly widespread light to moderate rain and thunderstorm over the Jammu and Kashmir divisions and has also warned of scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rains and thunderstorms for the subsequent two days.

It said that Jammu needs to be prepared as isolated heavy rains, thunderstorms, and lightning in the area can disrupt the traffic, cause landslides, and might result in flash floods, while it also cautioned Kashmir to be aware of the deteriorating weather conditions until the further update.

Overnight heavy rain near the Kahara village of Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Tuesday resulted in floods that damaged the area and destroyed properties including an educational body and the building and grounds of Tourism.

On July 14, heavy rains and flash floods damaged a foot-over bridge in the hilly areas of Rajouri causing much inconvenience to the people, due to which they were forced to cross the rivulet in waist-deep water for commuting.

The heavy rains in Rajouri had also damaged the crops of the local farmers.

A cloudburst that struck the holy cave area of Amarnath on July 8, resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah' adjoining the holy cave and claimed 16 lives. In the tragic incident, at least 36 people were also reported missing.

Amarnath Yatra was partially suspended after the said cloudburst incident and was later resumed from the Nunwan Pahalgam side on July 11.

Another cloudburst triggered by the heavy rains blocked the Srinagar-Leh highway on July 5, after flash floods occurred in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Flash floods also occurred in the Shah Mohallah Kullan area of Kangan in the Ganderbal district on July 3, thus inundating several houses and causing damage. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hathras, July 23: Six persons, part of a group of Kanwar Yatra pilgrims on their way to Bhopal from Haridwar, were mowed to death by a speeding truck in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district in the early hours of Saturday, police said.

The incident took place at 2:15 am today, and while five persons died on the spot, one person succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

"5 dead, 1 seriously injured after seven Kanwar devotees were moved down by a truck around 2.15 am today, at Sadabad Police Station in Hathras. They were en route to Gwalior from Haridwar with their Kanwars," said Additional Director General of Police (Agra Zone), Rajeev Krishna.

The ADG said that a probe is underway and that they have received information about the driver who managed to flee from the spot. "He will be nabbed soon," the police official said.

'Kanwar Yatra' is an annual pilgrimage undertaken by Lord Shiva's devotees in which devotees known as 'Kanwariyas' visit places like Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to fetch the holy water of the Ganges and then worship the God with the same water.

The Kanwar Yatra has resumed this year after a gap of two years due to Covid-19 restrictions. Administrations of several areas have adopting necessary measures to avoid any untoward incidents during the holy pilgrimage.

(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 23 (ANI): Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu hosted lunch for outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind in the national capital on Saturday, Vice President's Secretariat informed.

Wishing President Kovind a happy and healthy life ahead, Naidu felt that the President had greatly enhanced the stature of the institution through his broad vision and endearing simplicity.

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Recalling many pleasant memories of the past five years, the Vice President said that it has been a wonderful experience for him to work along with President Kovind for the development of the nation.

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also hosted a farewell dinner for outgoing President Kovind in Delhi.

Also Read | Chhattisgarh Rains: After Heavy Rainfall In Several Parts CM Bhupesh Baghel In Action Mode, Instructs Officials to Be Ready with Relief Measures.

President Kovind will address the nation at 7 pm on Sunday on the eve of demitting office, an official statement informed.

The address will be broadcast on the entire national network of All India Radio (AIR) and telecast over all channels of Doordarshan in Hindi followed by the English version.

Notably, the tenure of the outgoing President is coming to an end on July 24. President-elect Droupadi Murmu will be sworn in as India's 15th President on July 25 in the Central Hall of Parliament.

Kovind was sworn in as the 14th President of India on July 25, 2017, at Rashtrapati Bhawan. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar.

To facilitate members to attend the ceremony, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will meet that day at 2 pm instead of 11 am.

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana will administer the oath to Murmu.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday issued a certificate of the election to NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu as the next President of India.

Droupadi Murmu, who was BJP-led NDA's candidate in the Presidential election defeated opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

Droupadi Murmu was the first woman governor of Jharkhand and served in the post from 2015 to 2021. (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 23 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla Saturday joined a ceremony at Parliament's Central Hall to bid farewell to President Ram Nath Kovind.

President-Elect Droupadi Murmu will take oath as the 15th President of India on Monday. She will be the first tribal person to occupy the country's highest constitutional post.

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Members of Parliament also attended the farewell ceremony.

Modi had hosted a dinner in Kovind's honour on Friday. Members of the Union Cabinet, chief ministers of various states and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

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The dinner had a good representation from all parts of the country, including many Padma awardees and tribal leaders.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], July 23 (ANI): Following the arrest of West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with teacher recruitment scam, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday slammed the ruling Trinamool Congress and asked where the state government wants to take the youth of Bengal.

Speaking to ANI, Pradhan said, "Rs 21 crore cash was found at his residence. He is arrested and he is a minister -- this shows the condition of Bengal today. This is a serious matter. Where does the state government want to take the youth of Bengal? This is a government of the corrupt."

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"The condition of Bengal, that used to inspire India in the field of education, is such that High Court has to order a CBI inquiry into the (then) Education Minister following the objection of youth," added the Union Minister.

ED arrested West Bengal cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee following the raids by the central probe agency which seized Rs 20 crore in cash from the premises of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.After his arrest, the Bankshall Court in Kolkata granted two days of ED custody to Chatterjee on Saturday. However, Chatterjee developed heart pain and was later admitted to SSKM hospital.

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Notably, ED prayed before the magistrate to allow Chatterjee to be taken to Command Hospital instead of state-run SSKM. ED said that Chatterjee is a senior minister and his roots are deep in government hospitals, where he can be influential. However, the court ordered Chatterjee to be taken to SSKM Hospital.

"Partha Chatterjee (West Bengal cabinet minister and former Education Minister of the state) is not feeling well. He has developed heartache. We demanded that proper medical facilities should be given to him if ED's custody is granted," said Chatterjee's lawyer.

The arrests were made at Chatterjee's residence in Kolkata where the ED team was present since Friday.

Earlier on Friday, ED officials raided the residences of West Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari and several others and recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee.

The said amount is suspected to be the proceeds of the crime of said SSC scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines.

A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which are being ascertained, said the probe agency.

Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold have also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam. (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, July 23: Chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Yasin Malik, who is serving life term for cases including funding terrorism, has begun a hunger strike inside Tihar's jail, prison officials said on Saturday.

Malik, who is lodged in jail number 7 of the Tihar prison has alleged that his case is not being investigated properly as he commenced his hunger strike on July 22.. Malik, who was arrested shortly after the JKLF was banned in 2019 was on May 19 this year convicted by an NIA court in terror funding cases and sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25. The NIA court while sentencing Malik to life term also imposed on him a fine of Rs 10 lakh. He told the court that he did not contest the charges brought against him.

On July 15 this year, Rubaiya Sayeed, the sister of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti and daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed identified Malik in connection with her kidnapping by JKLF militants on December 8, 1989.

Rubaiya was abducted in Srinagar on December 8, 1989 and freed from captivity after five days on December 13 after the then V P Singh government at the Centre, released five terrorists in exchange. Malik is an accused in this case along with others. Yasin Maliks Conviction Exposed Pakistans Terror Factory: Ajmer Dargah Head.

The 56-year-old separatist leader has requested to physically appear when a court in Jammu hears the case on August 23. Apart from the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, Malik is also facing charges in the case of the gunning down of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officials in January 1990 in Srinagar. Malik has moved an application with the central government asking for personal appearance in this case too.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru, Jul 23 (PTI) Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa on Saturday said his son and BJP state vice-president B Y Vijayendra has the strength and capacity to win an election from anywhere but the final call has to be taken by the party high command.

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Yediyurappa, who is an eight-time MLA from Shikaripura assembly constituency in Shivamogga, said he will not contest the next assembly election but would 'suggest' the party high command to field his son.

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During a programme in Shivamogga on Friday, the Lingayat strongman said he would not contest the next election but would field his son.

The BJP stalwart reiterated what he said the previous day.

"Vijayendra is ready to contest whichever place the party high command asks him to contest. By the grace of God, he has the strength to win from every place and has built his personality accordingly. However, the final decision will be of the Prime Minister. I can only give a suggestion. We will stick to his (PM's) decision," Yediyurappa told reporters on Saturday.

According to him, during a programme the party workers had put pressure on him to contest from Shikaripura again but he declined and proposed his son's name as the contestant from the BJP in his constituency for next year's polls.

"I told my party workers that I will not fight the next election but I will ask Vijayendra to contest the poll," the veteran BJP leader said.

The former chief minister said there was pressure put on him on a daily basis to field Vijayendra from Mysuru or Chamarajanagar district.

BJP insiders said Vijayendra had played a crucial role during the KR Pet assembly bypoll and helped the party win from the seat for the first time in the Vokkaliga bastion.

Yediyurappa hails from Bookanakere in KR Pet constituency in Mandya district but the party could never win the election from there.

In July 2019, K C Narayana Gowda, who is now a minister in the Basavaraj Bommai government defected from Janata Dal (Secular), resigned from the assembly, contested the by-election on the BJP ticket from KR Pet and won the seat.

Vijayendra had also desired to contest from Varuna constituency in Mysuru in 2018 on the BJP ticket when Congress stalwart Siddaramaiah vacated his seat for his son S Yathindra to contest as a Congress candidate. However, the BJP leadership did not entertain his wish.

The other son of Yediyurappa, B Y Raghavendra is an MP from Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tehran [Iran], July 23 (ANI/Xinhua): At least 21 people were killed and three were missing in flood-related incidents in Iran, according to media reports on Saturday.

Quoting the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Mehdi Valipour, Xinhua News Agency reported that 89 people were stuck in the flood waters, and that the rescue operation will continue until the rest of the missing people are found.

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Speaking to the semi-official Mehr News Agency earlier in the day, Estahban Governor Yousef Kargar said 13 of the recovered bodies have been identified.

He noted that so far, 55 people, who were stuck in areas surrounded by the flood, have been rescued and that a rescue operation is underway.

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Quoting Director-General of Crisis Management Department Khalil Abdollahi, IRNA news agency reported that heavy rain near Soltan Shahbaz village in Estahban caused flooding from Rodbal dam.

The provincial official went on to say that instantly following the natural disaster some officials including the governor, district manager, and relief operation forces were dispatched to the area.

"55 people were rescued by military and relief operation forces", he said, adding that 15 cars were submerged by the floods, 12 of which were pulled out.

Estahban is located 174 kilometers south of Shiraz, the capital city of Fars Province. (ANI/Xinhua)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Protest demanding justice for the violence against Hindu communities during Durga Puja festival in Dhaka. (Photo Credit - Reuters)

Dhaka [Bangladesh], July 23 (ANI): Condemning the attack on the Hindu community and the ongoing killing of Hindu teachers and rape of Hindu women in Bangladesh, a protest march was held on Friday in Chittagong, a local media reported.

Taking to Twitter, Hindu Sangbad, local media said, "Demonstrations by various Hindu organizations in Shahbagh and across the country were also held peacefully in protest against the barbaric radical Jihadi attack on Hindus in Narail Sahapara."

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Earlier, Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) condemned the communal act and said that the violence in a "secular country" is not acceptable under any circumstances.

In its order, the commission directed the Home Ministry to probe whether there was negligence in preventing the situation of unwanted attack and whether the police played a proper role in controlling the situation, as per media reports.

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The human rights body's remarks come after reports of Hindu minorities being attacked in Bangladesh came to light amid rumours of alleged Facebook posts slandering Islam.

On July 15, the homes of the Hindu minorities were set on fire in the Sahapara area of Lohagara, Narail, reported Daily Star.

The mobs went on a rampage after Friday prayers, saying that an 18-year-old man from the neighbourhood hurt their religious feelings on Facebook.

Locals alleged the post was made by Akash Saha, an 18-year-old college student in the village. They gathered after Juma prayers and protested in front of the student's house, demanding his arrest, reported Daily Star.

As he was missing, the mobs spread to neighbouring homes of Hindu minorities-- homes of people who had nothing to do with the Facebook post.

One of the victims of the rampage, Deepali Rani Saha, shared the ordeals of vandalization whose house was burned down, reported Daily Star.

"After one group looted all our valuables, another group came and found our door open. As there was nothing left to loot, they set our home on fire."

"I don't know how long this threat of violence will haunt us. Who will give us justice? Who will give us security? ... If I were in the house while they set it on fire, I would have died. God saved me. But is this any way to survive? All I have now is the sari on my body," she added.

Deepali's property was among the three homes and dozens of shops that were vandalized or burnt down in Sahapara village, reported Daily Star.

The police detained Akash's father Ashoke Saha on Friday to "bring the situation under control", while they prepared to file a case under the Digital Security Act against Akash.

None of the attackers has been arrested yet, reported Daily Star. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Colombo [Sri Lanka], July 23 (ANI): The European Union (EU) expects the newly formed Sri Lankan government to work in full compliance with its GSP+ commitments.

According to the statement issued by the EU, over the years, the Union and its member states have provided more than EUR 1 billion in assistance to the Sri Lankan people. And the re-introduction in 2017 of preferential access to the European Single Market under the GSP+ scheme has been essential for Sri Lanka's economic development. "The EU expects the new Government to work in full compliance with its GSP+ commitments," it added.

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The statement further reads that the current and future cooperation programmes (EUR 70 million) are being aligned with Sri Lanka's most pressing needs, Colombo Gazette reported.

"In addition to delivering medicines through the EU's Joint Civil Protection Mechanism, member states and the EU are closely monitoring food security on the island in order to fund actions targeting the most vulnerable communities," the EU further said.

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Condemning the unwarranted use of force against peaceful demonstrators, the European Union (EU) has stressed the importance of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

The remarks came after a large military group, along with the police, launched a raid on Friday near the Presidential Secretariat and the protest site set up at Galle Face to clear the area of protesters. Several arrests were made.

The EU said that the urgency of the domestic situation requires the swift establishment and implementation of a structured plan of reforms in order to return the country's economy back onto a sustainable path. In this context, it is essential to safeguard human rights and the rule of law while fostering good and inclusive governance and promoting reconciliation efforts, according to Colombo Gazette.

The statement further added that the EU will continue to support all efforts in favour of the Sri Lankan people, aimed at returning to more stability and economic recovery and advancing reconciliation agenda, in full respect of democratic values.

As Sri Lanka scrambles to get back on track after the election of a new President, the people in the country, who are facing severe economic hardship, are still uncertain about the future.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled abroad after his palace was stormed by angry protesters amid the unprecedented economic crisis, had resigned from their post. And later on, Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as President of the country. While Dinesh Gunawardena was sworn in as the prime minister of Sri Lanka.

After his official residence in 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.

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 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)

(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 23 (ANI): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan have called for peaceful protests tonight against the outcomes of the Chief Minister (CM) Hamza Shahbaz's 'surprising' victory in Punjab.

The PTI chairman was addressing the public after Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N's) candidate Hamza Shahbaz retained the post of Punjab CM against Pervez Elahi in the run-off election held in the Punjab Assembly. Hamza's victory was secured after the deputy speaker rejected Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q's) 10 votes.

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He was surprised by the happenings in the Punjab Assembly today. "Everyone is now looking to the Supreme Court (SC). Parliament has the power of morality, not the army, democracy is based on morality."

Khan also lashed at Asif Zardari, Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) leader, charged with allegations of 'horse-trading' ahead of the Punjab Chief Minister (CM) election.

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"Asif Zardari, the famous bandit of the country, has been robbing the country for thirty years. Funeral of democracy is taken out by Zardari when he uses the money of people of Sindh to buy souls," said the former PM.

He criticised that strict action would be taken against the horse-trading of lawmakers in any other society. "I want to appeal to the nation to record their peaceful protest against the Punjab Assembly developments tonight."

Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shahbaz was reelected as the chief minister (CM) of Punjab after the votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were rejected by the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker.

Pervaiz Elahi - joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q - received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. However, 10 votes of PML-Q were cancelled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176.

Meanwhile, former Pakistan Foreign Minister and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi also lambasted the decision of the Deputy Speaker.

"Absolute farce in Punjab but what can one expect from this corrupt govt who continues to go to any lengths to stay in power, even if it means the people of Pakistan suffer. This ruling is against the Constitution & rejection of people's voice. We are going to the Supreme Court for justice," said Qureshi.

The PTI chief said that no action was taken against the horse-trading of lawmakers during the last Senate polls despite the footage of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Yousaf Raza Gillani's son having surfaced.

"We have defeated the state machinery, all political parties and the corrupt election commission. When this CM Punjab election was underway, Asif Ali Zardari was present in the province. I was fully aware of the trade of consciences by Zardari by using the stolen public funds."

"These people are mafias, not politicians. I am surprised after witnessing what happened in the Punjab Assembly today despite the clear direction of Article 63A which defines the enforcement of the parliamentary party's decision. PTI had also sent the letter against the 25 turncoats through the parliamentary leader."

Imran Khan censured that he does not know the eligibility of the Punjab Assembly's deputy speaker as his letter was rejected by the parliament but Dost Mazari used a letter in favour of Hamza Shahbaz.

Khan said that PTI remained peaceful despite the illegal use of power by the government on May 25. He added that PTI ran a successful election campaign during Punjab by-polls and the nation voted for the political party.

The PTI chief said that the nation was angry after the imposition of corrupt rulers, back-to-back crises and destruction of the national economy.

"Economic crisis is going to increase by what happened today. Today I want that my Nation registers a protest against this Zulm! All eyes are on Supreme Court, article 63- is clear," he said.

Khan also talked about the alleged "foreign conspiracy" which led to the downfall of his government

"My government was overthrown by foreign conspiracy and the people came out. We were brutally tortured but our movement continued peacefully and the people came out in the by-elections which was a historic thing," said Imran Khan.

Meanwhile, Protests in different cities of the country against the illegal bulldozing of majority voting rights in the Punjab Assembly erupted at the call of Imran Khan in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur AND Gujrat

"Once again the mandate of the people was killed. The law was openly violated. People reached Lahore Liberty Chowk," PTI tweeted.

"Once again the mandate of the people was killed. The law was openly violated. People reached Peshawar Hastingri Chowk and registered protest," added PTI. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tokyo [Japan], July 23 (ANI): A annual report released by the Japanese defence ministry has identified Russia and China as a major threat, stating that the deepening military cooperation between the two, including joint air and navy drills, is raising security concerns in the region.

In the report released Friday, the Defense Ministry noted that the international community is currently facing its greatest trial since WWII.

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"It is not an exaggeration to say that we have entered a new period of crisis in the twenty-first century. Russia's aggression against Ukraine has shocked the world, with the loss of countless innocent civilians' lives giving rise to deep indignation and grief," the report said.

"In particular, China continues to unilaterally change or attempt to change the status quo by coercion in the East China Sea and South China Sea. The country's ties with Russia, an aggressor nation, have deepened in recent years, with joint navigations and flights being conducted in the areas surrounding Japan by both Chinese and Russian vessels and aircraft. Furthermore, China has made clear that it would not hesitate to unify Taiwan by force, further increasing tensions in the region," the report added.

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This defiance of international order is not just Europe's problem. "As strategic competition between nations becomes more apparent against the backdrop of changes to the global power balance, the existing order is being exposed to serious challenges, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, which is at the center of this competition."

The report also raised the issue of North Korea's ballistic missile launch and provocations toward the international community.

"It has also defended Russia in respect of the latter's aggression against Ukraine, asserting that the fault for this situation lies with the United States and other Western countries," the report added.

The defence report goes on to state that Japan is currently working on drawing up a new National Security Strategy under which the Kishida government will establish new strategies boldly and creatively.

The report says that the government will think flexibly beyond existing paradigms in order to preemptively deter changes to the status quo by force and to also be fully prepared for modern warfare, including information warfare and cyber warfare, both seen during Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

"To constantly defend Japan in a resolute manner and ensure continued regional and international peace and prosperity, as well as international order based on universal values, which has come to support this peace and prosperity thus far, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) and the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) will continue to decisively deal with any and all difficulties to push through this time of trial," it added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Moscow [Russia], July 23 (ANI): Russian President Vladimir Putin extended his greetings to Droupadi Murmu for becoming the 15th President of India and hoped for further development of the Russian-Indian political dialogue and productive cooperation in different areas under her leadership.

"We attach much importance to the relations of special privileged strategic partnership with India. I hope your activities as the head of state will promote the further development of the Russian-Indian political dialogue and productive cooperation in different areas for the benefit of our friendly nations and in the interests of stronger international stability and security," an official statement from the Indian Embassy in Russia said on Friday.

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Meanwhile, wishes poured in from the political fraternity across party lines on the victory of Murmu who will be India's first tribal president.

Members of the Sri Lanka political fraternity also congratulated Murmu on her victory.

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Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) parliamentarian Dullas Alahaperuma, who was defeated in the presidential polls on Wednesday, took to Twitter to congratulate Murmu.

"Congratulations Madam Prez #DraupadiMurmu! India's youngest president to date & the 1st to be born after independence. Electing 1st tribal prez, is a remarkable feat for India, the world's most ethnically & culturally diverse country. Wish 2nd female prez of India all the very best," he wrote.

President-elect Droupadi Murmu will be sworn in as India's 15th President on July 25 in the Central Hall of Parliament. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana will administer her the oath of office.

To facilitate members to attend the ceremony, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will meet that day at 2 pm instead of 11 am on the day.

The term of President Ram Nath Kovind comes to an end on Sunday.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday issued a certificate of the election to Droupadi Murmu as the next President of India. She defeated opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential election.

Droupdi Murmu received 2,824 votes with a value 6,76,803 while Sinha secured 1,877 votes with a value 3,80,177.

She will be the first member from the tribal community, and the second woman, to hold the top constitutional post in the country.

Droupadi Murmu was the first woman governor of Jharkhand and served in the post from 2015 to 2021.

Born in a poor tribal family in a village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Droupadi Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances. She taught at Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur.

She has also served as a minister in Odisha. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Colombo [Sri Lanka], July 23 (ANI): Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe raised unofficial concerns over the statements made by some diplomats about the military operation carried out by the security forces to clear the Presidential Secretariat area where the protestors were gathered.

He urged the Colombo-based diplomats to check with the relevant officials before making any statements as the reports when picked up by social media could damage the country's image globally, media reports said.

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US Ambassador to Colombo Julie Chun on Friday expressed deep concerns about the actions taken by Sri Lankan authorities against protestors at Galle Face in the middle of the night.Taking to Twitter, Chun asked for restraint by authorities and immediate access to medical attention for those injured.

"Deeply concerned about actions taken against protestors at Galle Face in the middle of the night. We urge restraint by authorities and immediate access to medical attention for those injured," Ambassador Chung tweeted.

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A large number of protestors confronted armed security personnel as the latter set up barricades outside the premises of the Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.

The President made these remarks in a meeting where he invited the Colombo-based diplomats to the President's Office.

According to Sri Lanka's local media outlet, the Daily Mirror the diplomats were briefed by the President on the military operations conducted to clear the protestors from the Presidential Secretariat area.

The EU Embassy in Sri Lanka also underlined the need of upholding the freedom of opinion and expression and individual rights of Sri Lankan citizens in the process of a democratic, peaceful and orderly transition.

In the meeting, the diplomats were requested to check with the authorities as well as to clarify matters when making statements in the future.

A New York-based rights group has condemned the actions on peaceful protesters in Sri Lanka that led to injury to more than 50 people and the arrest of at least 9 others. This condemnation comes after Sri Lankan security forces forcibly dispersed people at a peaceful protest site in the early hours of July 22.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office on July 21, should immediately order the security forces to cease all unlawful use of force against protesters, release everyone arbitrarily detained, and investigate and appropriately prosecute those responsible for abuses, said Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Foreign governments and multilateral agencies that have sought to address Sri Lanka's economic crisis should emphasize to the new government that respect for human rights is critical for economic recovery.

"Just one day after taking office, President Wickremesinghe oversaw a brutal assault by security forces on peaceful protesters in the heart of Colombo," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "This action sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law."Several hundred police, army, navy, and air force personnel carried out the July 22 raid.

Hours earlier, protest organizers had announced that they would leave the protest site the following day. Using batons, the security forces attacked demonstrators who had remained at the protest site, along with several journalists and two lawyers who were there. Protesters told HRW that air force personnel detained a small group of people for several hours and severely beat them before they were released.

A person who was there at around 1 am, when the security forces attacked the protest site, said: "Some people were badly injured. Since we were surrounded by security forces, we couldn't get the ambulance inside [the site]." He said the first ambulance arrived at about 7 am.

"There was one person who got beaten very badly, he couldn't even stand. He got to the hospital after five hours." He said that the security forces appeared to be targeting perceived leaders of the protest movement: "They pointed out some specific people and they took them in." Others were beaten but not arrested.

Nine people who were arrested were produced in court on July 22 and released on bail. A Bar Association of Sri Lanka statement said that they included "at least one lawyer and several journalists. . . The use of the Armed Forces to suppress civilian protesters on the very first day in office of the new President is despicable and will have serious consequences on our country's social, economic, and political stability."

Since the beginning of 2022, Sri Lanka has experienced an escalating economic crisis and the government has defaulted on its foreign loans. The United Nations warned that 5.7 million people "require immediate humanitarian assistance." With many Sri Lankans experiencing extreme shortages of essentials including food and fuel, peaceful protests began in March. The protests led then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign on May 9, and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to flee the country on July 13 and resign the following day.Wickremasinghe became acting president, and parliament elected him as the new president on July 20 with the support of the Rajapaksas' political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. He had previously described some protesters as "fascists" and declared a state of emergency on July 18.

On July 21, Wickremesinghe issued an order to "call out with effect from July 22, 2022 all the members of the Armed Forces . . . for the maintenance of public order."

Under emergency powers, the president can override, amend, or suspend a provision of any law, except the constitution. Emergency powers can be used to detain people while bypassing the ordinary process of the courts and have repeatedly been used in the past to enable human rights violations.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka said the state of emergency was "inappropriate" and called for it to be withdrawn. It called the military attack on peaceful protesters "brutal and despicable." Diplomats from countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada, as well as the UN and European Union, also condemned the assault on the protest site. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington [US], July 23 (ANI): Amid the global food crisis, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power will be visiting India from July 25-27.

"Administrator Power will travel to India on July 25-27. The Administrator will meet with food security and climate experts, civil society, and government officials to discuss the global food security crisis, and the US-India development partnership," read a USAID press release.

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During the visit, Power will underscore the United States' enduring partnership with the Government of India and the Indian people.

She will participate in meetings and events demonstrating US commitment to partnering with India, the world's largest democracy, as a global development leader in addressing some of the world's most pressing development challenges, such as addressing the global food security crisis, tackling the climate crisis, ending the COVID-19 pandemic, and supporting countries in need, added USAID release.

Also Read | Pindi Girl Is Home! Reena Verma, 90-Year Old Pune Woman Warmly Welcomed to Ancestral Home in Pakistans Rawalpindi, Heartwarming Video Goes Viral.

The visit to India comes amid global food crisis due to Russia-Ukraine war.

Earlier, the USAID chief 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.

Power 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.

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.

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 products that might have soothed markets," she said in her speech. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru, July 22: The Karnataka government on Friday suspended two engineers attached to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in connection with substandard road work done during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bengaluru on June 20.

Bengaluru Civic bodies, BBMP and Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) had come under scanner after substandard work of roads was discussed at the national level embarrassing BJP top brass. Engineers Day 2021 in India: Know Date, History and Significance of Day Honouring M. Visvesvaraya, Respected Indian Civil Engineer.

The PMO had also sought clarification from Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's office regarding the issue. BBMP had issued notices to engineers and the matter was investigated. The substandard work was proved in the probe. Assistant Executive Engineer A. Ravi and Assistant Engineer I.K. Vishwas were suspended following investigation.

The asphalting work taken up for Mariyappanapalya Main Road in Bengaluru University Campus was substandard and the layer of the road could be removed just by hand.

Party insiders confirmed that PM Modi was upset with the news. He was also concerned about the development as the party has been trying to create a clean image in view of the upcoming Assembly polls.

Considering the seriousness of the issue, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had instructed BBMP Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the caving in of the road that was laid just ahead of Prime Minister Modi's visit to the city.

The road near the Dr. BR Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) was laid just a couple of days before Modi's visit to inaugurate the BASE campus. Also Read: Mumbai Police's Dancing Cop Amol Kamble Dubs Pushpa's 'Jhukega Nahi' Dialogue, Watch Viral Video of Social Media Star.

The Karnataka High Court had criticised the Bengaluru civic agencies saying that the condition of roads will improve if only the PM and President visit Bengaluru often. The court also questioned if the PM should have to travel on different roads each time for agencies to do their duty.

BBMP drew flak for spending Rs 23 crore for the facelift of 14 km roads in the state capital ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit.

The asphalted roads developed cracks at many locations and in some parts the roads even caving in, exposing the public to danger.

The authorities had developed Kengeri to Kommaghatta (7 km), Mysuru Road (0.15 km), a stretch after Hebbal flyover (2.4 km), Tumakuru Road (0.90 km) and roads in Bengaluru University campus (3.6 km). BBMP also repaired maidans, fixed street lights, painted roads and kerbs ahead of PM Modi's visit. The work was done on war-footing amid rains.

Sources said that the contractors had allegedly thrown all guidelines to the air while construction of roads ahead of the PM's visit.

It is alleged that instead of emulsion, kerosene was used, which brings down the costs greatly, and bitumen, which has to be laid at the 110 to 140 degree temperature, was laid at below 90 degree temperature. The responsible engineer, who should have ensured the quality, turned a blind eye, sources said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2022 02:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
After 18 days, eight of the 19 Assam workers, who went missing near the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh's Kurung Kumey district, were rescued from a jungle, officials said on Saturday night.
West Bengal Commerce & Industries minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee is upset over not being able to communicate with party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee since his arrest on Saturday morning by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials probing the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam.
A 30-year-old woman was gang-raped inside the electrical maintenance staff hut near the railway station in Delhi on Thursday night, July 22 by railway employees. Four Indian Railways staff were arrested on Saturday morning in this case. Further investigation is underway.

New Delhi Railway Station gang rape case The victim, aged 30, was raped in the electrical maintenance staff hut at Railway Station platform 8-9 Thursday night. All 4 accused are Railway Employees in Electrical Department & have been arrested: DCP Railway Harendra Singh pic.twitter.com/qKsSDVQpRY  ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
Washington, July 23: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg are set to be deposed in a Cambridge Analytica lawsuit, the media reported.

According to a court document, Zuckerberg will have to answer questions for up to six hours, while Sandberg could face up to five hours of deposition, reports The Verge. Facebook Won't Tell You If You're Part of Massive Data Breach

Sandberg is stepping down from her key role after 14 years as the company's second-highest ranking executive and the person who will replace her as Meta COO will also need to be present at the hearing.

"The lawsuit, which could wind up as a class action case if a judge agrees to it, alleges that Facebook illegally shared user data with third parties and didn't adequately protect that data from being abused by bad actors," the report said late on Friday.

The depositions are set to happen sometime before September 20.

The deposition comes as part of a lawsuit filed in a California court on behalf of Facebook users impacted by Meta's partnership with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook gained access to the private data of 67 million Facebook users, which was used to profile voters.

In another case, amid claims that Sandberg misused company resources, Meta lawyers are investigating the outgoing COO.

The investigation goes back "several years" and is scrutinising Meta employees' work on Sandberg's personal projects, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

When Sandberg first announced her departure from the company, WSJ reported the company was examining whether she had improperly used company resources in planning her upcoming wedding.

Meta lawyers are reportedly looking at Facebook staff's involvement with Sandberg's foundation Lean In, and their work to help her promote her most recent book, "Option B".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2022 12:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking a page out of the Republican playbook by signing a bill into law that will allow private citizens to sue gun manufacturers. It is modeled after Texas's recent anti-abortion law.

According to CNN, California Senate Bill 1327 takes its inspiration from the new Texas law, which allows private citizens to sue abortion providers or those who assist any pregnant person in obtaining an abortion after as early as six weeks of pregnancy.

The decision came when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Texas abortion ban to remain in effect. Newsom was "outraged" with the Supreme Court decision and directed his staff to draft a similar bill, this time regulating guns.

Newsom Acknowledges New Law May Likely Be Challenged in Court

The Hill reported that the law will award at least $10,000 for each illegal weapon or ghost gun identified in the lawsuit. Ghost guns are homemade guns that are made to avoid tracing, much like the one used to assassinate former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Dealers who illegally sell guns to persons under 21 years of age could also be sued by private citizens for a similar amount.

Newsom signed the bill at Santa Monica College, where another mass shooting occurred. This happened in 2013 when a gunman used an unserialized AR-15 rifle to shoot and kill five people.

However, the Democratic governor of California acknowledged this will be challenged in court and might even be litigated in the Supreme Court. "There is no way they can deny us the right to move in this direction," he said in a speech after signing the bill on Friday.

While it has been lauded by gun control advocates, the ACLU wrote a letter to the California state legislature last May criticizing the bill. They stated that the law "would set a dangerous legal precedent." They argued that this, along with the Texas abortion law, would legitimize these types of laws. The letter stated that these laws are running around the essential function of the courts, that is, to ensure that constitutional rights are protected.

READ NEXT: January 6 Hearing Day 8 Highlights: From Donald Trump's Inaction to Josh Hawley Running Away From Same Mob He Helped Incite

California Strengthening Gun Control Stance

According to ABC News, California currently has the strongest and strictest gun control laws in the country. It also has the lowest firearm fatality rates in the country as well. With this new law, California aims to strengthen that further and protect its citizens.

It is known as SB 1327 and is the latest gun control law signed by Newsom. It joins the likes of AB 2571, which prohibits the marketing of firearms to minors, and AB 1594, which allows the state and local governments to sue gun manufacturers that do not follow the state's safety and marketing standards. AB1594 takes inspiration from the New York state law, which also allowed state and local governments to sue gun manufacturers for liability.

During a press briefing, Newsom stated that no other state in the United States is doing more on gun safety than California. He added that they are setting the tone for the rest of the country with this new bill.

READ NEXT: Texas School Shooting: Police Chief Could Be Fired After Massive Failure During Uvalde Attack

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Newsom signs gun law modeled after Texas abortion ban - Los Angeles Times
Monkeypox in the U.S. is threatening more lives as it has already affected children in California.

According to FOX 8, a toddler who lives in the Golden State was stricken with the virus, and another one was an infant who is not a resident of California. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that the infant is not a U.S. citizen.

CBS News reported that the infant was "transiting through" the Washington D.C. area when the test was done.

In a statement, CDC underscored that both cases are likely a result of a "household transmission." The agency also highlighted that both patients have no contact with each other.

The identities of the children were not mentioned by the authorities. However, officials emphasized that both children are in good health and are receiving treatment.

The details of new cases of monkeypox from a California child and another infant were disclosed by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky at a virtual event on Friday.

"We became aware of these cases just this week, and we've been working with the jurisdictions to understand more about these cases," CDC's Jennifer McQuiston told reporters on Friday.

The CDC previously warned that children, especially those under eight years old, are at "especially increased risk" for severe monkeypox.

The U.S. is not the only country that has recorded monkeypox virus cases among children. Authorities from Spain on Wednesday announced that they had detected the virus in a seven-month-old baby, who likely caught the virus from the parents. Meanwhile, a boy under 10 years old in the Netherlands had also caught the virus.

READ NEXT: Mexico Monkeypox Case Confirmed! [Symptoms, Transmission, Potential Vaccines, and Treatment]

California Monkeypox: Golden State Record Over 300 Cases

The CDC has recorded 356 monkeypox cases in California as of Friday, placing the Golden State second among the seven states that have recorded hundreds of cases.

New York still holds the record for most cases of monkeypox in the U.S., with 900 patients as of Friday. Florida comes third with 247 cases, followed by Illinois with 238 cases. In Georgia, 211 caught monkeypox, while the District of Columbia records 110. Meanwhile, Texas comes as the seventh state with 107 cases.

As of Friday, the CDC recorded the total monkeypox cases in the U.S. at 2,891.

Monkeypox in the U.S.: Ex-FDA Commissioner Slams Response to the Disease

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a recent interview with CNN that the response to monkeypox is like the response on COVID-19. Gottlieb pointed out that there was a lack of testing early on, and not enough vaccines were distributed to the community.

"We could have gotten control of this if we had been more aggressive up front," Gottlieb pointed out.

However, the CDC acknowledged that they have work to do in terms of response but contended that they believe in the possibility of containing monkeypox "through education and increased testing and access to vaccines."

READ NEXT: Joe Biden Tests Positive for COVID-19; Is 'Close Contact' VP Kamala Harris Infected?

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Monkeypox Cases On The Rise In The U.S. - From NBC News
Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell is one of the unsung heroes of the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. He also faced insulting cries from the Pro-Trump mob as he was defending the Capitol. Some of the insults came because he is an immigrant.

Sgt. Gonell was born in the Dominican Republic and earned his U.S. citizenship. When the insurrection happened, Trump supporters yelled that he was not an American, and used "immigrant" as an insult. Like all the other Capitol Police officers, he was also called a traitor.

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell Lashes Out as Politicians Remain Silent

Gonell, 43, spoke to the Associated Press during a phone interview. There, he said that he regrets that an immigrant like him is denouncing what happened while politicians born in the United States continue to remain silent.

He said added that he, an immigrant, took his oath to defend the country and the constitution more seriously than those who were born in the U.S. that did not have the courage to step forward. He implored them to say what they know and name those involved in the assault without being forced to with a subpoena.

While he was not born in the United States, he had received plenty of acclaim following his heroic actions during the January 6 Capitol Insurrections. According to ABC 4 Utah, he became one of the Capitol Police's most recognizable figures following the attack, He testified before Congress last year, and has been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The Carnegie Corporation also honored him as a "Great Immigrant." He is also a visible presence during the January 6 Hearings.

Sgt. Gonell also said that many Republicans who see him in the Capitol often try to avoid him. They do not even greet him or thank him for his service.

READ NEXT: January 6 Hearing Day 8 Highlights: From Donald Trump's Inaction to Josh Hawley Running Away From Same Mob He Helped Incite

The Physical and Mental Trauma of Defending the Capitol from Trump Supporters

Sgt. Gonell was one of the officers wounded during the attack. He was hit with an American flag pole and a bat. When he fell to the ground, he was dragged off by a group to be beaten while getting insulted. During his testimony before House investigators last year, he said that he could feel himself losing oxygen and thought he was going to die, as rioters tried crushing him while he was defending the Capitol entrance.

He also talked about the mental trauma he faced. He said he spent several minutes in his car thinking whether he should come to work or not. The Capitol police officer also admitted he avoids the entrance because this is where he and his fellow officers were attacked and beaten.

Following his heroic actions in defending the entrance, he passed his exam to have his promotion to lieutenant. However, doctors recommended that he retire instead, because of his injuries due to the Capitol attack. He underwent surgery on his right foot and left shoulder, and he cannot rotate that left shoulder anymore.

He was born in Guayubin, Monte Cristi in the Dominican Republic. He, along with his mother and brother, moved to New York when he was 12. In 1999, he joined the U.S. Army before being sent to Iraq in 2004. He then joined the Capitol Police Department in 2006. Finally, during the events after January 6, 2021, he would be branded a hero.

According to NBC Affiliate KXAN, over 100 other Capitol police were injured in the attack. Two officers committed suicide in the days that followed, while one other officer collapsed and died of natural causes while engaging with the rioters.

READ MORE: January 6 Hearings: Former Aide Says Donald Trump Tried to Join the Crowd, Grab the Steering Wheel From Secret Service Agent

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: 'They Pretend Not To See Me': Capitol Police Officer Injured On Jan. 6 Laments GOP Silence - MSNBC
After Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, California Governor Gavin Newsom is now taking aim at Texas Governor Greg Abbott for his stance on abortion.

Newsom is reportedly launching a direct strike against Abbott for his recent abortion laws following his paid ad that aired in Florida during the July 4 weekend, and it urged Americans to move from Florida to California.

Newsom is making daring initiatives with his newly introduced gun laws in California. While some of his recent actions were reduced to only "knee-jerk reactions," speculations about his bid for the White House in 2024 are growing, analysts claims.

Gavin Newsom Inks California Gun Laws

Gavin Newsom recently approved stricter gun regulations in California. With eight new and more detailed gun safety bills, the governor has been swift in curbing gun control, ownership, selling, marketing, and prohibitions in California.

Newsom on Friday inked one of its landmark legislation - the California Senate Bill 1327. The newly signed bill allows private citizens to pursue civil action against gun manufacturers, distributors, transporters, or importers of assault weapons and ghost guns, which are particularly banned in the state.

According to CNN, the new law is modeled after the controversial law in Texas that allowed residents to sue abortion providers for allowing abortion after six weeks of pregnancy in the state. The signed law came weeks after Newsom's highly publicized attack against Ron DeSantis on television.

READ NEXT: California: Gavin Newsom Approves New Law for Citizens to Sue Manufacturers, Distributors of Assault Weapons in State

Gavin Newsom's Ad Against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

The Fourth of July was not spared on Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis' infamous national quarrel on key issues. The California governor surprised everyone after airing an ad on national television, urging Floridians to move to his state after declaring that "freedom is under attack" in Florida.

The 30-second Newsom ad in Florida was a campaign video for his upcoming gubernatorial race in California, but it was only aired in DeSantis' home state.

Newsweek reported that Newsom's real motivation behind the ad was DeSantis' threat of fining Special Olympics $27.5 million if it did not stop its COVID-19 vaccine mandate before the 2022 USA games in Orlando in June.

Gavin Newsom vs. Greg Abbott on Abortion

After buying airtime in Florida to knock Ron DeSantis, Gavin Newsom is now onto his next opponent, Greg Abbott. NBC News reported that Newsom is running full-page newspaper ads Friday, launching a direct attack on the Texas governor.

"If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. If Governor Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow California's lead," the ad reads that will run in Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle, and El Paso Times.

His two consecutive tirades on the two Republican governors are perceived to be the governor's way of slowly creeping into a bigger arena - the upcoming presidential elections in 2024.

Gavin Newsom in 2024 White House Race?

Despite his repeated declarations on how he would not be running for the Oval Office in the upcoming elections, the California governor is presenting himself as an alternative to President Joe Biden.

"He's building a profile as an alternative on the left to this aggressive policymaking we've seen by Republicans in recent years," California State University Political Science Professor Kim Nalder told New York Times.

With Biden's "souring" democratic alliance, it could be apparent that Gavin Newsom might present himself as a standard bearer for the Democratic Party in 2024.

READ MORE: Joe Biden Tests Positive for COVID-19; Is 'Close Contact' VP Kamala Harris Infected?

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Ivan Korrs

WATCH: Is California Governor Gavin Newsom Planning to Run for President? - From ABC 10
The January 6 hearings have been recently focusing on former President Donald Trump's actions and inactions as the Capitol riot unfolded.

The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack has already hosted eight public hearings since June 10.

During the hearings, the January 6 panel had presented evidence suggesting Trump's "dereliction of duty" that day of the attack and heard a testimony that detailed the former president's behavior when his supporters breached Capitol Hill, Business Insider reported.

However, Matthew Schmidt, an associate professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven, told Insider that the panel had succeeded so far in showing Trump's mindset or manipulation methods and less of his actions.

"My big takeaway is that Donald Trump is able to do what he does because he's a gaslighter... Trump is a master gaslighter," Schmidt told the outlet.

According to Insider, gaslighting, a term that has grown in colloquial usage in recent years, is a form of psychological manipulation that involves sowing doubts about one's perception of reality by distorting facts and truths.

Schmidt noted that Trump's acts of omission during and after the Capitol riot were his own form of "gaslighting." The political expert added that the inclusion of "stay peaceful" in Trump's tweet amid the Capitol attack calls into question the real message he was aiming to send.

"'Stay peaceful' is gaslighting... It could mean 'stop attacking' because attacking is the opposite of peace, or it could mean 'invade the Capitol, but stay peaceful as you do it'," Schmidt said.

Donald Trump has reportedly refused to call off the attack for hours. He also refused to take the advice of his family, friends, advisers, and staff to immediately issue a statement instructing his supporters to evacuate the Capitol and condemn the January 6 violence.

READ NEXT: Jan. 6 Hearings: Donald Trump Could Face Multiple Criminal Referrals to DOJ -Rep. Liz Cheney

January 6 Hearings on Donald Trump

The January 6 committee resumed with its eighth public hearing on Thursday that mainly focused on what the former president was doing while the insurrection was happening.

The panel also looked at what was happening around him. The committee showed that Trump did not only fail to act but chose not to do anything as rioters breached the Capitol.

CNN News reported that several witnesses who were inside the White House and had first-hand knowledge of what was happening testified that Trump did not place a single phone call to law enforcement or national security officials.

The panel also revealed that interviews with senior law enforcement, military leaders, D.C. local government officials, and former Vice President Mike Pence's staff showed that they did not hear anything from the president as the attack unfolded. The committee said that this inaction is tantamount to dereliction of duty.

During the testimony of former White House press aide Sarah Matthews, she revealed that Trump resisted calling for peace.

Matthews said she went to her boss, then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and urged her to tell Trump that he needed to condemn the violence.

The former press secretary then left to ask Trump to calm things down, only to hear from him that he had sent a tweet, but it did not call for peace. She then told Matthews in a "hushed tone" that Trump did not "want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet."

Reports said it was not until Ivanka Trump suggested that her father tweet out the phrase "stay peaceful" that he finally agreed. Matthews said that Trump's refusal to act and to condemn the violence that day was "indefensible."

Donald Trump Reacts on January 6 Hearing

Donald Trump has posted a statement on his social media site Truth Social after the January 6 hearing on Thursday. Trump accused the January 6 panel of spreading "lies," New York Post reported.

"So many lies and misrepresentations by the corrupt and highly partisan Unselect Committee... The Unselects are embarrassed by their 'performance' tonight!" the former president said.

In his angry barrage of posts, Trump also attacked the other individuals who have questioned him or are opposed to his politics, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Rep. Liz Cheney, and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump alleged that Pelosi had turned down his offer to send 10,000 National Guard troops to Washington before the riot and that the "unselect committee" had not addressed this issue. However, there is no evidence that the former president or the White House made such an offer or request for troops.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Mocks Joe Biden After Being Sanctioned by Russia, Says He Could Talk to Vladimir Putin to Prevent World War III

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: January 6 Hearing: Donald Trump Spurned Aides' Pleas to Call off Capitol Mob - From WFAA
The U.S. Department of State revealed a list of corrupt officials on Friday. One of the biggest names included in the list is former Paraguay President Horacio Manuel Cartes.

According to Associated Press, Cartes was included in the list "for his involvement in significant corruption." The former president has been previously investigated for his alleged participation in money laundering operations.

Former Paraguay President Horacio Manuel Cartes Obstructed a Major International Investigation

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as president, Horacio Manuel Cartes "obstructed a major international investigation into transnational crime" to protect himself.

Blinken added that Cartes also did it to protect his "criminal associate from potential prosecution and political damage."

Blinken noted that the former president's actions undermined the stability of the democratic institutions in Paraguay. The Secretary of State also said that Cartes had some involvement with several "foreign terrorist organizations."

However, Blinken's statement did not elaborate on Cartes' alleged involvement with these terrorist organizations. The corruption list also included the president's three adult children, Juan Pablo Cartes Montana, Sofia Cartes Montana and Maria Sol Cartes Montana.

Following the release of the list, the U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay Marc Ostfield said that more such designations to the U.S. corruption list are likely. However, he declined to provide additional details as investigations are still ongoing.

READ NEXT: Bolivia: 5 Bolivian Dances That Are Simply Spectacular

Former Paraguay President Horacio Manuel Cartes Denies All Allegations by the U.S. Department of State

After the U.S. State Department released its corruption list, Horacio Manuel Cartes released a statement via Twitter. The former president of Paraguay said he denied and rejected the allegations and is committed to offering all the support and information the authorities need to clarify.

Cartes served as president of Paraguay between August 2013 and August 2018. Now out of office, he is currently a businessman in charge of a business empire in his country. His conglomerate includes 25 companies.

According to the Washington Post, these include a media company, a tobacco company, and a supermarket chain. However, throughout his career, he has been investigated for corruption multiple times.

These include investigations about alleged irregularities in his multimillion-dollar assets and allegedly having links with the leader of a money laundering network.

One of the main focuses of the previous investigations against him was money laundering. He was also allegedly involved with illegal drugs and currency fraud. While he is already out of office, the former Paraguayan president is still seeking political leadership as the new president of his conservative political party, Partido Colorado.

The election for the party's president is slated to happen in December, and Horacio Manuel Cartes will be running against the current president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez.

READ MORE: January 6 Hearings: Former Aide Says Donald Trump Tried to Join the Crowd, Grab the Steering Wheel From Secret Service Agent

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Horacio Manuel Cartes, Significativamente Corrupto - From ABC TV Paraguay
Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo is facing immense heat amid the ongoing probe of the tragic Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

The community, including the school district superintendent, is reportedly considering terminating Arredondo on his post. However, a recent report claimed that the process, thought to be an easy way, is actually complicated, and his termination will be delayed to give him the due process he is entitled to.

Uvalde School District Police Chief Termination Meeting Called Off

According to CBS News, the special meeting seeking to terminate Pete Arredondo that was supposed to take place on July 23 was called off.

In a statement released Friday, the reason for the "indefinite postponement" of the hearing was to give way to the corresponding due process that the Uvalde school district police chief is entitled to based on his terms of employment.

"In conformity with due process requirements, and at the request of his attorney, the meeting to consider the termination of Chief Arredondo will be held at a later date which has yet to be determined," Uvalde school district communications director Anne Marie Espinoza said.

Uvalde school district superintendent Hall Harrell initially told parents, who were demanding his termination, that the process of terminating Arredondo was "complicated" as he is considered a contract employee, the New York Times reported.

In Texas, educators and administrators can have their contracts terminated if they fail to perform their duties for a good cause. However, Arredondo's contract is a different case.

The contents of his contract are blurry, as the district has not provided more details about it. Texas school district police chiefs' association VP chief Bill Avera further noted that Arredondo's lawyer might be negotiating an exit rather than a termination.

READ NEXT: Uvalde School Shooter's Mother Apologizes to Grieving Family After Tense Confrontation Caught on Camera

Uvalde School District Police Chief Accused of Negligence

Earlier this month, Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo resigned from his post at the Uvalde City Council following the backlash he received at handling the Robb Elementary School shooting last May 24.

Arredondo is currently placed on an "unpaid administrative leave" until the impending school board meeting. The embattled police chief faces an angry mob of national critics because of his unit's management of the Uvalde school shooting.

The Arredondo-led police force reportedly took over an hour to confront the shooter inside the classroom. A report claimed that more victims could have been saved should the officers have breached the room earlier.

Based on the same report, the "wait" lasted for 73 minutes because of the "inability of anyone" to assume leadership despite the 376 present law enforcement officers at the crime scene.

Not only did Arredondo initiate the lead earlier than expected, but the unit has also "completely failed" to follow standard school shooter response protocol.

Because of negligence, the school shooter Salvador Ramos managed to claim the lives of 21 victims at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

READ MORE: Texas School Shooting: Hallway Footage Reveals Cops Running Away From Gunshots

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Written by: Ivan Korrs

WATCH: Uvalde School District Officials Delay Possible Firing of Chief Arredondo - From KSAT 12
Ismael Zambada Imperial, also known as "El Mayito Gordo," son of Sinaloa cartel boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was released from prison after serving a nine-year sentence.

Reports said El Mayito Gordo left the San Diego Metropolitan Detention Center, a medium-security prison in California, on July 21. According to Borderland Beat, it was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

El Mayo's son is now back on the streets after being captured in a joint operation conducted by the Mexican Navy and the federal police in Culiacan in Mexico's Sinaloa state on November 12, 2014.

Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Mayo's Son 'El Mayito Gordo' Pleaded Guilty

Ismael Zambada Imperial was imprisoned in Mexico on gun charges before he was extradited to San Diego in December 2019.

The indictment against El Mayito Gordo alleged that he conspired to transport drugs and laundered and transferred drug proceeds to Mexico "for the benefit of members of the Sinaloa Cartel and their associates."

In April last year, he agreed to plead guilty. In his plea agreement, El Mayo's son admitted to being one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel and importing and distributing tons of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana from Mexico into the U.S.

El Mayito Gordo admitted to having exported at least 450 kilograms of cocaine and 90 kilograms of heroin. He also admitted to ordering acts of violence for the benefit of the Sinaloa Cartel business. El Mayo's son also agreed to forfeit $5 million.

Last month, Judge Danna Sabraw of the federal court of the Southern District of California in San Diego sentenced El Mayito Gordo to 108 months in prison. The judge believed that the sentence was already sufficient. El Mayo's son was reportedly credited with the years served since his capture in November 2014.

READ NEXT: El Chapo Sons' Hitman Shot Dead by Rival Gang of Sinaloa Cartel While Eating His Last Taco in Mexico

Release of Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Mayo's Son 'Conditional'

Infobae reported that El Mayito Gordo's release came with several conditions. El Mayo's son was still on a three-year supervised release.

According to the sentencing document, El Mayito Gordo must comply with a series of guidelines as soon he is released from prison. It includes the standard supervision for a defendant of his level.

Once released, he has 72 hours to report to the appropriate parole offices, who will give him instructions. Among his restrictions include the fact that he can only live in an approved location and must always report to the officer supervising him when he leaves the area.

El Mayito Gordo was prohibited from possessing or using illegal drugs, firearms, or any destructive object. He also needs to provide his DNA.

El Mayo's son was also prohibited from making any arrangement with a law enforcement agency to act as a confidential source or informant without first obtaining permission from the court.

El Mayito Gordo must also look for a stable and legal job. He was also prohibited from communicating with someone involved in illegal activities like his father or brothers. According to reports, two of El Mayo's other sons have also been convicted in the U.S.

Vicente Zambada Niebla, who was prosecuted in Chicago, has testified against another Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, during his New York trial. He was sentenced in 2019 to 15 years in prison but is now free.

His younger brother Serafin Zambada Ortiz was also charged in San Diego, but he has already completed his five and a half years prison sentence. Last April, Ortiz got involved in a fatal car accident in Sonora, Mexico. His girlfriend died during the crash.

Their father has never been imprisoned. El Mayo has been wanted in Mexico since 1998. The U.S. State Department has already increased its offer from $5 million to $15 million for information that will result in the arrest of the Sinaloa Cartel boss.

El Mayo and El Chapo were among the people who established the Sinaloa Cartel. After El Chapo was arrested and extradited to the U.S., El Mayo and El Chapo's four sons, known as "Los Chapitos," were reportedly left in command of one of Mexico's largest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations.

READ MORE: Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Mayo's Son, Serafin Zambada Ortiz, Reportedly in Critical Condition After Car Accident in Mexico

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Liberan en EU a 'El Mayito Gordo', Hijo De Ismael Zambada - From MILENIO
Monarch butterflies are perhaps the most iconic insect in some areas of North America, like Mexico and Canada. However, these butterflies are at risk of extinction, as scientists have placed the beautiful orange-and-black insect on the endangered list.

The main reason for their placement there is their fast-declining numbers. Its iconic orange, white, and black pattern remains one of the most famous and iconic animal patterns on Earth, and it is also one of the most recognizable butterfly species in the world.

However, scientists have said that monarch butterflies were recently experiencing a "devastating decline."

Monarch Butterflies Declining at an Alarming Rate

According to CNN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said Thursday that it added the migratory monarch butterfly to its Red List of Threatened Species as endangered.

The IUCN said the main reason for their decline is the destruction of their habitats and the rising temperatures brought about by climate change.

The IUCN noted that monarch butterflies exclusively lay their eggs on poisonous milkweed plants, the only plants their caterpillars can eat.

Monarch caterpillars eat these plants to become poisonous and dangerous to most predators. However, droughts caused by global warming have limited the growth of milkweed.

Global warming has also disrupted the timing of their annual migrations between Canada and Mexico. New research showed that the chill at the start of spring is triggering this switch. Another factor for their decline was the rise in the use of pesticides and herbicides for agriculture that kill off milkweed plants.

According to the Associated Press, the IUCN listing means these iconic insects are only two steps from extinction. Their numbers have declined rapidly since the 1990s.

Population studies in the eastern United States estimate that the species' population has declined between 85% and 95% during the past 20 years.

The United States has not listed the species under the Endangered Species Act. However, several environmental groups are now clamoring for its inclusion.

READ NEXT: Colombia: Celebrity Designer Nancy Gonzalez Arrested for Smuggling Crocodile Handbags

The Spectacle of the Annual Monarch Butterfly Migration Between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, monarch butterflies are the only insect species to have a two-way migration.

Like birds, the monarchs travel from Canada and parts of the United States as winter approaches. They spend their winters in Mexico before heading back north in the spring to breed.

However, more and more of these animals are "overwintering" in Mexico mainly because of the dramatic temperature changes over the past few years.

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service has already declared that the species may warrant protection. However, no decision has been reached yet on its protection status. Groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity are campaigning for its protection.

Experts said there is still hope, and people can save the species and ensure their spectacular and colorful migrations between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico continue.

Scott Hoffman Black, executive director and conservationist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, noted that there is still time to act. Black encouraged people to plant milkweed and nectar flowers and use fewer pesticides.

Scientists are currently recommending that the government promote the growth of milkweed, maintain dense forests and reduce the use of pesticides.

Monarch butterflies may not be as big and powerful as tigers and elephants, but their majesty has captivated millions worldwide. This may be key in raising awareness and saving their species from decline.

READ MORE: Mexico: Police Save Big Cats, Others From Animal Rescue After Reports of Mistreatment

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Migratory Monarch Butterfly Listed as Endangered Species - From Associated Press
ARRL invites you to be part of 'Club Station,' the newest column in QST. This column is a space for radio clubs to share the different ways in which theyre successful to help other clubs grow. They do this by offering advice, and practical solutions to common experiences and problems.

In each issue, a different club will share how they undertook a specific activity or project, how and why it was successful, and any challenges they may have had to overcome throughout the process. Some examples include, but arent limited to, successful community club projects, innovative ways to attract new members, getting youth involved with ham radio, and developing active hams.

Clubs are the backbone of the amateur radio community, said ARRL Field Services Manager Mike Walters, W8ZY. If your club is doing something that will inspire other clubs, we want to hear from you!

In order to help you tell your story, ARRL has published author guidelines that are geared toward Club Station, and they include a club profile form, said QST Editor Leanna Figlewski, KC1RMP. Both of these documents can be found at www.arrl.org/qst-club-station-guidelines-and-profile-form. You don't have to have writing experience to be published in QST. If your submission is accepted, our editorial staff will work with you to get your story ready for publication.

All clubs are welcome to participate. The first iteration of Club Station appeared in the August 2022 issue of QST and includes more information about what members can expect to see from the column.

If you have any questions, contact us at clubs@arrl.org. We look forward to hearing from you about your radio club!

QST is an ARRL membership benefit. Join ARRL or renew your membership at www.arrl.org/join.
A burglar who broke into a Supermac's with underpants over his head will be sentenced later.

Philip Daly (52), a former fisherman with 102 convictions, had been attempting to feed a deep seated drug addiction. Defence counsel said his behaviour has improved markedly since.

Daly of Curran Park, Balbriggan pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of burglary at the Supermacs and Papa Johns in Texaco service station Balbriggan on May 24, 2020 and one burglary at a hairdresser on Chapel Street, Balbriggan on February 2, 2020.

He was previously sentenced to two and a half years with the final 18 months suspended in relation to a further count of burglary at the same service station on the same day. He has served that sentence and is under probation supervision.

Judge Orla Crowe adjourned the case so it could be clarified why sentencing went ahead on one count on the bill on a separate date and why all the offences were not dealt with at the same time.

Judge Crowe also ordered an updated probation report and fortnightly drug testing.

Garda Stephen OToole told Fiona Crawford BL, prosecuting, that in the early hours of the morning a person jumped a wooden fence from a neighbouring estate and prised open the emergency door of the Texaco Service station before making off with a till from the Supermac's area.

This person, later identified as Daly, had their head covered with a pair of underpants. Daly returned an hour later and was seen crawling around on the floor but nothing was taken.

Daly was later found inside the service station by gardai after a panic alarm went off and arrested.

After his arrest he was also interviewed about an earlier burglary at a hairdressers in Balbriggan. The owners lived at a separate premises under the same roof.

They had arrived home in the early hours to find the shop broken into, the place in disarray and 200 euro gone from a cash box. Access had been gained by a closed but not secured window.

Daly was identified on CCTV. He made no admissions during interview.

Keith Spencer BL, defending, said Daly was someone with a deep seated drug addiction. He said the matters were close in time while Daly was at a low ebb attempting to feed his addiction.

He asked the court to take into account that his client has been on probation supervision since he was sentenced in relation to the third burglary in Texaco and had had no more convictions.

He said Daly has been complying with the order and his behaviour has improved markedly. He said Daly had previously worked as a fisher man but now lived with his elderly mother.
AIB backtrack on the withdrawal of cash services from 70 of their branches, including branches in Laois and Offaly and other counties has been greeted by Fine Gael's TD for the two counties.

Rathdowney, Birr and Edenderry were slated for cuts until public pressure and some Government intervention forced a change of mind for the bank that is largely owned by taxpayers since they bailed it out after the property crash.

Deputy Charlie Flanagan was pleased after earlier calling for a reversal.

This is a victory for common sense, as banks have a key role in maintaining the flow of cash through the economy and ensuring appropriate access to retail banking services for all in society.

All customers, particularly those who are vulnerable and do not bank online, are entitled to full access to basic banking services and should not worry about how they will make deposits or withdrawals simply because they prefer cash transactions.

There was rightly a significant community reaction, here in Laois and Offaly to AIBs announcement earlier this week to the proposed withdrawal of cash services at Birr, Edenderry and Rathdowney branches.

"I welcome the banks decision not to proceed with the reduction in cash services for our rural community, farmers, and small business customers in these branches. Glad that common sense has prevailed and AIB have now recognised the impact of these proposed changes on rural areas and the gross inconvenience for farm families and small business owners.

We have seen many changes to our banking sector in recent years, driven by advances in technology and changing consumer demand. The Minister for Finance, earlier this year, launched the Retail Banking Review to assess how the sector will best meet current and future customer needs. And I look forward to reading the recommendations of this Review later in the year, Dep Flanagan concluded in his statement.

It's just a year since Bank of Ireland pulled the plug entirely on scores of its branches around the island of Ireland.
A development company is seeking a High Court injunction over what it claims is the 'large-scale' illegal occupation of lands ear-marked for a major housing project in Co Laois.

The action has been brough by Salzagold Limited, which claims the illegal occupation has turned its property into "a base for anti-social behaviour."

It claims that over 40 caravans, and over 150 people are currently trespassing on lands the company owns at Graiguecullen in Co Laois which it wants to develop into much needed housing and other facilities for the nearby Carlow town area.

The occupiers, it claims, first entered the lands earlier this month, have refused to leave, and it is feared that an additional 30 caravans may soon go onto the site, the High Court heard.

The company says that it is hugely concerned by the behaviour of the persons it claims are occupying the lands and who have no authority to be there.

The alleged behaviour includes the starting of larges fires, anti-social behaviour, and the dumping of large amounts of refuse and waste on the property.

The owner says it is further concerned about the operation of a tree cutting business on the land by the occupiers without any property health and safety procedures being in place, and joy riding and other dangerous vehicular activities by the occupiers on the site.

In recent days the company said that the local fire brigade had to put out a large fire that had broken out on the site. It is believed that the a range of material including refuse and wood have been burnt on the site.

The company represented by in the action by Stephen Byrne Bl the company seeks various orders including an injunction requiring persons unknown and all those who have knowledge of the orders to vacate and cease interfering with the lands.

The action is also against one named individual who it is claimed is acting as a spokesperson for the group, Mr Hugh Doyle otherwise Hughie Doyle.

The court heard that the land in question was the subject of a previous illegal occupation in March of this year. However, the small number of persons who were on the lands on that occasion departed the site shortly afterwards, it claims.

The matter came before Mr Justice Brian O'Moore who granted the applicant, on an ex-parte basis, permission to serve short notice of the injunction proceedings on the persons allegedly illegally occupying the lands.

The action will return before the courts next week.
On Monday, July 11, a group of history enthusiasts and relatives gathered at Knockanally Gates to mark the centenary of two shooting incidents in North Kildare during the Civil War which were the last recorded shots of the ongoing revolution in this locality.

One was at Corduff Cross close to Timahoe (known to locals as The Stores) where the first fatality of the war in North Kildare occurred, and the second was a shootout between the Free State army and a group of anti-treaty activists at Knockanally Gates.

Although luckily there were no fatalities at this engagement, it was a serious encounter and symbolic due to its location at the foot of historic Ovidstown Hill close to Newtown village and Kilcock, where revolutionary activity in County Kildare first began in 1795 and virtually continued for 127 years.

Newtown Village and Kilcock were where the seeds of conflict which kick-started a continuous revolution for independence in the locality.

It began on July 12, 1795, with the arrest of Laurence OConnor and Michael Griffin in Kilcock and on the following day, July 13, a magistrate who had taken the prisoners to jail in Naas was ambushed at Grange by militants from Newtown.

Another military encounter, one of the biggest in the modern history of Kildare, was the Battle of Ovidstown on June 19, 1798, an event which is commemorated annually by the local community.

The last shots in this ongoing revolution in the area were fired at Knockanally Gates on July 11, 1922.

The gathering was addressed by local historian Seamus Cullen.

There was a family representation of Thomas McHugh, who was the last surviving old IRA commandant when he passed on in the early 1990s. He was in charge of the Republican forces here at Knockanally and was one of only three who escaped.

Thomas son, Tim McHugh and daughter Brid Corrigan, grandsons Conor and Brian, and great-grandson James, were present. Three of Michael Griffins great-great grandchildren were present on Monday evening. They are Betty Walsh of Ovidstown, Martina Gregory of Ballykeelan and their brother Eddie Mulligan of Enfield.

His detailed accounts of the happenings included in a newspaper article from an article in the Kildare Observer of July 1922 entitled Important Capture by National Forces near Donadea

Anti-treaty forces, who were referred to as republicans or irregulars by the Free State army, had set up a camp in Coolcarrigan House close to Timahoe.

On the morning of July 11, 1922, the Republican forces obtained intelligence that 600 Free State soldiers from Naas, Edenderry and Lucan were converging on Timahoe to capture Coolcarrigan and arrest the Republican activists.

Reports even suggested that an eighteen-pounder gun was included in their arsenal.

The Republican forces decided to evacuate Coolcarrigan and withdraw the garrison in two groups before the net tightened  one group would go by Prosperous and the other would head for Cloncurry.

The main contingent of 40 men heading for Prosperous came into contact with three men in Free State army uniform at Corduff Cross and fired at them, killing one man and wounding another.

Tragically, the three men were actually deserters from the National army who were making their way to join the anti-treaty side.

The second group of Republicans retreated from Coolcarrigan in a motor car and a delivery van and headed in the opposite direction towards Donadea.

At Ballagh Cross they turned left and at Newtownhortland (Leonards Cross) they turned left again.

At Knockanally gates they turned right, but on reaching the foot of Ovidstown Hill the Ford van ran out of petrol and had to be pushed inside the Knockanally Demesne gates .

Eight men were left on guard while the others continued to Enfield in the other motor.

A Free State truck came along the same road having spent the morning cutting felled trees that the irregulars left near Coolcarrigan to hinder them in their pursuit.

Firing commenced immediately, but within minutes another Free State truck arrived from the Carbury direction. Given the extensive firepower from two directions, five of the irregulars surrendered having very few bullets left.

A dispatch rider who arrived with instructions for the rebels was also arrested.

A small number of irregulars made good their escape towards the Timahoe bog, following the footsteps of their fellow rebels 124 years previously who were retreating following the Battle of Ovidstown.

In July 1795 a number of men were executed for firing the first shots in the radicalised struggle that was to become the United Irishmens fight for freedom.

But it had not the initial cause of these local men  their agitation was that of an embryonic trade union to lobby for fair pay and fair rent of land.

Laurence OConnor and Michael Griffin were arrested as the leaders and when they were brought to Naas gaol their followers knew there would be no easy justice.

OConnor was to be made an example of and he was hanged drawn and quartered while Griffin remained in chains and his fate was never discovered.

Thankfully all participants in the Knockanally encounter lived to tell the tale as peace gradually descended on one of the most pitiful stages in Irish history.

The only visible sign today are the occasional bullet holes visible in the walls of the pillars.

At this distance no judgement can be cast on who was right and who was wrong for all these men believed that they were fighting for their country.

MAIN PICTURE: Two families who are descended from participants in the events discussed on the night: Betty Walsh (Mulligan), Martina Gregory (Mulligan), Eddie Mulligan, Conor McHugh, Brid Corrigan (McHugh), Brian McHugh with James McHugh on his shoulders and Tim McHugh
The latest, long-anticipated iteration of the Gerard Manley Hopkins festival has been launched in the town of Newbridge.

The festival, which celebrates the life of renowned English poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, opened at 7pm in the theatre of Newbridge College.

British ambassador to Ireland Paul Johnston officiated the opening of the event, while the newly-appointed Newbridge mayor Suzanne Doyle (Fianna Fail), her recently appointed deputy Tracey O' Dwyer (Fine Gael), Minister Martin Heydon TD (Fine Gael) and Cllr Mark Stafford (Fine Gael) were also in attendance.

Cllr Mark Stafford, Deputy-Mayor Tracey O' Dwyer and Mayor Suzanne Doyle

Attendees were treated to a gallery of various works from local artists, which were also available to purchase.

This gallery was organised by Leinster Printmaking Studio.

A collection of CDs from local musicians were also on display and available to purchase.

Speaking to the Leader ahead of the event, Mr Johnston said that he was invited to the festival by one of the guests, poet Desmond Egan.

"When I found out about Hopkins, I became very intrigued and thought 'I would love to learn more about him'."

Mayor Suzanne Doyle also praised Hopkins' ability, saying: "I have been a fan for a long time, ever since I studied him at school; he definitely stood out from the rest.

"I often wonder what he would be in today's world, if he were alive."

She added that she felt that the most alluring part of poetry was how it 'gives you the opportunity to ponder in a quick world.'

Onlookers admiring some of the works on display by local artists

One of the organisers, Jenny Adamson, further said: "I'm an English and Drama teacher, and I was drawn to the beauty of his poetry; it's just outstanding.

"He's a real poet's poet."

Music on the night was provided by Cillian Moran and Conor Mahony.

The Gerald Manley Hopkins festival will run until Thursday, July 28.

Further information about the festival can be found here.

BACKGROUND

Gerald Manley Hopkins was born in Essex, England on July 28, 1844.

He is well known for his concept of sprung rhythm, as well as his thematic writings about God and nature.

He also held an admiration for the town of Monasterevin, writing in March of 1887: 'I should have felt better for the delicious bog air of Monasterevin.

Some of his most famous works include 'The Windhover: To Christ our Lord' and The Wreck of the Deutschland.

Hopkins died at the age of 44 due to typhoid fever on June 8, 1889.

He gained a significant following after his death, most notably inspiring 20th Century poets such as TS Eliot and Cecil Day-Lewis.

Hopkins is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

The Gerard Manley Hopkins Building in University College Dublin is named in his honour.
The Popes trip to Canada to apologise for the horrors of church-run Indigenous residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Churchs missionary legacy, spurred on by the first pontiff from the Americas and the discovery of hundreds of probable graves at the school sites.

Francis has said his week-long visit, which begins on Sunday, is a penitential pilgrimage to beg forgiveness on Canadian soil for the evil done to Native peoples by Catholic missionaries.

It follows his April 1 apology in the Vatican for the generations of trauma Indigenous peoples suffered as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate their culture and assimilate them into Canadian, Christian society.

Franciss tone of personal repentance has signalled a notable shift for the papacy, which has long acknowledged abuses in the residential schools and strongly asserted the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples.

But past popes have also, in the same breath, hailed the sacrifice and holiness of the European Catholic missionaries who brought Christianity to the Americas  something Francis, too, has done but is not expected to emphasise during this trip.



Parishioners enter the rededicated and newly renovated Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples sanctuary in Edmonton, Alberta

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit who is a top papal adviser at the Vatican, recalled that early on in his papacy, Francis asserted no single culture can claim a hold on Christianity, and the church cannot demand people on other continents imitate the European way of expressing the faith.

If this conviction had been accepted by everyone involved in the centuries after the discovery of the Americas, much suffering would have been avoided, great developments would have occurred and the Americas would be all-around better, he said.

The trip will not be an easy one for 85-year-old Francis, or for residential school survivors and their families.

Trauma experts are being deployed at all events to provide mental health assistance for school survivors, given the likelihood of triggering situations.

Chief Desmond Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe, one of the First Nations that are part of the Maskwacis territory where Francis will deliver his first sweeping apology on Monday near the site of a former residential school, said: It is an understatement to say there are mixed emotions.

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded, Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s.



Members of the Metis community outside the Vatican after their meeting with the Pope in March

Some 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes, Native languages and cultures.

The legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.

Grand Chief Georg Arcand Jr, of the Confederacy of Treaty Six in Maskwacis, said: For survivors from coast to coast, this is an opportunity  the first and maybe the last  to perhaps find some closure for themselves and their families.

This will be a difficult process, but a necessary one.

Unlike with most papal trips, the diplomatic protocols of a state visit are taking a back seat to personal encounters with First Nations, Metis and Inuit survivors.

Francis will not formally meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until midway through his visit, in Quebec City.

Francis is also ending the trip in unusual style, stopping in Iqaluit, Nunavut  the farthest north he has ever travelled  to bring his apology to the Inuit community before flying back to Rome.

As recently as 2018, Francis had refused to personally apologise for residential school abuses, even after Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 documented institutional blame and specifically recommended a papal apology to be delivered on Canadian soil.



Francis had previously refused to personally apologise for residential school abuses

Mr Trudeau travelled to the Vatican in 2017 to appeal to Francis to apologise, but the pontiff felt he could not personally respond to the call, Canadian bishops said at the time.

What changed? The first pope from the Americas, who has long defended the rights of Indigenous peoples, had already apologised in Bolivia in 2015 for colonial-era crimes against Native peoples in the region.

In 2019, Francis  an Argentine Jesuit  hosted a big Vatican conference on the Amazon highlighting that injustices Native peoples suffered during colonial times were still continuing, with their lands and resources exploited by corporate interests.

Then in 2021, the remains of around 200 children were found at the site of what was once Canadas largest Indigenous residential school, in Kamloops, British Columbia. More probable graves followed outside other former residential schools.

Chief Bull said: It was only when our children were beginning to be found in mass graves, garnering international attention, that light was brought to this painful period in our history.

After the discovery, Francis finally agreed to meet with Indigenous delegations this past spring and promised to come to their lands to apologise in person.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, when asked about the evolution of the papal response, said: Obviously there are wounds that remained open and require a response.



Pope Francis will begin his visit to Canada on Sunday

One of those wounds concerns the papal influences in the so-called Doctrine of Discovery, the 19th-century international legal concept that is often understood as legitimising European colonial seizure of land and resources from Native peoples.

For decades, Indigenous peoples have demanded the Holy See formally rescind the 15th century papal bulls, or decrees, that gave European kingdoms the religious backing to claim lands their explorers discovered for the sake of spreading the Christian faith.

Church officials have long rejected those concepts, insisted the decrees merely sought to ensure European expansion would be peaceful, and said they had been surpassed by subsequent church teachings strongly affirming the dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples.

But the matter is still raw for Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation Wolf Clan, who was the last person to address the Pope when the First Nations delegation met with him March 31.

Wearing a cradle board on her back to represent the children whose lives were lost in residential schools, she told him the Doctrine of Discovery had led to the continual taking of our babies.

She said: It deprived us of our dignity, our freedom, and led to the exploitation of our Mother Earth.

She begged Francis to release the world from its place of enslavement caused by the decrees.

Asked about the calls, Mr Bruni said there is an articulated reflection under way in the Holy See but he does not think anything will be announced during the trip.
Nations are always their narrations. This is the main reason that compels us to pay certain tribute to the past.

by Anwar A. Khan

Tajuddin Ahmad (23 July 1925 - 3 November 1975) - the lighthouse for Bangladesh shall remain a political symbol of Bangladesh for generations after generations. He is the tragic hero of our glorified history. He will remain so unto our demise - a ballad which is a short story in verse, which is intended to be sung with the accompaniment of a sorrowful music.

It is opposite to the epic, which is a lengthy story in verse and Tajuddin Ahmad could be an epic novel had he been alive for a long time to serve the Bengali nation. He is a popular poem among us. In his only 50 years of age, he was put to death. Had he lived long, he could have changed the course of our history to a marvelous turn. The land he died to save from death and shame, trembles and waits hearing the spring's great name, and by his pangs the resolute ghosts are even stirred. We have a duty to remember him with due solemnity on his 97th Birthday on 23 July, 2022 and in our everyday life.

He was the right man in the right place at the right time - a representative of that giant generation during the 1971 war where the older and younger generations  he was a glorious part of that. He was on the truest side of that epical time. During our glorious Liberation War of 1971 with Pakistani military regime, Tajuddin had to create the blueprint for a successful new nation and manage obstacles coming at him from all angles.

Whether it was earning the trust of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, handling internal conflicts, earning the confidence of the people of Bangladesh, foreign recognition of Bangladesh, strategic planning of the war, motivating and inspiring freedom fighters, forming the armed wing of the government called 'Mukti Bahini' (Liberation Forces) under an united command with the assistance from the Indian army, gathering resources to fight a long battle with a powerful and highly trained enemy. Tajuddin was at the heart of all. He led the war with remarkable diplomacy to finally achieve freedom from the Pakistani colonial occupation.

Tajuddins life events  albeit in minuscule degree of intensity  had trained him to manage this mammoth task. As a forthright young man, he had challenged the anachronistic politics of the aristocratic elite in pre-partition Bengal. Now he would challenge the machinations of a genocidal Pakistan military.

For Tajuddin, confederacies came in the shape of Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law, and a group headed by Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani. Both set aimed to undermine Tajuddins leadership and were constant thorn in his life. It was not easy being a prime minister and running the newly formed government. Sheikh Mani claimed that Bangabandhu gave him the order to run a revolutionary force to free the country. When the party was bridled with pettiness within its own domains, Tajuddin was busy uniting a nation. He had to fight against two forces within the government- the opposing, unhappy leaders like Khandakar Mushtaq, and the young, aggressive force of Mani. The intellectual in him was prepared to withstand the challenges his fellow Awami Leaguers were throwing at him.

He came under political assault the moment he took that considered step. He was not, said these angry young men, qualified or empowered to establish a government because he had not been authorised by Bangabandhu to do so. It was an unfased Tajuddin who went ahead with what he saw as his historic mission of bringing Bengalis together. The socialist in him was unwilling to cave in to fate or human machinations. The intellectual in his being was prepared to withstand onslaughts of the kind his fellow Awami Leaguers were throwing his way. He emerged from the experience a sadder man but necessarily a stronger man.

For his part, whether it was his first broadcast to the nation following the formation of the new government on 11 April 1971 or his broadcast on the eve of victory on 8 December 1971, Tajuddins spoke mainly the language of peace. He warmly congratulated the unarmed people of Bangladesh for offering heroic resistance to the occupation Army of Pakistan and highly praised the freedom fighters.

He also reminded them not to take any aggressive action against innocent people including the non-Bengalis. Many of his colleagues were charged as a roving ambassador with the unenviable task of reaching out to leaders for international recognition and support at the time or Indians like Golok Majumder, the senior Border Security Force (BSF) officer in West Bengal, have vouched for his capability as a wartime administrator and had openly declared that had anybody else other than Tajuddin had been at helm, Bangladesh may never have won the war as quickly as it did or even achieved independence.

Pakistan authorities projected the war as a battle of Islamic Pakistan versus Bengali miscreants and Indian chancers. For them they were the rightly-guided Muslims hoping to silence the rebellious traitor Bengalis led astray by pagan Indians and save Pakistan in the process. And if this silencing meant killing them then so be it. They were happy and willing to do that freely.

The Pakistan military sought the help of a small section of Bengali collaborators to help them in this mission. The task of re-educating these Pakistani attackers and their mango-twigs on the basic fundamentals of Islam which promotes peace upon mankind was left to a clandestine radio channel called Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (Independent Bengal Broadcasting Centre). The channel sought the advice and guidance of Tajuddin Ahmad who was very knowledgeable on the core principles of Islam.

In a lot of ways his life is a tragic story. He was on top of the Bangladeshs world. Then everything unravelled  fast, but it did. He definitely has an indelible legacy among his patriot colleagues. That song his life, so much, but the song  is revered. But as far as the song is concerned, thats going to be a long, long positive legacy. Who among us cant sympathise with him?

Tajuddin Ahmad is a tragic ballad of Bangladeshs history. Peppered with lore and the authentic heart of the people in Tajuddin's classic ballads, this is an epic book that paints his brave action and his comrades against a landscape of some thuggish characters. His harrowing battle descriptions compete with inimical pert of men shares history and legend like no one else. Both a novel of war and his pure actions, crafted with heart and depth, his life story celebrates one of Appalachia's finest hours.

Forty-seven years are on, we still remember him with due honour on his 97th Birthday and he shall remain in our thoughts and prayers unto the civilisation of Bangladesh exists. For him, the pain still is fresh in our minds. Remembering him just makes us very sad. His patriotism, courage and experience as a skilled politician helped bolster his chances of becoming the cardinal leader of the Mujibnagar Government in exile to establish Bangladesh in 1971 giving a crushing defeat to the mighty Pakistani military junta.

It was the kind of person he was and the intangible qualities that he possessed that led to his position as Prime Minister. Those who spent some time working with Tajuddin and saw what kind of a person he was: not forcing anyones hand, only thinking about doing good, how to bring about an independent and sovereign country for us as faster as possible.

He wanted freedom for Bangladesh and its people. Despite his good intentions, his qualities and character that placed him in his position of power also placed him in a position to die at the hands of some treacherous people. Even standing before the point-blank gun shots and bayonet charges on 3 November 1975, he held true to his values and standing stoically in the face of death.

He was a man of principles, but unfortunately, it was his principles that led to the death of Bangladeshs tragic hero, Tajuddin Ahmad. His political acumen and foresight during turbulent times aside, the quieter moments really give us insight into the essence of the mans soul. He had sworn not to return to family life until the country was liberated to demonstrate solidarity with the men out on the battlefields.

On 16 December 1971 the Pakistan army surrendered to the joint command of the Mukti Bahini and the Indian army. Bangladesh thus emerged as an independent state in less than nine months after the Declaration of Independence. As the principal political figure, Tajuddin Ahmad was surrounded by journalists who asked him about his reaction. He broke into tears and said that he had performed his duty "merely as a midwife" and that he felt "sad" for not being able to "deliver the news of the childs birth to its father" Sheikh Mujib. Even though the credit for the victory goes to a large extent to Tajuddin Ahmed, he never claimed any recognition for his achievement. He categorically told that nobody other than Bangabandhu should be given any credit for the victory of Bangladesh.

During the political negotiations between Bangabandhu and his team with President Yahya Khan and his team for so-called power transfer during the month of March in 1971, Tajuddins meritocracy outshone everybody present there. ZA Bhuttos right-hand powerful man like Barrister Mahmud Ali Kasuri was filled with wonder or astonishment; and greatly surprised to have found a true combatant in Tajuddin who was able to defeat his rivals by his logic, and reasonable judgment. Even Pakistans senior most and highly respected lawyer Barrister AK Brohee was stunned with superior abilities of Tajuddin Ahmad because of his high or superior quality or performance. Tajuddin Ahmad was one of the most sought-after political characters in Bangladeshs history.

Tajuddin Ahmads life is definitely a page-turner. The closer we get to the end of his story, the faster we need to remember him with adoration. He is like a written work, usually a novel or a story of lassitude or a tragic drama, which is of importance enough to keep us engrossed and wanting to finish it. One can never forget the sadness and lugubriousness of that morning of November 3, 1975. Noted educationist Prof Dr. Khan Sarwar Murshid once said, Disremembering is equivalent to perfidy. I was then a college student, but when I still close my eyes, I can clearly remember his handsome and bright face when I took lunch with him sometime towards the end of 1970 just before the national elections of the-then Pakistan at my maternal grandfathers house at Maison Mia Bari, Kapasia under the Gazipur District. We should commemorate this golden son of Bangladesh every day. Every year, there should be state sponsored memorial services for him and his three other paisanos.

Nations are always their narrations. This is the main reason that compels us to pay certain tribute to the past. Therefore, we have to honour past events, the story itself and most importantly our beloved leaders who accomplished such grand patriotic jobs to establish our own homeland in 1971.

On his 97th Birthday, I wish to pay my highest regards to him.

-The End 

The writer is an independent political analyst based in Dhaka, Bangladesh who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs
Belfast is on the verge of a public health emergency after a spate of deaths among the most vulnerable, an SDLP councillor said.

There have been 15 deaths of the most vulnerable in the capital recently.

Paul McCusker has been working with the homeless for 10 years and said he has never seen as much despair and devastation on the streets.

He called an emergency meeting on Friday between the council, Stormont departments and statutory agencies to discuss the recent increase in deaths among those impacted by homelessness and addiction.

Its a city in crisis and its coming to a stage where were going to have to call a public health emergency (because) so many people are dying in a very short space of time, he told the BBC.

Something needs to be done to step in to prevent more deaths and protect the most vulnerable in the city.

A march and demonstration is set for Belfast on Saturday afternoon to call for action from the Government.

It is organised by The Peoples Kitchen and homeless charities, backed by trade union Unite.

They said the death of a young woman took the recent number of homeless deaths to 15.

In a statement, Belfast City Council said Lord Mayor Tina Black hosted a meeting between councillors and representatives from the PSNI, Housing Executive, Belfast Trust, Department of Health, Department for Communities, Department of Justice and the Public Health Agency to discuss the situation.

We have witnessed tragic deaths on the streets of Belfast & cities across Ireland Mayor of Belfast, @CllrBlack, brought together parties & organisations to plan actions to support people Belfast can be a beacon of hope & compassion, delivering real change for vulnerable people pic.twitter.com/OdBp87xAFV  Belfast Sinn Fein (@belfastsinnfein) July 22, 2022

Ms Black said the council will continue to act as a city convenor to support the ongoing work of Stormont departments and statutory agencies to find solutions to address the complex issues associated with addiction and homelessness, and to end long-term homelessness in the city.

At todays meeting, the council and elected members reaffirmed their commitment to support the work of the relevant bodies in justice, health and communities to help those who are vulnerable and in need of support, she said.

Unite regional co-ordinating officer Susan Fitzgerald has urged participation in Saturdays march.

Our union is encouraging others to join this march to demand action on homelessness, she said.

So far this year, there have been 15 deaths of homeless people on our streets; that toll is an indictment of Stormont.

It is disgusting that in our society so many are brutalised by poverty, addiction and abuse and then just left to fend for themselves with little or no support.

Fundamentally, we need to tackle the root cause of homelessness. We need public housing and fully funded, expanded NHS-run addiction and counselling services.

Right now, we need immediate action. Stormont must act and deliver supported accommodation for all homeless people; in particular that they make good on the promise to vulnerable women who have been left with no options since the closure of Regina Coeli House.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center right, and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres lead a signing ceremony at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, July 22, 2022. KHALIL HAMRA / AP

Kyiv and Moscow on Friday, July 22, penned a landmark agreement with Turkey and the United Nations to unblock Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports after a Russian blockade raised fears of a global food crisis.

In their first major deal after nearly five months of fighting, Russian and Ukrainian delegations signed individual agreements with Ankara and the UN in the wake of several rounds of laborious negotiations.

Ukraine had warned ahead of the signing that any Russian "provocations" around its encircled Black Sea ports would be met with a swift military response and refused to pen the same papers as Moscow.

Read more Subscribers only War in Ukraine threatens the world's breadbasket

"Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea  a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at the signing ceremony in the lavish Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus Strait.

The deal agreed through UN and Turkish mediation establishes safe corridors along which Ukrainian ships can come in and out of three designated Black Sea ports in and around Odessa. And both sides also pledged not to attack ships on the way in or out.

"It will bring relief for developing countries on the edge of bankruptcy and the most vulnerable people on the edge of famine," Mr. Guterres said.

'Path to peace'

The five-month war, which has displaced millions and left thousands dead, is being fought across one of Europe's most fertile regions by two of the world's biggest grain producers. Up to 25 million tonnes of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

"Today's Istanbul agreement is a step in the right direction. We call for its swift implementation," tweeted the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

"We fully expect the implementation of today's arrangement to commence swiftly to prevent the world's most vulnerable from sliding into deeper insecurity and malnutrition," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  a key player in the negotiations who has good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv  said he hoped the deal would "hopefully revive the path to peace".

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss congratulated Turkey and UN for brokering the deal but cautioned "we will be watching to ensure Russia's actions match its words".

Read more Subscribers only Farmers take to arms in southern Ukraine

Earlier, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak explained the two sides would sign "mirror" agreements. "We sign an agreement with Turkey and the UN and undertake obligations to them. Russia signs a mirror agreement with Turkey and the UN," he said on social media.

He warned that Russian breaches of the deal and incursions around Ukraine's ports would be met with "an immediate military response". Diplomats expect grain to start fully flowing for the first time since Russia's invasion of its Western-backed neighbour by the middle of August.

'Russia is unreliable'

Still, news of the deal earlier drew scepticism from Ukrainian farmers under pressure in the war-battered south where storage facilities are rapidly filling and local prices for grain tanking. "It gives some hope but you can't believe what the Russians say," said Mykola Zaverukha, a farmer with some 13,000 tonnes of grain waiting for export. "Russia is unreliable, they have shown themselves to be year after year," he told AFP in the southern Mykolaiv region.

The Kremlin said earlier it was hoped the parties would arrive at an understanding. "It is very important to unblock supplies of fertilisers, foodstuffs and grain to the world markets," spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday morning.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price welcomed news of the deal Thursday but said "we should never have been in this position in the first place," and accused Russia of "weaponising" food.

The landmark signing in Istanbul however brought little relief across Ukraine's sprawling frontline and Russian forces were pursuing a relentless shelling campaign in the eastern Donetsk region.

The presidency said five people had been killed and twice as many injured in Russian attacks on the industrial region  the centre of recent fighting  the previous day. In the Donetsk village of Chasiv Yar, which was hit by a strike on July 10 that killed more than 45 people, a 64-year-old woman gathered apricots near the wreckage. "There is nothing anymore. The officials have left. We have to fend for ourselves to stay alive," said Lyudmila, who only gave her first name.

In the south, Ukraine said Russian forces were shelling villages along the frontline in the Kherson area, where Kyiv's army is trying to claw back Moscow-occupied territory.

The parties were convening in Istanbul one day after Russia's restart of the Nord Stream gas pipeline eased concerns in Europe of a permanent shut-off after 10 days of repairs. Yet even the resumption of 40% of supplies would be insufficient to ward off energy shortages in Europe this winter, experts warned.

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The military toll on both sides has remained speculative at best since Russia invaded on February 24. Some 15,000 Russians have died in the invasion, US and British spy chiefs said, as they assessed that President Vladimir Putin was suffering far greater losses than expected.

Read more Subscribers only War in Ukraine: On the trail of the Chechen 'wolves' in the city of Hostomel

Le Monde with AFP
Tell us a little about the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (ETB).

We are one of the biggest employers in the region with more than 2,500 staff. We are the local education authority for Limerick and Clare. It was formed in 2013 with the amalgamation of the Vocational Educational Boards (VECs): Co Limerick VEC, Limerick City VEC and Co Clare VEC. We cater for about 35,000 learners and students across the region. Between our 18 post-primary schools and primary schools, wed have around 13,000 students.

Added to that, we have 23,000 learners in our further and adult education courses between apprenticeships, career traineeships and a range of other courses like the Vtos programmes. We have quite a reach across the region from the north of Clare to the west of Limerick, and also people-wise in terms of the number of learners we reach. We have an annual budget of 170m, and an investment of 130m in the region. In Limerick, wed invest approximately 90m each year.

What does your role entail?

My role is to manage and oversee the work of the staff of the ETB. For that, I have a strong support team in terms of our three directors in the schools division headed by Donncha O' Treasaigh, our further education and training division headed up by Paul Patton and our organisation support and development division headed by Shelagh Graham. Across the board, our staff work very diligently to provide the service to the students. They are our main focus, and the ones we do all this work for.

Tell us about some of the projects the ETB is involved in.

We are the client for the new primary school in Monaleen, worth about 12m. Plus we have major projects in Mungret, the new school there which is about 30m to build, and the Gaelcholaiste in Clare Street. Up to 2025, 65,000 new school places are needed, and within this region, 3,500 extra places are needed, which is why there is a huge expansion in new school builds. But added to that, we need to refurbish existing school buildings. We have also in each of our post-primary schools, we have special educational needs units. Weve taken the view we should provide for this across the region.

There is a huge demand for apprentices. What are you doing in response to this?

Within our further education and training programme, we deal a lot with apprentices, and we are further expanding that in the coming years to meet the huge demand there is for apprentice places across the region. We have established new units in the LEDP building in Roxboro for the Nzeb and retrofitting. We are meeting the demand of government policy in regard of climate change. These units will train people in industry to be skilled enough to retrofit houses.

Where were you born and raised?

I was born and raised in Quin, Co Clare. Now I live near Parteen with my wife and two children Conor, 9, and Mary, who is 18.

What is your educational background?

I attended St Flannans College in Ennis before studying at University College Cork where I qualified as a teacher.

How did you get to where you are today?

I taught for a number of years in the St Nessans Community College here in Limerick before I became principal of St Marys secondary school in Newport. Following that, I became the general secretary of the joint managerial body based in Dublin with responsibility for around 400 voluntary secondary schools nationwide. About 20 years ago, I came back to Clare as chief executive of the Co Clare VEC. In the 2013 amalgamation, I subsequently became chief executive of the Limerick and Clare ETB.

What made you want to work for the VEC, then the ETB?

What attracted me was the wide range of different services on offer between managing schools, plus adult and community education provision as well. It provided a good deal of variety on my career path. In terms of the ETB, the attraction is the wide range of services we provide and the impact we are having regionally. Its provided huge added value to the region.

What are your goals for the ETB for the next 12 months?

Our immediate goal is to continue to provide an excellent education service, provide more spaces for apprentices. To create opportunities for those to upskill in the region. To provide the skills base that industry needs in the region, and also part of our goal within the building programme would be to provide as many extra places for students to meet the demand there over the next couple of years particularly on the post-primary side.

In the education sector, is there anyone you look up to?

The former chief inspector of the Department of Education and Skills, whom I worked with when I was a principal of St Nessans Community College, and thats Eamon Stack, who was very instrumental in inspiring me to get into the educational management side of things and who had a brilliasnt career in terms of principal of St Nessans, but subsequently as chief inspector, he made that section fit for purpose and created a very modern inspectorate over the years.

Are you guided by any particular motto?

Its to provide the best service possible. Our focus is always on students and learners, and thats what all of our background and support works towards. People are our focus.

Away from work, what are your pastimes and hobbies?

I enjoy cycling. With two children, my hobbies are limited though!

I have to indulge in a bit of hurling and football on the side. Reading would be my main passion, and I am a keen follower of Clare hurling. I admit also to have a liking for Formula One racing!
GARDAI investigating the death of a three-year-old boy at his home in West Limerick are treating the incident as a tragic accident.

The toddler died following an accident in the Broadford area at around 10.30am on Friday morning. Emergency services, assisted by the Irish Community Air Ambulance were quickly on the scene but efforts to save the boy were not successful.

While gardai have not commented on the specific details of what happened, it's understood, a vehicle was involved.

"Gardai and emergency services attended the scene of an incident on private property, in Charleville, County Limerick. A three- year-old child later passed away from his injuries," said a garda spokesperson who added that a family liaison officer has been appointed to support the family at this time.

"An Garda Siochana ask that the media give the family privacy at this time and report on this incident sensitively. No further information is being made available," read a statement issued by the garda press office.

While Friday's incident is being treated as a tragic accident, a post-mortem will be carried out on the boy's body at University Hospital Limerick.

A file will also be prepared and forwarded to the coroner.
This answer is provided by Melinda Wenner of Scienceline, a project of New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.

For many women, the correlation between sex and snoring is one of those annoying facts of life: no matter when passionate encounters occur, men always seem to fall asleep immediately afterwards. Dave Zinczenko, the author of "Men, Love and Sex: The Complete User Guide For Women," explained the phenomenon to Huffington Post writer Arianna Huffington this way: Men go to sleep because women dont turn into a pizza.

I doubt I am ever going to become a pizza, and Ill never have the foresight to order one beforehand. So in lieu of a cure, a better explanation will have to do. Although women sometimes feel sleepy after sex, the phenomenon does seem more pronounced in men. What is it, then, that spirals them into the land of nod?

First, the obvious reasons for sexs somnolent sway: the act frequently takes place at night, in a bed, and is, after all, physically exhausting (often more so for the man than the woman, although this certainly varies). So when sex is over, its natural for a guy to feel sleepy.

Secondly, research using positron emission tomography (PET) scans has shown that in order for a person to reach orgasm, a primary requirement is to let go of all fear and anxiety. Doing so also tends to be relaxing and might explain the tendency to snooze.

Then there is the biochemistry of the orgasm itself. Research shows that during ejaculation, men release a cocktail of brain chemicals, including norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, nitric oxide (NO), and the hormone prolactin. The release of prolactin is linked to the feeling of sexual satisfaction, and it also mediates the recovery time that men are well aware ofthe time a guy must wait before giving it another go. Studies have also shown that men deficient in prolactin have faster recovery times.

Prolactin levels are naturally higher during sleep, and animals injected with the chemical become tired immediately. This suggests a strong link between prolactin and sleep, so its likely that the hormones release during orgasm causes men to feel sleepy.

(Side note: prolactin also explains why men are sleepier after intercourse than after masturbation. For unknown reasons, intercourse orgasms release four times more prolactin than masturbatory orgasms, according to a recent study.)

Oxytocin and vasopressin, two other chemicals released during orgasm, are also associated with sleep. Their release frequently accompanies that of melatonin, the primary hormone that regulates our body clocks. Oxytocin is also thought to reduce stress levels, which again could lead to relaxation and sleepiness.

What about the evolutionary reasons for post-sex sleepiness? This is trickier to explain. Evolutionarily speaking, a mans primary goal is to produce as many offspring as possible, and sleeping doesnt exactly help in his quest. But perhaps since he cannot immediately run off with another woman anyway  damn that recovery time!  re-energizing himself via sleep may be the best use of his time.

And although there is conflicting information as to whether women feel sleepy after sex, a woman often falls asleep with the man anyway (or uses it for some key cuddling time), which is good news for him: it means she is not off finding another mate. When the man wakes up and shes still there, he just might be ready to go again.

Its also possible that sleepiness is just a side effect associated with a more evolutionarily important reason for the release of oxytocin and vasopressin. In addition to being associated with sleep, both chemicals are also intimately involved in what is called pair bonding, the social attachment human mates commonly share. The release of these brain chemicals during orgasm heightens feelings of bonding and trust between sexual partners, which may partially explain the link between sex and emotional attachment. This bond is favorable should the couple have a baby, as cooperative child rearing maximizes the young ones chances for survival.

The bottom line is this: There are many potential biochemical and evolutionary reasons for post-sex sleepiness, some direct and some indirect  but no one has yet pinpointed the exact causes. One thing, however, is certain: we females better get used to it, because it doesnt look likely to change anytime soon.

I will leave frustrated American women with one final thought: if you are upset at the ubiquity of the post-sex snoring phenomenon, remember that things could be a lot worse. A recent survey of 10,000 English men revealed that 48 percent actually fall asleep during sex.

Talk about coitus interruptus!

This answer is provided by Scienceline, a project of New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.

Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Over the last few centuries, cities have come to define the way humans live, work and interact. In 1800, just 10% (opens in new tab) of the world's population lived in cities, but since 2009, the planets urban population has exceeded its rural one  and in the U.S., around 80% (opens in new tab) of people call cities home.

As more people have moved to cities, these metropolises have swelled. But what is the largest city on the planet? And how exactly do we define "largest"?

There are two main ways of assessing a city's size: by measuring its geographical area, or its population. Both of these methods could legitimately lead to a city being proclaimed the largest, but is one of these options considered more valid?

"Both are as bad and as good as each other," Kevin Ward, a professor of human geography at the University of Manchester in the U.K. and director of the Manchester Urban Institute, told Live Science in an email. "They capture different aspects of urban change and transformation. With some cities building upwards and creating increased densification, one might expect some cities to grow their population without necessarily expanding their physical imprint."

Related: How many people can Earth support?

Tokyo is the most populated city in the world. (Image credit: Yongyuan Dai via Getty Images)

Ward also suggested a possible third option: assessing a city's cultural impact on the rest of the world. In this regard, Ward said, one could claim "Paris, London or New York" to be the "biggest." This is, however, open to individual interpretation.

Measuring the size of a city is difficult in part because there is no universally accepted way of defining what a city is, or where one begins and ends. "What constitutes a 'city' varies from one country to another," Ward noted. And neither size nor population are always a factor. Vatican City, for example, is the world's smallest independent country and is tiny in terms of its population (just 453 people) and area (0.19 square mile, or 0.49 square kilometer). Meanwhile, Ngerulmud, the capital of the Republic of Palau in the western Pacific, has just 400 residents, but at 180 square miles (466 square kilometers), has a larger area than Vatican City, and is regarded as the least-populous capital city in the world (opens in new tab).

Various sources have set out to establish the largest city in the world by area, and according to WorldAtlas (opens in new tab) and World Population Review (opens in new tab), New York City comes out on top. However, the two sources have different interpretations of the city's size. According to WorldAtlas, New York City occupies a total of 3,353 square miles (8,683 square km), while World Population Review lists the city as covering 4,669 square miles (12,093 square km). This discrepancy is, according to Ward, because there are no concrete "norms and understandings" around how to determine a city's boundaries.

In terms of population, however, New York City is nowhere near the top of the list. According to World Population Review (opens in new tab), New York, which has a population of 8,177,020 (as of 2022) is currently the 45th most populous city in the world, sandwiched between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (opens in new tab) (8,419,566) in 44th and Hangzhou, China (opens in new tab) (8,044,878) in 46th.

When it comes to the number of human inhabitants, no other city comes close to Tokyo, the capital of Japan. With an estimated population of 37,274,000, according to World Population Review (opens in new tab), Tokyo has over 5 million more residents than second-placed Delhi, India, which is home to approximately 32,065,760 people (opens in new tab).

However, other sources have reached different conclusions in terms of city populations. Statista (opens in new tab), the German data aggregator, also names Tokyo as the city with the largest population, but it puts the figure at around 39,105,000. Statista's data ranks Jakarta, Indonesia, as the second most populous city, with an estimated population of 35,362,000, and puts Delhi in third, with a population of 31,870,000.

While it is difficult to definitively state which city is the largest, it's evident that the world has an increasing number of megacities  generally regarded as cities with a population over 10 million. These sprawling urban centers face numerous challenges, as they continue to expand, Ward noted, but they will hold the key to humanity's long-term survival, given that by 2050, almost 70% of the world's (opens in new tab) population will live in cities.

"In some [cities] the main challenge will be managing growth in a sustainable manner; in others, it will be what to do with an infrastructural legacy from past decades. The bottom line, though, is that the challenges facing the planet will be won or lost through the action of cities," Ward said.

According to UN estimates (opens in new tab), the world could have as many as 43 megacities by 2030, up from the 31 we have today. The UN has also predicted (opens in new tab) that by 2028 Delhi will overtake Tokyo to become the planet's most populous city, so the Japanese capital's time at the top of the population pack could come to an end in the very near future.

Originally published on Live Science on Oct. 9, 2012 and rewritten on July 23, 2022.
Donald Trump took aim at the Jan. 6 committee during a speech in Arizona Friday evening, painting the ongoing investigation into his actions on the day of the Capitol insurrection as a conspiratorial witch hunt designed to permanently blacklist him from politics.

If I announced that I was not going to run any longer for political office, the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop, he said. Theyre coming after me because Im standing up for you.

The former presidents appearance at the so-called Save America rally in Prescott Valley was intended to build support for a handful of Trump-endorsed candidates in Arizona  including gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and senate candidate Blake Masters  but rapidly devolved into the type of meandering, ego-stroking affair emblematic of the Trump presidency.

Taking the stage over an hour late, Trump delivered a rambling speech focused primarily on touting his self-proclaimed achievements while in office and perpetuating the unfounded narrative that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. The former president also zeroed in on the Biden administration and Democrats, pushing the popular conservative dog whistles du jour  rising gas prices, border control, critical race theory, LGBT awareness in schools, voter fraud, and (amusingly) the war on Christmas. He also falsely claimed to have completed the border wall, a statement that was met by applause from the crowd.

It wasnt until nearly two hours had elapsed before Trump finally mentioned the Jan. 6 proceedings. Where does it stop? Where does it end? he said of the committees investigation. Never forget: Everything this corrupt establishment is doing to me is all about preserving their power and control over the American people, for whatever reason. They want to damage me in any form so I can no longer represent you.

At one point, Masters joined Trump at the podium, stating the former president literally saved this country  a curious claim considering the committees latest findings showed Trump willingly and deliberately refused to take any action during the siege of the Capitol, despite repeated pleas from White House staff and other officials.

Republican Blake Masters says Trump "literally saved" America  which I guess is Arizona speak for "sat in the White House dining room doing nothing for four hours on Jan. 6" pic.twitter.com/tAR5mq3rTK  kat bee (@katbeee) July 23, 2022

Trump then railed against his former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, one of the committees witnesses, accusing her of being an attention-seeking hypocrite. I watched this hoax last night where this young lady said, Oh, Im so heartbroken,' he said, referring to Matthews appearance during the July 22 primetime hearing. But, three weeks after January 6th, she wrote us a letter saying, Oh, I loved working for the President. Hes so great.'

He also attacked the credibility of Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows whose bombshell testimony before the committee gave damning insight into the inner workings of the Trump administration in the days leading up to Jan. 6. I mean, Im the President of the United States. Can you imagine this made up story? he said while recounting the now-infamous incident where he allegedly lunged at a Secret Service agent. Its total fiction.

Trump appeared most enraged not by the investigation itself, but by the unflattering anecdotes shared during hearings that revealed his penchant for childish temper tantrums. They have me throwing food. I dont throw food in the White House. I dont throw food anywhere. I eat the food, which is a problem, he said, referring to a segment of Hutchinsons testimony during which she revealed Trump staffers witnessed the president throwing a plate of food at the wall in a fit of rage. I have too much respect for the White House.

Trump: I dont throw food in the White House. I dont throw food anywhere. I eat the food pic.twitter.com/uy82wa4Ja3  Acyn (@Acyn) July 23, 2022

The beleaguered ex-president spent the rest of the speech emphasizing his self-imposed martyrdom  I had a very good and luxurious life before entering the wonderful world of politics, he said  peddling sexism and transphobia, and declaring war against the education system. Its time to finally and completely smash the lefts corrupt education cartel, he said. Our children are captives to unhinged, Marxist educators. Where do they come from?

Yet, for all the talk of protecting children from liberal boogeymen, Trump failed to mention the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas  let alone any of the recent mass shootings that have taken place across the country this summer. (He did, however, tout the Arizona candidates commitment to protecting the Second Amendment.)

The House committee will resume hearings in September after a brief recess  and, as members of the committee have previously suggested, the investigation is far from over. We are receiving new information every single day, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said during a recent appearance on CNN. You will definitely be hearing from the committee again.
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R. Kellys former manager was convicted Friday on charges stemming from a gun threat he made toward a Surviving R. Kelly screening in Dec. 2018.

Donnell Russell was found guilty of threatening physical harm through interstate communication  federal investigators previously revealed Russell called the threat to the New York theatre from his own Chicago home  but exonerated him on a conspiracy charge. Russell faces up to five years in prison when hes sentenced in Nov. 2022.

The private screening of Surviving R. Kelly at New Yorks NeueHouse Madison Square  an event attended by some of Kellys victims and their families  was evacuated and canceled in Dec. 2018 after Russell phoned the theater and threatened to shoot up the place if the screening continued.

The call was short. The defendant was to the point. And he was terrifying. Someone at the event had a gun and was going to shoot up the place, Assistant US Attorney Lara Pomerantz said during the three-day trial. He wanted to keep these women quiet and he succeeded. His threat worked.

According to the unsealed complaint, Russell first sent a fake cease and desist letter to NeueHouse, arguing the docuseries violated Kellys copyright; when that was ignored  and after failed attempts to contact New York law enforcement  Russell placed the threatening phone call, which federal agents were able to track back to a landline associated with Russells home address in Chicago.

Last month, Kelly himself was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday after being found guilty of all counts of racketeering and sex trafficking against him at his Brooklyn federal trial last year.
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Shazam swooped into San Diego Comic-Cons Hall H today, bringing the electricity to the Warner Bros. presentation. Zachary Levi took the stage to talk Shazam! Fury of the Gods before the films first official trailer debuted.

The Shazamily has been playing superheros for a few years now in Philadelphia, he said, setting the scene for the new film before debuting the trailer.

After showing the trailer, director David F. Sandberg, Lucy Liu, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer headed onstage to talk about the sequel.

Sandberg quipped that, Its a sequel now, so we got more money, and we spend it all.

When speaking about the characters, Angel said, Billy is afraid of losing his Shazamily and hyper-focused on keeping it.

The most energetic moment of the panel was when Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler appeared remotely via video, and Mirren celebrated her female costars by saying, Yay, pussy power!

During the audience Q&A, Levi was asked if Superman would appear in this movie. I can neither confirm nor deny allegations such as these, he replied winkingly. He also fielded the question about a possible Shazam 3 by encouraging fans to support the sequel, saying, If you guys go and see this one and you like it.

The sequel to Shazam!, the hit 2019 film from the DC Extended Univers, is coming Dec. 21. Shazam! Fury of the Gods brings back Levi as the titular hero for a battle against Helen Mirrens Hespera, the villainous daughter of the god Atlas. Liu stars as Kalypso, the evil sister of Hespera.

Both characters do not have an obvious counterpart in the DC Comics, but, as the daughters of the Greek god Atlas, they no doubt have a relationship to the boy-turned-magical-superhero. One of the sources of Shazams powers is Atlas himself  he holds the stamina of the titan god. Along with the power of Zeus, the strength of Hercules, the wisdom of Solomon, the speed of Mercury and the courage of Achilles, Shazam is surely in for an intense battle in his second outing.

The core cast and filmmaking team from the original Shazam! is returning for the sequel, including Asher Angel as Shazams teenage alter ego Billy Batson. David F. Sandberg is returning to direct the film from a screenplay by Henry Gayden, and Peter Safran is producing with his shingle the Safran Company.

Its sure to be an exciting end of the year for Shazam fans as the new Black Adam film starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson is coming on Oct. 21. In the comics, Black Adam is the arch nemesis of Shazam and, in many ways, his darker counterpart. While Shazam has the powers of the Greek gods, Black Adam calls upon the Egyptian gods for his incredible power. While a team up or conflict between the two magical super-beings has not been announced, the DCEU is no doubt introducing a bit more magic this winter.

Watch the trailer below:

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Approximately $8.8 million in funding for renovations to the Laredo International Airport were announced Friday.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX-28) announced the funding during a morning press conference and said more could be coming for infrastructure projects, as well as expansion, in the future.

It was also revealed that the renovations will include upgrades to the existing Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint and other terminal improvement projects.

There are two different areas: First it was a $1.4-plus million that was done last year from the bipartisan bill that we made sure to bring infrastructure money in, and there was another award that just came out recently which is over the five years for $7.4 million, which will bring about $10 million for the infrastructure for this terminal itself, Cuellar said.

Cuellars office states the airport originally received $1,483,521 for terminal improvement projects in December 2021. The airport will receive a similar amount of funding every year for the next five years totaling around $7.4 million.

The congressman said the money is necessary to better equip the airport with needed technology and infrastructure, as it was built in 1998. Cuellar said the technology utilized will help improve bathrooms and concession stands as well.

"Since I (was sworn in) as a congressman, we have brought in $216 million roughly for the Laredo airport, which is a tremendous amount," Cuellar said. "Most of it has been underground -- you have to do the runways, the places where the airplanes park, and so most of it has been underground. People don't see that, but it is very important.

"Our runway is actually larger than the one in San Antonio, and also we have more runways than the city of Mexico City has, so we have put a lot of money into the runways. We are still trying to see some new things that people can see, as the fire station was built a few years ago and now do some work in the terminal. $10 million is not enough, but it is a good start."

Manuel De Luna Jr. -- the City of Laredo Operations Manager of Laredo International Airport and a representative of Airport Director Gilbert Sanchez -- also provided thanks for the incoming funding.

I want to thank Congressman Henry Cuellar, the mayor, city council and our city management for their continued support to our airport, De Luna said. The Laredo International Airport and the City of Laredo have partnered with the Federal Aviation Administration for the past five years to work toward a terminal improvement program for our airport including new passenger screening checkpoint, additional and renovated restrooms, and improved concession program, all enhancing the passenger experience using our airport."

Cuellar also announced he is currently working in the appropriations committee for more funding for the airport to improve the salary of TSA officers and help make it a major cargo hub.

"We are halfway in the appropriations, and in the appropriations, one of the things that I included in homeland was that we added $600 million to hire more TSA officers and to raise their salaries up so they could be at the same level as other officers, Cuellar said. So the folks that do their very important job upstairs -- hopefully we will see more of these folks, and hopefully by the end of the year they will make this final and get a better salary, and we can match those folks that we have."

Cuellar said investing millions in the airport and its employees is good overall for the economy.

"You put $10 million into the economy, and that multiplies and (keeps) our economy moving," Cuellar said.

The mayor of the City of Laredo said he is happy for what the invested money means for the continuing improvement of the city.

We are grateful to receive this money and the utilization it will provide for the city, City of Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz said.

Several dignitaries were also present at the event Friday morning including Uvalde resident and Texas State Representative for House District 80 Tracy King, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar and municipal judges like Jesus "Chuy" Dominguez and others.

According to the congressmans office, the Laredo International Airport does about 68 flights a week with four commercial airlines such as Aeromar, American Airlines, Alligent Air and United Air.
Ng Han Guan/AP

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  A Chinese man convicted of killing his former wife by setting her on fire was executed in southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday in a domestic violence case that had drawn national outrage.

Tang Lu set his ex-wife on fire in September 2020 while she was livestreaming on Douyin, the short video platform. The 30-year-old woman, known online as Lamu, died of her injuries a few weeks later.
Laredo College, in collaboration with the City of Laredo, announced a job fair this week as a recovery step after the COVID pandemic for local employment.

For those who were affected, Laredo College and the City of Laredo presented this event to offer those who completed their courses and certifications supported by the CARES 2.0 fund opportunities to re-enter the working environment, as well as inviting the community in general to assist, find new career paths and apply to jobs.

More than 40 employers will be available to provide opportunities for anyone committed to initiating a career in their businesses and organizations.

Hospitals, school districts, logistics companies and a great variety of employers are willing to hire all individuals who are interested in working with them.

As the City of Laredo gave Laredo College $1 million and through another grant, the institution was able to match the amount collecting $2 million in total. They expect to re-tool and re-engage people who may have lost their jobs during COVID or were furloughed or laid off and are now looking to re-skill themselves.

Laredo College has 27 programs available for anyone who wants to learn a profession or desires to continue succeeding on a different career path.

After a first round of CARES program funding, which now includes Cares 2.0, many students were able to finish their academic requirements, so this event is a watershed to support these individuals and bring new incoming students to the program to continue their education and promote economic development in the city.

This is a great vision to get all these energies that are needed in order for us to continue promoting and continuing economic development for our city. I am thankful of the partnership and opportunities that we are building, said Miriam Castillo, Interim Director of Economic Development of the City of Laredo.

Now that the Round 1 for the training program has been completed, we want to be able to offer a platform to the community where employers and people that are looking for a job to see what options are out there. Thats what helps our community and promotes the economic development workforce development. It's a very crucial thing that we try to focus on because that's what helps economic development.

President of Laredo College Minita Ramirez echoed Castillo, and she agreed this plays a very important role in the citys economy.

The idea behind the program is that all of those people in our community that right now are unemployed can get re-tooled, and once they do it, they will become part of the economic status of our community, she said. Our economy is our heart. That's the heartbeat of any society  any good, strong, healthy city or county  and we need everyone back to work, and we want to be part of that engine that helps our community, our citizens, find employment and continue with endless opportunities.

She also said the job fair will allow people to talk to possible employers either to find employment or consider new options of careers, and motivate them to get the certifications and licenses needed to get the jobs.

Whatever program you choose to finish it out, we know that long term it will help you and benefit you, she said.

Mayor Pete Saenz agreed this job fair would bring many benefits to the community after dealing with the pandemic, and many citizens were facing difficult situations and had lost jobs. He said he was thankful for this partnership.

Congratulations to LC and President Ramirez for allowing us to participate to make our community stronger and better, he said.

The job fair will be hosted at the Kazen Center on Aug. 2 at 1:45 p.m. On-site interviews will be available. It is recommended to bring a resume, certifications and credentials to get one step ahead.

For more information email careerservices@laredo.edu.

karol.garcia@lmtonline.com
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ISLAMABAD (AP)  Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khans party was sidelined in a key vote Friday in the local assembly in Punjab province, despite winning a byelection there earlier this week. Khan slammed the development and called on his supporters to rally across Pakistan.

The vote was held to determine whether the provinces sitting chief minister  Hamza Sharif, the son of the country's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif enjoyed the backing of the majority of lawmakers in the local parliament.

In the end, Hamza Sharif retained his post in another blow to Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party and its allies had hoped to form the new provincial government in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province.

Last Sunday, the bloc won 15 out of 20 seats that were up for grabs in the 371-member provincial assembly.

In Friday's vote, Khans candidate for chief minister, Pervez Elahi, initially won 186 votes but the provincial assemblys deputy speaker, Dost Mohammad Mazari, invalidated 10 of those votes over violations of voting regulations.

In a statement broadcast on national television, Mazari announced that 10 lawmakers from the Pakistan Muslim League headed by Shujaat Hussain, a Khan ally, had violated regulations by voting contrary to demands from their leader, Hussain, who had allegedly asked they abstain from voting.

Under Pakistani law, votes are disqualified if lawmakers vote contrary to their party's instructions. Hussain could not immediately be reached for comment.

In the end, Hamza Shahbaz won 179 votes Friday, retaining his post.

Khan claimed his opponents had resorted to political machinations in Punjab and called on his countrymen to rally against Mazari's ruling. By Friday night, protesters had started taking to the streets in major cities across Pakistan but the rallies remained peaceful.

Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April, a move he claimed was a U.S. conspiracy  a charge that both his successor and Washington deny.

Khan wants the new prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, to call early parliamentary elections to determine which one of them is more popular in Pakistan. Sharif has refused to accept the challenge, saying the next elections will be held on time, in 2023.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday's airstrikes as a spit in the face to Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements.

Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the port's infrastructure and Ukrainian air defenses brought down two others, the Ukrainian militarys Southern Command said. Odesa regional governor Maksym Marchenko said an unspecified number of people were injured in the attack.

Command spokeswoman Nataliya Humenyuk said no grain storage facilities were hit in Odesa. Turkey's defense minister, however, said he had spoken with Ukrainian authorities and one missile struck a grain silo and another landed nearby but neither affected loading at Odesa's docks.

It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesas port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the U.N. and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.

The invaders can no longer deceive anyone, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Nikolenko described the missile strike on the 150th day of Russias war in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin's spit in the face of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who made great efforts to reach agreement.

Guterres' office said the U.N. chief unequivocally condemns the strikes.

Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, the Guterres statement said. These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people."

It was not clear how Saturdays Russian airstrikes would affect the plan to resume shipping Ukrainian grain by sea in safe corridors out of three Ukrainian Black Sea ports: Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Ukraine and Russia signed identical deals Friday with the U.N. and Turkey in Istanbul backing the plan, which Guterres hailed as a beacon of hope for a world in which food prices are rising rapidly.

The agreements sought to clear the way for the shipment of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and some Russian exports of grain and fertilizer that have been blocked by the war. Ukraine is one of the worlds largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russias invasion and naval blockade of its ports halted shipments.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press showed the deals called for the creation of a U.N.-led joint coordination center in Istanbul where officials from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey would oversee the scheduling and searches of cargo ships.

Zelenskyy previously called the agreements a chance to prevent a global catastrophe  a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us.

The head of Zelenskyy's office, Andriy Yermak, said on Twitter that the Odesa strike, coming so soon after the endorsement of the Black Sea deal, illustrated "the Russian diplomatic dichotomy.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink denounced the strike on Odesa's port as outrageous.

The Kremlin continues to weaponize food, she tweeted. Russia must be held to account.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russias commitment to the deal and undermines the work of the U.N., Turkey and Ukraine.

Russia bears responsibility for deepening the global food crisis and must stop its aggression and fully implement the deal to which it has agreed, he said.

Russia also fired a barrage of missiles Saturday at an airfield and a railway facility in central Ukraine, killing at least three people, while Ukrainian forces launched rocket strikes on river crossings in a Russian-occupied southern region.

The attacks on key infrastructure marked new attempts by the warring parties to tip the scales of the grinding conflict in their favor.

In Ukraine's central Kirovohradska region, 13 Russian missiles struck an airfield and a railway facility. Gov. Andriy Raikovych said at least one serviceman and two guards were killed and another 16 people were wounded in the strikes near the city of Kirovohrad.

In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper River crossings to try to disrupt Russian supply lines. Still, Russian troops have largely held their ground in the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces at a checkpoint are blocking 1,200 vehicles carrying people fleeing the area and four people have died after being stranded there for days amid high heat, said Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the city of Melitopol, which is now under Russian control.

In the key port city of Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said two people were wounded when Russian rockets struck an apartment building.

Fighting also raged unabated in eastern Ukraine's industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make new gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.

Earlier this week Ukraine bombarded the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnieper River using the U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russia-appointed regional administration in Kherson.

Stremousov told Russian state news agency Tass that the only other crossing of the Dnieper, the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, also came under attack from rockets launched with weapons supplied by Washington but wasn't damaged.

HIMARS, which can fire GPS-guided rockets at targets 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, out of reach of most Russian artillery systems, have significantly bolstered the Ukrainian strike capability.

In addition, Ukrainian forces shelled an automobile bridge across the Inhulets River in the village of Darivka, Stremousov told Tass. He said the bridge east of the regional capital of Kherson sustained seven hits but remained open. Stremousov said that, unlike the Antonivskyi Bridge, the small bridge in Darivka has no strategic value.

Since April, the Kremlin has concentrated on capturing the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region where pro-Moscow separatists have proclaimed independence.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized this week that Moscow plans to retain control of other areas in Ukraine that its forces have occupied during the war.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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Long time Longford District Court Judge Seamus Hughes was the ultimate public administrator whose like will arguably never be seen again.

The tribute, paid by local solicitor Frank Gearty, was one of umpteen glowing testimonies which were delivered at last week's District Court sitting just hours after the 69-year-old passed away following a brave battle with illness.

Mr Gearty described news of the Westport native's passing as one which had cast a deep void over not just Longford's but the midlands' legal profession as a whole.

It's a terribly sad day, he said.

It's hard to believe he is gone as we were all so used to seeing him.

Mr Gearty said perhaps the biggest compliment which could be levelled at his long-standing colleague was in a card he posted to the former Fianna Fail TD around five years ago.

In that Mr Gearty stated how almost every facet of a profession he had graced for over four decades were this week lamenting the loss of one of its greatest ever ambassadors.

Even then everyone was asking for him, from the accused persons, to the witnesses (in cases), every man and woman were expressing their concerns for him, he said.

These were the people he was administering justice to and it's because he listened to them, he listened to everybody.

Mr Gearty said the loss of a man and figurehead of the ilk of Judge Hughes was one which would be felt for some time to come.

He was a patriot, added Mr Gearty.

He was the ultimate public administrator.

And I have never seen anyone like him in being able to command what he could.

He had the interests of Ireland at his heart and we will all miss him terribly.

A former state solicitor for Mayo and Fianna Fail TD for West Mayo previously, the father of four's association with Longford's judiciary would not arrive until 2011 when he was appointed to succeed his predecessor, the late John Neilan.

A straight-talking and unashamedly honest individual, Judge Hughes was never one to shy away from taking tough decisions if, and when, the situation demanded it.

His stance on Longford's deep rooted feuding issues was as intrepid as it was well established.

A perfect illustration of that perspective came in December 2019 when deciding to remand eight men in custody, telling them he would not allow a town like Longford to be held to ransom following a violent street row only days earlier.

I wont allow a small group of men hold this town to ransom, he said. It wont be tolerated any longer.

Yet, for every tough handed response to serious crime, there was an equally exuberant and fun loving side to the deeply admired and well respected judge.

In October 2018, he told a goat owner he was a bit of a buck himself after appearing before him accused of stealing 30 worth of hay from a nearby farmyard in north Longford.

An equally comical exchange some five months later when telling a man knew it wasnt Santa Claus who was coming to meet him after attempting to run into a house and give gardai the slip during a car chase in Longford town.

Judge Bernadette Owens cut a sombre figure from the bench last Tuesday morning as she relayed the news of her colleague's passing to a stunned courtroom.

She said it was with great sadness she had been left with the unenviable task of announcing the passing of a man she and her fellow judicial associates held in the highest regard.

I am sure like myself, my colleagues will be shocked by news of his passing, she said.

Judge Owens said his tenacity and resilience in fighting against ill health was the hallmark of a man who garnered the respect and appreciation of all who knew him.

She said his diligence in executing his duty as a district court judge was nothing short of exemplary, adding how one of his more alluring abilities as a judge was his penchant give somebody a chance.

She added that perhaps the best tribute a courtroom he commanded over for over a decade was by ensuring justice and its administering was not compromised in any way, stating that the show must go on.

She said: Today, we have lost a great judge, a great friend and a great collegue.

They were remarks which Longford Superintendent Seamus Boyle was only too quick to endorse.

He said the mark and legacy left by the proud Westport native would unquestionably stand the test of time.

A garda never left here (court) an d felt that a decision wasn't properly made, he said.

He had a great ability to get to the nub of an issue. He was good for Longford and he will be sadly missed by everyone.

He was very fair and very fair in the decisions he made and that is a huge quality to have.

Fairness, in truth, barely scratched nut just the legal but everyday, accustomed surface for a man that will live long in the memory for Longford and its 40,000 plus citizens.

The late Seamus Hughes was laid to rest at in Aughagower Cemetery in Westport, Co Mayo following funeral mass at St Marys Church.

He is survived by loving wife Maria, sons Colin, Emmet and Donal, daughter Sarah, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives and large circle of friends.
(Alliance News) - UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called on France to act over "entirely avoidable" delays at the border as holidaymakers and lorry drivers face another day of gridlocked roads around Dover.

Lengthy queues were building again on Saturday, following a day of bumper-to-bumper traffic on Friday.

It is one of the busiest periods for foreign travel from the UK as most schools in England and Wales have broken up for summer.

Truss said the delays and queues were "unacceptable", blaming a lack of staffing by the French at the border.

But a French politician blamed Brexit for the chaos.

Pierre-Henri Dumont, Republican member of Parliament for Calais, said the problems at the Kent port would reoccur, telling BBC News: "This is an aftermath of Brexit. We have to run more checks than before."

Dumont also said the Port of Dover is "too small" and there are too few kiosks due to lack of space.

His comments linking delays to Brexit were backed up by the Port of Dover Chief Executive Doug Bannister, who said it must be recognised that there will be "increased transaction times" at the border due to extra checks needed.

Bannister told the BBC Radio Four Today programme: "We are operating in a post-Brexit environment which does mean that passports need to be checked, they need to be stamped and indeed the capable people that do man the booths, police aux frontieres, they're doing their job that they need to do now."

He said the port had "created more border capacity so that the overall throughput can be maintained" and that while their modelling had shown some "very peak busy days during the summer season" are expected, "for the most part we should be able to cope with the traffic".

His comments come after he said on Friday that being "let down" by poor resourcing at the French border was "immensely frustrating".

Some 10,000 cars are expected to be processed going out of the port on Saturday, up on Friday's figure of 8,500.

A "critical incident" was declared by the port due to the queues, with tourists urged to consider staying away, and warnings that Saturday may be just as bad.

Local MP Natalie Elphicke said "long, long delays" are expected again and insisted the French authorities "should apologise to Dover residents and holidaymakers for the unnecessary holiday chaos at the start of the Summer getaway".

She also called for an end to "this sticking plaster approach  to invest in the roads, lorry parking & port facilities to support the @Port_of_Dover, Kent and Dover to grow & thrive".

In a statement, Tory leadership hopeful Truss said: "This awful situation should have been entirely avoidable and is unacceptable.

"We need action from France to build up capacity at the border to limit any further disruption for British tourists and to ensure this appalling situation is avoided in future.

"We will be working with the French authorities to find a solution."

A French official said an "unforeseeable technical incident" in the Channel Tunnel meant that the staffing of border control booths had to be pushed back from 8.30am to 9.45am on Friday morning.

But Eurotunnel Director of Public Affairs John Keefe told the BBC that the Tunnel incident had "absolutely nothing to do with problems at the Port of Dover".

Passengers embarking on cross-Channel sailings from Dover must pass through French border checks before they can board a ferry.

The port said in a statement that it had increased the number of border control booths by 50%.

It went on: "Regrettably, the PAF (police aux frontieres) resource has been insufficient and has fallen far short of what is required to ensure a smooth first weekend of the peak summer getaway period."

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said: "As the schools closed their doors fully yesterday, Saturday could prove busier still this weekend.

"Drivers should continue to expect disruption and delays on major holiday routes to the south-west, eastern coast and ports of Dover and Folkestone.

"While many have decided to go at the start of the summer holidays, between now and the beginning of September when schools return, each Friday and Saturday will be busy on our roads.

"This is because these are the main switchover days for holiday lets."

Ferry operator P&O Ferries told passengers to allow at least five hours to clear the approach roads and security checks.

The ferry company said on Friday evening it expects Saturday to be "just as busy".

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was "working closely" with the French transport minister.

Shapps tweeted: "There's been severe delays today at Dover & so I'm working closely with my opposite number Clement Beaune to address the issues that caused tailbacks.

"I welcome his commitment that both Britain & France will work closely to minimise further disruption so people can get away quickly."

Labour's Nick Thomas-Symonds accused the government of being "absent", amid another day of gridlocked roads, telling Times Radio that those in charge need to be "taking a grip of this situation".

On Friday evening, the French Embassy in the UK said French border checks in Dover were "operating in full capacity", adding that the French authorities were cooperating closely with their British counterparts and all stakeholders responsible for the traffic in the Port of Dover "to enable travellers to make their crossings under the best possible conditions".

By PA Reporters

source: PA

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Vietnam needs extra efforts to achieve five million foreign visitor target in 2022

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is making extra effort to realise the target of welcoming five million foreign visitors amid a decline in the number of tourists from China and Russia.













Tourists at the Binh Son - Ninh Chu beach area, Phan Rang - Thap Cham City, the south-central province of Ninh Thuan

These two important markets are unlikely to recover in short term, with the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict and China's strict COVID-19 containment policies, which will force tourism authorities to look elsewhere to compensate.



The VNAT will optimise markets which have air routes with Vietnam and those that permit their citizens to travel abroad and Vietnamese expats to return to their home country since the pandemic is put under control.



Priority will be given to attracting arrivals from the Republic of Korea, Japan, Western Europe, Australia and ASEAN nations.



Greater attention will also be paid to new markets, such as India, the United States, the Middle East, and Russian-speaking countries, including Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.



The VNAT will cooperate with local authorities, enterprises, airlines and Vietnam Tourism Development Fund (VTDF) to implement a programme called Fully live in Vietnam through promotional events held in ASEAN, the RoK, Japan, India, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.



Vietnam also plans to attend the Japan Association of Travel Agents Tourism Expo in September and the World Travel Market in London in November, according to the VNAT.



The number of international tourist arrivals reached about 413,000 in the first half of 2022.



The number of foreign visitors has risen sharply since Vietnam reopened its border in mid-March. The May figure doubled that of April while that of June quadrupled that of May.



Most foreign travellers come from countries that enjoy visa exemptions from Vietnam, including the RoK, the UK, France, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.



The country currently does not impose any COVID-19 restrictions against foreign entries  no required proof of COVID-19 vaccinations, negative test results, mandatory quarantine, health declaration forms, or cap on foreign arrivals.



Still, compared to regional peers, Vietnam appears to be running behind in terms of foreign tourists in the first months of 2022. For example, Thailand has received more than 2.2 million arrivals (as of July 6), Malaysia has received over two million (as of June 21), Singapore has received over 1.5 million (first six months of the year), Indonesia welcomed over 523,000 arrivals (by the end of May 2022), the Philippines welcomed over 814,000 arrivals (the first six months), Cambodia received over 510,000 arrivals (the first six months).
Malawi government, Huawei commission national data center

Xinhua) 14:00, July 23, 2022

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera (3rd L) listens to the introduction of the National Data Center at the handover ceremony in Blantyre, Malawi, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

BLANTYRE, Malawi, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Malawian government and Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) company Huawei have commissioned Malawi's first-ever National Data Center.

The completion of the data center is part of Malawi's efforts to embrace technology as a tool to accelerate development and make it accessible to all at every level.

Speaking during the handover ceremony held Thursday in the country's second-largest city of Blantyre, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said the data center will give Malawi a stake in the 4th Industrial Revolution of big data, artificial intelligence, digital financial services and the internet of things (IoT), among others.

The president commended Huawei's contribution to promoting digitization and bridging the digital gap in Malawi.

"Through this National Data Center, we can guarantee security information to those we invite to invest in our manufacturing, financial, retail and service sectors, thus making Malawi a location of choice for investors.

"This data center is a critical building block in the digital future Malawi is building, and will enable the government to cut down costs by enhancing coordination between different projects, and better manage and secure data that is critical for decision making and targeting in the implementation of many programs," Chakwera said.

Minister of Information and Digitalization Gospel Kazako said the National Data Center will enable Malawi to move into a paperless economy both in government and private sector, adding that the infrastructure will secure the country's data and information as opposed to storing it in paper form which is prone to damage and loss.

He added that the data center will help Malawi meet new market and customer demand by up-scaling access to ICTs in line with the National ICT Master Plan and thereby fertilizing the development of Malawi.

At the ceremony, Leo Chen, president of Huawei Southern Africa, announced that Huawei will provide free ICT training to 100 outstanding Malawian students this year through its "Seeds for the Future" training program.

Last year, 50 students from universities and colleges across Malawi received training under the program.

Photo taken on July 21, 2022 shows the National Data Center in Blantyre, Malawi. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera (C) attends the handover ceremony of the National Data Center in Blantyre, Malawi, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  Both pilots of a firefighting helicopter that crashed in Idaho have died, the U.S. Forest Service said Friday.

Mary Cernicek with the Salmon-Challis National Forest said Thomas Hayes, 41, of Post Falls, Idaho, and Jared Bird, 36, of Anchorage, Alaska, died from injuries they sustained when their CH-47D Series Chinook crashed in the Salmon River about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The pilots were employees of the Anchorage-based ROTAK Helicopter Services, which was contracted to help fight the Moose Fire burning about 21 miles (34 kilometers) north of Salmon.

Both pilots were highly experienced and military veterans, Cernicek said. Emergency crews responding to the crash were able to extricate the men and transport them to medical facilities but they did not survive, she said.

On its website, ROTAK said it confirmed the accident with heavy hearts and asked for prayers and privacy on behalf of the families involved.

ROTAK Helicopter Services is working closely with all appropriate agencies and will issue a full statement as information is released, the company wrote.

The Idaho crash comes less than a week after four first responders were killed in another helicopter crash in New Mexico. Authorities in New Mexico said the helicopter crew had wrapped up a firefighting mission and was heading home to Albuquerque when the helicopter came down at a high rate of speed, hitting the ground upright before toppling over. One of the four people killed in that crash managed to call 911 before succumbing to his injuries.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little ordered that flags be flown at half-staff in honor of Hayes and Bird. Little said the deaths were a tragedy that would be deeply felt by the families and the wildland firefighting community.

Our brave firefighters face extremely challenging conditions head on to protect lives, property, and the land, Little said in a press release. Idahoans are praying for the loved ones and colleagues of these firefighters as we grieve this tremendous loss.

Nearly 700 firefighters have been battling the Moose Fire in Idaho. The fire started on Sunday, and the National Interagency Fire Center said in an incident report Friday that nine helicopters were being used to support ground firefighting resources with water bucket drops.

The fire was burning on about 37 square miles (96 square kilometers) on Friday and threatening several structures, and fire managers said the fire was expected to increase as hot, dry conditions continued in the region. A red flag warning was issued in the area because wind gusts were expected to reach up to 35 mph (56 kph).

The helicopter wreckage was still in the Salmon River and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were en route to the scene, Cernicek said. That stretch of the river is popular with rafters and recreationists, and officials closed the area to recreational day trips. It remains open to people on multi-day river trips, Cernicek said.
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MANISTEE  Manistee has a new health center where people who are underinsured, uninsured or on Medicaid can see a doctor for a small fee.

On Parkdale Avenue near to Burger King, a slew of people could be seen on a small lot, celebrating the opening of the clinic run by Northwest Michigan Health Services, Inc.

Of the people in attendance at the ribbon cutting, there were several local politicians, including state Sen. Curt VanderWall, Manistee County Board of Commissioners Chair Jeff Dontz and a representative of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow's office.

The clinic will offer behavioral health, mental health and traditional medical services.

See more photos Find more photos of the grand opening of the Northwest Michigan Health Services medical clinic online with this story at manisteenews.com See More Collapse

Lori Bell, director of operations for Northwest Michigan Health Services, Inc., noted the importance of this clinic.

"The biggest importance of this clinic is finally being here in Manistee. To help the community, we see uninsured and underinsured patients. We have mental health and primary care here along with community health workers to assist with Medicaid insurance applications. We're super excited to finally have our own building and being able to help this community. I'm from Manistee, so it is kind of close to my heart that we finally have this to help the patients in this community," Bell said.

Larry Van Sickle, chairman of the board of directors for Northwest Michigan Health Services, Inc., emphasized the clinic's ability to serve low-income people and how it makes healthcare less difficult to obtain.

"... It makes healthcare available to low-income people (and) is also available for those that have insurance. But they serve patients here with a sliding fee. So, depending on your income, for 20 or 30 bucks, you can get a procedure ...," Van Sickle said.

The main provider at the Manistee clinic is Faith Kelley, family nurse practitioner. She spoke about her desire to serve the community.

"Its a big deal. I always wanted to work in primary care, (to work in) rural health and I want to be able to provide access to the community around me to help provide the primary care access to the population in the community around here," Kelley said.

Northwest Michigan Health Services, Inc is a nonprofit and federally qualified health center that has locations in Manistee, Benzonia, Ludington, Traverse City and Shelby. It also has a mobile clinic and two school school-based clinics  one in Manistee at Manistee Middle High School at 525 12th St. and the other in Mason County at Mason County Central Middle School in Scottville.

The new Manistee clinic is located at 148 W. Parkdale Ave. and is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The clinic has three patient exam rooms, a wheelchair-accessible ramp and is open for both in-person and telehealth visits. However, it is not available for walk-ins; appointments can be made by calling during office hours. To schedule an appointment call 231-398-2258.

More information on the clinic can be found at the organization's website nmhsi.org/locations/manistee.
MANISTEE TWP.  Out of all the challenges facing the Manistee area, Rose Fosdick believes that one stands out above the rest: housing.

Fosdick is a coordinator for the Manistee County Human Services Collaborative Body and an organizer of a housing summit held on Thursday in Manistee.

Every meeting we have  if we say, whats the issues facing you now to help people on to self sufficiency? Its housing, Fosdick said. Housing is always the number one issue we hear, so thats why I was willing to help facilitate this (housing action team) and see how we can move things forward.

The all-day summit drew in representatives from over two dozen local and regional organizations which, like the Human Services Collaborative Body, are impacted by issues associated with housing.

The employees at Centra Wellness are saying We would like to do more mental health services, but we're spending all our time dealing with housing issues, and it's like that across the board, Fosdick said. So, every agency, they're impacted by it.

Now these groups, which include the Manistee County Community Foundation, Manistee County Habitat for Humanity, Housing North and others are coming together to form a Manistee County Housing Action Team.

An invitation for the summit, called Lets Find Housing Solutions Together, said its goal is to set the table across our county for highly effective coordination of the full spectrum of our housing efforts.

We want this to be about all of Manistee County, for all of Manistee County, by all of Manistee County, part of the invite reads.

Vanessa Buhs, executive director of Manistee County Habitat for Humanity, was heartened to see that so many are committed to working together to address housing issues in Manistee.

It was impressive to see such a diverse group of local people that represent housing on all levels of the continuum to include homelessness, work force and higher end housing that are committed to finding solutions to safe, decent and affordable housing, Buhs stated.

Fosdick echoed Buhs sentiment in a statement to the News Advocate.

I am extremely grateful for those that participated in (Thursdays) housing summit. Thirty-six individuals from a wide cross sector of housing stakeholders came together to set the table across our county for highly effective coordination of the full spectrum of our housing efforts, Fosdick stated.

The aim of Thursdays summit was, in part, to come together ahead of the selection of a regional housing coordinator at Housing North, according to Fosdick.

So much great information was shared and I am excited to process it all. (Thursday) was a great first step as we move forward in establishing the Manistee County Housing Action Team and prepare for the addition of a Housing Ready Director of Manistee County.

The director would look at ways to attract housing developments to both the city and county of Manistee, according to Housing North executive director, Yarrow Brown according to a previous News Advocate report.

Housing North covers 10 counties in northern Michigan from Manistee to Emmet, and estimates that 900 units  both rental and ownership units  are needed in Manistee County.

One of the main focuses of Housing North is on so-called "attainable" housing, which is housing for people who make within 80-120% of the Area Median Income. This income bracket faces challenges because people who make 80-120% of the AMI are ineligible for rental assistance, but are also unable to afford the current market rate.

The position is being funded by the city of Manistee, Filer Township and with help from nonprofit organizations like the Manistee County Community Foundation.

Laura Heintzelman, Manistee County Community Foundation executive director, said the issue of housing is a priority for the foundation.

When we look at the issue of housing, it's become more and more clear to us over the past several years that it's impacting virtually our entire community as a whole. It continues to impact our most vulnerable citizens who are really struggling to meet basic needs, Heintzelman said.

The issue is not limited to those on the fringes, however, Heintzelman said.

... What we're hearing more and more of as it's impacting our citizens at all income levels, and it's impacting the success of our organizations, businesses, really the community as a whole, Heintzelman said. So when the community foundation reflects on its mission and purpose, we really feel compelled to be able to help contribute to this community challenge. We also see it as a great opportunity to help our community realize its great potential.

The lack of adequate affordable housing has a host of negative effects on communities, and research by the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that a shortage of affordable housing costs the American economy about $2 trillion each year in lower wages and productivity.

Many participants at the summit voiced their desire to see the Housing Action Team continue this momentum in a way that can deliver results for Manistee families.

To do this and then put it into the basket where nobody sees it, it won't help us to convince the whole community that weve got to deal with this issue, said Corey Van Fleet, United Way of Manistee County executive director. We need to have some housing, so everybody has a good, safe place to live.

Some ideas tossed around at the meeting include creating a housing fund, a home improvement rehabilitation program and changing zoning ordinance to allow for smaller lot size and housing square footage in line with what other Michigan counties had enacted.

Sarah Ely, owner of Crescent Hill Consulting, facilitated the over five hour summit and said the results had exceeded all expectations.

I think people acknowledge that this is the way to go. I've heard that this is an incredibly giving community. In other words, I was surprised by a level of readiness that these groups have for collaboration," Ely said, adding. "Now it just has to get operationalized."
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SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)  The state of Georgia and local governments are giving $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to Hyundai Motor Group in exchange for the automaker building its first U.S. plant dedicated to electric vehicles near Savannah, according to the signed agreement disclosed Friday.

The deal calls for Hyundai to invest $5.5 billion in its Georgia plant and hire 8,100 workers. It's the largest economic development deal in the state's history and comes just months after Georgia closed another major deal with electric vehicle maker Rivian to build a factory in the state.

"Not only do these generational projects solidify our spot at the vanguard of the EV transition, but they also ensure that thousands of Georgians across the state will benefit from the jobs of the future," Pat Wilson, the state's economic development commissioner, said in a statement.

Hyundai executives and Gov. Brian Kemp announced the deal in May with a champagne toast at the project's sprawling 2,900 acre (1,170 hectare) site in Bryan County, west of Savannah. Hyundai plans to start construction on the plant next year and begin producing up to 300,000 vehicles per year in 2025. The new factory also will produce vehicle batteries.

But officials declined to reveal what incentives the automaker had been promised until after the agreement was signed.

The package disclosed Friday is worth roughly $300 million more than incentives promised to Rivian. It amounts to Georgia and four counties in the Savannah area giving Hyundai about $228,000 per job created.

Georgia officials insist it's a worthwhile investment. Wilson said Hyundai's payroll at the new plant is expected to reach $4.7 billion over 10 years. Parts suppliers are expected to create thousands of additional jobs in the state.

The $1.8 billion in incentives is easily the largest subsidy package a U.S. state has ever promised for an automotive plant, said Greg LeRoy, executive director Good Jobs First, a group skeptical of subsidies to private companies.

That's inherently super-risky, LeRoy said, because you're betting a huge amount on one company and one facility.

Local governments are giving Hyundai more than $472 million in property tax breaks, though Hyundai will pay more than $357 million in lieu of taxes over a 26-year period starting in 2023.

The company will also receive more than $212 million in state income tax credits, at $5,250 per job over five years. If Hyundai didnt owe that much state corporate income tax, Georgia would instead give the company personal income taxes collected from Hyundai workers.

The state and local governments spent $86 million to purchase the plant site. And the state will spend $200 million on road construction and improvements, plus $50 million more to help fund construction, machinery and equipment. Sales tax exemptions on construction materials and machinery expenses are estimated to cost $396 million.

Georgia officials say the deal requires Hyundai to pay back a portion of the incentives if the company falls below 80% of promised investment or employment.

Kia, another subsidiary of the Hyundai Motor Group, got more than $450 million in incentives for its plant in West Point, southwest of Atlanta. Georgia has promised SK Innovation $300 million in incentives for a $2.6 billion, 2,600-worker battery plant that the Korean company is building northeast of Atlanta.
Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content.

David Sloane, University of Southern California

(THE CONVERSATION) The National Funeral Directors Association has predicted that by 2035, nearly 80% of Americans will opt for cremation.

When the first U.S. indoor cremation machine was opened in 1876 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the creator and operator, Francis LeMoyne, was severely criticized by the Catholic Church. The new method of disposal was viewed as dangerous because it threatened traditional religious burial and societys sense of morality and dignity.

Less than 100 years later  in 1963  English writer Jessica Mitford wrote the bestselling book The American Way of Death as a way to educate Americans about what she viewed as the awful commercialization of dying, death and commemoration. After a strong criticism of funeral directors, cemeterians and other associated professions, she ended with a plea for cremation.

However, as late as 1970, according to figures from the Cremation Association of America, only about 5% of American chose the method. In 2020, more than 56% Americans opted for it.

So what has led to such a dramatic shift today? As an American historian who wrote The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History, following that up almost 30 years later with Is the Cemetery Dead?, I know that people are choosing cremation for different reasons, depending on their circumstances.

Here are three main ones:

1. Funerals and ground burials are expensive

Although figures differ depending on the source, families are spending an average of over US$8,000 on funerals, ranging from $6,700 in Mississippi to just under $15,000 in Hawaii, according to the World Population Review.

That compares with $1,000 to $2,000 for a direct cremation, in which the crematory or funeral director doesnt provide any services beyond the actual cremation of the body, as the blog Parting.com, which compares the pricing of funerals and cremations, points out.

However, many survivors dont choose to do the least costly cremation. The National Funeral Directors Association noted that for a funeral with a cremation, the median cost was over $6,000  certainly a savings, but not the enormous amount many websites proclaim.

Additionally, this is not a new development: Direct cremation was far cheaper than a full burial in 1960 or 1990, too.

2. Environmental costs

Cost clearly plays a role, but not a determining one for such a rapid shift in cultural practices. A second major factor is environmental concerns related to a conventional internment, in which a body is placed in a casket and the casket is buried or entombed.

Alexandra Harker, a landscape architect working to improve Americas sustainable environments, has described how concerns about such burials in the cemetery range from issues about the use of the land to the methods by which the body is prepared and stored.

Some people are increasingly upset by the environmental costs of a burial. A conventional burial necessitates the body being embalmed, usually with formaldehyde; placed in a casket, often made of hardwood or steel; then lowered in many cases into a concrete or steel grave liner or vault, with the surrounding lawn typically kept green by the use of pesticides. Roughly 1.5 million burials or entombments means Americans are using thousands of tons of copper, bronze and steel, over 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid and millions of feet of wood.

In a related concern, Harker notes that in a survey by the Cremation Association of North America in 2008, 13% of people chose cremation because of worries about cemetery land scarcity. Cremation internments take up much less space than ground burials.

However, people are exploring the idea of green burial in some new cemeteries where money earned from burials can serve to fund a conservation easement that protects the space so it will be there long after those interned have become part of the land.

Conventional cremation burns the body by use of natural gas, which is not considered as environmentally sensitive as simply burying the body without the use of harmful chemicals among other materials. Natural gas emits particulate matter and hard metals such as mercury, especially in older crematories.

3. Fewer Americans belong to a church

A third factor is the disruption of peoples connection to religious institutions, which leads them away from the cemetery.

In 2021, only about 47% of Americans belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, compared with 1999, when over 70% of adults stated they were affiliated with one such religious institution.

A growing number of younger Americans in particular are not tied to the religious institution where their grandparents and parents may have had a service after their death or from which funeral corteges would have left for the cemetery. The result is that they are more likely to opt for a method of disposing the body that places them in control of the remains.

Is cremation here to stay?

Will the rise of cremation affect other elements of the way Americans respond to deaths? Americans have long been accused of having death anxiety, a fear of even discussing death. For many families, the control that cremations give them has been accompanied by a increased willingness to publicly mourn, as evidenced by the rapid spread of roadside shrines, memorial tattoos and other everyday memorials that are utilized by a widespread number of families.

Most Americans are now comfortable with cremation as a practice. They like the power that it gives them to inter the remains in the cemetery, keep them at home, or scatter them in forests, parks, oceans and streams.

Alternatives, such as green burial, will challenge this practice, but for the foreseeable future, Americans have joined much of the world in embracing cremation.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
SEATTLE (AP)  A suburban Seattle man has been arrested and accused of threatening to shoot Black customers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Joey George, 37, is charged with making interstate threats and is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon, The Seattle Times reported.

George phoned a Buffalo grocery store twice in July threatening to shoot Black people in the store and ranting about a race war, the complaint said.

On May 14, a shooter killed 10 Black people and hurt several others at Tops Friendly Supermarket in Buffalo. A 19-year-old white man with ties to white supremacy has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges.

George did not call the same store but referenced it in his threat, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said George is also being charged in connection with a May call to a restaurant in San Bruno, California, in which he allegedly threatened to shoot Black and Hispanic patrons, and with making other threatening calls to businesses in Maryland, Connecticut and Washington over the last year.

George allegedly used racial slurs and threats to shoot customers at the businesses because of his racial hatred, according to Western District of Washington prosecutors.

We cannot tolerate this kind of hate in our community and will not sit by while people seek to terrorize others across our country," said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.
DENVER (AP)  A Colorado man who had been charged in the presumed death of his missing wife has pleaded guilty to forgery for casting her 2020 election ballot for then-President Donald Trump.

Barry Morphew pleaded guilty Thursday and was fined and assessed court costs of $600, The Denver Post reported. He avoids jail time as part of a plea agreement.

Suzanne Morphew was reported missing on Mother's Day in 2020 after she did not return from a bike ride near her home in the Salida area in southern Colorado. Barry Morphew, who pleaded for help finding his wife, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in 2021, but prosecutors dropped the charges in April.

That decision followed the judge's move to bar prosecutors from presenting most of their key witnesses during Morphews scheduled trial because they repeatedly failed to follow rules for turning over evidence in his favor. The evidence included DNA from an unknown male linked to sexual assault cases in other states, which was found in Suzanne Morphews SUV and raised the possibility of another suspect being involved.

Suzanne Morphew's body has not been found.

In the voter fraud case, investigators said Barry Morphew filled out his missing wife's ballot because he thought Trump could use the extra vote. Trump lost Colorado to President Joe Biden by 14 percentage points.

Just because I wanted Trump to win. I just thought, give him another vote. I figured all these other guys are cheating, he told an FBI agent who confronted him about the ballot in April 2021, according to court documents.

Trump has made repeated claims about fraud and rigged election results, but experts say there has been no evidence found of widespread fraud that would have changed the elections outcome.

Morphew also told the agent he didn't know it was illegal to fill out a ballot on behalf of a spouse.
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP)  A man has been charged in the shooting death of a police officer in Rochester, New York, authorities said Friday.

Another officer was wounded late Thursday in what police described as an ambush. A 15-year-old girl in a nearby house was also shot and wounded.

The slain officer, Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year member of the department, was in a parked vehicle with Officer Sino Seng when 17 rounds were fired into the vehicle from behind, Rochester Police Capt. Frank Umbrino said at a Friday news conference. The two were part of the departments plainclothes tactical unit and were investigating a murder.

Umbrino said police found Kelvin Vickers, 21, hiding in the crawl space of a vacant house near the scene about an hour after the shooting, as well as a loaded 9 mm handgun. Umbrino said preliminary testing determined that the gun had been used in the shooting.

Vickers was charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and weapons counts.

The departments chief, David Smith, called the shooting a cowardly ambush at a briefing earlier Friday.

Vickers is from the Boston, Massachusetts area and has an extensive criminal background, Umbrino said. He declined to elaborate, or to comment on why Vickers was in Rochester.

Seng, after being struck in the lower body, got out of the vehicle and fired at the shooter, who was not hit. Seng was treated at a hospital and released. The girl, who was struck by a bullet that penetrated a wall, was recovering, authorities said.

The officers were shot the same day that Mayor Malik Evans declared a gun violence state of emergency after a recent spate of shootings in Rochester, a city of about 200,000 on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Tony Mazurkiewicz could have easily retired, but he chose to continue going on the streets because he didnt want folks in our neighborhoods to be held hostage by the very cowards that are wreaking havoc in our community, Evans said in a written statement Friday.

Not only am I sad for the Mazurkiewicz family  and we pray for the speedy recovery of Sino Seng  I am angry. And upset. Because all too often, we are seeing a blatant disregard for life, he said.

Evans said the city had, before Mazurkiewicz's death, recorded 41 homicides this year and more than 200 people had been shot. The homicide count was one less than at the same time the previous year. The mayor said recent shootings were directly tied to a deadly cycle of disputes and retaliations.

In November 2021, the mayor at the time, Lovely Warren, declared a similar state of emergency to combat violence. The move clears the way for expanded resources and partnerships with other law enforcement agencies.

Yesterday morning, at 11 am, I was asked by the media, 'How dangerous is it out there for the officers of the Rochester Police Department?' Smith wrote in a statement Friday. My response was that every day, the men and women of this department leave home, not knowing if they are going to return home at the end of their shift.

Mazurkiewicz, he said, was killed 10 hours later.
Two soldiers connected to the unsolved 2020 mystery surrounding the decapitation of Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez were convicted by court martial after facing charges related to conspiracy, disobeying orders and other non-violent offenses.

The convictions came two years after a group of seven soldiers went camping with Roman-Martinez on Memorial Day weekend, 2020. The group reported him missing on May 23, 2020 and less than a week later, Roman-Martinez's head washed ashore near Shackleford Banks Island, part of North Carolina's Outer Banks just west of where the soldiers were camping.

Read Next: Mold Issues, Poor Housing Conditions for Troops Are Rampant. What Can Congress Do?

Roman-Martinez, 21, was assigned as a human resources specialist to the 82nd Airborne Division. He was originally from Chino, California.

The case has remained unsolved, with the cause of Roman-Martinez's death still unknown despite authorities treating the case as a homicide.

All seven soldiers who went camping with Roman-Martinez have faced minor charges -- disobeying orders, conspiracy, or drug use -- but the two convictions mark firsts for anyone involved in the case.

Sgt. Samuel Moore, the most senior soldier in the group, was convicted on Friday, July 15 of conspiracy and two counts of making a false statement. He was reduced in rank to specialist and ordered to forfeit two-thirds of his pay for one month. It is unclear when -- if at all -- he will be separated from the military.

Spc. Alex Becerra was convicted in June of three counts of disobeying a superior officer and one count of wrongful use of a controlled substance. He was previously charged with conspiracy and making false statements, according to Army public records, but was acquitted.

The Army confirmed that Becerra received a reduction in rank to private and has been separated from the military, but would not confirm the characterization of his discharge citing privacy concerns. The Fayetteville Observer was first to publish the details of his court martial, but his ejection from the military has not previously been reported.

The Army maintains that the convictions are not directly connected to Roman-Martinez's death.

"These charges are related to their actions at the same time of his death but not related to his death," said Fort Bragg spokesperson, Lt. Col. Brett Lea, in an email to Military.com.

The other five soldiers were charged with minor offenses, but have not been convicted.

The soldiers who accompanied Roman-Martinez on the excursion all made the trip despite a COVID-19 lockdown protocol at their home base of Fort Bragg.

An autopsy reportedly ruled Roman-Martinez's death a homicide, but medical examiners could not determine the cause. The Army's Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the case as a homicide, but has categorized his death as a cold case.

The Army Times reported that just hours prior to calling 911 on May 23, 2020 to report their friend missing, the group of soldiers ran into U.S. Park Rangers who asked them to move their vehicles. In the 911 call, one of the soldiers said that the group had been looking for the missing paratrooper all day, trying to locate park rangers for help.

CID has previously said that agents investigated the soldiers for drug use.

The Army received criticism during the case as well, with Roman-Martinez's family reporting a month after the camping trip that law enforcement had not been forthcoming with information and CID releasing perplexing details about the case.

In August 2021, CID implied that Roman-Martinez may have been hit by a boat.

"Please understand that homicide basically means that someone's death was caused by someone else," said CID Special Agent Steve Chancellor in a press release. "That means that the death could have been intentional or it could have been unintentional -- for example in this case, someone running over someone with a boat while the person was in the water, etc."

CID continues to offer a $50,000 reward for information connected to the case.

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

Related: Army Offers Cash Reward for Info About Murdered 82nd Airborne Soldier
GEM CASSITERITE, BLUE TIER, WESTERN TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA







A cassiterite from Blue Tier, Tas. Gem cassiterite such as this are very rare from Australian location, or from anywhere for that matter! Its hard to take an accurate pic, because the one line of a darker cassiterite phantom, tends to obscure the gem nature of the crystal. This is far and away the clearest colorless cassiterite I have ever seen from Australia. It is as clear as the best I have seen from China, which sets the bar on this quality.This Tasmanian location is also somewhat obscure to nearly all collectors outside of Tasmania. I have seen Australian cassiterites, ( very rarely) that are darkish red or red brown, with transparency, but never as fine as this piece. Ex George Stacey, Canberra, collection. Please remember our prices are in Australian dollars.

BLUE TIER, WESTERN TASMANIA.

21 x 16 x 11.5mm.





View........... https://www.bluegems.com.au/shop/minerals-jewellery-gems/gemmy-cassiterite-crystal-blue-tier-tas-rare-location-and-transparency/


The Blue Jays are signing reliever Vinny Nittoli to a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). The 31-year-old recently opted out of a similar arrangement with the division-rival Yankees.

A former 25h-round pick, Nittoli has spent the bulk of his career in the Mariners organization. He reached the big leagues with Seattle last year, getting the briefest cup of coffee with one inning of relief in his only appearance. The Ms outrighted him off their 40-man roster and later released him, and he caught on with the Twins for the stretch run. That agreement with Minnesota didnt result in a big league look, and Nittoli returned to the open market as a minor league free agent, where he caught on with New York.

Assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the entirety of the 2022 campaign, the right-hander worked 36 2/3 innings across 22 appearances. He posted a 3.44 ERA, punching out a strong 29.9% of batters faced against a fine 8.8% walk rate. Hell add some non-roster depth behind a Toronto relief corps that ranks 21st in MLB with a 4.11 ERA.
The Marlins have selected the contract of former first-round pick JJ Bleday and added him to the active roster, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (via Twitter). Bledays addition to the roster comes in response to Jorge Soler going on the 10-day injured list with lower back spasms.

There isnt any backdating on Solers IL placement, so the veteran slugger will (at minimum) be out of action until the August 2 trade deadline. Though Miami has several players who could be trade chips by the deadline, there hadnt been much buzz about the possibility of Soler being traded, which speaks to both Solers contract, the Marlins longer-term plans, and his tough 2022 season.

Soler, the reigning World Series MVP, inked a three-year, $36MM free agent deal with the Marlins after the lockout. Soler has the ability to opt out after both this season (leaving $24MM on the table) and after the 2023 season (leaving his $9MM salary for 2024 on the table), though it would seem unlikely that Soler would again test free agency on the heels of an underwhelming year to date.

Soler has hit .207/.295/.400 with 13 home runs over 306 plate appearances, with a 99 wRC+ that reflects slightly below-average production. Despite the lack of big numbers, there is some evidence that Soler could turn it on in the second half. After all, it was just last season that Soler went on a tear after being dealt to the Braves at the deadline, and he more or less carried that hot streak all the way through the World Series.

This year, Soler has outstanding hard-contact numbers and a .322 xwOBA that is above his .305 wOBA, even if that .322 mark is only around the league average. Soler is also walking at an above-average rate but is swinging and missing a ton, as his 29.4% strikeout rate is only in the ninth percentile of all batters. Teams are playing shifts against Soler 78% of the time, which is stifling his solid contact numbers  Soler has only a .275 wOBA against the shift, and a whopping .411 wOBA when not facing shifts.

Injuries have also played a role in the last few weeks, as Soler missed about two weeks at the start of July with bilateral pelvis inflammation, and played in only five games before this latest return to the IL. It remains to be seen how much extra time Soler might miss (if more than 10 days), but his absence will open the door for Bledays Major League debut.

The fourth overall pick of the 2019 draft, Bleday has hit .229/.365/.470 with 20 home runs over 367 PA at Triple-A Jacksonville this season, his first exposure to Triple-A pitching. Its a nice breakout for Bleday, who didnt hit much in his brief minor league debut in 2019 and then struggled in his first full season of pro ball in 2021. His lack of results last year cost Bleday a slot in some top-100 prospect rankings, but MLB Pipeline still had him 69th on their preseason list.

Of course, Bleday didnt play at all in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season, so it isnt necessarily surprising that it took some time to get back on track. The 24-year-olds performance in 2022 has seemingly quieted a lot of questions about his power potential and on-base ability, though Bleday is still not hitting for average and is still swinging-and-missing (99 strikeouts in those 367 PA) at a high rate.

Bledays strong throwing arm has made him more of a right-field candidate than his initial center field position, and in Miami, Avisail Garcia could slide over to left field to accommodate regular playing time for the rookie, or Bleday could simply take over left field himself. With the Marlins perhaps already planning towards 2023, Bleday could very well get a long look as a potential candidate for an everyday spot next year. Assuming Soler doesnt opt out, he and Garcia are longer-term options in the corner outfield spots, but the DH is also available to juggle playing time down the road.
July 23: The Reds have officially placed Stephenson on the 10-day injured list with a broken right clavicle. They have recalled catcher Mark Kolozsvary to claim his roster spot, per Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer (via Twitter). Kolozsvary, 26, has appeared in seen games this season for the Reds, going 1-for-11 at the plate.

July 22: Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson broke his clavicle during todays contest against the Cardinals, the team informed reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com). There is no timetable for his return.

Stephenson suffered the injury when he took a Paul Goldschmidt foul tip off his right shoulder area. Later in the at-bat, Goldschmidt hit a tapper in front of home plate. Stephenson fielded the ball but went down in pain as he reared back to throw the ball to first base. He was then replaced by Michael Papierski.

Its an all too familiar occurrence for Stephenson, who has been knocked out of a game on three separate occasions this year. He suffered a concussion in a home plate collision with Luke Voit in April. That cost him a couple weeks of action. A month later, he was hit by a foul tip on his throwing hand and fractured his thumb. He lost a month to that injury, returning a bit before the All-Star Break. Hes now in for another extended absence, and it remains to be seen if the remainder of his 2022 season could be in jeopardy.

The injuries have interrupted what has looked like a breakout season for the former first-round pick. Stephenson had an impressive 2021 campaign, hitting .286/.366/.431 across 402 plate appearances. Cincinnati dealt Tucker Barnhart to the Tigers to clear the path to everyday playing time behind the dish, and Stephenson has responded with a .319/.372/.482 showing through 183 trips to the plate. Hes looked like one of the sports top backstops when healthy, but a trio of fluky injury issues look as if theyll cost him a good chunk of time.
Mali said it had repelled a suicide raid Friday by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists at a town on the fringes of the capital that houses a base used by the ruling military.

One of Africa's most troubled states, Mali is struggling with jihadist insurgents and political turbulence, experiencing two coups within the last two years.

"Suicide" attackers aboard two explosives-laden vehicles attacked an army depot at the garrison town of Kati, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Bamako, the army said in a statement.

The Malian armed forces "have... contained a desperate attempt by terrorists from the Katiba Macina," it said, referring to an affiliate of the Al-Qaeda jihadist group.

One soldier was killed and six other people including a civilian were wounded, while seven attackers were "neutralised" and eight were detained, it said.

The attack, launched at around 5 am, was mounted against "an installation of the army department for equipment, hydrocarbons and transport," it added.

Residents said they heard gunfire and explosions at dawn.

"We were woken up at five o'clock by firing, by explosions, we don't know what's going on," said one resident said.

Another source said: "Our base is being attacked."

Several hours later, an AFP correspondent heard detonations as special forces personnel were deployed in the area and helicopters flew over the base.

Goita's residence

By midday, the helicopters had returned back to ground, and residents in town had resumed their usual activities.

The depot lies outside a base that is a major hub for the ruling military, which has been behind a string of coups since Mali gained independence from France in 1960.

Mali. By (AFP)

The camp is reputedly the residence of strongman Colonel Assimi Goita, who is Mali's transitional president, and Defence Minister Colonel Sadio Camara.

The base was the springboard for mounting a putsch led by Goita in August 2020, and afterwards was used to detain the ousted elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

After another coup the following May, the base was then used to hold Keita's successor, Bah Ndaw, and prime minister Moctar Ouane.

Keita was forced out after mounting protests at failures to stem a jihadist campaign that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and then spread to the country's volatile centre, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Across the three countries, thousands of civilians, troops and police have been killed and more than two million people have fled their homes.

Turbulence

The camp at Kati has never been hit in the insurgency.

Friday's attack came a day after suspected jihadists carried out six simultaneous raids -- also launched at dawn -- on security positions in the regions of Segou and Mopti in the centre of the country and in Koulikoro, near Bamako.

In May 2021, the junta led by Goita staged a second coup, forcing out a civilian-led government.

Mali has been run since August 2020 by a military-dominated government led by Colonel Assimi Goita. By ANNIE RISEMBERG (AFP/File)

Since then, it has woven closer ties with the Kremlin, bringing in Russian personnel, while relations with international partners have gone into a downward spiral.

A spat with France has triggered a pullout of French forces that have been fighting jihadists in Mali for nearly a decade. The withdrawal is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

Tensions, meanwhile, have brewed with the UN's peacekeeping force MINUSMA, whose spokesman this week was told to leave the country.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended Mali after the military seized power, and in January imposed a tough trade and financial embargo on the Sahel country.

It lifted those sanctions earlier this month after accepting a timeline for a return to civilian rule by March 2024.

The ECOWAS mediator in Mali, former Nigerian leader Goodluck Jonathan, was in Bamako on Friday and due to meet Goita.
At least 13 people have been killed in fighting that flared overnight between armed groups in Tripoli, emergency services said Friday, the latest violence to hit the Libyan capital in months of rising political tensions.

The fighting had broken out after midnight in an area of parkland, sowing terror among Tripoli residents who head there to cool off after roasting summer days.

Dozens of people were forced to seek refuge on the campus of Tripoli University and a nearby medical centre.

The fighting "killed 13 people, among them three civilians including a child aged 11, and wounded 30," the ambulance service told news channel Libya al-Ahrar.

The clashes were between two armed groups with major clout in the west of the war-torn country: the Al-Radaa force and the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade.

On Friday, another group called the 444 Brigade intervened to mediate a truce, deploying its own forces in a buffer zone before they too came under heavy fire, an AFP photographer reported.

Images posted on social media showed dozens of vehicles abandoned, their doors open in the middle of the road, by drivers fleeing the violence.

The trigger for the latest fighting could not be immediately verified, although the groups had clashed on June 10, leaving one fighter dead.

First civilian deaths since 2020

Members of the 444 Brigade take up positions after fighting between two militias nominally loyal to Abdulhamid Dbeibah's Government of National Unity. By Mahmud TURKIA (AFP)

Tensions have been rising for months in Libya as two prime ministers vie for power, raising fears of renewed conflict two years after a landmark truce ended a ruinous attempt by eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar to seize Tripoli by force.

The dead were the first civilian casualties of fighting in Tripoli since the 2020 truce.

The fighting trapped hundreds of women attending weddings in the area, including Maisa bin Issa and her sisters.

"Thank God, the ambulance came and rescued us, otherwise we would have been stuck in the wedding hall in Ayn Zara, miles from our house in the city centre," she said.

"It was really scary with the bombing and gunfire."

Local resident Mokhtar al-Mahmoudi said he and his family had spent the night in the basement. "Our kids are still terrified," he said.

Malek al-Badri said he had used his phone to avoid major roads and find his way to his mother's house.

"Tripoli will never find peace again as long as all these armed groups are here," he said.

Dozens of students were trapped in university dormitories until they were rescued, Osama Ali of the ambulance service told Al-Ahrar.

Libya has been gripped by insecurity since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, leaving a power vacuum armed groups have been wrangling for years to fill.

Both groups involved in this week's fighting are nominally loyal to Abdulhamid Dbeibah's Government of National Unity, appointed last year as part of a United Nations-backed peace process to end more than a decade of violence in oil-rich Libya.

Dbeibah has refused to cede power to Fathi Bashagha, named in February as prime minister by a parliament based in Libya's east after he made a pact with Haftar.

Tensions have been rising for months as two prime ministers vie for power in the North African country -- here a 444 Brigade member mans his position. By Mahmud TURKIA (AFP)

The fighting forced the capital's only functioning airport, Mitiga, to close until further notice.

The United Nations Libya mission UNSMIL said it had received reports of civilian casualties and demanded an investigation.

"Any action that endangers the lives of civilians is unacceptable," it said in a tweet, calling on "all Libyans to do everything possible to preserve the country's fragile stability at this sensitive time".
The letters of credit requested by former Deputy Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson prior to purchasing some ambulances were only good on condition of the fulfilment of the conditions of the contract.

This was said by the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, during his testimony before the High Court (Economic and Financial Division 2) on Thursday, July 21, 2022.

The Health Minister, while under cross-examination, admitted that, letters of credit are not payments in themselves but guarantees of promise of payment upon certain conditions being met.

He however insisted that the request of Mr. Ato Forson to the Central Bank to establish letters of credit, served as an instruction to the Bank for the purpose.

Ato Forson who is currently the Ranking Member on Parliament's Finance Committee has been accused of instructing the establishment of letters of credit in favour of Big Sea without recourse to the Ministry of Health as well the Commercial Agreement that was signed between Big Sea and the Ministry of Health, in the purchase of the controversial 50 ambulances.

On the issue of liability of Dr. Ato Forson in requesting the establishment of the letters of credit, the Health Minister also conceded that it was not unusual in the public service for a Deputy Minister to sign a letter on behalf of a substantive Minister.

This, he maintains, must however be done under express instruction, or with the Minister's approval.

The Minister insisted that where a Deputy Minister signs a letter on the blind side of the Minister, then [the said Deputy Minister] can be cited for personal liability.

When quizzed as to whether he was aware that the then Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, confirmed authorizing Dr. Ato Forson to request the letters of credit, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu said he was not aware.

The case has been adjourned to July 26, 2022.

---citinewsroom
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French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday met Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Paris for their latest talks aimed at tightening a relationship based on security and defence ties that has troubled activists.

Macron hosted the Egyptian strongman at the Elysee Palace days after hosting UAE leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, himself a close ally of Sisi's secular administration.

With growing concern over the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on global food supplies, the pair discussed ways to deal with the "economic, energy and global food security consequences of this conflict", the Elysee said in a statement.

Egypt is due to host the COP 27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in November and Macron and Sisi also discussed the fight against global warming.

"The two presidents took stock of the main issues of bilateral cooperation, which are very dense in all areas," it added.

Last year, Egypt's military ordered 30 more Rafale jets from French defence firm Dassault Aviation in a multi-billion-dollar defence deal confirmed by France.

Macron has during his rule placed considerable emphasis on relations with Egypt and during a state visit in December 2020 gave Sisi France's highest award, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, in a move that left rights activists aghast.

Activists have long expressed unease over Sisi's visits, saying that France should be doing more to raise concern about the estimated 60,000 political prisoners languishing in Egyptian prisons.

In a nod to these concerns, the Elysee statement said: "As part of the dialogue of confidence between France and Egypt, they also addressed the issue of human rights."

There has been particular concern over the case of dissident Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days after being sentenced in December to five years in prison.

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had ahead of the talks urged Macron not "to ignore the fate of Alaa Abdel Fattah... and of all the detained journalists".

France had secured promises of new energy supplies from the United Arab Emirates on Monday after talks between Macron and Sheikh Mohamed, known as MBZ.
Ghanas Ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Alima Mahama paid a working visit to Worcester, Massachusetts from Thursday, July 14 to Saturday, July 16.

During the visit, she met Mr. Barry M. Maloney, President of Worcester State University. They both discussed a possible collaboration between the University and universities in Ghana by way of student exchanges and early college courses for Ghanaian students as well as in research in the areas of information, biotechnology, public health, etc.

She also met with the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Ms. Karyn Polito, who praised Ghanaians in Worcester for being intelligent, smart, hardworking, and respectful citizens of the community. In this meeting also the two discussed collaboration between Ghana and Worcester in healthcare, education, trade, and investment. A similar meeting was held with Congressman James McGovern, representing Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district.

The mayor of Worcester welcomed the Ambassador and presented the Key to the City of Worcester with a citation to her during the visit.

She also visited some Ghanaian-owned businesses in Worcester, Massachusetts where Ghanaians make up the highest percentage of foreign-born residents. It is estimated that there are around 50,000 Ghanaians in central Massachusetts.

On Saturday, July 16, Her Excellency Hajia Alima Mahama attended a town hall meeting organized by the Ghanaian Association of New England and had the opportunity to interact with the community and also to address various concerns raised by them. The Ghanaian community in New England presented a plaque expressing their appreciation to the Ambassador for her ongoing commitment and dedicated service to the people of Ghana and humanity.

Since assuming office a year ago, Her Excellency Alima Mahama has traveled to various states in the United States to hold town hall meetings and met with Governors of these States to discuss areas of mutual interest to Ghana and the United States. Among the States visited include Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Arkansas and Massachusetts.

She was accompanied by some staff of the Embassy including Mr. Amidu Mohammed Karande, Minister-Counselor and Head of the Consular Section, Mrs. Laila Heward-Mills, Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs, and Mrs. Cynthia Djokoto, Minister-Counselor in charge of Trade and Investment.
Ugandan authorities should release journalists Ivan Mutyaba and Denis Isabirye immediately, drop all the charges against them, and drop their investigations into reporters Jacklin Nabatanzi and Muganza Julius Kiyumba, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

The four journalists are among a group of suspects recently arrested for their alleged connection to the May 14 murder of businessman Shaban Malole, according to news reports.

The journalists were named as suspects in that investigation because they had contacted Malole and his family members on May 14 as part of their reporting on a land dispute involving the businessman, according to a report by the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-U), a local press rights group that is providing legal support to the journalists, and people familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ.

Authorities arrested Nabatanzi in June and detained the other three reporters in July; as of Friday, July 22, Nabatanzi and Kiyumba are under investigation but have not been charged with any crime, while Mutyaba and Isabirye were charged with murder and conspiracy to murder and are held in Kirinya Prison in the eastern city of Jinja, according to the HRNJ-U and those media reports.

Ugandan authorities should release journalists Ivan Mutyaba and Denis Isabirye, and ensure that members of the press do not face jail time for simply doing their jobs, said Muthoki Mumo, CPJs sub-Saharan Africa representative. Mutyaba and Isabirye, in addition to journalists Jacklin Nabatanzi and Muganza Julius Kiyumba, are being drawn into a criminal investigation simply because they were covering someone who was later killed. Authorities should ensure that the journalists can work safely and free from legal harassment.

Authorities arrested Nabatanzi, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Kiira FM, on June 11 on the pretense that she possessed a stolen phone, the journalist told CPJ in a phone interview. During questioning, officers confiscated her phone but only questioned her about Maloles killing, she said.

I was crying. I was totally confused, said Nabatanzi, who was eight months pregnant at the time of the arrest. They wanted me to tell them something I didnt know, I didnt see.

Authorities released her without charge on June 13, on the condition that she report to police as directed, according to the journalist and a police document published by HRNJ-U on Twitter. Officers had not returned her phone as of July 22, she said.

Authorities arrested Kiyumba, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster City FM 96, on July 4 and released him on bail after a court hearing on July 6, according to the journalist and City FM 96 station manager Richard Kiria, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app

Kiyumba was released without charge, but police are continuing to investigate him for alleged murder, conspiracy to murder, and concealing information about a murder, according to Kiria.

Authorities arrested Isabirye, a reporter for the privately owned broadcaster Baba FM, on July 2, and summoned Mutyaba, a reporter for the privately owned broadcaster Busoga One Radio 90.6 FM, for questioning on July 4, according to Busoga One manager Innocent Anyole and HRNJ-U legal program officer Diana Nandudu, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

At a court hearing on July 6, both journalists were charged with murder and conspiracy to murder, and then were sent to prison, according to those sources, Kiria, and news reports. If convicted, murder carries the death penalty and conspiracy carries up to 14 years imprisonment, according to the penal code.

Mutyaba and Isabirye were not able to enter a plea during that hearing, as the court did not have the jurisdiction to adjudicate capital offenses and was only holding the hearing to announce the charges, according to the state-owned newspaper News Vision.

The pair are due back in court for a bail hearing on July 25, Anyole told CPJ.

The four journalists traveled from Jinja to the disputed land site in Kamuli district on May 14, spoke to several of Maloles family members, and tried but failed to interview Malole, who declined to speak to them, according to Kiyumba and Nabatanzi.

That evening, after the journalists had returned to Jinja, Malole was shot and killed in his home, according to those sources and news reports.

Abbey Mwase, a local politician and relative of Malole, provided the vehicle the journalists used and accompanied them on their reporting trip; he was detained after police alleged that his vehicle had been used to transport weapons, according to news reports, Anyole, Kiria, and Nabatanzi.

Nabatanzi and Kiyumba denied that the vehicle had been used to transport weapons.

When CPJ called Kiira regional police spokesperson James Mubi, he said he could not comment while the case remained before the court.

In a phone interview with CPJ on Friday, Irene Nakimbugwe, deputy spokesperson of Ugandas Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, said authorities had charged Mutyaba and Isabirye because there was evidence linking them to the murder, and not because of their journalism.

Nakimbugwe said it was up to the courts to adjudicate the evidence and added that she could not comment on the specifics of the case amid ongoing investigations.
Leaders of Suame Magazine have apologised for the attack on the Suame Member of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, during a protest over the uncompleted Suame-Maakro road on Monday.

The leaders at the auto parts enclave have also distanced themselves from the incident, in which the MP was jeered at and pelted with some items.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Anthony Oppong, the Ashanti Regional President of the Ghana Union of Traders said: There is an allegation going around in town that we the leaders of Suame Magazine were behind the attack on the honourable MP, and what we are saying is that we are not behind the attack and there was no meeting or no planned thing to do something of that sort.

Following the apology, Mr. Oppong said his cohorts plan to apologise to the MP in person.

We've communicated to the MCE of Suame to arrange a meeting where we will have the opportunity to personally apologise to him.

Mr. Oppong maintains that the confusion on the day was a matter of communication on the state of the uncompleted road that sparked the protest.

He had already met the regional highway director and was aware of the resource constraints that had delayed the project .

He gave me a full assurance that on Monday, the day that the incident happened, they were coming back to the road because it was a lack of bitumen that was delaying the job.

---citinewsroom
I'll never forget when Eugene Arhin, the director of communication for the president at formerFlagstaff House, got into a fight with his wife and she exposed the NPP politician. Eugene had no alternative but to agree with his wife to lie to Ghanaians that although she had revealed those things out of rage, her husband didn't own such assets. Eugene hadn't anticipated that his wife would reveal the wealth he had accumulated in the shortest time since entering politics.

Who would believe such nonsense, or do they think Ghanaians are naive given that Ghana is located on the African continent, where anything is conceivable, including lowering the retirement age to allow avaricious officials to hold onto their positions longer before receiving a pension? Why would Eugene Arhin's wife demand 32 houses, 5 automobiles, and other properties worth millions of Cedis from the dishonest NPP politician if he hadn't earned such wealth in the four years since he entered politics?

The list of Eugene Arhin's properties is provided below. Eugene Arhin owns 16 large apartments in Bubuashie, 16 more apartments in Weija, a 16-story skyscraper in Teshie, and a home in AU Village. In addition, he has houses in Senya Berekum, House at La, and Ada Foah's coastline.



Similar to Eugene Arhin and the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, other corrupt politicians serve in the NPP government, and their chronic corruption, has contributed to the decline of Ghana's economy, a high percentage of unemployment, crime, and enormous debt without accountability.

Eugene Arhin also owns a 3K barbershop in Teshie, a 5-bedroom house in East Legon that serves as their marital residence, a 2-acre plot of land there, a Toyota Lexus, and five luxury vehicles that were all purchased within the past two years: a Ford F150, a Toyota Avalon, a Toyota Tundra, a Toyota Lexus, a Toyota Lexus, a Toyota Lexus, and a Hyundai Elantra.

What disturbs me more are the cowardly tribal bigots who have refused to identify themselves because they lack self-confidence but still have the time and gall to write to and insult John Mahama, a former president of Ghana, without understanding the gravity of these problems, which are a contributing factor in why Ghana's economy has irreparably collapsed.

Numerous African leaders, including the president of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo, were offended when the former American president, Donald Trump, called Africa a "shithole nation." Akufo Addo rejected Donald Trump's alleged labeling of African countries as "shithole countries." In a tweet, President Akufo-Addo said Trump's alleged language was "very regrettable," with the remark, "We are definitely not a shithole country. Even from a prominent leader of a friendly nation, we will not tolerate such attacks." Honestly, I don't think the term "shithole nation" adequately describes Africa.

But which leader of a nation anywhere in the world would continue to appoint Eugene Arhin to his cabinet? Unless you are also crooked or insane, since Eugene should have been charged, extensively investigated, and, if found guilty, should have spent at least ten years in prison. This dishonest crook is still working for the NPP today, while they are concentrating on the IMF.

The proverb "the moment the wind blows, you'll see the backside of the chicken" is popular in Ghana. Any government that takes office after Akufo Addo, without bringing charges against and imprisoning Eugene Arhin shouldn't expect to accomplish much for the majority of Ghanaians. We should presume that the party is using its position of power to encourage and support corruption in its current form.

Among the NPP politicians who preached virtue and engaged in wickedness was the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, also known as Sir John. The former CEO of the Forestry Commission, who had labeled John Mahama, the former president of Ghana, as corrupt, will expose him after his passing. The following is a list of the assets mentioned in the late NPP politician's will:

1. A residence on plot GA54480 in Ogbojo, East Legon, purchased on February 12, 2018

2. Residence on site GA 55329 at Oyarifa No. 2 purchased on May 11, 2018

3. Residence site GA 55475 in Oyarifa No. 1, purchased on September 27, 2017

4. The "white House" on Plot GA 5881 in Adjiringanor, Accra, was purchased on August 7, 2019.

5. A six-bedroom home near East Legon in Patangbe, Ogbojo.

6. A home with four bedrooms situated in Mempeheusem, East Legon

7. A three-bedroom home in Mempehuesem, East Legon, on plot number TDA 4140.

8. A second 3-bedroom home is situated on Plot TDA 4140 in Mempehuesem, East Legon.

9. A four-bedroom home on plot GA56838 in East Legon that was purchased on October 25, 2018

10. A residence with five bedrooms in Sakora Wonoo

11. a four-story structure in East Legon that has five flats with two bedrooms and five units with three beds, totaling 10 apartments.

LANDS

12. Two land parcels in the Ashanti Region's Ahenema Kokoben.

13. Two land parcels in Oyarifa with registration number GA56921 were bought on November 6, 2018.

14. A 5.541-acre parcel of property owned by Jakaypros Limited and situated in Achimota Forest

15. A 0.987-acre parcel in the Achimota Forest owned by Fasoh Limited 16. An unidentified parcel in the Achimota Forest owned jointly with Charles Owusu

17. Unidentified parcel of land in the Achimota forest that is owned by DML

18. 5.07 acres at the Sakumono Ramsar site

19. Five land parcels in Kasoa's Millennium City

20. On December 13, 2019, a parcel of land with certificate number GA60802 was purchased in Mempeheusem, East Legon.

21. Two land parcels totaling around 0.40 acres are situated at No. 7 ARS Lane in Ogbojo, close to East Legon.

22. One acre of land at East Airport Hills close to the Chain Homes Estate.

23. The Adentaman District's plot of property with the identification number 139. (aka Aviation land).

PUBLIC VEHICLES

Lexus LX570 24

25. Nissan Titan Pick Up V8, 26. Lexus V6, and 27. Ford Fusion

Mercedes-Benz E68 Sport AMG (28).

Honda Accord Sport 30. Honda Pilot V6 29.

Ford 150, Toyota Landcruiser V8, Honda Accord 2.0 Touring, and number 31, 2019 Toyota Rav4 model and Chevrolet Cruze 36. The 2019 Lexus Saloon

BANK ACCOUNTS

Account number 1802092960501 of the National Investment Bank is 43.

CBG's account number is 0302239130003.

In the name of Ruth Korkor Odonkor, GT Bank

In the name of Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, GT Bank

Account number 1060032907210 with Fidelity Bank

ADB, on behalf of Jakaypros Limited, 48I

In the name of Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, United States Bank, Wells Fargo

Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie has a Royal Bank of Canada account.

ADB: A two million cedi bond, due to maturity in April 2020. Two hundred fifty thousand Ghana cedis (GHc 250,000) were held by NTHC as of July 31, 2019, and they were worth GHc 303,720.22.

Francis Owusu and joint gold production investment

joint investment in the manufacture of gold with MBL, 55. FASOH, and ROTL

Afriyie Memorial Hospital is situated in Sakora Wonoo.

OTHER ENTERPRISES

A fuel station situated in the Ashanti region's Kentinkrono.

Vehicles that carry fuel (10 in number)

Nkawie, in the Ashanti Region, is home to one teak plantation.

Seventy. An Eastern Region rubber plantation

At the Kumasi new Kejetia market, there are 71 stalls (3 in number)

Farms in the Ashanti Region's Ejura.

While still living, Sir John bequeathed to a woman named Agnes Boakye (also known as Akosua Darkoah).

They consist of a home in East Legon Hills, a home in the Ashanti area of Kumasi, vehicles, and a shop in Kejetia Market.

It was reported in the media that Sir John's assets had been frozen, just a few days after his will exposed him. I even wrote a post asking Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor, if he was exploiting the deceased to convince Ghanaians that he was battling corruption. It didn't take long for the court to take action in opposition to the late politician's frozen assets. And as far as we are aware, Akufo Addo was the one who issued the directive to unfreeze the assets. I have never witnessed a leader who is so unrepentantly greedy and incompetent.

Akufo Addo is currently so afraid that his extensive corruption will be revealed that is why he is unable to remove his relative Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, from office, despite the damage he has caused to Ghana. More significantly, the deeply anxious president continues to pick judges for the Supreme Court, believing that they will be his final line of defense. When a different party takes office, all of those judges will be removed, and Akufo Addo will then realize that he and his crooked judges have no power. A confused man never understands anything.

Who among us is so clever as a writer that they wouldn't write about the devastation corrupt NPP politicians, both alive and dead, have caused Ghana while yet finding time to criticize a president who is no longer in office? Because of their fear of disclosing their reputation to the public, as I previously said, are merely cowards and nothing more than tribal bigots who don't care about the destruction of the country by Akufo Addo.

Even before the coronavirus and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Ghana's economy had already crumbled and its currency had long since lost value. The difficulties that the average Ghanaian today faces, together with the high unemployment rate and the enormous debt without accountability, are attributable to widespread corruption and the transfer of cash into foreign accounts, including the missing COVID funds.

These indications show that the NPP politicians have accumulated a fortune, and they will all be exposed once they succumb to death or unless they fall out with their wives after committing adultery.

Don't rely on any politician to make you happy instead examine and analyze what the NPP and NDC have accomplished as political parties on behalf of the country and the general populace. You'll then have the common sense needed to pick the ideal leader. While corruption cannot be completely eradicated, it can be lessened if you call for the prosecution of those found guilty.

After the NPP government, a team of impartial investigators should be constituted to identify assets and track down money that has been stolen. Those found guilty need to spend a lot of time in jail. This is how a prosperous nation is created; if not, they should quit bothering us and lying about how they would "guard the public's purse."
France uses more air conditioning than you might expect, with a quarter of households using some kind of device. That number is on the rise, but faced with the effects of global warming and looming energy shortages, authorities in France and in the EU are hoping to encourage alternative ways of cooling during extreme heat.

On sweltering hot days, as most of France has recently been experiencing, you might find people taking refuge in grocery stores or cinemas  locations that are more likely to have air conditioning than homes or even offices.

While air conditioning is on the rise in France, it remains less used than elsewhere, as until recently, extreme heat has been rare, and concentrated in the country's southern regions.

According to the Ademe, the French agency for ecological transition, some 55 per cent of French stores and 64 per cent of offices had air conditioning in 2020.

These are higher numbers than in people's homes, where only 25 per cent had some kind of system or device in 2020, though the number is on the rise, as France sees increasing summer temperatures and more regular heatwaves nationwide.

More air conditioning, more emissions

Until recently, extreme heat events in France were rare, though since 2003 heatwave, when tens of thousands of people died, people are increasingly aware of their impacts, and the fact that they are becoming more frequent, and intense.

People rush to get air conditioners during heatwaves, and demand has been going up. In 2020, some 800,000 units were sold, compared to 350,000 per year until 2014-2015.

Along with an increase in air conditioning is an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2020, air conditioning represented five per cent of emissions produced by housing, the sector that consumes the most energy in France  44 per cent of national energy consumption, ahead of transport (31 per cent).

Air conditioners produce emissions through their use of electricity, with built-in units more efficient than many of the portable ones used in city flats.

The hydrofluorocarbons used in their cooling systems also produce emissions, which have even more of an impact that CO2 when released into the atmosphere.

France's air conditioning systems in 2020 released the equivalent of 4.6 million tonnes of CO2, according to the Ademe.

Limiting cooling

While the agency recognises that households are unlikely to reduce their use of air conditioning, as temperatures continue to soar, it encourages people to buy more efficient machines and to use them less.

Limiting cooling to 27 degrees Celsius, compared to 22 degrees, would cut in half a device's energy usage, and only turning on air conditioning when the exterior temperature reaches 30 degrees instead of 27 degrees, would cut energy use by two thirds.

France's current energy code, introduced in 2007, recommends not cooling below 26 degrees to save energy, but there are no requirements, and households regularly turn down the thermostat to 22.

The European Commission would like it to be a regulation. As part of a proposal to reduce member states' demand for Russian gas, the Commission is expected to propose limiting cooling of public buildings to 25 degrees and heating to 19 degrees.

Adapting the environment

The best way to keep cool is to insulate buildings. Building norms that came into effect in France in January require that new homes be built so inside temperatures do not rise above 28 degrees during the day without the use of air conditioning.

Regulations also require older buildings to be renovated over the next decade, to eliminate what are called 'thermal sieves', of which there are about five million in the country.

However, France is lagging, both in new 'energy passive' construction, and renovations.

In order to meet requirements, France would need to renovate some 700,000 buildings a year, ten times what is currently being done.

Vegetation also serves to reduce temperatures. France launched a programme to repopulate forests , and cities have been putting in place more greenery to counter heat-absorbing asphalt and stone buildings.

Some cities have started putting in place 'mitigation' plans to address rising temperatures, which include putting more plants on buildings and planting more trees.

The city of Paris has recently had to backtrack on plans to uproot trees because of protests from environmentalists who argued they play a crucial role in keeping the city cool.

Paris' 'urban cooling' system

Paris has a relatively unknown system for cooling spaces like the Louvre museum or the National Assembly, which circulates water from the River Seine at 4 degrees underground.

The 'urban cooling' system lowers indoor temperatures 5 to 8 degrees, compared to outside.

The city has committed to expanding the system over the next 20 years to lower the use of air conditioning.

In the future, this system will circulate in all Parisian hospitals, some schools and even some metro stations.

"All the arrondissements will be served in 2042, said Dan Lert, deputy mayor in charge of water.

Paris has an 'urban heating' system that uses underground geothermal energy, but it is mostly for residential buildings, whereas the cooling system is intended for public buildings and businesses.
Ukraine and Russia on Friday signed a landmark deal aimed at relieving a global food crisis caused by blocked Black Sea grain deliveries, ending months of negotiations and sending wheat prices tumbling to levels last seen before Moscow's invasion.

The first major deal between the warring parties since the February invasion of Ukraine should help ease the "acute hunger" that the United Nations says faces an additional 47 million people because of the war.

The hostility between Moscow and Kyiv spilled over into the signing ceremony -- delayed briefly by disputes about the display of flags around the table and Ukraine's refusal to put its name on the same document as the Russians.

The two sides eventually inked separate but identical agreements in the presence of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace.

Main ports in the Black Sea region, including Ukrainian ports blocked by Russian forces. By (AFP)

"Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea -- a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief," Guterres said moments before the signing.

Erdogan -- a key player in the negotiations who has good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv -- said the deal would "hopefully revive the path to peace".

But Ukraine entered the ceremony by bluntly warning that it would conduct "an immediate military response" should Russia violate the agreement and attack its ships or stage an incursion around its ports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said the responsibility for enforcing the deal would fall to the UN, which along with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.

20 million tonnes of wheat

The agreement includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe corridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.

Ukraine has mined and barricaded its Black Sea ports to avert a Russian amphibious assault. By Oleksandr GIMANOV (AFP)

Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

Zelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year's harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement, estimating the value of Ukraine's grain stocks at around $10 billion.

Following the deal, wheat prices tumbled to levels last seen before Russia's invasion -- even as some analysts expressed scepticism about the accord.

In Chicago, the price of wheat for delivery in September dropped 5.9 percent to $7.59 per bushel, equivalent to about 27 kilograms. Prices in Europe fell by a similar amount.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media after attending the signing ceremony that he expected the deal to start working "in the next few days".

He pointed out that Russia had managed to secure a separate pledge from Washington and Brussels to lift all restrictions on its own grain and other agricultural exports.

The United States, Britain and the European Union hailed the Istanbul agreement while urging Moscow to abide by its rules.

The African Union also lauded the deal, and reiterated a call for "an immediate ceasefire" on Saturday.

Guarded hope

Diplomats expect grain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.

Russian forces are pressing deeper into the Donbas war zone of east Ukraine, destroying towns such as Siversk along the way. By Anatolii Stepanov (AFP)

The four sides must first set up a joint command and control centre in Istanbul that monitors the ships' passage and addresses disputes.

They have yet to finalise how the ships will be checked for weapons before returning empty to Ukrainian ports.

Ukrainian farmers who have been watching their silos fill up with grain that they cannot sell met the Istanbul deal with guarded hope.

"It gives some hope but you can't believe what the Russians say," said farmer Mykola Zaverukha.

His silos were already filled with 13,000 tonnes of grain and in danger of overflowing because this year's harvest was beginning to come in.

"Russia is unreliable, they have shown themselves to be year after year," he told AFP in the southern Mykolaiv region.

Global alarm about that grain has been accompanied by European fears that Russia is starting to use its stranglehold on energy exports as a geopolitical weapon in its standoff with the West.

The grain deal was signed one day after Russia's restart of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline eased concerns in Europe of a permanent shut off after a 10-day maintenance suspension.

Analysts say that the partial resumption of gas supplies was insufficient to ward off energy shortages in Europe this winter.

More US military aid

Russia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone's Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk. By Sergei CHUZAVKOV (AFP)

The ornate halls of Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace felt far removed from east Ukraine's Donbas war zone on another day of relentless shelling across the front.

Russia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone's Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk.

On Friday, the United States signed off on another $270 million in military aid to Ukraine, including rocket systems, artillery ammunition and armoured command posts.

Russian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in the central area of Kirovograd on Saturday killed at least three people and wounded nine, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.

The Ukrainian presidency said five people were killed and 10 wounded in Russian attacks around Donetsk a day earlier.

In the Donetsk village of Chasiv Yar -- hit by a strike on July 10 that killed more than 45 people -- 64-year-old Lyudmila was gathering apricots near the wreckage.

"There is nothing anymore. The officials have left. We have to fend for ourselves to stay alive," she said, giving only her first name.

burs-zak/gw/aha/smw
23.07.2022 LISTEN

Former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Vitus Azeem has called for punitive actions against corrupt officials in the country.

He said there should be proper investigations done into corruption allegations, and when the officials are found culpable, they should be jailed, with their properties confiscated.

Until that is done, he said, the fight against graft will be difficult.

We have failed to investigate credible corruption allegation, he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday July 23 with Alfred Ocansey.

Who wants to be jailed for corruption? Nobody. So if we are bold enough to jail people, nobody will do that, he added.

Mr Azeem was reacting to the 2021 report by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime which ranked the Police to be the foremost public institution perceived to be most corrupt.

The Programmes Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Awelana Addah, also observed that hospitals and health centers, in general, have become places where bribes exchange hands in Ghana.

She said though the Ghana Police Service ranks high among institutions perceived most corrupt, the health sector is also becoming known for the canker.

Ms Addah made this known in an interview on TV3's News 360 on Wednesday, July 20.

You realised that [with] health institutions, citizens said they engaged with health institutions even more and they pay more bribes there, she pointed out to host Paa Kwesi Asare.

So, it is not like they are saying that because citizens encounter the police on our roads, it is there they pay bribes.

They encounter nurses, they encounter doctors, they encounter teachers, they encounter utility service providers, they encounter tax agents, they encounter people at the lands department and some of these bribes, if you quantify are even more than what the police [take] but yet still the police came up tops.

---3news.com
23.07.2022 LISTEN

Africa is the birthplace of humanity and civilization. And yet people generally dont want to accept the scientific impression of Africa as the birthplace of human civilization. The skeptics include Africans themselves, a direct result of the colonial educational systems still in place across Africa, and even those Africans who acquire Western education, particularly in the humanities, have been trapped in the symptomatology of epistemic peonage. These colonial educational systems have overstayed their welcome and should be dismantled. This is where African agency comes in. Agential autonomy deserves an authoritative voice in shaping the curricular direction of Africa. Agential autonomy implicitly sanctions an Afrocentric approach to curriculum development, pedagogy, historiography, literary theory, indigenous language development, and knowledge construction. Science, technology, engineering, mathematics? Information and communications technology (STEM-ICT) and research and development (R&D) both exercise foundational leverage in the scientific and cultural discourse of the kind of African Renaissance Cheikh Anta Diop envisaged.

Mr. Francis Kwarteng has written a book that looks at some of the major distortions of African history and Africas major contributions to human civilization. In this context, Mr. Kwarteng joins a long list of thinkers who roundly reject the foundational Eurocentric epistemology of Africa in favor of an Afrocentric paradigm of Africas material, spiritual, scientific, and epistemic assertion. Mr. Kwarteng places S.T.E.M. and a revision of the humanities at the center of the African Renaissance and critiques Eurocentric fantasies about Africa and its Diaspora following the critical examples of Cheikh Anta Diop, Ama Mazama, Molefi Kete Asante, Abdul Karim Bangura, Theophile Obenga, Maulana Karenga, Mubabingo Bilolo, Kwame Nkrumah, Ivan Van Sertima, W.E.B. Du Bois, and several others. Readers of this book will be challenged to look at Africa through a critical lens.

Ama Mazama, editor/author of Africa in the 21st Century: Toward a New Future

There are countless books about the evolution of European intellectual thought but scarcely any that captures the pioneering contributions of Africans since the beginning of recorded knowledge in Kmet, a.k.a. Ancient Egypt. Well, that long drought has ended with the publication of Kwarteng's An Intellectual Biography of Africa: A Philosophical Anatomy of Advancing Africa the Diopian Way. Prepare to be educated.

Milton Allimadi, author of Manufacturing Hate: How Africa Was Demonized in the Media

ISBN: 9781669836544

ISBN: 9781669836551

Page count: 778

Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble
US lawmakers have voted against sanctioning India for importing Russian S-400 missiles. Washington's show of support will allow the South Asian nation to pursue its quest for Western weapons to deter neighbour China.

The 14 July waiver will enable India to conclude the import of five air defence systems by early next year, without facing US retaliation.

"I have been working to strengthen the partnership between our countries and ensure that India can defend itself along the Indian-Chinese border," said Congressman Ro Khanna, seeking an amendment for the India-specific waiver.

"The US must stand with India in the face of escalating aggression from China," the politician said, reminding the house of the strategic partnership between the world's two foremost democracies.

The vice-president of the ruling BJP party, Baijayant Jay Panda, hailed the decision on social media calling it "an affirmation of India's rising influence in shaping the geopolitics & the New World Order".

Cynical experts

Analysts said India's huge market and its quest for Western arms swayed the Congress to amend the law to waive sanctions, which have already been imposed on Turkey for importing S-400s from Russia, India's largest arms supplier.

"I do not think the sanctions waiver was given with the China threat to India in mind," Anil Golani from the Delhi-based Centre for Airpower Studies, a privately-run military research agency, told RFI.

"The US is seeking strategic partnership with India because of its market, growing economy, global heft and as a partner through various groupings like AUKUS, I2U2 which are essentially aimed at containing China's influence," he added.

Aukus binds Australia, Britain and the US in a controversial security pact while I2U2 loosely groups India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

In April, Britain offered to boost its military sales to India, the world's largest arms importer.

Leadership role

Praful Bakshi, a former military spokesman, speaking to RFI, argued the United States had little choice but to accept India's preference for Russian equipment.

"America is in need of India because of the leadership role our country is assuming in the Asia-Pacific region and so the United States wants India to negate China out there," he said.

"Besides, the US also knows our requirement in defense is based on Russian equipment and India cannot suddenly switch to American equipment," added Bakshi, a former pilot of Soviet-origin MiG fighter jets.

But Russia's share of arms imports to India slipped from 69 percent to 46 percent in recent years as Western suppliers moved in, according to think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The Congress waiver also came two days before India and China decided to "maintain stability" along their borders where rival armies are locked in a face-off since clashes in 2020 left many soldiers killed.

Project S-400

Last December, India took delivery of the first of the five S-400 systems from Russia as part of a 2018 contract worth 5.3 billion and deployed it in the Punjab bordering nuclear rival Pakistan.

The remaining systems are likely to be set up along India's eastern frontier where a border dispute with China led to a brief but bloody war in 1962.

"Also, no one should tell us what to defend ourselves with," Bakshi, the former defense ministry spokesman said, referring to prickly neighbor China which also possesses the S-400 Triumph long range missiles of Russian origin.

The US Senate must now approve the waiver of a law passed in 2017 in response to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Rafale deal

The Russian missile deal came two years after India purchased 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France for 9 billion euros in an outright deal.

Dassault Aviation has so far delivered 35 Rafales and is now in a race with American rival Boeing to supply maritime planes for India's first locally-made aircraft carrier scheduled to set sail on 15 August.

Eight of the Rafales were deployed on China's borders at the start of last week's bilateral military talks, an official told RFI.

Delhi accuses China of illegally occupying 38,000 square kilometers of India's Ladakh where the two rival armies have deployed thousands of troops since the 2020 clash in the Himalayan desert.
23.07.2022 LISTEN

The investigation that was done by the Tiger Eye PI, led by Anas Aremeyaw Anas, which exposed some court judges, as well as several court officials in a video, allegedly demanding and receiving bribes, has come under another scathing attack.

It is recalled that following that particular work, persons including Assin Central Member of Parliament Kennedy Agyapong heavily criticized Anas for the work.

Mr Agyapong was against the modus operandi adopted by the investigators. He believed the judges were set up.

Anas is receiving flak again. This time, it is coming from the Member of Parliament for Asante-Akim North, Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi.

Mr Appiah-Kubi said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, July 23, 2022 that the Tiger Eye team hinted some of the judges that they were going to be investigated, an action he said, led to those judges to come and beat their chest that they were not corrupt because they rejected bribe.

You go and put a bunch of money but he says no, take it away. When you record the scene of putting the money there and you dont record the scene of rejecting the money and you use that as an evidence to incriminate the judge, it is not also fair, that is criminal.

I am happy that some of the judges who were also not convicted of having taken bribes, they themselves also know that some of their own colleagues were mistreated. When you are doing something and you want to find evidence, make sure you find the total evidence that can support your case.

But not you yourself, you go there with the pre-meditated mind to go and seek conviction. One of the judges who was also given kudos, he had prior information that they were coming to him. Yes, they said to him, we are going to investigate you so we are sending somebody to you this time. So, he goes there and he comes out clean, that for me I didnt take bribe. What kind of joke is that?

He stressed I am saying that, I knew that one person that I know who refused the motivation and came out chest out, he knew that they were coming to him, it was pre-meditated.

We cant be like that and be blaming others, he said while contributing to a discussion on the 2021 report by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime which ranked the Police to be the foremost public institution perceived to be most corrupt.

By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
A police truck is seen in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 2, 2021. Abuja police recently arrested five staff members of the Peoples Gazette news website. (AFP/Kola Sulaimon)

23.07.2022 LISTEN

New York, July 22, 2022  Nigerian authorities should cease harassing employees of the Peoples Gazette and reform the countrys laws to decriminalize defamation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

Mid-day on Friday, July 22, police arrived at the privately owned news websites office in Abuja, the capital, and arrested assistant managing editor John Adenekan, according to the outlets managing editor, Samuel Ogundipe, who spoke to CPJ over the phone, and media reports.

Police returned about 30 minutes later and arrested four more people: reporters Ameedat Adeyemi and Sammy Ogbu, and administrative staff members Grace Oke and Justina Tayani, according to those sources.

Authorities released Adeyemi, Ogbu, and Tayani shortly thereafter, and released Adenekan and Oke on bail Friday evening, according to Ogundipe and Peoples Gazette lawyer Ken Eluma Asogwa, who also spoke to CPJ by phone.

The arrests were related to a criminal defamation complaint filed by former Nigerian army chief Tukur Buratai over a Peoples Gazette report published on June 23 about a law enforcement operation at Buratais home, Ogundipe and Asogwa told CPJ.

The arrest of five Peoples Gazette staff members over a report published by their outlet is a gross overreaction and a direct attack on freedom of the press in Nigeria. Nigerian authorities should cease harassing and intimidating the outlet and decriminalize defamation nationwide, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, from Durban, South Africa. There is no reason for Nigerian police to arrest journalists over their reporting. Its something that happens far too often in the country, and authorities should act swiftly to reverse this trend.

Ogundipe said officers took all five detainees to a police station in Utako, a neighborhood in Abuja, after their arrests.

Officers initially said Adenekan and Oke would be held until Ogundipe and Adefemola Akintade, a Peoples Gazette reporter who authored the June 23 report, appeared at the station, but then released them later Friday evening, Ogundipe and Asogwa said. Asogwa said Buratais complaint specifically accused Ogundipe and Akintade of defaming him.

The Nigerian Union of Journalists Abuja chapter secretary acted as surety for Adenekan and Okes bail, Asogwa said.

CPJ called Buratai but the calls rang unanswered or did not connect. CPJ also called national police spokesperson Alumuyiwa Adejobi and Josephine Adeh, a spokesperson for police in the Federal Capital Territory including Abuja, but no one answered.

CPJ has previously reported how access to the Peoples Gazette website was blocked in Nigeria and how intelligence agents have harassed its staff.

In 2017, Nigerian police arrested Dapo Olorunyomi, publisher of the news website Premium Times, and Evelyn Okakwu, a Premium Times reporter who now works as a CPJ correspondent, over a defamation complaint by Buratai, as CPJ reported at the time.
Over 200 youth in afforestation under the Forestry Commission are warming up to stage a nationwide demonstration against government over their five months' unpaid allowance.

As part of their long-conceived protest, they have settled on storming the forecourt of the Ministry of Finance in their numbers to press home their demand for the immediate release of their monies.

The foregoing was announced by National President Clement Asare on Friday 22nd July 2022 at a press briefing held in Kumasi.

Detailing ModernGhana News on the sidelines, Clement Asare said from February 2022 till date, they have not received a dime from authorities, hinting that even government owes some of the members 14 months and over.

He noted that a Supervisor takes home a monthly allowance of GHS800, an Assistant Supervisor GHS600 and a field officer GHS400.

According to him, previously, a Supervisor earned GHS1,200 as monthly allowance, Assistant Supervisor GHS800 whereas a field officer received GHS400.

The President further disclosed that, in an earlier engagement with officials of the Ministry of Finance, "they promised to pay us outstanding allowance covering three months but they never honoured the promise till date".
23.07.2022 LISTEN

What about shifting mass anger towards so-called leaders and their circles responsible for the systemic failures in Nigeria?

Why are Nigerians not channeling their fury towards leaders sabotaging democracy? What about Nigerians' shifting negative emotions and rage towards corrupt political, institutional, and corporate leadership, causing, and inflaming the nation's rotating problems?

Nigerians in recent times, generally see the country as one of the world's most hopeless, damaged, and insecure environments, and the pervasive and continued failure of governance in Nigeria victimizes the average police officer and his or her safety.

No one denies the fact that many police officers struggle with the spirit, reality, and habits of dishonesty, but it will be a contradiction not to see their long-standing behaviors as a consequence of an endemically diseased and criminal leadership.

The Nigerian media has reported widely on intentional killings of police officers, and here are a few real situations.

Around the time of writing this article, five policemen, among others, were unlawfully and brutally killed in Katsina State by armed men.

A month ago, in Enugu State, two police officers were shot dead when some gunmen attacked a police checkpoint.

In the fifth month of this year in Rivers State, in a night of violence, at least seven police officers were killed after gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint, massacred some officers, and then drove to two police stations, killed others, and burned patrol cars.

In the fourth month of this year in Kogi State, three policemen were killed after gunmen stormed a police station.

In the third month of this year in Kebbi State, outlaws killed six mobile police officers at a local factory and killed another four in the state.

In the second month of this year in Enugu State, a team of four policemen on duty were shot dead by armed criminals.

In the first month of this year, two police officers were killed by gunmen in north Jigawa state.

In a society known for lacking adequate institutional statistics, the intentional and felonious killings of police officers and other law enforcement officers is certainly large, including unknown numbers that later died from severe gun injuries.

As Nigeria continues to be a security disaster and enters a turbulent election season, more shootings of officers could go up. Currently, armed criminals have reportedly kidnapped ten police officers of the Nasarawa State Command in Kogi while coming back from election duty in Osun State, whose status is unknown in terms of being alive or dead.

Violence against police officers is a phenomenon that happens across many countries, but in Nigeria, unprovoked attacks and the killing of police officers are catalysts that are more common in Nigeria.

Day in and day out. Nigerians are under men and women in authority with low confidence and distrust. In such a climate of animosity, some Nigerians have turned their anger into easy targetspolice officers in the line of duty. Wrong.

What about turning mass anger mentally, emotionally, and spiritually toward those responsible for systemic failures in society? In what way is a police officer at work responsible for a system filled with institutional and social failures that continues to expose the average civilian and police officer to harm?

Although it might be tempting to dislike police officers, especially those with poor professional conducts who sometimes behave in hostile and corrupt manners partly due to systemic hardship, hunger, and frustration, the dislike should mainly go to those apparently innately evil creatures who shock the average Nigerian by their insensitivity.

The proclivity of Nigerian leaders to send their children abroad for studies and family safety, to brag on social media about their children graduating from expensive institutions abroad, to travel abroad for medical treatment, to buy judgments in courts, and to surround themselves with force of arms by using the police, army, and other security forces is deeply vexing.

No matter what one thinks about the average police officer when he or she is attacked and killed, remember it is mostly when the officer, in a conscientious, patriotic, and committed way, is on duty.

It will be realistic to feel sorry for that common patrolling and working officer, knowing that he or she is placed in different places watching and protecting those who, in the last 16 or more years, have been swimming in abrasive corruption and engaging in looting that continues to worsen the country.

The world saw how bottled anger led to mass action calling for a complete ban of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which was really a protest aimed at evil generational types of leadership and governance failures.

The same type of wicked leadership sent police and other uniformed officers to use ammunition on peaceful protesters, beating down and killing some young men and women.

There is no doubt there is fear of leadership and government, known for its' no mercy 'ways in Nigeria. In fact, it is the government that should fear and respect the people in a democracy.

Well, in the words of a current freedom fighting governor, the powerful should be ready to kill all of us because there is a different type of fire in the mountain and time is coming when Nigerians will no longer feel like conquered people; and start bypassing common police officers who are not responsible for misgovernance.

Instead, Nigerians, in a fueled manner and with a bold name and an open face, should turn their mass negative emotions or anger towards saboteurs of Nigerian democracy.

The killings of law enforcement officers in the line of duty, I can tell you, will not solve the problems of those in authority who intentionally, with their families and allies, continue to break democracy in Nigeria. Nigerian public turn the bucket of anger now.

Prof. Oshodi wrote in via [email protected]
The lifeline staff of COCOBOD, the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in the Hohoe District of the Volta Region on 21 July 2022 received comprehensive training on Farmer Business School(FBS), Cooperative Business School( CBS), Child Labour in Cocoa and other emerging developments in the cocoa industry.

The training forms part of capacity building, to equip Extension Officers with modern practices that will enable them effectively perform in their roles and make Ghana sustain its position as the leading and premium quality cocoa producer in the world.

The training, which was spearheaded by National Officers of CHED, Dr. Mrs. Mercy Asamoah ( Deputy Executive Director (Operations), Mr. Kwame Effah (CHED-Headoofice); Regional Executives Mr. Noel Ayibor (Regional Extension Officer, Volta), Mr. Linus Fiakye (Deputy Regional Manager, Volta); District Officers, Mr. Emmanuel Ofori (District Cocoa Officer, Hohoe) and Mr. Derick A. Donkor (District Extension Coordinator, Hohoe) aims at averting any unforeseen decline in productivity of cocoa and ensure the longevity of the industry, eschew malpractices among staff and above all espouse excellence and ethical behaviour in service delivery.

Dr. Mrs. Asamoah began by touching on CHEDs Strategic Plan (2021-2025), a vision to achieve excellence in extension services delivery and enhancing the rate of adoption of Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs) by cocoa farmers for a productivity gain of 1500kg dry cocoa beans per hectare by 2025. To achieve this, she reiterated CHED has a mission to support cocoa farmers to adopt GAPs through effective and efficient extension services, rehabilitation of diseased and overaged cocoa farms and implement other Productivity Enhancement Programmes (PEPs) for increased yields.

Dr. Asamoah added that "CHED cannot be attained if extension officers do not embrace the core values of CHED and hard work with integrity, passion with commitment to duty, accountability, versatility, results-driven, trustworthiness, all summed up as excellence and ethical Behaviour.

Using the participatory teaching method, the extension officers were put into groups for short debate on:

i) Cocoa Farming is NOT a good business. FOR or AGAINST the motion.

ii) It is important to work as individual farmer than to belong to a farmer cooperative. FOR or AGAINST the motion.

After a brief debate, it was resolved that:

i) Because there is conscious investments (resources) put in by COCOBOD, farmers and private donors, coupled with fixed prices for cocoa beans and continuous extension support, though there are challenges within the cocoa farming business such as delayed payments by LBCs and weather fluctuations, the advantages far outweigh the undesirable.

ii) Belonging to Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) or Agricultural Producer Organisations (APOs) such as Cocoa Farmer Cooperatives gives huge benefits that far outweigh going as a solo farmer. Additionally, vulnerable or fragile farmers (i.e aged farmers) stand to benefit from CBS services provided by the Farmer Cooperatives. It is indeed expedient for a cocoa farmer to join a cooperative.

On FBS, Dr. Asamoah through random selections chose 12 Extension Officers to do brief presentations on all the 12 Modules:

i) Is Farming a business

ii) Know your units to know your assets

iii) Manage for more and better food part I

iv) Money Out/ Money In: Know whether you do good business

v) Decision for more income

vi) Opportunities to diversify your farm enterprise

vii) Manage your money throughout the year

viii) How to get good financial services

ix) Make more money with quality cocoa

x) Benefits from membership in farmer organisation

xi) Manage for more and better food part II and

xii) Becoming an entrepreneur in practice.

After each presentation by Extension Officers, a short discussion of areas that need improvement was spelt out and correctional information was added by Dr. Asamoah and the team.

Mr. Kwame Effah led the training on CBS. Using the participatory method, basic requirements of a Cocoa Farmer Cooperatives were listed, such as;

i) Registered with Department of Cooperatives

ii) Have Democratically Elected Members

iii) Have Register, containing all members and their details

iv) Renews their certificates annually

v) Have an Office Space

vi) Have Bank Accounts

vii) Have Constitution (Bye Laws)

viii) Holds Annual General Meetings

ix) Belong to a Cooperative Credit Union etc.

Mr. Effah added, Cooperatives should be able to use their CBS knowledge, draw business plans and be able to offer business services centred on the cocoa value chain, such as Marketing and Labour Services like Cooperative Pruning, Cooperative Spraying, Cooperative Weeding, Cooperative Lining and Pegging, Cooperative group purchase of inputs, to be able to generate income for the cooperative and make them self sustaining.

Discuss these with your cooperatives and get them to do these, Mr. Effah appealed to the Extension Officers.

On Child Labour, Dr. Mrs. Asamoah used the Q&A methodology, where all Extension Officers were allowed to stand, and each was made to answer a question ranging from child labour in cocoa farming, Harken-Engel protocols, worst forms of child labour, permissible work for children under supervision and child trafficking and smuggling.

The Regional Extension Officer for Volta Region, Mr. Noel Ayibor urged Extension Officers to take their work seriously. CHED wants to achieve excellence, and that can only come if Extension Officers work seriously, make sure these cooperatives in their operational areas meet the requirements spelt out boldly, and where there are deficiencies, work to ameliorate, so as to attain the target of 1500kg of dry cocoa beans per hectare by 2025, he stressed while wishing Extension Officers well in their endeavours.

Mr. Linus Fiakye thanked the Deputy Executive Director (Ops), Dr. Mrs. Asamoah and her team for the great job done and assured her Extension Officers in the Hohoe District will do their utmost best to get the job done.
Leaders of Cocoa Cooperatives in Kpando and Vakpo Operational Areas in the Hohoe District of the Volta Region have on 20th July 2022 received training on Cooperative Business School (CBS) and Child Labour at Kpando.

The training, which was organised by Extension Officers in the Area, includes Mrs. Lucy Dagba Extension Officer, Kpando Operational Area Mr. Emmanuel Mawuli Agbezuge, Extension Officer Vakpo Operational Area and joined by Mr. Francis Eshun Extension Officer, Nkonya Operational Area was to equip the leaders of the Cooperatives on CBS and Child Labour in Cocoa farming and navigate how the Cooperatives can use the knowledge of CBS to make their cooperatives self-sustaining and generate good income.

Mr. Emmanuel Mawuli Agbezuge gave a presentation on CBS. Guiding the farmers, a business was defined as any activity (legal) that is able to satisfy a need/wants and provides profit (money). He linked this to help farmers understand that Cooperative Business School is the needs/wants in the cocoa farming value chain that cooperatives can capitalise on (school) to be able to generate income (revenue)." The CBS, he added aims to strengthen Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) capacities to provide business services to their members by way of capacity building in areas such as market orientations, entrepreneurship, knowledge of value chains, knowledge of good governance as well as economic viability.

Mr. Mawuli Agbezuge added that there are categories of business services that Cooperatives can render to their members. He stressed business services centred on the cocoa value chain, such as Marketing and Labour Services like Cooperative pruning of cocoa, Cooperative Spraying of cocoa, Cooperative Weeding of cocoa, Cooperative Lining and Pegging of cocoa, Cooperative Harvesting of cocoa, Cooperative group purchase of inputs for cocoa, to be able to generate income for the cooperative and make them self sustaining. He used mathematical calculations to demonstrate, why going for group input purchase is better than individual farmers going solo.

To be able to offer business services, he added, five key questions must be answered: What? How? How Often? Which quantity? And Financing. He also expatiated on economic tools such as fixed cost, variable cost, profit margin, group profit, break even and service fee.

Mr. Mwauli Agbezuge further stated further that transparency, strong bargaining power and strong financial position as major elements that will ensure the sustainability of the Cooperatives.

Mr. Francis Eshun made a brief presentation on improving the cooperatives. He narrated a key verse in Ephraim Amus 'Yen Ara Asaase ni' song which states Nimde3 ntraso, nkoto-krane, ne pesemenkomenya adi yen bra mu dem to wit, bragging of educational achievements, useless greed for material things, and bad lifestyle is destroying our nation. He said Cooperatives will only work if farmers work on certain behaviours among their members and allow trust, honesty and integrity be the hallmark of leadership. He quoted the adage, we listen to our ears, not our brothers to buttress his appeal for leaders to follow law and order in their dealings with members. "Doing what you say you will without giving excuses will build trust."

Mr. Eshun further stated that cocoa farmers should learn from the Abrahamic principle of giving, which is practiced by Muslims across the world, thus, ensuring that,  they motivate various pruning and spraying works ongoing in their area. He encouraged the Cooperative leaders to play an advocacy role in ensuring, problems associated with land tenure systems and excessive litigations among cocoa farmers on lands is reduced so that the cocoa industry can be peaceful for formers to operate. He thanked the Cooperative Executives for their continual support to Extension Officers and assured them, that their efforts will not go in vain. The vision of COCOBOD is to achieve 1500 kg of dry beans per hectare by 2025, and this can only be attained if the Cooperatives becomes vibrant and self-sustaining to offer business services, he added.

Mrs. Lucy Dagba gave her presentation on Child Labour in the Cocoa Value Chain. She stated that since 2000, there was global pressure against major cocoa producing countries: Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Nigeria. Cote dIvoire especially was accused of using children from Mali and other areas on their cocoa plantations. Thus, consumers felt: eating chocolate from the sweat of children.. This tag led to a call to stop the exploitation of children or else face the consequences which include boycotting the purchase of cocoa. In response to this, a protocol was signed, code-named 'Harken-Engel Protocol' to put systems in place to eliminate forced labour & the worst form of Child Labour in the cocoa sector.

Mrs. Dagba in the participatory method, guided the leaders to define child labour as any work that is exploitative, and deprives a child of his/her education, affects the health, the moral and wholesome development of the child now or in future or Work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling  by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school or by obliging them to leave school prematurely."

Mrs. Dagba further expatiated that poverty, unemployment, under employment, irresponsibility of parents, unbudgeted expenditure/impulse buying, Unplanned births, teenage pregnancy, breakdown of social /extended family support and other socio-economic issues (pull & push factors from cities) as the major causes of child labour. She added that child labour can lead to boycott of the purchase of cocoa, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, drug addiction leading to an increase in social misfits, school drop-out, illiterate society and low H/R development, low-self esteem, depression and suicide or pre-mature death of victims all interconnected and in a cycle.

Mrs. Dagba further stated that International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention 182 on Worst Form of Child Labour(WFCL) defines four classes of work as worst forms i.e. the engagement or recruitment of children into:

i. Slavery and all forms of slavery-like practices e.g. forced labour and bonded labour- child trafficking

ii. Illegal/ illicit activities e.g. child soldiers, smuggling. Selling alcoholic drinks, narcotic/ chemical substances etc

iii. Pornography/pornographic performances e.g. prostitution, club dance

iv. Hazardous labour e.g. fishing, farming, quarrying & others that affect the health, safety and morals of the child

Mrs. Dagba further stated children have rights according to Childrens Act 560 (1998), Part 1, Sub-part 1 which deals with the rights of children and parental duties.

 Non-discrimination (colour, sex etc)

 Right to name and nationality

 Right to grow up with parents

 Right for parental duty/ responsibility & property

 Right to Educ., well-being, opinion

 Protection from exploitative labour etc

She further touched on child trafficking as basically the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat, force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

She added, Even though children should be involved in cocoa farming, but under acceptable conditions/circumstances, under the care and supervision of parents, during weekends & school holidays, with good protective clothing and with an appropriate tool that commensurate with the age of the child."

In conclusion, Mrs. Dagba stated that for a secured future and sustainable cocoa farming or production, theres a need to develop the full potential of all children in farming communities, need for holistic approach to eliminate child labour by all stakeholders including chiefs, farmer Coop, parents, schools/teachers, Ministries/governments etc.

The Cooperative leaders expressed their appreciation and thanked the extension officers for the training and assured it will be put into good use for sustainable cocoa industry.

Over 50 leaders benefited from the training programmme.
The Chief Imam of the Republic of Ghana, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, has conferred special prayers and benedictions to the newly elected Chief Executive Officer of the New Patriotic Party, Lawyer Justin Kodua Frimpong for a successful tenure in the next four (4) years.

The Chief Imam said the special prayers when Lawyer Justin Kodua Frimpong and his team paid a courtesy call on the Chief Imam to express his profound gratitude for the spiritual support the Chief Imam offered him in the just ended contest for the position of the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party.

The General Secretary was thankful and appreciative that even though he called on the Chief Imam on the eve of the elections, the revered clergy did not hesitate to offer him the needed support to secure his bid.

Lawyer Kodua promised to serve the New Patriotic Party and the entire Ghanaian community selflessly to his best ability and in the best interest of all. He also promised working in close collaboration with the Chief Imam's office and the government machinery to expand development opportunities for the Zongo Communities.

Chief Imam on the other hand promised continuous support in prayers for the success of the young vibrant chief scribe of the NPP for his tenure in office.

He was accompanied by some members of his campaign team, constituency executives and a host of other dignitaries.
Russian missiles struck Ukraine's key Black Sea port of Odessa Saturday, officials said, in an attack Kyiv described as a "spit in the face" of a deal signed by the warring neighbours a day earlier to resume grain exports blocked by the conflict.

Two cruise missiles hit terminal infrastructure, regional authorities said on social media, casting a shadow over the landmark agreement hammered out over months of negotiations aimed at relieving a global food crisis caused by stalled deliveries that sent wheat prices tumbling.

"The Russian missile (strike) is (Russian President) Vladimir Putin's spit in the face of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep (Tayyip) Erdogan, who made enormous efforts to reach an agreement," said foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.

The first major accord between the countries since the February invasion of Ukraine aims to ease the "acute hunger" that the United Nations says faces an additional 47 million people because of the war.

Nikolenko said Russia would bear "full responsibility for deepening the global food crisis" if the agreement were jeopardised by the assault.

"The enemy attacked the Odessa sea port with Kalibr cruise missiles. Two of the missiles were shot down by air defences. Two hit port infrastructure," Sergiy Bratchuk, a representative of the Odessa region said in a statement on social media.

The hostility between Moscow and Kyiv had spilled over into Friday's signing ceremony in Istanbul -- delayed briefly by disputes about the display of flags around the table and Ukraine's refusal to put its name on the same document as the Russians.

20 million tonnes of wheat

Ukraine had entered the ceremony by bluntly warning that it would conduct "an immediate military response" should Russia violate the agreement and attack its ships or stage an incursion around its ports.

Main ports in the Black Sea region, including Ukrainian ports blocked by Russian forces. By (AFP)

The two sides eventually inked separate but identical agreements in the presence Guterres and Erdogan at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace.

"Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea -- a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief," Guterres had said moments before the signing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said the responsibility for enforcing the deal would fall to the UN, which along with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.

The agreement includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe corridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.

Ukraine has mined and barricaded its Black Sea ports to avert a Russian amphibious assault. By Oleksandr GIMANOV (AFP)

Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

Zelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year's harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement, estimating the value of Ukraine's grain stocks at around $10 billion.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media he expected the deal to start working "in the next few days" although diplomats expect grain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.

The United States, Britain and the European Union hailed the Istanbul agreement while urging Moscow to abide by its rules.

More US military aid

Global alarm about grain has been accompanied by European fears that Russia is starting to use its stranglehold on energy exports as a geopolitical weapon in its standoff with the West.

Russian forces are pressing deeper into the Donbas war zone of east Ukraine, destroying towns such as Siversk along the way. By Anatolii Stepanov (AFP)

The grain deal was signed one day after Russia's restart of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline eased concerns in Europe of a permanent shut off after a 10-day maintenance suspension.

Analysts say the partial resumption of gas supplies was insufficient to ward off energy shortages in Europe this winter.

The ornate halls of Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace felt far removed from east Ukraine's Donbas war zone on another day of relentless shelling across the front.

Russia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone's Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk.

On Friday, the United States signed off on another $270 million in military aid to Ukraine, including rocket systems, artillery ammunition and armoured command posts.

Russian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in the central area of Kirovograd on Saturday killed at least three people and wounded nine, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.

burs-ft/jbr/ach
23.07.2022 LISTEN

The Minority caucus has gathered over 100 signatures from its members to commence the vote of censure proceedings against the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

Their action seeks to invoke article 82 of the constitution, which provides for the elaborate procedure of removing a minister of state through proceedings in Parliament.

If the motion is admitted, the Minister for Finance will be the second Minister in recent times to have such a motion filed against him, following that of the Minister of Health, which is still pending in the house.

The Minister for Finance has been under pressure to resign following the decision of the country to resort to the IMF for a bailout, after his comments and posturing previously were against such a measure.

Vote of Censure (Article 82)

(1) Parliament may, by are solution supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of Parliament, pass a vote of censure on a Minister of State.

(2) A motion for the resolution referred to in clause (1) of this Article shall not be moved in Parliament unless

(a) seven days notice has been given of the motion; and

(b) the notice for the motion has been signed by not less than one-third of all the members of Parliament;

(3) The motion shall be debated in Parliament within fourteen days after the receipt by the Speaker of the notice for the motion.

(4) A Minister of State in respect of whom a vote of censure is debated under clause (3) of this article is entitled, during the debate, to be heard in his defence.

(5) Where a vote of censure is passed against a Minister under this article the President may, unless the Minister resigns his office, revoke his appointment as a Minister.

(6) For the avoidance of doubt, this article applies to a Deputy Minister as it applies to a Minister of State.

---citinewsroom
23.07.2022 LISTEN

The three suspects arrested in connection with the murder and beheading of a lady at Sefwi Bekwai Atwumah in the Western North Region have been remanded into Police custody by a court for two months.

The deceased identified as Martha Tetteh, a resident of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region according to a Police statement travelled to Sefwi Bekwai on June 27, 2022, allegedly to consult a spiritualist.

In a sad turn of events, the 27-year-old ladys body was later found dumped in an uncompleted building at Sefwi Bekwai with her head cut off.

Following Police investigations into the murder, there suspects; Solomon Sam, alias Paa Solo, John Nana Addai, alias Akwasi Kokoreh and Osofo Attah alias Prince Attah, were apprehended.

Suspect Solomon Sam, alias Paa Solo, who allegedly introduced the deceased to the self-styled spiritualist, was arrested on July 12, 2022, at his hideout at Bibiani. Further investigation led to the arrest of suspect Osofo Attah, the spiritualist.

During the interrogation process, suspect Osofo Attah admitted to being involved in the crime and mentioned suspect John Nana Addai, alias Akwasi Kokoreh as the one who contracted suspect Solomon Sam to lure the victim to Sefwi Bekwai to consult the spiritualist. The suspect, John Nana Addai was also arrested on July 20, 2022, at Sefwi Atronsu, a Police statement on Friday evening revealed.

It further disclosed that all three suspects were put before court on Thursday, July 21, 2022.

At the end of the first hearing of the case, the suspects were remanded into Police custody for two weeks to reappear on August 4, 2022.

Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been deposited at the Bibiani Government Hospital for preservation and autopsy.
Diyar Al Muharraq, a leading real estate development company in Bahrain, has announced the completion of all infrastructure works within Phase Four of its freehold residential project, Al Bareh.

Work on the key phase began in November last year and was completed in May in accordance with the set schedule, said a statement from Diyar Al Muharraq.

The scope of work included power and water connection and telecommunications systems installation in addition to irrigation systems, drainage and sewage systems, as well as road paving and lighting.

The leading consultant on the project, Aecom, oversaw the project planning and supervised it alongside Jahecon.

On the project progress, CEO Engineer Ahmed Ali Al Ammadi said: "We are pleased to announce the successful and timely completion of the fourth and final phase of Al Bareh. We have finalised all infrastructure works while maintaining the highest standards."

"Diyar Al Muharraq strives to introduce more residential projects that the meet the needs of citizens and residents in the kingdom," he noted.

Al Bareh is known for its spacious area located in the northwest of Diyar Al Muharraq overlooking spectacular views of the Gulf and the Citys main water canal.

In addition to unparalleled features including its inner road network connected to key locations and destinations across the City. Al Bareh also offers exceptional residential opportunities available on a freehold basis for all nationalities.

Diyar Al Muharraq is one of the largest integrated cities in the kingdom offering a variety of housing solutions and a luxurious modern lifestyle with a mix of residential, commercial, recreational and healthcare facilities.-TradeArabia News Service
Vitus Azeem

23.07.2022 LISTEN

Former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Vitus Azeem has charged Akufo-Addo government to walk the talk and prosecute corrupt officials if indeed it wants to fight corruption.

According to various Auditor-General, Ghana loses billions of cedis to corruption every year.

In the midst of current economic hardships in the country where the country is struggling to find the financial power to address the many challenges, there have been calls for the government to focus on retrieving monies lost to corruption.

Speaking to TV3 in an interview on Saturday, July 23, Vitus Azeem urged the government to take a bold decision to have officials found culpable of corruption jailed.

According to the former GII Executive Director, the properties of such officials must also be confiscated to help serve as a deterrent to other officials.

We have failed to investigate credible corruption allegations. Who wants to be jailed for corruption? Nobody. So if we are bold enough to jail people, nobody will do that, Vitus Azeem shared.

From the 2021 report by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, corruption in the country is getting worst by the day.

The report ranked the Ghana Police Service as the most corrupt public institution in the country.
About 1,000 Burkinabe nationals from neighbouring Burkina Faso are seeking refuge in Bansi, Gentiga no1 and No.2, Mognori, Sapeliga, Kutanga and Yarigungu in Bawku West District, Binduri District and Bawku Municipal of the Upper East Region.

They fled from Benliyali, a community in Burkina Faso after an attack by unknown gunmen at night killing several persons.

The District Chief Executive for Binduri, Ayinga Yakubu Abagre told Modernghana News that some of the refugees are temporarily camped at Yarigungu and Bansi in his district.

He noted that they are expected to return home when the situation normalises.

Mr Ayinga disclosed this when he toured the areas the refugees are camping in the company of the District Security Council (DISEC) on Thursday, July, 21.

He said the Binduri District Assembly has organised relief items for the refugees.

He, however, appealed to organisations and individuals to come to the aid of the refugees who are mostly women and children.

Ayinga Yakubu Abagre advised the refugees to be disciplined and desist from acts that may undermine their temporary stay in Bansi and Yarigungu.

The refugees have appealed to the government of Ghana and authorities of Burkina Faso to jointly beef-up security for them to return home.
Russian missiles hit Ukraine's port of Odessa Saturday, in what Kyiv called a "spit in the face" of a day-old deal between the warring sides to resume cereal exports blocked by the conflict.

The Ukrainian military said its air defences had shot down two cruise missiles but two more hit the port, threatening the landmark agreement hammered out over months of negotiations aimed at relieving a global food crisis.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman said the strike was "a spit in the face" by Russian leader Vladimir Putin against the deal brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres.

Guterres -- who presided over the signing ceremony on Friday -- "unequivocally" condemned the reported attack on Odessa, his deputy spokesman said, and urged all sides stick to the deal to allow grain exports.

The grain deal aimed to help relieve acute hunger that has affected tens of millions of people because of the war. By OZAN KOSE (AFP)

"These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe," he said.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell directly blamed Russia for the strikes.

"Striking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of (the) Istanbul agreements is particularly reprehensible and again demonstrates Russia's total disregard for international law and commitments," he said.

20 million tonnes of wheat

There was no immediate reaction from Moscow after the attack.

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said Russia would bear "full responsibility for deepening the global food crisis" if the assault jeopardised the agreement.

The first major accord between the countries since the February invasion of Ukraine aims to ease the "acute hunger" that the United Nations says faces an additional 47 million people because of the war.

Main ports in the Black Sea region, including Ukrainian ports blocked by Russian forces. By (AFP)

Hostility between Moscow and Kyiv had spilled over into Friday's signing ceremony in Istanbul -- delayed briefly by disputes about the display of flags around the table and Ukraine's refusal to put its name on the same document as the Russians.

Ukraine had entered the ceremony by bluntly warning that it would conduct "an immediate military response" should Russia violate the agreement and attack its ships or stage an incursion around its ports.

The two sides eventually inked separate but identical agreements in the presence Guterres and Erdogan at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace.

Guterres, moments before the signing, hailed the agreement as "a beacon of hope".

Ukraine has mined and barricaded its Black Sea ports to avert a Russian amphibious assault. By Oleksandr GIMANOV (AFP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said the responsibility for enforcing the deal would fall to the United Nations, which along with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.

The agreement includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe corridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.

Thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced from their homes since Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour on February 24.

Russian forces are pressing deeper into the Donbas war zone of east Ukraine, destroying towns such as Siversk along the way. By Anatolii Stepanov (AFP)

Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have also been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

Zelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year's harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement, estimating the value of Ukraine's grain stocks at around $10 billion.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media he expected the deal to start working "in the next few days" although diplomats expect grain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.

The United States and Britain hailed the accord but urged Moscow to abide by its rules.

Strikes on central Ukraine

The ornate halls of Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace felt far removed from east Ukraine's Donbas war zone on another day of relentless shelling across the front.

Russia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone's Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk.

Russian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in the central area of Kirovograd on Saturday killed at least three people and wounded 16 more, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.

At least one of the dead was a serviceman, he said earlier, in a rare admission of a military casualty in a conflict in which military deaths have been closely guarded by both sides.

On Friday, the United States signed off on another $270 million in military aid to Ukraine, including rocket systems, artillery ammunition and armoured command posts.

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An Al-Qaeda affiliate claimed a deadly suicide attack in a strategic garrison town near the Malian capital, according to jihadist monitor SITE which authenticated a statement from the group.

The Malian army previously blamed jihadists of the Katiba Macina group for the Friday attack with two vehicle-borne bombs that killed at least one soldier in Kati, the heart of the Malian military establishment.

The target was also near the residence of the head of the ruling junta Assimi Goita and the powerful defence minister.

On Friday, "a brigade of mujahideen conducted a blessed operation against the Malian army, the unjust killer of innocents, at the most notorious place in the capital Bamako, near the headquarters of the president and the defence ministry".

The group claims to have deployed two suicide bombers and "commando fighters".

"If you have the right to hire mercenaries to kill defenceless innocents, then we have the right to destroy and target you," the statement continued, referring to paramilitaries linked to Russian private security group Wagner.

The group has been present in Mali since early 2021, according to Western diplomats.

The Malian army has intensified its anti-jihadist operations in recent months, relying on what it describes as Russian instructors.

Despite a deteriorating security situation, the junta turned its back on France and its international partners, instead leaning on Russia to stem the threat posed by jihadists to Mali, as well as Burkina Faso and Niger.

The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) is the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel and is linked to Al-Qaeda.

The GSIM, whose influence on the ground continues to expand, comprises a myriad of groups including the Katiba Macina and operates mainly in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Government will be constructing a 4-tier Interchange at Suame in the Ashanti Region.

The architectural view of the project has popped up in which many Ghanaians are reacting to it on social media.

Chairman of the Roads Committee in Parliament Hon Kennedy Osei Nyarko has reiterated the construction of the Suame Interchange in Kumasi will begin in September 2022.

The construction of the Suame Interchange and its adjoining town roads is to improve the lives of the people and enhance traffic flow.

Suame Interchange was featured strongly which the Roads Minister before the President said by September or October, work will begin.

Hon Kennedy Osei Nyarko however told Kingdom FM that as a result of the planned interchange, which would lead to the redesign of the main Suame-Offinso road.

The Suame interchange comprises a 4 tier interchange with ancillary works. Its estimated to cost 140 million in the first phase of the project.

The second phase of the project comprises the construction of approaches roads and inner roads within the magazine and Suame. Its also estimated to cost $47 million.

Phase two is going to be financed from the $750 million syndicated facility. Hon Kennedy Osei Nyarko disclosed that the project will be completed in 36 months.

Below are images:
The grave of the late President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills has dominated the headlines lately following the verbal exchanges between his family and Koku Anyidoho regarding the renovation of the grave ahead of his 10th-anniversary celebration.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the founder of the Atta Mills Institute, Koku Anyidoho, was accused of tampering with the grave of the late President at Asomdwe Park, Accra by Mr. Samuel Atta Mills, the late President's junior brother.

Mr. Mills alleged that the Coastal Development Authority (CODA) and Mr. Koku Anyidoho desecrated the tomb of the late President.

He further described the action as a breach of culture.

Mr. Anyidoho, who has responded to the allegations on several occasions, added in an interview with Accra-based Adom TV on July 23, monitored by Modernghana News, that President Mills was a national asset.

He said the former presidents death was mourned by the whole nation and not just his family alone.

All I'm saying is a certain president died, and we all mourned as a nation... On the day of his burial, it was the Ghana flag used to cover his casket. We played a national anthem and gave him a befitting burial as a commander in chief of the armed forces, he stated.

He stressed, "And even in the Bible when high priest Eli died, it was Samuel who succeeded him, not his sons (Hophni and Phinehas). I'm also Samuel. My English name is Samuel, so I'm acting like him."

He added, "I heard they are talking about rituals. What kind of rituals couldn't they do for the past nine (9) years?"
President of Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe is not the least surprised at the outcome of Afrobarometer's latest survey on the economy, public services, and taxation.

The survey, among other things, revealed that the majority of Ghanaians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.

According to the report, respondents also provided negative assessments of the country's economic condition and their personal living conditions.

Citizens' ratings of the government's performance on key economic issues were overwhelmingly negative.

Commenting on the report on The Big Issue, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe said the report is nothing but a reflection of reality.

The afrobarometer is legendary when it comes to citizens' perception about governance and is pretty much respected. Besides, truthfully, when you take cursory listening at most of the discussions people have, you know their perceptions. The report is an attestation to what is widely known.

During our survey on the E-Levy a few months ago, we chipped in a similar question. And indeed we got 89% saying the country was heading in the wrong direction. We are seeing data talk with actual perceptions. And we cannot quarrel with data at all.

The Imani Africa Executive Director also said citizens have high expectations of governments, especially because of the promises made during election period.

He said the attack on Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is a wake-up call for a review of some overwhelming developmental promises made by politicians.

We need to start going to the drawing table. This incidence will significantly contribute to the end of sloganarian politics without actual impact on people's livelihoods.

He concurred that the economy has been badly hit by global phenomenon, as is the case in other countries, but said the country's economic woes are mostly self-induced and largely driven by government.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo administration started off with goodwill but got too comfortable.

Why will they go ahead to create wasteful offices like the Ministry of Special Development among others? Why are we experiencing these challenges because we could not make significant investments.

Mr. Franklin Cudjoe said he does not foresee any of the policies of the government turning things around.

What exactly is going to be the campaign in the next election? he quizzed.

He hopes that politicians will in the next election season make realistic promises and tell Ghanaians the truth.

---citinewsroom
Dubai carrier Emirates has announced plans to increase the frequency of its services to/from London Gatwick airport with the addition of a third daily flight, effective July 27 until August 3.

The additional daily flight to London Gatwick will be operated by a wide-body Emirates Boeing 777 aircraft offering seats in First, Business and Economy class. Flights EK011 and EK012 will operate to and out of London Gatwick in the morning.

This third daily flight will cater to the high demand from customers travelling to and from London this summer.

It will also provide additional seats to accommodate Emirates passengers affected by capacity adjustments on flights from London Heathrow, which will be made to help ease operational pressures at the airport, said a statement from the Dubai carrier.

Emirates customers impacted by capacity adjustments at London Heathrow will be contacted directly by the airline or their travel agent. The airline is working closely with its travel partners to re-accommodate any impacted bookings and ensure smooth onward flight connections for customers to reach their planned destination, it stated.

The Dubai airline will continue to operate its six daily flights to/from London Heathrow during this period, and its planned re-start of daily services to London Stansted will commence on August 1.-TradeArabia News Service
July 23, 2022

Ukraine Grain Exports - Myths And Reality

A deal between Ukraine and Russia aims to ease the global food crisis. - New York Times - Jul 23, 2022

BRUSSELS  Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul on Friday to free more than 20 million metric tons of grain stuck in blockaded Black Sea ports in Ukraine, a deal aimed at bringing down soaring grain prices and alleviating a mounting global hunger crisis.

The highlighted claims are as false as much of the other NYT reporting on Ukraine.

Ukraine grain exports reach 47.2 million tonnes so far for 2021-22 - World-Grain.com - Jun 6, 2022

KYIV, UKRAINE  Ukraine has exported 148,000 tonnes of grain in the first five days of June, pushing its July to June 2021-22 marketing year total to 47.2 million tonnes, the countrys agriculture ministry said on June 6, Reuters reported. The ministry said the total volume included 18.578 million tonnes of wheat, 22.4 million tonnes of corn and 5.7 million tonnes of barley, with corn shipments dominating the June start, Reuters reported.

...

Ukraine reached 54.9 million tonnes of wheat, corn and barley exports in 2019-2020, but dipped to 44.9 million tonnes in 2020-21, mostly on lower wheat production, according to the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Feb. 1 Foreign Agricultural Services (FAS) quarterly report. Before Russia's invasion, Ukraine had been projected to export 63.7 million tonnes of the grains in 2021-22.

The above numbers are more than 6 weeks old. Back then the difference between projected exports and exports up to June 5 was 63.7 - 47.2 = 16.5 million tons.

Ukraine's grain exports to reach 2 mln tonnes in June - deputy minister - Reuters - June 20, 2022

Ukraines grain exports will increase to 2 million tonnes in June from 1.7 million tonnes in May and reach the maximum volume that Ukraine can ship by land routes, First Deputy Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskiy said on Monday.

Since the first report a further 3 million tons of grains have been exported. The total left to export from the last season is thereby likely down to about 13 million tons.

Where the New York Times found '20 million metric tons' 'stuck in Black Sea ports in Ukraine' (because the Ukraine has mined the approaches) is unexplained.

As for 'soaring grain prices' please consult these charts.

To me it does not look like the recent prices have 'soared'.

The NYT also claims that the release of Ukrainian exports will be 'alleviating a mounting global hunger crisis'. In 2021 Ukraine's share of global wheat exports was 8.5% while Russia's was 13.1%. Since February exports from Russia had been hindered by 'western' sanctions on Russian banking, freight insurance and port access. In connection with yesterday's deal those sanctions have been at least partially removed. It will be Russian exports that will alleviate the hunger crisis much more than Ukraine's.

The NYT once had fact checkers who looked out for mistakes like the above ones. That now seems to be uncommon.

The main wheat farming in Ukraine occurs in the east and south where the war has likely led to much less planting during this season than in previous years. It is therefore unlikely that whatever will get harvested will be exported by farmers as local needs will have to be satisfied first.

(The map above does not reflect the natural distribution. During the 2016-2020 period pictured above Luhansk and Donetsk had less than the usual production due to the civil war that had started in 2014. Crimea likewise had much less than the usual agricultural production as the Ukraine had since 2014 blocked its water supplies.)

Posted by b on July 23, 2022 at 10:06 UTC | Permalink

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Seasonal trends continued to influence Midlands labor market in June, among them contract workers not working as schools closed for the summer.

The Texas Workforce Commission said Friday, that unemployment in its Midland metropolitan statistical area (MSA)  which includes Midland and Martin counties  rose to 3.6 percent from 3.3 percent in May. It is still well below the 6.2 percent reported last June. In addition, Midland is now tied with College Station-Bryan for the third lowest rate statewide.

Odessa saw a similar increase, rising to 5.3 percent from 4.8 percent in May but well below the 9.1 percent seen a year ago.

Still, Willie Taylor, chief executive officer of the commissions Workforce Solutions Permian Basin, sees strength in the areas labor market.

Midland is seeing a strong market, he told the Reporter-Telegram by telephone. He added he has noted area man camps beginning to fill up as contract workers arrive to work construction, road and other jobs.

Taylor called Midland a job-seekers market with a shortage of skilled labor. And as such, he said, wages will continue to rise. Midlands dominant industrial sector, Mining, Logging and Construction  which includes oil and gas activity  had wages of over $842 million the final quarter of 2021, he pointed out  more than twice second-place Trade, Transportation and Utilities with just over $404 million.

Employment has made a quick recovery from the pandemic, he continued, and as long as there remains a worker shortage, it will continue in that direction.

He pointed out that Midland College and Odessa College, both with strong training programs, are forecasting growth. Taylor himself has visited with local school districts to observe their technical programs. Those programs, he said, are the feeder system into the workforce.

Midland is not alone in labor market strength, Taylor concluded.

Look at Texas, even the US. Theyre creating jobs, he said.

Midlands civilian labor force grew by almost 700  104,300 from 103,592  in May and is almost 2700 more than the 101,622 counted last June. The number of employed Midlanders rose by almost 300  100,514 from 100,172  and is 5200 higher than the 95,314 the previous June. The number of unemployed Midlanders also rose, to 3786 from 3420 in May but is well below the 6308 counted last year.

Midland added 800 jobs from May to June for a total nonfarm job count of 107,400. The Mining, Logging and Construction sector led with 400 new jobs, followed by Leisure and Hospitality with 200 jobs. The Trade, Transportation and Utilities sector and the Professional and Business Services sectors each added 100 jobs. No sector lost jobs in June.

For the 12 months from June 2021 to June 2022, Midland added 6,400 jobs for a growth rate of 6.3 percent. Job gains were again led by the Mining, Logging and Construction sector with 3,300 new jobs, an 11 percent growth rate. Leisure and Hospitality gained 1,300 new jobs, followed by Trade, Transportation and Utilities with 800 new jobs. Professional and Business Services grew by 400 jobs. Manufacturing saw 300 new jobs and the Financial Activities and Other Services sectors each added 200 jobs. Education and Health Services was the only sector to lose jobs over the year, down 100 jobs.

Statewide, the unemployment dipped to 4.1 percent, down from 4.2 percent in May. The state added 82,500 total nonfarm jobs in June, the largest over-the-month gain yet this year. For the eighth consecutive month, Texas set new

employment highs, with total nonfarm employment reaching 13,431,100 jobs. The state has added 778,700 jobs since June 2021 and employment is 464,900 jobs higher than the pre-pandemic level set in February 2020.

Austin-Round Rock reported the lowest unemployment at 3.1 percent, followed by Amarillo with 3.2 percent. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission had the highest rate at 8 percent.

Midland Unemployment

January 2022 4.4 percent

January 2021 7.8 percent

February 2022 4.3 percent

February 2021 7.3 percent

March 2022 3.5 percent

March 2021 6.7 percent

April 2022 3.2 percent

April 2021 6.2 percent

May 2022 3.3 percent

May 2021 5.7 percent

June 2022 3.6 percent

June 2021 6.2 percent

Preliminary numbers for June with May numbers in parentheses:

Austin-Round Rock 3.1 (2.7)

Amarillo 3.2 (2.7)

College Station-Bryan 3.6 (2.9)

Midland 3.6 (3.3)

Abilene 3.7 (3.2)

Dallas-Plano-Irving 3.7 (3.3)

Lubbock 3.8 (3.0)

San Angelo 3.8 (3.2)

Sherman-Denison 3.8 (3.3)

Fort Worth-Arlington 3.9 (3.4)

San Antonio-New Braunfels 4.0 (3.5)

Waco 4.0 (3.4)

Tyler 4.1 (3.5)

Wichita Falls 4.2 (3.6)

Texarkana 4.6 (4.1)

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land 4.8 (4.3)

Killeen-Temple 4.8 (4.1)

Laredo 4.8 (4.3)

Longview 4.8 (4.3)

El Paso 4.9 (4.3)

Victoria 5.0 (4.4)

Odessa 5.3 (4.8)

Corpus Christi 5.8 (5.1)

Brownsville-Harlingen 6.9 (6.0)

Beaumont-Port Arthur 7.3 (6.5)

McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 8.0 (6.9)
Drilling activity continues to inch higher, fueled by continued strong commodity prices.

Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes said Friday in the weekly rig count it has released since the 1940s that the US rig count rose by two to 758, the highest since March 2020 and the third consecutive weekly increase. The count is also 267 rigs or just under 60 percent higher than the 491 counted last year.

The number of rigs drilling for crude was unchanged at 599, 212 more than 387 last year. The number of rigs seeking natural gas rose by two to 155, 51 more than 104 last year.

Texas held steady at 365 rigs. Thats 137 more than the 228 working across the state a year earlier. New Mexico dropped by one rig to 109. Alaska (2) and Louisiana (2) were the only producing states to show an increase for the week. Utah (1) joined New Mexico in seeing a decline.

The Permian Basin dropped one rig for 349 at work, 107 more rigs than the 242 tallied last year.

Lea County, New Mexico was the most active county in the Permian with 58 rigs, up three for the week and the steepest increase of the week. Eddy County, New Mexico was second but plunged four rigs  the steepest decline among Permian counties  to 48 for the week.

Midland County added a rig for 39 while Martin County fell by two to 29 rigs. Loving and Reeves counties were unchanged at 27 rigs each. Howard County held at 24 rigs and Upton County had 13 rigs drilling within the county, unchanged for the week. Ward County held at 11 frigs. Andrews and Glasscock counties each had 10 rigs, unchanged for the week.

According to Enverus Foundation, part of the energy-focused Software as a Service firm Enverus, there were 819 rigs running in the U.S. as of July 20. The count is down 2% in the last week and down 1% in the last month, but up 48% year over year. The activity peak for the last week was 847 rigs with an average of 830; the dip reported toward the end of the week is likely the result of time between wells.

The most active operators are ConocoPhillips with 24 rigs working, EOG Resources with 23, and Devon Energy, Mewbourne Oil and Pioneer Natural Resources with 20 apiece.
NSRCEL partners with AgHub to launch case studies in Agri-Tech

Hyderabad/Bengaluru, July 21 (UNI) NSRCEL- the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of IIM Bangalore in partnership with AgHub of PJTSAU (Professor. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University) launched a first-of-its-kind initiative as a series of entrepreneurship case studies in the Agri-Tech space.

The event held on Wednesday evening witnessed the launch of three case studies on Blockchain and Traceability solutions in collaboration with Venture - TraceX Technologies, SaaS platform for data & B2B Services in collaboration with Venture Satyukt & Soil Technology, Farm data, and related Cloud Services in collaboration with Venture Krishitantra, IIM said in a release on Thursday.

This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration through an incubator in the country and the case studies will help generate valuable insights on finding out ways to help early-stage companies transform into scalable and successful businesses.
Record-breaking power demand amid a string of triple-digit temperatures has seen the state grid issue calls for conservation this week.

As the electric grid copes with the demand, it is receiving additional support from battery storage facilities, among them, several built in West Texas.

Jupiter Power has just commenced operations at its Crossett Power Management facility in Crane County, a 200-megawatt facility with 200-megawatt hours of duration. It joins Flower Valley II, a 100-megawatt, 200-megawatt hour facility in Reeves County and three distribution facilities in Jupiter Powers energy storage portfolio. Both are connected to transmission lines in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid.

We reach yet another significant milestone in our ERCOT battery energy storage portfolio with the commencement of commercial operations at the Crossett facility, said Mike Geier, Chief Technology Officer, Jupiter Power, in a statement announcing the commencement of operations. We have witnessed the strain that the Texas climate can put on the grid during unseasonably warm days. Jupiter Power's projects like Crossett and Flower Valley II are optimally sited where the grid needs support to enhance resiliency both cost-effectively and reliably.

When conditions are right, as they have been during this heatwave, Things can happen quickly  a big generation plant could trip offline, Caitlin Smith, senior director for Regulatory, External Affairs & ESG at Jupiter Power, told the Reporter-Telegram in a telephone interview. Storage can respond quickly.

In addition to Crossett and Flower Valley, Jupiter is commissioning the 100-megawatt, 200-megawatt hour Swoose II in Ward County that will enter commercial operations later this summer. That shows that battery storage technology is here and ramping up quickly, Smith said.

She estimated that Jupiter will have 425 megawatts, 650 megawatt hours in its portfolio when all projects are in operation. Battery storage, she said, is 10 times what it was in 2020 and will grow another 10 times in the next 18 months. The company has more storage projects in the permitting stage with ERCOT.

As Texas expands its use of renewable energy through the development of wind and solar farms, Smith said battery storage can increase their reliability by storing the power they generate when it isnt needed and then discharging it into the grid at times when the wind isnt blowing or the sun isnt shining but the power is needed. She called it time shifting  storing low-cost, off-peak energy and then discharging it at times of high demand.

Too, Smith said, battery storage facilities are suitable for open areas like West Texas or in congested cities because it is less land intensive than wind or solar facilities. Its also less costly and takes less time to construct than building transmission infrastructure.

Its a perfect fit for where people live, Smith said.
The Guam Police Department Dededo Precinct Command is seen May 11 in Dededo. GPD is investigating the death of two men found by officers from the precinct while responding to reports of a shooting in Yigo on Friday afternoon.
Islamabad, July 23 (UNI) The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers took out protest marches across the country late Friday night against the ruling of the Punjab Assembly's deputy speaker that helped Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) candidate to retain his chief ministership of the province, The News reported on Saturday.

The PTI-PML-Q candidate Pervez Elahi was expected to win the CMs post easily but to the disapointment of the alliance what happened during the run-off election in the provincial assembly's session on Friday, Chairman PTI Imran Khan gave the protest call in his late-night speech. The PTI chief said he was "in a state of shock" to see the incidents in the Punjab Assembly during the run-off election.

Responding to his call, PTI workers took to the streets in different cities and staged protest demonstrations. The PTI activists and supporters gathered in Islamabad at D Chowk and F9 Park and Lahore's Liberty Chowk and Karachi's Shahra-e-Faisal, leading to massive traffic jams from the nursery to the Baloch Colony Bridge owing to the road closure. The protest demonstrations were staged in other areas of the metropolis including Teen Talwar.

UNI ACL
Journal-Courier

Five Jacksonville-area students have been named to the spring semester dean's list or president's list for academic achievement at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Students with a 3.5 or higher grade point average were named to the dean's list. Students earning a 4.0 grade point average were named to the president's list.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Flash floods in Iran's drought-stricken southern Fars province have killed at least 21 people, state television said Saturday.

Heavy rains swelled the Roudbal river by the city of Estahban, according to the city's governor Yousef Karegar.

Karegar said rescue teams had saved 55 people who were trapped by the flash flooding, but at least six people were still missing.

Flooding hit more than 10 villages in the province, he added.

Irans interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, shared his condolences with the families of the flood victims, state television later reported.

Irans meteorology department had warned about possibly heavy seasonal rainfall across the country that is facing a decades-long drought blamed on climate change. The dangers of flash flooding have also been exacerbated by the widespread construction of buildings and roads near riverbeds.

In March 2018, a flash flood in Fars province caused the death of 44 people.
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP)  Small but loud demonstrations took place Saturday in the Tunisian capital of Tunis ahead of a referendum Monday on President Kais Saieds proposed new constitution  a document that critics say helps him legitimize his power grab, which they call "a coup.

On Saturday, a few hundred people marched on Bourguiba Avenue, the capital's main artery, to denounce the proposals to change the constitution to augment presidential powers and reduce the role of parliament and the prime minister. In sometimes violent clashes with police, about 10 people were arrested.
The former home of Emmett and Mamie Till at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Avenue is pictured in the West Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. Tills home is one of more than two dozen historically significant sites that will share $3 million in grant money from a preservation organization.
Beijing court rules against woman who wanted to freeze eggs View Photo

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  A Chinese court has overruled a rare legal challenge brought by an unmarried Beijing woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs.

The Chaoyang Intermediate Peoples Court in Beijing said in a judgment that the hospital did not violate the womans rights in denying her access to freeze her eggs. Teresa Xu received the court judgment Friday, almost three years after she first brought the case.

In China, national law does not explicitly ban unmarried people from services like fertility treatments, and simply states that a husband and wife can have up to three children. In practice, however, hospitals and other institutions implement the regulations in a way that requires people to show a marriage license. Unmarried women who choose to have children have struggled to access public benefits like maternity leave or coverage for prenatal exams.

In 2018, Xu, then 30 years old, had gone to Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital at Capital Medical University, a public hospital, to ask about freezing her eggs. After an initial examination, she was told she could not proceed further because she could not show a marriage certificate. She said the doctor also urged her to have a child while she was still young.

Xu, who is unmarried, had wanted to preserve her eggs so she could have an option to bear children at a later date.

I think this lost lawsuit, its not an attack on single womens reproductive rights, maybe its a temporary setback, she said in a short video statement announcing the news on her WeChat account.

Xus case drew broad coverage from domestic media outlets in China, including some state media outlets, when she first brought her case to court in 2019. Local media had said her case against the hospital was the countrys first.

The hospital, according to the judgment, had argued that egg freezing poses certain health risks. But it also said that delaying pregnancy would bring about problems such as risks to the mother during pregnancy, and psychological and societal problems if there is a large age gap between parents and their child.

The hospital also said that egg-freezing services were only available to women who could not get pregnant in the natural way, and not for healthy patients.

Xu said she plans to appeal the ruling.

There will definitely be a day (when) we will take back sovereignty over our own bodies, she said.

By HUIZHONG WU

Associated Press
Chinese court executes man who set ex-wife on fire View Photo

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  A Chinese man convicted of killing his former wife by setting her on fire was executed in southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday in a domestic violence case that had drawn national outrage.

Tang Lu set his ex-wife on fire in September 2020 while she was livestreaming on Douyin, the short video platform. The 30-year-old woman, known online as Lamu, died of her injuries a few weeks later.

The Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate Peoples Court said in a short statement that it had carried out Tangs execution early Saturday.

Lamu had offered a glimpse into her life in short videos and livestreams on the Chinese version of TikTok run by the same parent company. In her videos, she showed off the Sichuan countryside and blogged about her life. She was ethnically Tibetan and often wore traditional Tibetan clothing in the videos.

Lamus sister had told the Paper, an official media outlet based in Shanghai, that her sister suffered domestic abuse at Tangs hands for years and decided to divorce him as a result.

The case drew widespread condemnation and outrage across the country over the plight women face in abusive marriages. Police took the man into custody a few days after news of the attack spread.

Tang had appealed his death sentence but lost in January.

By HUIZHONG WU

Associated Press
Protesters in UK decry climate change after record heat wave View Photo

LONDON (AP)  Protesters turned out Saturday on the streets of London and in the Scottish city of Glasgow to demand faster action against climate change following the record-smashing temperatures that scorched the U.K. this week.

Activist groups including Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain led protesters in a sit-in on Parliament Square in London to demand that the Conservative government stop giving new licenses for oil and gas production, tax big polluters and help people install more energy efficient heating in their homes.

Tuesdays extreme heatwave was a warning about what we will face as the climate collapses - thousands of deaths, homes lost to wildfires and emergency services stretched to breaking point, said Indigo Rumbelow from Just Stop Oil. We are so unprepared for extreme heat and its only going to get worse.

The U.K.s Met Office weather agency recorded 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in England on Tuesday, the highest-ever temperature registered in a country ill-prepared for such extreme heat. British summers are usually quite moderate and few homes, schools or small businesses have air-conditioning.

The heat wave paralyzed major train networks, damaged airport runways and saw 15 fire departments across the country declaring major incidents. The London Fire Brigade said that Tuesday was the busiest day for firefighters since World War II.

In Glasgow, climate activists staged a die-in protest to demand urgent action to tackle climate change. Protesters laid on the ground in one of the citys busiest shopping areas, covered in white sheets with causes of death including heat stress, famine and water scarcity.

Weve been sounding the alarm about the global climate emergency for years, said Wolf Saanen, 39. Now it has arrived on our shores, will those with the power to change things finally listen?

Some climate groups warned they will stage more disruptive demonstrations in the autumn to bring Westminster  the seat of Parliament  to a standstill.

The groups also want the British government to reduce energy bills amid a soaring cost-of-living crisis thats expected to squeeze households further in the fall when the weather turns colder.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

By SYLVIA HUI

Associated Press
Picture of the Oak Fire from Reno, Nevada View Photo

Sacramento, CA  The Oak Fire burning in the Midpines area of Mariposa County has secured federal funding.

Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California has secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help ensure the availability of vital resources to suppress the blaze.

The FMAG, which is provided through the Presidents Disaster Relief Fund on a cost-share basis, will enable local, state and tribal agencies responding to the fire to apply for 75-percent reimbursement of their eligible fire suppression costs, detailed officials with the Governors office.

The program, which is administered through the Governors Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), provides rapid financial assistance to communities impacted by fires. Regarding support from the state in battling the blaze, officials with the Governors office disclosed that the State Operations Center is actively coordinating the states fire response, dispatching mutual aid and addressing emergency management needs. Additionally, Cal OES Fire and Rescue and CAL Fire personnel are working in concert with state, local and federal agencies in response to the rapidly-moving fire.

Day one information about the Oak fire is here, click here for day two, day three or day four.
Saudi police arrest man who helped Israeli sneak into Mecca View Photo

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP)  Police in Mecca say they have arrested a Saudi man who helped an Israeli-Jewish reporter sneak into Islams holiest city, defying a rule that only Muslims can enter the area.

While Muslims of any nationality and background can enter Mecca, non-Muslims are not permitted because a very specific code of conduct and behavior is required of all people within its boundaries, including certain forms of modesty, ritual cleansing and prayers.

The public backlash over television reporter Gil Tamarys visit was immediate on social media, with Muslims and Saudis expressing their anger over his deception and apparent disregard for the sanctity of the site.

It comes as Saudi-Israeli ties have been quietly growing amid shared concerns over arch-enemy Iran. This incident is unlikely to dampen the relationship. Publicly, the kingdom insists its policy is that full ties can only happen when Palestinian statehood and rights are guaranteed.

The outcry appears to have prompted Saudi police late Friday to announce the arrest of the Saudi man who they say facilitated the entry of the journalist into Mecca in explicit violation of regulations prohibiting the entry of non-Muslims. The Saudi male national, whose identity was not revealed, was referred to prosecution and remains under arrest.

The veteran reporter for Channel 13 in Israel filmed himself in Mecca for a roughly 10-minute-long segment that aired on Monday in which he visited a key site on the hajj pilgrimage route where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon some 1,400 years ago.

He made clear he knowingly had slipped into Mecca with a driver, saying he is speaking in Hebrew quietly so no one can hear him. He claimed to be the first Israeli Jew ever to enter the city. He did not identify himself as Israeli or Jewish to the driver during the recordings.

In the clip that aired, Tamary and his Saudi driver pass a highway turnoff that says non-Muslims cannot pass, and then pass under a huge Quran replica that is the main gateway to the city. The dream came true, he says as they pass through Mecca and make their way to Mount Arafat.

After he climbs the mount, he says religious police are starting to ask questions and want to make sure he is a Muslim. They decide to leave.

Mecca is home to Islams holiest shrine, the cube-shaped Kaaba, the metaphorical house of God located in the citys Grand Mosque. The shrine marks the point toward which observant Muslims worldwide pray five times a day. It is also the ultimate destination for the Muslim hajj and smaller umrah pilgrimage.

The reporter and Channel 13 responded on Twitter after the report aired. The news channel, in both Hebrew and Arabic, said Tamarys report was driven by journalistic curiosity and a desire to witness and see things firsthand. The popular Israeli channel apologized for any anger stoked by his visit, which occurred during President Joe Bidens trip to the nearby city of Jeddah. The Times of Israel quoted an unnamed source familiar with the matter saying Israeli government officials were satisfied with the statements issued by the channel and its reporter.

Police in Mecca said they also referred the journalists actions to public prosecutors, though the Israeli national is no longer in the kingdom.

The Saudi statement did not identify the journalist, saying only he was non-Muslim and had U.S. citizenship, implying hed entered the country using his American passport since the kingdom has no formal ties with Israel.

Police called on visitors to respect the countrys laws, particularly when it comes to Mecca and Islams holiest sites in the kingdom.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Ariel Schalit in Jerusalem and Fares Akram in Gaza City contributed to this report.

By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI and AYA BATRAWY

Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  Both pilots of a firefighting helicopter that crashed in Idaho have died, the U.S. Forest Service said Friday.

Mary Cernicek with the Salmon-Challis National Forest said Thomas Hayes, 41, of Post Falls, Idaho, and Jared Bird, 36, of Anchorage, Alaska, died from injuries they sustained when their CH-47D Series Chinook crashed in the Salmon River about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The pilots were employees of the Anchorage-based ROTAK Helicopter Services, which was contracted to help fight the Moose Fire burning about 21 miles (34 kilometers) north of Salmon.

Both pilots were highly experienced and military veterans, Cernicek said. Emergency crews responding to the crash were able to extricate the men and transport them to medical facilities but they did not survive, she said.

On its website, ROTAK said it confirmed the accident with heavy hearts and asked for prayers and privacy on behalf of the families involved.

ROTAK Helicopter Services is working closely with all appropriate agencies and will issue a full statement as information is released, the company wrote.

The Idaho crash comes less than a week after four first responders were killed in another helicopter crash in New Mexico. Authorities in New Mexico said the helicopter crew had wrapped up a firefighting mission and was heading home to Albuquerque when the helicopter came down at a high rate of speed, hitting the ground upright before toppling over. One of the four people killed in that crash managed to call 911 before succumbing to his injuries.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little ordered that flags be flown at half-staff in honor of Hayes and Bird. Little said the deaths were a tragedy that would be deeply felt by the families and the wildland firefighting community.

Our brave firefighters face extremely challenging conditions head on to protect lives, property, and the land, Little said in a press release. Idahoans are praying for the loved ones and colleagues of these firefighters as we grieve this tremendous loss.

Nearly 700 firefighters have been battling the Moose Fire in Idaho. The fire started on Sunday, and the National Interagency Fire Center said in an incident report Friday that nine helicopters were being used to support ground firefighting resources with water bucket drops.

The fire was burning on about 37 square miles (96 square kilometers) on Friday and threatening several structures, and fire managers said the fire was expected to increase as hot, dry conditions continued in the region. A red flag warning was issued in the area because wind gusts were expected to reach up to 35 mph (56 kph).

The helicopter wreckage was still in the Salmon River and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were en route to the scene, Cernicek said. That stretch of the river is popular with rafters and recreationists, and officials closed the area to recreational day trips. It remains open to people on multi-day river trips, Cernicek said.

By REBECCA BOONE

Associated Press
Man pleads not guilty in 1982 killing of child in California

MONTEREY, Calif. (AP)  A 70-year-old Nevada man charged in the 1982 killing of a 5-year-old girl who disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class was extradited Friday to California, where he entered a not guilty plea during his arraignment, prosecutors said.

Robert John Lanoue, who is a registered sex offender, was arrested earlier this month in Reno, Nevada, in the killing of Anne Pham after detectives say they solved the cold case using DNA evidence.

The child disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class in Seaside, California. Her body was found two days later in the former Ford Ord. She had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted and strangled, California authorities said.

Lanoue was charged with one count of first-degree murder, with special circumstance allegations that he murdered Pham while committing kidnapping and a lewd act on a child under the age of 14, according to the Monterey County District Attorneys Office.

Lanoue was assigned a public defender, said Monterey County prosecutor Matt LHeureux. The Monterey County Public Defenders office did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.

Lanoue was 29 years old at the time of the girls killing and lived near her home in Seaside, authorities said.

The case was reopened in 2020 when investigators with the Monterey County District Attorneys Office Cold Case Task Force worked with the Seaside Police Department to submit evidence from the case for DNA testing after receiving a grant to reopen cold cases.

On July 6, California investigators obtained a warrant for Lanoues arrest. Lanoue was already in the Washoe County jail in Nevada where he was booked on June 8 for a parole violation, records showed.
DALLAS (AP)  A suspected drunken driver has been shot and killed by a suburban police officer in Dallas after the driver refused to stop, fired repeatedly at the officer and shot a bystander early Saturday, police said.

The man refused to stop for the officer in the west Dallas suburb of Bedford before 2 a.m., then led the officer on a pursuit into Dallas while shooting at the officer, Bedford police said on Twitter.
VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis trip to Canada to apologize for the horrors of church-run Indigenous residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Churchs missionary legacy, spurred on by the first pope from the Americas and the discovery of hundreds of probable graves at the school sites.

Francis has said his weeklong visit, which begins Sunday, is a penitential pilgrimage to beg forgiveness on Canadian soil for the evil done to Native peoples by Catholic missionaries. It follows his April 1 apology in the Vatican for the generations of trauma Indigenous peoples suffered as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate their culture and assimilate them into Canadian, Christian society.

Francis tone of personal repentance has signaled a notable shift for the papacy, which has long acknowledged abuses in the residential schools and strongly asserted the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples. But past popes have also hailed the sacrifice and holiness of the European Catholic missionaries who brought Christianity to the Americas  something Francis, too, has done but isnt expected to emphasize during this trip.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit who is a top papal adviser, recalled that early on in his papacy, Francis asserted that no single culture can claim a hold on Christianity, and that the church cannot demand that people on other continents imitate the European way of expressing the faith.

If this conviction had been accepted by everyone involved in the centuries after the discovery of the Americas, much suffering would have been avoided, great developments would have occurred and the Americas would be all-around better, he told The Associated Press in an email.

The trip wont be easy for the 85-year-old Francis or for residential school survivors and their families. Francis can no longer walk without assistance and will be using a wheelchair and cane because of painful strained knee ligaments. Trauma experts are being deployed at all events to provide mental health assistance for school survivors, given the likelihood of triggering memories.

It is an understatement to say there are mixed emotions, said Chief Desmond Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe, one of the First Nations that are part of the Maskwacis territory where Francis will deliver his first sweeping apology on Monday near the site of a former residential school.

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded, Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. Some 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes, Native languages and cultures.

The legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.

For survivors from coast to coast, this is an opportunity  the first and maybe the last  to perhaps find some closure for themselves and their families, said Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin Cree Nation.

This will be a difficult process but a necessary one, he said.

Unlike most papal trips, diplomatic protocols are taking a back seat to personal encounters with First Nations, Metis and Inuit survivors. Francis doesnt formally meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until midway through, in Quebec City, although Trudeau will greet him on the tarmac upon his arrival Sunday.

Francis is also ending the trip in unusual style, stopping in Iqaluit, Nunavut  the farthest north hes ever traveled  to bring his apology to the Inuit community before flying back to Rome.

As recently as 2018, Francis had refused to personally apologize for residential school abuses, even after Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 documented institutional blame and specifically recommended a papal apology delivered on Canadian soil.

Trudeau traveled to the Vatican in 2017 to appeal to Francis to apologize, but the pontiff felt he could not personally respond to the call, Canadian bishops said at the time.

What changed? The first pope from the Americas, who has long defended the rights of Indigenous peoples, had already apologized in Bolivia in 2015 for colonial-era crimes against Native peoples.

In 2019, Francis  an Argentine Jesuit  hosted a big Vatican conference on the Amazon highlighting that injustices Native peoples suffered during colonial times were still continuing, with their lands and resources exploited by corporate interests.

Then in 2021, the remains of around 200 children were found at the site of what was once Canadas largest Indigenous residential school, in Kamloops, British Columbia. More probable graves followed outside other former residential schools.

It was only when our children were beginning to be found in mass graves, garnering international attention, that light was brought to this painful period in our history, said Bull, the Louis Bull Tribe chief.

After the discovery, Francis finally agreed to meet with Indigenous delegations last spring and promised to come to their lands to apologize in person.

Obviously there are wounds that remained open and require a response, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said, when asked about the evolution of the papal response.

One of those wounds concerns the papal influences in the Doctrine of Discovery, the 19th-century international legal concept that is often understood as legitimizing the European colonial seizure of land and resources from Native peoples.

For decades, Indigenous peoples have demanded the Holy See formally rescind the 15th century papal bulls, or decrees, that gave European kingdoms the religious backing to claim lands that their explorers discovered for the sake of spreading the Christian faith.

Church officials have long rejected those concepts, insisted the decrees merely sought to ensure European expansion would be peaceful, and said they had been surpassed by subsequent church teachings strongly affirming the dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples.

But the matter is still raw for Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation Wolf Clan, who was the last person to address the pope when the First Nations delegation met with him on March 31.

Wearing a cradle board on her back to represent the children whose lives were lost in residential schools, she told him the Doctrine of Discovery had led to the continual taking of our babies.

It deprived us of our dignity, our freedom, and led to the exploitation of our Mother Earth, she said. She begged Francis to release the world from its place of enslavement caused by the decrees.

Asked about the calls, Bruni said there was an articulated reflection under way in the Holy See but he didnt think anything would be announced during this trip.

___

This version corrects the attribution of the quote about closure to Chief Randy Ermineskin.

___

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.
Xinhua Commentary: Ethnic unity propels China toward a promising future

Xinhua) 15:14, July 23, 2022

BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- By fostering ethnic unity and forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, people of all 56 ethnic groups, led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), can provide enormous strength to achieve national rejuvenation.

China, a unified multiethnic country, is the result of collective efforts by the people of all ethnic groups, with unity in diversity being a notable aspect of the country.

People from all ethnic groups in China have maintained close ties over the long course of historical evolution, developed interdependently, and stood together in weal and woe, forming the modern, multi-ethnic Chinese nation and advancing social progress.

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, particularly since the beginning of reform and opening up in 1978, people of all ethnic groups have forged deeper social ties than ever before. And further exchanges, communication and integration of various ethnic groups are expected to contribute to the development of a more unified society.

Adapting Marxist ethnic theory to China's specific realities, the CPC has formulated sound and effective ethnic theories and policies, characterized by ethnic equality and unity, regional ethnic autonomy, and shared development and prosperity. All ethnic groups have enjoyed equality, unity and progress in a real sense under the socialist system.

Under the leadership of the CPC, all the 56 ethnic groups have shaken off absolute poverty and enjoyed a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

One of the notable strengths of China's governance system is upholding equality among all ethnic groups, thus, creating a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation to work jointly for common prosperity and development.

This power of unity will continue to ensure all ethnic groups nationwide strive together to fully build a modern socialist country.

In northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for example, people have accomplished historic development achievements, and their sense of progress, happiness and security have considerably improved. The region has transformed from a relatively closed inland region to a frontier of opening up.

On the new journey in the new era, people of all ethnic groups in the autonomous region, closely united like the seeds of a pomegranate that stick together, are endeavoring to build Xinjiang into a beautiful place that is united, harmonious and prosperous, featuring progressive culture, pleasant living conditions, and sound ecological environment.

As a unified multiethnic China invincibly advances toward a promising future, the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is inevitable.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
A crash resulting in injury was reported on July 14 at the 800 block of N. I-27 on the west frontage road. According to a crash report from the PD, one vehicle was traveling south on the 800 block of the service road and struck a second vehicle stopped at a red light at the intersection. Both drivers were assessed by EMS at the scene and released. A passenger of the vehicle that hit the second one was transported by EMS to a hospital for medical treatment.

A theft was reported at the 3200 block of Olton Road on July 14. A suspect was observed taking a lawnmower from Ace Hardware.

A stolen vehicle from the 300 block of W. 9th St. on July 14.

A 31-year-old man was arrested on July 14 at the 1600 block of W. 23rd St. Offices were dispatched in reference to a suspicious person and found a man on a curb in front of the residence showing signs of intoxication. The individual was arrested and charged with public intoxication.

July 15

A sexual assault was reported on July 15.

A 27-year-old man was arrested on July 15 at the 1400 block of Lexington St. Upon arrival to the location, officers found a man walking the roadway showing signs of intoxication. He was arrested and charged with public intoxication.

An officer was dispatched to the 1500 block of N. I-27 on July 15 in reference to a theft from a vehicle.

A traffic stop was conducted at the 2600 block of W. 11th St. on July 15. The responding officer detected an odor of marijuana and conducted a search. A citation was issued for possession of tobacco by a minor.

July 16

Plainview police were dispatched to the 3500 block of W. 4th St. on July 16 in reference to a crash. Officers learned another person  later identified as 19-year-old Abram Joey Lopez  had taken the vehicle without the owners consent while intoxicated. The vehicle caused property damage estimated at more than $1,000. The driver left the scene and was later located at the 2300 block of W. 8th St. Lopez was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, criminal mischief, leaving the scene of an accident and with unauthorized use of a vehicle, which is a felony.

Police were dispatched to the 1000 block of Portland on July 16 in reference to criminal mischief. A valve stem from a tire was taken causing the air to leak out.

Theft of a bicycle was reported on July 16 at the 220 block of SE 10th St.

A crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported on July 16 at the 800 block of Austin St.

An assault was reported at the 400 block of Bryan St. on July 16.

July 17

Police arrested 37-year-old Jorge Luis Riojas Jr. on July 17 at the 2800 block of W. 18th St. after responding to the location in reference to an assault. He was charged with a felony assault.

An assault was reported at the 3400 block of Olton Road. Police arrested a 12-year-old individual and charged him or her with a misdemeanor assault.
H-E-B

H-E-B's expansion into North Texas continues as the grocery store has purchased more land in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The San Antonio-based grocery giant scooped up another property in Prosper, just north of Dallas, that fits the size of other H-E-B locations, first reported by the Dallas Morning News.

The purchased property located at the southeast corner of Frontier Parkway and the Dallas North Tollway is 19.78 acres, according to deed records obtained by the Dallas Morning News. H-E-B spokeswoman Mabrie Jackson confirmed to the newspaper that the company did buy the land north of Frisco in Collin County, but she declined to say what the land's purpose would be.
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Dwayne Johnson brought Black Adams might to Comic-Con.

Johnson made a grand entrance to San Diego Comic-Cons Hall H, rising from the stage floor in his full Black Adam costume. As he emerged, lightning bolts appeared on the screen behind him and smoke billowed out on the floor. Audience members had been given lightning bolt lanyards before the panel, and every single one lit up brightly in the darkened hall for a grand display.

The movie star also unveiled the newest trailer for his upcoming superhero adventure as part of the Warner Bros. presentation.

Black Adam may not be as recognizable to comic book newbies, but his biggest rival should be a familiar face due to the 2019 hit film Shazam! starring Zachary Levi. Black Adam, similar to the character of Shazam, is bestowed with magical powers from the wizard Shazam. Unlike Shazam, though, Black Adam calls upon the Egyptian gods for his powers (Shazam traditionally calls upon the Greek gods).

The new movie is set to follow the antihero nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the powers of the Egyptian gods. Now freed from his tomb, Black Adam is ready to unleash his form of justice on the modern world.

With Johnsons title character as well as a host of new additions, Black Adam is bringing the Justice Society of America to the DC Universe. The Justice Society, including Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, is a superhero team that predates the Justice League in the DC comics.

The cast members and director Jaume Collet-Serra joined Johnson on stage, where they teased that Black Adam will forever change the DC Universe. Fans from the audience also got to ask the panelists questions, including whether Black Adam or Superman would win in a fight.

It depends on whos playing Superman, Johnson answered. Another young fan asked the actor whether Kevin Hart got jealous of him playing a superhero (he did, at least according to Johnson).

Black Adam hits theaters on Oct. 21. Warner Bros. has several DC properties on deck in 2022, including the animated DC League of Super-Pets on July 29. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently slated to continue the Shazam storyline on Dec. 22. The studios latest superhero adventure, The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, became a commercial smash, grossing $770 million globally.

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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP)  About 400 years ago, the first Europeans began exploring land now known as Delaware.

As they journeyed through the region, their travels brought them face to face with the people who had lived there for millennia  the Lenni Lenape, the father tribe of the Lenape and Nanticoke Indians.

The Delaware Art Museums recently debuted exhibit, In Conversation: Will Wilson, works to forge a new relationship with Indigenous people by bringing visitors face to face with them through stories of Native people, 19th-century photography and augmented reality technology for an immersive experience that connects the past with the present.

In about a year and a half from idea to execution, the exhibition came together in whirlwind timing for show planning. Not only did the museum need to secure the artists availability, but they also needed to develop a relationship with Delawares Native population  some of the very people the artist would feature in his photos.

Building trust with sincere intention

The Delaware Art Museum exhibit showcases the photography of Will Wilson, a New Mexico-based Dine (Navajo) photographer whose work centers on Native American identity and culture.

Commissioning Will Wilsons participation and arranging the logistics took effort, but the bulk of the endeavor came with establishing trust and relationships with Delawares Native American community.

Called Lenapehoking, the original homeland of the Lenape and Nanticoke encompassed present-day New Jersey, most of Delaware and eastern New York and Pennsylvania.

Iz Balleto, a community engagement specialist at the Delaware Art Museum, said due to past misrepresentation and exploitation, the Native community was not particularly interested in being involved in this project  earning their trust would be a process.

That process started with the tribal chiefs of the Delaware Lenape and Nanticoke first.

He said that after he and the museum committee were able to establish a connection with Chief Dennis Coker of the Lenape Indian Tribe and Chief Natosha Norwood Carmine of the Nanticoke Indian Tribe, they were able to have a conversation about what kind of relationship they were seeking and why they wanted the tribes involvement.

Even with the chiefs on board, they still needed to convince individual members who would then vote on the matter. Balleto said that the chief revealed that many tribal members were not comfortable with their images being taken  and thats where the dialog and the conversations took months. We had to build that trust.

Balleto, a Peruvian-born Quechua Indian, grew up in New York City and has lived in Delaware for several years. To help build trust with Indigenous people, he said it is important that Native people be recognized from their own viewpoint.

For the Delaware Art Museums project, the exhibition text is translated into Spanish, a common language for many Native people of the Americas, and the inclusion of Will Wilson was intentional. The artists approach with portrait subjects or sitters embodies the type of relationship the institution intends to have with Delawares Native people.

These steps, Balleto said, were meant to reassure tribe members that the exhibit would be a chance for them to be presented correctly.

Contrasting today and the past with photography

At the exhibit, some photos are accompanied by an augmented reality feature that allows the user to see a subject perform a traditional ethnic dance; listen to a reconstituted version of Three Little Indians; or hear a recitation of Princess Leias secret message to Obi-Wan Kenobi instead reworded to inform PoPay, a Tewa leader in the Pueblos fight against Spanish colonizers.

To see the performances, visitors must use a smartphone. The museums Wi-Fi is free, so the Talking Tintypes app can be downloaded while in the gallery. Once open, the app will access the smartphones camera, and the portraits will come to life.

Wilson also makes use of 19th-century technology to showcase his subject. The process is complex, but produces bold, contrasting renderings in darkness and light.

Popular during the Civil War, tintype wet-plate photography involves using a dark metal plate that gets coated in chemical solutions to produce the image. Exposure to light affects the level of contrast in the image. Therefore, the photo must be processed immediately and done in a darkroom.

The team from the Delaware Art Museum set up a portable darkroom and prepared the workspace at the Nanticoke Indian Tribal Center in Millsboro for the 14-hour shoot with Wilson and members of the Delaware Lenape and Nanticoke tribes.

After Wilson developed the plates, he scanned them to make digital prints for the exhibit  the original plates go to the sitters as a gesture of exchange, a customary practice for many Indigenous people.

As an artist, Wilson uses identity in his conversation with the individuals who sit for his photography. He encourages sitters to wear what makes them feel comfortable and to include other people in their photos if they choose.

Everybody has their own will on how they wanted to be represented, Balleto said. Some came with the regalia, some came with normal clothes.

Balleto added that Indigenous people telling their own stories is a chance to let other people know that they are still existing here, still thriving. He said this exhibit is opening a dialog for other people to find out about their ancestry.

The Delaware Art Museums exhibition, In Conversation: Will Wilson, runs until Sept. 11.
Courtesy, SAISD

Almost 90 graduating classes have walked through the hallways of Burbank High School, taking with them skills, friendships, and memories for a lifetime. The legacy of the original campus will be celebrated before the Southside school makes its move to the new facilities with an in-person last look. Considering how far-reaching the Burbank network is, a virtual adieu was also created to give those who can't attend the Saturday, July 23 event a chance to reminisce.

On Thursday, July 21, the official TikTok account for the San Antonio Independent School District shared a walk-through video of the campus, which opened in 1937. The TikTok tour takes viewers through hallways, outdoor gathering areas, and into empty classrooms. Luther, the statue of the school's mascot in the lobby, also makes an appearance while Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" plays.
An iconic parsonage house in West Tisbury, MA, is the oldest property to hit the market this week on Realtor.com.

Located on the island of Martha's Vineyard, the four-bedroom home offers 4,500 square feet of living space with many period details intact. It has been thoughtfully modernized over the centuries.

Other historic homes that landed on the market this week include a Dutch Colonial in New Jersey and an affordable period house in Connecticut.

For a full look at the week's 10 oldest homes, just scroll on down.

Price: $2,950,000

Year built: 1686

Iconic parsonage house: This historic former gathering place is one of the oldest homes on Martha's Vineyard.

The four-bedroom home sits on 3.31 acres and was recently restored. Updates include a chef's kitchen designed for entertaining with an 8-foot-long butcher block island and a Viking stove. There are four fireplaces (many with their original paneling), exposed beams, and restored wide-plank floors.

West Tisbury, MA Realtor.com

Price: $675,000

Year built: 1700

Built by Ralph Pyle: This small farm was built by one of the original families that settled in Concord Township.

The three-bedroom home has an updated kitchen with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances. Well-preserved wood floors can also be found throughout the 2,846-square-foot space. A comfortable family room features a large stone fireplace to cozy up to on a cool night. While the property sits on nearly 4 acres and connects to 23 acres of existing township-owned land, it can't be subdivided.

Glen Mills, PA Realtor.com

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Watch: Nevada's Most Expensive Home: Lake Tahoe's $64M 'Castle on the Hill'

Price: $387,000

Year built: 1700

Dutch Colonial: Located near the Millstone River, this three-bedroom home is the oldest in town.

Original wide-plank floors have all been recently restored. Other historic appointments that remain include leaded glass windows and three fireplaces. Updates over the years offer two remodeled bathrooms and a kitchen with granite countertops, a farmhouse sink, and stainless-steel appliances. The two-level barn with a finished upper level features a vaulted ceiling, exposed beams, wood paneling, and sliders out to a deck where you can take in the river views.

Millstone, NJ Realtor.com

Price: $1,095,000

Year built: 1712

Classic Colonial: This historic house features pumpkin pine flooring and first-period fireplaces. It's currently divided into three units, with each unit offering two bedrooms. However, a buyer could unify the layout and turn it back into a single-family residence.

The property has been updated over the years and features newer bathrooms and kitchens. A backyard pool is surrounded by mature plantings on a half-acre lot.

Beverly, MA Realtor.com

Price: $299,000

Year built: 1722

The Isaac Huntington House: Located in the Norwichtown Historic District, this home is surrounded by other restored 18th-century homes.

This three-bedroom residence offers three levels of living space. The first floor features fireplaces in both the living and dining rooms. Upstairs are the bedrooms, including the primary suite. The lower level has a room with outdoor entry, a full bath, and a kitchen.

Norwich, CT Realtor.com

Price: $799,000

Year built: 1725

Modernized Colonial: This well-maintained landmark offers the perfect combination of modern and historic.

The wide-plank floors, intricate woodwork, built-ins for storage, grand fireplaces, and exposed beams give you a feel for the history of this home. Other vintage details include a pilastered chimney and copper gutters. Updates include a newer heating system, on-demand water heater, and upgraded electrical.

Ipswich, MA Realtor.com

Price: $660,000

Year built: 1730

Lemuel Keith House: This New England Colonial has the original woodwork, beamed ceilings, and wide-board pine flooring.

It sits on a corner lot of 1.2 acres in the historic Furnace Village District. It offers four bedrooms, seven fireplaces, a double staircase, and an eat-in kitchen.

Easton, MA Realtor.com

Price: $750,000

Year built: 1734

The Joseph Parker Jr. House: This former inn is currently being used as a two-family home, but it could be transformed back into a grand single-family residence.

Period features include moldings, wainscoting, wide-board pine floors, ornate sconces, and six fireplaces. The country kitchen has been updated to include stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops. An adjacent 900-square-foot apartment has its own entry and gas and electric.

North Andover, MA Realtor.com

Price: $389,000

Year built: 1740

The Daniel Fuller House: This three-bedroom saltbox features period chestnut flooring, hardware, and four fireplaces.

There's one fireplace in the living room, another in the dining room, and two more upstairs. The post-and-beam house sits on a 3.4-acre lot surrounded by a private Fish and Game Club. The property also has a six-run indoor-outdoor kennel for dogs, a grooming area, and 2 fenced acres.

East Haddam, CT Realtor.com

Price: $325,000

Year built: 1747

Contractor's special: This cozy three-bedroom home offers 1,506 square feet of space and lots of potential.

All of the living space in this historic home can be found on the first floor. The exposed beams and hardwood floors could use some TLC, and the place is being sold as is.

Milford, MA Realtor.com

The post Built in 1686, a Parsonage House on Martha's Vineyard Is the Week's Oldest Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
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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On Friday, Metro Nashville filed a motion for a temporary injunction that would pause implementation of the states Education Savings Account program.

After being narrowly passed by the state legislature and held up in court for years, the ESA program received the green light last week when the Davidson County Chancery Court lifted a previous injunction. With less than three weeks until Metro Nashville Public Schools return, the state is seeking to implement the program for the coming school year despite uncertainties and developing procedures.

Through the ESA program, eligible families in Nashville and Memphis will receive vouchers with values of approximately $8,192 to put toward private schooling. In its first year, the state will fund ESAs for 5,000 families. The money, which comes from state funds, can be used for private school tuition and other education-related costs. Eligible families include those who live in Memphis and Nashville and make not more than twice the federal income eligibility guidelines for free lunch.

In the nine days since the injunction was lifted, the TDOE has updated its website's ESA information and the governor has announced his intention to move forward, releasing a list of more than 40 private schools that are willing to enroll students through the ESA program. Sixteen schools from Nashville are on the list  most of them with a religious affiliation  including Father Ryan High School, Benton Hall Academy and Holy Rosary Academy, along with St. John Vianney Catholic School in Sumner County. These schools are still pending approval from the state. Though students must live in Davidson County or Shelby County to be eligible in the program, they can attend approved private schools in other counties through the program.

Many details still need to be worked out. Even though Gov. Bill Lee has been pushing for the ESA program for years, the state was not able to work on it while it was being litigated.

The department has both an intent to [enroll] and an intent to participate posted on the ESA portion of our website, said TDOE representative Brian Blackley. That is there to determine what the need and/or the demand is among both schools that are interested in participating and among parents who are interested in their children participating. Once we determine the scale of that need, we will move forward with putting together a timeline of implementation on how we're going to do this. But right now, we are working hand in hand with the governor's team, and our first steps are to determine what the need and demand are so that we can move forward with whatever those next steps may be, dictated by that demand.

As reported by The Tennessean, the state is seeking to roll out the program in half the time a TDOE rep said it would take back in 2020.

We are very concerned that the State of Tennessee is rushing to implement a voucher scheme with very few details or infrastructure in place for a school year that starts in about three weeks, said MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted. The rush to implement will have consequences for our students and our operations. We have already set our budget for this school year and cannot afford to have millions of dollars redirected to private schools. Plus, weve assigned teachers and staff to particular schools based on our projected enrollment. Immediate implementation of the ESA program has the potential to disrupt those plans. We are still hopeful that the courts will stop this law from going into effect based on issues not previously decided by the Supreme Court.

Logistically, MNPS operates with a student-based budgeting model," he continues. "Principals develop budgets based on enrollment projections. After the start of the school year, budgets are revised based on actual enrollment taken through ADM counts. If enrollment is lower than projected, principals may have to reduce staff or non-personnel expenses because of the decline.
(Natural News) Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample, a staunch defender of Catholic teaching, condemned abortion as pure evil similar to or even worse than the Holocaust and other mass killings of the 20th century.

I think most people do not realize that since Roe v. Wade in 1973, over 63 million unborn children had lost their lives to abortion just here in the United States, Sample said in a July 8 video.

He added that the scale of the evil of abortion is truly a globally historic tragedy.

Moreover, the archbishop said that it is not his place to judge the moral state of a person but people can judge moral actions.

The action of abortion and advocating for abortion is evil. That is an evil act on the part of a human being. It is true that all of us are capable of evil  that the line between good and evil runs through the human heart  but the act of abortion, the intentional killing of an innocent unborn human child, is always wrong, he stated.

Sample pointed out that the solution to child poverty is not to kill unborn children.

Thats not a solution. Thats just a magnification of the problem. What we need to do is address the problem, whether its poverty or whether its due to other circumstances in their life.

That vulnerable, fragile, precious life really deserves our protection, he said, adding that this is the reason why he is determined to use his position as an archbishop to give voice to the unborn who have no voice. Their cries will not go unheard.

Democrats are obsessed with abortion

On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the constitutional right to abortion for nearly five decades. This landmark ruling has caused millions of deaths of children in the U.S. alone.

Justice Samuel Alito said the ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe must be overruled because they were egregiously wrong, the arguments exceptionally weak and so damaging that they amounted to an abuse of judicial authority.

The decision meant that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. But the Democrats led by President Joe Biden just would not stop.

Finding a way around the decision, Biden signed an executive order protecting access to reproductive health services on July 8.

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court issued a decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated a womans Constitutional right to choose. This decision expressly took away a right from the American people that it had recognized for nearly 50 years, a womans right to make her own reproductive health care decisions, free from government interference, the White House stated in a fact sheet.

The executive order will support abortion on demand until the moment of birth. The fact sheet released directed the Department of Health and Human Services to protect and expand access to medication abortion and ordered the Attorney General and the White House Counsel to convene private pro bono attorneys, bar associations and public interest organizations to provide legal counsel for women seeking abortions and doctors committing abortions.

Meanwhile, Oklahomas Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren suggested back in June for the Biden administration to put abortion tents on federal land in states that ban abortion. The solon from Massachusetts told Washington Post that she will request the White House to establish Planned Parenthood outposts on the edges of national parks.

They could put up tents, have trained personnel  and be there to help people who need it, the news outlets reporter quoted the senator. Its time to declare a medical emergency.

However, analysts denounced Warrens suggestion as this will conflict with the Hyde Amendment. The said amendment prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for abortions, other than in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of a mother.

Also, a California doctor is proposing to set up a floating abortion clinic in the Gulf of Mexico as a way to maintain access for people in southern states where abortion bans have been enacted.

Dr. Meg Autry, an obstetrician, gynecologist and professor at the University of California San Francisco, said the idea is to provide a clinic aboard a ship in federal waters, and out of reach of state laws, that would offer first-trimester surgical abortions and other care. (Related: SUPPLY CHAIN OF DEATH: Pro-abortion leftists call for stockpiling abortion pills so their repeated murder of unborn babies wont be interrupted.)

Visit Infanticide.news for more news related to the intentional killing of innocent unborn children.

Watch the below video that talks about abortion as murder and not a womans right.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Pro-abortion Jewish organizations agree with Satanic Temple claim that abortion ritual represents religious freedom.

SACRILEGE: Abortion activists use Bible as soccer ball in Seattle protest.

Abortion isnt reproductive health, its the MURDER of an individual human being.

Behind the facade: Abortion culture is a transhumanist death cult.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com 1

NCRegister.com

LifeSiteNews.com 2

WhiteHouse.gov

TheGatewayPundit.com

Live5News.com

Brighteon.com


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(Natural News) Not only was Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in pretend handcuffs on Tuesday, it was all pretty much part of a staged arrest  and brought to you courtesy of George Soros.

(Article by C. Douglas Golden republished from WesternJournal.com)

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, AOC admitted that she and 16 other lawmakers who were arrested outside of the Supreme Court had been asked to submit themselves for arrest there by the Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

As the Washington Examiner notes, thats a progressive dark money group funded by billionaire George Soros. While the group isnt required to disclose its donor list, as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, the co-executive director of the group told The Washington Post in 2018 that Soros Open Society Foundations provides over $1 million a year in funding to the organization and the Center for Popular Democracy, a related group.

(Its hardly a surprise that Soros was involved, of course, given that the progressive billionaire has tried to put his thumb on the scales of American democracy on any number of issues  particularly criminal justice reform and abortion. Well keep bringing America the truth about Soros malign influence. You can help us by subscribing.)

In the Instagram post, AOC said the move was an activist-led civil disobedience, which is very different than a publicity stunt planned and led by members themselves for a headline.

(Apparently, even if its a ginned-up event specifically to gain mainstream media attention, its not a publicity stunt as long as its planned and led by someone else looking to create headlines. Got it, Representative.)

AOC said she got herself arrested [b]ecause media cycles go FAST and the attention and urgency on Roe can easily fade. We must keep eyes on the issue. Civil disobedience is a highly effective way of accomplishing that, and it is a trained discipline.

Its apparently not a discipline shed been trained enough in, however, since she faked being in handcuffs  then outed herself by breaking character to raise a fist:

AOC PRETENDS to be *handcuffed* in fake arrest protesting Supreme Court  then raises her fist, breaking her fake handcuffs CLOWN WORLD LOL pic.twitter.com/nlvrDHV2Tj  Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 19, 2022

After South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace called her out on it, AOC insisted she wasnt faking: Putting your hands behind your back is a best practice while detained, handcuffed or not, to avoid escalating charges like resisting arrest.

No faking here. Putting your hands behind your back is a best practice while detained, handcuffed or not, to avoid escalating charges like resisting arrest. But given how you lied about a fellow rape survivor for points, as you put it to me, I dont expect much else from you. pic.twitter.com/lUc1TPS21D  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 20, 2022

Mace responded by noting that she broke this best practice by breaking your fake handcuff pose for a good fist pump and shout out to the crowd  looking tough! Whoops.

Idk. Here you are @aoc breaking your fake handcuff pose for a good fist pump and shout out to the crowd  looking tough! Good theater though ??????? https://t.co/0kfihuevYa pic.twitter.com/68rjopkdMi  Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) July 20, 2022

It wasnt just AOC bragging about the orchestrated arrest, however.

Half an hour before the lawmakers began the protest, a spokesman for fellow squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota  also an arrestee  tweeted that the Soros-funded group would be livestreaming the event.

CPD Action also said on Facebook that some of its leaders were among the 18 individuals who arent elected Democrats who got themselves arrested at the protest on Tuesday.

https://www.facebook.com/CPDAction/posts/415932863905134

Moments ago, leaders from CPD Action network organizations, members of Congress & more participated in a powerful civil disobedience demonstration & got arrested to protect our RIGHT to SAFE & LEGAL abortions, the Soros-funded group posted.

This is a clear message to SCOTUS and lawmakers that #WeWontBackDown until ALL pregnancy-abled people are treated as full human beings with the autonomy to make decisions about OUR OWN bodies.

Pregnancy-abled people. Well, thats a new one. Beyond that, however, this is the same old astroturfing story.

Not only was this civil disobedience painfully fake, it didnt even arise out of organic anger. AOCs pretend handcuffs were the perfect metaphor for the whole endeavor:

A bunch of elected officials took great pains to make it look like they were sacrificing themselves like the martyrs of the civil rights movement. Instead, this was all a put-together event so that the mainstream media could snag a few photographs and give far-left, pro-abortion Democratic legislatures some good publicity.

Shame that it all looked every bit like the cynical scam that it was. Better luck next time.

Read more at: WesternJournal.com
(Natural News) Last month several CBS employees who work for Colberts late-night show were arrested in the US Capitol, trespassing after hours, and HARASSING GOP lawmakers.

(Article by Cristina Laila republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)

The US Capitol was closed at the time.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) let the insurrectionists in the building.

Colberts goons were not only harassing Republican lawmakers after hours but they also went and harassed and mocked the families of the January 6 prisoners held in prison for over a year without a trial.

Earlier Monday it was revealed Stephen Colberts crew was cleared of unlawful entry charges after they were caught inside a House Office Building after hours without permission.

From the US Attorneys office in DC: We do not believe it is probable that the Office would be able to obtain and sustain convictions on these charges.

It gets worse

Matthew Graves, the Biden-appointed US Attorney who dropped the charges on Colberts goons is also the prosecutor investigating January 6!

Matthew Graves also works for US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Apparently only Trump supporters have to rot in prison for unlawfully entering the US Capitol.

It turns out [Graves] is also the prosecutor investigating January 6th, Fox News host Jesse Watters said. Is he giving those guys the same treatment?

VIDEO

.@nedryun Joins @JesseBWatters To React To Charges Against The Colbert 9 Being Dropped Ned: If you have the wrong political views or the wrong political connections, you have the book thrown at you. But if you have the right connections, everything gets dropped. pic.twitter.com/BgVVBaklB3  The Columbia Bugle ?? (@ColumbiaBugle) July 18, 2022

Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com
(Natural News) To help communist China churn out more bioweapons, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is sending cash to the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) Ministry of Science and Technology to recruit more foreign scientists.

The Microsoft mogul himself, via his non-profit, just sent a $100,000 grant to the Chinese governments Foreign Talent Research Center, the stated purpose being for pandemic preparedness and response.

The grant is specifically tagged for use in leveraging resources to improve global health and support disadvantaged populations who [sic] are disproportionately impacted by pandemic.

The Center is affiliated with the Zhongguancun Forum, a Beijing-based technology conference sponsored by the CCP. Its high-level officials include none other than Chinese President Xi Jinping, who speaks at the event.

Discovery of the grant comes amid controversy over alleged ties between researchers in both the United States and China, a partnership that is believed to be responsible for the creation of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).

Since the beginning of the plandemic, the CCP has stonewalled every effort to investigate the true origins of the Fauci Flu, which clearly did not come from bat soup at a Wuhan wet market as was originally claimed by the government.

Bill Gates is committing treason against the United States and its citizens

We also now know that the CCP has weaponized its science and technology programs to lure Western scientists away from their home countries in order to prop up and advance Chinese strategic military build-up.

Recognizing this, Bill Gates and his clan are engaging in treason against the United States, and in plain sight without any consequences thus far. (Related: Bill Gates is obsessed with vaccines because they are being used to depopulate the undesirables.)

Communist Chinas Thousand Talents Plan has for years been used to siphon Western scientists into the CCPs fold, which has prompted numerous indictments by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against American researchers who failed to disclose their financial ties to the communist regime, despite receiving U.S. taxpayer funds.

The Ministry of Science and Technologys Foreign Talent Research Center, which is being directly funded by Gates, appears to be engaged in similar criminal conduct, which further outs Gates as a treasonous criminal funding foreign bioweapons research.

The Ministry, according to an outline of its missions, formulates and facilitates the implementation of plans for bringing in high-end foreign experts, develops mechanisms for pooling top-notch scientists and research teams from abroad, and provides services for foreign experts.

The $100,000 grant that Gates sent to the Ministry is just a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of dollars the billionaire eugenicist has poured into communist China over the years.

Gates has sent plenty of cash to Chinese universities, including the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) where many believe the Fauci Flu originated.

Gates is a mass murderer, a serial killer, greedy to kill millions and billions more people, wrote a commenter at Natural News about Gates evil legacy.

No way humankind can let him get away with what he ALREADY did  and sheer impossible to let him continue his deeply satanic plans of a completely insane brain and mind.

Another pointed out that Gates is anything but the philanthropist he presents himself as being.

When we have actors becoming presidents of countries and tech people getting into the pharmaceutical business, with absolutely no credentials  other than being disgustingly rich  you know that you have fallen down that rabbit hole and its going to be a feat trying to climb back out! wrote another about how the entire status quo is controlled by cretins like Gates.

The latest news about Bill Gates can be found at Treason.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheNationalPulse.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) A Brazilian agriculture ministry official said on Thursday, July 14, the countrys corn may only be exported to China next year because of demands made by Beijing concerning trade protocols.

According to Jose Guilherme Leal, agriculture defense secretary at the ministry, Beijing has requested the monitoring of a few weeds and fungi in corn crops and called it a normal request in agreements of sanitary agreements and protocols.

The protocol provides for the need for monitoring and information on production. As we did not monitor the current second corn crop, I reaffirm that exports will only be possible from the 2022-23 summer crop onwards, Leal said.

The Brazilian agriculture ministry corroborated Leals comments in an emailed message to Reuters.

Leal mentioned Brazilian corn growers who want to export to China will have to adapt and report the conditions of the crop and the products utilized to fight pests and diseases before the ministry will be able to confirm shipments.

China announced it would complete the signing of the quarantine agreement for imports of Brazilian corn without giving a specific timeline.

Cesario Ramalho, the head of institutional affairs at corn farmer group Abramilho, told a media conference last week that agriculture ministry officials were in negotiations with China about the approval of specific types of transgenic corn cultivated in Brazil.

The ministry did not provide an immediate remark.

Ramalho added that shipments have not started, as negotiations are ongoing for China to accept certain types of transgenic corn that Brazilian farmers already plant with permission from Brazilian biosecurity agency CTNBio.

Chinas customs authority in May finalized a deal to permit imports of Brazilian corn, setting up an alternative to United States corn.

Brazil, one of the worlds biggest producer and exporter of corn, also sells the product to Iran, Japan, Mexico and the European Union. Ramalho said the country should continue to export corn to as many markets as possible to prevent dependence on a single buyer.

China purchases about half of Brazils exported meat and around 80 percent of its soy exports annually.

Brazilian corn thrives amid conflict in Ukraine

Meanwhile, Brazilian corn exports through the southern ports in Parana state have soared 221 percent in the first half of the year.

With the conflict, Ukraine, which exports corn at this time of year, is unable to ship. Thus, countries have to look for corn in other origins, including Brazil, stated a Paranagua port authority release on Monday, July 18.

The Paranagua port authority said that from January to June, 1.9 million tons of corn were delivered through the ports in Parana state, up from 591,538 tons during the same period last year. Data indicates that the South American nation is on track to export about 37.5 million tons this year, up about 80 percent from 2021.

Brazilian farmers at this time of the year are finishing harvesting their winter corn, which comprises about 75 percent of national production in a particular year. (Related: MORE CROP FAILURES: Brazils corn crops compromised by frost in second bout of unusually cold temperatures this year)

The abundance of Brazils winter corn makes it a huge exporter in the second half, competing with heavyweight suppliers like the United States in worldwide markets.

Follow FoodSupply.news for more news about corn and other products.

Watch the video below about India continuing wheat export to countries in need.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Corn, soybean, wheat, oat planting in the US now far behind their five-year averages.

Rice crisis incoming: Soaring fertilizer prices threaten rice production in Asia.

Bhutan facing food shortages following Indias wheat export ban.

Russia-Ukraine crisis will put even more strain on the global food supply, driving up prices of wheat and corn around the world.

Russia looking to ban all exports of wheat, barley, rye, other crops until second half of 2022, worsening global food scarcity.

Sources include:

AgWeb.com

Financial Post.com

Nasdaq.com 1

Nasdaq.com 2

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Editors of the U.K.s leading health publications British Medical Journal (BMJ) and Health Service Journal (HSJ) have called on the government to revive some of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions that crippled the countrys economy.

Now is the time to face the fact that the nations attempt to live with COVID is the straw that is breaking the NHSs [National Health Service] back, said BMJs Dr. Kamran Abbasi and HSJs Alastair McLellan in a joint statement. The heart of the problem is the failure to recognize that the pandemic is far from over and that a return to some of the measures taken in the past two years is needed.

Some of the measures they are referring to are the mask wearing in healthcare settings and on public transport, free testing scheme that is costing the government 2 billion ($2.41 billion) a month, work-from-home guidance and restrictions on social gatherings.

Despite the alarming calls, leading experts believe Downing Streets decision to remove all of the restrictions back in April was the right one.

Daily COVID-19 hospital admissions have risen to a near 18-month high, with around 2,000 people currently being hospitalized every day. However, only a third of patients needing care are primarily ill with the virus. In other words, most of them are sick with something else.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert from the University of East Anglia, said reinforcing the curbs now is not going to achieve much and may cause substantial disruption. I think the balance of evidence is that the current wave has peaked, he told MailOnline.

An administration adviser, who requested to be anonymous, said there is no need for these health measures anymore.

Draconian restrictions only work when the public is not fully informed. Now, people are very much aware that the disease is essentially a cross between a cold and flu.

Mask mandates are returning despite being proven ineffective

Mask mandates are making a comeback in spite of massive shreds of evidence and studies proving that these are ineffective in curbing COVID-19 transmissions. (Related: Studies show how mask mandates, lockdowns, and COVID vaccines have failed to deliver.)

Although COVID-19 cases in the country already declined, Germany is planning to reintroduce mask wearing. According to Marco Buschmann, the countrys justice minister, bringing back mandatory face coverings will be decided on soon.

He said both citizens and tourists would have to mask up in the fall and the mandate would be enforced throughout winter. The proposal for the mandate will be submitted to the German Parliament in September and expected to be implemented in October.

Ireland is also looking into reinstating mask mandates in preparation for a possible emergency in winter.

Meanwhile, adviser for the British governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies Dr. Colin Axon dismissed masks as mere comfort blankets entrenching bad behavior. He pointed out that masks do virtually nothing as the coronavirus particle is up to 5,000 times smaller than the holes in the mask.

Moreover, a Danish study involving 6,000 participants concluded 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.

Visit HealthFreedom.news for more articles about the preservation of health freedom.

Watch the below video to learn why mask mandates are ignoring science.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Florida expects record number of visitors in first spring break without COVID restrictions since 2019.

Major airlines to allow passengers banned for mask mandate violations back onboard.

Germany to revive mask mandate in September despite declining COVID-19 cases.

NY Supreme Court strikes down Hochuls statewide mask mandate.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

InfoWars.com

TravelOffPath.com

Summit.news

Spectator.co.uk

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on abortion last week, New York Democrat Representative Carolyn Maloney declared that women are not the only people who can become pregnant.

(Article by Steve Watson republished from InfoWars.com)

Maloney complained of the GOPs decades long goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, claiming that it has stripped away a constitutional right relied on by generations of American women.

That was the first lie.

The second lie to come out of Maloneys mouth was an assertion that the goal of these right-wing extremists is clear, to control the bodies of women, girls, and any person who can become pregnant.

Watch:

Maloneys comments came in the same week that a slew of pro-abortion Democrat witnesses refused to define what a woman is and suggested that anyone who says men cant give birth is inciting violence.

Its the party of science!

Read more at: InfoWars.com
(Natural News) The United States educational system is now focused on creating a capable workforce instead of producing an enlightened group of thinkers.

During the July 19 episode of Connecting the Dots with Dan Happel on Brighteon.TV, he and guest John Jake Klyczek discussed the takeover of the U.S. education system and how it is leading Americans to the fourth industrial revolution.

What Klyczek noticed about the education system during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is that the government basically skipped the necessary requirements for educators, especially when it comes to getting their online training certificates.

Before the pandemic, online teachers needed to go through various training sessions at the community and state level before getting their certificates.

Upon writing about the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers cozying up to Big Tech and the World Economic Forum, Klyczek said he also uncovered the role of the International Labor Organization in centralizing organized labor on a global scale.

It ties into something called the Global Council of Unions and an international union called Education International, which is what the series largely focused on, he said.

There seems to be global governance that is trying to galvanize organized labor under a technocratic system.

So now, there is a labor force that has the ability to do a good job but doesnt think too far outside the box. This labor force will not present any kind of leadership problem. (Related: BardsFM host Scott Kesterson: Majority of Americans will obey the government with no questions asked  Brighteon.TV.)

Apparently, those in control dont want to deal with people who ask questions. All they want are compliant individuals who are willing to work.

Education system not evolving to address needs of individuals

The education system is not evolving to address the needs of individuals. The labor market needs are rapidly changing, but institutions still do not align themselves by rethinking program developments to better prepare their students for a dynamic work environment.

Educational institutions should align programs with the needs of the market. Institutions could stay ahead of the curve by adopting learning processes that include understanding current trends across industries, identifying the shifts in technical and nontechnical skills and revamping current programs or designing new ones to prepare students.

However, the schools are not doing this. As Klyczek explained, it is like looking at teaching as something similar to psychological conditioning, with the idea of bypassing the thinking part of the brain and conditioning students to create automatic reflexes to environmental stimuli.

Eventually, artificial intelligence could replace a lot of the human input into the thinking process, leading to the fourth industrial revolution. (Related: Futurist suggests merging our brains with AI to keep pace with their IQ growth, otherwise we may not survive.)

And with a workforce full of people who dont ask questions, theres going to be no resistance to it. The plan is so simple, you just have to connect the dots.

Visit EducationSystem.news for more stories about education in America.

Watch the video below for the rest of Dan Happels conversation with Jake Klyczek.

Connecting the Dots with Dan Happel airs every Tuesday starting at 5:00 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

BardsFM host Scott Kesterson: Meta is the biggest trap ever laid for humanity  Brighteon.TV.

World Economic Forums Class of 2021 exposed: Klaus Schwabs effort to remake globe in authoritarian image continues.

Parents blast Texas school districts new socialist-leaning dress code demanding conformity and obedience.

Conflict leads Russian, Ukrainian governments to sign harsh laws criminalizing speech, expression.

Facebooks teleporter technology the final nail in the coffin for humanitys connection with reality.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

McKinsey.com
(Natural News) Fed up with the increasingly woke and intolerant political climate on American campuses, former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss last year announced the launch of The University of Austin, a new four-year college dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth. The college aims to welcome its first class of full-time four-year undergraduates in 2024, and last month, its first summer program, The Forbidden Courses series, admitted 80 students from colleges across the US.

(Article by Rikki Schlott republished from NYPost.com)

This is an insanely intelligent group of people  a genuinely thoughtful, bold group of kids. And it bodes very, very well for the future of the institution, University of Austin founding faculty member Peter Boghossian told The Post. A former professor at Portland State who came under fire for publishing hoax papers in woke academic journals, Boghossian taught a course at the University of Austin called Street Epistemology, about conversational techniques that help people think more critically about deeply-held beliefs.

During the two, week-long summer sessions, funded entirely by donor contributions and held at a temporary location in Dallas, students attended small, discussion-based seminars, such as Critical Thinking and Freedom of Expression taught by feminist and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, alongside shorter workshops, like How to Be Liberal in an Illiberal Age taught by Weiss.

Author Rob Henderson, known for coining the term luxury beliefs to describe woke ideology, taught a seminar called The Psychology of Social Status and said he was blown away by his politically diverse students who ranged from proponents of Marxism to defenders of monarchy as their favorite political system. But one thing clearly united all his students: when he asked how many held back their opinions out of fear of social repercussions, he said nine out of ten raised their hands.

Whenever I spoke with students, they seemed relieved to interact with others in an environment where they didnt have to fear being ostracized, Henderson told The Post. I dont think they wanted to be in an environment where everyone agreed with them. They really wanted to be free to disagree. Ive never seen so much intense good-faith discussion in any academic environment before.

Since launching the school, Weiss has enlisted a powerhouse board of advisors including former New York magazine columnist Andrew Sullivan, former ACLU president Nadine Strossen and economist Glenn Loury as well as big-name trustees like Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale. The Post talked to three students who attended the summer program about their experiences and asked if the University of Austin should set a new standard for liberal arts education in America.

Hanna Nour: It was like night and day compared with my previous experiences.

A recent graduate of the University of Central Florida, Hanna Nour left the Muslim faith at 19 and started speaking out as an ex-Muslim atheist. Immediately, some classmates and acquaintances began blocking her on social media and even slandering her as an Islamophobe for disagreeing with her former religion, Nour said.

As a society we arent allowed to criticize Islam because of political correctness. I was labeled as an Islamophobe, which was grossly insulting as a person whose family is Muslim, Nour, now 22, said.

I realized that wokeism was treating me in the same way that my former religion of Islam had treated me  with confinement and a sense that I would be told what to do, what to say, and even what to think.

When she put up flyers for a free speech event featuring fellow former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who Nour has long followed on Twitter, she said a University of Central Florida faculty member approached her and told her to stop. He told me I wasnt allowed to put up flyers for anything that might offend someone, and he didnt even see the irony of what he was saying. I mean, it was an event for free speech!

When she heard about the University of Austin through Ali, Nour knew she had to apply for the summer course. The idea of a new school founded on the pursuit of truth was just so appealing, said Nour, who will attend medical school at the University of Central Florida this fall. I want to be optimistic that our current institutions could change, but how long is it going to take?

At the University of Austin, Nour was struck by how nonjudgmental and curious her fellow students were about her ex-Muslim status. I was amazed that other students just wanted to come up and ask me questions. They wanted to hear my story, understand my perspective, and learn more, she said. It was like night and day compared with my previous experiences. Free thought and free speech were just a given there.

Sophia Sadikman: I found it easier to just not talk at college, which is really sad.

College, frankly, has been kind of disappointing for me, said Sophia Sadikman, 20, a rising senior at Brown University. I had high hopes that it would be this incredible four years of enrichment and personal growth, but sadly I found a lack of real eagerness to learn and a lack of ideological diversity both inside and outside the classroom.

Sadikman, who is studying cognitive science, said shes been ostracized on campus for being a pro-Israel Jewish American. Whenever I say something thats even a little countercultural, everyone will just turn their head and make a face, she told The Post. I found it easier to just not talk, which is really sad.

When she read about the University of Austins mission in The Wall Street Journal, she knew she had to apply for their first summer class.

During her time on campus, Sadikman said no topic was off-limits, and she was able to freely discuss thorny issues like race, gender, and religion. Some of the topics she debated in class included sacred cows that progressives accept as gospel truth, such as Islam is a religion of peace and America is systemically racist.

Despite those discussions being controversial, everyone approached those debates with respect, Sadikman said. It just created an atmosphere that was exactly what I wish college had been for me.

Sadikmans two weeks at the University of Austin even inspired her to bring the fight for free speech back to her home campus by starting a new extracurricular club called the Free Inquiry of Brown this upcoming fall. My experience at the University of Austin really made me want to change the campus culture at Brown going forward, so Im taking the initiative and creating my own space on campus for open dialogue and political discussion.

It was just the most incredible learning experience of my life, Sadikman added. I dont want to sound cheesy, but it really did genuinely change my life.

Widener Norris: As I go into college, I want to speak my mind and have my voice heard.

As an incoming freshman at the University of Georgia, Widener Norris hasnt yet experienced college life  but hes worried about academias increasing intolerance of free thought, a sentiment widely shared by current students and faculty around the country. Im concerned about the apparent lack of viewpoint diversity, he told The Post.

I havent really had negative experiences thus far, since I went to a high school where people tend to have pretty similar views to me, the Athens, Ga., native said. But Ive toured a lot of colleges, and I now have a taste for some of their flaws. As I go into these four years in college, I want to be equipped to speak my mind, to engage with various perspectives, and to have my voice heard. The Forbidden Courses program is an excellent way to learn that.

The 18-year-old, who plans to study biochemistry and molecular biology this fall, said he loved debating topics that are strictly off limits on most campuses.

We would debate very controversial issues, like whether transgender women are women, he recalled. To even bring up such a topic would be considered cancelable in most [places], but we were able to have a civil and critical discussion. I was really just astounded by peoples thirst for actual debate. Everyone at this program came from completely different political and social backgrounds, but we were really united in the sense that we craved genuine discussion.

As Norris heads off to his own school this fall, hes grateful to have spent a week in an environment where he could express himself freely. The entire purpose of a university is to pursue truth  not relative truth but absolute truth. The only way that can be done is through genuine discussions in good faith between people with different views.

Read more at: NYPost.com
(Natural News) Physician and author Dr. Jane Ruby shared more bombshell findings from board-certified embalmer Richard Hirschman during the July 18 episode of Live with Dr. Jane Ruby on Brighteon.TV.

The veteran medical professional said there are two new stunning discoveries related to the white fibrous clots Hirschman found in the dead bodies of vaccinated individuals. (Related: Dr. Jane Ruby: Unnatural blood clots found in dead bodies of vaccinated  Brighteon.TV.)

Ruby also said Hirschman was able to verify that majority of the deceased people were jabbed with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

The white fibrous clots were pulled out of all the major arteries and veins in the thigh, groin, arms and neck.

White fibrous clot with chunky ball sacs and micro clotting

Ruby, also a pharmaceutical drug development expert, showed the audience one of Hirschmans latest discoveries  a white fibrous clot with chunky ball sacs. She pointed out that they may have grown intermittently and are almost like outgrowths of the original white fibrous clot.

Hirschman said the chunky ball sacs, which were all from vaccinated individuals, reminded him of spider eggs covered by spider web.

And you can see that white fibrous stuff kind of marbling into that little ball, which kind of looks like a small grape. But the thing is, even in the beginning a lot of times I noticed that one end or the other would be some blood attached to the white fibers clot that Im having. And then other times its kind of running along the white fiber material as well, Hirschman said.

Ruby mentioned that a 1,500 times magnification of the blood clots have shown things that are part of the self-assembling nanoparticles. She noted that Brighteon.TV founder Mike Adams said initial analysis showed the white clots are not organic material, protein, amyloid, fibrin or cholesterol. Hirschman also confirmed that the strange white stuff in the blood clots is not normal.

The board-certified embalmer also talked about micro clotting, saying that the black specks that can be seen in the picture and video shown by Ruby are examples of micro clots. He also shared that a radiologist from Michigan told him that the micro clots are very concerning because they can flow through the body and block out vessels and slowly starve the organs from getting the nutrients that they need.

Hirschman said micro clots are almost like real fine sand, beach sand or powder substance that is in the blood and these are slowly causing other ailments and other diseases that are not being diagnosed.

According to Ruby, this is another situation where chemical analysis is needed. She noted that these micro clots could be some kind of graphene or some other material that is self-assembling and forcing the body to make.

Having millions or billions of these micro clots circulating in a persons brain, heart or lungs are very dangerous, she said. Hirschman agreed, adding that these micro clots could be bumping into each other and forming larger ones.

Follow VaccineHolocaust.org to know more about the fibrous blood clots found in dead bodies of the vaccinated.

Watch the July 18 episode of Live with Dr. Jane Ruby below. Catch new episodes of Live with Dr. Jane Ruby every Monday at 7 p.m. and every Saturday at 3 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Scientists warn that mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna are causing BLOOD CLOTS.

Embalmers, funeral directors reveal that COVID-vaccinated bodies show unusual blood clots.

Embalmer reports finding long, fibrous blood clots in deceased people who got COVID-19 vaccine.

Post-mortem examinations find massive blood clot biostructures in bodies of the vaccinated.

AstraZeneca vaccines cause DEVASTATING blood clots, peer-reviewed study confirms.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

DrJaneRuby.com
(Natural News) There is a whole lot of misinformation flying around about ReAwaken Tour Americas upcoming event in Rochester, which the fake news media is falsely claiming was canceled.

In an update  watch below  Clay Clark explains to Gen. Flynn and several others on his show that the event is still happening but just needs a secured venue in which to hold it.

Is there going to be a ReAwaken America Tour in Rochester? Thats like asking Gen. Flynn: Is there going to be patriotism? Clark joked with his guests. Thats like asking Thomas Renz: Is there going to be some exposing of Dr. Fauci on this show?

Absolutely were going to do it!

ReAwaken America Tour Rochester, NY Gains MOMENTUM!!! Tour Organizers Invite Klaus Schwab & Yuval Noah Harari to speak at Question & Answer Session About The Great Reset.#TheReAwakenAmericaTour Pastor Benjamin responds to media claims tour associated with white supremecists. pic.twitter.com/wT6MDzcL0J  Clay Clark (@TheClayClark) July 20, 2022

Clark says that every time he books a ReAwaken America Tour event, he reaches out to five different venues to get individual commitments from all of them. He does this before he announces the location.

Because behind the scenes, there is so much cancellation, he says. I mean, how many churches said: Oh yeah, we can host you, and then they bail out. So this is what happened, Gen. Flynn.

Cancel culture aims to stop ReAwaken America Tour from gathering

Clark thought he had a secured venue, signed contract in hand, guaranteeing that the Rochester event would not be canceled due to pressure from the media, newfound fears about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), or whatever other excuse gets cooked up by the groups detractors.

That contract was apparently in place until all of a sudden Clark found out via the corporate-controlled media that his Rochester event had supposedly been canceled  which is false.

I got a contract, and in the contract I signed an agreement, and it says they cant cancel due to pressure, media pressure, Covid-19, whatever, and you know, so, I talked to the venue and they said theyre not going to cancel, and then the media informs me: Business Insider informs me, Newsweek informs me, local media  they say: Wed love to interview you to see how you feel about the canceling of your event, Clark explained.

Now if the venue had decided to capitulate and get into the woke mob, well still be having the event. So I called the second venue, and the second venue they lasted for 30 minutes.

Needless to say, ReAwaken America Tour is still on the hunt for a secured location in which to hold the Rochester event. It will happen, Clark says, and an announcement will be made once more is known about it.

We also now know that World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab has been asked to attend and participate in a Question & Answer (Q&A) session to explain more about his so-called Great Reset for the world.

Thomas Renz is also involved with the ReAwaken America Tour. At past events, Renz has stated that the Fauci Flu plandemic was totally contrived as an exercise in fear and manipulation, having absolutely nothing to do with protecting public health.

Everything weve heard from the government is based on fear and manipulation, added a commenter at Natural News about Renzs claims. All wars, depressions, etc.  were living government-controlled lies as our reality.

Another wrote that it is unfortunate the truth about the scamdemic is coming out as slowly as it is because more people need to wake up already.

The latest news about cancel culture in America can be found at CancelCultureNews.com.

Sources for this article include:

Twitter.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The United Kingdom is expanding its arms shipments to Ukraine, including scores of additional artillery guns, anti-tank weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The boost comes after outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised in June to provide Ukraine with an additional one billion pounds ($1.195 billion) of military support.

Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace revealed on Tuesday, July 19, that it has sent Kyiv more than 20 American-made M109 self-propelled howitzers, 36 British-made L119 towed artillery pieces and over 50,000 rounds of artillery ammunition for existing Soviet-made artillery guns already in the possession of Ukraine. (Related: Russia continues gaining ground in Ukraine as US, NATO pour in weapons to prolong the inevitable.)

Britain is also providing Ukraine with at least 1,600 more anti-tank weapons, either British-made NLAWs, American-made FGM-148 Javelin systems or other western-made anti-tank systems, counter-battery radar systems and medical equipment.

Furthermore, the latest military aid to Ukraine will include unmanned aerial systems, including hundreds of loitering aerial munitions, more commonly known as kamikaze or suicide drones.

The scale and range of equipment we are providing demonstrates the strength of our resolve. Together with our international partners, we will ensure Ukraine has the tools to defend their country from Putins illegal invasion, said Wallace in a statement.

London providing Kyiv with billions in arms

Since the war between Russia and Ukraine began in late February, the U.K. has provided Kyiv with nearly 7,000 anti-tank missiles and launchers, including NLAWs, Javelins and Brimstone ground- or air-launched surface attack missiles.

The U.K. has also provided several multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS); at least six British-made Alvis Stormer armored vehicles fitted with Starstreak short-range surface-to-air missile systems, which convert these military vehicles into mobile anti-air platforms; and over 120 other armored fighting vehicles.

Furthermore, London has given Kyiv more than 16,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and anti-structure munitions, nearly five tons of plastic explosives, communications equipment, electronic warfare equipment, more than 82,000 helmets, nearly 9,000 sets of body armor, more than 5,000 night-vision goggles and medical supplies.

All of this, and the recently unveiled additional military aid, will mean that London has spent over 2.3 billion pounds ($2.75 billion) in taxpayer funding for the war effort.

Ukraine has received billions of dollars worth of military aid from its Western allies since the start of the war, especially from the United States, which recently gave Kyiv around a dozen M142 HIMARS light MLRS vehicles.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said these missile systems are making such a difference on the battlefield.

But this claim was countered by Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov, who noted that the West is not providing it with enough weapons to matter. He added that the Ukrainian army would need at least 50 more MLRS just to hold back Russian advances and 100 more on top of that  or around a third of Americas entire stockpile of M142 HIMARS vehicles  to conduct a proper counteroffensive to take back territory.

Other experts have also calculated that the 50,000 shells Wallace and the British government have given will only be enough to keep Ukrainian guns firing for an additional eight days.

Learn the truth about what is happening in Ukraine at UkraineWitness.com.

Watch this clip from The American Journal on InfoWars as host Harrison Smith talks about America pledging another $1.7 billion in taxpayer dollars for Ukraine.

This video can be found in the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

NATO planning new massive military buildup after taking in two new members, Finland and Sweden.

Ukraine unveils new mini Terminator machine gun robot to help in the fight against Russia.

Russia has already begun destroying advanced US weapons systems sent to Ukraine.

Biden announces MASSIVE military expansion in Europe in response to string of Russian victories in Ukraine.

Biden continues to draw down stocks of U.S. weapons and ammo with ongoing military assistance to Ukraine.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

Reuters.com

DailyMail.co.uk

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Recent official figures published by the Canadian government revealed that the vaccinated population now accounts for 92 percent of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths across Canada. Nearly half of those deaths are among the quadruple jabbed population.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus administration continues to downplay the gravity of the situation by providing a tally of cases, hospitalizations and deaths that stretches all the way back to December 14, 2020. That included a huge wave of deaths that occurred in January 2021, when just 0.3 percent of the Canadian population was considered fully vaccinated.

But news website the Expose used Wayback Machine to find what the Canadian government is concealing in regard to the correlation between the vaccination status and Canadas current death rate. The said browser application is a digital archive of the worldwide web that captures, manages and searches collections of digital content without any technical expertise or hosting facilities.

The Expose found a chart showing the number of COVID-19 deaths across Canada by vaccination status between June 9 and June 19.

During the said period, there were 4,954 COVID-19 deaths recorded and the vaccinated population accounted for 3,796 of them. The 135 deaths were among the partly vaccinated, 1,174 deaths among those who had two shots and 2,487 deaths among the triple vaccinated.

In summary, the unvaccinated population accounted for just eight percent of the deaths, but the vaccinated accounted for 92 percent  44 percent of which were among the quadruple jabbed and 45 percent of which were among people vaccinated thrice. (Related: Eighty percent of those DYING from covid in Canada are fully jabbed.)

The analysis also found 20,842 COVID-19 cases reported during the said period. There were 19,405 cases from the vaccinated, including 13,987 among the quadruple vaccinated. The unvaccinated population accounted for a minimal seven percent of the cases, while the vaccinated population accounted for 93 percent  72 percent of which were among the quadruple jabbed.

As for the hospitalizations, 1,377 COVID-19 cases were recorded on the same period, with the vaccinated population accounting for 1,168, including 764 quadruple jabbed. This means that only 15 percent of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 were from the unvaccinated population, while the vaccinated population accounted for 85 percent  65 percent of which were quadruple jabbed.

These arent the kind of figures we should be seeing for a COVID-19 injection that is allegedly 95 percent effective against infection, hospitalization and death, the Expose said.

Canadian airports revive COVID-19 testing for arriving passengers

Meanwhile, another COVID-related health measure is being revived in Canada as the Trudeau government reinstated random COVID-19 testing for entering passengers at four major airports on July 19.

The country still requires passengers to be fully vaccinated to enter the country.

The random testing is being implemented for passengers coming to Calgary, Montreal, Toronto Pearson and Vancouver airports.

Analysts say that the move could put added strain on Canadas stretched airline sector and decrease the demand for international travel to the nation.

Flying visitors to Canada must download the ArriveCAN app 72 hours before departure. Once passengers clear customs, they will get a message sent to the app within 15 minutes if they have been randomly selected for testing. The said app will allow them to find a testing site and book an appointment.

For passengers connecting at the four airports to fly to another domestic airport, testing can be done at the final destination. If a travelers arrival test result is positive, he or she must go into isolation and follow the federal requirement to isolate for 10 days from the date of the test result. Even if the isolation requirement is shorter in a travelers province or territory, the federal government requires the full 10 days of isolation.

Read more stories about COVID-19 vaccine deaths around the world at VaccineDeaths.com.

Watch this video about the plandemic of the vaccinated.

This video is from the Anti-Disinformation channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Canadas health minister says you will NEVER be fully vaccinated against covid, no matter how many vaccines you take.

Vaccinated population accounts for 86% of Covid-19 deaths in Canada, but government continues to push boosters.

4 Out of 5 COVID-19 deaths in Canada since mid-February are from the vaccinated population.

Triple vaccinated individuals account for majority of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Canada this year.

Sources include:

Expose-News.com



Health-InfoBase.Canada.ca

RoutesOnline.com

GlobalNews.ca

Brighteon.com
A mysterious glowing pink sky illuminating a small Australian town has been depicted in several intriguing social media posts.

The ethereal rose-colored haze that covered Mildura, in northwest Victoria, on Tuesday night put its residents on high alert and even scared them a little.

#Mildura and surrounds were treated to a spectacular sight tonight when a red light appeared in the sky.

Was it aliens?

An aurora?

No, it appears to have been the hydroponic lights from a medicinal cannabis farm reflecting off cloud which is somehow the most Mildura answer ever. pic.twitter.com/Wfy63tRrng  Sarah Tomlinson (@sarah_tomlinson) July 19, 2022

Tammy Szumowski, a resident of Mildura, told Daily Mail Australia that her mother called to inquire about the strange pink light in the sky.

Later, after the blinds on a growing shed were left open, it was discovered that it was coming from a nearby local medicinal cannabis farm.

Szumowski claimed that she hopped in the car with her husband and children and drove to her uncles' residence at Merbein South, where the light was bright, to visit them.

She continued by saying they had no idea what it was and that it had a very strange appearance.

Social Media Fuss

Szumowski immediately shared the breathtaking images on Facebook to see if his friends and neighbors knew anything.

Szumowski urged her followers to take these pictures at Merbein South in her post. She also enquired as to whether anyone knew what it is. She jokingly lobbied references to Stranger Things and the television show Aliens.

Her friends were equally perplexed, and some of them appeared to be scared. Many people have commented on whether the image is an asteroid, comet, or the upside-down world from Stranger Things, she claimed.

One person hypothesized that it might be a radiation beam intended to start reducing Covid's effects.

Another woman commented that it is so bizarre to see while debating whether to don her tin foil hat.

The aliens, according to her sister-in-joke, law's were meant to pick her up in Wangaratta but they got her address wrong.

However, her father was unimpressed by the fuss. Szumowski claimed that when she called her mother after stopping the car at her uncle's house and getting out to take pictures, her father had advised him to finish his dinner quickly because the world was ending.

Read also: 5 Ways Technology Is Shaping the Emerging Cannabis Market

The Low Down

The real explanation for the pink sky, however, had nothing to do with extraterrestrial beings or any astronomical phenomenon.

It was discovered that the amazing glow was coming from strong lights at a manufacturing facility for medical marijuana.

Curtains inside a commercial cultivation shed had been left open, according to medical marijuana farm owner Cann Pharmaceutical company.

In June, Cann harvested its first crop, and it recently received a new license to make Satipharm capsules from medical cannabis.

Satipharm is a business that develops and produces cannabis-based products that contain cannabinoids for use in medicine, health, and wellness. Delivering the best formulations and products possible-made especially with the needs of each patient and client in mind-is their main priority.

Commercial cannabis grow lights are calibrated in photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), and can sometimes reach 2000 PPFD. LED lighting for cannabis growing is frequently purple or pink, The Daily mail Australia reports.

2000 PPFD is about the same PPFD of the sun on a cloudless day, as one light manufacturer claims.

Related article: Number of Cannabis Poisoning Incidents in Dogs Has Dramatically Increased
Scientists have discovered evidence pointing to a substantial link in geologic time between the size of mass extinctions and global temperature fluctuations.

This intriguing association indicates a more positive view of future extinction events.

High temperature, high risk of extinction

Throughout the Phanerozoic Eon (539 million years to the present), abrupt climatic change, along with environmental degradation caused by huge volcanic eruptions and meteorites, has resulted in numerous mass extinctions.

There have been very few quantitative assessments of the association between land temperature anomalies and terrestrial animal extinctions so far.

Furthermore, the extinction rates of marine and terrestrial creatures have diverged, and this phenomenon is yet unknown.

Professor Emeritus Kunio Kaiho revealed that the extinction rates of marine invertebrates and terrestrial tetrapods were linked to variations in global and habitat surface temperatures, regardless of whether they were cooling or rising.

Loss of species during the 'big five' major extinctions was associated with a > 7C global cooling and a > 7-9C global warming for marine animals, and a > 7C global cooling and a > 7C global warming for land animals.

"These data suggest that the larger the climatic shifts, the greater the mass extinction," Kaiho added. "They also tell us that any future extinction caused by human activities would not have the same proportions when the size of the extinction changes in combination with a global surface temperature anomaly," as per ScienceDaily.

According to Kaiho, a 5.2C temperature increase in average global temperature would result in a major extinction catastrophe equal to past ones.

However, according to the findings of this study, the temperature must rise by 9C, which will not occur until 2500 in the worst-case scenario.

Though estimating the amount of future mass extinction events is difficult since reasons will differ from previous ones, Kaiho believes that if global surface temperature anomalies and other environmental abnormalities shift, any approaching extinction will not surpass prior magnitudes.

Kaiho also discovered that terrestrial tetrapods had a poorer tolerance for global warming events than marine organisms.

However, marine creatures were less tolerant of the same temperature variations than terrestrial animals.

This is due to the fact that the temperature anomaly on land is 2.2 times greater than the sea surface temperature. These occurrences are consistent with current extinction processes.

Read more: Humans to Blame for Pacific Bird Extinction, Representing 10 Percent of World's Bird Species

Climate change and extinction

A new study warns that climate change might lead to the extinction of one-third of all animal and plant species by 2070.

Researchers looked at recent extinctions caused by climate change to anticipate how many species will be lost in the next 50 years.

Scientists from the University of Arizona examined data from 538 species at 581 locations throughout the world, focusing on plant and animal species that were observed at the same locations at least 10 years apart.

"By analyzing the change in 19 climatic variables at each site, we were able to determine which variables drive local extinctions and how much change a population can tolerate before going extinct," said Cristian Roman-Palacios of the University of Arizona's department of ecology and evolutionary biology in a statement, as per USA Today.

According to a United Nations assessment issued in May, up to 1 million species are at risk of extinction due to human activity. Many researchers believe a "mass extinction event" is already beginning, the sixth in the last half-billion years.

Related article: What Happened During the Earth's Very First Mass Extinction?
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Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Osnabruck have discovered a protein whose defect causes motor disorders in flies. The protein had also previously been found in human patients with Parkinson's disease. So far, however, it was not known what function it has in the cell. The study now provides an answer to this question. The work, in which the University Hospital Aachen was also involved, has now been published in the journal Science Advances.

In their study, the research groups looked at a protein called Creld. A study from Bonn had recently been able to demonstrate that Creld plays an important role in the development of the heart in mammals. "We wanted to find out exactly what the protein does," explains Dr. Margret Helene Bulow, a lecturer at the LIMES Institute of the University of Bonn.

For this purpose, the researchers studied fruit flies of the genus Drosophila, which they had genetically modified in such a way that they cannot form Creld. In the animals, the heart rate was slowed in a characteristic way - a sign of energy deficiency. They also exhibited severe motor disorders. The power plants of the cell, the mitochondria, are responsible for providing energy. Their malfunction can result in the death of nerve cells that are responsible for motor function in humans. The clinical picture is known as Parkinson's disease.

"So Creld may play an important role not only in impaired heart function, but also in Parkinson's disease," says Dr. Nicole Kucharowski of the LIMES Institute, who, along with her colleague Marie Paradis, conducted a key part of the experiments in the study. "The findings of a recent analysis are consistent with this. It suggests that Creld production is often reduced in Parkinson's patients." But just how Creld might be related to Parkinson's was puzzling: The protein is not found in mitochondria at all. It can be detected exclusively in a widely branched network of tubes that serves to produce various molecules in the cell - the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). How can it interfere with the function of cellular power plants from there?

Pesticide suspected of causing Parkinson's disease

To find out, the researchers administered small amounts of a pesticide to healthy fruit flies (i.e., those that can form Creld). It contains the active ingredient rotenone, which is suspected of triggering Parkinson's disease in humans. Rotenone acts directly in the mitochondria by inhibiting a key step in energy production. After administration of the pesticide, the flies showed motor disorders similar to those of the Creld mutants. "We also found that their mitochondria are very often in contact with the ER," Bulow explains.

In further experiments, the researchers were able to show that certain classes of lipids are transported from the ER to the mitochondria during this contact. These so-called phospholipids rekindle the step in energy production that is inhibited by rotenone. With assistance from the ER, the mitochondria try to ramp up the energy supply again in this way. "And the availability of Creld seems to be crucial for this transfer of phospholipids," Bulow points out. "In flies that cannot form Creld, phospholipids accumulate in the contact sites between ER and mitochondria. So they don't get transported to the mitochondria, but accumulate."

Creld increases energy production in the cell

Creld is therefore important for increasing energy production in the cell. This is in line with the observation that Drosophila mutants without Creld produce hardly any hydrogen peroxide in their mitochondria - this is a molecule produced as a waste material during the work of the power plants. Hydrogen peroxide can damage cells. Until now, it was thought that it was produced in excessive amounts in people with Parkinson's or that it was not adequately disposed of. This would gradually poison the nerve cells responsible for motor function.

It is possible, however, that another effect might cause their demise - namely, the chronic undersupply of energy triggered by damage to or underproduction of Creld. "This is a thesis that we now need to investigate further," says Bulow, who is a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Life and Health" at the University of Bonn.

The current success is also the result of a successful cooperation. For instance, essential parts of the work were carried out at the University of Osnabruck. Dr. Julia Sellin, who originally helped initiate the study, has also recently moved to the University Hospital in Aachen. "The collaboration with Prof. Dr. Christoph Thiele from the Cluster of Excellence Immunosensation2 here at the University of Bonn also went extremely well," stresses Bulow.
(Newser)  It's a number that's hard to wrap your head around, but a concept that is easy to grasp: Let's save the planet by planting 1 trillion trees. In a lengthy piece for the New York Times Magazine, Zach St. George examines the noble goalhow it originated, and the ways in which organizations are working toward itand its myriad weaknesses. While the tree-planting movement dates back decades, some of the credit for the "1T" goal goes to Felix Finkbeiner, who as a 13-year-old in 2011 gave a UN speech suggesting that the world aim for one trillion trees planted; his Plant-for-the-Planet is one of the organizations working toward that goal. St. George points out some of the benefits of the "magically simple" idea: for one, it has the potential to ease global poverty by employing planters in impoverished regions.

He also digs into the science around some pretty basic questions, like "how many trees are on Earth?" (A 2015 estimate puts the number at 3 trillion, down from 6 trillion since the advent of agriculture 10,000 years prior.) And "can it hold another trillion?" (Looks like it.) But then the flip side: Grassland scientists say many of the savannas and prairies targeted as ripe for forests are actually carbon-rich ecosystems that should be protected, not messed with. The species that are being planted are often tree crops (think mango or coffee)"good for economic development, less so for storing carbon or supporting biodiversity," writes St. George. And then there's the fact that we aren't really planting trees at all: We're planting seeds and seedlings that can succumb to the elements, be stepped on, or die of neglect, and many of the organizations behind the planting end their involvement there. (Read the engaging full story, which has Finkbeiner's current thoughts on his goal).
(Newser)  The cheetah is the world's fastest land mammal, but bringing them back to India has been a slow process. The country's native population of cheetahs was declared extinct in 1952 and while efforts to reintroduce them started the same decade, only now are solid plans in place to restore a viable population, the BBC reports. Eight cheetahs will arrive at Kuno-Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh statechosen for its favorable terrainfrom Namibia next month, in time for the 75th anniversary of India's independence from Britain.

India's supreme court decided in 2020 that African cheetahs could be brought to a "carefully chosen location," the Guardian reports. The native population of Asiatic cheetahs was wiped out by habitat loss and poaching and while reintroducing the same subspecies would have been ideal, only a dozen of them are believed to remain in the wild, all in Iran. A plan to bring Asiatic cheetahs to India from Iran in the 1970s, when there were a lot more of them, fell apart after the Iranian Revolution. Asiatic cheetah could once be found all the way from the Arabian peninsula to Afghanistan.

Officials say the predator, the only large mammal to go extinct in India since independence, played a vital role in forest and savannah ecosystems and bringing them back to their historic range will help "rekindle the ecological dynamics of the landscape." Reintroducing the flagship species has been "a larger goal of re-establishing ecological function in Indian grasslands that was lost due to extinction of Asiatic cheetah," tweeted Bhupender Yadav, the country's environment minister. (Read more cheetah stories.)
(Newser)  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 didn't 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 couldn't keep out the more transmissible omicron variant forever, the AP reports. This week, the government announced it had become aware of multiple cases across two of the nation's 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

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 hasn't 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. 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. (Read more COVID-19 stories.)
(Newser)  Democrats have gotten a couple of breaks in their effort to keep Donald Trump from regaining the presidency, argues the UK magazine the Economist. The first was his campaign to overturn the legitimate election of President Biden, which has turned into the biggest weapon Democrats have against him. Another is that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has done such excellent, compelling work, holding the nation's interest while demonstrating how false the claims are that the mob that stormed the Capitol acted spontaneously and that Trump didn't know it was turning violent.

"Consider a world without the committee: revisionists would be far freer to minimize Mr. Trump's role in rousing the mob and to burnish or invent memories of his accomplishments," the magazine argues, assessing the impact on the GOP. "Instead, the panel has been reminding the party's leaders, operatives, donors and even some of the rank and file just how debilitating Mr. Trump's leadership was." True believers might stick with Trump, but members of Congress who fell into line under pressure "are rediscovering how tiresome it is to defend him."

But pollsand ralliesshow Trump is not out yet, and his speeches show he's as dangerous as ever. Democrats, including Biden, have made plenty of mistakes and generally squandered opportunities to head off his return to the Oval Office. But they should actually be thankful Trump did not concede defeat in 2020, says the magazine. Had he done so, his potential path pack to the presidency would be an easier one. Instead, "his own broken psyche, and the work of the January 6th committee, have given his opponents in both parties a chance to stop him." Read the full piece. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  Protesters turned out Saturday on the streets of London and in the Scottish city of Glasgow to demand faster action against climate change following the record-smashing temperatures that scorched the UK this week. Activist groups including Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain led protesters in a sit-in on Parliament Square in London to demand that the Conservative government stop giving new licenses for oil and gas production, tax big polluters, and help people install more energy-efficient heating in their homes, the AP reports.

"Tuesday's extreme heat wave was a warning about what we will face as the climate collapsesthousands of deaths, homes lost to wildfires, and emergency services stretched to breaking point," said Indigo Rumbelow from Just Stop Oil. "We are so unprepared for extreme heat, and it's only going to get worse." The UK's Met Office weather agency recorded a temperature of 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit in England on Tuesday, the highest ever temperature registered in a country ill-prepared for such extreme heat. British summers are usually moderate, and few homes, schools or small businesses have air-conditioning.

The heat wave paralyzed major train networks, damaged airport runways, and saw 15 fire departments across the country declaring major incidents. In Glasgow, climate activists staged a "die-in" protest to demand urgent action to tackle climate change. Protesters laid on the ground in one of the city's busiest shopping areas, covered in white sheets with "causes of death" including heat stress, famine, and water scarcity. "We've been sounding the alarm about the global climate emergency for years," said Wolf Saanen, 39. "Now it has arrived on our shores, will those with the power to change things finally listen?"

(Read more climate change stories.)
(Newser)  No sooner had Russia signed an agreement to let grain shipments again flow through the Ukrainian city of Odessa than the port was hit by an airstrike. Among those condemning the attack Saturday was the secretary-general of the UN, who had helped broker the deal, along with Turkey's president, and had praised it just hours before at the signing ceremony in Istanbul. A Ukrainian official called the attack a "spit in the face" to Antonio Guterres and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Washington Post reports. "That's all you need to know about deals with Russia," Estonia's prime minister posted on Twitter.

The deal Russia and Ukraine agreed to Friday specified that neither country would attack port facilities or civilian ships used to transport grain, per the Wall Street Journal. Turkey said Russian officials denied launching the attack, but Ukraine reported that at least two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles struck Odessa, damaging infrastructure but missing grain silos at the Black Sea port. Two other missiles were shot down by Ukraine's aerial defenses, officials said. Russia has been launching the missiles from submarines and warships at Odessa, the only major port resisting occupation by Russian forces. A regional official wasn't sure how many people were injured in the airstrikes.

The US ambassador to Ukraine called the attack "outrageous," per the AP. "The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account." Bridget Brink tweeted. US official Samantha Power said Saturday the agreement "was a glimmer of hope," per CNN. She called the airstrike "grotesque." In his video address Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the grain deal had provided "a chance to prevent a global catastrophea famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us." (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
The Public Safety Report is compiled from criminal complaints filed in state and federal courts, as well as some police blotter information, trooper dispatches, fire department reports and interviews with public safety officials. Individuals named as arrested and/or charged with crimes in this report are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A Bahrain IT expert facing the law for allegedly misusing assets owned by a university here for mining cryptocurrency will learn his fate next month. A Bahraini trial court will pass its verdict in the case on the 17th of August 2022.

Investigators had said they arrested a man -- an IT expert-- for running a 28-machine mining rig right from the server room of a university here. He allegedly had been running the University-based mining operation since 2019. How much profit he had earned from the operation is not yet disclosed.

The University, however, said they suffered losses to the tune of BD20,000, thanks to the unauthorised mining. The suspect, an IT expert, initially operated his mining machines from his home but later shifted them to a room housing the internet server of the University in a bid to save some money on the internet and electricity.

The scheme faltered only when a University staff who spotted and grew suspicious of the machines in the server room reported that to the University. When questioned, the suspect denied having any knowledge of the systems found in the server room at first. He, however, failed to hold his grounds when investigators confronted him with solid evidence.

Court files say he confessed to installing the systems in the University as early as 2019 while the Kingdom was busy fighting the Coronavirus outbreak. University officials reportedly suffered a loss of BD20,00 in electricity consumption during these years.

The suspect faced criminal proceedings before the High Criminal Court. Experts opinion that when people do such things, it goes beyond stealing electricity, as it could slow down the entire work of the establishment.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Muharraq Municipality has opened a tender for renovating the fence of Arad Fort - one of the beautifully historic fortresses in Bahrain.

The tender launched by the municipality is for renovating the walkway fence of the 15th-century fort.

Works include removing damaged fence panels and replacing them with new ones.

The tender also requires conducting repairs for panels that suffered only minor damages.

Contractors should supply and install two gates and paint the metal panels and concrete fence.

Several years back, the Bahraini government restored the fort to its original glory after conducting extensive research using traditional materials such as sea stones, lime, sand, and palm trunks.

The square-shaped fort, surrounded by a small trench for filling water, has on its corners a cylindrical tower.

Historians say the Bedouin dynasty known as the Jabrids built the fort to help fortify the island after they took control in the mid-1400s. They built the fort in the typical style of the Islamic forts during the 15th century before the Portuguese invasion of Bahrain.

Historians, however, believe that even though the fort stood guarding one of the strategic waterways, the facility didnt live up to its purpose as the Portuguese invaded and seized the Kingdom in 1521, killing Jabrids ruler and controlling much of the island for nearly a century. Over the next few centuries, the fort became the scene of much fighting.

Most recently, between 1984 and 1987, under the direction of the Historic Buildings and Conservation Architect, Dr Archie Walls, Bahrain Government restored the facility to its former glory.

Restorers hadnt used cement or any materials not in harmony with the historical building or its historical value.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A Free Trade agreement between the six nation Gulf Cooperation Council and the United Kingdom will open up new doors of economic partnerships, said Zayed R. Alzayani, the Minister of Industry and Commerce.

FTA, the minister, who is current in the UK, said, will open up new doors that will further cement Bahrains economic partnership with UK -- a major global investment partner for the Kingdom. The ministry made the statements during a meeting with British Secretary of State for International Trade, Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

Their discussions focused on the ongoing negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement between the GCC countries and the UK and the economic benefits this agreement would bring both nations. The UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council nations officially launched negotiations to launch UK-GCC FTA this year.

Britain had said that a deal with the GCC could reduce or remove tariffs on UK food and drink exports to the region, worth 625 million pounds last year, and also benefit financial services. It is the fourth set of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks that Britain has launched this year after India, Canada and Mexico, as London looks to replace continuity deals it struck before it left the European Unions trading orbit with fresh post-Brexit agreements.

In 2021, total trade between the UK and the GCC was worth 33.1 billion pounds ($40.35 billion), of which 11 billion pounds in trade was with Saudi Arabia. Alzayani and Trevelyan also discussed ways to further develop and increase the volume of bilateral investments during the next phase, highlighting the potential role the private sector can play in achieving this goal. The minister said Bahrain is committed to working with the United Kingdom on advancing bilateral cooperation across all avenues.
By captain Mahmood Al Mahmood

The months of July and August normally see a lull in activity in Bahrain as the Kingdoms residents fly off for their much-needed summer break. It gives us all time to catch up on some thinking and planning for the rest of the year.

When I talk with my generation of Bahrainis  we are in our late fifties and were schoolboys when our country won its independence  I notice that there is a feeling that the success of the service industry like banking, tech, retail, tourism and hospitality have taken the emphasis off manufacturing.

I also find that in Bahrain, despite the fact that the country is relatively a small market and would do better to position itself as a hub for the Northern Gulf, we are only keen to chase the really big industries and let the smaller factories and manufacturing enterprises fall unsupported through the cracks.

This attitude must change if we are to succeed in making good our national Vision 2030 of sustainable and united growth and development for all. Manufacturing matters because, when compared to service industry jobs, it provides higher wages, commercial innovation and it also encourages workers, employers and government to share responsibility for improving the nations manufacturing base and to share in the gains from such improvements.

A robust manufacturing base will play a key role in introducing and promoting new technologies, facilitating international trade and enabling the efficient use of resources. But for that, we need the authorities to support those who risk their time, money and energy to set up manufacturing base here, however small it is. Our Crown Prince and PM has wisely stressed the need for encouragement of MSMEs because these hold the seeds of change and growth.

We need to scale up our manufacturing infrastructure  better manufacturing incubators, reliable and cheaper power supply, a financial system that understands that manufacturing is a different cycle from the service industry. Global manufacturing growth has been steadily declining, even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic hit manufacturing industries hard and caused disruptions in global value chains and the supply of products. But now we are in recovery mode and the Ministry of Industry & Commerce must put its hands on the job and accelerate the development of our manufacturing sector if they are to meet the 2030 target.
In 1922, a 15-year-old boy shows up for his first day at work at a small auto-repair shop in Tokyo Japan. The owner, who questioned if the boy was even meant for this type of business, assigned him to clean the workshop and look after his child instead.

At the time, nobody thought much of him, neither they cared, but only because they had no idea who this kid would eventually become.

Fast forwards a few decades, and that boy, Soichiro Honda, was now competing with some of the biggest car brands in the world, while also owning the largest motorbike manufacturer.

This is the story of how one poor Japanese boy, went from babysitting children... to building a multibillion-dollar brand, Honda Motors.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on July 22 that it had lodged stern representations to Japan over its smearing of China in the newly-released annual defense white paper.

In the paper issued on July 22, Japan identifies China as one of its main security concerns and claims that there is "a lack of transparency" in China's military trends.

The document vilifies China's defense policy, normal military development, and legitimate maritime activities, playing up the so-called "China threat" and interfering in China's internal affairs on the Taiwan question, said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On Friday, the Chinese Embassy in Japan also rejected the accusations in the document.
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REDDING  Local residents and activists are hitting back at a plan from Eversource to clear hundreds of trees growing on local and private property in the vicinity of the companys utility poles near the scenic Cross Highway in Redding.

Power outages in the area over the past five years affected 2,600 customers who experienced a collective total of 4.9 million minutes without power, according to an Eversource spokesperson.

The work proposed by the utility company would see the removal of hundreds of trees, including healthy trees, growing over a 3.7 mile area surrounding the targeted power lines in Redding, all part of a wider strategy to clear trees and boost power line resiliency across about 700 properties located in 12 Connecticut towns.

The entire effort comes as a direct response to power outages caused as a result of the increasing frequency of powerful storms in Connecticut  a trend the company views as linked to climate change, according to Sean Redding, Eversource Connecticut manager of vegetation management.

Yes, we have experienced that, we have seen it, not just in those major catastrophic tropical storms but we have seen huge increases in tornado activity, he said.

He noted multiple tornadoes touched down in Connecticut on a single day last year.

In the wintertime we are seeing more powerful noreasters, dumping more snow and being more impactful because of their intensity, because of climate change, he added.

But Janice Rotchstein, a member of the Redding Tree Conservancy group, said the yard signs lining the road in the area where the utility company plans to remove trees signal opposition to the project.

If you go up and down Cross Highway and Hill Road and some of the other roads in Redding, even those that are not being targeted, there are signs that say, Say No to Eversource, and the back of the sign says, Bury the Lines, she said.

While Eversource is positioning the project as a way to save the utility lines; she added, of course we feel it is at a terrific expense to the trees of Redding.

The Eversource official downplayed the impact of cutting trees in Redding and the other towns, pointing to the expansive carbon sink  meaning the areas ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere  found in forested areas stretching from the mid-Atlantic region to the Canadian maritimes region.

The few trees that we take down are, if you will, a drop in the bucket, he said. There is a change to the microclimate in that individual spot, but that is why, as part of this, we are including mitigation in the form of compatible tree planting, he said.

After removing the trees, Redding explained, crews would seek to plant medium- to- small-sized trees and bushes as a way to mitigate the removal of the past vegetation.

It does not, one-for-one, replace a potential carbon storage but it is not a wholesale clearing of everything, leaving nothing behind, he added.

Redding said the decision to target the tree-cutting work in areas across the 12 identified towns came from a review of a decades worth of data showing where outage impacts in the state hit the hardest, a shift from the regular, yearly effort to clear hazardous trees and vegetation lining roughly 4,000 miles of powerlines.

The difference here is instead of spreading those removals across thousands of miles, we identify these segments as having the greatest opportunity in future storms as well as day to day, to make them more resilient by concentrating not just the removals of hazard trees next to the line but deeper  we have seen in our outage investigations, trees up to 60 feet away failing and hitting the lines because of the height of the trees, the topography and the height of our lines, he said.

He said the plan is to clear hundreds of trees in the town of about 9,000 people, including healthy trees, all located along a nearly four-mile stretch of Cross Highway. But the plan hinges on approvals needed from local landowners and the town.

For the private properties in question, Redding said his team is working with property owners to get consent, talking, and explaining the proposal as far as the tree work, showing them the condition of their treesThey can agree or not, if it is on their private property, that is the law, so this is not forced on anybody.

For trees on town-owned property or within a public roads right-of-way, the Eversource official said any removal work would require approval from its Planning Commission and a review by the towns tree warden who would then issue a permit for the work.

Under state laws, tree wardens are appointed public officials responsible for trees alongside public roads and in public spaces, other than those on state property or under the jurisdiction of a park commission. Each municipality in Connecticut is required to have a tree warden, whose responsibilities include approving the planting, pruning or removal of trees under his or her authority.

The town of Redding does not employ a tree warden after the position became vacant last year. First Selectwoman Julia Pemberton did not respond to a request for comment.

Janice Rotchstein, a member of the Redding Tree Conservancy group, said she spoke with Pemberton, who told her efforts are underway to hire a tree warden, with the offer of a $1,500 annual stipend as compensation for the role.

Basically, we have been told we just dont have the money in our budget - $1,500 a year to be the tree warden, said Rotchstein. [Pemberton] told us that [the candidates] just werent interested and I think money had a lot to do with it,

Redding acknowledged the towns lack of a tree warden in the town and said the Eversource plans would be delayed until the position was filled.

We understand that nothing can proceed on the public roadway until the town has a tree warden and it goes through the process, he said. We are following all the rules of the process, letting people know what our plan is and not doing anything until all of the approvals are in place.

A tree hugger to the rescue?

Matthew Largess owns a tree business in Rhode Island but said he is a tree hugger who stands at the ready to help save forests around New England and across the country.

Known by his nickname, twig, the nationally recognized and certified described himself as the voice of the forest, adding he is actively working to educate the public on the impact of the Eversource tree removal plans.

This type of project, I do all the time, Lagresse said. It is what I do, when I get this call, this is more important than any tree company job  my crew thinks I am whack-o.

Largess explained threats to the forests he works to preserve come from a variety of sources.

Sometimes it is logging, he said. Sometimes is clearing for development. The utility lines is definitely part of it.

He said he gets endless calls to go to towns outside of his homestate but this case in Redding is different.

They are really clearing good trees, Largess said. Usually they just trim the bad trees and the limbs but this new thing they are doing - this is test plot for this town so there are 12 towns in Connecticut they are doing it in.

I have already walked the area where they are going to cut, and the trees are not ready to fall with mushrooms on them, he added.

Largess defined the area of proposed tree-clearing as being native forest and including a major sugar maple component. He estimated many of the trees in the area to be more than 100 years old and underlined the canopys importance for the local environment and property owners.

For Redding residents who own property with trees that Eversource hopes to remove, Largess underlined the impact of the clearing-work, noting that roughly 10 to 15 percent of any propertys value is linked to vegetation and trees.

At a more macro-level, he cautioned against the removal of healthy trees in the area, especially of the sugar maple variety, calling them the most colorful tree in the world. They produce sugar. They are like an iconic New England tree.

Ultimately, Largess said, he hopes he can work with Eversource experts to find a compromise. He said he sees this opportunity in Redding as test pilot for the rest of the country.

I like Eversource, I like how they do things so I am not against them at all, and I am going to make sure they know that, but I am the voice of the forest so I save trees and they know that, too, he said.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  A southeastern Montana tribe has filed a federal lawsuit against the Interior Department and its Bureau of Indian Affairs, saying the U.S. is not complying with its treaty obligation to provide adequate law enforcement services on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Billings argues the federal government does not provide enough federal law enforcement officers, drug investigators, missing persons investigators or jail space even though violent crime has increased on the reservation, The Billings Gazette reported.

Public safety on-reservation is severely compromised due to the lack of meaningful BIA law enforcement presence in our communities, Northern Cheyenne Tribe President Serena Wetherelt said in a statement.

She added: Officers often respond to 911 calls too late and even when they do show up, they frequently fail to make reports, secure crime scenes, or arrest people who are actively committing crimes."

The officers also lack of understanding of tribal and federal law, which leads to suspects not being charged or prosecuted, the lawsuit said.

Reports of violent crime on the reservation increased 50% from 2019 to 2020 and does not include crimes that went unreported, the lawsuit said.

The Interior Department declined Friday to comment about the lawsuit, spokesperson Tyler Cherry said.

The tribal government has asked for help since at least 2018 and on its own hired two former BIA officers and a former BIA corrections officer to create a tribal investigations agency, The tribe is seeking at least $1 million in restitution for the money spent on those officers, the lawsuit said.

After several homicides on the reservation in the summer of 2020, some tribal members created a vigilante group with its own phone number so it could respond to crime reports, the lawsuit said.

The jail in Lame Deer, home to the tribal headquarters, is a temporary holding facility for intoxicated people taken into custody. All other suspects must be taken to a jail 56 miles (90 kilometers) away in Hardin, which reduces the number of officers on patrol because they have to transport the suspects, the lawsuit said.

In many cases, officers instead of arresting criminal suspects drop them off at a homeless shelter, leaving them free to reoffend, the lawsuit said.

About 5,000 members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe live on the 694 square mile (1,800 square kilometer) reservation. Federal data showed 17 tribal members were missing in August 2021  the third highest total number of missing people for all U.S. tribes, the lawsuit said.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP)  Most abortions will become illegal in Wyoming on Wednesday after Gov. Mark Gordon gave the go-ahead Friday under a new state law.

The law bans abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to protect the mothers life or health, not including psychological conditions.

The Wyoming Legislature approved the ban and Gordon signed it into law in March in anticipation that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade. That happened June 24, kicking off a review by Attorney General Bridget Hill to make sure Wyoming's law conforms to the Supreme Court ruling.

Gordon certified the law to the Secretary of State's Office after Hill completed her almost four-week review Thursday.

I believe that the decision to regulate abortion is properly left to the states, Gordon said in a statement. As a pro-life governor, my focus will continue to be on ensuring we are doing all we can to support Wyoming mothers, children and families.

Wyoming currently allows abortions until a fetus can survive outside its mothers body, generally around 23 weeks. Wyoming has no abortion clinics but the procedure still occurs in other medical settings, with 98 in the state reported to the Wyoming Department of Health in 2021, up from 91 in 2020.

The abortion ban will have an immediate and devastating effect on those in Wyoming who can become pregnant, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.

Thanks to Wyomings trigger law, Wyomingites will have fewer rights than people in other states. A persons health, not politics, should guide important health care decisions, including the decision to have an abortion, said Libby Skarin, ACLU of Wyoming campaigns director.

Organizers of a planned womens health and abortion clinic in Casper have said they might contest the state abortion ban in court. An arson attack in May delayed the clinic's expected mid-June opening.
GATINEAU, QC, July 23, 2022 /CNW/ - Child care is not just a social policyit is also an economic policy. Access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive child care will grow the economy, allow more women to enter the workforce and give children in Canada the best start in life. That is why the Government of Canada signed agreements with each province and territory to implement a Canada-wide early learning and child care system.

Today, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, and Yukon's Minister of Education, Jeanie McLean, celebrated the one-year anniversary of signing the Canada-Yukon Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

As part of the agreement with the Government of Yukon, the Government of Canada is providing nearly $42 million over five years to help improve licensed early learning and child care for children under 6 years of age in the territory. The Government of Canada's investment builds on Yukon's successes to provide Yukon families with access to full-time licensed early learning and child care spaces at less than $10 a day on average.

With support through the Canada-Yukon Canada-wide agreement, the Yukon has already surpassed its commitment to create 110 new licensed early learning and child care spaces within five years, to help provide Yukon families with access to early learning and child care. The territory focuses on supporting the creation of spaces in licenced non-profit, for-profit, family day home and First Nations government-operated centres.

The governments of Canada and Yukon have created an implementation committee to monitor progress on early learning and child care commitments in consultation with partners and stakeholders. The Government of Canada is represented on the committee by the Federal Secretariat on Early Learning and Child Care.

In addition, the Yukon supports:

a strong and skilled workforce of early childhood educators, including through greater opportunities for professional development, increased funding for program operators to provide comprehensive insurance benefits, and one of the highest minimum wages in Canada for fully qualified early childhood educators at just over $30 an hour;

for fully qualified early childhood educators at just over an hour; a universal child care system that is inclusive of children with differing abilities and children needing enhanced or individual supports and that ensures that all families have equitable access to high-quality, affordable care; and

a clear commitment to continuing to work collaboratively with First Nations partners across the Yukon to ensure that families have access to affordable and high-quality early learning and child care that promotes Yukon First Nations ways of knowing, doing and being.

Building a Canada-wide child care system that works for all families in every region of the country is a key part of the plan to make life more affordable for families while creating good jobs and growing the economy. Nearly all of Canada's provinces and territories have already seen reductions in child care fees. By the end of 2022, average fees for licensed early learning and child care spaces will be cut in half across the country. For jurisdictions such as the Yukon and Quebec which already have an affordable universal child care system in place, investments will support, among other things, the expansion of high-quality and inclusive child care spaces.

Quotes

"I'm thrilled about the great progress we've made in the past year since the signing of the Canada-wide agreement with Yukon. By working with the Government of Yukon, we are helping to make high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive child care a reality in the territory."

 Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould

"The Government of Yukon is unwavering in our commitment to providing families with access to high-quality, inclusive and affordable licenced early learning and child care. In the Yukon's first year of universal child care more than 200 new spaces for children were created, the minimum wage for fully-qualified early childhood educators was increased to one of the highest in the country, and out-of-pocket parent fees were reduced to less than $10 per day on average for full time spaces. With support from the Government of Canada, we continue to enhance early learning and child care for the benefit of families, early childhood educators, program operators and all Yukoners."

 Yukon's Minister of Education, Jeanie McLean

Quick Facts

The Yukon signed its Canada -wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement on July 23, 2021 .

signed its -wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement on . The Yukon achieved a universal child care system costing less than $10 -a-day on average in the spring of 2021, prior to signing the Canada -wide agreement. Federal investments will support the expansion of the system in the Yukon .

achieved a universal child care system costing less than -a-day on average in the spring of 2021, prior to signing the -wide agreement. Federal investments will support the expansion of the system in the . In response to requests from provinces and territories, and to support the implementation of the Canada -wide early learning and child care system, Budget 2022 proposes to provide $625 million over four years, beginning in 20232024, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. This funding will enable provinces and territories to make additional child care investments, including the building of new facilities.

-wide early learning and child care system, Budget 2022 proposes to provide over four years, beginning in 20232024, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. This funding will enable provinces and territories to make additional child care investments, including the building of new facilities. Recognizing that early childhood educators are at the heart of a high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive child care system, wage grids and/or additional training supports for early childhood educators are part of all Canada -wide agreements with provinces and territories, with the exception of Quebec , which has an asymmetrical agreement.

-wide agreements with provinces and territories, with the exception of , which has an asymmetrical agreement. As part of Budget 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of more than $27 billion over five years to build a Canada -wide early learning and child care system with the provinces and territories. Combined with other investments, including investments in Indigenous early learning and child care, up to $30 billion over five years will be provided in support of early learning and child care.

made a transformative investment of more than over five years to build a -wide early learning and child care system with the provinces and territories. Combined with other investments, including investments in Indigenous early learning and child care, up to over five years will be provided in support of early learning and child care. In total, the Government of Canada is aiming to create approximately 250,000 new child care spaces through Canada -wide agreements with provinces and territories, and has already achieved its goal of creating 40,000 more affordable child care spaces before 2020 through the 20172018 to 20192020 Early Learning and Child Care Agreements. These new licensed spaces will be created predominantly among not-for-profit, public and family-based child care providers.

is aiming to create approximately 250,000 new child care spaces through -wide agreements with provinces and territories, and has already achieved its goal of creating 40,000 more affordable child care spaces before 2020 through the 20172018 to 20192020 Early Learning and Child Care Agreements. These new licensed spaces will be created predominantly among not-for-profit, public and family-based child care providers. Investments in early learning and child care will benefit everyone across Canada . Studies show that for every dollar invested in early childhood education, the broader economy receives between $1.50 and $2.80 in return.

Associated Links

Toward $10-a-Day: Early Learning and Child Care - Canada.ca

$10 a day child care for Canadian families

Canada-Yukon Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement  2021 to 2026

Federal Secretariat on Early Learning and Child Care

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SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Mohammad Hussain, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559; [email protected]; Krisandra Reid, Communications Analyst, Department of Education, Governement of Yukon, 867-336-0653, [email protected]
Outside Kallakurichi Government Medical College and Hospital, where the deceased Class 12th girls body would be presented to her parents on Saturday, Tamil Nadu Police officers have been stationed.

Riot and damage occurred at a school in Kallakurichi on July 17 as a result of girls passing . On Friday, Madras High Court ordered parents of a Class 12 student who had died in Kallakurichi to receive their daughters body, which is now in police custody. The court also urged the parents not to prolong this matter.

Tamil Nadu government asked court to give instructions to parents on how to gather students lifeless remains and perform the final rites.

High Court Bench instructed parents to pick up the body by Saturday, July 23, at 11 a.m., or else police action will be conducted. On Saturday between six and seven in the morning, parents have agreed to pick up the body.

The district superintendent of police, S Selvakumar, was moved on July 19 with immediate effect in response to the violence that broke out in Tamil Nadus Kallakurichi following the murder of a Class 12 student who allegedly fell to her death from terrace of her private schools hostel.

A second autopsy of the girl who committed herself on July 18 after she was reportedly tormented by two teachers at her school in Kallakurichi was ordered by Madras High Court. The girls father was permitted to stay for the process as per the courts ruling.

According to the police, abrasions were reported in the initial post-mortem report. Multiple wounds and haemorrhage were listed as the cause of death in initial autopsy.

The deceased girls father had petitioned the Supreme Court for a modification of Madras High Courts ruling regarding the second autopsy.

Class XII student at a private school in Kallakuruchi, Tamil Nadu, who allegedly leaped from her hostels rooftop provoked violent demonstrations in the neighbourhood, leading the Salem police to deploy strong security around the school and adjacent places. In some instances, Section 144 had to be implemented. Girl was allegedly being tortured by school teachers.

The girls suicide letter claimed that a teacher had reportedly tormented her.

All private nursery, matriculation, and CBSE schools that stayed closed on Monday as a result of violent demonstrations over the schoolgirls murder have since received a notification.
In a massive impact to a campaign NewsX has been relentlessly pushing since 2019, PoK refugees have written to Amit Shah seeking to de-freeze 8 vacant seats in the J&K assembly meant to be allotted to districts in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Due to their location within Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 24 seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly remain empty.

Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir is composed of 111 members elected directly from territorial seats inside the state, in accordance with section 47 of its constitution. However, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly now has 87 members.

Despite Indias declaration that PoK is a part of J&K Lok Sabha does not allow for a Parliament seat there.

In a recent letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, Sos International Chief urged to de-freeze 8 out of 24 seats designated for POJK refugees.

Rajiv Chunni, the head of Sos International, has sent a letter requesting for an election to be held for these J&K Assemblys 8 seats to go to POK refugees.

Sos International is a group that advocates for the rights of displaced people and works with POJK refugees.

In his letter to Home minister, Chunni calls for 8 assembly seats to be put up for election in order to put an end to the agony of 17 lakh POJK refugees.

However, POK refugee leaders claimed that government has no problem de-freezing seats for them because the parliamentary standing committee has already issued a report on the subject stating that the government may allocate eight seats to POK refugees.

Earlier on 2014, a joint parliamentary committee was made to look further into this matter. As per committee report no. 183 of Rajya Sabha, the Government of India should take up the matter of de-freezing of 8 seats for PoJK DPs with the State Government of J&K keeping in view the problems being faced by DPs.

The report further stated, Ministry may impress upon the State Government to make amendments in the State Constitution, if necessary, at the earliest.

While talking to NewsX, Chunni said, I have sent this letter only to remind the government of these facts so that no error should be repeated whenever this law comes up for a vote in parliament. I think POJK refugees will gain political power this time.

Rajiv Chunni further said that these seats cannot be given to Kashmiri pandits since they were legally allocated for the POJK geographical inhabitants, and pandits do not fit under these parameters because they are Kashmiri.

Chunni thinks that by putting this measure into effect, Kashmiri Pandits will also receive their political rights and value as representatives.

SOS International chief believes that this political representative power would let everyone know that India is a secular nation and that Pakistan is no longer allowed to use POK territory for any unlawful purposes.

Since 2019, NewsX has been constantly discussing the subject with varied panelists to spread out the plight of Pok refugees. After many debates and discussions, we now stand strong with our thought to identify this issue.

With governments current course of action, we might witness a historic day where Pok refugees will be seen taking oath in the assembly.
Four of every 10 workers surveyed by a Connecticut firm expect to search actively for a new job in the back half of 2022, in order to gain, maintain or expand remote working allowances as employers reel more people back to the office.

Norwalk-based OperationsInc surveyed 500 workers nationally on their expectations for remote working, and changes in the policies of their employers more than two years after the COVID-19 virus forced people to hole up in home offices while waiting for vaccines.

A third of workers told OperationsInc they expect to be back in the office daily or nearly so in the coming six months  and many appear to be balking at the prospect, whether in vocal protest or initiating job searches quietly otherwise to scout opportunities to lock remote working into their careers.

OperationsInc CEO David Lewis told CTInsider the survey and anecdotal feedback suggest large numbers of employees are willing to take less money to work from home  amounting to a double-savings for employers who can save on rent in the long-term by leasing less office space.

There continues to be a significant disconnect between employers who are, in our view, ill-advised in continuing to attempt  if not mandate  that employees do their work from their offices, versus the employee who is saying, No way, Lewis said. For us its really clear: the employee populations do not want to go back to the office and are making that clear they are not going to. And they are winning that battle.

Ipsos, which likewise has a Norwalk office, undertook a poll commissioned by McKinsey of more than 25,000 workers this past spring on how remote working has evolved in their companies. Ipsos calculated only about four in 10 people hold jobs with requirements that prevent them from working remotely. Of those polled by Ipsos, 87 percent indicated they would prefer a remote-working allowance for at least a portion of the normal routine.

And a ZipRecuiter survey from earlier this year indicated that six of 10 job seekers are looking for more flexibility.

Fully remote work is the No. 1 search term on ZipRecruiter today and all of 2022, said CEO Ian Siegel during a May conference call. Were entering a new and interesting period where a lot of employers across America are compelling workforces to return to the office full time, and so were going to have to see whether that abates or aggravates the rate at which the currently employed are quitting their jobs and looking for new work.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 43,000 Connecticut workers quit their jobs in April not including those who left for retirement. Adjusted for seasonal considerations like the holidays and summer months, it was the second highest total in the past decade after November 2021.

Employers posted nearly 110,000 open jobs in Connecticut in June, according to a Conference Board count published by the Connecticut Department of Labor. While only a small percentage of jobs on the Indeed website specified remote working arrangements as of Wednesday, many of those openings fit the parameters that would allow for remote working at least some of the time through a broadband connection.

Lewis says Connecticut should be benefiting more from the era of remote working, with the decoupling of commutes eliminating the daily grind on roads and rails for workers in New York City, Stamford, New Haven and Hartford; and allowing some to consider moves to preferred communities, whether for cost-of-living or lifestyle considerations.

In a June interview, the CEO of MannKind Corp. said the company has been able to retain all of its employees in Danbury who manufacture inhalers to treat diabetes and pulmonary arterial hypertension, despite limitations on what it can offer as far as remote working given the nature of the job.

Some of this is Millennial-based  I feel like younger employees want more freedom and flexibility to work from home a lot, said Mike Castagna, CEO of MannKind. Thats just not our culture, so Ive said to people, we;ve got to recruit people who want to be here.

He added managers still grapple with the intersection of home and office life, for elements as simple as dress codes for online confabs, or interruptions whether they originate on the home front for child care or any other reasons. But his own sense is that bosses more than anything are generally averse to the kind of overnight change that the pandemic spawned, and still place a premium on in-person interactions that flex working arrangements have limited.

It starts with just human nature  this is how weve done things, this is what we know, this is what were used to, and just because we were all put into a situation where we had to work from home doesnt mean we should continue to do this, Lewis said. Employees have come back and basically said, Why?  and made a very cohesive argument.

Includes prior reporting by Paul Schott.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
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STAMFORD  The parent company of Patriot Bank announced this week that it had terminated its agreement to merge with another firm, a deal that had been intended to create the largest digital bank in the U.S.

Stamford-based Patriot National Bancorp announced plans last November to acquire, through a reverse subsidiary merger, American Challenger Development Corp., which was formed in January 2020 to establish a new digital national bank headquartered in Stamford. The transaction had been advancing through the regulatory process, with Patriot announcing on July 6 conditional approval from the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The parties have mutually determined that not all closing conditions of the merger agreement can be satisfied under the current structure and agreement, Patriot said in a news release. Although the parties remain in active discussions regarding a modified transaction, it is uncertain whether a new agreement can be reached.

Termination of the merger agreement was mutually agreed by the companies and unanimously approved by their boards of directors, according to the release.

Pursuant to the parties mutual termination and release agreement, the parties have agreed to release each other from any claims relating to or arising out of the merger agreement or the transactions contemplated thereby, the release added.

In its own news release, American Challenger said it was exploring a sale of the company and that it had hired Citi as its strategic adviser in the process.

Following the announcement, Patriot shares closed Thursday at about $11.37, sliding nearly 9 percent from Wednesday. They have hit a 52-week high of $18 and a 52-week low of $8.52.

In the past year and a half, Patriot comprised one of several Connecticut banks to announce plans for a merger or acquisition. In April, M&T Bank completed its acquisition of Bridgeport-based Peoples United Bank, while Stamford-based Webster Bank finalized in February its combination with Sterling National Bank.

There are Patriot branches in Darien, Fairfield, Greenwich, Milford, Norwalk, Orange, Stamford, Westport, as well as Scarsdale, N.Y. The bank also operates express banking locations at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, in downtown New Haven and at Westfield Trumbull mall.

For the first quarter of 2022, Patriot finished with total assets of about $975 million, net loans of about $764 million and total deposits of around $780 million.

pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott
After killing Bobbi the Bear in Newtown, Lawrence Clarke couldnt stop shooting off his mouth.

As a Ridgefield police sergeant, its appropriate that Clarke told investigators he wanted to be transparent about the investigation into his off-duty fatal shooting of the popular mother bear, whose two orphaned cubs were rescued at a neighbors property.

He said enough to convince the Department of Energy and Environmental Protections Environmental Conservation Police not to file charges.

Then he said some other stuff.

Like explaining that he chose to grab the AR-15 when he went to confront the bear because it felt like a security blanket. Maybe thats appropriate. Security blankets are for confronting fictional threats.

Or revealing that the AR-15 seemed like the best choice next to his shotgun, rifles and handgun. Dont blame him for being unsure, since he admitted he never hunted before. After all, there are surely other reasons to stockpile guns. He said he was not a hunter. He is now.

Then theres his line about being almost a perfect shot with the AR. His first shot hit Bobbi in the head. While the bear was down, and apparently having seizures, Clarke shot her in the head three more times. Seven casings were recovered, so Clarke apparently missed three times from less than 20 feet away.

He defended his actions by acknowledging the alternative: What am I going to do? Am I going to say ... hey everybody lets just watch TV and lets roll the dice and hope this bear doesnt freaking kill my chickens? Well yes, that would have been better, with the addition of calling DEEP for help.

He did confess to making one bad call, that the only thing he did wrong was pick up his rounds, except for one.

Clarkes critics think he made a few more mistakes May 12, starting with shooting Bobbi in the first place. He told investigators of hate mail he received, which is inappropriate under any circumstances. For all his training, and his stockpile, he was not prepared to confront a bear.

A lot of people arent, and can be understandably rattled upon meeting a bear unexpectedly. Most people havent learned the lesson that avoiding eye contact and making a little noise can prompt black bears to back off.

Those who reported sightings of Bobbi, who was marked with the No. 217 on ear tags, seemed to be at ease. Bobbi ate from backyard bird feeders like she was snacking on peanuts at a bar, washing them down with cocktails from hummingbird feeders.

Since 2017, residents in Newtown, Redding, Bethel, Ridgefield and elsewhere reported to DEEP that they had effectively shooed Bobbi away by using air horns, banging pots and blowing high-pitched whistles. Such tactics reliably work on the black bears that populate the Eastern United States (which have fur that ranges from black to gray to cinnamon). A video went viral in recent days of a woman in North Carolina using her teacher voice to ward off a black bear that climbed onto the deck (What do you think you are doing on my porch? You get up, go, go! How dare you? she scolded before the bear slinked away).

More than one Connecticut resident logging a Bobbi sighting noted she was beautiful. A Redding resident inquired in 2018, might I learn of its history?

Bobbis story was documented in recent years on her own Facebook page, where her profile pic depicts her lounging on a hammock. Turning a bear into a local celebrity has practical advantages, such as informing neighbors of its location. But it can also pose the problem of not recognizing the genuine perils of cohabitating with wildlife. No one should be looking for opportunities to take selfies with a bear.

Clarkes problems arose as Bobbi developed a taste for his backyard chickens that might as well have been a buffet. He told his wife to contact DEEP, and a wildlife biologist advised her to buy an electric fence for the chicken coop. The solar device wasnt charged by the time Bobbi returned.

No one needs an AR-15 to ward off backyard critters. It was a particularly chilling choice in Newtown, where the same weapon was used 5 miles from Clarkes home to kill 20 students and six educators a decade ago. The AR-15 also was used by the gunmen in Uvalde, Texas, in May (21 dead), Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 (17 dead), Pulse nightclub in 2016 (49 dead), Las Vegas in 2017 (58 dead) ...

Finally, theres that mistake Clarke admits to making. He knows better than to pick up evidence after a shooting. But collecting the rounds makes it impossible to determine whether he also put neighbors at risk.

The reports are murky when it comes to the numbers. Seven rounds were recovered, along with a 30-round magazine with 17 unused rounds. But the number of shots fired is not definitive. When it comes to practical applications of math, no number matters more than when counting bullets.

Activists and neighbors remain livid that Clarke wasnt charged, as its illegal in Connecticut to kill bears.

Bobbi the Bear may not have had Clarkes arsenal, but she has formidable troops on her side. The chief states attorney received a letter Tuesday asking for the investigation to be reopened. It carries about 400 names, including activists, area residents, leaders from groups such as the state Humane Society, Sierra Club, CT Wildlife Rehabilitators Association and five state representatives (David Michel, D-Stamford; Nicole Klarides-Ditria, R-Seymour; Mitch Bolinsky, R-Newtown; Raghib Allie-Brennan D-Bethel; and Anne Hughes, D-Easton). Getting Clarke charged has become a bipartisan cause.

Regardless of whether that effort succeeds, Clarke will remain adrift in Connecticuts version of purgatory, a gray twilight of social media scrutiny and cautionary tales.

Protect the coop before raising chickens. Stay inside when theres a bear in the yard. Call the DEEP as the first step, not the last. Instead, Clarke followed that familiar, reckless pattern: ready ... fire ... aim.

John Breunig is editorial page editor of the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time. jbreunig@scni.com; twitter.com/johnbreunig.
By Wang Chuan and Li Jianwen

SHIJIAZHUANG, July 22 -- The first batch of J-10 cadet pilots, 23 years old on average and directly trained by the air force flight academy, got ready to be assigned to the combat units of the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) upon graduation on July 21.

In 2020, the PLAAF launched the trial of the new mode of pilot cadets training at the Shijiazhuang Flight Academy, in which the J-10 fighter jet was introduced as the trainer aircraft for the first time. According to the previous training mode, a pilot cadet needed to undergo four to six years of flight training before being qualified for flying the third-generation fighter jet. Now the pilot cadets trained in accordance with this new mode are able to obtain combatant qualification for third-generation fighters after receiving only three years of flight training.

These cadets were randomly chosen from the pilot cadets of the PLA Air Force Aviation University. With the J-10 fighter jets introduced to be their trainer aircrafts, they underwent all the training subjects for obtaining the combatant qualification according to the training program of combat troops, and the level of training was also comparable to that of the combat troops with the same type of aircraft.

The new training mode highlights raising these pilot cadets air combat capability. During the training processthe pilot cadets held confrontational drills with the PLA Army air-defense troops, and the proportion of tactical training items, such as the multi-aircraft air combat and live firing operations, has also been increased. All these efforts have helped accelerate the transformation from pilot cadets to qualified combatants, who are able to perform combat missions on third-generation aircraft upon graduation.

The trial of the new training mode serves as an important measure for the PLAAF to implement the strategy of strengthening the armed forces through training of competent personnel in the new era. It is of great significance to deepening the reform of military training and speeding up the generation of new combat capabilities.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy believes attempts to overturn the 2024 presidential election will be more organized and sophisticated than they were in 2020, which is why he joined the bipartisan effort to ensure a more peaceful transfer of power between presidents.

Murphy is one of 16 senators who worked together to craft compromise legislation reforming the centuries-old Electoral Count Act, aimed at preventing future interference in certifying election results.

In an interview Thursday, Murphy said he is hopeful there will be enough Republican support in the Senate to pass the compromise bill.

The two bills, which were introduced Wednesday, cover a wide range of protections aiming to make it more difficult to challenge electors and clarify the role of the vice president during the congressional certification of the results - two issues that arose following the 2020 election when former President Donald Trump and his allies pressured Vice President Mike Pence to reject the results showing a Joe Biden victory.

Those efforts ultimately failed, but not before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, putting the vice president and lawmakers in danger. A House select committee is currently investigating the attack, what led up to it and the aftermath, and is holding its eighth public hearing on Thursday night.

Murphy said his involvement in the group stemmed from his fear of potential threats that states may pose to the 2024 presidential election. The Supreme Court is set to hear a case in the fall that could give state legislatures greater control over elections.

The bipartisan coalition is led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and includes an additional seven Republicans and seven Democrats.

In 2024, the real threat is going to come from states who may throw out the election results and appoint their own electors, Murphy said. My chief goal was to make sure there are new protections in the Electoral Count Act to guard against bad state actors who throw out our election results.

Like most legislation coming before a split 50-50 Senate, Democrats werent able to get everything they wanted. The party tried passing a much larger voting rights bill over the past year, which included restoring parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but it stalled in the Senate because of GOP objections. Reforming the Electoral Count Act was one area of elections reform that many in both parties could get behind, albeit with a much narrower focus.

Murphy and some Democrats in the group tried to get more modest provisions related to the Voting Rights Act included in the new legislation. One of those included clarifying Section 2, which prohibits voting practices and laws from discriminating against voters based on race.

I know theres a lot of disappointment there, for good reason, that this bill doesnt go further, Murphy said, referring to what hes heard from voting rights advocates. Early in the process, there was some hope that we could include some improvements to the Voting Rights Act in this bill, and we were not able to get agreement on those provisions.

I and others thought it was still worthwhile to move forward with a narrow reform of the Electoral Count Act, he added.

Both pieces of the new legislation propose a fairly lengthy list of reforms.

The first bill, among other things, establishes an expedited judicial review to deal with candidate legal challenges and affirms that the vice presidents role is merely ceremonial in overseeing Congress certification process.

It also includes a provision that would raise the threshold for objecting to a states election results by requiring one-fifth of lawmakers in both chambers to do so. Currently, it takes one member in the House and Senate to raise an objection.

The other bill seeks to boost security for poll workers, candidates and voters who face threats of intimidation or violence, raising the penalty to a maximum of two years in prison. It also reauthorizes the independent Election Assistance Commission for five years and reaffirms that electronic election records must be preserved.

The proposed reforms are likely the only election-style legislation that can get through Congress, especially in a divided Senate where a certain amount of Republican support is needed. But Murphy said he feels pretty confident theyll get the necessary votes to pass it.

There are already eight GOP senators on board, which means they only need two more Republican votes if all 50 Democrats are supportive. Most legislation needs to reach the 60-vote threshold to overcome a potential filibuster.

Other than the Republicans in the bipartisan group, others in the GOP have expressed an openness to the bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, indicated again on Wednesday that he could support it, saying at a press conference that the 1887 law does need to be fixed and that hes been in constant contact with Collins, the lead GOP negotiator.

Its still unclear how soon the Senate will move on the legislation, especially with the month-long August recess approaching and a number of other high-priority bills on deck, but Murphy said lawmakers need to get it done before the end of the year. Regardless of which party wins control of the House and Senate in November, Democrats will still control Congress through at least early January.

As Congress seeks to streamline the federal certification process, states have been enacting bills that either strengthen or limit voting rights.

For a blue state, Connecticut has some of the more restrictive state voting laws in the country, though it eased them during the COVID-19 pandemic. Connecticut is one of 15 states that require an excuse to vote by absentee ballot. And it is one of four states that dont allow in-person early voting. The state, however, offers Election Day voter registration.

But Connecticut has recently sought to broaden voter access. In April, Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a bill expanding who is eligible for absentee voting. But there would need to be a constitutional amendment to make larger changes to how the state conducts its elections.

It is admittedly a little embarrassing to be on the front lines of pushing other states to keep their mail-in systems and their early-voting systems when Connecticut doesnt have one to start, Murphy said. We backdoored our way into a mail-in system during the pandemic for emergency reasons.

Murphy and others acknowledge the federal legislation isnt perfect and itll take the cooperation of everyone to prevent another Jan. 6.

Election experts in Connecticut believe the compromise bills are a step in the right direction, though they argue that more might need be done depending on what comes out of the rest of the Jan. 6 investigations.

As we continue to learn more about the events that unfolded both on that day and leading up to that day through either the congressional investigation or the DOJ investigation, Congress might have to come back to the drawing board and figure out other ways to also improve it, said Gayle Alberda, a political science professor at Fairfield University.

But it looks like reforming the 1887 law might not be the only suggestion coming out of Congress. Two members on the Jan. 6 committee - Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, released a joint statement saying theyre considering legislative recommendations, noting that it will include a bipartisan approach to the Electoral Count Act.
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GREENWOOD, Ind. (AP)  The family of the man who fatally shot three people at a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall said Friday that they had no inkling that he was capable of the violence.

In a statement released through their attorney, Jeffrey and Justin Sapirman, the father and brother, respectively, of gunman Jonathan Sapirman, extended their deepest condolences who have suffered as a result of the tragedy at the Greenwood Park Mall on Sunday.

"We had no reason to believe that Jonathan would ever engage in these extreme actions. We are unable to offer any explanation for his decisions and are as shocked as the rest of the community.

They said their last communications with Jonathan in the days before the attack were cheerful and that he was looking forward to future plans.

We are cooperating completely with law enforcement in efforts to provide insight into not only Jonathans actions, but also in the chance anything we may add could aid in preventing similar events," they said.

The Sapirmans also said they have no feelings of hostility toward Elisjsha Dicken, a 22-year-old man from Seymour who was shopping at the mall that evening and who ended the attack by fatally shooting Jonathan Sapirman.

We choose to remember Jonathan as the thoughtful and intelligent young man we knew and loved. We, too, are grieving and kindly request that our privacy is respected in this difficult time, the statement concluded.

Jonathan Sapirman shot and killed a married Indianapolis couple  Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37  and Victor Gomez, 30, also of Indianapolis.

Two people were also wounded in the attack: a woman who was shot in the leg and a 12-year-old girl who was hit in the back by shrapnel.
NEWTOWN  It may be easy to forget that four years ago, Neil Heslin was at a breaking point and Alex Jones was at the height of his influence as Americas premier conspiracy media figure.

There was Heslin, reeling after Jones had used his Infowars website with 30 million monthly page views to accuse Heslin of lying about details of his son Jesses death in the Sandy Hook shooting for a nefarious and criminal purpose.

But now, as Heslin prepares for a trip to Austin, Texas  the base of Infowars  its Jones whos at a crossroads, having been deplatformed by tech giants and having lost at least $20 million as the first of three trials is set to determine how much Jones will pay Sandy Hook families he defamed.

Jones was the one who started this fight, and I am going to finish what he started, says Heslin, whose joint defamation awards trial with Jesses mother Scarlett Lewis begins with jury selection on Monday and opening arguments on Tuesday in Austin. I am looking forward to pushing ahead with this trial and the final part of justice being served.

The trial that begins Monday will be the focus of national attention in what has become the highest-profile defamation case of its kind in the country. It will also serve as an abbreviated version of what Connecticut can expect in September, when a jury trial to determine how much Jones must pay an FBI agent and eight Sandy Hook families he defamed begins in Waterbury.

At stake is not so much compensating already grieving Sandy Hook families for the emotional turmoil Jones defamation caused  to a large extent, the damage will always be there, Heslin says  but rather hope that a damages verdict will flood light into the dark corners of the country where the fiction persists that the worst crime in modern Connecticut history never happened.

It is hard to explain for a rational person  for a normal person  to understand or fathom or relate to why hoaxers and conspiracists do it, said Heslin. It is something you cant fathom unless you have been subjected to it.

Scarlett Lewis agrees.

For somebody to be claiming that Sandy Hook never happened is counterproductive to our goal and to the goal of every parent in the country who wants safety in their schools, said Lewis, who founded the nonprofit Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement to provide schools with free social and emotional learning programs. This isnt about me  this is about our children and their safety, and if one-quarter of Americans dont believe Sandy Hook happened, then they are not going to advocate for essential life skills programming like Choose Love.

Jones meanwhile continues to fight for his version of the story  that he no longer believes the slaying of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was staged, synthetic, manufactured, a giant hoax, and completely fake with actors. Jones argues he has a right to be wrong under the free speech provisions of the First Amendment. He says his First Amendment case was never argued in court because he was unjustly defaulted and found liable in all three Sandy Hook cases by judges in Texas and Connecticut.

The problem with Jones version of events, according to the families lead attorney in Texas, is that it ignores the fact that Jones knew the completely baseless claims which he would continually repeat with malicious obsession  were false or made  with reckless and outrageous disregard for their truth.

If there is any surprise left in the Alex Jones Sandy Hook defamation awards trial after four years in the headlines, the families Texas attorney says, it will be what evidence reveals in court next week about the inner workings of Jones Infowars platform.

I dont think the public is prepared to see how malicious and cruel they are when you start looking at their internal communications, said Austin attorney Mark Bankston. They knew these were all lies. They knew the people they were putting on the show were crazy. Just how depraved it all is I think will be uncomfortable for people.

Jones lead attorney in Texas, Andino Reynal, declined to comment for this article, except to say that he looked forward to the trial.

What to expect

Those tuning in to trial coverage in Texas can expect to see both Heslin and Lewis on the witness stand as the jury determines how much they are each due in compensatory damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, both in the past and in the future. The jury will additionally decide how much Heslin is due for damage to reputation and mental anguish, both past and future.

Finally, the jury will decide how much to award Heslin and Lewis in punitive damages.

Whether Jones himself will be testify or whether the parents attorneys instead will show jurors excerpts of Jones pretrial depositions remains to be seen.

Jones has tried to portray himself as a free speech martyr, but I hope the trial shows this is a very cruel man who knew exactly what he was doing, Bankston said.

Jones defended himself on Infowars this week, posting an interview with a constitutional lawyer and claiming that the upcoming defamation awards trials are an unprecedented assault on due process and the rule of law.

Jones is also publicizing the July 29 release of a documentary called Alexs War. In the trailer Jones calls himself the most banned, most demonized media person in the world. Specifically addressing Sandy Hook in the trailer, Jones says, I try to tell the truth and sometimes Im wrong.

Heslin says he is realistic about the extent to which wrongs against him will be righted by a jury award of damages, insofar as Jones has entrenched Sandy Hook denial in the conspiracy subculture.

Speaking about the insecurity of never knowing whether a Sandy Hook denier intends a threat seriously, Heslin said, You may have a week or a month of calmness and something triggers it  whether it be a mass tragedy or some other event  and then it starts, whether its phone calls, physical confrontations, or emails.

These are people who have made (Sandy Hook denial) their life  they go to extreme measures to conceal themselves to harass people, Heslin said. Its not something you can just sweep under the carpet and be done with. Its not something after the trial for damages that will be over.

Scarlett Lewis agreed.

This has negatively impacted my one remaining son  on top of losing a brother and the trauma of the overall tragedy he is now faced with this accusatory and threatening letter that was spread all over the state, Lewis said. This is over something that was fabricated and made up and that is not OK.

Heslin said he will have to live with the consequences of Jones defamation, regardless of the jurys award.

Justice will be served with this trial but there is a price to pay for this justice, Heslin said. The damage that was done to me is irreversible  he has destroyed my credibility and he has destroyed my reputation. You cant put a dollar amount on it because there is no way to correct the damage.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, has accused his counterpart from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,...





Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, has accused his counterpart from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar of lying over his comment on Muslim-Muslim ticket.





Tinubu said Atiku asked him to be his running mate in 2007 but he refused.





Recall that Atiku had accused Tinubu of being a lover of the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.





Atiku, who was the Action Congress, AC, presidential candidate in 2007, had said Tinubu wanted to be his running mate then.





The former Vice President said his refusal and insistence on a Southern Christian led to a breakdown in his relationship with Tinubu.





Reacting, the APC presidential candidate accused Atiku of being a pathological liar.





In a statement by Tunde Rahman, his media aide, the APC candidate said:  Atiku may want to be president. However, all he has shown is that he is a pathological liar.





Let me say openly that Atiku offered me the vice presidential ticket in 2007. Let me also say that my religion has not changed. When he offered the position to me, I was a Muslim and I believe he was aware of my religious faith at the time.





Atikus calculations and deceit had nothing to do with religion or his sensitivity to it. His conduct has everything to do with what we discovered about his paucity of character and love of intrigue.
President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja told stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the unity, security and prosperit...

President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja told stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the unity, security and prosperity of the country would matter most to him, beyond his days in office as President.

The President expressed delight that the party is on towards that eventuality.

He thanked the delegation led by the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, for the kind words on my role in processes leading to the emergence of our candidate, and his running mate, for the Presidential election in February, next year.

I want to thank you all for the roles you played in the build-up, first to our national convention earlier this year, and later, to the primary elections.

You were all of one mind, wanting the best for the Party, with the candidate emerging in a free and fair manner.

For us all, the cohesion and unity of the Party was the first priority, and ambition was second. I am glad that you all saw the larger picture, rather than narrow, self-serving interests.

President Buhari recounted that when the presidential running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, was presented to him a couple of days ago, he had said he would reserve his comments till the handover ceremony on May 29, 2023, at the Eagle Square.

I still maintain that same position, the President said, lauding party members for acknowledging the many virtues that qualify the Vice Presidential Candidate for the noble position.

The President expressed confidence that Shettima would not disappoint the Party, and Nigerians at large.

He also commended the Party for resolving to further mobilize more Nigerians, particularly youths, to register, and get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), saying It is the way to go.

The National Chairman of the party, the Chairman, the Progressives Governors Forum and Governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and Shettima, in separate remarks, expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership which has strengthened the Party in the aftermath of the convention and primaries.

Adamu said: Our main goal is to see the success of the APC in the forthcoming general elections. Theres no better parting gift than to ensure that the APC produces the next President.

Bagudu told the President that he had set a worthy precedence on internal democracy in political parties, saying:

Under pressure to dictate or suggest , you were determined that the democratic process should be given the opportunity to work and what we have seen is that democratic processes can produce very excellent results.

We have a Presidential Candidate and a running mate, whom we are all proud of.

The Kebbi Governor attributed the gradual return of normalcy to the North Eastern part of the country to the spirited interventions approved by the President, acknowledging the rise in agricultural activities and food production in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

The Vice Presidential candidate reiterated the willingness of the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and himself to serve Nigeria with justice, equity and fairness.

We want to solicit the support of the President once INEC lifts the ban on open-air campaigns and we want to latch on to your achievements and brand name to victory, and consolidate the leadership of the party, he said.
Nigeria will supply gas to the European Union (EU) as the Russia-Ukraine war which started in late February lingers. The EU Delegation to Ni...









Nigeria will supply gas to the European Union (EU) as the Russia-Ukraine war which started in late February lingers.





The EU Delegation to Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) made the disclosure at the weekend.





The Deputy Director-General, Department for (Energy), European Commission, Matthew Baldwin briefed reporters in Abuja.





Baldwin is in Nigeria to meet government officials and private sector players, including key stakeholders in the energy sector.





The official admitted that Europe is in a tight spot, following the war the instability in its gas market and the threat of cutting off supply.





We have launched the energy platform task force and the primary goal is to reach out to our reliable partners such as Nigeria to replace the gas from Russia, he said.





The EU had advised member states to reduce gas consumption by 15 per cent as it warned that a complete shutdown of Russias supply was possible.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the monkeypox outbreak in more than 50 countries an emergency of international concern....

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the monkeypox outbreak in more than 50 countries an emergency of international concern.

WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak is concentrated among men who have sex with men.

Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.

That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups, he added.

WHO said declaring an emergency is the highest alert level for health threats but it has no immediate consequences.

It is meant to alert governments to take action to protect their populations, he said.

The outbreak of the viral disease monkeypox was confirmed in May 2022, beginning with a cluster of cases found in the United Kingdom.

From May 18 onwards, cases were reported from an increasing number of countries and regions, predominantly in Europe, but also in North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

As of July 23, there have been a total of 17,186 confirmed cases. Since the beginning of 2022, 72 deaths have been reported, all in Africa.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Spirits writer Emma Janzen is visiting New Orleans this week to attend Tales of the Cocktail, where shell sign books and participate in panel discussions. Two of those panels focus on topics related to her books. Because of her book Mezcal: The History, Craft & Cocktails of the Worlds Ultimate Artisanal Spirit and more recent magazine reporting, shell speak on a panel about Mexican spirits. Her book about Japanese cocktail bars, The Way of the Cocktail, written with bar owner Julia Momose, won a James Beard Foundation Award earlier this year. Her latest book is The Bartenders Manifesto, written with veteran craft bartender Toby Maloney. For more information visit emmajanzen.com and talesofthecocktail.org.

Gambit: What do you make of mezcals recent rise in popularity?

Emma Janzen: Some sales numbers have raised eyebrows. For the first time, this year, the sales of tequila and mezcal together are outpacing whiskey sales in the U.S. And theyre on pace to beat vodka next year to be the No. 1 selling spirit in America, which is pretty crazy.

They share that DNA of being agave spirits, but historically, mezcal sales have been much smaller than tequila. I think theres more interest. There are more (mezcal) brands coming out in the U.S. every year, but the growth is exponential.

From a commercial market standpoint, in the late 90s, Ron Cooper from Del Maguey Mezcal was traveling around Mexico saying, hey, these spirits are super cool and so much more diverse and interesting in flavor and technique than what we know of tequila. He started bringing that brand in and that caught the attention of all these bartenders.

The version of mezcal that was available in the states for so long was poor quality stuff. It was industrially made. It had a worm. It wasnt the more craft-driven spirit that existed in Mexico  that we just didnt have access to yet. Its been nice to see peoples understanding expand as were being introduced to more varieties.

The industry is at this precarious moment where there are all these traditional producers and because there is so much demand, there is pressure to streamline production to be more efficient and fill this demand. Thats threatening a lot of the traditions. When made traditionally, mezcal is a gorgeous spirit that takes time to make. When you speed up those processes, you lose a lot of the character of the spirit. My impression is that there is a perception that mezcal is only smoky and thats what Americans want to drink. Smoky is just one aspect. They can taste herbaceous, they can taste vegetal. The best ones for me are the ones where you are tasting more of the agave and less of the smoke.

Gambit: What are we seeing with the rise of Japanese cocktail bars?

Janzen: I think the most interesting Japanese-style or Japanese-inspired cocktail bars come from people who are from Japan or of Japanese heritage. They have that interesting challenge of operating a bar with those sensibilities in a different country. You have to adapt a little bit for the American market and what theyre used to and what they want to see, while also trying to expand their understanding of what that (Japanese) culture is.

Julia (Momose) says (her bar Kumiko) is not a Japanese cocktail bar, because were not in Japan. Its not Japanese-inspired because (she is) Japanese. She is from Japan originally and moved here when she was 18. For her, the bar exists in a space between those things. Its the experience of a Japanese women who came up through the bartending ranks in America.

There are several pillars (that define a Japanese cocktail bar). There are obvious things like the tools and ingredients, and I dont mean only using Japanese ingredients like sake or shochu or shiso leaf or cherry blossoms. Those things naturally come into play, but a Japanese cocktail is about picking the right ingredient for the drink.

Its easier to talk about what a Japanese cocktail is not. Its not just cocktails invented in Japan, though those things exist, like the Million Dollar or the Bamboo. It has to reflect the technique. It has to reflect the interconnectedness between the bartenders intention and the way they bring it to fruition.

Chockie Tom talks about tiki, Indigenous representation and cocktails at Tales of the Cocktail We asked Chockie Tom about becoming a bartender, how drinkers can embrace change and her upcoming seminar at Tales.

Gambit: Whats the idea behind The Bartenders Manifesto?

Janzen: Toby Maloney is an industry vet. Hes worked in the bar world for 25 years. He came up in the Sasha Petraske school. He worked (in New York) at Milk & Honey, worked for Audrey Saunders at Pegu Club and Julie Reiner at Flatiron. He was on the ground when the whole cocktail movement started to stir.

For this book, what he wanted to do was put the Violet Hours training program in a kind of manual for people who want to make drinks at home. Its fun. Its entertaining because Toby is an incredible character, and it has so many stories. Its a guide to understanding cocktails and bartending in a way thats more than you can pull up a recipe, mix it up at home and have it taste good. The whole thing is that after you read it you should be able to go forth and evaluate your ingredients and put them together in a way thats going to taste good. Theres innovation and invention on the fly.

We were inspired by Samin Nosrats Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat in the beginning of our book. Were talking about cocktails through the lens of texture, temperature, aroma and balance. Its another way of thinking about drinks I havent seen presented before in books.
For the fifth year, it's time to celebrate the north shore with a Taste of Summer.
Robert Hoobler, the New Orleans police officer who helped save Lil Waynes life when the future rapper shot himself at age 12, has died at age 65, his friends said Saturday.

Hoobler was found dead Friday in his Old Jefferson home, they said. For several years, he suffered from lingering health issues after a car wreck and a struggle with diabetes led doctors to amputate both legs, according to his grandson, Daniel Nelson.

Update: Lil Wayne speaks out after Hoobler's death: 'U refused to let me die'

David Lapene, a friend and former coworker at the Police Department, said Lil Wayne's account of Hoobler and officer Kevin Balancier saving his life 27 years ago is "one of the best stories that depicts Hoobler as a person."

The rapper, born Dwayne Carter Jr., was handling a 9 mm pistol in his mother's Hollygrove apartment on Nov. 11, 1994, when he shot himself in the chest. Whether it was an accident depends on when the rapper tells the story.

Hoobler heard the police radio report and, although off duty, drove to the scene, as did five other officers. No ambulance was available, so the ranking officer ordered Hobbler to rush the boy to a hospital.

Balancier backed a police car into the apartment driveway and opened the cruiser's door. Hoobler carried Dwayne to the back seat and lay the badly wounded youth across his lap.

Speeding to hospital

One officer blocked traffic at major intersections, and as Dwayne groaned and bled all over Hoobler, Balancier sped to Ochsner Medical Center, the closest emergency room.

Hoobler spoke to Dwayne during the trip and shook him to keep him alert: "Stay awake, son. You're going to be fine. You'll see."

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When they arrived, Balancier opened the door and let Hoobler out. Hoobler put Dwayne on a gurney, and nurses and doctors wheeled him away.

'Always people forward'

Hoobler went to the restroom at the hospital to wash off what he could. Most of his shirt was tinted dark red.

Lil Wayne has recounted the story in interviews. In one, the Black rapper said he never knew racism because of Hoobler, a White man whom he called Uncle Bob.

He was always people forward, Lapene said. He took care of the public just as much as he took care of the cops.

After retiring from the Police Department, Hoobler started working at the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office in 2009. He was fired and charged with malfeasance in office in 2012, for shooting a man he was arresting with a stun gun. He took a plea deal and served probation, and later received a pardon due to being a first offender.

More recently, he had been working at Rock & Roll Towing in Kenner.

NOPD officer who helped save a young Lil Wayne's life retires after 33 years on force A New Orleans Police Department officer who had a hand in saving Lil Waynes life after the superstar rapper shot himself in the chest as a bo

+22 Lil Wayne discusses Drake's absence and a long-ago suicide attempt in New Orleans Lil Wayne said his protege Drake does not appear among the guests on his new album "Tha Carter V" simply because the track he and the Canadian
A police officer in Rochester, New York, was shot and killed on Thursday, while another was wounded, in a shooting that happened in the northeastern part of the city, authorities said.

Both officers were hospitalized, but one of them later died, police confirmed. A third person was also wounded in the incident. Her condition and the circumstances of the shooting werent immediately clear.

In a July 22 press briefing, Rochester Police Department (RPD) Chief David Smith said Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year veteran of the police force, was shot at least once in the upper part of his body.

Last night, Officer Mazurkiewicz and his partner  were attacked in a cowardly ambush and fell victim to the very violence in our community that we are trying to combat, Smith told the briefing. [Mazurkiewicz] was transported to [Strong Memorial Hospital]but despite heroic efforts, he passed away.

Officer Sino Seng, an 8-year veteran, was shot at least once in the lower body and treated at a local hospital. He has since been released and is recuperating from his injuries at home with his wife and children, the chief said.

Yesterday morning  I was asked by the media, how dangerous is it out there for the Officers of the Rochester Police Department?' Smith said, Spectrum News reported.

My response was that every day, the men and women of this department leave home, not knowing if they are going to return home at the end of their shift, he said. Ten hours later, Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a father, a husband, and a 29-year veteran of the [RPD], was killed in the line of duty on Bauman Street while in service to our community.

RPD Lt. Gregory Bello, a spokesman of the department, said both officers were shot at about 9:15 p.m. by what appears to be a lone man. He noted that he didnt know if the shooter was in police custody or still being sought.

They were doing their jobs as police officers, and at least one male approached them and opened fire on them, Bello said.

The shooting happened on the very same day that Mayor Malik Evans declared a state of emergency in response to violent crime in the city of Rochester.

This is a tragedy for our community. Im asking Rochester to pray for these officers and their families, Evans told reporters near the scene of the shooting. They go out every day and put their lives on the line. And while there are some people who sit on the sidelines, these guys are on the front lines, trying to keep our community safe.

The mayors declaration will give authorities the power to shut down streets if they are particularly problematic. It will also allow the RPD to expand its coordinated efforts with the State Police and the U.S. Marshals Office.

What I know that is with this emergency declaration, this will give us the ability to not only marshal other resources, but also be very targeted in areas to stop people from continuing to wreak havoc in our city, Evans said on Thursday.

According to data on shooting incidents released by Rochester officials, a total of 204 people have been shot in the city so far this year, while 35 of those people have been killed.

The department also revealed that 84.8 percent of those involved in the 174 reported shootings that occurred in the city this year were black, and 14.7 percent were white. Another 0.5 percent of the cases were marked as unknown. More than 80 percent of the homicides involved guns.
LAPORTE  The LaPorte County Commissioners want answers to their concerns about the environmental clean-up of the NIPSCO coal-fired generating station in Michigan City after it closes.

Commission President Sheila Matias said shes heard from environmentalists about potential health hazards of any buried coal ash allowed to remain at the site.

Matias said she plans to seek input now from NIPSCO, which is proposing to remove 10% of the coal ash and cap whats left.

She said 10% is all thats required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but wonders if more should be taken out since the site is beside Lake Michigan, a source of drinking water for millions of people.

Matias said there might be an environmental risk already because of a seawall that appears to be weakening. The coal ash is stored in several ponds at the site and the seawall is holding back coal ash closest to the shoreline.

Matias said shes especially concerned about the health risk of any coal ash leaching into the lake.

Im looking at other communities in the Midwest where they have the same issue and theyre removing 100%. I want to know how did they get that to happen? she said.

She brought the matter up for discussion at Wednesday nights LaPorte County Commissioners meeting.

Matias said her goal was to make more people aware of whats planned at the site so they can get answers to any questions they might have about NIPSCOs clean-up strategy.

Well hold NIPSCOs feet to the fire to make sure they do whats right, said Commissioner Rich Mrozinski.

Its something we really need to keep a close eye on, said Commissioner Joe Haney.

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has scheduled a hearing for Aug. 1 on NIPSCOs plan to pay for the estimated $40 million clean-up with a rate increase. The hearing at Michigan City City Hall is set to begin at 6 p.m.

Matias said she plans to be at the hearing to educate herself on NIPSCOs position and encourages any member of the public with concerns to attend.

NIPSCO needs to hear the communitys concerns, she said.

According to NIPSCO, the generating station in Michigan City will close between 2026 and 2028.

Its Schahfer generating station in Wheatfield is set for closure in 2025.

NIPSCO is phasing out coal to rely more on the wind and sun to provide electricity.
GARY  The Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church Drama Ministry and The Gate Theater in Chang Mai, Thailand are collaborating to bring back childrens theater to Northwest Indiana after its been absent for the past 50 years.

The two ensemble companies plan to present a production of Goldilocks on Trial to elementary-school children across the Region and the South Side of Chicago during the spring 2023 semester.

The church is celebrating 100 years in Garys community in the upcoming year. Were trying to launch off into the deep end and bring some things back to Gary that have been missing, Evangelist Janice Culver, director of JMBC Drama Ministry, said.

We want to bring joy back to these children; theyve been through so much.

Culver, a Gary resident, said she and director Stephan Turner are seeking 20 adult actors across Northwest Indiana to join the play. She said the ensemble must be available to rehearse no fewer than three days per week in the early spring.

Stephan Turner, whos lived in Thailand for nearly 18 years, is the founder and director of The Gate Theater, which is based in Indiana but located in Chang Mai. The Gate is northern Thailands first English-language theater company.

Turner, a Gary native, visits the U.S. every few years. After meeting with Culver during his most recent visit in June, the two decided to collaborate on a joint venture to stage Goldilocks on Trial, because Turner had previously directed it in Chang Mai.

Its important to bring back the arts anywhere its lacking. Gary is lacking many things, one of which is arts, Turner said. It hurts my spirit to see the way things have turned out for my city, I want to help contribute to the future.

Childrens theater was popular at Indiana University Northwest in the early 1970s under local directors including Alger Boswell and Tom Mazur, Culver said. Turner was introduced to the technical aspects of theater at IUN in the mid-'70s when Culver was acting in the play, "Aladdin's Magic Lamp."

I didnt know what I wanted to do until I met technical director Tom Mazur. He helped me realize I could be a student at the university and work with the stage crew as a technician for extra money, Turner said. It got me really interested. Those basic skills I learned then have gotten me where I am today.

The two ensemble companies are negotiating with The Glen Theater in Gary and state Rep. Vernon Smith to perform the play for two weeks, with a maximum of two performances per day, in April 2023. Culver also hopes for there to be matinees on both Saturday and Sunday for local families to come watch.

Latrice Williams, CEO of HOME Mentoring & Tutoring, is formulating brochures that local elementary-school principals will receive in the late fall informing them about the core standards and educational benefits of the play.

Culver said not only will this play be exciting for the children, but provide them with comprehension, fluency, speaking and listening skills.

Culver said she was inspired by theater as a child, so she hopes Goldilocks on Trial, can do the same for other children. During her acting career shes appeared in feature films The UnMiracle and Three Corners of Deception, and short films, Dear Mama and Grace on the Line.

Anyone with inquiries about joining the play or being a sponsor should contact Janice Culver by email at culverjanice56@yahoo.com or by phone at 219-713-9268.
A Crown Point High School teacher was arrested Thursday on charges he had an inappropriate relationship with a student during the 2019-2020 academic year, police said.

Christopher W. Degenhart, 50, of Crown Point, was arrested and charged with two counts of child seduction, as a level six and level five felony.

The Crown Point Police Department said it received a complaint from a medical professional June 28 regarding the alleged relationship. An investigation began immediately, leading to Thursday's arrest, police said.

Charges were presented Friday. Degenhart posted a $30,000 surety, $3,000 cash bond.

A probable cause affidavit filed in the Lake County Prosecutor's Office alleges a 17-year-old female student at Crown Point High School became involved in a sexual relationship with Degenhart during her senior year of high school.

The affidavit said during her senior year, she was involved in the school's theater program and began to have conversations with Degenhart that were not school related. It further said that the two began to email frequently, with Degenhart using a personal email address.

In early 2020, she began to come to school early to see Degenhart, according to the affidavit. The meetings became more frequent and by the middle of February allegedly included sexual activity. The alleged actions persisted until the school closed in March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The relationship continued until August 2020.

When police began an investigation into the matter, Degenhart stated he had a relationship with the student that progressed to hugging, "heavy petting" and kissing while she was a senior student, according to the affidavit.

Police said that when interviewed, Degenhart said he waited until the student turned 18 to engage in sexual activity, but when confronted with her statements, he allegedly said his memory was murky and that he would not refute what she said.

The Crown Point Police Department thanked the Lake County Prosecutor's Office and Crown Point Community School Corp. for their cooperation in the investigation. Anyone with information related to the incident may contact Detective Michael Smulski at 219-663-2131, ext. 291, or by email at msmulski@crownpoint.in.gov.
HAMMOND  An Indiana State Police trooper was pinned against a concrete barrier wall along Interstate 80/94 after a North Carolina driver crashed into multiple vehicles early Saturday morning, according to ISP.

About 2 a.m. Saturday, state troopers and the Hammond Fire Department were investigating a suspicious incident on I-80/94, just West of Calumet Avenue, when a white 2016 Dodge Charger traveling eastbound hit a Hammond firetruck and a black 2009 Subaru. According to ISP, the Subaru spun out of control, hitting a black 2012 Dodge Journey that was parked on the right shoulder of the road. The Journey hit state trooper William Carlson and pinned him against a concrete barrier wall.

Carlson was able to free himself and was taken to Munster Community Hospital for treatment. ISP said he has been released.

The driver of the white Dodge Charger, 23-year-old Bryan K. Smith, tried to run away from the scene, leaving a seriously injured 23-year-old woman from Chicago Heights, Illinois, in the Dodge Charger. A civilian who was working nearby blocked Smith with his car. According to ISP, another civilian exited his truck, drew a handgun on Smith and told him to stop.

Smith complied and State Trooper Ryan Parent arrested him.

The female passenger in the Dodge Charger was flown to Advocate Christ Medical Center for treatment. ISP said her current condition is unknown.

Smith was taken to Munster Community Hospital for minor injuries and is now being held at the Lake County Jail.

No other injuries were reported. ISP said a Glock .45 handgun was found inside the Dodge Charger.
Mr. Grisell, the Film Noir regular, once chatted with Mr. Malitek about The Denial of Death, a 1973 book that investigates cultural attitudes toward mortality. Mr. Malitek suggested Mr. Grisell watch a series of Eastern European films, Mr. Grisell said, and in them he discovered a view of death  one with rawness and aggressiveness but also spiritual qualities  that seemed new to him.

Mr. Grisell felt hesitant to speak to a journalist about Film Noir for fear that it would become too popular, he said. It would be at the risk of losing its freedom and the ability to express enthusiasm, because I think commerce at a certain point suppresses that.

To be on the receiving end of Mr. Maliteks special brand of enthusiasm might indeed be an honor, but he would hate for it to feel too pleasant.

A customer returned a movie on a sunny afternoon in May. Not many laughs in that one, he commented.

Its Czech, Mr. Malitek replied.

What was the movie  some bloody but profound lesser classic?

The erudite recommender became the cryptic film noir character. Mr. Malitek was not naming names.

The movie was just something weird, he said. Thats exactly what this place is all about.
Perry Rubenstein, a gallerist who rose rapidly in the New York art world of the 1980s, then fell into disgrace in the 2010s after a failed transition to Los Angeles ended with his conviction on two counts of embezzlement, died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 68.

Sara Fitzmaurice, his former wife, confirmed the death but said the cause had not been determined.

Mr. Rubenstein was one of several prominent young gallery owners to emerge in Manhattan in the mid-1980s, as a wave of Wall Street cash poured through SoHo and Chelsea, swooping up the work of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner and Julian Schnabel.

A former Versace model with an impeccable knack for the next big thing in art, Mr. Rubenstein fit in with the in crowd; for much of his career he worked as a private dealer for the very, very rich. He specialized in both rising stars and blue chips, brokering works by Victor Matthews alongside Warhols and Lichtensteins.
T-Mobile has agreed to a settlement totaling $500 million in a class-action lawsuit filed by customers after the company disclosed in August that sensitive data had been breached in a cyberattack.

In a court filing late Friday, the mobile phone giant said it would pay $350 million to settle the customers claims and spend $150 million over the next few years bolstering its cybersecurity protection and technologies.

The breach affected 76.6 million people in the United States, according to the company. It exposed highly sensitive data, including customers first and last names, Social Security numbers and drivers license information.
SATURDAY PUZZLE  Its fitting that weve had some scorching Saturday grids this hot July; todays is no exception. I felt optimistic at the start after finding several inroads, but I got hopelessly stuck in a central spot. The end result was a slow solve time that was as slow as it is when I get a couple of bits of short fill and then stare blankly for a while at a puzzle.

John Lieb has been making puzzles for The Times for close to a decade, but it has been about a year since his last one (another tricky Saturday, in collaboration with Brad Wilber). Todays grid has a fairly low word count and is wide open, meaning there are large swaths of solid white squares that make things challenging for constructor and solver alike. Theres also one entry that I dont believe Ive ever seen before, which doesnt happen very often to this old hand.

Tricky Clues

15A. Its lovely how this entry, clued Monodon monoceros, more familiarly, crosses 5D, Animal whose name means, literally, nose. We know that a nose job is a rhinoplasty, and we know that RHINO (5D) is short for rhinoceros. So monoceros is, er, one ceros (one horn). Unicorn fits at 15A interestingly, but the entry here is NARWHAL, that Arctic whale with the extravagant tusk.
Packing a cooler for a relaxing, sun-filled day at the beach is like playing Tetris. But no matter how adept you are at puzzles and video games, inevitably you give up on stacking all those multishaped containers neatly, resorting to lugging a poorly organized cooler  along with multiple bags  across the hot sand.

You dont want to feel like youre working a job by the time you get to the beach, said Nikki Boyd, a professional organizer in North Carolina and the author of Beautifully Organized: A Guide to Function and Style in Your Home. Keep the cooler compact, and make it work for you as efficiently as possible.

With a little planning and a few expert tips, a day at the beach can actually be relaxing.

Choose the Right Cooler

To master cooler Tetris, choose a cooler with one large insulated interior. Lauren Rivard, the founder of the Picnic Collective, a picnic catering company in Costa Mesa, Calif., recommends avoiding coolers with multiple compartments, like the soft, collapsible coolers with various sleeves and pockets, which only take up valuable space.
A Washington State man threatened twice this week to unleash racist violence on a Buffalo supermarket, officials said on Friday. The threats came two months after a gunman allegedly driven by white supremacist hatred killed 10 Black people at another store in the city.

The Washington man, Joey David George, made the threats in phone calls to a Tops supermarket on Buffalos Elmwood Avenue, saying he planned to use assault rifles and other weapons he had to kill Black people at the store, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Mr. George, 37, of Lynwood, Wash., also said in the calls that if he did not find people to kill at the Elmwood Avenue store, he would go to a second Tops supermarket  the one that was the site of the racist massacre in May  and kill people there, the complaint says. He ranted about a race war during his second call to the store, according to the complaint.
At the heart of the arguments at the arraignment was whether the toy gun found by investigators qualified as a weapon.

Soon after announcing Officer Middletons arrest, the Police Departments public information unit posted a message on Twitter that said that bead blasters  toy guns that shoot water gel pellets, similar to the one discovered near the shooting  are illegal in the city. A Police Department spokesman said the message had not been specifically prompted by the killing of Mr. Chaluisant but by other recent episodes in the city involving water-bead weapons.

On Friday, the department put out a similar message on Twitter about bead blasters. The message was accompanied by pictures of several devices that the department said it had confiscated on Thursday. None of the pictures showed the device recovered as part of the investigation into Mr. Chaluisants killing, officials said.

On Friday, the police also shared with The New York Times two videos of bead blasters that were recently posted on social media. One shows a person shooting the toy gun at law enforcement officers outside the Bronx Hall of Justice. The other shows a person firing a toy gun at a police officer.

Joey Jackson, a lawyer who works for Officer Middletons union, the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, and who is representing him, said his client had acted in what he believed was self-defense.

At the time that my client discharged a single round, he was doing so under the belief that he was in immediate fear of death, of his life, Mr. Jackson said.
Marilyn Mosby lost her bid for a third term as Baltimores top prosecutor on Friday, ending a tenure that had thrust her into the national spotlight but was marred by legal difficulties.

Ms. Mosby, 42, was defeated in a Democratic primary race by Ivan Bates, a defense lawyer. The Associated Press called the race for Mr. Bates on Friday evening, three days after the election.

When Ms. Mosby became states attorney for the City of Baltimore in 2015, she was 34 years old, the youngest top prosecutor in any major American city. Several months into her first term, she drew national attention when she announced that she would prosecute six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man who died in police custody after suffering a spinal injury.
Wes Moore, a celebrity author and former nonprofit executive who campaigned as a political outsider, has won the Democratic primary for governor of Maryland.

Three days after voting concluded, The Associated Press declared Mr. Moore the winner late Friday over Tom Perez, a former labor secretary and Democratic National Committee chairman; Peter Franchot, the state comptroller; and six other candidates.

Mr. Moore, a best-selling author who for a time hosted a show on Oprah Winfreys cable network, cast himself as a dynamic newcomer in a race in which his top rivals were all veterans of Maryland or national politics. In addition to an endorsement from Ms. Winfrey, he had the backing of the Democratic leaders of both chambers of the Maryland legislature and three members of the states congressional delegation  a strong showing for a first-time candidate.
When all 50 states, the District of Columbia and United States territories declared public health emergencies in response to the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, those declarations allowed state officials to lift limits on hospital capacity, expand access to telehealth services and even allow highway weight limits to be exceeded, in case the National Guard needed to quickly move in.

By Monday, fewer than a dozen states will have emergency declarations in place, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. States have let the declarations expire even though the Omicron subvariant known as BA.5, perhaps the most transmissible coronavirus subvariant yet, is pushing up positive tests, hospitalizations and intensive care admissions across the country.

The wider latitude conferred by a states public health emergency, like making it easier for out-of-state medical providers to help with in-person and telehealth care and for retired health care workers to return to work, was critical to states responses to earlier waves of coronavirus cases.
Once the audience filed back into the auditorium at the end of the break, Mr. Bolz said, Mr. Wiegand reappeared onstage to announce that the remainder of the performance would be canceled. Shortly before 11 p.m., the state operas general manager, Serge Dorny, used Twitter to announce Mr. Solteszs death. We are losing a gifted conductor, he wrote. I lose a good friend.

Deaths at the podium are rare, but Mr. Soltesz is the fourth conductor to collapse midperformance at the National Theater, the Bavarian State Operas main venue, since the early 1900s.

In 1911, the Austrian conductor Felix Mottl collapsed at age 56 during his 100th performance of Wagners Tristan und Isolde and died 11 days later; the German maestro Joseph Keilberth died at age 60 at the podium in 1968 during a performance of the same work. Most recently in Munich, in 1989, the Italian conductor Giuseppe Patane collapsed at age 57 during Rossinis The Barber of Seville and died hours later at a hospital.

At Berlins Deutsche Opera in 2001, Giuseppe Sinopoli, 54, an intensely physical maestro, had a heart attack while conducting Verdis Aida. He died at a hospital hours later.
This spring, FEMA notified Ms. Robicheaux that her family had until October to clear out. And then well all be homeless, she said.

FEMA sells most of its vacated mobile homes instead of reusing them. Most are sold for about 10 to 15 percent of what it cost FEMA to provide them, including hauling, installation and the trailer itself, based on agency data.

FEMA could extend the time that people like Ms. Robicheaux and Ms. Bertrand can stay in their trailers. But Ms. Criswell, the FEMA administrator, said that wouldnt be in their best interest.

By having a set time frame, it gives people that focus, Ms. Criswell said. We want to help people get on their road to their permanent solution.

Among those who have already moved out of their FEMA trailer is Ms. Swope.

A few months after her son died, FEMA told Ms. Swope to start paying almost $900 in rent or vacate the trailer. Her house wasnt finished, but Ms. Swopes monthly Social Security check was just $905, so she moved back into the house anyway.

I mean, make up your mind, Ms. Swope said. Are you going to help us, or are you going to get all your trailers back?

Audio produced by Kate Winslett .
I dont think oncologists ever thought this day was coming for them, Mr. Cohen said.

Behind the confusion and concern from doctors are the stories of women like Ms. Brown.

She had a large tumor in her left breast and cancer cells in her underarm lymph nodes. The cancer was HER2 positive. Such cancers can spread quickly without treatment. About 15 years ago, the prognosis for women with HER2 positive cancers was among the worst breast cancer prognosis. Then a targeted treatment, trastuzumab, or Herceptin, completely changed the picture. Now women with HER2 tumors have among the best prognoses compared with other breast cancers.

But trastuzumab cannot be given during pregnancy.

Ms. Browns first visit was with a surgical oncologist who, she said, made it clear that my life would be in danger if I kept my pregnancy because I wouldnt be able to be treated until the second trimester. He told her that if she waited for those months to pass, her cancer could spread to distant organs and would become fatal.

Her treatment in the second trimester would be a mastectomy with removal of all of the lymph nodes in her left armpit, which would have raised her risk of lymphedema, an incurable fluid buildup in her arm. She could start chemotherapy in her second trimester but could not have trastuzumab or radiation treatment.

Her next consult was with Dr. Lisa Carey, a breast cancer specialist at the University of North Carolina, who told her that while she could have a mastectomy in the first trimester, before chemotherapy, it was not optimal. Ordinarily, oncologists would give cancer drugs before a mastectomy to shrink the tumor, allowing for a less invasive surgery. If the treatment did not eradicate the tumor, oncologists would try a more aggressive drug treatment after the operation.

But if she had a mastectomy before having chemotherapy, it would be impossible to know if the treatment was helping. And what if the drugs were not working? She worried that her cancer could become fatal without her knowing it.
The president and his interior secretary, Deb Haaland, could help further by bringing clarity to the administrations policies on oil and gas drilling, which right now are confusing. Mr. Biden pledged in his campaign to halt new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, which is a significant cause of greenhouse gas emissions. That promise seems long ago and far away. Interiors recent five-year offshore drilling plan opens the possibility of leasing in parts of the Gulf of Mexico, while a recent environmental impact statement does not foreclose, as environmentalists had hoped, the Willow Project, ConocoPhillipss proposed development of oil and gas resources in the fragile Western Arctic.

Mr. Biden is obviously in a tough place on drilling, given the political peril of high gas prices and their toll on American household expenses, plus the possibility that Vladimir Putins hold on Russian oil and gas supplies could drive them even higher. The environmental community is beyond nervous about the potential for more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. Meanwhile, there are other protective measures that are still available to the president, including reforms of climate-intensive farming practices and nature-based solutions to climate change, which would involve putting large areas of land and water off limits to commercial activity.

One thing Mr. Biden has going for him is the economic tailwinds created by science and technology, private sector ingenuity and earlier government investment. That includes, prominently, the $90 billion in clean energy investments in the 2009 economic recovery act, which were maligned by Republicans because of the failure of one solar panel manufacturer but have helped yield a spectacular drop in the cost of renewable energy over the last decade  nearly 90 percent for solar power and about 70 percent for wind power, not to mention the emergence of the electric car. (Tesla benefited from a big federal loan from the 2009 investments.)

Coupled with coals precipitous decline, these technological gains have helped cause a roughly 20 percent drop in emissions since 2005. This puts the United States on track to reduce emissions by 24 percent to 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, according to a recent report by Rhodium Group, a research firm.

That, as they say, is not nothing, but its nowhere near enough to meet Mr. Bidens pledge to the world. For that, we will need a huge infusion of federal money, which in turn means a concerned and engaged Congress. The threat posed by climate change to Americans lives and livelihoods is urgent and severe, and it requires significantly more commitment from those who are elected to protect them.
Its not hard to figure out why we are experiencing a new religion of profound pessimism. For a lot of people, things seem pretty bad right now  whether theyre fearful of Covid or care deeply about abortion rights being taken away, climate change, police brutality or severe restrictions on immigration  and the means by which those bad things might be changed or reversed seem more stuck than ever before. (As if on cue, a global heat emergency descended on us right after the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its bounds in creating the Clean Power Plan.)

Meanwhile, political figures from Donald Trump on down have been up to things many of us find not just anathema to democracy but abhorrent. Their dealings, all delivered to our eyeballs by the nonstop information deluge that is the internet, bring me, at least, to an emotional nadir. No wonder people arent feeling, shall we say, optimistic.

But recognizing that things are bad and could get worse is not what Im talking about. Rather, doomerism luxuriates in the awful, and people seem unable to get enough of it  the equivalent of rubbernecking at a terrible car accident. That horrible news story you saw? Thats whats going to happen everywhere, probably soon, definitely to you, and heres a 22-tweet thread about it. Also, the problems of every town and city are evidence of impending catastrophe, which is coming for you and your family, and no, theres nothing you can do about it. Covid? Monkeypox? Everything is another harbinger of calamity. And actually, people who arent doomers are just lying to themselves, pretending we are not all fated to die in a sick, sad world.

But  why? Whats the point of all this? If the idea of doomerism is to use hyperbole to spur readers or listeners to greater action, its not very effective. It seems to make our situation worse. As the climate scientist Michael Mann told Mother Jones in May, after Wynn Bruce died by self-immolation outside the Supreme Court, Climate doomerism can be harmful because it robs us of agency, the agency we still have in determining our future.
Research has found that patients in Britain with poorly controlled asthma have an asthma-care-related carbon footprint roughly three times that of those with well-controlled asthma, likely due to the overuse of propellant-based quick-reliever inhalers and more frequent emergency room visits during asthma attacks. Achieving better asthma control requires treating more patients with inhalers to prevent flare-ups.

As clinicians, we know that dry-powder inhalers are not for everyone. These inhalers require patients to take a deep breath to suck in the medication; the very young, the very old and those with severe lung disease may struggle with them. Fortunately, metered-dose inhalers with new propellants that have virtually no or greatly reduced global warming effects are under development. Such devices are urgently needed to provide a full range of inhaler options for patients and to minimize emissions.

We acknowledge that talk of environmentally friendly inhalers may stir up painful memories for health care providers who practiced in the 2000s. After the Montreal Protocol of 1987, older, ozone-depleting propellants were replaced with the current generation. The protocol not only protected the ozone layer but also prevented a substantial amount of global warming. However, pharmaceutical companies used this transition to place new versions of generic medications under patent protection, and predictably, inhaler costs skyrocketed.

This time, we can and must do better. For now, patients should continue using the inhalers they are prescribed. But the United States needs a more robust selection of generic dry-powder alternatives to lessen the impact on patients. And for those who continue to require metered-dose inhalers, policymakers and insurance companies need to protect patients from price hikes.

The U.S. health sector is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for approximately 8.5 percent of domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Since its fundamental mission is to promote health and well-being, it must pursue every opportunity to mitigate its effect on the climate.

Reducing inhaler emissions is an opportunity to curb the carbon footprint while improving respiratory disease. The wildfire smoke is already blowing our way; lets not add fuel to the fire.
Yes, its sometimes complicated. My daughters have my first husbands last name. (My opposition to the patriarchy succumbed to my reluctance to saddle another generation of women with my awful last name.) I have my last name. My husband has his. Buying plane tickets or showing up for parent-teacher conferences can be confusing. And I suspect if I didnt live in a deep-blue coastal city, thered be more raised eyebrows.

The idea of taking a husbands last name always made me uncomfortable, reminding me of The Handmaids Tale. In Margaret Atwoods Gilead, the handmaids, who exist to carry the babies of the elites, are stripped of anything that identifies them as individuals, including their names. They become just of the first name of their commanders: Offred, Ofglen, Ofwarren.

By changing her name  to Jennifer Muniz in a previous marriage and now to Jennifer Affleck  J. Lo is aligning herself with the majority of women in America. In the United States, only about 20 percent of women have kept their maiden names in recent years, according a 2015 analysis by The Upshot.

If you believe a 2003 Access Hollywood interview, changing her name to Bens has long been J. Los plan. But the early aughts were a different time. In 2003, Donald Trump was a failing casino owner and tabloid mainstay. Covid had not yet arrived to lay bare the sexism of the household division of labor and flush millions of women from the work force. Roe v. Wade was the settled law of the land.

Maybe the question of whether or not a pop star-slash-global-brand changes her last name feels unimportant  or, in an era where Hillary Rodham Clinton ditches her maiden name (in some contexts) and Amy Coney Barrett keeps hers, politically insignificant. Between the recent Supreme Court decision, and #MeToo, and the prospect of attacks on contraception and same-sex marriage, feminists have bigger fish to fry.

But these gestures matter. Names confer identity. And married women continue to give theirs up, while married men rarely reciprocate. No matter what else changes, that power imbalance endures. Dr. Rachael Robnett, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, told me in a telephone interview that it reflects mens greater status and power in relationships, and also in society.
In my vision, the Senate would be a council of revision that continues to represent the states as states. I think this is necessary because the United States will likely be a federal democracy for as long as it exists, and the system should probably accommodate the interests of state governments (insofar as they exist) in one way or another.

My Senate could not block House legislation, but it could offer amendments if it chose to take action. Those amendments would then be voted on by a conference committee of House and Senate members, for final approval. If the Senate decides to hold a bill for revision, it has a set amount of time  lets say 60 days  with which to act. If it does not act in that time, the bill is deemed passed and goes to the president for signing.

The Senate would retain its oversight powers as well as its power to approve treaties and offer advice and consent to the president for judicial and executive branch nominees. But advice and consent would mean an actual hearing and an actual vote.

The idea is to move the locus of policymaking back to the House of Representatives (which I would like to enlarge to at least 600 members), and to make it the most important chamber in the operation of government. In this scheme, it might be worth extending House terms to three years to reduce the pressures of campaigning and allow members more time to develop expertise, should they seek it.
In Donald Trumps quest to sustain his dominance over the Republican Party, his claim to have been robbed of victory in 2020 has been a crucial talisman, lending him powers denied to previous defeated presidential candidates. By insisting that he was cheated out of victory, Trump fashioned himself into a king-in-exile rather than a loser  an Arthur betrayed by the Mordreds of his own party, waiting in the Avalon of Mar-a-Lago to make his prophesied return.

As with many forms of dark Trumpian brilliance, though, the former president is not exactly in conscious control of this strategy. He intuited rather than calculated his way to its effectiveness, and he seems too invested in its central conceit  the absolute righteousness of his Stop the Steal campaign  to modulate when it begins to reap diminishing returns.

Thats a big part of why 2022 hasnt been a particularly good year for Trumps 2024 ambitions. Across 2021, he bent important parts of the G.O.P. back to his will, but in recent months his powers have been ebbing  and for the same reason, his narrative of dispossession, that they were initially so strong.
But when the war in Ukraine drove American gas prices over $5 a gallon, Mr. Bidens approach to the crown prince, who manages the countrys oil reserves, shifted focus.

Although Mr. Biden said Friday night that he had confronted the crown prince over the murder during their closed-door meeting, the Saudi government disputed the nature of the interaction. Now the president is being criticized for his apparent compromise on human rights.

But this wasnt the only human rights dilemma Mr. Biden faced on his trip.

Before he arrived in the Middle East, the president had not publicly addressed the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. Ms. Abu Akleh was a Palestinian American journalist for Al Jazeera who was fatally shot in May while wearing a press vest and covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank for the network. Several investigations, including one by The New York Times, found that the bullets had come from the location of an Israeli Army unit.

The United Nations human rights office concluded that the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the agency, said.

Despite pressure from Ms. Abu Aklehs family and others to address the killing, Mr. Biden did not mention Ms. Abu Aklehs death while he was in Israel.

Instead, in Jerusalem, the president reaffirmed his commitment to Israel as an ally and as an independent Jewish state. He called for a lasting negotiated peace between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people.
SAN FRANCISCO  Google fired one of its engineers, Blake Lemoine, on Friday, more than a month after he raised ethical concerns about how the company was testing an artificial intelligence chatbot that he believes has achieved consciousness.

A Google spokesman, Chris Pappas, said Mr. Lemoine, a senior software engineer in its Responsible A.I. organization, chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information.

The company, which denies that its chatbot language model is sentient, had placed Mr. Lemoine on paid leave in June. Mr. Lemoine confirmed his dismissal in a text message on Friday, and said he was meeting with lawyers to review his options. The firing was first reported by the newsletter Big Technology.
I know how hard it is for these women under these circumstances, Ms. Carpenter said. I imagine it means a lot to the women being targeted. It means a lot to me just watching it.

The Twitter attack by the House Republican Conference on Ms. Matthews, who works as a House Republican aide, was quickly deleted. But Mr. Trumps targeting of her and Ms. Hutchinson was in line with how the former president has often publicly treated women who challenge him, criticizing them in personal terms intended to call into question their credibility, sanity and self-worth.

Mr. Trumps allies like to describe him as an equal-opportunity counterpuncher who would attack anyone who crossed him. But over the years, he has singled out female antagonists with particular viciousness, including the television personalities Mika Brzezinski and Megyn Kelly, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of General Motors. His allies, many of them seeking his approval, have mimicked his behavior.

In the case of Ms. Hutchinson, a person close to her said, stories have been shopped to Trump-friendly media outlets smearing her personally.

Garrett Ziegler, a junior aide in Mr. Trumps White House, went on a misogynistic rant during a livestream this past week after sitting for an interview with the Jan. 6 committee in which he repeatedly refused to answer questions. In the rant, he used sexist slurs against his former female colleagues who have cooperated with the inquiry.

Pat Cipollone, Bill Barr, Marc Short, theyre saying the same thing, yet you attack the young women, said former Representative Barbara Comstock of Virginia, a Republican whom Mr. Trump in the past branded as a RINO loser, for Republican in name only.
Last year, Ms. Willis told The New York Times that racketeering charges could be in play. Whenever people hear the word racketeering, they think of The Godfather, she said, before explaining that charges under Georgias version of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act could apply in any number of realms where corrupt enterprises are operating. If you have various overt acts for an illegal purpose, I think you can  you may  get there, she said.

Ms. Willis, 51, a first-term Democrat, has long made use of racketeering charges and has hired a leading expert in the states racketeering laws. In 2014, as a deputy in the office, she prosecuted public schoolteachers who had taken part in a cheating scandal, and in May, she secured an indictment charging the rapper Young Thug and 27 associates with conspiracy to commit racketeering, identifying them as a criminal street gang.

Observers believe a similar fate awaits some of the myriad Trump loyalists in and out of Georgia who may have had a hand in trying to subvert legitimate election results. She has already informed the head of the Georgia Republican Party that he is a target of the investigation, along with the partys treasurer and 14 other Georgians who were on the slate of bogus Trump electors, including the car dealer and the economics teacher.

A number of people closer to Mr. Trump have also been drawn into the case. His personal lawyer, the former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, has been ordered by a judge to testify on Aug. 9. Lawyers for Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are fighting his subpoena to testify, as are lawyers for Representative Jody Hice, a stalwart Trump ally who led efforts in the House in January 2021 to stop the certification of votes. Ms. Willis is also seeking to compel testimony from John Eastman, an architect of the legal strategy to keep Mr. Trump in power, as well as other lawyers  Kenneth Chesebro, Jacki Pick Deason, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell  who played critical roles in the effort.
Mr. Biden seemed especially grateful for the breakthrough. I want to particularly thank you for what you did putting together the situation with regard to Finland and Sweden, he told Mr. Erdogan in the presence of reporters.

The two-page agreement said in generalized language that Sweden and Finland would address Turkeys pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly. But Turkish officials have said they expect the extradition of more than 70 individuals. It was unclear whether Sweden and Finland would agree or how Mr. Erdogan might react if they did not.

On Monday, Mr. Erdogan warned that he could still freeze NATOs expansion if his demands were not met.

Mr. Biden also told Mr. Erdogan in Spain that he supported the sale of 40 American F-16 fighter jets that Turkey requested last fall, along with technology upgrades for dozens of fighters it already owns. Turkey wants those planes in part because the Trump administration canceled plans to sell the country advanced F-35 fighter jets in 2019 after Mr. Erdogan, in one of his more confounding recent moves, purchased Russias S-400 antiaircraft missile system in defiance of U.S. warnings.

Mr. Biden denied that he offered the planes to buy Mr. Erdogans support for NATOs expansion. And there was no quid pro quo with that; it was just that we should sell, he said. But I need congressional approval to be able to do that, and I think we can get that.

Congresss approval may not be a given. And it was unclear whether Mr. Erdogan might block NATOs proposed expansion until he reaches a deal on the F-16 jets.
The U.S. Forest Service said on Friday that it would take emergency action, including removing low-lying vegetation that can fuel fires and other measures, to protect giant sequoia groves that are threatened by wildfires.

Since 2015, wildfires have ravaged the groves in California. About one-fifth of all giant sequoias have been destroyed over the past two years, the Forest Service said.

All but five of the 37 groves have been at least partially burned in recent wildfires. Numerous giant monarchs, the largest sequoias in the grove, have been killed. Experts estimated in 2021 that there were about 75,000 giant sequoias left.
In that time, staff members had one visit with Mr. Wang in his dorm room. He told them that he had a counseling appointment scheduled for that day, Jan. 24, and would not need more help, according to the documents.

A few days later, a staff member called another student named Haoyu Wang, not realizing it was the wrong person. As a result, the staff member did not report the ex-boyfriend as missing even though they saw that his access card had not been used at the dorm building for seven days.

The university said its shortcomings included the staff members delays, a need for better training and processes in housing, and insufficient and unprofessional internal communications. The school said these issues had been addressed.

Ive challenged university senior leaders to leave no stone unturned as we seek additional ways to enhance safety, said the universitys president, Taylor Randall.

Ms. Dongs parents, Junfang Shen and Mingsheng Dong, said on Friday that they trusted the University of Utah with our daughters safety, and they betrayed that trust.
But those you can get anywhere. What makes the Patterson the best new theater Ive seen in years is the clear prioritization of the theater itself, which sits like a treasured heirloom in a custom case. The silence and the dark are part of that, creating a plush space that is paradoxically full of emptiness, exerting a pressure of expectation as you sit in one of its 600 rust-colored seats. Watching a play there, you are always watching your fellow audience members as well, who sit across the thrust watching you. Because the seating is relatively compressed, you feel them, too.

In an event at Lazaridis Hall on Saturday  part of what Stratford calls New York Times week at the festival  I talked to Mr. Cimolino and to Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects, the Toronto firm that designed the building. We of course nerded out on details like where the rippling glass had been obtained and how the sound was tuned so that no microphones are needed.

Yet we kept returning to something more abstract: the seemingly opposing feelings of intimacy and community that theater as a human endeavor, and this theater in particular, were designed to encourage. Its an approach that acknowledges the art form as a palimpsest: a text that has been revised and overwritten for thousands of years. (In that sense, the choice to open with Richard III was no accident; the play, in a production starring Alec Guinness, opened the first Stratford festival, in 1953.) If we go to the theater in part to commune with the ghosts of our human past, we also go to feel a deeper connection to people living and breathing right now, in the seats immediately to our right and left.

Trans Canada

This weeks Trans Canada section was compiled by Vjosa Isai, a news assistant for The New York Times in Canada.
The United Nations secretary generals deputy spokesman denounced the strikes, saying in a statement that full implementation of the agreement was imperative.

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. The attack came a day before the Russian foreign minister was slated to start a tour of Africa, where he is expected to try to shift blame for food shortages to the West.

The blast wave from the missiles hitting the port could be felt from miles away, though it was unclear precisely where they struck. The huge port sprawls for miles along Odesas Black Sea coast with towering silver grain silos clustered in several different places.

It was unclear what the strikes were targeting and whether any grain infrastructure was hit. Russia may not have technically violated the deal, since it did not pledge to avoid attacking the parts of the Ukrainian ports that are not directly used for the grain exports, according to a senior U.N. official. If there were military targets nearby, Russia may have been trying to exploit a loophole.
The spouses of world leaders will be talking about the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine this weekend during the second Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, hosted by Olena Zelenska, the nations first lady.

Some of Ms. Zelenskas counterparts will participate through a video link from studios sin Brussels, Warsaw, London and Washington. The main studio leading the event on Saturday will be in Kyiv, Ukraines capital.

In a statement released earlier this month, Ms. Zelenska, who initiated the summit last year, said the central focus of this years would be human capital because often too much emphasis is placed on the economy and infrastructure when discussing reconstruction.
ODESA, Ukraine  A string of explosions rocked Ukraines southern city of Odesa on Saturday, hitting one of the countrys most important ports less than 24 hours after Russia and Ukraine signed a deal to secure the transit of millions of tons of grain through Black Sea routes.

The strikes raised concerns about Russias commitment to the agreement, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, before it could even be put into action. The deal is seen as critical for shoring up global supplies after a steep drop in Ukrainian grain exports raised fears of food shortages in poorer nations.

The string of explosions were also grim reminders of Russias violent fulcrum of the five month old war: signals from Moscow that it can rain destruction on any part of Ukraine at random, no matter the military situation on the front lines or diplomatic breakthroughs elsewhere.
Similarly, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, told France 24 that he was not celebrating just yet.

When the ships are already moving and when they reach, lets say, Turkish territorial waters, then well be able to say that Africa will be getting the amount of grain it wants, Mr. Podolyak said in remarks translated by the French news outlet. So lets give it some time and wait and see how this system works. I say this because the Russian Federation is today not a partner whose word can be taken as a legal commitment. Russia may violate any agreement at any moment.

In his nightly speech, President Volodymyr Zelensky offered more muted skepticism, saying that there might be some provocations on the part of Russia, but that Ukraine trusted the United Nations and Turkey  crucial partners in the grain arrangement  to ensure Russias compliance. He also used the deal to add to his portrayal of Ukraines ability to withstand the war, noting that the grain sales would bring in $10 billion, providing incomes for farmers, the agricultural sector, the state budget and next years sowing season.

Victoria J. Nuland, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, said on Friday that Russia had felt political pressure from abroad to free Ukraines agricultural exports.
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A YOUNG man accused of trespass and theft at a house in Offaly is also alleged to have produced a chainsaw during the incident.

Remi Hamisi (23), Waterfront Apartments, French Church Street, Portarlington, is accused of committing the offences on October 9 last year at Ballykeane, Geashill.

When he appeared before Tullamore District Court last week he told Judge Patricia Cronin the case was going on too long and said he did not know why the book of evidence was not yet ready.

He was reacting to Sergeant James O'Sullivan who told the court the DPP had directed that the Mr Hamisi should be tried by indictment. The court was also told that a bench warrant had been issued for the accused man on June 2 last.

Sergeant O'Sullivan said the book of evidence will be ready on July 27 next.

Judge Cronin remanded Mr Hamisi in custody to appear in court again on that date and extended time for service of the book.
IRELAND and the Midlands have been basking in sizzling summer heat for the past few days with record high temperatures.

On Monday the temperature recorded was the highest since the 1880s and may have been the highest ever as there is some uncertainty regarding the veracity of the 19th century recording in co. Kilkenny.

The weather has provided welcome respite from the myriad of problems facing citizens, from cost of living worries to the fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Irish people of all ages took to the beaches and the water in order to make the most of the heatwave, which is expected to be of shirt duration.

As welcome as the high temperatures are they also create problems, in particular for Irish Water and for hard pressed farmers.

But the heatwave also raises far more important and fundamental questions about climate change and the future of the planet.

The sizzling summer heat really does bring home to ordinary people that climate change is happening and is not a fraud as some sceptics claim.

Tackling climate change will affect each and every citizen especially those at the coalface of the situation such as the farming and agri-food sectors.

Motorists will also feel the pinch in the long term and more and more people will switch to electric vehicles in the coming years.

While we may not have experienced the searing heat other countries such as France, Spain and Portugal have endured in the past week this county is not immune to the effects of climate change.

Professor John Sweeney, a climate change scientist from Maynooth University, speaking to the Irish Independent this week, said: As the global average, we have warmed up by just under one degree in the past century or so and we have seen fairly significant changes occurring even in our own climate here.

We have seen, for example, 15 of 20 warmest years on record occurring only in the last 30 years. We are seeing rainfall increases, I think around six pc or so, on average, in terms of rainfall changes and that is bringing its own set of impacts to Ireland in terms of our agriculture, in terms of our water supply, the risk of fires and so on.

Prof Sweeney suggested that Ireland is a few years behind the rest of the world when it comes to temperature change.

We are not immune as a mid-altitude country. We are going to experience the global average of temperature change sooner rather than later, and maybe it will be a few years behind the rest of the world, but we are not going to be in anyway immune to what is happening elsewhere.

We do get extremes like the very hot summers of 1976 or 1995 but what we are seeing now is those events are going to become more frequent, they are becoming more severe, and we are getting a heatwave starting from a higher base.

In July 2021, the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 was enacted, significantly strengthening the statutory framework for governance of the climate challenge. This new framework includes the delivery of successive Climate Action Plans.

Climate Action Plans must set out the measures and implementation pathways for reaching our 2030 and 2050 emissions targets, as well as including specific timelines and assigning responsibilities for implementation. All Climate Action Plans have been, and will continue to be, prepared through a collaborative process with engagement and inputs from all relevant Government Departments and Agencies.

In addition, the National Dialogue on Climate Action (NDCA) is actively engaging with stakeholders and the public on climate action across Ireland, enabling and empowering people at a local and national level.
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The week-long SIGNIS Africa Congress and Assembly of Delegates, which ended last week, has commended the Synodal way as a new way of being Church.

Catholic communicators were encouraged to embrace the Synodal process of inclusivity and participation. This is contained in a communique issued at the end of the SIGNIS Africa Congress and Assembly of Delegates held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 11 July to 15 July.

In the spirit of Synodality, all Catholic communication structures in Africa need to make it their priority to introspect and bring about a more inclusive and participatory Church. This also means bringing more women and young people on board our governance structures, said the newly re-elected SIGNIS Africa President, Fr. Prof. Walter Ihejirika, who signed the document.

The SIGNIS Africa Congress is also recommending to the continents Bishops that World Communication Day be commemorated in various African parishes for an entire week. This is the Nigerian and Burkinabe model.

We recommend that all national episcopal conferences adopt the Nigerian and Burkina Faso model of commemorating World Day of Communication for a whole week instead of celebrating one day. The week-long commemoration spread in parishes can be used for media education and various awareness creation activities in Church communications, reads the communique.

To the broader African continent, Africas social communication practitioners spoke of their concerns about killings, abductions and general insecurity in the Sahel region.

We continue to observe with angst and total disapproval the unprovoked, incessant and mindless attacks, abductions and killings against defenceless citizens and, in particular, Christians in many African countries such as Nigeria and Burkina Faso  in fact, the entire Sahel region. We strongly urge African governments to bring about sanity and security, reads the statement.

On the last day of proceedings, elections were held for the new SIGNIS Africa board: Fr. Prof. Walter Ihejirika of Nigeria was re-elected President; Fr. Alberto Buque, Mozambique  Vice President; Fr. Dieu-Donne Kofi Davor, Ghana  Secretary/Treasurer; Fr. Webb Amouzou, Cote dIvoire  member representing the RECOWA region of West Africa. Elected to the board for the first time were Sr. Adelaide Ndilu, Kenya  as a member representing the AMECEA region; Fr. Fidele Mutabazi of Rwanda  member representing the ACEAC countries and Br. Alfonce Kugwa of Zimbabwe  member representing the IMBISA region.

Several persons and organisations were recognised at a ceremony for their contributions to the growth of Catholic communications in Africa. The two posthumous awards went to Zambian Bishop Moses Hamungole, who once served as SIGNIS Africa President. Bishop Hamungole died on 13 January 2021. Msgr. Ralph Madu, the former Secretary General at Nigerias Catholic Secretariat, was honoured posthumously for contributions when he worked in the ambit of social communications. Msgr. Madu died on 17 January 2021.

By Paul Samasumo
Metro Creative Graphics/File Photo

There are two millage renewals and one millage increase on the Aug. 2, 2022, ballot for Fairhaven Township.

The renewals are for police protection and fire protection funding and would both be set at four years from 2023 through 2026. The police protection millage, if passed, would be renewed at 2.0 mills ($2.00 per $1,000 of taxable value) and would raise an estimated first-year sum of $87,1689.98. The fire protection millage would be set at 1 mil ($1.50 per $1,000 of taxable value) and raise an estimated first-year sum of $65,377,49 if renewed.
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WINCHESTER, Va. (AP)  Remember when you were a kid and your parents said your missing dog or cat had gone to live on a farm? Believe it or not, that farm actually exists  sort of.

Peaceful Fields Sanctuary is a nonprofit farm that takes in mistreated animals, nurses them back to health and gives them a loving home for the rest of their natural lives. Unlike the mythical farm your parents used to talk about, though, Peaceful Fields offers its happily-ever-afters to livestock, not dogs and cats.

John Netzel, founder and operator of the 13-acre animal sanctuary near Winchester, said one of the longest-term residents at Peaceful Fields is Brownie the donkey. Brownie is happy and content today, but his life before coming to the sanctuary eight years ago was horrific.

He was rescued from the southern Shenandoah Valley, Netzel said. He was originally with a small group of horses in a small field, a small yard, and they were starving and denied water. Brownie was electrocuted on a regular basis ... with electric prods just to be cruel.

Physically, Netzel said, Brownie has long since recovered. Emotionally, the scars remain but he has come a long way.

He will trust a lot of people and you can interact with him, Netzel said. Hes a very sweet, kind, caring boy. Hes definitely one of my favorites.

Brownie is among dozens of farm animals who never again have to worry about being abused and neglected. Thats because every living creature at Peaceful Fields will forevermore be pampered and loved by Netzel and his small crew of volunteers.

None of us are paid to care for the livestock, Netzel said, noting he typically works 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week. But I love it. Cant imagine doing anything else.

Peaceful Fields Sanctuary is generally closed to the public, but it hosts three open houses per year so the community can tour the operation and meet the rescued cows, horses, donkeys, goats, chickens, turkeys and more that live there.

Its a chance for families to come out and spend some time around animals and have a great day, Netzel said.

Apples are a particular favorite on the farm, especially with Toby the pygmy goat. (Yes, Netzel has named every one of the 70 animals at Peaceful Fields Sanctuary.)

As Toby contentedly nibbled on apple slices, Netzel explained the goat had injured his front leg shortly after being born in the Virginia Beach area and the folks that owned him werent interested in providing any medical care. They were just going to snap his neck and kill him.

Netzel stepped in before that could happen.

He was almost dead when he got here, Netzel said, because the compound fracture and open wound on his leg had gone untreated for several days.

Toby received emergency medical care and was stabilized. About a month later, he had regained enough strength for veterinarians from Virginia Tech to address his injured leg. In order for the goat to survive, though, the leg had to be amputated.

But that was the last bad day Toby will ever experience. Seven years after coming to Peaceful Fields, Netzel said, He is a happy little boy, running around with the other pygmy goats. Hes super social so we take him to schools to visit with children, kids summer camps, lots of events. Hes kind of like our ambassador. Everybody loves our little three-legged goat.
On April 3, 1982, Karl Adams' family of three became a family of two.

A head-on traffic collision with a truck killed his 25-year-old wife that spring evening.

It also changed the life of his 21-month-old son, forever.

I couldnt recognize him, Karl said, recalling his arrival to the hospital, after he was contacted by officials via phone. It just looked like someone beat the hell out of himIt did everything, but kill him.

It is difficult for Karl to think back on that time. His memories take him back to that Saginaw hospital watching his infant son lying in the intensive care unit.

Since the 80s, Karl has fought to maintain some form of normal as he parented his son alone and fought battles to get him quality care. In 2019, lawmakers responded to Michigans highest-in-the nation auto insurance premiums by passing legislation giving drivers the option to choose their level of personal injury protection, replacing the state requirement that drivers buy unlimited lifetime coverage.

That legislation took money away from the care traumatic injury survivors like Lance rely on to survive.

It's just another battle, Karl said, and he's not alone in the fight. Across Michigan, theres 18,000 residents in similar vulnerable  and crisis  situations.

With the way the law is written right now," Karl said reflecting back on care his son received for his injuries, "he would die.

Survivors, care providers, impacted families look for urgency

Michigans auto insurance reform went into effect on July 1, 2021. One change in the law allows drivers the option to choose their preferred level of personal injury protection coverage. Another change was the new fee schedule that cut reimbursement from insurance companies for health care services provided to accident survivors not covered under Medicare by 45%.

The reform has had profound consequences for crash survivors and health care providers.

More than 100 care providers have closed or no longer accept no-fault clients  they can't offer the care their clients need and keep their doors open due to the lower reimbursement rates. Nearly 18,000 seriously injured survivors are losing necessary care services.

Several bills have been offered to address the fee schedule. Bills largely have died in insurance committees since the 2019 reform bill. Currently, the following bills offer alternatives, but are stalled in both the House and Senate: HB4992, HB4486 and SB314.

Grassroots advocacy group We Cant Wait has a list of more than 20 legislative drafts that they would advocate for, but there is a clear understanding of the state's lack of interest in helping those struggling families. The stalled possibilities are listed as legislative items on the advocacy group's website.

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The Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association is a private unincorporated, nonprofit association created by the Michigan Legislature in 1978. Catastrophic claims involve injury to the brain and/or spinal cord, which results in serious and permanent disability. Some examples are paralysis and a coma.

According to We Can't Wait, there was about $27 billion in the fund, prior to $3 billion in total refunds out to Michigan drivers with registered vehicles via $400 checks.

In May, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer encouraged those who did not "receive their share" of the $3 billion catastrophic fund surplus to contact their insurance company. Members of We Can't Wait feel the refunds are used as deflection from an insidious problem  about seven people have died since the auto reform law went into effect, according to the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault, or CPAN.

At the time of the crash, the 29-year-old Karl had unlimited auto insurance. He said those funds were not the state governments money to spend. That was supposed to cover medical care for life, if there was a catastrophic injury.

Because of this, Karl referenced the $400 refund checks as blood money. However, Whitmers office released a mid July statement celebrating putting "money back in peoples pockets."

"Now, what happened is, your grandparents, parents and you  everyone you know  have been paying into this catastrophic fund for over four decades," Karl said. "That money was invested by all of us, that is the peoples' money. They (government officials) severed it; they did not grandfather any of the existing claims in. They have come up with all sorts of excuses why they are not in there, but they still haven't corrected it."

The Lake resident, Karl, couldn't believe the state followed through with the 2019 reform.

"I can't believe they even did it," he said.

Survivors ask: Now what?

It is summer break for Michigan representatives in Lansing. Discussions that could have potentially led to any form of change were tabled for the term. The courts are hearing arguments that could open the door, several months from now, for those who are facing the retroactive debate.

The lack of participation from legislative and executive lawmakers is not slowing down those who represent the people impacted by auto crashes across Michigan. There has been protests across the state, centralized in Lansing and Detroit areas. Most await pending results from the class action suit in the Michigan Appeals Court system.

We Cant Wait in Michigan has a Facebook group created on behalf of catastrophically injured auto crash survivors and families. There are more than 8,670 Facebook users who are members of the online forum. It is made of up loved ones, care providers, friends and political advocates to share information and seek advice regarding a fix to the 2019 auto no-fault bill.

Through thousands of letters and emails, phone calls, demonstrations, protests, and visits to the Capitol, We Can't Wait has become a recognized advocacy group and voice of survivors.

Tess DeGayner/tess.degayner@hearstnp.com

Hope resident Terri Lee, struggles to access affordable care for her mother. She gave an emotional testimony to Midland County Commissioners about her mother's experience facing ongoing impacts from a serve auto crash. The county board approved the resolution, 4-2, to be shared with lawmakers at the state level.

"This is a humanitarian crisis born from a government-mandated price fix, that only the legislature can undo," the resolution approved in Midland County reads.

Across the state, about 30 counties have passed similar resolutions.

Care provider Brian Harrison worked with the Midland County representatives to call on the state. Under the representation of his organization, AdvisaCare Home Health and Hospice, Harrison spent time developing plans in 2021 with Nick Long, another care provider who often visits Lansing in an effort to invoke any kind of amendment or discussion towards action that would support those not grand-fathered in.

He does not support completely rewinding the legislation.

However, Harrison supports addressing wages for care providers after reimbursement rates were slashed to 45%. One of the solutions Harrison said has been explored, without sponsorship from the legislature, could mirror Michigan workers' compensation. He said this may address the hourly home/health aid support by erasing the 45% reduction and offer an authorization period for care rates.

"It's an interesting battle," Harrison said. "Our hope is that could be a solution that hasn't been talked about, but I think most folks would see it as an option. To say the system works for one and not the other, in terms of a claimant, seems incongruent with the messaging that the insurance companies are sending.

"It's either what a provider normally charges based on their market rate, or whatever is agreed as a reasonable service, whatever is less of those two," he continued.

The 2019 auto-reform act passed on Lance's birthday, which left a sting of pain in Karl's tone.

Lance, an infant at the time, couldnt blink, cry, roll over or recognize familiar faces following the 1982 crash. He faced cortical blindness, which is commonly caused by a traumatic brain injury to the occipital lobe of the brain.

It was clear to Karl that he'd become his advocating voice. Lance requires 24/7 attentive care.

Karl expressed a deep sense of pride in his son's recovery gains, such as opening doors and entering vehicles. His son is gentle, serious and expressive with both smiles and tears. The pair collaborate through Lance's life, with the father's focus on incorporating consistency and repetition into routine, with Karl being an intentional guide throughout interaction.

"He is happy, but we're dealing with a brain that we can't see," Karl said. "Every one of those brains were healthy brains until they were injured. I'm real conscious of his self-esteem."
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VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis trip to Canada to apologize for the horrors of church-run Indigenous residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Churchs missionary legacy, spurred on by the first pope from the Americas and the discovery of hundreds of probable graves at the school sites.

Francis has said his weeklong visit, which begins Sunday, is a penitential pilgrimage to beg forgiveness on Canadian soil for the evil done to Native peoples by Catholic missionaries. It follows his April 1 apology in the Vatican for the generations of trauma Indigenous peoples suffered as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate their culture and assimilate them into Canadian, Christian society.

Francis tone of personal repentance has signaled a notable shift for the papacy, which has long acknowledged abuses in the residential schools and strongly asserted the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples. But past popes have also hailed the sacrifice and holiness of the European Catholic missionaries who brought Christianity to the Americas  something Francis, too, has done but isnt expected to emphasize during this trip.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit who is a top papal adviser, recalled that early on in his papacy, Francis asserted that no single culture can claim a hold on Christianity, and that the church cannot demand that people on other continents imitate the European way of expressing the faith.

If this conviction had been accepted by everyone involved in the centuries after the discovery of the Americas, much suffering would have been avoided, great developments would have occurred and the Americas would be all-around better, he told The Associated Press in an email.

The trip wont be easy for the 85-year-old Francis or for residential school survivors and their families. Francis can no longer walk without assistance and will be using a wheelchair and cane because of painful strained knee ligaments. Trauma experts are being deployed at all events to provide mental health assistance for school survivors, given the likelihood of triggering memories.

It is an understatement to say there are mixed emotions, said Chief Desmond Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe, one of the First Nations that are part of the Maskwacis territory where Francis will deliver his first sweeping apology on Monday near the site of a former residential school.

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded, Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. Some 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes, Native languages and cultures.

The legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.

For survivors from coast to coast, this is an opportunity  the first and maybe the last  to perhaps find some closure for themselves and their families, said Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin Cree Nation.

This will be a difficult process but a necessary one, he said.

Unlike most papal trips, diplomatic protocols are taking a back seat to personal encounters with First Nations, Metis and Inuit survivors. Francis doesnt formally meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until midway through, in Quebec City, although Trudeau will greet him on the tarmac upon his arrival Sunday.

Francis is also ending the trip in unusual style, stopping in Iqaluit, Nunavut  the farthest north hes ever traveled  to bring his apology to the Inuit community before flying back to Rome.

As recently as 2018, Francis had refused to personally apologize for residential school abuses, even after Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 documented institutional blame and specifically recommended a papal apology delivered on Canadian soil.

Trudeau traveled to the Vatican in 2017 to appeal to Francis to apologize, but the pontiff felt he could not personally respond to the call, Canadian bishops said at the time.

What changed? The first pope from the Americas, who has long defended the rights of Indigenous peoples, had already apologized in Bolivia in 2015 for colonial-era crimes against Native peoples.

In 2019, Francis  an Argentine Jesuit  hosted a big Vatican conference on the Amazon highlighting that injustices Native peoples suffered during colonial times were still continuing, with their lands and resources exploited by corporate interests.

Then in 2021, the remains of around 200 children were found at the site of what was once Canadas largest Indigenous residential school, in Kamloops, British Columbia. More probable graves followed outside other former residential schools.

It was only when our children were beginning to be found in mass graves, garnering international attention, that light was brought to this painful period in our history, said Bull, the Louis Bull Tribe chief.

After the discovery, Francis finally agreed to meet with Indigenous delegations last spring and promised to come to their lands to apologize in person.

Obviously there are wounds that remained open and require a response, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said, when asked about the evolution of the papal response.

One of those wounds concerns the papal influences in the Doctrine of Discovery, the 19th-century international legal concept that is often understood as legitimizing the European colonial seizure of land and resources from Native peoples.

For decades, Indigenous peoples have demanded the Holy See formally rescind the 15th century papal bulls, or decrees, that gave European kingdoms the religious backing to claim lands that their explorers discovered for the sake of spreading the Christian faith.

Church officials have long rejected those concepts, insisted the decrees merely sought to ensure European expansion would be peaceful, and said they had been surpassed by subsequent church teachings strongly affirming the dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples.

But the matter is still raw for Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation Wolf Clan, who was the last person to address the pope when the First Nations delegation met with him on March 31.

Wearing a cradle board on her back to represent the children whose lives were lost in residential schools, she told him the Doctrine of Discovery had led to the continual taking of our babies.

It deprived us of our dignity, our freedom, and led to the exploitation of our Mother Earth, she said. She begged Francis to release the world from its place of enslavement caused by the decrees.

Asked about the calls, Bruni said there was an articulated reflection under way in the Holy See but he didnt think anything would be announced during this trip.

___

This version corrects the attribution of the quote about closure to Chief Randy Ermineskin.

___

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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SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea plans to lift its decadeslong ban on public access to North Korean television, newspapers and other publications as part of its efforts to promote mutual understanding between the rivals, officials said Friday, despite animosities over the North's recent missile tests.

Divided along the worlds most heavily fortified border since 1948, the two Koreas prohibit their citizens from visiting each others territory and exchanging phone calls, emails and letters, and they block access to each others websites and TV stations.

In a policy report to new President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday, South Koreas Unification Ministry said it will gradually open the door for North Korean broadcasts, media and publications to try to boost mutual understanding, restore the Korean national identity and prepare for a future unification.

Ministry officials said South Korea will start by allowing access to North Korean broadcasts to try to encourage North Korea to take similar steps. The ministry refused to provide further details, saying the plans are still being discussed with relevant authorities in South Korea.

Jeon Young-sun, a research professor at Seouls Konkuk University, said North Korea is unlikely to reciprocate because the flow of South Korean cultural and media content would pose a really huge threat to its authoritarian leadership.

Ruled by three generations of the Kim family since its 1948 foundation, North Korea strictly restricts its citizens access to outside information, though many defectors have said they watched smuggled South Korean TV programs while living in the North. In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire when South Korean activists launched balloons carrying USB sticks containing information about the outside world and leaflets critical of the Kim family toward North Korean territory.

Relations between the two Koreas remain strained over North Koreas torrid run of missile tests this year. Yoon, a conservative, has said he would take a tougher stance on North Korean provocations, though he said he has an audacious plan to improve the North's economy if it abandons its nuclear weapons.

Despite the Norths likely reluctance to reciprocate, Jeon said South Korea needs to ease its ban on North Korean media because the restrictions have led to dependence on foreigners and other governments to gather North Korea-related information. Jeon said that has increased the danger of acquiring distorted information on North Korea.

It wasnt clear how anti-North Korea activists in the South would react to the government's move. Jeon said there was little chance the move would promote pro-North Korean sentiments.

South Korea, the worlds 10th-largest economy, is a global cultural powerhouse. Its nominal gross domestic product in 2019 was 54 times bigger than that of North Korea, according to South Korean estimates.

Some observers say the ban must be lifted in a step-by-step process with discussions on what North Korean contents would be allowed first and how the access should be given to the South Korean public.

While South Korean authorities block access to North Korean government websites and other media, they rarely crack down on experts, journalists and others using virtual private networks or proxy servers to access them. A large number of North Korean movies, songs and other contents are also available on YouTube, which is accessible in South Korea.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  Judges at the United Nations highest court on Friday dismissed preliminary objections by Myanmar to a case alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority.

The decision establishing the International Court of Justice's jurisdiction sets the stage for hearings airing evidence of atrocities against the Rohingya that human rights groups and a U.N. probe say breach the 1948 Genocide Convention. In March, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the violent repression of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, which formerly was known as Burma, amounts to genocide.

Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK, welcomed the decision, saying 600,000 Rohingya are still facing genocide, while "one million people in Bangladesh camps, they are waiting for a hope for justice.

The African nation of Gambia filed the case in 2019 amid international outrage at the treatment of the Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom fled to neighboring Bangladesh amid a brutal crackdown by Myanmar forces in 2017. It argued that both Gambia and Myanmar were parties to the 1948 convention and that all signatories hade a duty to ensure it was enforced.

Judges at the court agreed.

Reading a summary of the decision, the court's president, U.S. Judge Joan E. Donoghue, said: Any state party to the Genocide Convention may invoke the responsibility of another state party including through the institution of proceedings before the court.

A small group of pro-Rohingya protesters gathered outside the court's headquarters, the Peace Palace, ahead of the decision with a banner reading: Speed up delivering justice to Rohingya. The genocide survivors can't wait for generations."

One protester stamped on a large photograph of Myanmar's military government leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

The court rejected arguments raised at hearings in February by lawyers representing Myanmar that the case should be tossed out because the world court only rules in disputes between states and the Rohingya complaint was brought by Gambia on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The judges also dismissed Myanmar's claim that Gambia could not file the case as it was not directly linked to the events in Myanmar and that a legal dispute did not exist between the two countries before the case was filed.

Myanmar's representative, Ko Ko Hlaing, the military government's minister for international cooperation, said his nation "will try our utmost to defend our country and to protect our national interest.

Gambias attorney general and justice minister, Dawda Jallow, said: We are very pleased that justice has been done.

The Netherlands and Canada have backed Gambia, saying in 2020 that the country took a laudable step towards ending impunity for those committing atrocities in Myanmar and upholding this pledge. Canada and the Netherlands consider it our obligation to support these efforts which are of concern to all of humanity.

However, the court ruled Friday that it would not be appropriate to send the two countries copies of documents and legal arguments filed in the case.

Myanmars military launched what it called a clearance campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 in the aftermath of an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of Rohingya homes.

In 2019, lawyers representing Gambia at the ICJ outlined their allegations of genocide by showing judges maps, satellite images and graphic photos of the military campaign. That led the court to order Myanmar to do all it can to prevent genocide against the Rohingya. The interim ruling was intended to protect the minority while the case is decided in The Hague, a process likely to take years.

The International Court of Justice rules on disputes between states. It is not linked to the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, which holds individuals accountable for atrocities. Prosecutors at the ICC are investigating crimes committed against the Rohingya who were forced to flee to Bangladesh.
DEAR ABBY: I have been married for 23 years. About a year ago, our 22-year-old daughter became suspicious that her dad might be having an affair. She found out it was true through his text messages. When we sat down as a family and discussed it, at first he denied it. He got upset to the point that he told our daughter to leave the house, which she did for two weeks. We asked her to come back after my husband and I talked to work things out and I took him to confession. We later all went away for a vacation together.

Some time has passed, and I looked at his phone and saw he's been at it again, this time with a 30-year-old woman who lives here, and another one in another state. When I told him I knew, he denied it. Recently, I've been going to counseling. I need advice.

 SUSPICIOUS IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR SUSPICIOUS: By now it should be apparent that your husband cannot or will not stop womanizing and lying to you. I'm glad you are seeing a licensed therapist, because you need to decide rationally whether the situation you're living with is one you are willing to tolerate. You should also schedule an appointment with your doctor to be tested for STDs, and one with an attorney to find out what your rights are as a wife of 23 years in New Jersey. After that, you will have a clearer idea of what to do.

DEAR ABBY: I met this guy online three months ago. He's the greatest guy I have ever met. He respects me in ways no other man has respected me, and I appreciate that about him so much. I feel like I may be in love with him, but I don't know if that's the case or if it's because I'm alone and vulnerable and want someone to love me back. I was never close with my biological father or my adoptive father, so some of this may be "daddy issues." Should I tell him how I feel about him, or is it way too soon?

 TAKEN BY HIM IN MICHIGAN

DEAR TAKEN: It would be more prudent to wait until you are sure about your feelings for this guy before declaring your love. Slow down. Let the relationship evolve until you are sure about your motivations. If you do, he may beat you to the punch.

DEAR ABBY: I have a problem. I'm 8 and I want a dog, but my parents won't let me have one. The last time we had a dog, I left the door open and it got run over. I feel really sad and bad about it, but I want another dog. Even though it was an accident, my parents don't trust me. How can I show them I'm responsible enough and I won't forget to close the door again?

 REALLY WANTS A DOG IN SACRAMENTO

DEAR REALLY WANTS: Please accept my sympathy for your loss. Because you didn't mention how long ago your dog was lost, I will assume it is fairly recent. You might be able to regain your parents' trust if you begin accepting responsibilities at home. Do they want you to make your bed, keep your room neat, help in the kitchen or the yard? Shouldering these kinds of responsibilities can show parents you are ready for more ... like caring for a pet, for instance. I wish you luck.

DEAR ABBY: My wife and I have been married 47 years. Since she retired from her job, she has become addicted to her DVR. She records everything she can think of to watch "later." She has shows she recorded from last year but hasn't watched, and they take up 90% of her DVR disc. She uses only about 10% for new shows that she watches to make room for other programs. So, every night, we have to watch what she has recorded that day to make room for the next day's recordings.

If I say anything about it, she gets very upset and it causes tension. I don't mind some of the shows, but there aren't that many I will spend time watching. I wish there was a support group for husbands of women who are addicted to their DVRs so we could understand what's going on in their heads. How should I deal with the problem?

 SAVED FOR LATER IN TEXAS

DEAR SAVED: If there is a support group for husbands of compulsive wives, I am not aware of it. The solution may be to inform your wife that she can now stream many of the shows she's been saving on the DVR. A compromise might be viewing ONE of the archived programs a night in addition to the new ones, if possible. However, if she's not agreeable, consider buying yourself your own television set. That way, you are not obligated to watch anything you don't wish to.

DEAR ABBY: I was offered a beach condo. I invited my friend "Sara," then another and another. These women had heard of each other, but didn't really know each other. I assumed we could all have a great time. When I told Sara I had invited others, she backed out!

It has been three months, and she has refused all invitations to get together. We used to talk daily and see each other weekly. I have apologized. How do I get Sara to forgive me for not having given her a "heads up" before inviting the others? Was what I did so bad that she would end a long friendship?

 MISSING HER IN SOUTH CAROLINA

DEAR MISSING: No. I suspect Sara may have other reasons for taking 10 steps back, and inviting others to join you was the straw that broke the camel's back. Was she jealous? Did she need time alone with you to confide in you? Have you been able to discuss with her the reason for her extreme reaction? It might save the relationship if you could find out. However, if Sara's unwilling to talk about it, perhaps you should consider yourself lucky to have seen this punitive side of her so YOU can step back.

DEAR ABBY: What is the proper response when someone tells you their relative is going into hospice? "Congratulations, that's wonderful" doesn't seem right. But "I'm so sorry" doesn't seem appropriate either, since hospice is an affirmative action often welcomed by the person who is ill. I would appreciate your thoughts.

 CORRECT RESPONSE

DEAR CORRECT: An appropriate response would be, "I'm sorry to hear this. But if it means the end of your loved one's suffering, it's the right decision."
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Banjul, Gambia (PANA) -The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday rejected Myanmar's preliminary objections to the case brought by Gambia under the International Genocide Convention, Human Rights Watch said on Friday
Photo: (Photo : Blende12)

Abdullah Ebrahim, 5, was tragically killed following a collision with a black Nissan Note in Beeston, Leeds. According to Leeds Live, a man, who was still not identified, has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after the incident in Back Camberley Street at around 4:55 p.m. when the little boy was hit by a black car.

West Yorkshire Police Department stated that the young boy was taken to the hospital for treatment but was pronounced dead a short time later.

Major Collision Enquiry Team officers are appealing for witnesses, specifically those with relevant dashcam footage or CCTV of the incident, to check on the child's movements and that of the Nissan Note before or after the accident.

Friend to the whole community

The West Yorkshire Police Department named Abdullah Ebrahim as the victim of the recent tragedy. Abdullah's family described him as a beloved son, grandson, brother, nephew, and friend to the entire community.

His family paid tribute as they commemorated their five years with him, describing them as full of warmth, laughter, and happiness. The schoolboy made everyone around him feel loved and always brought a smile to their faces.

All those who the five-year-old boy met were undoubtedly touched in their hearts by his sincere personality as he was adventurous and looked at the world around him with a peculiar and curious mind.

According to his family, the young boy's ability to care for those around him and the relationships he established were all unparalleled. He was the heart and center of the family. Losing him in such a tragedy has been incredibly difficult for the family and the broad community to comprehend and come to terms with, per Mirror News.

Read Also: Miracle Escape For Brooklyn Dad Marco Diaz And His 2 Kids After Car Hits Them on NYC Sidewalk

Commemorating Abdullah's memories

The five-year-old boy's family extended their gratefulness to those who reached out and sent their heartfelt condolences.

"The sheer amount of support we have received only reinforces just how special Abdullah was to everyone."

The Police Department in West Yorkshire stated that the driver of the Nissan Note has cooperated with the investigation and has been released on bail, per Metro.

A parent's worst nightmare is when their child is in a car accident, mainly hit by a car. Children of all ages are hit by cars on a far-too-regular basis. Young ones are usually aged 5 to 9 and susceptible to danger.

According to the World Health Organization, young kids are at risk for road traffic injuries for many reasons. Children are limited by their physical, social, and cognitive development, which makes them more vulnerable to road traffic than adults. Their small stature makes it difficult for them to see their surroundings and for drivers to see them.

Furthermore, children's soft heads make them more susceptible to severe head injury than adults.

Related Article: Two-Year-Old Survives Being Run Over By Two Cars In China, Miraculously Sustains Only Minor Bruises
Photo: (Photo : PDPics from Pixabay )

The year was 2010 when Emily Whitehead's life dramatically changed. The rambunctious five-year-old preschooler had just gone to her annual checkup in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, and was given a clean bill of health by her doctors, with Whitehead hitting every milestone, according to People Magazine.

Mom Kari recalled that everything was great then but that all changed just a week later when she noticed Emily having bruises on odd parts of her body, including her back and stomach. Her gums then started bleeding, with the young girl waking up in the middle of the night in unbearable pain.

Kari Googled her daughter's symptoms and what she found was not good as they were the classic signs of leukemia. She returned to the doctor's office with her little daughter to confirm if that was the case.

Emily diagnosed with leukemia

Within days, Emily was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Doctors at Penn State Health in Hershey, Pennsylvania, prescribed Emily a 26-month regime of chemotherapy to treat her cancer.

She ran dangerously high fevers during the first few weeks of treatment and had a rare infection that almost forced her doctors to amputate her legs. Despite the numerous challenges, Emily's treatment worked as she was in remission just one month later.

Kari said they had a rough start, but the doctors told them that when chemotherapy works for these kids, it works. The family's joy was short-lived, though, as Emily relapsed in October 2011. The prognosis was grim, with doctors giving the then six-year-old just a 30 percent chance of survival.

Dad Tom, a power company lead lineman, said the news was more devastating to them than Emily's original diagnosis. He then took his daughter to get a second opinion at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Tom told Emily that if he had to crawl to the North Pole, he would if that is what it took to find someone to fix her.

Read Also: Toys"R"Us to Make Grand Comeback Amid Surge in the U.S. Toy Sales During COVID Pandemic

Emily declared cured of cancer

She spent the next four months in the hospital preparing for a bone marrow transplant in February 2012. However, Emily's condition had deteriorated by the end of February to the point that she was no longer eligible for a bone marrow transplant.

Their prayers were answered, though, with Tom and Kari getting the news from Emily's doctors at CHOP that after a year of completing the required paperwork, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other committees had finally approved the hospital's Phase 1 clinical trial for CAR T-Cell therapy in kids and Emily had become their very first pediatric patient.

Miraculously, Emily's treatment worked as 23 days after it began, a bone marrow test conducted on May 10, 2012, showed all of her cancer was gone. She has remained cancer free, and when she turned 17 in May, Emily was declared cured of the dreaded illness.

Related Article: Cheating Mom Shoves Rival Mother to the Ground to Win Race at Daughter's School
Photo: (Photo : FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

The Turpin children expected their lives to be better after their rescue from abuse and captivity by their parents in 2018. However, six of the kids recently filed a lawsuit for the continued abuse they experienced at the foster home that took them in and a California county that should have looked out for their welfare.

The New York Post reported that the younger Turpin children filed two lawsuits against Riverside County and the foster care agency, ChildNet Youth and Family Services. Their complaint underscored that these entities were aware of the children's sexual and physical abuse in the care of Marcelino and Rosa Olguin, their foster parents.

Aside from the sexual and physical abuse, the children claimed that the couple forced them to eat vomit and were repeatedly told that they should take their life. Their complaints also mentioned that the officials who had to look out for their welfare did not report what was happening at their foster homes to the police.

Read Also: Florida Parents Facing Child Abuse Charges for Locking Adopted Son in Box

Olguin couple under trial, agencies should be next

According to ABC News, the Olguin couple has been charged and arrested for the abuse that spanned three years. They have paid bail after pleading not guilty to the accusations during their arraignment in December 2021. Their trial is still ongoing.

The new lawsuit against ChildNet and Riverside County, however, comes after the conclusion of an independent eight-might probe into the handling of the Turpin case. In November 2021, the eldest Turpin child, Jennifer Turpin, and her sister, Jordan Turpin, appeared on "20/20" to speak about their continued struggles after the state took them in and arrested their parents.

Elan Zektsersaid, the lawyer for two of the older children who have now opted out of foster care, said that both ChildNet and Riverside County knew the Olguins were not fit for caring for abused kids because they also have a history of abuse and neglect. Yet, the Turpin siblings were still placed with the couple.

Roger Booth, the lawyer for four of the younger siblings, told the Post that the Turpin children were inflicted with trauma after trauma because of this serious oversight from the foster care or the county. After their parents, the people they thought would care for them also failed the kids.

"It's going to take some time for them to recover and learn to trust people because at this point, there's been very few adults that they've been able to trust," Booth said.

Four of the 13 kids are still in the foster care system as minors. The rest of the siblings are now living in a new house together.

What happened to the Turpin parents?

David and Louise Turpin initially claimed they were not guilty of torturing and abusing their children, despite depriving them of food, basic hygiene, and education. But by February 2019, the couple changed their plea to guilty, per The Sun.

Two months later, a judge handed down their sentence of life imprisonment at separate facilities. Louise is in a women's prison in Chowchilla while her husband is in Corcoran's state prison.

Related Article: Turpin Children Continues to Suffer as California Guardianship System Fails Them Again
Photo: (Photo : David Silverman/Getty Images)

Amid the heat wave in the U.S., doctors are warning patients, especially parents and grandparents who are taking medications, that their pills may bring different side effects or reduce their effectiveness.

Dr. Barbara Bawer, a primary care doctor from Ohio, told WebMD that it's not uncommon for patients to complain about experiencing new and adverse reactions to their medications this summer. She said that it's important for patients to be proactive and inform their pharmacist or doctor if they notice the changes in their maintenance drugs or prescription medication.

Bawer's patient, Fred Price, said he had dizzy spells after going for a walk in the daytime. He did not think this was due to his blood pressure medication and the summer heat. But after discussing this with the doctor, Price said he's trying to limit his time out in the sun when he's medicated. He's also making sure that his pills are properly stored.

Read Also: Babies Younger than 6 Months Should Not Drink Water in this Heatwave, Pediatricians Warn

Best storage tips for medicines

Bawer said that medications must always come in the container dispensed by the pharmacist. If people want to put these in a pill organizer, they need to tell their pharmacist that the medicine will be transferred to a different container when they get home.

Dr. Sarah Westberg of the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy told NPR that all medications need to be stored in a dark and dry place unless there are specific instructions for refrigeration. Keeping heat, light, or humidity away from pills is vital because some medicines lose efficacy and could be harmful when ingested.

People who have their medicines delivered to their house must devise a different arrangement. It's never a good idea to leave the medicines by the front door or inside the mailbox.

Pharmacist Gina Carson, who works at Quest First Pharmacy, told News On 6 that her company always requires customers to sign the deliveries personally. This way, nothing is left on the porch or the mailbox.

Carson said that even birth control pills or acne medications are heat sensitive. She advised calling the pharmacy for a replacement if any pills were left out in the heat too long, such as inside a hot car.

People who need to carry medications inside their bags, such as inhalers for asthma attacks, must always check the expiration date. If this has been left in the heat for a few hours, which means it hasn't been in an ideal condition, better call the pharmacist to ascertain if it's still safe to use.

Heat-related risks when medicating

Medications for high blood pressure or allergies may limit the body's ability to sweat, which means a person may feel overheated when the weather is hot. Bawer said that sweating is the body's cooling mechanism, which could lead to heatstroke if impeded. Certain decongestants may also raise the body's risk of overheating. If someone in the family is suffering from a cold in this summer heat, talk to the pharmacist for other options.

On the other hand, other medications are diuretics that remove sweat and water from the body. This can lead to dehydration, which may be dangerous if the person is not drinking enough glasses of water in this heat wave.

Don't hesitate to talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your concerns when in doubt.

Related Article: New York Sets Up Cooling Centers, Urges Residents to Prepare for Week-Long Extreme Heat Wave
Photo: (Photo : MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Every mother's heart has likely skipped a beat when she has contemplated, at least once, what her kids would remember if she were taken away from them. That was the case for Kipra Anderson in 2006 when she dusted a picture of her three children, according to Greenville News.

Anderson recalled that her children were 8, 6, and 4 at the time, and she asked herself whether they would remember their beach trips and family traditions. It was more than a passing thought for Anderson, who looked for a business that might help a mother who wanted to preserve such important memories.

Much to her surprise, she found none. Anderson even researched starting a non-profit, but she decided it was too much work. Even if that was the case, she said that the Lord laid it on her heart completely.

Let There Be Mom helps mothers with life-threatening illnesses

Anderson put that idea out of her mind until a chance encounter with a dying mother from her kid's school during the holidays. She said the idea came flooding back to her after that meeting.

She flipped through her Bible while staying at home in Simpsonville. She stumbled upon a random passage that said, "I heard your prayers. I've seen your tears. This is the Lord's sign to you." Anderson quickly turned to a different page, and it was the exact same verse.

After reading that verse, she was still conflicted, so she called her husband, Gunnar, to ask his opinion about it. Unlike Kipra, he was not conflicted at all, with Gunnar telling his wife that she just needs to start it.

Anderson began collecting paperwork and working to found Let There Be Mom, an organization that would help moms with life-threatening illnesses create gifts and memories for the children they might leave behind.

Anderson applied to the state of South Carolina and then worked for six weeks on a proposal for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The federal agency generally takes three to 27 months to approve or deny a proposal but Let There Be Mom was approved in less than a month in April 2007.

Read Also: Ivanka Trump Delivers Emotional Eulogy for Mom Ivana at NYC Funeral

The organization has now served more than 400 kids

When she chose the Board of Directors for her company, the husband of one board member worked for a company that donated funds to the organization, which was a surprise to both women.

Despite the mission of Let There Be Mom, Anderson herself had never been near anyone who was seriously sick. So when a hospice called them about a mom who had just three or four weeks to live, Anderson panicked and did not know what to do.

The dying mom was only 27 with a three-year-old kid. An acquaintance strengthened Anderson's resolve, telling her that the children need this and they need to know they are important. Let There Be Mom has now served more than 400 children since the organization started, and it now helps fathers, too.

Related Article: Family of 4 Misses Much-Anticipated Disney Cruise After Air Canada Cancels Their Flight
Photo: (Photo : Jordan Whitt on Unsplash)

Despite some folks' bias towards divorce, it's often the preferable solution to a struggling relationship. Although, some of couples end up unhappily and leave behind distraught children. As a parent going through a divorce, this is a serious thorn in the flesh. You are more concerned about the kid(s) because you know it's not just about you. You probably stay up all night wondering what could be done to protect your precious ones from the unhealthy effect that comes with it.

Divorce and separation affect children irrespective of their age. There are no formulas, but there are tools to be employed. Parents need to be open and honest during this period. Children differ; hence there is a need to be attentive to their emotions to guide them during such periods.

In this article, Charlotte Christian, a divorce attorney in Huntsville, AL explains the effect of divorce on children and managing the situation before and after the divorce will be discussed.

How are children affected after divorce?

Divorce can be a traumatic and devastating experience for children. The experience for each child varies. As such, it is imperative to pay attention to each child.

Some children feel guilty and believe they are responsible for their parents' breakup. They go as far as hating themselves and become depressed doing so. They feel unloved by both parents and wonder what could be wrong with them.

Others may act out or may decline in their academic performance. When a child experiences conflict, it creates anxiety, often causing them to lean toward one parent over another or turn to outside, unhealthy outlets to express their feelings.

The good thing is that the psychological effect could be managed, which depends on the parents' attitude.

What do you tell them?

Be honest and sincere

Most times, you may want to prevent them from getting hurt and end up not being truthful. This is more likely to hurt them as they grow older. They grow up with lies, and when reality checks in, they get confused.

When questions are asked, avoid sugarcoating things. Make them aware of the reason behind your divorce but make sure it's simplified. This should be carefully planned out and, if possible, done together.

Make it clear that they are not responsible

After parent separation, most children feel responsible. They blame themselves for not being well-behaved, fun, more intelligent, etc. They believe they should have done better, and as such, they take the divorce hard on themselves. This ends up ruining their self-esteem. They are filled with self-loathing.

Reassure them of both parents' love

The feeling of being unloved is a matter to deal with. As a parent, you do not want your child feeling unwanted. You are to put in the work. Talk to them constantly. Look them in the eye tenderly and let them know there's nothing wrong with them. They are perfect and just right. Shower them with affection, and speak their love language.

How do you help them cope?

Set visitation arrangements

If you don't have custody of your children after your divorce, fix an ample amount of time for visitation. Be consistent and avoid changing routines too often. They should be kept as normal as possible. Children feel safe when they know what to expect.

Also, work on being flexible. For instance, if certain visitation days are constantly missed, you can work out a more convenient day. Remember, it's not just about you.

During such visitations, be welcoming. Wear a smile on your face. Avoid sending the wrong message; children tend to read between the lines.

Be civil with your ex

For the child(ren)'s sake, establish a cordial relationship with your ex, irrespective of your sentiments. You do not necessarily have to be best friends, but being civil could help.

Heated conversations regarding finances, and unreliability, should be on the phone or outside the home. Such conversations should occur in the absence of your child(ren).

If possible, do this when they are in school to ensure they do not turn up at the door the next minute. Research has shown that the most poorly adjusted kids of divorce are those exposed to parental clashes.

Always aim for peace. Even without an open argument, children can sense the tension. If you have a problem with your ex turning up at your door steps, pick neutral ground. You don't necessarily need to be in each other's faces. Work hard on co-parenting.

Keep communication opened

Encourage your kid(s) to express themselves and always listen to them. Be intentional about hearing them out. They should be allowed to express their thoughts and feelings without restraint. This gives them a sense of self-empowerment and boosts their self-esteem.

Talk to them about expressing their displeasure at a parent's attitude without being rude and angry.

Conclusion

A lot of people end with a bad divorce which leaves them and their children in a bad situation. One of the best ways of protecting your children after a divorce (if your spouse is abusive) is to make sure you get child support and custody.

To get this and avoid an unfair divorce, you need a good divorce attorney.
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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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The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, has inspected some infrastructural projects at five Garrisons at Burma Camp, Accra.



The projects, part of the Barracks Regeneration Project by Government, include a state-of-the-art three-storey complex with 50 offices to serve as a working space for the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and workers.



He also inspected an ongoing seven-storey office complex with a basement for the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) at the Ghana Army Headquarters.



The Minister was briefed by the Deputy Director, Engineering Services of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Albert Tekyi.



Mr. Nitiwul also inspected warehouses under construction near the new Military cemetery and the progress of work on the three-storey accommodation complexes with 246 bedrooms for Officer Cadets, a 300-plus capacity auditorium, a large and ultra-modern parade grounds, a four-storey with 16 two-bedroom apartment blocks for staff officers and men, all at the Ghana Military Academy and Training Schools.



Some housing projects for Senior Most officers near the Airport Area and two- and one-bedroom projects for uniformed personnel close to the Airforce Base were also inspected.



Mr Nitiwul commended the Chinese Construction Firm, Poly Changda Group, for the steady progress of work on the projects and for transforming the once forested lands into modern facilities.



 Whatever you see here was a forest three years ago, a complete forest, which we have transformed into an officer mess



The Minister said the projects, when completed, would attract military personnel from neighbouring countries to train in the facilities.



 We have people from Sierra Leone training here, from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria. We want to be the best so thats why we are putting up these facilities, he said.



He was optimistic that ongoing projects at MATS would be completed by the end of December this year and said by September, this year, some other projects would start at the Academy.



Whatever Government will have to do to support the Military we will do. Even if the Government has no money, we will find it somewhere, Minister Nitiwul assured.



Lt. Col. Tekyi said the projects were being done in phases, some ongoing at various garrisons nationwide.







Source: GNA









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The Danquah Institute congratulates the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for a well-coordinated and successful national election.

As custodians and forbearers of the ideals of the Danquah Busia Dombo tradition, we express our profound appreciation to all Aspirants for the display of commitment to the ideals we hold so dear.



The NPP has always proven to be a Party that leads in the deepening of democracy.



The thrust of NPP internal politics has always been to reflect the desire of the ordinary people at all levels.



The expansion of the Electoral College has been a step in the right direction, allowing a greater majority to have a say in who leads the Party.



This is the bedrock of democracy and the NPP, we believe, will continue to champion such convictions at the constituency, regional and national levels.

We implore our distinguished delegates to continue to uphold these ideals and reinforce the spirit of patriotism in all their dealings both within and outside the Party.



As part of Danquah Institutes routine monitoring of the electoral processes, we note that the successful conduct of the national officers elections was not just a mere coincidence.

We accordingly, commend the security services present, the Electoral Commission of Ghana, the NPP National Executives, Minsters of State, Members of Parliament, MMDCEs and the national planning and election committees for their commitment towards the electoral process.

We also commend Aspirants and their supporters for the peaceful interactions exhibited. The NPP has once again won the admiration of both the political and apolitical class of our dear country.



We trust that the new leadership will work with all who avail themselves for the Partys common good. The utmost objective must be to build consensus and emulate the ideals that have always been the bedrock of our dear Party.

We look forward to working with all Party faithfuls as we rise to build towards the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Majority Leader has described calls by the Minority for the Electoral Commission (EC) to brief the Committee on the whole, on its plan to lay a new Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) on the use of the Ghana Card as the sole document for the continuous voter registration as premature.



Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said there was no cause for alarm since the next general election was not due until the last quarter of 2024.



The Ghana card registration exercise by the National Identification Authority (NIA) is an ongoing exercise and if there are any bottlenecks, the appropriate briefing will be given to the House, he said.



Mistrust



Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu rejected the call after the First Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ibrahim Ahmed, had drawn the Houses attention to a C.I. which was currently being considered by the Subsidiary Legislation Committee.



He said the instrument, which had already been pre-laid, would become law after 21 sitting days.



Per the C.I., the EC desires to make the Ghana card the sole document for people to register for the new voters' register, he told the House.



The MP for Banda recalled how the NIA officials appeared in the House last Thursday to inform members of their engagement with the EC, as well as the challenges of funding and unreliable network facing the Ghana Card registration exercise.



With the House not privy to the pre-laying of the C.I., Mr Ahmed, therefore, called on the leader of government business to have the EC come to the House before the House adjourned.



When the EC comes and briefs us as a Committee of the Whole, then we see how we can solve any challenges so that when the time comes, we will not be confronted with controversial issues of mistrust, he said.



With the supplementary budget anticipated to be presented to the House next week, Mr Ahmed said if even funding was the problem confronting the Ghana card exercise, the House could exert pressure on the government to make funding available to the authority based on the intention of the EC.



He cited the recent Supreme Court ruling that required that once a C.I. was laid, the EC was restricted to the use of the Ghana Card.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 69F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 69F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
The preliminary plat for a townhome subdivision off Powderhouse Road near Aiken received the unanimous approval of the Aiken County Planning Commission on July 21.

But there were some contingencies.

Prior to its 6-0 vote, the panel indicated that the applicant, CSRA Development LLC of Augusta, needed to provide in the near future information about the traffic impact study for the subdivision and details about the plans for the rest of the property where Clifton Place will be located.

We do have a traffic study. I dont know why the engineers didnt send it, said Keith Lawrence, who represented CSRA Development at the Planning Commissions meeting.

He added that the results of the study would be made available soon to the Aiken County Planning and Development Department.

A preliminary plat is a map that shows the important features of a proposed subdivision.

In Clifton Place, there will be 171 lots on 46.64 acres of a nearly 180-acre tract, based on the paperwork submitted to the Planning and Development Department.

Its a great project, Lawrence said. Its different from a typical townhouse development, which kind of gets tucked in on 10 or 12 acres. This one will have a nice amenity area for residents. I dont have the details on that yet, but it will be a fairly large area, probably 5 to 7 acres. There will be a lot of green space associated with it. Were excited.

Earlier this month, the Aiken Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend to Aiken City Council the approval of a request for city water and sewer service for Clifton Place.

CSRA Development also is involved in another subdivision construction project, The Sanctuary, which will be located near Clifton Place.

Both Clifton Place and The Sanctuary are close to Athol Avenue.

Seven members of the Aiken County Planning Commission were present at the July 21 meeting, which was held at the Aiken County Government Center.

As usual, the panels chairman, Grace Vance, didnt vote on any of the requests that were considered.

In other action, the Planning Committee voted 5-0 to approve the preliminary plat for the Gramercy Park at Trolley Run patio home subdivision on Trolley Run Road.

Panel member Denise Fulmer recused herself prior to the presentation by Tilden Hilderbrand of the Aiken engineering firm Hass & Hilderbrand.

The Planning Commissions approval, however, was conditional because the panel wanted to make sure the applicant, Sage Mill Residential Ltd., gets a permit from the South Carolina Department of Transportation before proceeding with the construction project.

There will be 79 lots on 25 acres.

Sage Mill Residential has an Aiken mailing address.

Also July 21, the Planning Commission voted 6-0 to approve, with contingencies, a request to expand a mobile home park in Wagener in the Cougar Drive/Amarius Lane area.

The mobile home park has 11 existing lots, and the applicant, Artis Seawright, asked for permission to add 12 more lots.
I got the first inkling of trouble a few days before the primaries, when Peter Sibley asked me to look into the problem that prevented him from voting absentee.

A May directive from the State Election Commission said voters could no longer request an absentee ballot via email, and by the time the Mount Pleasant retiree's postal request arrived at the Charleston County election headquarters, the deadline had passed. It was suggested that, if we were able to get out and about, he wrote, we take advantage of the two weeks of early voting!

Fortunately, the county called to tell him it wouldnt be sending back a ballot; not all counties do that. More significantly, his was an annoyance, brought on by the quick implementation of South Carolina's new election law and exacerbated by his decision to request a ballot by mail rather than phone, which is still allowed.

But it shared a common denominator with a much more serious and enduring problem. One that actually cheated some voters out of participating in the primary runoffs two weeks later. One for which there was no workaround. And one that will continue to steal voters' votes until the Legislature changes the law.

I didnt learn about the actual problem until runoff day, when former Charlestowne Neighborhood Association president Ginny Bush told me she wouldnt be voting for the first time in her adult life because her ballot didnt arrive until Monday afternoon, when she was five and a half hours away from Charleston and unable to return on such short notice.

Elsa McDowell, who was an editorial writer before I came to work here, shared a batch of horror stories she collected from friends at a local retirement community. One, who lives away in the summer, never received her runoff ballot. Several others didnt receive theirs until the Friday and Saturday before the runoff. One who isnt mobile didnt even bother putting hers in the mail because she knew it was too late. One man who received his ballot the day before the runoff had been in and out of the hospital, and his wife couldnt leave him alone, so he had no way of voting.

The Juneteenth effect

Turning around absentee ballots for the runoffs has always been a tight squeeze, because the 14-day runoff window isnt really 14 days for election officials. The state doesnt order runoffs until first counties and then the state certify the primary results. Then the State Election Commission has to prepare the ballots, counties have to make sure theyre correct, and the state has to process any changes before the counties can start sending out absentee ballots.

Charleston County Elections Director Isaac Cramer told me that process wasnt complete this year until Saturday afternoon  after the post office had stopped picking up mail for the weekend. Thats typical, but what wasnt typical was the postal holiday thats been added since the last round of primary elections  Juneteenth  which meant ballots didnt go out until Tuesday morning. That greatly increased the number of people who didnt get them in time to mail them back.

Veterans Day, by the way, creates the same problem for municipal runoffs in Charleston, North Charleston, Mount Pleasant and other municipalities that hold their elections on the first Tuesday in November in odd years.

Compounding the problem was the fact that the new law put an end to in-person voting the day before the runoff, which means people who are physically able to get to the polls have one less work-around if their ballots arrive late.

Theres no reason to think enough people were cheated out of voting to change any outcomes, but its just as bad for one eligible voter to be denied the right to vote as it is for one ineligible voter to be allowed to vote.

The mail delays arent a COVID thing or a Trump thing; theyre a mail thing. For years, I have sent out a couple of hundred party invitations in November, and every year, I get a couple returned because of incorrect addresses  in January. Even at its best, the post office's unmet goal is to get 95% of first-class mail delivered within five days  which means 5% of it takes longer. Sometimes a lot longer.

Mr. Cramer told me about one case where the husband got his ballot on Thursday, and the wife didnt get hers until Monday, even though they requested them at the same time. It made no sense, he said.

More than an inconvenience

For people who requested absentee ballots because they were 65 or older, the delay merely caused an inconvenience: They could still take their completed ballots to county headquarters on Monday or Tuesday. Or they could not complete them, and instead vote at their regular polling place on Tuesday.

People who werent physically able to go to their polling place could appoint a personal representative to take their completed ballot to election headquarters  assuming they could find one. The new law says no one can turn in more than five ballots, which could make that difficult for, say, nursing home residents who all suffer from slow mail.

But for people who requested ballots because they were out of town, it meant they couldnt vote. Even if they requested that the ballots be sent to an out-of-town address, they couldnt get them back in time unless they paid $25 for overnight mail  and maybe not even then.

I dont believe our legislators intended to make voting impossible, or even needlessly difficult, for voters who through no fault of their own become victims of slow mail delivery. But they did. There are lots of ways to fix the problem  from the easy (increasing the time between primaries and runoffs) to the smart (instituting instant runoff voting). Whatever they choose, fixing it needs to be a priority.

There's no way to justify what happened to some voters last month.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds light and variable.
South Carolinians continued returning to work in June, bringing the statewide jobless figure within striking distance of the pre-pandemic rate.

The number of working South Carolinians increased to more than 2.32 million last month  an increase of 4,288 people over the May estimate and 56,000 more than a year ago, according to a report released July 22 by the state's Department of Employment and Workforce.

Still, the state's labor force  defined as people with jobs plus those who are unemployed but looking for work  remains stubbornly low. It edged up slightly in June to more than 2.4 million people, but that is just 57 percent of working-age residents, the fifth lowest in the country. The national average is about 62 percent.

The state's top employment agency has created a task force to study the problem, but work is in the early stages and the findings won't be released until later this year.

"The goal is for the task force to analyze what is affecting South Carolina's workforce, how labor force participation can be increased and help us understand whether this should be a statewide or county-by-county effort," said DEW director Dan Ellzey.

Monthly data, adjusted for seasonal factors, showed that upwards of 1,000 residents previously classified as unemployed returned to work in June, shrinking the jobless total to 78,101. That's a significant drop from the state's 97,345 unemployed residents in June 2021.

South Carolina's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 3.2 percent from May's estimate of 3.3 percent.

"This puts the state within three-tenths of a percentage point of the pre-pandemic figure of 2.9 percent in February of 2020 and significantly lower than the 11.6 percent rate in April of 2020," Ellzey said.

The Charleston-North Charleston unemployment rate ticked up to 3 percent in June from 2.8 percent the previous month as the more than 4,100 people who joined the local labor force outpaced the number of new jobs offered by area employers.

Charleston and Lexington counties had the state's lowest unemployment tally in June at 2.9 percent while Marlboro County in the Pee Dee region had the highest, 7.1 percent.

Nationally, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6 percent.

Palmetto State employers added 5,100 positions across all industry categories last month, excluding farms, slowing the pace from May when 12,400 new jobs were added. Over the past year, South Carolina employers have added 76,100 non-farm jobs.

The most substantial job gains in June were in the government category, with an increase of 2,100 positions. The trade, transportation and utilities sectors added 2,000 jobs last month.

Among the other industries adding to their payrolls in June: professional and business services  a varied category that includes law and engineering offices, call centers, temporary help firms and others  added 1,000 jobs; the manufacturing sector gained 600 positions; and there were an additional 500 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector.

The growth in such tourism-related jobs  a key part of the Charleston area's economy  slowed from the 4,000 that were added in May, but there are nearly 22,000 more jobs in the sector than there were a year ago.

Construction had the most job losses in June, losing 900 positions, while the education and health services and information sectors lost 200 jobs each.

Federal payroll figures show the national economy slowing while the Palmetto State's economy "remains robust as employers continue to look for workers," Ellzey said. There are tens of thousands of job postings in the DEW's database that employers are struggling to fill.

At the same time, the state's labor force  defined as people with jobs plus those who are unemployed but looking for work  remains stubbornly low. It edged up slightly in June to more than 2.4 million people, but that is just 57 percent of working-age residents, the fifth lowest in the country. The national average is about 62 percent.

Earlier this year, Ellzey's agency formed a task force to look into the causes of the labor gap and to develop potential ways to improve it.

The group, which has met three times, has completed an initial analysis and has started gathering additional data. The findings will be released later this year.

"The goal is for the task force to analyze what is affecting South Carolina's workforce, how labor force participation can be increased and help us understand whether this should be a statewide or county-by-county effort," Ellzey said.
COTTAGEVILLE  A tract of nearly 150 acres of hardwood trees along the Edisto River  home to guarded bird species like the wood stork  was recently transferred to the state for conservation and is now protected.

The property, situated adjacent to the popular Good Hope Landing, provides a number of wetland benefits: floodwater storage, wildlife habitat and protection of drinking water quality.

Several rare, threatened and endangered species  such as the red-cockaded woodpecker and southern bald eagle, the Atlantic sturgeon fish and Carolina birds-in-a-nest flower  call the space home.

Additionally, about a third of all state priority fish species are found in the surrounding Edisto River system.

And since this tract is immediately downstream from the landing, it is either the first or last site users see when they're getting on or off the river.

The big hardwood trees there, probably second growth after being logged decades ago, have a huge impact on the landing's users and are aesthetically important to protect, said Patrick Moore, a senior project manager at Open Space Institute.

The institute this month announced the land transfer to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. The property sits across from the 1,375-acre Edisto River Wildlife Management Area, which the state also oversees.

The addition of this land to the wildlife management area means creating a safeguard of public and recreational access and drinking water for downstream communities, said Nate Berry, OSI's senior vice president in South Carolina.

A number of groups chipped in to make the move possible, including the Waste Management company, the S.C. Conservation Bank and the Coastal Conservation League.

When environmentalists heard the property was going to be sold and possibly logged, OSI stepped in and purchased it to keep that from happening, Moore said. Waste Management contributed funds for the effort, too, and DNR secured a grant from the conservation bank for the transfer.

"Acquisition of this property will protect another important parcel along the Edisto, one of the longest, free-flowing rivers in the United States that provides critical habitat for game and non-game species," said DNR Director Robert Boyles.

The Edisto is the longest blackwater river in the country, meandering some 250 miles from Edgefield and Saluda counties to the Atlantic Ocean at Edisto Island, according to the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Boyles said DNR is appreciative of partnering with the other organizations to provide more land where the public can enjoy outdoor activities. The river already has a 62-mile canoe and kayak trail that offers camping and picnic sites for single and multi-day trips, according to a news release.

With the addition of the property near Good Hope Landing, OSI has conserved more than 35,000 acres in South Carolina over the past five years.
As the nation embarks on increased outreach to those needing help with their mental well-being, most of South Carolina is missing an important element, officials said.

With the 988 hotline for suicide and mental health now online in the state, and mobile crisis teams available to respond to every county, many communities lack a Crisis Stabilization Unit designed to provide a temporary stay and intensive therapy. South Carolina has only two, one in the Lowcountry and one in Spartanburg, and neither is operating at full capacity. Efforts to create more in Columbia, Greenville, Anderson, Orangeburg and Kershaw County have been planned and discussed but have yet to bear fruit.

While the hotline provides a way for people in crisis to seek help, and the mobile teams can respond to them, there needs to be a third element, "somewhere to go" that can provide short-term assistance, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The crisis centers provide the "place" that is needed, said Deborah Blalock, deputy director of the S.C. Department of Mental Health for Community Health Services.

"Thats why communities should want them. It gives them that third leg of the stool," she said.

The centers provide short-term voluntary care for people, with an average length of stay of 3 days, while staff helps them get back on track.

"Its all about the immediate crisis. So the treatment model is very intensive," Blalock said. That can be individual therapy, group therapy, medication and other services.

"Its all centered around what got you in here and what can we provide you with in terms of coping skills, resources, medications, etc., to keep you out of crises in the future," she said.

It could be non-health care needs  job assistance, clothing, housing or help getting a driver's license, said Jennifer Roberts, executive director of the Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center, which operates the Tricounty Crisis Stabilization Center in Charleston.

"Across the country, crisis stabilization units do whatever it takes to help these folks get settled," she said. "And then if you get some of that done, (patients) are more willing and more able to participate in treatment."

It is also about keeping them out of certain places, namely jails and hospital emergency departments, Roberts said.

"It is a huge intention of crisis units to divert people from jail," she said. "They dont need to be in there."

But too often in the past, that is exactly where people in mental crisis have landed, NAMI reports. People with mental illness end up in jail about 2 million times a year in the U.S. and an estimated 44 percent of people in jail have a mental health issue, the group said.

The centers provide a different kind of care than patients would receive in a behavioral health unit in a hospital, where stays tend to be longer.

"You get more intimate care in a crisis stabilization unit than you would in a hospital," Roberts said. Of the referrals to the Charleston center, 61 percent came directly from area hospitals, according to center data.

"The hospitals are the biggest benefactor because then they dont have people coming to an emergency department or sitting in an ED who dont need to be there," Blalock said. Patients and families benefit "because theyre getting the right level of care at the right time. They are not incurring a hospital bill they dont need to incur."

Establishing more units

The S.C. Legislature saw the value of the crisis centers when it appropriated $1.2 million to establish one in the Midlands during the Fiscal Year 2021 session. But COVID-19 blocked a plan for a 10-bed unit that would have left patients in close proximity to each other, Blalock said.

"It was really hard to convince anyone to look at congregate care in the midst of a pandemic," she said.

It has also been a struggle to get providers in the Columbia area to identify a suitable spot. Prisma Health had proposed a site on one of its campuses, but that was more of a ward-style open setting and "if somebody is in crisis, they dont need to be in a ward" but in individual rooms, Blalock said. Another potential site in Columbia is awaiting approval from the Department of Health and Environmental Control, which licenses the units, before it can move forward.

The effort in Anderson was "really clicking along and was slated about five years ago to go onto the campus of Southern Wesleyan University before that effort was also derailed by the pandemic and by complications with the university, Blalock said. Hospitals in the area, including Prisma and AnMed Health, and other providers as well as law enforcement are going back and forth on where it should ultimately be located, she said.

But "theres a lot of movement in that community to get one up and running," Blalock said.

Greenville providers had talks for about six years before that fizzled out, but efforts have recently been revived and Prisma and the Department of Mental Health are building a coalition there to try to make it happen, she said. Kershaw County has had talks underway for about nine months, and Orangeburg looked at creating a center but has since dropped the idea, Blalock said.

Of the two that are actually open, Spartanburg has the Peer Living Room at the Eubanks Center, a home-like "safe space" open from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. for those who may be in crisis to come seek support and services for mental health or addiction issues, according to the center.

The Tricounty Crisis center in Charleston began in 1999 after Blalock, then with the Charleston mental health center, went to study model programs in Seattle and Tacoma. Because of COVID-19, it is only operating five beds currently due its lack of space  just 2,200 square feet in downtown Charleston  and the need to continue precautions, including testing before admission, Roberts said.

"Its just a little more complicated to get people in because of that," she said.

Police drop-offs at the unit used to be pretty common, but those have been curtailed because there is no longer a deputy stationed full time at the unit, and the center has had to seek other security arrangements, Roberts said. Law enforcement and jail referrals made up about 7 percent of recent referrals to the unit, according to center data.

In its last fiscal year that ended in June, Tricounty Crisis treated 300 people compared with 550 in a normal year, she said.

But in October, the unit will move along with the mental health center to a new county building where it will have nearly double the space it currently has, but the same 10 beds, Roberts said.

"We can provide more services and it will be a lot better location," she said.

What is needed are more places like it across the state "so we have a full continuum of crisis care," Roberts said. That is certainly what the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration sees as the model for complete care, she said.

"While 988 is the very first step, over time they expect all states to have all levels of this crisis care," Roberts said.
Daufuskie Island, a remote seat of Gullah-Geechee culture since the end of the Civil War, once bustled with activity and commerce. For around 40 years, the island supported a significant community of formerly enslaved people and their descendants whose daily lives were intertwined with natures ebb and flow.

Steamships docked at the public landing or anchored near shore so islanders could load them with goods from the island: oysters, pecans, cotton, timber and produce.

New generations were born; old generations faded away. Burial grounds were established to accommodate the dead. The cemetery meant for the Maryfield community became the largest on the island. Today its run down. Some of the grave sites can be recognized only because of the depressions in the ground. Markers are worn, broken, missing.

A $50,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservations African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund will help the Daufuskie Island Gullah Heritage Society plan for the cemeterys rehabilitation.

The money is part of a $3 million distribution to a variety of organizations devoted to preserving African American historical sites.

More information To find out more about the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund's work, go to savingplaces.org.

Other beneficiaries include the Chicago home of Emmett Till, who at 14 years old was murdered by White men in Mississippi in 1954; Detroits Blue Bird Inn, an important mid-century jazz venue; the home and studio of artist Faith Ringgold in Englewood, N.J.; the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, N.Y.; cemeteries and burial grounds in Pennsylvania; Brown Chapel in Selma, Ala.; James Weldon Johnsons writing cabin in Great Barrington, Mass.; the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston; the Okahumpka Rosenwald School in Okahumpka, Fla.

With more than $80 million in funding, the Action Fund is the largest U.S. resource dedicated to the preservation of African American historic places.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund was launched in late 2017 and has since accumulated $80 million that it uses in its campaign to preserve and protect places that have been overlooked in American history and represent centuries of African American activism, achievement, and resilience.

The fund has provided financial support to more than 200 projects so far.

Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund, said his nonprofit announces grant recipients every summer. In 2018, the fund invested a little more than $1 million in groups dedicated to preserving African American culture and history. In 2019, the granting amount increased to $1.6 million. In 2020, it reached $3 million, benefitting 40 organizations.

The most recent round of funding  another $3 million  was shared among 33 groups.

For 2021-22, the Action Fund received 627 proposals requesting about $67 million. All told, 3,100 proposals requesting $300 million have been considered, Leggs said.

African American historic places continue to be underfunded and undervalued, he said. Thats why this work is critical.

In South Carolina, five recipients or projects so far have benefitted from the funds largesse: Maryfield Cemetery, Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, historic Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island, the Hutchinson House on Edisto Island, and the WeGOJA Foundation, which identifies and promotes the preservation of historic African American sites.

Leggs said the Maryfield cemetery likely wont be the last project in the state to receive support from the Action Fund.

South Carolina has a rich Black history and we are delighted to support the organization thats stewarding this piece of American history, he said, referring to the cemetery. We want to do more. We will continue to uplift South Carolinas cultural heritage.

Sallie Ann Robinson of the Daufuskie Island Gullah Heritage Society said she is partnering with Georgia State University and S.C. State University to clean up, document and protect the Maryfield cemetery, one of five Gullah graveyards on the island. All need work. No inventory has been kept, so no one knows how many remains are located at each of the burial grounds, she said.

The goal is to get anthropology and archaeology students to assist. The project would provide them with hands-on learning, and motivate the younger generation to bear witness to their history, Robinson said.

Daufuskie Island also has 10 old Gullah houses in desperate need of restoration. Shes hoping that, eventually, she can tackle that project, too. Perhaps the homes could become rentals, generating needed income for their owners, she said.

Theres a lot that needs to be done, and Robinson will approach it all one project at a time, she said.

For me, being born and raised here, I just cant sit back and do nothing.

The grant money her organization is getting is meant to assist with project planning and development, not implementation. That can include planning activities tied to the development of preservation plans, feasibility studies, and fundraising. Other grants can support capital projects, increasing organizational capacity, and education programming.

The Action Fund is a private nonprofit with nationwide reach, and it relies primarily on philanthropy from the private sector. Its expansion is a result of investments from the Mellon Foundation, The JPB Foundation, Lilly Endowment, and others. Significant gifts from philanthropists like MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett and the Ford Foundation also have contributed to the success of the fund.

The Action Funds work seeks to tell more inclusive and accurate stories that reflect Americas true history, composition, and identity and to restore and transform our nations built and cultural heritage assets, said Justin Garrett Moore, Humanities in Place program officer at the Mellon Foundation.

The National Trust now is working to create the necessary infrastructure that can support the effort to preserve African American heritage sites, he said.
MYRTLE BEACH  The Grand Strand and much of the Pee Dee are experiencing COVID-19 conditions that prompt the CDC to recommend mask-wearing in public as of the organization's July 21 update.

The CDC calculates its community levels by tracking the COVID-19 related hospital admissions per 100,000 population, percent of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and total COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population. Both Horry and Georgetown counties are under "high" community levels as of July 21. The number of South Carolina counties in which the CDC recommends wearing a mask in public settings has increased quickly, and State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell recommends doing so to prevent further spread.

When we previously saw high levels of transmission, there were far more prevention measures in place, Bell said. The use of masks and physical distancing is really at a minimum now, and that's not helping us at all.

The CDC's county-level map of COVID-19 community levels shows green for a "low" level  indicating only that residents should be tested if they have symptoms and stay up to date with COVID vaccines  and yellow for a "medium" level  indicating that, in addition to the low-level precautions, residents at risk for severe illness should talk to a doctor about whether they need to wear a mask.

Orange indicates a "high" community level, at which point the CDC recommends wearing a mask in public. The CDC's July 7 update of the map had nine of South Carolina's 46 counties glowing orange, all of them in a contiguous mass in the northeastern corner of the state: Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Horry, Marlboro, Marion and Williamsburg.

But the CDC's July 14 update showed a sea of orange spreading across South Carolina, with 32 counties at "high" COVID-19 community levels. The state's six largest counties, which account for more than 2 million South Carolinians, each showed a high community level as of July 14.

After 11 counties in the Upstate and along the Georgia border showed a "low" community level the previous week, only Allendale  the least-populous county in the state  showed a low community level as of July 14.

The situation improved slightly by the July 21 update, however: six counties, five in the Upstate plus Jasper, showed a "low" community level while 29 maintained a "high" community level.

One area of direct measurement of COVID-19 activity in communities, at least for some areas of the state, is wastewater surveillance. The virus is shed in human waste and can be detected four to six days before it could be picked up by clinical tests, and before some patients even have symptoms, so it is considered an early warning system for COVID-19 activity in a community.

Currently, there are only three sites in South Carolina actively transmitting data to the National Wastewater Surveillance System: Greenwood; a site that covers parts of Florence and Darlington counties; and Georgetown County. The data from Georgetown shows a 29 percent increase between June 27 and July 11 and the Florence-Darlington site had a 33 percent increase between July 1 and July 13, according to an analysis by the Post and Courier.

Statewide, hospitalizations also increased 36 percent between July 2 and July 16, Post and Courier analysis showed, while cases reported to the state increased 16 percent.

Wastewater surveillance had been conducted across the state earlier in the year by the University of South Carolina but that stopped in many places in April and May. DHEC has been working to take over statewide testing since then. Dr. Brannon Traxler, public health director for DHEC, said in late June the agency was in the final days of testing and validation to bring more sites online in South Carolina.

Unfortunately, it's not gone," Bell said. "We just don't want this to be a situation that's out of sight, out of mind, because we still have a lot that we can do to prevent those more serious complications from what we continue to see with COVID, those hospitalizations and deaths. We just implore people to follow the recommendations with the use of masks.

Bell said that the rapid rate of spread across the state is due to several factors. The main one is how there are several sub-variants to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 that make the virus more transmissible among the populace.

Bell noted, though, that hospitalizations are not increasing at the same rapid rate as COVID-19 cases across the state.

Although were seeing a lot more cases, the hospitalization ratings and admissions for COVID are not increasing at that same higher rate, which is an indicator that we may not be seeing more severe disease, Bell said. But, I would add that we do continue to see preventable hospitalizations and deaths. Even though it may not be more severe, those original strains were certainly severe enough to cause concern.

As the virus spreads faster and more people become infected, Bell said that there have been cases of reinfection in people who have already had COVID-19, as well as breakthrough infection, where a small percentage of those who are vaccinated may still become infected.

Despite that slight risk of breakthrough infection, COVID-19 vaccination is still the strongest way to prevent severe illness or hospitalization. Bell encouraged everyone 6 months and older to get vaccinated, especially younger people who will be starting school within the next month.

I just want to emphasize that the uptake especially in the younger age groups has been much lower than we'd like to see, and we are moving back to school in just a few short weeks, Bell said. We want to get as many kids protected as possible before they go back to school because we know that the same prevention measures will not be in place in the school settings.

For people who already received the primary series of the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, they are highly encouraged to get the recommended booster doses in the appropriate time frame.

This is especially important for people who have underlying medical conditions that may put them at increased risk for those hospitalizations or, at worse, they may put them at increased risk for dying from COVID-19 infections, Bell said. It is one of our greatest tools to prevent spread.
Two years ago, James Beard Award finalist Butcher & Bee teamed up with Cru Catering and Charleston nonprofit Feed the Need to launch a grocery bag distribution program for displaced food and beverage workers.

The effort helped feed more than 2,250 individuals over the course of two months with provisions from 17 South Carolina farms, food producers and Charleston-based small businesses.

They called the program Pay It Forward.

Now a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Pay It Forward is here to stay after shifting its focus to distributing emergency grants to F&B workers in need. In the first three months of 2022, Pay It Forward distributed 49 grants worth more than $21,000.

After securing $200,000 in combined funding from the Indigo Road Hospitality Group and Sullivans Island restaurant Obstinate Daughter, the organization is poised to further serve Charleston food and beverage workers in need. Among others, the organization's eight-person board includes state Rep. J.A. Moore, D-Goose Creek; Indigo Road Hospitality Group president Steve Palmer; and Butcher & Bee owner Michael Shemtov, who is Pay It Forward's founder and board chairman.

As the nonprofits leaders put it, Pay It Forward reflects Charlestons evolving landscape, meeting needs as they arise to support the people who make the areas diverse and robust restaurant community possible.

I feel like the last year  which has really been our first year as a 501(c)(3)  has kind of put us on sure-footing, said Carrie Larson, Pay It Forward's executive director. We now have an understanding of kind of the landscape, and I hope to be able to better anticipate the needs of our community.

Food and beverage industry employees who have been working full time (30 hours per week) in Charleston for at least six months are eligible to receive a $250-$2,000 grant, Larson told The Post and Courier. After an individual applies online, the organization utilizes a rubric that looks at each applicants expenses, income and household size to determine if they meet certain thresholds that would qualify them for a grant.

In the last 18 months, Pay It Forward has distributed more than 100 grants.

The organization strives to be a resource during moments of need, like the Feb. 7 fire at the Palms Apartments in West Ashley. A Valentines Day fundraiser organized by Pay It Forward offered assistance to the seven full-time F&B employees who lost everything in the blaze.

Now, Pay It Forward is continuing to build its emergency relief fund to help the community when disasters strike in the future.

We have built a system of protocols to help during hurricanes and other community crises, Larson said. We have certainly felt that when there is a larger crisis, that people are quick to respond. Well see that our donors want to help and know that were here to do just that.

Non-disaster needs could be anything from the loss of an immediate family member to the need for mental health support. Those who would like to learn more about Pay It Forward, apply for relief or contribute to the organization can visit payitforwardcharleston.org.
Steve has mentioned the brief heat wave that brought unprecedented high temperatures to much of England, and elsewhere in Northwestern Europe. The heat wave didnt last longthe high today in London was 79 degreesbut it prompted an outpouring of global warming hysteria.

I was reminded of visiting London around 27 years ago, in April. Then, too, the city was in the midst of an unprecedented heat wavein April! With temperatures in the 90s and no air conditioning, everyone was sweltering. We stayed at the East India Club, and as I recall the Club, for the first time, relaxed its centuries-old requirement that coats and ties be worn in all public areas. It was hot then, too; the difference is that no one claimed it was our fault.

Watts Up With That has a useful antidote to green hysteria:

The high this week for central England was absolutely unparalleled, particularly regarding the deviation from the previous record high. Also note that the heat wave was very short.

As you can see in this chart:

Ironically, such an extraordinarily extreme event is a sign that global warming played a very small role in this event. This reflects the Golden Rule of Climate Extremes: The more extreme a climate or weather record is, the greater the contribution of natural variability and the smaller the contribution of human-caused global warming.

British temperatures have indeed been rising, around 1 degree Centigrade over the past 50 years:

So you can call that 1 degree rise global warming, and human activity may have something to do with it. But that doesnt explain the brief heat wave of a few days ago:

That background warming of around 1C is absolutely dwarfed by the magnitude of the heatwave, in which maximum temperatures were as much as 20C above normal (as shown by the figure above). So why were the temperatures so extreme this week? The reason is the development of a large ridge of high pressure, something called a ridge, which produces warming by sinking and moving air northwards on its western flanks. Here is the upper level (500-hPa pressure level, about 18,000 ft) at 5 PM PDT July 17th. The ridging (high heights or pressure) are indicated by the red-orange colors. Note there was a trough (blue colors) of lower pressure on its southwest side. This feature increases southerly flow that brings up warmer air.

One feature of this rather freakish weather pattern is that the areas around the super-warm zone were colder than normal:

Ironically such a pattern also produces enhanced cooling to the east and west, something shown by the temperature anomalies (difference from normal) six hours later (red/brown above normal, blue below normal).

Conclusion:

The bottom line is that the recent European heat wave was caused by an amplification of the northern hemisphere wave pattern, with global warming contributing perhaps 5-10% of the warmth. Natural variability of the atmosphere was the proximate cause of the warmth and does not represent an existential threat to the population of Europe.

One obvious point is that weather events get lots of attention if they occur in the U.S. or in Western Europe. They often go unnoticed elsewhere. When it gets cold, climate alarmists like to tell us that it isnt climate, it is only weather. What happened in England for a few days this month wasnt climate, it was weather. Like the heat wave I endured in London many years ago.
Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time. Winston Churchill

Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. Inscription on the Liberty Bell
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is far gone in self-delusion if he thinks he is a good Democratic presidential candidate. Perhaps his mission is to make Gavin Newsom look good (if you dont look too closely) or to contend with William Howard Taft for recognition as our most obese president. Those might be realistic goals. He must be encouraged by the lack of talent on the Democratic bench.

Pritzkers recent speech at a Florida Democratic Party event hasnt gotten the attention it deserves. If the lack of attention derives from the difficulty of taking Pritzker seriously as a national candidate, that might be understandable. However, I doubt that is the explanation.

The Free Beacons Joe Simonson attends to Pritzkers speech in Your Problem Now: Illinois Gov J.B. Pritzker Celebrates GOP Billionaires Fleeing His State for Florida. The departure of the billionaires  to Florida  will result in the loss of hundreds of millions of tax revenue. Illinoiss loss is Floridas gain. Simonson notes the anomaly:

Its a curious political argument from Pritzker, a governor facing reelection in November and who has seen three major companies announce plans to decamp from Illinois in the past two months: Caterpillar, Boeing, and [Ken] Griffins Citadel. The remarks were an obvious attempt to position Pritzker as an alternative to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), so his decision to highlight the businessmen who have chosen to take their companies to Florida from Illinois is puzzling.

Okay, so Pritzker is trying to take a lemon and make a lemonade. Im not sure he has thought this through though. Billionaires have become a core constituency of the Democratic Party. Simonson adds the obligatory nonresponse to his request for elaboration: A spokeswoman for Pritzker did not respond to a request for comment about whether he celebrates the departure of all billionaires from Illinois, or just Republican business leaders.

Pritzker himself is a billionaire notably sensitive to Illinois taxes. Who can forget the lengths to which he went to save $330,000 in Cook County property taxes? The Chicago Tribune memorialized the Pritzker project in its October 2018 editorial Pritzker and those toilets: A scheme to defraud.'
The Nigerian government borrowed over N3 trillion to cover non-capital expenditure in the first four months of 2022, a register that covers salaries, government running costs and even debt repayment, a PREMIUM TIMES analysis of government spending data shows.

The spending comes amid Nigerias bloated deficit spending and poor revenue.

The government in its fiscal performance report for January through April said the spending target for the period was N5.77 trillion, while the actual spending as of April 31 was N4.72 trillion.

A breakdown of the actual spending within the quarter shows that N1.94 trillion was for debt service, N1.26 trillion for personnel cost, including pensions. The remaining went to statutory transfers, overhead cost and debt servicing.

Only a meagre N773.63 billion was spent on capital projects  which should include everything from roads to bridges, rail and school and hospital buildings, projects that affect the generality of Nigerians.

The governments retained revenue during the period was only N1.63 trillion, out of a target of N3.32 trillion, putting the deficit between actual spending and revenues at N3.09 trillion.

The new report, therefore, shows rather than borrow for investment in the nations human and infrastructural needs, the government continued to borrow to finance consumption, offset overheads, pay pensions, and settle related recurrent expenses. This is contrary to globally acknowledged fiscal advice that borrowing should be channeled toward capital expenditure.

Nigeria largely operates a consumption-based and rent-seeking economy with a fiscal and constitutional framework that engenders consumption, deepens poverty, and elevates misery amongst its estimated 200 million population.

Over the years, experts and policy analysts have warned of the danger of borrowing for consumption, as it weakens the nations fiscal position and raises debt management risks.

Debt Overhang

In the first quarter of 2022, Nigerias public debt rose to N41.6 trillion from N39.56 trillion recorded at the end of December 2021.

The Debt Management Office earlier in the month said Nigerias debt profile is prone to the volatility of oil prices and forex exchange risk.

According to a 2021 debt sustainability analysis, the DMO said the countrys debt profile shows moderate risk and is susceptible to shocks such as market perception, the share of debt held by non-residents and foreign currency-denominated debt.

In July 2020, amid growing concerns over Nigerias debt profile, the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said the dual reality of COVID-19 pandemic and the drop in the price of oil in the international market made it inevitable for Nigeria to keep borrowing from external bodies.

Speaking at a webinar organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Fiscal Policy Roundtable and Tax Investment and Competitiveness Policy Commission, she stated that before the global health and economic challenges, Nigeria had been grappling with low revenue. She added that the crises had put the country in a difficult situation, which had made it difficult for the government to meet some of its obligations.

Weve had to grapple with low revenue, even before the pandemic. We had high debt, weak infrastructure base, low human capital and low revenue that is largely dependent on the foreign exchange earned from oil. So, there are many things we have loved to do that we cannot do, she said.

Due to the global economic slowdown and the revenue issues, what we are expecting is a GDP that would contract, in the best case scenario, by about 4.4 per cent and in the worst case scenario, it could be about eight per cent or more.

We are in a very difficult situation but we are trying to manage that because if nothing is done, up to about 21 million jobs could also be affected by the impact of the pandemic. So, with all these statistics, we cannot overemphasise the importance of raising revenue.

Mrs Usman listed some key programmes of the government designed to grow the economy and engender development, adding that there was a need for the government to mobilise external funding for the implementation of the proposed programmes.

To achieve all these, we will have to keep mobilising external funding and seek debt relief, she said.

We continue to engage with the multilateral and donor agencies to access additional funding for crisis response, we seek moratorium from official partners for some of the loans that we have and support arrangements to secure commercial debt relief.

Opposition

Leading opposition candidates including presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and that of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, have in the past warned against excessive borrowing.

In an opinion piece published in 2019, Mr Abubakar noted that it is scary that Nigeria had taken almost as much foreign debt in the last three years, as she had taken in the thirty years before 2015 combined. He warned that endless borrowing will lead to endless sorrowing.

In his interventions, Mr Abubakar urged the government to provide an enabling environment for business to thrive, rather than resort to endless borrowing.

He wrote: Rather than profligate borrowing, what Nigeria needs to do is restore investor confidence in our economy. Key to that is respecting the independence of key institutions, such as the Judiciary and the Central Bank of Nigeria. Both of these institutions are now the captives of Buhari and his cabal, and though they are loath to admit it, they cannot take one step without watching their backs.

Speaking during an interview in April, Mr Obi said the nation would rather starve than borrow to fund consumption.

Nigerians will know the reasons for borrowing and it must be borrowed for production, he said in response to questions on borrowing and debt.

Nobody will spend a kobo or a dollar of borrowed money for consumption, instead we will all starve. That is why I told everybody there is nothing to share again, we must rebuild this country for the future of our children.

Last August, at the African Development Bank Group 2021 Annual Meetings, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and ex-Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina and the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Tarek Amer, and other regional economic stakeholders expressed concern about rising national debts across Africa.

The experts warned that African countries face a high risk of falling into a debt trap, as debt service becomes a major burden in these economies.
Some international election observers have expressed concern over the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC) technology to perform optimally in the 2023 General Elections.

The joint delegation of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), raised the concern on Friday while addressing a press conference in Abuja.

The five-member delegation comprises the Secretary of State for Ohio, Frank LaRose; a former Minority Leader of the Sierra Leone Parliament, Bernadette Lahai; a former Director of Elections, Registration and Demarcation at the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Albert Kofi-Arhin; a Regional Director of NDI, Christopher Fomunyoh and Jenai Cox, Regional Deputy Director for Africa at IRI.

Members of the delegation took turns to read sections of the joint statement of their first pre-election assessment mission in Nigeria to journalists expressed concerns over whether the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will perform at the same level as witnessed in the recent governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun when scaled up for the national elections.

While noting other concerns to be addressed ahead of the 2023 polls, the delegation said the elimination of voting points by INEC has aided the transparency of results but has also posed a new challenge for the electorates.

Instead of transitioning the previous voting points into new polling units, INEC has largely established the new polling units in new locations. Recognizing that moving voters to a new location presents a challenge, INEC has plans only to include new voters or voters who choose to transfer their registration at these new polling units. This approach is unlikely to address the anomaly of overcrowding in existing polling units, a member of the delegation, Ms Lahai, noted.

She said there is a need to further reduce access to polling units so as to reduce conditions for nefarious behaviours during the voting exercise.

She also highlighted inter-party disputes, insecurity, high nomination fees by political parties, election violence and low representation of women in positions of power among the issues Nigeria needs to address before the 2023 election.

In its recommendations read by Ms Cox, the NDI/IRI delegation called for timely disbursement of funding for INEC, so they can play their role in the election cycle without fear or favour.

The delegation also advised INEC to capitalise on the excitement of Nigerians from the just concluded governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States and extend the period for voter registration.

INEC should publish disaggregated data on registered persons with disabilities (PWDs) before elections and invest in collecting data to map the location and type of assistance needed for PWDs, and audit polling unit layouts to ensure compliance with the INEC polling unit schematic, Ms Cox said.

The delegation also urged the commission to seize the renewed interest of Nigerians in the electoral process to engage them on issues that matter to them.

It said the country, for the first time since 2007, may witness an open contest in the coming presidential poll.

The 2023 elections are a departure from some of the political dynamics that defined previous polls. For the first time since 2007, the presidential election will be an open contest with no incumbent. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) selected former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu as its flag bearer. Former Vice President and 2019 presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar will contest on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

However, the emergence of Peter Obi -former Anambra State governor and presidential candidate for the Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso  former Kano governor and presidential candidate for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)  as viable Third Forces has excited many young Nigerians, the observers said.

Ekiti, Osun polls

The delegation which observed the recent governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States, acknowledged improvements in the countrys electoral reform, pace of transmitting election results, electronic accreditation of voters, among others.

The outcome of the polls, it said, shows a departure from the abnormalities that characterised the 2019 polls as well as the general elections.
Notorious banditry kingpin, Ada Aleru, who was recently named the Sarkin Fulani Yandoton Daji Emirate (the head of the Fulani in Yandoton Daji) in a chilling confession, said he does not kidnap people but kills them.

The coronation of Mr Aleru, who is the leading terrorist in Tsafe and Faskari axis of Zamfara and Katsina states, generated public outcry across the country.

The state government, subsequently, suspended the Emir of the town, Aliyu Marafa, who conferred the title on Mr Aleru, who is wanted in neighbouring Katsina State for mass killings.

The Katsina government placed a bounty of N5 million on information leading to the arrest of Mr Aleru, who is accused of killing 52 people in Kadisau, a community in Faskari Local Government in 2019.

In his first and only known interview with the media, Mr Aleru told the BBC that he is angry with Hausas and the Nigerian government.

In a documentary titled The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara billed to be aired 25 July 2022, Mr Aleru said while his men kidnap people, he is only interested in killing people.

My men do that; I just go and kill them (people), Mr Aleru said.

An unnamed associate of Mr Aleru told the BBC Africa Eye team that the Fulani are systematically excluded from government jobs and other economic opportunities, and that the Nigerian air force attacks innocent Fulani herders and kills their cattle. How have the Fulani become so worthless in Nigeria? he asks.

He lamented that the grazing routes the Fulani relied on upon have been closed off while land and water have become very scarce.

We bought more rifles  Abductors of school girls

The BBC also interviewed the terrorists who abducted pupils from the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe, Talata Mafara local government area of Zamfara State.

While the state government insisted that no ransom was paid, the unnamed bandit said they were paid N60 million before they released the pupils.

When asked what they did with the money, he said, We bought more rifles.

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Distressing scenes, including that of a boy dying from a gunshot wound, were also released in the documentary.

I remember how he raised his head to look at me while he was in that condition, the boys father told the BBC. It pains me how much my boy sufferedI am devastated.

The BBC said it gathered that the teenage boy, whose sister was among the abducted Jangebe school girls, was killed by security forces.

Part of the findings by the documentary team was the growing bitterness against the Fulani community by the Hausa community, which was evident in the encounter between the team and residents of Kurfar Danya.

If allowed, we will kill every Fulani man, even in the town, says one of the vigilantes, because they killed our mothers, our fathers, our children, and dumped their bodies here. A resident declared in protest the killing of over 200 people by the terrorists.

Residents took the reporter to sites of mass graves. The documentary further confirms that the violence in the region is largely aggravated by vengeance, rather than protection. The vigilante groups are largely residents of Hausa communities.

Many Nigerians are, quite rightly, disturbed by the idea that the violence contains elements of an ethnic conflict. But that is the inescapable conclusion from listening to the voices in this film, the BBC said in a statement announcing the release of the documentary.

Its obvious it is tribal, says Hassan Dantawaye, a terrorist who was among the first Fulani men to bring guns into Zamfara and take up arms at the head of a terror gang. If not, how can someone pass settlements but burn down only the Fulani ones? Why would a Fulani kill an innocent Hausa? Clearly, its a tribal conflict.

The BBC Africa Eye said the documentary seeks to offer its contribution towards the unravelling of the conflict.

The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara offers no simple explanation for the crisis that is destroying lives across northwestern Nigeria. But it does reveal, with painful clarity, the human cost of violence. There are mothers here who have seen their children slaughtered in front of their eyes, families who have been displaced from their homes, and schoolchildren who are still traumatized by the nightmare of abduction and captivity.

If Nigeria is ever to solve this crisis, the first step is to understand it. With this film, Yusuf Anka and BBC Africa Eye have made an important contribution towards that understanding.
The campaign organisation of Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the forthcoming 2023 presidential election has launched a blistering attack on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over comments he made on a television interview aired on Friday.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2023 election, had in an interview on ARISE TV condemned the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC.

He also made other controversial comments which clearly irked the ruling party and its candidate.

In response to the comments by Atiku, the Tinubu Campaign circulated the statement below on Saturday afternoon accusing the former vice president of gaming the Nigerian system to enrich himself.

The statement by Bayo Onanugu, the Tinubu Campaigns director of media and communications, also accused the PDP candidate of lying in several instances, of hypocrisy, of spreading falsehood and of having a poor grasp of history.

Read the full statement by the Tinubu Campaign below.

===================================

PRESS STATEMENT

Mr Presidential candidate: Lincoln did not contest US Presidency five or six times, Takeaways from Atiku Abubakar bungled interview on ARISE Television

We have watched Alhaji Atiku Abubakars interview on ARISE Television and were extremely shocked by the many lies and ignorance displayed by the Peoples Democratic Partys presidential candidate.

In the interview, Alhaji Atiku exposed himself as a man who is not prepared for the job he is applying for and a man who can not be entrusted with our commonwealth. He was flippant in his response to important questions about his record of service and how he made money while serving in Customs. He muddled up facts and exhibited befudling absence of mind.

Here are our takeaways from the bungled interview:

1. PDP candidate is a law breaker: It was most shocking Atiku admitted that he cheated the system for decades and engaged in gross misconduct as a government worker. As a customs officer at the Idi-Iroko border, Atiku revealed that he ran a commercial taxi service, claiming there is no law stopping public officers from doing business in Nigeria. He punched harder, claiming there is no conflict of interest in doing so.

We found this to be untrue.

Every officer in the civil service is expected to comply with a code of conduct and service rules which bar civil and public servants from engaging in private business while in government employment to the detriment of the service he/she is employed to render to the public. The 1999 constitution further codifies this in Part I, Fifth Schedule, Section of 2 (b).

It says a public officer shall not, except where he is not employed on full-time basis engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade. The rules however allow a public officer to engage in farming.

We wonder which rule or which law Atiku was relying upon for his gross misconduct as a public officer. It is our considered view that Atiku gamed the system all through his career in public service, culminating in his founding of the Intel Logistics along with Late Shehu YarAdua and some Italians, even while he was still in the employment of the Nigeria Customs Service.

2. Poor Knowledge of key sectors of the economy: We also found it surprising that the PDP presidential candidate does not know the contribution of oil and gas industry to Nigerias GDP. He claimed the sector represents 20% of our national GDP whereas it is below 10 percent and it is still falling owing to the growth of non-oil sector under the current All Progressives Congress led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

3. False Data from Egypt: Atiku Abubakar wanted to impress his audience with his supposed knowledge of international affairs. He ended up embarrassing himself with false data he cited from Egypt. We found his claim that Egypt has 2 million police officers on the streets to be untrue. Various sources put the number at about 500,000 for a population of 104 million and not 80 million as falsely claimed by Atiku.

4. Rotational Presidency: Asked to justify why the PDP jettisoned Section 3c of its own constitution which enshrines power rotation between the North and South, Atiku tried to fudge his answer by focussing on Governor Nyesom Wike and his effort to reconcile with him after he, a northerner snatched the presidential ticket that ought to have been taken by a southerner. While Atiku was playing to the gallery on APCs Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, he didnt see seeking to be President after 8years of a President from his part of Nigeria as politics of exclusion.

Probed further, Atiku provided several contradictory answers. In one breath, he said power rotation is not in the constitution. In another breath, he said the PDP has never micro zoned any position. Then he admitted that the party has always rotated power between the North and the South. Atikus justification as to why he became PDPs presidential candidate, instead of a southerner is a perfect example in ellipsis: In politics, he said, we negotiate power through negotiations(Sic). Whatever that means.

Atiku ever an expert in not telling the truth also did not come clean over his once-upon a time preference for same-faith ticket. In 1993, after Atiku and Kingibe lost to MKO Abiola in the SDP presidential primary in Jos, Atiku was the choice of the YarAdua camp to become Abiolas running mate. Abiola overlooked him and picked the more cerebral diplomat and bureaucrat, Babagana Kingibe. In all the tonnes of biographies written about him, there was no where he said he opposed Shehu YarAduas support for his candidacy as Abiolas VP. He was not against it, since it favoured him. Now, it is politically convenient and opportunistic for him to oppose Tinubu-Shettima ticket.

5. Political Credentials: Most reprehensible was Atikus lies about how many times he ran to become the governor of Adamawa or old Gongola state.

Mr. Presidential candidate, in case you dont know due to your limited education, you run for an office, only, when you are on the ballot in an election. Your signifying interest in an office does not mean the same as running for the office. From available records, the first time you contested the governorship election in your state was in 1999. Your name entered the ballot for the first time and you won.

6. Poor grasp of history: Atiku Abubakar also exhibited poor Knowledge of history when he claimed that Abraham Lincoln, one of Americas famous leaders contested the presidency five to six times before he eventually won.

This is a beer parlour tale that has been recycled over time. Lincoln contested U.S. presidency twice. He ran in 1860 and 1864 and won both, before he was assassinated on 15 April, 1865.

The false story about Lincolns failed presidential bids sprang from his previous failed state and national elections, from his state of Illinois. They were not the same as Americas presidential election.

According to historians, Lincoln lost his first election in 1832 for Illinois state legislature. In 1834, he ran again and won.

In 1843 he ran for Congress. He lost. Three years after in 1846, Lincoln ran for Congress again  this time he won and went to Washington. From established history, in 1848, Lincoln ran for re-election to Congress and lost. In 1854, he ran for Senate of the United States. He lost. Lincoln also made another failed bid for U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858. He lost to Democrat Steven Douglas.

Our conclusion is that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is ill-prepared to be President of Nigeria if he could bungle a television interview that was planned well ahead of the day and time the duo of Dr. Reuben Abati and Ms.Tundun Abiola conducted it.

We expected the PDP presidential candidate to be well informed on any issue before coming on national television to expose himself to avoidable ridicule.

Bayo Onanuga

Director, Media & Communication

Tinubu Campaign Organisation
Security has been strengthened around correctional facilities in Kano State following the polices interception of a vehicle loaded with explosives in the state.

PREMIUM TIMES noticed on Friday and Saturday that routes leading to Goron Dutse and Kurmawa correctional facilities in the metropolis were fortified with heavier than usual security personnel. Parts of the roads were also cordoned off with road users asked to take alternative routes.

Before the new security measures were put in place, the states Commissioner of Police, Samaila Dikko, said the police foiled planned terrorist attacks and recovered firearms and explosive devices between 27 June and 21 July.

A team of Policemen led by Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Alabi Lateef, while on intelligence-led surveillance patrol along Chiranchi Dorayi Quarters Kano, in continuation of a case under investigation, intercepted a moving Mercedes Benz Motor Vehicle.

While they were about to stop and search the vehicle, the occupants opened fire on the policemen and the operatives engaged the hoodlums (who) ran away and abandoned the said motor vehicle.

Search conducted by a team of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Defence (EOD-CBRN), the following items were recovered from the vehicle; (1) Three (3) A47 rifles with magazines fully loaded with Ninety (90) rounds of ammunition (2) Fourteen (14) empty shell of AK47 ammunitions (3) Three different mobile phones (4) different types of Explosive Devices (IEDs), the police commissioner said.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson Nigerian Correctional Service in Kano, Musbahu Lawan, said the security measures in place were to prevent attacks on the prison similar to that of Kuje in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Terrorists, earlier this month used explosives to breach the correctional facility in Kuje, leading to the escape of over 800 of the 994 inmates.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and four inmates were killed during the attack.

Mr Lawan told Freedom Radio in Kano that all routes leading to the correctional facilities in the state were blocked and more security personnel have been deployed.

Earlier on Monday, the Kano State government announced a ban on the operations of tricycles popularly known as A Daidata Sahu from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

The governments spokesperson, Muhammad Garba, said the decision was reached at the states security meeting. He said it is an effort to ensure the security of lives and property in the state.

Kano

Terrorist attacks and armed banditry are infrequent in Kano  the commercial nerve centre of Northern Nigeria. A recent security report suggests that terrorist groups are in a desperate move to spread their atrocities to the state.

In June, Nigerias Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, said security operatives thwarted what could have been the worst terrorist attack in Kano.

Mr Irabor stated this when he appeared on Channels Televisions special programme tagged Democracy Day: Giving Hope To Nigerians.

He said: We recovered a large quantum of arms and ammunition and other materials which, of course, the criminals were intending to use in various parts of the country, including Abuja.

Perhaps, you may not know that just only the same week of the Owo incident, (Church attack in South-west Nigeria) in Kano, for example, given the intelligence available to security agencies, we were able to botch what would have been the most catastrophic incident within our country, the security chief said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday declared monkeypox a global health emergency.

The latest development, The Telegraph UK reports, supersedes the earlier decision of the global health panel that considered the impact of the virus not significant enough to be so declared.

But on Saturday, the WHOs Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, overruled the global health organisations panel of advisers to make the designation.

As of June 26, 2022, when the global cases of monkeypox reported were 3,040 infections from 47 countries, the committees report advised WHO that the monkeypox outbreak does not constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which is the highest level of alert WHO can issue.

The designation of a public health emergency of international concern is currently only being used by the WHO for coronavirus and polio.

The latest decision, therefore, signals a possible greater global response to the outbreak which has spread to at least 75 countries within the last few weeks.

We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, and which meets the criteria, he told reporters.

Mr Ghebreyesus, however, said it was still mostly of concern to homosexual men.

He was quoted to have said; Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.

That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups.

The decision may, therefore, pave the way for better international coordination and collaboration in terms of responses through vaccines and research, and an increase in funding for countries battling the outbreak, The Telegraph Uk reports.

Committee divided

The 15-member International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee was said to have met during the week with members holding divergent positions on the declaration.

While six members voted in favour of the decision, nine had reportedly voted against. But the director general of the global body overruled the decision of the panel by making the declaration.

But Mr Ghebreyesus had during the week assured that regardless of the committees recommendation, WHO would continue to do everything to support countries to stop transmission and save lives.

Speaking on the committees decision in June, the Director General said: The emergency committee shared serious concerns about the scale and speed of the current outbreak, noted many unknown gaps in current data and prepared a consensus report that reflects differing views amongst the committee.

They advised me that at this moment the event does not constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which is the highest level of alert WHO can issue but recognised that the convening of the committee itself reflects the increasing concern about the international spread of monkeypox.

The Emergency Committee had also established that the current multi-country outbreak is unusual due to its circulation in non-endemic countries, and the fact that the majority of cases were confirmed in gay men who were not previously immunised against smallpox.

Some members of the committee suggested that given the low level of population immunity against pox virus infection, there is a risk of further, sustained transmission into the wider population that should not be overlooked.

Situation report

In its last situation report, WHO had said this is the first time that local transmission of monkeypox has been reported in new countries without links to countries that have previously reported monkeypox.

As of the time of its publication, the log of cumulative confirmed monkeypox cases reported to WHO shows that between 1 January to 4 July 2022, the European Region topped the infection chart, followed by the Region of the Americas, African Region, Western Pacific Region and the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

A total of about 2,200 people in the United Kingdom and tens of thousands more around the world are said to have been infected.

The United States of America, according to The Telegraph UK, had announced on Friday that it had discovered the first cases of the virus in children.

The two cases were said to be unrelated and were likely the result of household transmission, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
For Nigeria to eradicate Tuberculosis (TB) and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it must declare a state of emergency on all TB cases in the country.

This was the consensus on Friday when some health experts met with the media at a roundtable to discuss Nigerias effort to end TB.

Speaking at the event, the national coordinator of the TB People Nigeria, Tope Adams, said the disease has claimed many lives which calls for the declaration of a state of emergency.

Ms Adams said if a state of emergency is declared on the disease, it will get more attention from the general public.

She said this move will also push necessary persons to put more effort and invest in preventing TB through various available measures including the use of vaccines and TB preventive therapy (TBT).

She said this will further ensure the country achieves its target of eradicating TB by 2030.

Killer disease

TB, a disease caused by bacterium, often affects the lungs and is identified as the number one infectious killer disease in the world and also among the top 10 causes of death worldwide.

It is spread from person to person through the air. When people with TB cough, sneeze, or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.

Despite being a vaccine-preventable disease, one-quarter of the Worlds population, approximately 1.9 billion people, is infected with TB.

Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) also show that every year, about 245,000 Nigerians die from the disease, and about 590,000 new cases occur.

Off the track?

The Deputy Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership, Suvanand Sahu, said Nigeria is not on track with the SDGs which aim to end TB and other diseases by 2030.

Mr Sahu said the country can still achieve the target if it immediately aligns with the global plan to end the disease.

He said the Stop TB Partnership has unveiled a cost plan which will guide the world in its effort to end TB.

He said the global plan outlines the priority actions and estimated financial resources needed to end the disease as a global health threat by 2030.

He said a global investment of US$250 billion could save millions of lives through early diagnosis and treatment of 50 million people with TB across the world.

ALSO READ: What Nigeria must do to prevent more deaths from tuberculosis

Speaking at the event, WHO professional officer on TB in Nigeria, Amos Omoniyi, said there is need for data-driven implementation and evidence-based technology to enhance interventions as contained in the National Strategic Plans (NSP).

Mr Omoniyi said it is also important to mobilise adequate domestic resources in combating the killer disease. He said TB related programmes in Nigeria are underfunded and about 70 per cent of TB budget in 2021 was not funded.

The number of people falling ill with TB incidence in 2020 is 452,000 meaning, one person every minute. TB incidence rate 2020 is 219 per 100,000 population. TB death rate in 2020 is 75 per 100,000 population, he said.

He noted that the number of deaths from TB in 2020 is 156,000, meaning one person died every three minutes due to TB.

Poor funding

Mr Sahu explained that efforts made to tackle TB have suffered setbacks due to poor funding.

He said the amount needed to support the Global Plans ambitions is the equivalent of every person in the world donating US$4 per year for the next eight years.

The economic return on this investment would amount to US$40 for every US$1 invested and as much as US$59 for every US$1 invested in low- and middle-income countries. If, instead, the status quo is maintained.

He also noted that the mRNA vaccines like the ones used against COVID-19 can be repurposed through technology to serve the prevention of TB.

We hope they progress fast with that in terms of reduced prices and make it more accessible to countries in Africa.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has challenged the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, to subject himself to a long interview as he (Atiku) recently did.

Atiku was responding to the statement by the Tinubu Campaign Organisation earlier on Saturday attacking him on some issues he discussed in the interview with Arise TV.

In the interview on Friday, the former vice president attacked the APC and Mr Tinubu for settling for a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket for the 2023 election.

He was referring to the choice of former Borno State governor and serving senator, Kashim Shettima, as the running mate to Mr Tinubu.

Both Messrs Tinubu and Shettima are Muslims.

The Tinubu campaign accused Atiku of illegally enriching himself when he was in government.

The statement by the Director of Media and Communications of the organisation, Bayo Onanuga, also accused the PDP candidate of hypocrisy, spreading falsehood and of having a poor grasp of history and current affairs.

Response

But a statement by Atikus media aide, Paul Ibe, on Saturday night, challenged Mr Tinubu to subject himself to an hour long interview as did Atiku if he was mentally present and articulate enough to do so.

It said Mr Tinubu and his yes men were not in a position to criticise Atiku when they had not sat on the hot seat.

We would like to challenge Bola Tinubu to subject himself to an hour long interview, like the Waziri did, and if he is able to be as articulate and mentally present as our candidate, then he can talk.

Until then, we will only want to remind him and his yes men that they are not in a position to point fingers when they have not sat on the hot seat, the statement said.

It also responded to other issues the Tinubu campaign raised, including his (Atiku) time in Nigeria Customs Service and academic qualifications.

Below is the full statement by Atikus media adviser

PRESS RELEASE

We Challenge Bola Tinubu To Take The Hot Seat

We were rather amused to read the knee jerk response from the Tinubu Campaign Organisation to the wave making interview granted by Waziri Atiku Abubakar to Arise TV on Thursday, July 21, 2022.

Amusement, because we expected this. Mr. Tinubu has not sat down to do any prolonged interview for obvious reasons. Nigerians have seen him talk in public and can themselves gauge the reason why he is mortified to do so.

Nevertheless, I will now take the issues in their statement one after the other.

* The Tinubu campaign exposed its gross desperation and vacuousness by citing the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) 1999, to declare Waziri Atiku Abubakars stance on engaging in a side business while he was a young custom officer as a breach of the law. It is pertinent to educate the Tinubu campaign organisation that Nigeria is not under a military regime and our Constitutions are not retroactive in nature.

* Again, the Tinubu campaign betrayed either dishonesty or lack of attention to detail by claiming that Atiku Abubakar said oil contributed 20% of Nigerias GDP. That is a lie. What the Waziri said is as follows:

Oil only maybe accounts for about 20% of our GDP.

* The use of the word maybe by the Waziri was in reflection to the different figures given. While the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics states a figure close to 10%, other multilateral organisations have given a much higher figure of between 15-20%. So, while the jury is still out, it is right to qualify the contribution of oil and gas as a maybe. However, we do like to point out that Waziri Atiku Abubakar mentioned both the PDP and the APC during the interview and did not forget the name of his own party.

* It seems the Tinubu campaign organisation (can a disorganised body be called an organisation?) does not know the meaning of rotation of power and micro zoning. So, we will gladly educate them. Rotation of power refers to a constitutional provision where power is zoned between North and South. Micro-zoning refers to a non constitutional idea, where power is zoned not between North and South, but amongst geo-political zones. We hope this cures the political illiteracy of the authors of that document.

* The rude response also accuses Waziri Atiku Abubakar of having limited education. Atiku Abubakar has an earned Masters degree from Anglia Ruskin University. We challenge any of the present Presidential candidates to present an equal or higher degree. Moreover, his university attendance is a matter of verified record. Can we say the same about some other persons?

* On President Lincoln, we are afraid the poor student of history is the Tinubu campaign disorganisation. Yes, it is true that Lincoln ran for President with his name on the ballot twice. But he ran at other times, and failed to get his name on the ballot.

* In conclusion, we would like to challenge Bola Tinubu to subject himself to an hour long interview, like the Waziri did, and if he is able to be as articulate and mentally present as our candidate, then he can talk. Until then, we will only want to remind him and his yes men that they are not in a position to point fingers when they have not sat on the hot seat.

Paul Ibe

Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar

Presidential candidate of the PDP and Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007

Abuja

July 23, 2022
The remains of a former Nigerian diplomat, Eloho Otobo, has been laid to rest at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Westchester, New York, U.S.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that dignitaries from Nigeria and the U.S. were on ground to pay their last respect to the late ambassador, who died at the age of 70.

Families, friends, colleagues, diplomats, parishioners and priests at the funeral service held on Friday at Westchester Funeral Home, extolled the virtues of late Otobo, describing him as a great leader, a committed man, generous Christian and a prolific writer.

In his reflection, Robert Grippo, Parish Priest of Our Lady of Fatima and Annunciation, Westchester, described the late Otobo as a generous and committed man, who served God faithfully.

Mr Grippo said the deceased, practising catholic, was a man of great faith, who would never compromise his Christian values in any way.

We thank God for the tremendous service he offered in the parish and outside to better the lives of so many people, he said.

The priest, who took his reflection from Romans Chapter eight verses 14 to 28, urged people to appreciate the shortness of life and be conscious of eternity.

According to him, life is a temporary journey and that every person will die at the appointed time to face judgment to eternal life or eternal condemnation.

Lot Egopija, the Consul-General of Nigeria in New York, said late Otobo was a great man and unifier.

Those of us in Nigeria House can testify to that; he related to all of us as his friends. He was always willing to offer suggestions to improve the services at the Consulate, he said.

Samson Osiene, who spoke on behalf of Isoko Association of New York, described Otobo as a generous man and a great scholar who shared his knowledge with those in the association and outside.

He was a pillar of the association; he shared his knowledge with us, including the books he wrote. He would be remembered for his immense contributions to the association, he said.

Paying tributes to the deceased, Oheri Otobo, said his father was an incredible, kind, caring and a great father, saying life without him would be difficult.

Daddy, you were a great man, a caring father and you tried your best to help people. Your legacy of love lives on, he said.

Atabu Eloho, younger brother to the deceased said Otobo wore different hats in different cycles to so many people.

To some, he was a true and a good friend; to others, he was a trusted advisor and mentor while to some people, he was a trusted advisor and mentor.

To Nigeria, he was an upright citizen, diplomat, foreign service officer, an ambassador while to the U.S., he was an upright resident and a good neighbor.

To the Isoko community, he was a team leader and a counselor on various issues and to the Otobos, he was a role model, father figure, a planner, a leader and beacon of light, he said.

According to Mr Atabu, the deceased was not only his elder brother but also a friend, adviser, a role model, and a mentor.

Also paying tributes to Otobo, Bunmi Makinwa, a former Regional Director for Africa, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said the deceased was a great encourager and a task master.

He was a great and outstanding scholar, he encouraged and pushed me to advance in my writing, that is why I called him a task master.

Similarly, Patrice Chiwota, Senior Advisor, UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), described Mr Otobo as a great scholar, a humble man, and a caring colleague.

According to Mr Chiwoto, Otobos articles had helped to enrich his knowledge on global issues and he was working to publish a work on the impact of Ukraine crisis on Africa.

Mr Chiwota said Otobo, after his retirement, was in touch with most of his colleagues at the UN and he would be dearly missed.

NAN reports that Mr Otobo was declared missing on June 15 by the Tuckahoe Police Department, New York, and he was later found dead on June 23.

Mr Otobo, a retired diplomat with the UN headquarters, served as a Director and Deputy Head, UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) of the Peacebuilding Commission at the UN Headquarters from 2006 to 2013.

Until his death, he was a Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Peacebuilding and Global Governance Institute in Brussels, Belgium.

Mr Otobo joined the UN after a distinguished career in the diplomatic service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

During the course of his diplomatic career, he served on the Policy Planning Staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna, Uba Sani, on Friday said the governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, supports Kashim Shettima, the partys choice of the running mate to its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu in next years presidential election.

Mr Sani was speaking to debunk the rumour shared on social media that Mr El-Rufai does not support Mr Shettima as the partys vice-presidential candidate.

Mr El-Rufai was one of those being considered the vice-presidential candidate of the ruling APC, before the emergence of Mr Shettima.

But speaking at the official inauguration of Mr Shettima as the Chairman, Arewa Women for Tinubu (AWT) organised by a support group in Abuja on Friday, Mr Sani told Mr Shettima that he will work together with Mr El-Rufai to win Kaduna for the Tinubu/Shettima candidacy in next years presidential election.

READ ALSO:

I want to also say here that Governor El-Rufai has total support for our brother, His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima; we have worked together, we are brothers and we are friends.

When the news broke out that Shettima had been selected as Tinubus running mate, El-Rufai was the first to try to call and wish him well.

Unfortunately, a lot of people, obviously ignorant of the cordiality between El-Rufai and Shettima, spread false reports in the press.

I assure you, and stand to be quoted anywhere, anytime, that Kaduna state would deliver the highest votes for the Tinubu presidency in 2023, he said.

He later praised Mr Shettima as an outstanding politician and one of the most detribalised leaders he knows and has worked with for years.

His nomination as the running mate to our partys presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, is a great choice, and we assure them of our support in ensuring the success of the party at all levels in the forthcoming general elections, he said.
The police in Lagos have arrested four suspected cultists in the Badagry area of the state.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the police spokesperson in the state said the suspects are members of rival cult groups terrorising the area.

The arrest of the suspect followed painstaking weeks-long investigation into incessant complaints of cult-related disturbances and killings in Badagry, the statement reads.

The suspects, Gbenga Fransisco Olanrenwaju aka Gbengene m aged 40, Asokere Segun aka Seriki m aged 36, Adediran Ibrahim aka Kush m aged 23 and Jimoh Sodiq aka Irawo m aged 27 were arrested in various parts of Badagry Lagos State in an operation that lasted days.

Mr Hundeyin said the suspects belong to the Eiye and Aiye confraternities.

He added that they will be arraigned upon the conclusion of a more comprehensive investigation.
Suspected gunmen have abducted the owner of a private clinic, Titilayo Hospital in Gbede, Surulere Local Government Area of Oyo State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered on Saturday that the man, simply identified as Baba Rasheed , who owns and operates the private clinic, was kidnapped around 9.00 p.m. on Friday.

A source, who preferred anonymity, told NAN that the man was abducted on Ogbomoso-Ilorin Road.

According to the source, the matter had been reported at the Igbon Police Divisional Headquarters.

Confirming the incident, Adewale Osifeso, the Police Public Relations Officer, Oyo State Command, said that investigation was already in progress about the incident.

When contacted for reactions on the matter, Ayotunde Fasunla, the Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Oyo State, condemned the act of the suspected gunmen.

Mr Fasunla said the victim was not a medical doctor, but only owns and operates a private medical facility at the boundary between Oyo State and Kwara.

Preliminary and reliable information at my disposal revealed that the man is popularly known as Baba Rasheed.

He is not a Medical Doctor, but a quack who operates a private facility in Gbede (boundary between Oyo and Kwara State) with high patronage from unsuspecting citizens in the area.

Information also has it that he was picked up from his facility last night.

NMA Oyo condemns the kidnapping and prays for his quick and safe release, Mr Fasunla said. (NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday told the leadership and some senior members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the unity, security and prosperity of the country will matter most to him beyond his days in office as president.

The president, who made his feelings known at a meeting with the APC leaders at the State House, Abuja, expressed delight that the party was working towards that eventuality.

He thanked the delegation led by the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, for the kind words on my role in processes leading to the emergence of our candidate and his running mate for the presidential election in February, next year.

I want to thank you all for the roles you played in the build-up, first to our national convention earlier this year, and later, to the primary elections.

You were all of one mind, wanting the best for the party with the candidate emerging in a free and fair manner.

For us all, the cohesion and unity of the party was the first priority and ambition was second. I am glad that you all saw the larger picture, rather than narrow, self-serving interests.

Mr Buhari recounted that when the presidential running mate, Kashim Shettima, was presented to him a couple of days ago, he had said he would reserve his comments till the handover ceremony on May 29, 2023, at the Eagle Square.

I still maintain that same position, the president said.

He, however, lauded party members for acknowledging the many virtues that qualify the vice presidential candidate for the noble position.

The president expressed confidence that Mr Shettima would not disappoint the party and Nigerians at large.

He also commended the party for resolving to further mobilise more Nigerians, particularly youth to register and get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), saying It is the way to go.

Mr Adamu, Governor of Kebbi State Abubakar Bagudu, and Mr Shettima, in separate remarks, expressed gratitude to the president for his exemplary leadership.

According to them, this virtue has strengthened the party in the aftermath of the convention and primaries.

Mr Adamu said: Our main goal is to see the success of the APC in the forthcoming general elections.

Theres no better parting gift than to ensure that the APC produces the next president.

Mr Bagudu told the president that he had set a worthy precedence on internal democracy in political parties, saying, under pressure to dictate or suggest, you were determined that the democratic process should be given the opportunity to work and what we have seen is that democratic processes can produce very excellent results.

We have a presidential candidate and a running mate, whom we are all proud of.

The governor attributed the gradual return of normalcy to the North-eastern part of the country to the spirited interventions approved by the president.

He particularly acknowledged the rise in agricultural activities and food production in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

The vice presidential candidate reiterated the willingness of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, and himself to serve Nigeria with justice, equity and fairness.

We want to solicit the support of the president once INEC lifts the ban on open-air campaigns and we want to latch on to your achievements and brand name to victory, and consolidate the leadership of the party, he said.

Others present at the meeting were the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; former Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbe and former Chief of Air Staff, Sadiq Abubakar.

Also in attendance were Governors Babagana Zulum of Borno State, Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, a former governor of Borno State, Ali Sheriff, and the senator representing Taraba South Senatorial District, Emmanuel Bwacha.

(NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that the off-season elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states have confirmed his administrations irreversible commitment to credible and violence-free polls in the country.

The president stated this when he received a delegation from Nasarawa State on Friday in Abuja.

He urged the electorate to vote the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the next general elections to ensure continuity in the polity, and stability in the country and West African region.

The president told the high-powered delegation led by the state governor, Abdullahi Sule, that the Electoral Act, signed by him earlier this year, was an attestation of the fulfilment of the administrations determination and commitment to the tenets of the rule of law.

On the issue of credible, free and fair elections in the country, I have always re-assured my listeners both at home and abroad, my personal desire and indeed the priority of this administration is to bequeath to our nation an irreversible political process that continues to be both democratic and acceptable to the people.

My desire for our nation is that the 2023 elections should clearly mark the commencement of the institutional strength of our electoral body in conducting acceptable, credible and violence-free elections.

The forthcoming general elections will provide us with the opportunity to convince the electorate on the need for continuity to enable our party to consolidate on our achievements in the last 7 years.

The government and people of Nasarawa State, as usual, have a great role to play in returning our party to governance in the 2023 elections, in order to create a path for greater socio- economic growth and development.

This is not only important for Nigeria alone but also for the West African Sub-Region, Mr Buhari said.

According to the president, Nasarawa remains very dear to his heart, describing the state as the symbol of hope and determination in collective efforts to entrench democracy in Nigeria.

He recounted that in 2011, the state stood out during the general elections of that year, as the one state that compensated the political efforts of the then Congress for Progressive Change, defying rigging and ensuring that their voices mattered.

To demonstrate this admiration and appreciation to the people of Nasarawa State, I personally attended the inauguration of Governor Tanko Al-Makura on May 29, 2011. In 2015 and 2019, the state remained one of the strongholds of our great party, the APC.

I am optimistic that the people of the state, the APC government and this broad representation of your delegation will not disappoint me, as we sustain concerted efforts in pushing forward the frontiers of good governance in our country, he said.

Mr Buhari also used the occasion to stress the need for partnerships among the three tiers of government in order to deliver good governance, infrastructure and critical services needed by the people.

He pledged commitment to the joint-efforts by the state and the federal governments to facilitate easy transportation by road, railways and airports as well as power as no nation can develop without these components of infrastructure.

The proximity of Nasarawa State to the FCT naturally makes the state a partner in infrastructural development. We therefore need more collaboration to enhance this proximity with other contiguous states to achieve more integrated development, he added.

The president also expressed appreciation to the government and people of the state for their continuing support to his administration.

READ ALSO: President Buhari says 266 ecological projects completed under his watch

Earlier in his remarks, the governor told the president that the delegation comprising political office holders, royal fathers and community leaders was in the Villa to show appreciation for the numerous projects executed by the Buhari administration which Nasarawa State is among the great beneficiaries.

He thanked the president for approving the federal governments takeover of the Lafia airport, refunds for the completion of the Lafia-Keffi road and ongoing construction of Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi dual carriage road.

The governor also lauded the president for appointing prominent sons and daughters of the state into different positions in the federal government.

On the Lafia airport, Mr Sule said: By this approval we can now see our airport being properly utilised not only as a cargo, but also commercial and security airport. This will create enormous economic activities, employment opportunities and more importantly security for our state and region.

He also congratulated the president for providing leadership and creating the enabling environment that facilitated the conduct of free, fair and credible primary elections.

According to the governor, this has resulted in the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the presidential candidate of APC, as well as the recent Osun elections that produced the PDP-candidate as governor-elect.

(NAN)
Bola Tinubu, All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, says the selection of his running mate has nothing to do with religious faith.

He said the selection of Kashim Shettima, a Muslim, as his running mate had to do with competence, experience, ability, and vision.

Mr Tinubu made this known in a statement by his spokesperson, Tunde Rahman, on Saturday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the APC presidential candidate was reacting to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakars, comment in a television interview on Friday.

Atiku had said that a Muslim-Muslim Ticket made him reject Mr Tinubu when he wanted to be his running mate in 2007.

According to Mr Tinubu, Atiku can attest that the person I selected as my running mate is more qualified for the position than the man who joined him.

In his desperate attempt to win the election by stoking religious bias, Atiku has reduced himself to uttering baseless lies.

My running mate and I are here to build a more just and prosperous society for all Nigerians, be they Christian, Muslim, or adherents of other faiths.

Atiku will fail in this sad attempt to trick an entire nation, he said.

The former governor of Lagos State restated his position on religion and politics, saying that when he decided that Mr Shettima was the best selection as his running mate, he listened to, weighed, and balanced the advice received from a broad and representative array of wonderful Nigerians.

Nigerians who deeply care about this nation and the path it must go.

Some people counselled that I should select a Christian to garner support of the Christian community.

Some said I should select a Muslim for a similar reason but l clearly could not do both because both positions had merit and right on their side.

Neither position expressed what was most right and needed for the moment in which we find ourselves and the nation, Mr Tinubu explained.

The APC presidential candidate noted that all his life, the decisions regarding the team supporting him had always been guided by the principles of competence, innovation, compassion, integrity, fairness, and adherence to excellence.

He stressed that he was not going to depart from those principles during this important period.

Mr Tinubu added that it was more important than ever before, that he adhered to these principles.

As governor of Lagos State, these principles helped me assemble one of the most capable governing cabinets any state or this nation has seen.

I trust in these principles to allow them to, once more, guide me to construct another exemplary team that can do Nigeria proud.

In this crucial moment, where so much is at stake, we must prioritise leadership, competence, and the ability to work as a team over other considerations.

This is the standard I will use to select the rest of my campaign team and if you elect me as your president when I staff my government, he said.

The APC presidential candidate said that if elected, he would select the best people for the right jobs so that they could construct a better Nigeria now and for generations yet to come.

Atikus false account

Responding to the false account of the PDP presidential candidate, Mr Tinubu recalled that Mr Atiku was not among those who founded the Action Congress (AC).

It was the actual founders of the AC who offered the partys flag to Atiku because of the need to fight the authoritarian designs of then President Olusegun Obasanjo and the PDP had on Nigerias democracy.

At that moment, Atiku, the vice president then, had been unceremoniously pushed aside if not out of the PDP by Obasanjo.

We needed to rally all forces to confront the one-party state Obasanjo had in mind and Atiku was simply a beneficiary of this collective duty to fight the attack on multi-party democracy the PDP had launched, Mr Tinubu explained.

The former governor of Lagos state said he felt sorry for Atiku, adding that the love of his own ambition had eclipsed his relationship with the truth and an honest account of the past. (NAN)
The Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, Orji Kalu, has said that Nigerians thought he was into money rituals because of a beautiful and costly car he bought in 1982.

Mr Kalu, in a Facebook post on Saturday, said the car was the latest Mercedes Benz. He did not give more information about the car.

The then President Shehu Shagari was the only Nigerian using the same car as at that time, he said.

I recall that whenever I drove the car, some would look at it with admiration while a few were spreading rumors that I was into money rituals.

Mr Kalu said Nigerians should stop entertaining the blackmails that money is motivating him in politics.

If its actually about money as propagated, then I already have all I would ever need, the senator said.

While I was governor, I never bought a new home. I have lost more money being into politics. I took over from a military administrator and those who knew the condition of Abia before 1999 will have a better understanding of the level of work we did before leaving government in 2007.

As of today, I can decide to even resign as a senator because I spend my private money to make up a lot of things while serving the people.

Nigeria is unfortunately a country where people who have done no business except holding public office are hailed while those who have worked hard all their lives creating wealth and employing people are called names.

Senator Kalu repeated what he often said in the past  that he bankrolled the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998 with N500 million and also gave the PDP presidential candidate, Olusegun Obasanjo, N100 million.

I became an employer of labour at an early age and have steadily continued to be.

I have worked hard all my life and the best you can do is to study people and try to be better than them. For the life we live is not for ourselves alone but for God and to then accommodate other people, he added.

Mr Kalu, a former governor of Abia State who now represents Abia North District, posted alongside his comment, a photo of himself standing in front of his house in the U.S.

Seeing off my childhood friend, Chief Emeka Eboh after I hosted him for lunch at my residence, Camp Neso, Potomac, USA, the senator said in a previous post on Facebook, with photos of the house.

Mr Kalu loves talking about how wealthy he was before he joined Nigerian politics.

During an interview with AriseTV in January, he said he started moving palm oil from southern to northern Nigeria, specifically to Maiduguri, when he was a student at the University of Maiduguri.

The senator said he ran into Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari when both were top officers in the army, but he did not disclose how the two men, who later ruled Nigeria, helped him to advance his business interests.

He said he was into massive importation of sugar and rice at some point in his life, and that he was a strong competitor with Aliko Dangote, the man who is Africas richest man today.

I was one of the largest importers of rice and sugar. For me, making money is an art, Mr Kalu said. Then I started building industries in Aba and Ota.

Mr Kalu has investments in the media  he owns the Sun and the Telegraph newspapers.

Trial for N7.65 billion fraud

The former governor, accused of mismanaging funds belonging to Abia State, was convicted of N7.65 billion fraud in 2019 and sent to prison, but the conviction was later nullified by the Supreme Court which ordered a fresh trial.

Mr Kalu is still standing trial, he is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

When the AriseTV crew asked the senator about his trial, he said he was too wealthy to suddenly become a thief in Nigeria.

Everybody, even you Reuben (Abati), you know me pre-1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, you know I bankrolled everything, all the money politicians paid during that period, you know I was the one who brought the money in the PDP. So, how can I become a thief suddenly? he said.

The senator said the fraud story against him was a creation of the media.

He did not, however, want his interviewees to press on with the matter. I am not supposed to talk about matters in court, he said.
The Ekiti State Government has reintroduced the use of face mask, handwashing, and sanitisation, as 74 persons were isolated during the week due to the infection.

The state government also insisted on social distancing in public places to check the spread of the virus.

The governments reaction is coming on the heels of 364 new cases of the infection reported in the state as of July 23.

The NCDC had reported 619 new cases with Ekiti State coming top.

Ekiti State had been in the battle against COVID-19 like other states, but had witnessed a decline beginning from November 2021.

The Commissioner for Health, Oyebanji Fulani, said on Saturday in Ado Ekiti that he had earlier warned residents before the Sallah celebration given the indications of possible upsurge.

However, as the State Ministry of Health continues to monitor the recent increase of COVID-19 cases across the country, and a recent spike in the state with 74 persons currently positive, all residents of Ekiti State are hereby advised to adhere strictly to the wearing of facemasks in public gatherings, he said.

Henceforth, they must maintain hand hygiene through proper handwashing or use of alcohol-based hand rub, social or physical distancing, reporting at the nearest health facility when sick and getting tested and isolating if positive

There must also be dherence to COVID-19 measures in banks and other public institutions.

Ekiti State has lost 28 persons to the disease since its emergence.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the state has a total of 2,010 confirmed cases.

The breakdown of the new cases reported by the NCDC indicated that Lagos has 62; Rivers, 58; Delta, 27; FCT, 22; Oyo, 19; Cross River, 16; Abia, 14; Kano, 12; Bayelsa, 11; Nasarawa, 8; Gombe,3; Plateau, 2 and Bauchi, 1.

The country has so recorded a total of 260,339 confirmed cases. 3,147 deaths have been recorded while 253,566 have been discharged.
(Going down memory lane with Oladipupo Adamolekun at 80)

I remember: On the personal level (now with my narrative on to the second person singular), your sharp mind, your sharp voice; your ready, effortless smile; your willingness to help at all times. There is a genuineness to that smile because it issues forth from that powerful middle ground between the heart and the mind.

I remember: When I got to Christs School in January 1967 for the Higher School Certificate course, his name was already riding the wind as a prominent member of that pantheon of exceptional old students who departed Agidimo Hill but left their lofty names behind. He was believed to be so versed in Latin that he could quote Cicero in his sleep. They said his genius followed him from Oyemekun Grammar School, his first alma mater, and that for years, he and this genius had been inalienable companions. Yes, Oyemekun, that first-rate school in Akure where he was the contemporary of stars such as Kole Omotoso, who would grow up to become one of Nigerias eminent writers and public intellectuals.

I remember: The following year, at the tail end of our HSC course, a brisk, smartly dressed young teacher strode into our literature class one mellow afternoon. He had been commandeered to relieve a sparsely staffed literature staff by taking our class though the seething lanes of Down Second Avenue, the best known novel by Ezekiel Mphahlele, the famous South African writer and one of the most vociferous foes of that countrys inhuman apartheid system. Our class was abuzz with whispers: that was the Adamolekun we had heard so much about, the one who, years before, had sat in that same classroom to which he had now returned as a scholar of enviable repute. The myth had morphed into a man, and the man was right there in front of the class, his khaki-coloured trousers correct, down to its daintiest French cut. The news soon reached us that he was a fresh graduate of the University of Ibadan, where he had made us all proud by earning a First Class in French. This new teacher had a way with languages, we all thought: after worsting Cicero in Latin at Christs School, he went on to vanquish Voltaire in his native French at the university. Once again, Adamolekun became the campus toast. Chief Ogunlade, the Principal, hailed his unrelenting genius; Chief Oloketuyi, unforgettable literature teacher, extoled his enviable brilliance. Both veteran educators saw Adamolekuns sterling academic achievement and exceptional character as virtues to preach and practice. They never missed the opportunity. Adamolekun became an exemplum. A new entry in our diary of dreams.

I remember: Our teacher zoomed out of our classroom as fast as he had zoomed into it, but not without dropping some valuable lessons about the impact of history and socio-political realities on literature, its creators and its audience, and the grave demonstration of this fact in Down Second Avenue, its author, and the then ruling apartheid monstrosity. Thereafter, our teacher left for Oxford, one of the worlds most famous universities, not, as we had expected, to continue in the mighty lines of Cicero and Voltaire, but to carve out a niche in Public Administration, a high-sounding discipline that had yet to establish a noticeable foothold in Nigerian Academe. The Oxford doctoral programme over in record time, he was on his way to the relatively young but superbly run University of Ife, where for the next many years, he would establish himself as one of Africas top scholars in public administration and experts in its protocols and practice.

I remember: The World Bank sniffed out his footsteps, followed his trail to his book-crowded campus office, and told him in a most irresistible way: lets go now from theory to praxis; come benefit the world with the insight in your countless publications. Our scholar looked to the left, then the right; looked back, then forward. Okay, some sense in your bidding. My departure is no death.

I remember: That campus life was not just chalk-and-blackboard, committee-and-caucus humdrum for this political petrel and positive gadfly. From his student days, Adamolekun has always been a trouble maker (in the sense of John Lewis, Americas intrepid humanist and Civil Rights warrior); one who never suffered fools gladly, and whose blood boiled at the sight of injustice. Endowed with a sharp, interrogative mind and phenomenal memory and power of recall, he was/is a sayer and doer whose slight physical frame is house to thunderous resolve and courageous outspokenness. These traits played out handsomely in campus politics (at both Ibadan and Ife), and rose to unstoppable articulateness in his media interventions and stateman-like public admonitions. Prominent in these interventions are his anger at Nigerias ostensibly incurable underdevelopment, the often-neglected connection between chronic maladministration and bad leadership, avoidable capacity wastage, and judicious recommendations and suggestions for the way out of the pit. With Dipo Adamolekun, the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. You always know where you are with him because you always know where HE stands.

I remember: The World Bank sniffed out his footsteps, followed his trail to his book-crowded campus office, and told him in a most irresistible way: lets go now from theory to praxis; come benefit the world with the insight in your countless publications. Our scholar looked to the left, then the right; looked back, then forward. Okay, some sense in your bidding. My departure is no death. Serving the world has its own advantage, as long as that gives you the chance to serve your people too. We must prevent Africas chair at the worlds table from standing empty

I remember: Those busy years at the World Bank. Jetting back and forth. Teaching the world the science of Organisation. Getting it to recognise the know-how of Method. Trouble-shooting in those parts of our globe where chaos seems to have built a permanent tent. Looking deep inside the mind which commands and the one that obeys. Coming into useful service now, the sophisticated eloquence of Cicero, the stupendous witticism of Voltaire, and the universal figurations of Fagunwa, in which all these virtues are so uniquely combined. Village Boy in the Global Village: the Adamolekuns are a Clan in which Iju is well pleased. Which is why when all is said and done, Iju is the world to which he always returns

I remember: That day in September 2005 when my wife and I, having very narrowly survived the killing claws of Hurricane Katrina, were left penniless and weather-beaten evacuees. Most unexpectedly, the phone rang and your voice came across, clear and consoling. Less than a week later an envelope came with your name on it and your kind assistance inside it.

I remember: On the personal level (now with my narrative on to the second person singular), your sharp mind, your sharp voice; your ready, effortless smile; your willingness to help at all times. There is a genuineness to that smile because it issues forth from that powerful middle ground between the heart and the mind.

I remember: That day in September 2005 when my wife and I, having very narrowly survived the killing claws of Hurricane Katrina, were left penniless and weather-beaten evacuees. Most unexpectedly, the phone rang and your voice came across, clear and consoling. Less than a week later an envelope came with your name on it and your kind assistance inside it. You couldnt have imagined how touched we were at your generosity. You were one of those who really made sure Katrina did not have the last word.

I remember: (How can I forget?!) the poem below which I wrote 10 years ago in celebration of your 70th birthday, and I am re-calling it to urgent service as I say 80 Hearty Cheers to our ageless Omoluabi. Aseyi-samodun o.**

FOR OLADIPUPO ADAMOLEKUN

80 Hearty Songs for Omoluabi

Owa nii wa ni oye i kan?/Oniyan loyeee

Kindness comes naturally to you

Like songs to the bird

Fortified with a laughter

Which dances through the thornbush

Of life, still fresh and resonantly strong

Your firefly defies the tyranny of night

First Class in many ways,

You out-syntaxed Cicero in a jungle

Snared with ablative absolutes

Divined the excoriative wit of Voltaire

And reasoned sure-footedly through

The hallowed palisades of Cartesian cogito.

Your umbrella so wide it rivaled the sky

Yet so rooted the grass knows

The lines on your native sole

Seventy seasons ago

The journey began in that little village

Which out-peoples the mammoth town,

Land of the tender rain and muscular yam

Where the pestles ceaseless fight with the mortar

Defies the truce of wayward famines

The song raised by Ogbese

In the billowing plenitude of August

Finds fluent chorus in Osuns majestic orchestra

Seventy seasons ago

Another Adam*** in that famous clan in Iju,

Where books grow on the family tree

Scholar, teacher, polyglot, Humanist

Seasoned eleto**** whose expert wisdom

Re-shapes the public realm/spheres

From Kiev to Kisangani

From Walla Walla to Waripundi

The world yearns for more of your shaping hand

*A joyful play upon I Remember, the title of Adamolekuns exhilarating autobiography

**May you live to celebrate many more years

***Play on Adamolekun, the family name.

**** Administrator/organiser.

Niyi Osundare, one of Africas foremost poets and academics, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, University of New Orleans.
Deputy President William Ruto repeatedly says he made Raila prime minister and, in particular, that he made Uhuru president. Will he succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta in the August 9 elections? As the foregoing exposition illustrates, historical precedent and dialectical odds are stacked against Ruto. Raila is favoured to succeed the son of Jomo. In any event, the choice between the Azimio and Kenya Kwanza presidential tickets could never be more stark, even dialectically speaking.

More than three years ago, on November 1, 2018, I wrote an article titled Man in the Mirror: Echoes of Jomo in Uhuru. In this article, I concluded that just like Oginga Odinga helped facilitate Jomo Kenyattas ascendancy to the presidency but he himself never became president, William Ruto may have helped Uhuru Kenyatta win the presidency but he himself is unlikely to become president. Developments in the country in the countdown to the August 9 elections seem to buttress my argument of three years ago that kingmakers never become kings themselves, or, more precisely, they never succeed the kings they make. In my public lecture at Kenyatta University on June 23, entitled The UhuruRuto Administration and Electoral Politics in Kenya: A Dialectical Perspective, I developed my argument further and buttressed my conclusions of three years ago using the three laws of dialectics.

The fallout between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto is so complete that the incumbent president has thrown all his weight behind the de facto opposition, instead of supporting his second-in-command to succeed him. This is a most rare development in the practice of democracy anywhere in the world. It, however, is not new to Uhuru. In the 2007 election, Uhuru was the official leader of the opposition. But instead of rallying the opposition forces against the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru chose to cast his lot with Kibaki, in a case wherein perhaps ethnic loyalty trumped democratic sensibilities. This time around, he is the incumbent casting his lot with the opposition and working hard to ensure his deputy does not succeed him. The six-million question is: Why? Why did the UhuRuto duo fall out so badly, given their brotherly closeness following their 2013 electoral victory?

If you ask Deputy President Ruto and those close to him, the issue lies in the Hustler vs. Dynasty saga. The argument is that those who belong to the dynasty  Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga, and Gideon Moi  have regrouped to ensure a hustler  William Ruto  does not ascend to the highest seat in the land. This narrative has garnered quite some movement in the country, but it does not actually explain the fallout between the president and his deputy, nor the fact that the deputy president is unlikely to succeed the president. The explanation lies squarely at the feet of the deputy president  his hubris, raw ambition, lack of humility, and generally taking his succession to the presidency for granted.

Whereas the 2010 constitution secured the office of the deputy president from the arbitrariness of serving at the pleasure of the president, still the occupant of that office needs to demonstrate some level of humility and deference to the president. Indeed, the current institutional arrangement in Kenya is modelled along the American system. Yet, even in the latter system, vice presidents tend to demonstrate utmost loyalty and deference to the president and are always keen never to be seen to upstage the president or hog the limelight. Hubert Humphrey, the vice president to Lyndon Johnson noted that, You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty. Nelson Rockefeller, vice president to Gerald Ford, said of his duties: I go to funerals, I go to earthquakes. The first vice president of the United States, John Adams said: I am vice president. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything. Indeed, he became everything when he was elected the second president of the Unites States in 1796. Similarly, Woodrow Wilsons vice president, Thomas Marshall said: Being vice president is comparable to a man in a cataleptic fit; he cannot speak; he cannot move; he suffers no pain; he is perfectly conscious of all that goes on but has no part in it. Mike Pence, vice president to Donald Trump quipped: You shut the door; you tell the boss exactly what you think. But when the door opens, the job of the vice president is to stand right next to the president and implement the policy that hes decided.

This level of loyalty and humility has completely been missing on the part of Deputy President Ruto. Indeed, Ruto failed to learn from Moi, who loyally served as Jomo Kenyattas vice president for a decade and endured many humiliating moments but eventually succeeded to the presidency after the death of Jomo Kenyatta in 1978. Instead, Ruto has demonstrated raw ambition, acted as if he was co-president with Uhuru, and began campaigning as soon as the 2017 elections were over. At public events with the president, Ruto has tended to hog the limelight, enunciating government plans and policies, even before calling upon the president to speak, a practice oddly inconsistent with all other vice presidents in the country and elsewhere in the democratic world.

A Dialectical Perspective

In my public lecture at Kenyatta University on June 23, I sought to demonstrate why Ruto is unlikely to succeed Uhuru in 2022 using the three laws of dialectics. These laws include the law of the unity and conflict of opposites; the law of the passage of quantitative changes into qualitative change; and the law of the negation of the negation. In the following sections, I will discuss each law and how it applies to Kenyas electoral politics, with particular focus on the August 2022 presidential electoral outcome.

The Law of the Unity and Conflict of Opposites

According to Lenin (1965) and Engels (1973), the law of contradiction (the unity and conflict of opposites) in phenomena is the basic law of materialist dialectics. Our world is a paradoxical terrain characterised by a unity of contradictions, a unity of opposites. We have birth vs. death; above vs. below; wealth vs. poverty; capital vs. labour; sale vs. purchase; boom vs. bust; light vs. darkness; rulers vs. ruled, etc. These contradictions are universal in all intellectual disciplines. In mathematics, there is the integral and the differential (plus and minus); in mechanics, there is action and reaction; in physics, there is positive and negative electricity (by which we can boil water and freeze it); in chemistry, there is fusion and fission of atoms (combination and dissociation); in social science, there is the haves and have-nots (the foundation of class struggle and the basis of the apparent popularity of the hustler-dynasty narrative in the current electoral politics in Kenya); in war, there is defence and offence, advance and retreat, victory and defeat. Even the human individual is made up of opposites, the spirit and the flesh which, the Bible notes in Galatians 5: 17, are always at odds with one another: For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

The essence of the dialectics is that gradual changes in either of the contradictory forces create crises within phenomena. These crises reach turning points in which one force quantitatively grows in strength and overcomes its opposing force, resulting in qualitative change. How does this law apply to the UhuruRuto saga in light of the political history of Kenya?

First, prior to rising to power, Jomo and five others were imprisoned by the colonialists, allegedly for masterminding the Mau Mau rebellion. These are now popularly known as The Kapenguria Six. Similarly, prior to assuming the presidency, Uhuru and five others were indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), allegedly for masterminding and financing post-election violence. They have since come to be known as The Ocampo Six.

Second, Jomo and Jaramogi found common ground in the fight for independence, Jaramogi arguing the case for uhuru na Kenyatta and refusing to form a government while Jomo was still imprisoned. Yet, the two fell out over ideology and policy differences soon after independence. On the other hand, Uhuru and Ruto started off on opposite sides of the 2008 post-election violence, but found common cause once indicted by the ICC and partnered to save themselves by acquiring political power. Now, the two have fallen out and become sworn enemies.

whereas Jomo and Jaramogi were icons of the anti-colonial nationalist struggle, Uhuru and Ruto are proteges of President Moi, created, perhaps in the image of the latter, Ruto particularly more so than Uhuru. Ruto is a natural politician who has perfected the ruthlessness of his political mentor. Uhuru, on the other hand, is a reluctant politician who seems more at ease in private social life than in the hustle and bustle of the political world. In essence, the initial UhuRuto bromance that propelled the duo to power and the final fallout that spells doom for Rutos presidential ambition

Third, whereas Jomo and Jaramogi were icons of the anti-colonial nationalist struggle, Uhuru and Ruto are proteges of President Moi, created, perhaps in the image of the latter, Ruto particularly more so than Uhuru. Ruto is a natural politician who has perfected the ruthlessness of his political mentor. Uhuru, on the other hand, is a reluctant politician who seems more at ease in private social life than in the hustle and bustle of the political world. In essence, the initial UhuRuto bromance that propelled the duo to power and the final fallout that spells doom for Rutos presidential ambition, is an exemplification of the law of the unity and conflict of opposites that is constantly at play, both in the physical and social worlds.

The Law of the Transformation of Quantitative Changes to Qualitative Change

According to Engels (1973) and Trotsky (1994), for us to fully understand the essence of change, both social and physical, we have to grasp the law of the transformation of quantitative change to qualitative change. Change, development, or evolution is not unidirectional, unilinear, nor does it occur gradually in a straight smooth line. There are long periods of time when nothing seems to be taking place with regard to change, development, or evolution. Then, out of the blues, something seemingly miraculous happens: A major social revolution, a physical catastrophe, a breakthrough in scientific discovery, an innovative discovery. The point here is that at moments when nothing seems to be happening, there are small quantitative changes taking place that eventually add up to a major qualitative change, that we then view as a major leap forward.

According to Trotsky, this law of the transformation of quantitative change into qualitative change, from quantity to quality, has an extremely wide range of applications, from the smallest particles of matter at the subatomic level in chemistry to the largest physical and social phenomena known to humans. Note the quantitative changes that lead to baldness: Does loss of one hair lead to baldness? No. How about loss of two, three, four hairs? The answer remains no. But constant loss of one hair at a time (quantitative change) leads to baldness (a qualitative change).

The notion that under certain conditions, even small things can cause big changes, finds expression in all kinds of sayings and proverbs: the straw that broke the camels back, many hands make light work, and constant dripping wears away the stone.

How does this law of the passage of quantitative changes to qualitative change apply to the case of Kenya? This laws implication is that at the social level, change, development, or progress is not unidirectional and unilinear, nor does it occur gradually in a smooth straight line. Sometimes one step forward is followed by two steps backwards and vice versa. Note the convoluted and messy decades-long process of democratisation in Kenya: the concerted struggles that led to the repeal of Section 2(A) of the constitution to return the country to multiparty politics in 1992; the No Reforms, No Elections movement in the run-up to 1997 elections that led to the Inter-Parliamentary Parties Groups compromise on expanding representation to the electoral commission; opposition unity and victory in 2002 followed by constitutional reform acrobatics; the 2008 post-election violence and the momentum to a new constitutional order in 2010, which created a devolved system of governance and established the Supreme Court of Kenya, among many other democratic achievements.

Even when nothing seems to be happening, small quantitative changes are usually taking place that add up eventually to a major qualitative change. Note here the seismic ruling of the Supreme Court of Kenya that nullified the August 2017 presidential election. This was preceded by periodic changes in the personnel of the Supreme Court: the retirement of Chief Justice Willy Mutunga brought in Chief Justice David Maraga; the dismissal of Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Barasa brought in Kalpana Rawal, whose retirement brought in Philomena Mwilu; the retirement of Phillip Tunoi brought in Isaac Lenaola.

Without these little quantitative changes (not to mention the protracted changes that led to the new constitution that provided for a Supreme Court), it is impossible to expect that the celebrated landmark ruling nullifying the presidential election, the first in Africa, would have come to pass. Remarkably, the Supreme Court has emerged as the most important countervailing power to the executive and the anchor for rule of law and democratic governance in the country. The role of the legislature in this regard remains dismal, the democratic gains of the country notwithstanding.

The Law of the Negation of the Negation

According to Engels (1973), Hegel (1991), and Marx (2002), the law of the negation of the negation explains the repetition at a higher level of certain features and properties of the lower level and the apparent return of past features. In the development of social and physical phenomena, there is a constant struggle between form and content, and between content and form, resulting in the eventual shattering of the old form and the transformation of the content. This whole process, according to the three dialecticians, can best be pictured as a spiral, where the movement comes back to the position it started, but at a higher level. For instance, when a grain of maize is planted, it germinates into a plant. The original maize grain is negated. The plant grows, flowers, and produces even more and better grains, which are harvested and processed in the making of flour; the negation is thereby also negated!

At the social level, historical progress is achieved through a similar series of contradictions. Where the previous stage is negated, this does not represent its total elimination. The new stage does not completely wipe out the stage that it supplants.

The UhuRuto fall out represents an interesting case of the negation of the negation, dialectically speaking. First, the two are proteges of President Daniel Arap Moi, Ruto a natural politician, Uhuru a reluctant one. Note here Uhurus apparent absence during his first term, compared to Rutos robust presence, scheming, and political strategising. Indeed, as demonstrated by the audio now doing the rounds on social media, and confirmed by Deputy President Ruto himself in a KTN interview on July 7, President Uhuru Kenyatta was willing to leave office and retire to his Ichaweri village after the nullification of the August 2017 elections, but Ruto wouldnt countenance it, going so far as thinking of slapping the president for suggesting that they quit the presidency!

In the final analysis, the Uhuru-Ruto fall out perfectly captures the dialectical law of the negation of the negation in matters of social development. With it, the country seems to have spiraled back to the fallout between Jomo and Jaramogi. However, given the democratisation process in the country, we are at a higher level of social and political development. Indeed, had it not been for the new constitution, born of this process, Deputy President William Ruto would long have been sacked and rendered into political oblivion.

Second, Uhuru and Ruto were on the same side of the political divide in the 2002 elections. Uhuru ran for president, while Ruto supported him to succeed Moi. They however soon fell out and, in the post-election violence of 2008, Uhuru and Ruto were on opposite sides of the divide. Third, when the two were indicted by the ICC, they found common ground and became bosom friends. They successfully campaigned to acquire power to save their skins. However, the two fell out immediately after their second-term inauguration in 2017. By March 2018, Uhuru was with his enemy Raila, and not with his bosom friend, Deputy President Ruto.

In so doing, Uhuru emerges as a very strange political animal, perhaps an exemplification of the law of the negation of the negation. As pointed out above, as Official Leader of the Opposition in 2007, he cast his lot with the incumbent President Kibak,i instead of teaming up with fellow oppositionists to run for the presidency. Apparently, the force of ethnic ties trumped political principle. Now, as the incumbent president in 2022, he has cast his lot with the opposition, instead of mobilising his ruling party to retain power under his deputy, as political norms would dictate.

What are the implications of the Uhuru-Ruto saga for the 2022 electoral politics and for democratisation in Kenya more generally?

Three Implications

Three implications can be drawn from the UhuruRuto saga from a dialectical perspective. First, every individual is a bundle of contradictions imbued with positive and negative forces, forces of both good and evil. It is what force is in ascendancy within us that determines whether we are called good or bad. Hence no one political actor is inherently bad or inherently good. Ruto may have been stringently against the enactment of the new constitution of 2010; yet he stood against the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) that sought to amend the constitution, even before its full implementation. This is a plus for constitutionalism in the country. Similarly, Uhuru may have won an illegitimate second term in October 2017 and promised to revisit the judiciary that nullified his August 2017 victory; yet his current support for Raila may open up the presidency to another Kenyan community beyond the Kikuyu and Kalenjin, who have occupied the presidency since independence. This is a plus in the overall democratisation of the country.

The second implication is related to the popular saying that in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests. Political enemies can easily become political friends and vice versa, another exemplification of the law of the unity and conflict of opposites. Uhuru and Ruto were on opposite sides of the bitter postelection election violence of 2008. They soon became bosom friends after their indictment and partnered to win power in a close relationship described by the media as a bromance. They have since fallen out so bitterly they no longer shake hands that they once clasped in a show of Tuko Pamoja. Similarly, in 2002 Raila became a Njamba in Mount Kenya for his Kibaki Tosha declaration in the elections of that year. By 2005, Raila had become a hyena from the West to Mount Kenya for his opposition to the 2005 constitutional referendum. At the moment, Raila is now climbing the mountain with the firm support of Uhuru and Martha.

The third and final implication of the Uhuru-Ruto fallout is that kingmakers never succeed the kings they create. The Kenyan political scene is replete with evidence of this reality. Jaramogi may have contributed to making Jomo president, by refusing to form a government while Kenyatta was still in prison, when the Kenya African National Union (KANU) won the internal self-government elections of 1961. Jaramogi insisted on demanding for uhuru na Kenyatta. Although he became vice president to Jomo, Jaramogi never succeeded Jomo. Barely two years after independence, they fell out with each other over matters of policy and ideology and Jaramogi was marginalised from power never to recover. Similarly, Charles Njonjo contributed to making Moi president back in 1978, he was soon himself hounded out of politics ignominiously. Even Raila contributed to Making Mwai Kibaki president, they soon fell out and became bitter enemies. Raila never succeeded Kibaki.

Deputy President William Ruto repeatedly says he made Raila prime minister and, in particular, that he made Uhuru president. Will he succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta in the August 9 elections? As the foregoing exposition illustrates, historical precedent and dialectical odds are stacked against Ruto. Raila is favoured to succeed the son of Jomo. In any event, the choice between the Azimio and Kenya Kwanza presidential tickets could never be more stark, even dialectically speaking. Whereas the Azimio duo of Raila and Martha were on the forefront of the second liberation that yielded multipartyism in 1992, the Kenya Kwanza duo of Ruto and Gachagua were deeply ensconced in the bosom of the authoritarian Moi regime  Ruto as a prominent member of the Youth for KANU92 and Gachagua as the systems favourite District Officer in Molo, chasing around and harassing pro-democracy advocates.

In the final analysis, the Uhuru-Ruto fall out perfectly captures the dialectical law of the negation of the negation in matters of social development. With it, the country seems to have spiraled back to the fallout between Jomo and Jaramogi. However, given the democratisation process in the country, we are at a higher level of social and political development. Indeed, had it not been for the new constitution, born of this process, Deputy President William Ruto would long have been sacked and rendered into political oblivion. He is the greatest political beneficiary of the 2010 constitution, even though he was its chief opponent. Nevertheless, just like Jaramogi before him, it is highly unlikely that Ruto will succeed Uhuru come August 9, the new political dispensation notwithstanding.

Does this mean William Ruto is absolutely destined to lose the August elections? Historical precedent and the dialectical odds dictate so. However, as Thomas Kuhn demonstrates in his Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), there are moments of anomalies where the established paradigm is shuttered leading to a methodological and theoretical rethinking within the scientific community. In other words, a Ruto win in August is possible, but it would be such an extraordinary accomplishment, given historical precedent and dialectical dictates, that it will lead us to rethink and retheorise our political realities and possibilities.

Wanjala S. Nasongo is a Professor of International Studies, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee and Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, St. Pauls University, Limuru, Kenya.
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Saturday, visited the Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, at his private residence at Umuobiakwa, a community in Obingwa Local Government Area of the state.

On his arrival, in the morning, Mr Obi was received by Governor Ikpeazu.

Both had a closed-door meeting before a private breakfast session, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

There were speculations that the LP candidates visit was to seek the support of Governor Ikpeazu for his 2023 presidential ambition.

But the governors spokesperson, Onyebuchi Ememanka, was quick to refute the speculations.

He said Mr Obi was only on a courtesy visit.

Former Governor Obi informed Governor Ikpeazu that he was in Abia State to attend an event at the Mater Dei Catholic Cathedral, Umuahia, and in line with official courtesies and protocols, he had to come to see the governor before proceeding to the event, Mr Ememanka said in a statement.

He said the duo discussed a wide range of issues from security, economy and politics, but did not provide details.

Governor Ikpeazu presented him with a souvenir bag containing the first ever Abia State Long Term Development Plan and the Abia State Industrial Policy which was presented to the governor at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the governors spokesperson said.

Not the first time

Since he emerged the presidential candidate of the LP, Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, has been visiting prominent politicians across the country, mainly in the South-south and South-east regions.

Last month, Mr Obi visited Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, at his private residence in Port Harcourt.

Beyond visiting prominent politicians, Mr Obi has also been visiting some churches and clerics lately

The visits have been described as a strategy by the LP candidate to build political support.

Mr Ikpeazu is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Obis former party.

The former governor was a presidential aspirant of the PDP before he announced his resignation from the party, a few days to its presidential primary, saying there were practices in the party that were inconsistent with his belief and persona.

He defected to the LP where he later emerged the partys 2023 presidential candidate.
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.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1862336/AeroCRS___Fly540.jpg

SOURCE AeroCRS
PORTLAND, Ore., July 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers (AWPPW) workers went on strike at 12:30 a.m. Sunday on July 17th, 2022, over unfair labor practices (ULPs) at Graphics Packaging International in Portland, Oregon. AWPPW Local 78 members have overwhelmingly authorized a strike in response to the company's pattern of allegedly violating federal labor laws.

AWPPW Local members have spoken loud and clear. "Graphics alleged illegal activity is unacceptable." The union membership is striking over the company's alleged unlawful conduct.

The local bargaining team and Local 78 members remain united in their efforts to get GPI to respect their workers. The union has filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against Graphics in response to alleged unlawful activity. Other ULP charges remain under investigation.

AWPPW & GPI have been in collective bargaining negotiations seeking a new labor agreement. Prior to the COVID pandemic GPI has been, and continues to, have a grim time hiring new workers.

GPI's solution to attracting new workers is to pay temporary workers $2.00 less than current starting wage, pay zero benefits, have the temporary workers be employed by someone other than GPI, and not allow new workers to join or be represented by the AWPPW union.

GPI cancelled an agreed to bargain date stating GPI was unable to meet at the bargaining table due to the unexpected strike. The next bargaining date is set for July 28th.

For more information contact:

AWPPW

General President

Greg Pallesen

503-228-7486

SOURCE AWPPW
BEIJING, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 20th, EdTech unicorn EEO opened a new office in Seoul, Korea. EEO is in partnership with over 60,000 institutions across more than 150 countries, hosting 20 million users. As global businesses expand, EEO, parent company of ClassIn, announced plans to move the overseas headquarter to Singapore in the second half of 2022. The company will proceed to further localization and serve its clients from bases in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines.

"Korea as a country highly values education, and with the pandemic, educators are picking up on the major impact education technologies have on the development of education," Jaeeun Im, country manager of Korea at EEO, maintained. "We are witnessing increasing demands in the market for professional education products like ClassIn."

Jaeeun expressed high expectation for the launch of ClassIn in Korea. She introduced that ClassIn's interactive classroom is equipped with more than 20 teaching tools, an IM system, assignment and exam functions, as well as a backend school management dashboard. Additionally, it has been proven in numerous learning scenarios across 150 countries that ClassIn helps deliver more effective and personalized instruction. A well-rounded interactive virtual classroom, ClassIn not only brings engagement and creativity to online learning, but it also affords the innovation of different class designs and pedagogies through hybrid methods.

In the meantime, ClassIn is undergoing an exciting round of iteration. After eight years of exploration into hybrid learning, EEO believes that "The true value of hybrid learning lies in connecting students to the real world and diverse schools of thought, prompting more discussion and reflection. In turn, students are equipped to break down physical and cognitive barriers to exploring the unknown." Designed with a firm grasp on the learning process, the new and improved ClassIn will support hybrid learning environments, prioritize discussions and collaborations, enable formative assessments, and give rise to long-lasting learning communities. In particular, users will be part of the ClassIn Learner Hub, where both independent and community-based learning are supported with abundant learning materials and evaluation methods.

Looking to work with global educators to reach a more inclusive and equitable future in education, EEO is committed to continuously improving its products. Specifically, the company will update ClassIn with regard to valuable customer feedback, creating an enriched teaching experience for educators and supporting students on the path of lifelong learning.

SOURCE EEO
Karma presented the GS-6 Edition 54 at the 2022 Automotive Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Ceremony, in celebration of Chairman Lu Guanqiu becoming the first Chinese national to be inducted.

DETROIT, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Automotive Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Ceremony was held on July 21, 2022, in Detroit. Among this year's class of inductees was Wanxiang Group founder Lu Guanqiu, who became the first Chinese national to receive this special accolade. Induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame is considered the single greatest honor in the automotive industry. Those inducted are noteworthy individuals who helped create, shape, and change the automotive space.

The Karma GS-6 Edition 54, honoring late Chairman Lu Guanqiu for his induction into the 2022 Automotive Hall of Fame (PRNewsfoto/Karma Automotive) from left to right; Ramzi Hermiz, outgoing Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Automotive Hall of Fame; Lu Weiding, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wanxiang Group Corporation; Jonathan Husby, incoming Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Automotive Hall of Fame (PRNewsfoto/Karma Automotive) The Karma GS-6 Edition 54 at the 2022 Automotive Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Ceremony, in celebration of Chairman Lu Guanqius induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame

Chairman Lu Guanqiu was a passionate entrepreneur, known as a humble and honest man who was dedicated to his dream of making cars. In 2014 he acquired Karma Automotive, manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles with headquarters in Southern California. During the Automotive Hall of Fame ceremony, Chairman Lu Guanqiu was represented by his son President Lu Weiding, who accepted the award on behalf his late father.

"My father, Chairman Lu Guanqiu had the dream to make Wanxiang's own clean energy car," said Lu Weiding, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wanxiang Group Corporation. "He believed that if he could not make that happen, his son would do it and if his son couldn't do it, then his grandson would." He continued, "this is all about the next generations, this is all about our future. So as second generation of the inductee, I feel responsible to make sure that at least our next generation fully understands their responsibility for the automotive industry."

The special GS-6 edition is a dedication to Karma's main investor, the Wanxiang Group and its 54 years in business. This edition features embroidered headrests with Karma's uniquely created logo and exterior fender panels, that are each individually jeweled with an Edition 54 logo created from milled aluminum and anodized in a beautiful one-off gold color. The logo and the 3D badge have been carefully created in-house by the Karma Design team. The exterior colors of Surf White and Benito Blue were inspired by the Wanxiang corporate blue and white colors.

"Today we honor Chairman Lu Guanqiu and Wanxiang Group, for their strong commitment to Karma's vision since 2014," said Jeff Wawrzyniak, Chief Administrative Officer at Karma Automotive. "The Edition 54 represents a tribute to our present, while honoring our past. Karma's capabilities and achievements have us very well placed for continued success. Through technology and unique design, we are moving forward with passion and innovation towards an electric mobility future."

Additionally, a Karma Revero will have a year-long display at the Automotive Hall of Fame Museum in Dearborn, MI.

The inductees of this year's class include Alma and Victor Green, writers of The Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans in the United States; Ferruccio Lamborghini, founder of Lamborghini luxury cars; Taiichi Ohno, creator of Toyota Production System; and Lyn St. James, American race car driver.

About the Automotive Hall of Fame

The Automotive Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization that celebrates the mobility industry's pioneers and their impact on society by capturing individuals' stories, passion, and innovative spirit to engage and inspire the mobility industry's future workforce. Founded in 1939, the Automotive Hall of Fame has honored nearly 800 individuals from around the world, who have impacted and influenced the automotive and mobility industries. The Automotive Hall of Fame is located at 21400 Oakwood Blvd in Dearborn, Michigan and is open to the public Thursdays  Sundays, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. You can also visit the Automotive Hall of Fame online at automotivehalloffame.org or on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

About Karma Automotive

Karma Automotive, founded in 2014, is a southern California based producer of luxury electric vehicles. Headquartered in Irvine, California with a production facility located in Moreno Valley, Karma sells vehicles via its dealer network in North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Karma's Innovation and Customization Center, which opened in 2017, offers world-class engineering, design, customization, and manufacturing services along with electrification platforms. Karma's flagship vehicle, the Revero GT, Green Car Journal's 2020 Luxury Green Car of the Year, is an electric vehicle powered by dual electric motors that embodies Karma's goal of offering leading technology with a luxury experience. In 2021 Karma announced the GS-6 Series which includes both an extended-range series hybrid EV and their first-ever all-electric vehicle in 2023. Every Karma vehicle is created with unparalleled individual care and craftsmanship. Additionally, Karma provides world class commercial vehicle electrification and Customized Flexible Manufacturing services for customers in the mobility space via 'Powered by Karma.' Powered By Karma is the evolution of Karma's business development group that provides business to business (B2B) modular vehicle electrification solutions and services to outside customers.

For more information about Karma visit: Karma Automotive | Luxury Electric Cars

CONTACT: Micholl Azenon  Public Relations Manager, [email protected]

SOURCE Karma Automotive
NEW YORK, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest market research study published by P&S Intelligence, the size of the medical image analysis software market was $3,112.7 million in 2021, and it will grow at a rate of over 8%, to reach about $6,388.9 million by 2030. The growth can be credited to the increasing population, growing incidence of chronic ailments, and widening applications of computer-aided diagnosis.

Hospitals are the major users of such software, with an approximately 60% share in 2021, as they have supportive infra that is vital for performing diagnoses and surgical interventions. Furthermore, the number of imaging systems is higher in hospitals as compared to diagnostic centers and research institutions. In addition, the inflow of patients is relatively higher in hospitals, which makes these users' requirement for advanced imaging analysis software the highest.

Get the sample pages of this report: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/medical-imaging-analysis-software-market/report-sample

Because of a large number of diagnostic and healthcare centers and with North America leading the way in healthcare research and development, it has the largest global revenue share of the medical image analysis software market. Moreover, the constant upgradation in the products for effective detection and image-guided surgeries will help the market maintain its lead in the future.

APAC will register the highest growth rate, of approximately 9%, in the near future. The existence of many market players and increasing awareness concerning the early detection of diseases through cutting-edge diagnostic imaging technologies are the main factors supporting the growth of the medical image analysis software market.

Integrated software was the market dominator, with a more than 70% revenue share, in 2021. This is because of the convenience provided by integrated imaging analysis software in medical diagnosis, via an effective, easy, and comprehensible workflow. All hospital departments are connected, and they can easily regulate the radiological process and examine the images.

Cloud-based integration is in trend because of the improved accessibility and storage scaling capabilities of cloud computing. Imaging systems with their software on the cloud also offer possibly unlimited storage of data, cost-efficiency, and data access to numerous users simultaneously, even from distant locations.

Browse detailed report on Global Medical Image Analysis Software Market Size and Demand Forecast Report 2030

In 2021, MRI was the major modality in the medical image analysis software market, with revenue of about $350 million, because of the growing demand for early and precise disease diagnosis.

The growing consciousness about the possible benefits of MRI scanning, increasing frequency of numerous lifestyle-related and chronic ailments, such as cancer and CVDs, and surging demand for cutting-edge imaging solutions push the use of software to understand the anatomical images formed by MRI.

Browse More Reports Published by P&S

Global Diagnostic Imaging Systems Market Size, Share, Development, Growth, and Demand Analysis

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Global Radiotherapy Market Size, Share, Growth, and Demand Forecast Research Report

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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
OKLAHOMA CITY, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oklahoma City Housing Authority ("OCHA") is notifying individuals of data incident. To date, we have no evidence of actual or attempted misuse of information as a result of this incident. This notice provides details about the incident, our response, and resources available to help protect information.

What Happened? On December 21, 2021, OCHA discovered unauthorized emails were sent from an OCHA email account. We quickly launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party forensic specialists to determine what may have happened. Through the investigation, we could not rule out the possibility that an unauthorized actor accessed OCHA email accounts between November 30, 2021 and December 21, 2021. As a result, it is possible the unauthorized actor accessed certain files. We reviewed those files to determine what, if any, sensitive information was contained therein. This review was completed on June 7, 2022. Thereafter, we worked to locate address information for impacted individuals in order to notify them of this event, which was completed on June 16, 2022.

What Information Was Involved? The impacted information varied by individual but may include name, Social Security number, driver's license or government identification, financial account information, and medical or health information.

What We Are Doing. As a part of our ongoing commitment to privacy of information in our care, we reviewed our existing systems and policies and implemented additional safeguards to further secure the information in our systems. We are offering 12-24 months of complimentary access to identity monitoring services through Experian. Individuals who wish to receive these services must enroll by following the enrollment instructions found in the enclosed Steps You Can Take to Protect Personal Information.

What You Can Do. We encourage you to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing your account statements and monitoring your free credit reports for suspicious activity and to detect errors. You may also enroll in the complimentary identity monitoring services we are making available to you. Enrollment instructions are attached to this letter.

For More Information.

If you have questions regarding this notice, please call our dedicated assistance line at (833) 468-0631, Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m.  8:00 p.m. PST, and Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (excluding major holidays).

Monitor Your Accounts

Under U.S. law, a consumer is entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. You may also directly contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below to request a free copy of your credit report.

Consumers have the right to place an initial or extended "fraud alert" on a credit file at no cost. An initial fraud alert is a 1-year alert that is placed on a consumer's credit file. Upon seeing a fraud alert display on a consumer's credit file, a business is required to take steps to verify the consumer's identity before extending new credit. If you are a victim of identity theft, you are entitled to an extended fraud alert, which is a fraud alert lasting seven years. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, please contact any one of the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below.

As an alternative to a fraud alert, consumers have the right to place a "credit freeze" on a credit report, which will prohibit a credit bureau from releasing information in the credit report without the consumer's express authorization. The credit freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. However, you should be aware that using a credit freeze to take control over who gets access to the personal and financial information in your credit report may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make regarding a new loan, credit, mortgage, or any other account involving the extension of credit. Pursuant to federal law, you cannot be charged to place or lift a credit freeze on your credit report. To request a credit freeze, you will need to provide the following information:

Full name (including middle initial as well as Jr., Sr., II, III, etc.); Social Security number; Date of birth; Addresses for the prior two to five years; Proof of current address, such as a current utility bill or telephone bill; A legible photocopy of a government-issued identification card (state driver's license or ID card, etc.); and A copy of either the police report, investigative report, or complaint to a law enforcement agency concerning identity theft if you are a victim of identity theft.

Should you wish to place a credit freeze, please contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below:

Equifax Experian TransUnion https://wwwequifaxcom/personal/credit-report-services/ https://wwwexperiancom/help/ https://wwwtransunioncom/credit-help 1-888-298-0045 1-888-397-3742 1-833-395-6938 Equifax Fraud Alert,P.O. Box 105069 Atlanta, GA 30348-5069 Experian Fraud Alert,P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Fraud Alert,P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016 Equifax Credit Freeze,P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348-5788 Experian Credit Freeze,P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Credit Freeze,P.O. Box 160,Woodlyn, PA 19094

Additional Information

You may further educate yourself regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, credit freezes, and the steps you can take to protect your personal information by contacting the consumer reporting bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission, or your state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission may be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov ; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. You can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. You have the right to file a police report if you ever experience identity theft or fraud. Please note that in order to file a report with law enforcement for identity theft, you will likely need to provide some proof that you have been a victim. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement and your state Attorney General. This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement.

For District of Columbia residents, the District of Columbia Attorney General may be contacted at: 400 6th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; 202-727-3400; and [email protected].

For Maryland residents, the Maryland Attorney General may be contacted at: 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; 1-410-528-8662 or 1-888-743-0023; and www.oag.state.md.us. Southern Ohio Medical Center is located at 1805 27th Street, Portsmouth, Ohio 45662.

For New Mexico residents, you have rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, such as the right to be told if information in your credit file has been used against you, the right to know what is in your credit file, the right to ask for your credit score, and the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. Further, pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the consumer reporting bureaus must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information; consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information; access to your file is limited; you must give your consent for credit reports to be provided to employers; you may limit "prescreened" offers of credit and insurance you get based on information in your credit report; and you may seek damages from violator. You may have additional rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act not summarized here. Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel have specific additional rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. We encourage you to review your rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by visiting https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_consumer-rights-summary_2018-09.pdf, or by writing Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.

For New York residents, the New York Attorney General may be contacted at: Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341; 1-800-771-7755; or https://ag.ny.gov/.

For North Carolina residents, the North Carolina Attorney General may be contacted at: 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; 1-877-566-7226 or 1-919-716-6000; and www.ncdoj.gov.

For Rhode Island residents, the Rhode Island Attorney General may be reached at: 150 South Main Street, Providence, RI 02903; www.riag.ri.gov; and 1-401-274-4400. Under Rhode Island law, you have the right to obtain any police report filed in regard to this incident.

SOURCE Oklahoma City Housing Authority
NEW YORK, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Teladoc Health, Inc. (NYSE: TDOC) between October 28, 2021 and April 27, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important August 5, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Teladoc Health securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Teladoc Health class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=6818 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 5, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) increased competition, among other factors, was negatively impacting Teladoc Health's BetterHelp and chronic care businesses; (2) accordingly, the growth of those businesses was less sustainable than defendants had led investors to believe; (3) as a result, Teladoc Health's revenue and adjusted EBITDA projections for its fiscal year 2022 were unrealistic; (4) as a result of all the foregoing, Teladoc Health would be forced to recognize a significant non-cash goodwill impairment charge; and (5) as a result, defendants' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Teladoc Health class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=6818 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., July 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sesame Place Philadelphia apologizes to the Brown family. The park is taking action to deliver a more equitable and inclusive experience. The park releases the following statement today.

"We sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize to the Brown family for what they experienced. To be very clear, what the two young girls experienced, what the family experienced, is unacceptable. It happened in our park, with our team, and we own that. It is our responsibility to make this better for the children and the family and to be better for all families.

We have been in contact with the family since Sunday morning and have spoken with their lawyers as recently as today. We have offered to meet the family and their attorneys in person to personally deliver an apology and an acknowledgement that we are holding ourselves accountable for what happened. We want to listen to them to understand how the experience impacted their family and to understand what we can do better for them and all guests who visit our parks. We are committed to learning all we can from this situation to make meaningful change. We want every child who comes to our park to feel included, seen and inspired.

We are taking action and are reviewing our practices to identify necessary changes, both in the immediate and long-term. We are instituting mandatory training for all our employees so that we can better recognize, understand, and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience for all our guests. We have engaged with nationally recognized experts in this area.

We take this extremely seriously. We are heartbroken by what these young girls and this family experienced in our park. It is antithetical to our values, principles, and purpose. We are committed to working tirelessly and intentionally to make this situation better. We will do the necessary work for the long haul -- not just in the public eye, but also behind the scenes and within ourselves."

About Sesame Place

Sesame Place Philadelphia, the only theme park on the East Coast based entirely on the award-winning show, Sesame Street, was the first theme park in the world to become a Certified Autism Center. The park has more than 25 Sesame Street-themed attractions, entertaining character shows and parades, an interactive Sesame Street Neighborhood, and everyone's favorite furry friends. Celebrate family-friendly events all year long at Sesame Place including Elmo's Furry Fun Fest, Elmo's Eggstravaganza, Elmo's Springtacular, Summer Fun Fest, The Count's Halloween Spooktacular, and A Very Furry Christmas. Conveniently located 30 minutes from Philadelphia and 90 minutes from NYC, Sesame Place is ideal for families with kids of all ages. For more information, visit www.sesameplace.com and follow the park on Facebook and Instagram.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Sesame Place
5:10 PM: The Jets have now officially announced the extension.

3:40 PM: With his name featuring heavily in trade rumors, Pierre-Luc Dubois has taken himself one step closer to an exit from Winnipeg. According to TSNs Darren Dreger, Dubois has chosen to accept his one-year, $6MM qualifying offer in advance of the upcoming deadline.

This means that Dubois has, at least for this summer, elected to not sign a long-term deal with the Jets, as many have expected. Dubois will be an unrestricted free agent in two years time. Dubois representation has communicated a desire for their client to end up playing for the Montreal Canadiens and Dubois actually attended the draft in Montreal because he believed a trade would be completed on the draft floor. That did not happen, though, so Dubois has now accepted his qualifying offer as a means of simplifying his exit from Winnipeg.

The Jets surrendered two significant players to acquire Dubois: Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic and did so because they believed a one-two punch at the center position of Dubois and Mark Scheifele would be the key to the next era of contending Jets squads.

That pairing of Dubois and Scheifele doesnt look like itll remain in place for much longer, as the Jets will have to decide if they want to deal Dubois this summer or continue with him on the roster in the hopes that he changes his mind about staying in Winnipeg.
Jakarta, July 23 : Indonesia was mulling the rollout of the fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccines as the pandemic is predicted to last longer than expected and the antibodies decline after six months of inoculation, Health Ministry spokesman Mohammad Syahril said on Friday.

"Some countries have started it, and Indonesia is planning it as the pandemic lasts," Syahril was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The vulnerable groups such as medical workers, people with comorbidity, the elderly, and public workers will be prioritised to receive the fourth dose.

The Covid-19 vaccination rate in Indonesia has reached 97 per cent for the first dose, 81 per cent for the second dose, and 26 percent for the third dose.

Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist from Griffith University Australia, said a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is still needed to reduce hospitalisation and mortality.

The presence of the Omicron BA.2.75 subvariant will make the pandemic duration last longer, while the transmission of BA.4 and BA.5 has not yet reached its peak, he said.

"I predict the vulnerable or crisis period from this fourth wave will last until October," said Budiman.

Indonesia confirmed 4,834 new cases on Friday, bringing the total tally to 6,159,328, with accumulated recoveries of 5,964,196 and deaths of 156,893.
Washington, July 23 : The White House has announced that the US will provide Ukraine with an additional package of security assistance worth $270 million.

According to a factsheet issued by the Department of Defence, the new round of aid includes four "High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems" (HIMARS) and additional ammunition for the HIMARS, four command post vehicles, 36,000 rounds of 105mm ammunition, 3,000 anti-armor weapons as well as up to 580 "Phoenix Ghost" tactical unmanned aerial systems, Xinhua news agency reported.

Part of the package, totaling $175 million, will be approved directly by President Joe Biden under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), the Pentagon said, with the remaining $95 million coming from the Department of Defence-led Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds.

While weapons approved by the PDA are drawn directly from existing Pentagon stocks, the USAI is an authority under which the US government procures weapons from the industry via contracts.

The newly announced package brings total US commitment of security assistance for Ukraine to approximately $8.2 billion since the start of the Biden administration, according to the factsheet.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Istanbul, July 23 : Turkish law enforcement agents in Istanbul have detained 10 individuals suspected of being active members of the Islamic State (IS).

Special Operations forces raided 10 different locations in the city on early Friday morning, capturing the suspects, operational files and digital material that could give clues about other IS cells within the region, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local Demiroren News Agency (DHA).

Suspects were active operatives and could have been in preparation for an attack inside Turkiye, reported DHA.

Turkiye has been stepping up its efforts to combat the IS, according to state officials.

Since the beginning of the year, 13 would-be suicide bombers were captured by local law forces, owing to information deciphered from previously seized operational files, the Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in June.

Soylu also revealed that more than 82 acts of terrorism have been prevented in 2022 so far.
United Nations, July 23 : The agreement to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea is "a beacon of hope" for the world, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The agreement signed Friday by Ukraine, Russia and TArkiye under UN auspices "opens a path for commercial food exports from Ukraine in the Black Sea," Guterres said in a tweet.

"It is a beacon of hope, possibility and relief," the UN chief tweeted, noting that the deal will help avoid a food shortage catastrophe for millions worldwide.

Guterres attended the signing ceremony of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, Turkiye, Xinhua news agency reported.

In remarks at the ceremony issued by his press office at the UN headquarters in New York, Guterres thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government for facilitating the talks that led to the deal, and commended the Russian and Ukrainian representatives for putting aside their differences in the common interests of humanity.

"The question has not been what is good for one side or the other," he said. "The focus has been on what matters most for the people of our world. And let there be no doubt -- this is an agreement for the world." The secretary-general pointed out that the shipment of grain and food stocks into world markets will help bridge the global food supply gap and reduce pressure on high prices.

"This initiative must be fully implemented because the world so desperately needs it to tackle the global food crisis," he added.

Guterres also announced the establishment of a joint coordination center in Istanbul to monitor the implementation of the Black Sea initiative.

He acknowledged "the long road" and immense efforts and commitment by all sides as well as weeks of around-the-clock negotiations leading up to the agreement.

On the UN side, Guterres said that in April, after talks with Erdogan, he also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to propose a plan for solutions, and "we have been working every day since." Two UN task forces worked in parallel on the talks -- one focused on the shipment of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, which was led by UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths, and the other on facilitating access of Russian food and fertilizers, headed by Rebecca Grynspan, secretary-general of the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD.

"For months, the secretary-general has been underlining the importance of facilitating full access to world markets for Ukraine's food stocks and Russian food and fertilizers," Guterres' press office said Friday in a note to correspondents.

Ukraine and Russia are breadbaskets of the world, producing almost one-third of the world's wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil. Russia is also a top global exporter of fertilizers and the raw materials for its production, according to the note.

The parties of the initiative recognized the role of the UN secretary-general in securing the discussions. They went on to request his further assistance in its implementation, in the furtherance of the humanitarian mission of the United Nations, subject to its authorities and mandates, the note said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Guterres pledged the UN's full commitment to the agreement, and urged all sides to do the same.

"We will remain closely involved in working for the agreement's success," he said. "I urge all sides to spare no effort to implement their commitments. We must also spare no effort for peace."

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

Latest updates on Global Food Crisis
Moscow, July 23 : Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pledged to consistently strengthen the two countries' partnership and alliance.

During a phone conversation, Putin and Lukashenko discussed bilateral cooperation, particularly several mutually beneficial trade and economic projects, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement by the Kremlin.

The leaders also exchanged views on a number of international issues, taking into account Putin's recent contacts with foreign leaders, including in Iran's Tehran, it added.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
San Francisco, July 23 : Tech giant Meta has made a commitment that provides for ongoing financial support for the Oversight Board, and as part of that commitment, it will make a $150 million contribution to the Trust.

On the microblogging site Twitter, Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said that this money will go into the Oversight Board Trust, which enables the board to continue operating as a separate entity.

"Since its launch, the Oversight Board has had a significant impact. Its binding case decisions and non-binding recommendations have led to greater transparency in our content decisions, and have pushed us to strengthen Meta's policy and enforcement practices," Clegg wrote on the platform.

Under the terms of the Trust, the funds contributed by the company are irrevocable and can only be used to fulfil the Trust's purpose of funding, managing, and overseeing the operation of the Oversight Board.

This $150 million contribution to the Trust is in addition to the company's prior contribution of $130 million announced in 2019 when the Trust was first established.

"By making this ongoing financial commitment, Meta has issued a vote of confidence in the work of the Board and its efforts to apply Facebook and Instagram content standards in a manner that protects freedom of expression and pertinent human rights standards," Stephen Neal, chairperson of the Oversight Board Trust, said in a statement.
Kabul, July 23 : The Taliban-led government announced that to facilitate visas for Pakistan, a joint commission will be formed, which will include representatives of the Afghan Foreign Ministry and the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul.

Nooruddin Azizi, the acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, said the two nations will work to address the challenges of the people in getting visas, reports TOLO News.

"They will be holding meetings and discussions for an easy and better mechanism to issue visas to the people of Afghanistan," he said.

After the Taliban took over Kabul in August last year, except for Iran and Pakistan, most countries have stopped issuing visas to the citizens of Afghanistan.

Some Kabul residents said that despite waiting for weeks to get a Pakistani visa, their requests were rejected.

"We ask the authorities to make the process easier to obtain visas, because there are some patients whose health conditions are critical," Laiq Ahmad, a Kabul resident told TOLO News.

"If we apply for the visa now, it will take over two months to be issued, sometimes the visa comes, sometimes it is rejected," said Sohrabi, another resident of the Afghan capital.
Kiev, July 23 : A top Ukrainian official has revealed that 5,100 children have been deported to Russia since Moscow launched its ongoing war against Kiev on February 24.

In a televised address to the nation on Friday, Daria Herasymchuk, presidential adviser for child rights and rehabilitation of children, said: "Requests continue to be submitted everyday and therefore I urge everyone to report cases of child abduction to the National Information Bureau.

"This will allow us to start searching for a specific child." According to Herasymchuk, Ukraine transfers the collected data to the Red Cross and other international organisations that help locate the children, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

She also said that abducted children are not only orphans, sometimes they are taken away together with their parents or relatives, or forcibly separated from them.

"A total of 46 children have been returned to Ukraine, each time it is a separate special operation, there is no single algorithm and most likely there won't be," Herasymchuk said.

The presidential adviser also said that 353 children have died and 679 others injured since the beginning of the war.

"It is impossible to state the exact number of victims. The Russians do not let anyone enter the occupied territories even to bury children." She also announced that a platform called "Children of War" will be launched on August 1 which will provide information and statistics about all the Ukrainian children affected by the the war, and the data will be collected and updated daily.

"This platform that will become the main source of information for citizens who want to help such children, for journalists and for law enforcement agencies," Herasymchuk added.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Bengaluru, July 23 : Debate on Anti-Conversion Bill is back in Karnataka with the High Court accepting a PIL and issuing a notice to ruling BJP on the implementation of the law by promulgating an ordinance.

On Friday, the High Court directed the government to file objections with regard to the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the government's move. The petition claimed that Anti-Conversion law (Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill 2021) exhibited intolerance and questioned its constitutional validity.

The petition filed by All Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights and Evangelical Fellowship of India from New Delhi stated that the bill is an attack on democratic values which unites the country.

A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J.M. Khazi issued notice to the Secretary of Home department and Principal Secretary of Law Department. The bench has asked them to file objections within four weeks.

The laws formulated under the Anti-Conversion Bill violate the right of choice of an individual, right of liberty and right to practice religion. The provisions of ordinance violate Section 21 of the Indian constitution as it gives liberty to the state to violate individual rights of citizens, the petition claims.

After the ruling BJP in the state brought the Anti-Conversion law into force by promulgating an ordinance, the state Congress had announced to launch a Jan Andolan (people's agitation) against it.

Congress stated that it will never allow the misuse of The Karnataka Protection of Rights to Freedom of Religion. "Our party will firmly stand with each individual belonging to the minority community, those who are threatened by the government. The party will launch 'Jan Andolan' against the proposed bill, the Congress had announced." The Karnataka government had tabled the proposed controversial Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021 popularly known as Anti-conversion bill in Legislative Assembly in Suvarna Vidhana Soudha at Belagavi on December 21, 2021. However, it is yet to come before the Legislative Council.

All legal entities, educational institutions, orphanages, old age homes, hospitals, religious missionaries, Non -Governmental Organizations (NGO) are brought under the purview of the institutions.

According to new law, any converted person, his parents, brother, sister or any other person who is related to him by blood, marriage or adoption or in any form associated or colleague may lodge a complaint of such conversion which contravenes the provisions. The offense is made to be non-bailable and cognizable offence.
Lahore, July 23 : Hamza Shehbaz, son of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was administered the oath of office on Saturday after he won an election to retain his seat as the Chief Minister of Punjab province.

Clad in a black sherwani, Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman administered the oath at a ceremony held at the Governor's House in Lahore.

Hamza secured 179 votes against 176 votes received by Pervaiz Elahi, a joint candidate of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), deputy speaker Dost Mazari announced late Friday night.

Elahi had received 186 votes, including 176 from PTI and 10 from the PML, but the deputy speaker excluded the 10 votes of the PML after its chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain wrote a letter to his party members not to vote for Elahi.

This is the second time that Hamza beat Elahi in the contest for the Punjab Chief Minister.

The election was held on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan after the PTI filed a petition in the apex court saying that Hamza has lost the majority in the house.

Earlier on April 16, he was elected as the new Chief Minister of Punjab with 197 votes, including 25 dissidents of the PTI.

On May 20, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-seated 25 dissident members of the provincial assembly of the PTI for voting fpr Hamza in the election against the orders of the party leadership.

Later the ECP allocated five reserved seats to the PTI and announced by-elections on the remaining 20 seats on July 17.

The PTI won 15 seats while PML-N got four seats and an independent candidate also won the election.

PML member Basharat Raja objected to the deputy speaker's decision to exclude votes, saying that it is against the constitution of the country because only a leader in the assembly can pass such orders to its members while Hussain is not the party leader in the house.

The PTI and PML both announced that they will go to the Supreme Court of the country to challenge the verdict made by the deputy speaker.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 23 : Kerala police, which is probing the 'bomb' attack at the CPI(M) headquarters is still in the dark even after 24 days of the incident and is on the verge of closing the case.

The incident occurred on June 30 midnight and after shortwhile, the Left Democratic Front convener and top notch CPI-M leader E.P. Jayarajan had blamed Congress workers for the attack.

Responding to Jyarajan, State Congress president K. Sudhakaran, who hails from the CPI-M bastion of Kannur and is not having good terms with leaders like Jayarajan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (both hailing from Kannur), hit back alleging that only if Jayarajan is questioned, the real culprits behind this 'attack' will come out.

Sudhakaran alleged that the CPI-M is known for trying to deviate issues, when they are caught on the back foot.

Mocking CPI(M), Kannur leader and former State Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi said she was nearly rocked off her chair because of the impact of the 'bomb' attack and this became the butt of jokes on the social media.

Sudhakaran went a step further and said cracker was hurled at the CPI (M) headquarters and not a bomb.

Sudhakaran's statement was soon endorsed when scientific reports also came, saying it was a cracker.

What caused more trouble for the CPI-M was this attack took place a few days after the Students Federation of India activists vandalised the office of Wayanad Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi.

The attack on the CPI-M headquarters issue was taken up by the Congress-led opposition in the floor of the assembly on July 4 where in they went hammer and tongs against the Vijayan government and "the way the law and order situation in the state have deteriorated" .

The Kerala Police has tried even the scientific route, but the CCTV visuals which they have got are not very clear and they have not been able to work forward on these visuals, where a person, who arrives on a two-wheeler is seen hurling something towards the party headquarters.

"We do not want to just come out with some culprit. The police will definitely bring the real culprit to book and that's why there has been a delay. We will also examine if there was any lapse on the part of the police," Chief Minister Vijayan had told the Assembly.

And now with the assembly session also coming to a close on Thursday, the Police are also mulling the closure of the case, leaving the Congress smiling, which continues to stick on Sudhakaran's statement- "question Jayarajan to find the real culprit".
Puducherry, July 23 : The Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, will study in detail the autopsy records of the class 12 student who committed suicide on July 13 from the hostel of a private residential school in Kallakurichi, and submit a final report in a month's time.

This is being done on a directive of the Madras High Court issued on Friday.

The direction came after the victim's family in their appeal to the court, said they were apprehensive of a re-postmortem.

The family had earlier petitioned the Supreme Court to allow a doctor of their choice to be present during the re-postmortem which was rejected by the apex court.

Justice Sathish of the Madras High Court had earlier refused to allow a doctor of the family's choice to be part of the post-mortem which was accepted by the Supreme court.

The Madras High Court had directed the parents of the girl to accept her body by 7 a.m. and to conduct her funeral by 6 p.m. at her hometown but allowed the plea for an analysis.

Following this, the autopsy report was analysed at the JIPMER.
Chennai, July 23 : Security across Cuddalore and Kallakurichi districts of Tamil Nadu has been tightened as the body of the Class 12 girl student who committed suicide on July 13 in the hostel of a private residential school reached her hometown.

Kallakurichi Superintendent of Police, R. Pakalavan escorted the body from Kallakurichi Government general hospital amid tight security.

The victim's parents received the body from the hospital and brought it to their hometown at Periyanesalur village in Cuddalore district.

A pall of gloom descended the village as the body reached her hometown amid the wailing of families, relatives and neighbours.

Cuddalore district superintendent of Police, Sakthi Ganeshan while speaking to IANS said: "Police have beefed up the security in this area as the body has reached her home." Subramanian, the victim's neighbour said: "We don't want any outsiders at our beloved girl's funeral. Her father was a farmer like us and had gone to Singapore. Her mother worked as an insurance advisor and slowly they picked up in their economic status. The girl used to commute to school daily before taking up an accommodation in the hostel on July 1. It is a real tragedy to our whole village." With the police tightening up security and locals not allowing any outsiders to the place, the last rites will be performed soon. All arrangements for the last rites have been made.

It may be recalled that following her suicide, the girl's family was conducting a silent protest in front of the school from July 13, which suddenly turned violent on July 17. A mob vandalised the private residential school, torched several school buses, police bus, and assaulted police.

Kallakurichi District collector, District Superintendent of Police, and Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) were shunted out following the violence.
Copenhagen, July 23 : As the Europe reels from the effects of a prolonged heatwave responsible for a series of ferocious wildfires and escalating record-breaking high temperatures, regional governments have been urged by the World Health Organization (WHO) to implement the Paris climate agreement, whose position has been reinforced "as a health treaty" by the COP26 Health Programme.

"Governments need to demonstrate political will and genuine leadership in implementing the global Paris Agreement on climate change, with collaboration replacing division and empty rhetoric," WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a statement on Friday.

According to Kluge, 1,700 people have died as a result of the current heatwave in Spain and Portugal, and wildfires have spread from southern Europe to as far north as Scandinavia, reports Xinhua news agency.

This week, with the "scorching summer season barely halfway done", fires in London have destroyed 41 homes, he added.

"Ultimately, this week's events point yet again to the desperate need for pan-European action to effectively tackle climate change, the overarching crisis of our time that is threatening both individual health and the very existence of humanity." In reaction to the extreme effects of the current heatwave, the WHO has issued guidance support for national and local authorities "to save lives and strengthen the resilience of communities and people to cope during extreme heat".

The WHO guidance recommended basic steps that everyone should take to safeguard themselves and their loved ones from the heat, including keeping out of the heat as much as possible during the night as well; avoiding strenuous physical activity and ensuring children and animals are not left in parked vehicles; and seeking medical advice if one is suffering from a chronic condition or taking multiple medications.

Furthermore, Kluge reiterated the UN Climate Change Conference's call for "health systems to assume their share of the responsibility to step up their resilience to, and fight against, climate change", arguing that coordinated action on multiple fronts will "strengthen environmental health and reverse the ravages of climate change".
New Delhi, July 23 : The skill-gaming industry has sought the intervention of the government to rein in the arbitrary policies of the monopoly global tech-giants. Sources said that the gaming industry body along with domestic tech firms like Makemytrip, Zomato, Oyo and others deposed before a Parliamentary Panel on July 21 about the unfair policies of tech giants.

The gaming industry reportedly brought out the illegal and biased policies of Google that prohibit the Indian skill-games platforms to list on its platform, while allowing a free hand to foreign gaming apps.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee, led by BJP leader and former Union Minister Jayant Sinha, had been examining the market dominance behaviour of global tech giants.

Sources said that the gaming industry has submitted to the panel that while Google does not allow Indian online skill games on its Google Play Store, it promotes its own gaming service called 'Play Pass' and other Chinese and western games.

It was pointed out where users directly download online gaming apps, Google tries to dissuade the app's install by showing warning messages. It also unfairly prevents other Android app stores from advertising on its platform and limits consumer choice.

The tech giants Google and Apple have been the subject of several adverse court orders with respect to their monopolistic practices. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has found Google's billing of apps to be "unfair and discriminatory".

In France, Google was fined two million Euros by the Paris Commercial Court over abusive practices toward developers on its play store. The US Department of Justice is slated to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google over its monopoly in the online advertising market.

In India, a CCI probe in 2021 had found that Google was enforcing one-sided contracts on devices and app-makers so that its own apps and products maintain primacy in consumer usage and come pre-installed on devices through its Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA).

In the US, 36 states have filed a suit against Google in relation to Google's abuse of its monopoly over the distribution of apps for Android devices, including by blocking competition through contractual and technical barriers.
Tripoli, July 23 : The Presidency Council of Libya has ordered that the armed groups should immediately stop the clashes in the capital Tripoli and return to their camps.

"All the parties to the clashes are requested to immediately cease fire and return to their camps. The Attorney General and the Military Public Prosecutor must start an investigation immediately into the reasons for the clashes," it said.

"The Ministers of Defense and Interior of the Government of National Unity must take the necessary procedures to secure the capital," Xinhua news agency quoted the Council as further saying.

According to local media, clashes erupted on Thursday between rival armed groups in central Tripoli, killing at least 10 people and injuring 30 others.

The Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli has suspended all flights due to the clashes.

Libya has been suffering violence and unrest ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011.
Hyderabad, July 23 : Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan donned the role of a physician to attend to a co-passenger who took ill aboard New Delhi-Hyderabad flight on Saturday.

There was a panic call from the air hostess while the IndiGo flight was mid-air. Is there any doctor on this flight, the air hostess asked.

Dr Soundararajan tweeted that she rushed to the rear only to see a passenger looking drowsy sweating profusely. He had symptoms of indigestion.

"Made him lie flat. Checked vitals with first aid and supportive drugs and assurance. There was a smile on his face as much as on co-passengers," wrote the governor.

On arrival in Hyderabad, the passenger was transported in a wheelchair to the airport medical booth.

Soundararjan appreciated IndiGo air hostess and staff for timely alert and facilitation. She made some suggestions for the airline.

The governor said the first aid kit must be kept in a ready to use stage and contents verified daily. She suggested that doctors travelling on board can be noted on travel charts as in railways to attend emergency calls.

She noted that it was 4 a.m. mid-air and she was awake to take the call. Your call may go unnoticed in sleepy hours, she said.

She advised the airline to impart Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) skills training to its crews on board to help the sick on flight. "I advise even citizens to take a formal CPR training to save others in emergencies," she added.

Tamilisai Soundararajan had started her career as a medical practitioner after completing her M.B.B.S., P.G. in Gynecology. She was a practicing physician before entering politics.
New Delhi, July 23 : The Dubai Metaverse Strategy was launched with the goal of making Dubai one of the top ten metaverse economies and a global hub for the metaverse community.

His Majesty Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed emphasised the importance of consolidating Dubai's status as a hub offering the most advanced metaverse ecosystem and as a global leader in adopting digital solutions, which reflects His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's ambitious vision of transforming the emirate into a global capital of advanced technologies, primarily artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3.

Image Source: IANS News

The strategy aims to build on Dubai's success in attracting over 1,000 blockchain and metaverse companies. It also promotes Dubai's goal of supporting over 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030. This would further boost Dubai's economy and support the UAE government's goal of tripling the current number of blockchain companies.

According to Al Olamas, the Dubai Metaverse Strategy aligns with the UAE AI Strategy's goals of elevating the country's position as one of the world's leading countries in futuristic sectors by investing in new initiatives and empowering talent to drive digital transformation and the adoption of future technologies.

The Dubai Metaverse Strategy aims to foster innovation, increase the economic contributions of the metaverse through R&D collaborations, and promote advanced ecosystems through accelerators and incubators that attract companies and projects to Dubai.

The strategy focuses on developing talent and investing in future capabilities by providing the necessary support in metaverse education for metaverse developers, content creators, and users of digital platforms.

The key pillars of the strategy are extended reality (which combines the physical and virtual worlds), augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and digital twins (a virtual representation of an object or system). The strategy aims to improve human thinking processes by leveraging real-time data, utilising machine learning and IoT, and utilising AI simulation and blockchain.

The technology pillars of the metaverse strategy are data, network, cloud, and edge computing, which focus on real-world data acquisition, validation, storage, processing, and management. Other pillars include promoting full 5G network deployment to enable edge computing and provide on-demand computer system resources. Instead of using the cloud, edge computing allows data to be collected, stored, and processed locally via smart devices and local networks.

VR and AR are two key enablers of the metaverse, accounting for 6,700 jobs and contributing $500 million to the UAE economy, both of which are expected to grow significantly in the future. The metaverse offers a wide range of economic opportunities. Globally, the value of venture capital and private equity financing in the metaverse is expected to reach $13 billion by 2021, while metaverse real estate sales surpassed $500 million last year.

Second Life, a virtual world in which users can explore fantasy landscapes and create their own, is expected to contribute more than $650 million to global GDP in 2021. The metaverse also achieved 200 strategic partnerships with Sandbox, a decentralised gaming virtual world, including the launch of the Warner Music Group in the metaverse as a music-themed virtual world.

According to analysts, the metaverse could contribute up to $5 trillion to the global economy by 2030. The market value of NFTs is expected to reach $80 billion by 2025, with consumer spending on in-game purchases reaching $75 billion.

According to recent studies, the number of daily active users on Roblox, one of the leading global metaverse communities, has risen to 55 million. At the same time, 59 percent of global consumers want to move at least one of their daily activities to the metaverse.

The strategy encourages the use of a connected network of virtual spaces to improve the community's wellbeing in Dubai and to enhance initiatives that will position it as a role model in metaverse technologies with a strong digital infrastructure.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)

-- Syndicated from IANS
Washington, July 23 : Three people were killed in a shooting at a park in the US state of Iowa and the suspected gunman is also dead, police said in a statement.

Police were notified of a triple homicide at the Maquoketa Caves State Park campground in Jackson County at about 6.23 a.m. on Friday, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

Officers located three deceased bodies and later found that a camper was unaccounted for, it said.

Officers also found the deceased body of Anthony Orlando Sherwin, 23, west of the park.

Sherwin appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police said the Maquoketa Caves State Park, which stands northwest of the city of Maquoketa, is closed until further notice but there is no danger to the public.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said in a statement that she's "horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives".

Gun violence has taken more than 24,000 lives across the US so far this year, according to the latest data from Gun Violence Archive.
New Delhi, July 23 : Chief Justice N.V. Ramana on Saturday hit out at electronic and social media 'trials', saying that media run 'kangaroo courts' at times on issues and even experienced judges find it difficult to decide.

Speaking at the inaugural 'Justice S. B. Sinha Memorial Lecture' on "Life of a Judge" organised by National University of Study & Research in Law, Ranchi, the Chief Justice stressed the need to ensure proper judicial infrastructure, the problems created by media trial in judicial administration, future challenges of the judiciary and the importance of judicial review in protection of the Constitution.

Asserting that we are living in a complex society, Ramana said that the role of a person holding a position in the judiciary or governance becomes extremely crucial as their decisions at critical junctures influence the growth and progress of humanity.

"Doing justice is not an easy responsibility. It is becoming increasingly challenging with each passing day," he said, pointing out the increasing number of media trials.

"New media tools have the enormous amplifying ability but appear to be incapable of distinguishing between the right and the wrong, the good and the bad and the real and the fake. Media trials cannot be a guiding factor in deciding cases," he said in the speech.

Rapping the biased views appearing on social media, he said: "Ill-informed and agenda-driven debates on issues involving justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy." He said further that biased views propagated by media are affecting people, weakening democracy, and harming the system.

In the process, justice delivery gets adversely affected. "By overstepping and breaching your responsibility, you are taking our democracy two steps backward," he blasted.
New Delhi, July 23 : When was the last time you heard a man discussing his sexual wellness in a peer group or a social setting, or even with his loved ones? Chances are, youve never heard of such a thing. These conversations, while critical, just do not happen.

ByNilay Mehrotra New Delhi, July 23 (IANSlife) When was the last time you heard a man discussing his sexual wellness in a peer group or a social setting, or even with his loved ones? Chances are, youve never heard of such a thing. These conversations, while critical, just do not happen.

While as individuals, we are hardwired to share our issues with our near and dear ones, certain conversations still take place in hushed tones. Sexual wellness is one such topic. Since such issues are not spoken about and people refrain from seeking treatment due to a lack of awareness and right online platforms in the country.

Just like physical and mental well-being, men must take care of sexual wellness to lead a healthy and happy life. Thankfully, we're on our way to speaking out loud about these issues as a society. Sexual wellness consultations increased by almost 139% in the year 2020 compared with the previous year.

Performance Pressure Sexual health and effectiveness are taboo in society and specifically for men for various reasons. It is often assumed that sexual activity comes more naturally to men than women. While that is untrue, this notion gets even more troublesome when men arent able to perform in bed. Men suffer from performance anxiety a lot more than women, which is a leading cause of erectile dysfunction.

Erectile Dysfunction The commonly used term for ED is impotence. The mere association of this word with men arouses discomfort in social circles and, more often than not, leads to a scarred image. But the problem is not as rare, just less talked about.

As per the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, nearly half of the men in the age group of 40 to 70 face this issue due to reasons varying from arterial malfunction or other abnormalities that can be checked and treated. ED can be caused by endocrinological diseases such as prostate malfunction, hypogonadism or even diabetes.

Trouble maintaining an erection could very well be caused by fibrosis or atrophy, which is a sufficiently organic process but could also be caused due to drugs or smoke. Another myth surrounding men's sexual health is that ED is a psychological disorder. While the cause could be neurological, the issue definitely needs to be probed for clarity and subsequent treatment.

Low Libido Libido comes naturally to all genders, given they're in a suitable space in their head. Sexual pleasure is a recreational activity that does not need to be and ideally is not supposed to be imposed upon anyone. So, not being in the right mind space, like experiencing stress or anxiety, could lead to low libido. There could be very many reasons that need to get checked by an expert.

Premature Ejaculation Generally, one out of three men has been known to complain about premature orgasm. This creates a lot of pressure upon men as they feel they're somehow incapable of pleasing their women. This further causes a loss of self-confidence, adversely impacting their mental health and even leading to severe problems.

Those days are gone when there wasn't any scientific explanation for biological processes. Society has advanced a great deal to know for sure that there are underlying causes for many of the activities affecting sexual health. All the community collectively needs to do now is talk openly about sexual diseases and discomfort like other diseases. The bubble needs to burst now more than ever when we are experiencing a time when multiple genders exist in society.

Sexual pleasure, like any other need in life, is an individual's responsibility. But acceptance in relationships plays a significant role in bringing that sort of communication out loud. This helps improve relationships and emotional health and leads to enhanced confidence and perspective in all aspects of life. Again, acceptance is the key in the end.

(Nilay Mehrotra, Founder & CEO of Kindly) (N Lothungbeni Humtsoe can be contacted at lothungbeni.h@ians.in)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru, July 23 : An incident of robbery right next to the Police Commissioner's Office in Bengaluru has raised concern among the public.

The robbers, after burgling Rs 4.5 lakh cash, managed to zoom past a high security zone in front of Raj Bhavan and disappear. Despite a complaint, and possession of CCTV a footage, the police are unable to make any breakthrough in the case.

The incident, which had taken place last Saturday (July 16) in broad daylight, came to light recently. It took place in the high security zone. The Bengaluru Police Commissioner's Office, Raj Bhavan and Vidhana Soudha are located very close to the place of the incident.

Though there are several CCTV cameras installed, police are unable to get any leads. Sources in the police department had stated that though there are multiple CCTV cameras installed, only few of them function.

Lakshmeesh V, a businessman from Shantiniketan Layout, had gone to the Legal Metrology Office, located exactly behind the Bengaluru Police Commissioner's Office, for some work leaving Rs 4.5 lakh in dashboard of his car.

When he returned to his car after 5 minutes, he found the window glass broken and the money missing from the dashboard. Lakhmeesh saw the robber and raised an alarm. He even chased the thief he managed to run and sit on a bike and zoomed past.

CCTV footage showed that the robbers went in the one way opposite to Raj Bhavan and disappeared. Vidhana Soudha police are investigating the case.
Chennai, July 23 : Actor Adivi Sesh, whose recently released film 'Major' came in for critical acclaim, has said that he intends to take a brief break before joining the final schedule of his upcoming Telugu film 'Hit 2'.

In a statement that was widely shared on social media, Adivi Sesh said, "Hi all, First off, thank you for making 'Major' an extraordinary success. It has been a truly incredible journey.

"I was supposed to come back to 'Hit 2' right after the release of 'Major' and complete the last schedule of shoot. However, due to my unflinching commitment to taking Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's story to every nook and corner of the world, I am physically and emotionally exhausted (in a nice way)." "So, I had requested Natural Star Nani and Dr. Sailesh for a break before I can come back and complete the final shooting schedule of 'Hit 2', to which they have graciously agreed. After that, we shall commence post production in an amazing manner." "We will update you very soon on the release of 'Hit 2' with a bang. KD is coming fully loaded, ready to set the screen on fire. Thank you for understanding.

Sincerely, Adivi Sesh." Written and directed by Dr. Sailesh Kolanu, the film is being produced by Prashanti Tipirneni and is presented by actor Nani.
Washington, July 23 : The US may see more cases of monkeypox before the numbers go down, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rochelle Walensky said.

"With the scale-up of testing, with the scale-up of information, we anticipate that there will be more cases before there are less," Xinhua news agency quoted Walensky as saying to The Washington Post.

The CDC currently does not have specific projections on how serious the situation may be, Walensky added.

"I do not think that we have a stable estimate now," the CDC chief said.

But she did note that the US on Friday detected two monkeypox cases in children for the first time.

The two cases are unrelated and are likely the result of household transmission, the CDC said in a statement.

The agency said the children are in good health and are being treated. Both of them are doing well, but they had contact with other people, and the CDC is following up on that, Walensky added.

So far, the US has reported over 2,800 confirmed monkeypox/orthopoxvirus cases, according to CDC data.

Ashish Jha, White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said the government has delivered 300,000 doses of a monkeypox vaccine and is working to expedite the shipment from Denmark of 786,000 more doses.

He said there is already enough vaccine on hand to provide a first vaccine dose to more than half of the eligible population in New York City and over 70 per cent of the eligible population in Washington D.C.

Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that is usually transmitted through body fluids, respiratory droplets and other contaminated materials.

The disease usually results in fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes.

The US is still evaluating whether the monkeypox outbreak should be declared a public health emergency.

"We're looking at what are the ways in which the response could be enhanced, if any, by declaring a public health emergency," said Jha.

Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak
Dakshina Kannada, July 23 : A transgender has been arrested on charges of cheating a woman by posing as a man on Facebook account in Vitla town of Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district, police said on Saturday.

According to police, the accused posing as a civil engineer befriended a young woman on facebook and later, both of them fall in love with each other.

Both used to chat on Facebook and speak to each other over phone since past four years.

Recently, the mother of the girl got to know about her love affair, post which she shared it with her family friend Shailaja Rajesh, who is also an advocate.

The advocate with the help of Vitla police searched for the accused by tracking the location of his phone calls.

The police tracked the accused in Shankaranarayana of Udupi district and found out that he is a transgender.

Vitla police have lodged a case and arrested the transgender in connection with cheating the girl.

Further investigation is on.
Bengaluru, July 23 : Congress infighting has escalated regarding the leadership row in Karnataka. After declaring his candidature for the post of Chief Minister, State Congress President D. K. Shivakumar on Saturday told the leaders to zip their mouths and bring the party to power in the state.

"If you have real respect for the party, stop worshiping individuals and worship the party. Focus on bringing more people to the fold of the party. Let all leaders organise their communities and bring the Congress to power in Karnataka," Shivakumar stated.

He slammed the statement of Congress MLA and Siddaramaiah's close associate Zameer Ahmed Khan, that Muslim community has more voters than dominant Vokkaliga community and he is also in the race for the post of Chief Minister. "The CM post is not vacant now. Everyone should zip their mouth. I am telling this to everyone," he underlined.

Shivakumar defended his statement of expressing his wish to become CM as there is no harm in any candidate winning out of 224 assembly constituencies in the state wishing to become CM.

Congress party Campaign Committee President M. B. Patil had earlier stated that he will not identify himself with either Shivakumar camp or Siddaramaiah camp as he has his own identity. The statement of Shivakumar stands contradicted by party leaders leading to more confusion in the present circumstances, insiders in Congress said.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 23 : As the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday picked up West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee in a corruption case, the Kerala unit of the CPI-M appears to have caught a 'cold' literally.

Things have not gone well with the Kerala unit of the CPI-M in general and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in particular, ever since the prime accused in the gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh in June made damning allegations and said that Vijayan, his wife and their daughter indulged in smuggling gold and currency.

Following this, the Congress and the BJP have been demanding that Vijayan either answer the questions Swapna has posed, or face a probe, which have both been dismissed by Vijayan. While the entire party is behind him organising a series of rallies and public meetings, the state has been flooded with huge posters giving him a clean chit.

But, things turned sour on Wednesday for CPI-M and Vijayan after the ED approached the Supreme Court seeking a transfer of the gold smuggling cases from Kerala to Bengaluru. On Thursday, the ED informed the court that if allowed, they will file her confession statement in a sealed cover before the court.

Ever since Swapna made the allegations, Vijayan for all practical purposes has completely gone 'incommunicado'. His only interaction with the media was after June first week, that too through press releases from his office.

Meanwhile, Swapna after hearing the ED filing a petition to transfer the case to Bengaluru has wholeheartedly welcomed it. "For the first time, I feel positive that the case will come to its logical conclusion, as I myself has pointed out, that Vijayan is concerned only about his daughter, while women like me are being made the scapegoat in this case," she said.

Swapna has already gone on record to state that she will fight till her last breath to prove that all what she said against Vijayan and his family is true.

Now all eyes are on the apex court on whether it will allow the ED to transfer the case from here to Bengaluru or not. In the past, a disproportionate assets case involving former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa was transferred from Tamil Nadu to Bengaluru.
Patna, July 23 : After a suspected terror module was busted in Patna's Phulwari Sharif, there is disagreement between Bihar's two ruling alliance partners - the BJP and the JD-U - over a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), which was allegedly involved.

BJP leaders like state minister Jivesh Mishra, Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, state President Sanjay Jaiswal and MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur and others are demanding a ban on the PFI while the Janata Dal-United's leadership is yet to decide.

Minority Affairs Minister Jama Khan, of the JD-U, said: "The investigation is currently underway. There is no clarity over whether the organisation (PFI) is involved in anti- national activities or not. Hence, you can't declare an organisation illegal. How could a ban be imposed on an organisation only on the basis of the assumption of some people. The action will be taken against the organisation only after its guilt would be proven by the authorities and courts.

"Any organisations like the RSS, the Bajrang Dal or PFI, they are connected with political parties. The probe should take place on this line too. If any organisation is involved in wrongdoing, the state government will take action against them. Ban cannot be imposed on the demand of some leaders of a political party," Khan said.

On the other hand, BJP Minister Mishra demanded complete ban on PFI.

"The security agencies have busted PFI terror module of Phulwari Sharif... the NIA is investigating this case. If its operatives' terror links will be proven in future, the Centre will ban it. We are already demanding a ban on such an organisation," he said.

"I also appeal to the Central government to identify organisations like PFI and ban it immediately. When the Narendra Modi government came to power, it made every possible effort to destroy such organisations. They have given life threats to BJP leaders but they are not worried about it," Mishra said.

Jaiswal alleged that a "large number of sleeper cells" were active in Bihar.

"The Popular Front of India Phulwari Sharif module developed in Patna. I am hoping that the security agencies will break the chain of terror modules developed in every district of Bihar. It is an international conspiracy against the country to destroy... it will be prevented....

"Whoever had taken the training under the PFI from 2016 to 2022 will be exposed and arrested," he asserted.

"The BJP leaders are not the soft target of terrorists but their connection from Bihar is emerging before us. Wherever terrorist activities taking place in the country, it has some connection with Bihar. This is also indicating that a large number of sleeper cells are active in every district of Bihar," Jaiswal said.

BJP leader Neeraj Kumar Bablu sought that security agencies should scan all madarsas existing in Bihar.

"There are many madarsas in Bihar having excellent education systems while some of them have a fishy atmosphere. Hence, those madrasas need investigation and should be kept under close watch of intelligence agencies," he said.

Why the Nitish Kumar government is not imposing a ban on PFI? Despite a strong demand for a ban on the PFI by BJP leaders, the JD-U believes otherwise. The party think tank believes that banning an organisation only on the basis of allegations may prove dangerous in upcoming polls.

The JD-U is on the driving seat in Bihar but it is only due to the bargain and not due to its political strength. The party performed poorly in the 2020 Assembly election and won only 43 seats. It managed to win two more seats in the by-elections to reach 45, and subsequently merged an LJP MLA and an independent MLA to reach at the figure of 47. Still, it is in the third position in the house, as the RJD has 80 and the BJP has 77 MLAs.

The JD-U leadership believed that the party had reached to the third position not due to opposition but the "lethal" political moves of the BJP. In the last 21 months, these two parties were often involved in mud-slinging on almost every single issue.

The PFI issue has emerged as another flashpoint.

In the past few weeks, BJP hardliners like Union Minister Giriraj Singh and Hari Bhushan Thakur have claimed that they have received threatg calls from militant organisations. Even a number of BJP leaders were attacked during the Agneepath protest. Following that, the Centre government has given Y-category security to 10 BJP leaders including Giriraj Singh, Thakur, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Tar Kishore Prasad, Renu Devi, Sanjiv Chaurasia, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey and others.

Despite all provocations, no communal tension or riots occurred in Bihar under the Nitish Kumar government, which is why a sizable part of the minority community reposes faith in him. The JD-U also knows that if the state government would impose a ban on the organisation like PFI, it would be a disaster for it in the next election as the minority community will entirely swing over to the RJD.

JD-U sources are claiming that the Union Home Ministry's handing over the probe to the NIA is a part of ploy to declare it an anti-national and terrorist organisation and ban it.

As BJP leaders are citing the example of neighbouring Jharkhand, which has imposed a ban on the PFI, the JD-U notes that the Hemant Soren government took the decision as its "core constituency" is different.

Bihar Minister and former IPS officer Sunil Kumar said: "It is a decision of Jharkhand government to impose a ban on the PFI. Bihar government will take any such decision on the basis of the investigation report and legal observations.

As the ban on PFI is an extremely sensitive matter, officials of Bihar Police are tightlipped on it and avoiding recommendation to the state government for ban.

Meanwhile, the RJD questioned the updates in the investigation so far.

State RJD chief Jagadanand Singh said: "They (investigating agencies) are claiming that a person has a telephonic conversation with a Pakistani national. The investigators should release the transcript of the conversation in public domain. They should reveal what the act was done by youths of a particular community which turn threat for the nation. During Partition, a large number of Muslim families went to Pakistan and their relatives are living in both the countries. Can they clarify whether interacting with relatives in Pakistan is a crime?" RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, while referring to Patna SSP M.S. Dhillon's now controversial comments, said: "RJD is saying right from the beginning that the RSS is a threat to the country. At present, whatever the poisonous and hatred spread in the society is only due to the RSS. It is in the agenda of RSS to communalise the society." Patna police have arrested 8 persons so far in these two cases, including the PFI module. In the suspected terror module case, Athar Parvez, Mohammad Jalaluddin, and Arman Malik were arrested, and have revealed the names of Margoob alias Danis and Shabbir. Margoob was running a social networking group called Ghazwa-e-Hind and connected with the youths of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The investigators claimed that Parvez was attached with the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and his brother Manzar Alam was involved in 2013 serial bomb blast in Gandhi Maidan rally of then PM candidate Narendra Modi. Jalaluddin also has some connection with the SIMI. During the raid, the joint team had recovered some objectionable documents which indicate that they were allegedly involved in brainwashing Muslim youths and working on "Mission 2047" to make India a Muslim country.
Seoul : This photo taken on Wednesday, shows outbound travelers at Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport in Incheon, just west of Seoul, amid the spread of an omicron subvariant.(Yonhap/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, July 23 : Air travellers are facing chaos across the globe. Since May, US airlines have cancelled more than 21,000 flights, or about 2.7 per cent of the scheduled total.

Winding queues and piles of abandoned luggage are becoming an increasingly common sight in airports across Europe, Euro News reported.

Airlines have cancelled tens of thousands of flights since May, leaving passengers stranded, while airports have struggled with industrial action and technical glitches.

The July 4 weekend -- an American holiday -- has seen hundreds of flights cancelled and more than 12,000 delayed.

However, the number of cancellations still pales in comparison to the European total.

Europe had more than double the cancellations of US carriers between April and June, data from flight tracking company RadarBox.com revealed, Euro News reported.

Between April 1 and June 29, Europe's top 10 worst performing airports cancelled a mammoth 64,100 flights.

The reason has partly to do with staffing. US airlines also slashed staff during the pandemic, making 90,000 workers redundant. However, most American carriers -- including big hitters American, Delta, United and SouthWest -- started recruitment in the middle of 2021, in line with the return of domestic travel.

Another key point is that due to less vigorous and varying Covid restrictions between states, US flight numbers didn't drop as significantly as those in major European countries, Euro News reported.

European airports are struggling to cope with an extreme staffing deficit.

At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, airports and airlines made roughly 191,000 European aviation workers redundant.

According to a study published in January 2021 by the European Transport Workers Federation, 58.5 per cent of airport ground staff were at work at the time. At least 23 per cent of them were made redundant, Euro News reported.

Airports like Heathrow and Schiphol have begged airlines to cut flights, while many carriers have been forced to pre-emptively cull their schedules by thousands of trips.

"Making these cancellations is not something we take lightly," former Chief Operating Officer of easyJet, Peter Bellew, had told the staff after cutting dozens of flights.

Heathrow Airport earlier this month introduced an unprecedented 100,000 limit on daily departing passengers until September and ordered airlines to stop selling summer tickets as the airport battles against a staffing crisis, Daily Mail reported.

The dramatic move will impose a maximum limit on the number of passengers allowed to leave the airport between July 12 and September 11.

Airlines had planned to operate flights with a daily capacity averaging 104,000 seats over that period -- meaning further cancellations are likely, Daily Mail reported.

Heathrow said it has ordered airlines to "stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers".

The measure will lead to more cancellations on top of the thousands of flights axed in recent months.

Passengers have been hit by delays and cancellations at airports across the UK due to a shortage of staff after thousands were laid off or left the industry during Covid, Daily Mail reported.

Announcing the passenger cap, Heathrow Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye said: "Over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we have started to see periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable." Problems include long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations, Holland-Kaye said, Daily Mail reported.

Emirates airline blasted one of the world's busiest airports for its "incompetence" in failing to handle a surge in passengers, CNN reported.

The Dubai-based airline slammed demands made by London's Heathrow airport earlier this week that carriers stop selling any more tickets for this summer.

The airline, which operates six daily flights from Heathrow, has rejected the new limits and called them "entirely unreasonable and unacceptable", CNN reported.

Heathrow, like other airports, has struggled to cope with a bounce back in travellers after two years of pandemic restrictions and staff cuts. The airport said on Tuesday that it would cap daily passenger numbers at 100,000 until September 11.

"Heathrow chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an 'airmageddon' situation due to their incompetence and non-action, it is pushing the entire burden - of costs and the scramble to sort the mess - to airlines and travellers," the airline said in a statement, CNN reported.
New Delhi, July 23 : Budget carrier SpiceJet with a fleet size of 95 planes reported a net profit of Rs 23.28 crore in the quarter ended December in FY2022.

But industry sources said that the Covid pandemic hit the aviation sector badly and SpiceJet too is not untouched by the financial stress.

While the airline has not come out with its Q4 FY2022 results, some industry sources claimed that when announced, the results will truly disclose its financial condition.

SpiceJet planes recorded passenger load factor or occupancy of 84.1 per cent in June when it had a market share of 9.5 per cent.

While the airline has claimed that the March results are delayed due to a ransomware attack on its system, industry sources said the airline is under financial stress.

Industry sources and experts said that fleet deployment and oversight is very crucial in the aviation sector. During the Covid pandemic, most of the aircraft were lying idle and many airlines resorted to cost-cutting and retrenchment of employees to cope with the financial crisis.

Now, there is a sudden surge in demand which the airlines are finding difficult to manage, leading to a rising number of technical malfunctions.

Jitender Bhargava, former Executive Director of Air India, said that given the current situation, it is very difficult to reach the breakeven point for many airlines in the country.

"In India, every airline wants to fill its seats and in that process they keep the fare low. Covid has impacted the health of the sector badly. Also, the rate of aviation fuel has been on the higher side. All these things have impacted the financials of the airlines," Bhargava said.

When asked about the possibility of lack of trained staff or proper checking for technical snags, a Spicejet spokesperson said, "Absolutely not. Last month all our planes were audited by the DGCA and they were found to be absolutely safe." When asked about the steps being taken by the airline to avoid untoward incidents, the spokesperson said, "We are committed to ensuring a safe operation for our passengers and crew. All our aircraft were audited a month ago by the regulator and were found to be safe. Preventive actions are formulated, implemented and audited frequently to ensure no recurrence of a similar nature occurs in the future." When asked whether entry of new players, including Akasa Air and Jet Airways, has led to man-power shortage, the spokesperson replied, "SpiceJet has one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry and we have more than sufficient number of technicians and engineers who are doing a great job." SpiceJet reported a net profit of Rs 23.28 crore in the quarter ended December 2021, despite one-time exceptional adjustment of Rs 77.46 crore on account of settlement for the quarter under review.

"Our performance would have been much better, but it was impacted by the unexpected delay in the return to service of the 737 MAX, rising fuel costs and certain exceptional adjustments," said the airline.

SpiceJet also launched 40 new routes and added Kushinagar as an UDAN destination, becoming the first Indian airline to start flights from the newest airport.

Meanwhile, many incidents involving engineering malfunctioning were reported in the past couple of months. Taking note of air safety related incidents, aviation regulator DGCA had issued a showcause notice to SpiceJet in the first week of July.

In its notice, DGCA had said that the various incidents have been reviewed, and it was found that poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions resulted in degradation of safety margins.
Mumbai, July 23 : With the wide opening up of the aviation sector as millions troop out to fly for work or vacation after two years of Covid-19 curbs, airlines in India are experiencing a major boom not witnessed in the last 25 years.

Official data indicate that domestic passengers carried by Indian carriers shot up by 66.73 per cent - from 343.37 lakh to 572.49 lakh - in the first six months of 2022, marking a whopping monthly growth of 238 per cent.

The role played by Indian domestic carriers is phenomenal with major airlines like Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, FlyBig, Alliance Air and StarAir virtually raking in the moolah with impressive passenger load factors.

In the past six months, even the erstwhile flag carrier Air India has not lagged behind after it changed hands to return to its old cradle - the Tata Group - where it was born 90 years ago as Tata Air Services and then renamed as Tata Airline.

Post-Independence, it was acquired by the government, renamed 'Air India' (AI) and it flew the Indian flag globally with the iconic, mischievous but lovable 'Maharajah' mascot. The airline is still among the most trusted in the industry.

Whenever there was 'turbulence' in the aviation sector, stalwarts from Tata Group like its founding father J.R.D. Tata and later Russi Mody were named AI Chairpersons by the government.

After the high-profile 'sale' back to the Tatas in January 2022, the venerable N. Chandrasekaran was appointed Chairman, with a professional team to assist him and guide a staff strength of around 10,000.

"The entire focus of AI is to strengthen and enhance its functioning in every area of operations to become a world-class airline," said an AI official guardedly, on the airline's immediate and long-term plans.

The AI presently pilots a fleet of 113 aircraft comprising Boeing (777-200LR, 777-300ER and 787-800 Dreamliner) and Airbus (319, 320, 320Neo and 321) aircraft.

Currently, it operates up to 320 flights daily, including 210 domestic, serving 50 Indian and 36 international destinations.

Now, Tata boasts of a tiny bunch of airlines - Air India, Air India Express and the 8-year-old Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines - ranging from full-service to no-frills services compatible with all pockets.

As AI continues to soar the skies - it would have become an aviation history chapter if the Tatas had not taken it over - the challenge before the company is to make it extremely safe, punctual, professional and of course, profitable, in that order, according to aviation experts.

The knives are out for a bigger piece of the diminishing pie in the sky - with Akasa Air launching operations in early-August followed by the revival of the former aviation roughie, Jet Airways come September, which at one time controlled more than one-fifth of the total Indian market.

Recent months have witnessed a series of aircraft safety-related issues that have rattled the passengers and ruffled the different airlines, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation mercilessly cracking the whip and ordering the carriers to tighten their belts.

Experienced carriers like AI - the oldest in the pack - also have to contend with rising operating costs especially fuel, network expansion adding on lucrative international destinations, fleet improvement and augmentation to make it 'young, lean and mean', reasonable passenger fares amid recent suspicions of 'cartelisation' by the aviation players, improving the 'work culture' that was lacking in the state-owned AI.

Though AI has categorically declined to reveal its route expansion or fleet augmentation plans, aviation industry sources said it may be compelled to go in for it sooner rather than later, with new players entering the market with gleaming new aircraft to grab the big chunks of the flying business.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
New Delhi, July 23 : Indian carriers are going through a highly-turbulent phase on account of several glitches in the recent times. Between July 5 and July 21, there have been as many as nine incidents which raised scares in the air. IANS lists the incidents which have raised concerns among the fliers about the safety of air travel.

July 21: In an incident of technical malfunctioning, an Air India Dubai-Cochin flight was diverted to Mumbai where it landed safely after the captain reported pressurisation loss. The incident was reported in the Boeing 787 flight No. AI- 934. The DGCA intervened and the flight was grounded and the flight crew was off rostered.

July 20: A Go First flight heading from Delhi to Guwahati was diverted to Jaipur after the A320neo plane's windshield cracked mid-air. It was the third incident of technical glitch on a Go First aircraft in two days.

July 19: In two separate cases, Go First flights were diverted to Delhi and Srinagar due to technical glitches in the engines. Go First A320 aircraft VT-WGA flight No. G8-386 from Mumbai to Leh was diverted to Delhi, while its A320 aircraft VT-WJG flight No. G8-6202 from Srinagar to Delhi was turned back to Srinagar due to EGT over-limit in the engine. The first plane was diverted to Delhi due to an EIU (Engine Interface Unit) fault in engine No. 2.

July 17: An IndiGo flight from Sharjah to Hyderabad was diverted to Karachi after a technical snag was detected in the aircraft. The IndiGo flight No. 6E-1406, operating from Sharjah to Hyderabad, was diverted to Karachi after the pilot observed a technical defect. Necessary procedures were followed and as a precaution, the aircraft was diverted to Karachi.

July 16: An Air India Express aircraft from Calicut to Dubai was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was observed from one of the vents in the forward galley of the flight. A senior DGCA official confirmed that the Air India Express B737-800 aircraft VT-AXX operating flight IX-355 (Calicut-Dubai) was diverted to Muscat, as during the cruise, a burning smell came from one of the vents in the forward galley.

July 15: A bird was found in the cockpit of Air India Express' Bahrain-Kochi flight. The bird was found in the glove compartment on the co-pilot's side when the plane was at an altitude of 37,000 feet. The plane landed safely in Kochi. Officials said that prima facie, it looked like there was a ground handling lapse at a foreign station.

July 14: IndiGo's Delhi-Vadodara flight was diverted to Jaipur out of precaution as vibrations were observed in the engines of the aircraft.

July 5: A SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Dubai was diverted to Karachi after an indicator light of the airplane malfunctioned. The Boeing 737 Max aircraft that was heading from Delhi to Dubai started showing unusual fuel quantity reduction from its left tank when it was mid-air. Following this, the plane was diverted to Karachi.
New Delhi, July 23 : Air traffic in the Indian skies has returned to normalcy with airports buzzing with a large number of footfalls in the last couple of months.

Air traffic data has rightly shown that passengers carried by domestic airlines saw a growth of 66.73 per cent from 343.37 lakh to 572.49 lakh in the January to June period, as compared to the previous year.

However, growth in air traffic has apparently brought a lot of turbulence as planes have witnessed an unusually large number of technical glitches related occurrences and a rising number of such incidents have left the fliers harried.

Shockingly, technical glitches in flights are not limited to one or two airlines. Most of the Indian carriers, including the largest player IndiGo, SpiceJet, Go First or Air India Express, have been plagued by technical snags over the last one month.

Multiple incidents were reported to have occurred on aircraft operated by Indian carriers over the last few days owing to engine snags, burning smell, pressurisation loss in cabin to a bird entering the airplane cockpit.

A top DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) official said that improper identification of cause of a reported defect and non-availability of required certifying staff to cater to multiple arrivals and departure of flights in short intervals are the main reasons behind such snags.

Explaining about the procedure, the official said that before every flight takes off, a licenced aircraft maintenance engineer (AME) inspects the aircraft and releases it if everything is in order.

There are various categories of AME licences, and the Category A licence is given to technicians who are permitted to maintain the aircraft under certain limits. The Category B licence is more specialised and equip AMEs to deal with intricate components, such as engines, wings, etc.

"Spot checks disclosed that airlines were not adhering to the laid down standards and they were not posting the relevant qualified engineers at all the stations with the Category A licence holders releasing aircraft at some of the smaller airports," said the official.

The official said that shortage of required staff is one of the major reasons and airlines have been accordingly advised to take proper action and deploy the certified staff to conduct checks before departure.

Aviation safety experts also pointed towards the same. Aviation safety consultant, Captain Mohan Ranganathan, said, "The string of incidents occurred because airlines are fudging maintenance procedures due to lack of finance, shortage of trained manpower, and fatigue issues of staff not taken care of." Rangnathan also pointed out that failure of DGCA to enforce safety regulations, findings of their own safety and financial audits and covering up accidents and serious incidents as minor occurrences are some other reasons.

"One cannot let things ride thinking nothing has happened hence we are safe," he said.

Ranganathan said that all occurrences are mandatorily reported to the DGCA which are then analysed and the severity of the occurrence is determined.

"Based on the severity, these occurrences are classified and investigated and safety recommendations emanating from the investigation reports are acted upon by the concerned stakeholders," the official said, adding that proper action have been taken in such cases and scores of flights have been grounded after the incidents.

Officials said that the safety audit of all the airlines is regularly undertaken by the DGCA. The audit findings are communicated to the operators for resolution.

The deficiencies brought out by the audits have been addressed by the concerned stakeholders and strict enforcement action has been taken by DGCA for serious violations, particularly where passenger safety was involved.

"In case of any violations/non-compliance to regulations detected during audit/surveillance, enforcement action, including financial penalty, is imposed by the DGCA," added the official.

Meanwhile, the major airlines asserted that they are complying with all the procedures and there is hardly any shortage of trained staff.

An IndiGo spokesperson said that the aviation industry has undergone a difficult phase over the last 24+ months, now this industry is witnessing a comeback.

At least two IndiGo planes were diverted due to technical glitches during the last few days.

The airline's spokesperson said: "IndiGo follows the highest standards of aircraft maintenance and adheres to all regulatory norms. We have a fleet of over 280 aircraft with high operational availability, making it one of the safest airlines in the world. We are committed to providing an on-time, affordable, safe, courteous and hassle-free service to all our customers." SpiceJet, which witnessed multiple incidents related to technical snags during the end of June and the first week of July, also shared similar views, saying that most of these recent incidents were isolated in nature, which do not indicate a specific maintenance issue within the fleet.

"We are committed to ensuring a safe flight for our passengers and crew. All our aircraft were audited a month ago by the regulator and were found to be safe. Preventive actions are formulated, implemented and audited frequently to ensure no recurrence of a similar nature occurs in the future," said a SpiceJet spokesperson.

Similarly, Go First airline, which recorded three incidents involving technical glitches in planes in the last few days, said "Go First is adequately staffed with experienced employees at all service departments including pilots, engineers, inflight crew, airport services and all other operational functions." "It accords highest priority to the safety of passengers and as per the standard procedures, all necessary preventive maintenance checks are carried out at periodic intervals. The aircraft inspection and maintenance practices are in line with the DGCA and all international and national aviation norms," added the spokesperson.
New Delhi, July 23 : India got its first tribal president with the election of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu to the position on July 21. The tribal woman leader from Odisha defeated her rival and opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha by a margin of 947 votes, bagging 64.03 per cent of the Electoral College votes.

Congratulating former BJP member Murmu on being elected to the top constitutional post, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described her victory as "a ray of hope" for the "poor, marginalised and the downtrodden".

Murmu's candidature and her subsequent victory in the presidential election is being seen by many as an attempt on the part of the BJP to woo the tribal voters across the country ahead of upcoming Assembly polls in several states and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of IANS to know people's views about Murmu's victory in presidential elections and its political impact on various elections in the country.

According to the survey data, the majority of Indians believe that the victory of Murmu in the presidential poll will benefit the BJP in the upcoming assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. During the survey, 68 per cent respondents opined that Droupadi Murmu's occupying of the top constitutional post will prove beneficial for the BJP electorally. However, 32 per cent of respondents did not share the sentiment.

During the survey, while a whopping majority of NDA voters - 82 per cent stressed that Droupadi Murmu's win in presidential polls will bring political dividends for the ruling BJP, views of the opposition supporters were divided on the issue.

As per the survey data, even a bigger proportion of opposition voters - 57 per cent believe that the results of presidential polls will help the BJP in various elections, including 2024 general elections. However, 43 per cent of them disagreed with the sentiment.

As for the views of different social groups on the issue, while the majority of respondents from different communities asserted that victory of Murmu in the presidential poll will help BJP politically, Muslims were divided on the issue. During the survey, 72 per cent of Scheduled Castes (SC), 63 per cent Scheduled Tribes (ST), 71 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 72 per cent Upper Caste Hindus (UCH) opined that the results of presidential election indicate that the BJP's strategy to field a tribal woman as NDA candidate will help the party in electoral battles.

As per survey data, while 49 per cent Muslims share this sentiment, 51 per cent of the respondents from the community disagree.
Ahmedabad, July 23 : State Congress' working president Kadir Pirzada's one statement has put him on the backfoot. On Saturday Pirzada apologized to the Patidars for commenting on Leuva Patidar leader Naresh Patel in the Congress minority cell meeting on Thursday evening.

Pirzada had said in the meeting, "You (Congress and leaders) are running behind Hardik Patel and Naresh Patel for 11 percent votes, you have forgotten that in the past with minority votes Congress was forming the government, you should try to form the government and win 120 seats with minorities support, connect with us. If you don't give us representation in the party what will be the future of the party." Pirzada's dislike of the Congress running behind Patidar votes has not gone down well, especially with the Patidar community. Angry Congress MLA Lalit Vasoya wrote a letter to the party state chief Jagdish Thakor, "Party's working president has made a statement against Patidars, the statement has hurt the sentiments of the Patidar community and we are angry with it. Party's responsible office bearers statement is proving counter productive, it is better party passes instructions to party leaders to avoid such statements." Another Patidar leader Dinesh Bambhaniya had threatened to boycott and oppose the Congress leaders in public if the working president did not apologize for the statement against Patidars and Patidar leaders.
Kolkata, July 23 : A lower court here on Saturday remanded West Bengal Commerce and Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee to two-day interim custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The court also directed ED to present Chatterjee at a special PMLA court at the end of his remand period.

On Saturday morning, ED sleuths arrested Chatterjee, who's also the Secretary General of Trinamool Congress, in connection with the recruitment irregularities in West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) when he was the state Education Minister.

Chatterjee's counsels moved a bail petition in the court and claimed that since the investigating agency did not have any concrete evidence to prove Chatterjee's direct involvement in the scam, his bail petition be accepted.

However, the ED counsel strongly objected the bail plea and claimed that since Chatterjee as state minister can influence the witnesses, his application should be rejected.

The ED counsel also argued that since there is concrete evidence of huge financial involvement behind illegal granting of jobs in WBSSC, there are enough reasons to book Chatterjee under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

After hearing both sides, the lower court rejected the bail application and remanded Chatterjee to two-day ED custody.

ED officials said that on Monday, they will present Chatterjee at the special PMLA court and seek extension of his custody.

The lower court on Saturday also rejected a plea filed by Chatterjee's counsels for his admission to hospital considering his health condition.

Chatterjee's counsels said that they will move the bail application again on Monday at the special PMLA court.

"But right now, our main concern is the health condition of Chatterjee. He is totally shattered and feeling uneasy after long hours of interrogation before his arrest on Saturday morning. So, we are appealing to all concerned, including ED officials, so that proper attention is given to him," Chatterjee's counsels told mediapersons.

It is learnt that Chatterjee will be lodged at ED's office in the CGO complex in Salt Lake.
Mumbai, July 23 : Creating a major flutter in Maharashtra politics, state Bharatiya Janata Party president Chandrakant Patil said that it was "with a heavy heart" that his party decided to make rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister last month instead of Devendra Fadnavis.

His comments came at the BJP state executive meeting in Panvel town of Raigad district on Saturday, sparking a furore in political circles.

"We have made Shinde the CM, instead of Fadnavis (now the Deputy CM), with a heavy heart... We had to give a stable government and to convey a message. We have digest that agony and now move ahead with joy," said Patil.

The Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, with support from the BJP, toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray last month.

Patil also lauded Fadnavis' role as the ex-Leader of Opposition and how he constantly exposed the "misdoings" of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress alliance for the past two and half years.

Attacking Patil, Shiv Sena spokesperson Kishore Tiwari said that the BJP has finally opened up about its dislike for Shinde and how they were compelled to support him owing to political compulsions.

"Shinde is clearly put on notice period. The BJP will tie a mill-stone around Shinde's neck at the first opportunity, take away his rebel legislators and dump him unceremoniously. Then, the Shinde and rebels will view the true face of BJP," he said.

NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said Patil has blurted out the truth since he has realised that "this government of Shinde-Fadnavis" is illegal and unconstitutional.

"The future of this regime hinges on the Supreme Court verdict... It may fall later, that's why BJP says it had to put a stone on its heart and make Shinde the CM," said Tapase.

Targeting Patil, Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said that its "the people of the state who are tolerating this illicit government with a heavy heart" and indicates that Shinde could face a bleak future.

"After the SC judgement, it's quite possible that the masses will throw stones at this government, which is completely paralysed, with no cabinet expansion for 24 days and no relief in the rain havoc which has killed over 100 people so far," he said sharply.

In his address, Fadnavis slammed the MVA government and accused it of an "undeclared Emergency" in the state with all development activities coming to a standstill during its tenure.

He alleged that the MVA only indulged in politics of vendetta against the opponents, and claimed that the government change was inevitable to help put the state back on the course of progress and development.
Chandigarh, July 23 : Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday made a surprise visit to check the progress of Aam Aadmi Clinic coming up in Mohali near here.

During the inspection, Mann, accompanied by Cabinet Minister Brahm Shankar and senior officers of state government, examined the ongoing work in the clinic.

Expressing satisfaction over the ongoing work, Mann asked the officers to ensure that the work is completed within the stipulated time frame.

Later on interacting with the media, the Chief Minister said in the first phase, 75 such Aam Aadmi clinics will be dedicated to people on the 75th Independence Day to provide the best healthcare services free of cost to the people across the state.

He said every Aam Aadmi clinic will have a staff of four-five persons, including a MBBS doctor, to diagnose and treat the patients.

Mann said that 41 packages with around 100 clinical tests will be offered to the people free of cost in these Aam Aadmi Clinics, adding that his government will fulfil one of the major poll promises with setting up of these clinics both in urban and rural areas.

He envisioned that these clinics will be a cornerstone in revamping the healthcare system in Punjab. Mann expressed hope that 90 per cent of patients will get treated from these clinics only thereby reducing the burden in hospitals.
Hyderabad, July 23 : With the met department's forecast of heavy rains over next 2-3 days in Telangana, the state government on Saturday alerted all the districts, especially those along Godavari river.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao warned the officials that the state may face more intense floods than the one witnessed last week.

In view of the heavy rains and floods in several districts of the state since Friday, he reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting with ministers and officials.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, noted that Godavari river is in spate from its originating point in Trimbakeshwar in Maharashtra to the point where it drains in the Bay of Bengal.

The overflowing rivulets, streams, lakes and tanks are also emptying into the river. Stating that this is a testing time for the state and people should be saved, he directed officials of all the departments not to leave their headquarters.

He asked the ministers, MLAs and other public representatives in areas along the course of Godavari river to remain alert. KCR asked them to coordinate with officials to make arrangements for shifting people from flood-affected and low-lying areas to safe places.

The Chief Minister enquired about the situation in Hyderabad from officials of the Municipal Administration Department, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Hyderabad Metro Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB).

Irrigation Department officials, through a powerpoint presentation, briefed the Chief Minister on the flood situation at projects across Godavari.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar held a teleconference with senior officials and district Collectors and apprised them about the heavy to very heavy rainfall threat across the state and need to be vigilant. He asked them to focus on ensuring that there is no loss of human life.

The Chief Secretary stated that since there is a heavy to very heavy rainfall alert over the next couple of days, the Collectors should ensure that all the officials in the district are available in the headquarters and no leave should be granted. He asked to identify low-lying areas and keep relief camps ready.

The Collectors were directed to set up control rooms in the Collectorate. The IMD has forecast heavy rainfall and the impact will be seen from Sunday afternoon. There may be breaches to irrigation tanks.A roads, causeways may also likely be submerged. As the tanks, ponds and reservoirs are in spate, officials should be on high alert and see that sand bags are kept ready if breaches to vulnerable tanks take place, he said.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 23 : Kerala's much-delayed flagship project, the Vizhinjam Port finally appears to be nearing completion as state Ports Minister Ahamed Devarkovil on Saturday said the first ship will berth in March 2023.

"While the first ship will berth in March 2023, the first phase of the port will be commissioned in September 2023," he said.

The port is built by Adani Ports and at the time of commencement of work on the port on December 5, 2015, group chief Gautam Adani had announced then that the first ship will berth there on September 1, 2018, in a record time of less than 1,000 days.

The port project was inked when the Congress-led UDF government under Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was in power.

The project got stalled in 2017 after Cyclone Ockhi hit the construction site and a portion of the constructed breakwater was washed away and since then the shortage of limestone, the most important raw material for the project caused yet another delay.

The total cost of the port project is Rs 7,525 crore and the state government has contributed 500 acres of land.

According to the plan, once completed, this would be one of India's deepest ports and 80 per cent of the country's cargo trans-shipments will go through here.

Adani Ports, which was the lone bidder for the project, had sought a Rs 1,635 crore grant for the construction purposes.

According to the agreement, Adani will operate the port for 40 years, extendable by 20 more years, while the state government will get a portion of the revenue from the port after 15 years.
New Delhi, July 23 : A major prostitution racket in the national capital, being run by a gang of human traffickers, has been busted by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch, and 10 foreign women rescued from their clutches, police said on Saturday.

The police have alse arrested five people involved in the racket and they were identified as Mohd Arup (31), Chande Sahini alias Raju (30), Ali Sher Tilladaev (48), and Turkmen nationals Aziza Jumayeva and Meredob Ahmed.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Vichitra Veer Singh said the accused people used to lure foreign women to work as sex workers and brought them from various regions of Uzbekistan to India and got them involved in prostitution.

"On the receipt of secret information, a police constable was sent as decoy customer and another personnel was deputed as shadow witness and contact was made with agents by hiding the actual identity," he said.

He said that on finalisation of deal on an agreed sum, the decoy customer was sent on an address in Malviya Nagar where agents, Arup and Sahni, produced 10 foreign woman to choose from for paid sex.

Subsequently, the police conducted a raid and both the agents were nabbed from the spot.

"All the foreigners were asked to produce their valid visa and passport for stay in India, but they failed to produce any," the official said.

On sustained interrogation, it was revealed that Jumayeva and her husband Meredob Ahmed were kingpins of this racket. Another accused namely Ali Sher used to lure foreign woman on the pretext of providing good jobs in India and once they got here, he handed them over to the couple.

According to the official, the said premises was taken on rent by an agent of Jumayeva and is still at large.The official said that a separate case has been registered in the Crime Branch police station for violation of Foreigners Act.
New Delhi, July 23 : Union Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday dismissed the allegations that her 18-year-old daughter was running an 'illegal bar' in Goa. She reiterated that her daughter is a college student and does not run any bar. The minister added that she will take the matter to the court and the people.

Hitting back at the Congress, she said that her daughter's only fault is that her mother keeps on holding press conferences 'on the loot of Rs 5,000 crore' by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. "My daughter's fault is that her mother holds press conferences on the loot of Rs 5,000 crore by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Her fault is that her mother contested against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in 2014 and 2019," Irani said.

Addressing a press conference, she said that she will defeat Rahul Gandhi again in 2024 from Amethi. She challenged Sonia Gandhi to field Rahul again in 2024 from Amethi.

Posing a question to Pawan Khera, Smriti Irani said that while showing the paper, he alleged that her daughter runs an illegal bar and for this she was also given a show cause notice, but Khera should say where is the name of her daughter in these papers.

"Jairam Ramesh has accused my daughter on the basis of RTI but he should tell whether my daughter's name is there in that RTI application? Is her name in that RTI reply," Irani questioned.
New Delhi, July 23 : A Delhi court on Saturday dismissed the interim bail plea of activist Sharjeel Imam, who is in judicial custody under sedition charges, among others, for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches at the Aligarh Muslim University and the Jamia Milia Islamia during the anti-CAA protests in 2019-20.

Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the plea of Imam, who had approached the Karkardooma court on May 27 following Delhi High Court's direction to approach the lower court first for bail.

His counsel had withdrawn the interim bail application from the Delhi High Court after the prosecution had raised the issue of maintainability.

Imam had approached the high court first for relief following the historic Supreme Court verdict that put on hold the colonial-era penal provision of sedition (Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code).

In the fresh bail application, Imam said that since the top court has put sedition in abeyance, his case has improved for the grant of bail.

"The appellant has been incarcerated for nearly 28 months since January 28, 2020 whereas the maximum punishment for the offences -- not including 124-A IPC -- are punishable for up to a maximum of seven years imprisonment," the plea read.

JNU scholars and activists Imam and Umar Khalid are among the nearly dozen people reportedly involved in the alleged larger conspiracy linked to the Delhi riots of 2020, as per the Delhi Police.

Imam and Khalid are facing charges in connection with making inflammatory speeches which allegedly fuelled the violence, as per the police.

The riots broke out in the national capital in February 2020 as clashes between the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and pro-CAA protesters took a violent turn.

The mayhem saw more than 50 people lose their lives besides leaving over 700 persons injured.
New Delhi, July 23 : Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said on Saturday that the media needs to introspect its role if wrong perceptions are being created.

Thakur was speaking at a function on the occasion of National Broadcasting Day, which is celebrated every year on July 23 to mark the first-ever radio broadcast in India that went on air from the Bombay Station under the Indian Broadcasting Company in 1927.

Sounding a cautious note to the media, Thakur said, "If somewhere a wrong perception is getting created about private media with utterances of 'media trails', we need to introspect about our functioning." Thakur also said that while some people had surmised that radio will face an existential crisis with the advent of television and subsequently internet, the medium has not only identified its audience, but also maintained its relevance and credibility.

"When people want to listen to unbiased news, they naturally tune into All India Radio and Doordarshan news. Ninety-two per cent of the country's geography is covered by the All India Radio, which is a commendable achievement," he said.

Speaking on the importance of radio as a platform, the minister said that many Prime Ministers have come but none saw the value of radio as Narendra Modi who made it a platform of choice for his monthly 'Mann Ki Baat' programme to connect directly with the people of the country.

Crediting the role of the two entities -- AIR and Doordarshan -- in delivering the essence of 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', Thakur said, "When the education system since Independence did not mention the role of many regional freedom fighters, AIR and Doordarshan curated information about over 500 unsung heroes from the remotest corners of the country and presented them to the nation, celebrating their contribution to India's freedom struggle." Thakur also released promos of new serials on Doordarshan-- 'Corporate Sarpanch: Beti Desh Ki, Jai Bharati', 'Suron ka Eklavya' and 'Ye Dil Mange More' as well as the promo of 'Startup Champions 2.0'.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, L. Murugan, conveyed his best wishes to the audience on the occasion of National Broadcasting Day. Murugan highlighted the important role played by radio during the freedom struggle when many freedom fighters employed it as a tool for communication against the imperial British government.
Lucknow, July 23 : Signalling his exasperation, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday told his estranged uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) supremo Shivpal Singh Yadav and ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) President Om Prakash Rajbhar that "they are free to go anywhere".

In the letter issued by the SP to Shivpal Yadav, who is an SP MLA from family borough Jaswantnagar in Etawah, it is mentioned that he is "free to join any party" where he "gets more respect".

The letter shot off to Om Prakash Rajbhar, states that: "Samajwadi Party is constantly fighting with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Since you have an alliance with the BJP and are constantly working to strengthen them, you are free to go if you feel you will get more respect there." A copy of the letters issued from the SP's central office has been sent to the party's National General Secretary, Professor Ram Gopal Yadav, as well.

Meanwhile, the political experts are awaiting Shivpal Singh Yadav and Rajbhar's next step.

However, after receiving the letter, Rajbhar said: "I kept giving suggestions to him (Akhilesh Yadav but he always misunderstood me. We need a leader who talks in unison.." "It is disagreeable for me to meet Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath but is okay for him or his father, Mulayam Singh, to do so. I get what I want. No one can point a finger at my loyalty. But if someone thinks that I should do what he asks me to, then he or she is wrong. I am no one's slave." Questioning Akhilesh Yadav's credentials, Rajbhar said: "I pray to god that he never has to step out of his air conditioned home. Fighting for the underpriviledged is not their (SP's) cup of tea. I asked them to politically accomodate Dalits and the backward classes but they never took my advice seriously. I even suggested many names for Azamgarh (LS seat bypolls) but they wanted only Yadav and Muslim candidates."
Kolkata, July 23 : There were indications since Saturday morning that the Trinamool Congress leadership will distance itself from state Commerce and Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee over the latter's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the multi-crore financial scam relating to the recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

And on Saturday evening, the party's stand became official after Trinamool leaders at a press conference announced that the onus of the developments lies with Chatterjee only, and not on the party.

The party leaders also made it clear that if he is found guilty of involvement in the scam, Trinamool will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against Chatterjee, who is presently the party's Secretary General.

The press conference was preceded by an emergency meeting convened by Trinamool's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee to decide on the party's stand on the latest developments involving Chatterjee.

State Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattachrya, Transport Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, Power Minister Arup Biswas and party spokesman Kunal Ghosh were present at the press meet.

"Some cash has been recovered from the residence of a lady, who has no connection with Trinamool Congress. We condemn attempts by the opposition parties to link Trinamool Congress with this issue. Partha Chatterjee has been arrested by the ED in this connection.

"All I can say is that the Trinamool leadership has full faith in the judicial system. If Partha Chatterjee is proved guilty at the end of the investigation, Trinamool will not hesitate to take disciplinary actions against him," said Kunal Ghosh.

The next to take questions from the media was Firhad Hakim, but there was no effort on his part as well to defend Chatterjee or claim that his arrest was a result of political vendetta.

Instead, Hakim said that probably Chatterjee had to meet this fate because he stayed back in Trinamool Congress instead of joining the BJP.

"Had he joined the BJP, he could have come out cleansed from the washing machine," he said.

However, the opposition BJP said that Trinamool's attempt to distance itself from Chatterjee is meant to shield Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and his nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

"What has been revealed is just the tip of the iceberg. Now it is the turn for others to be booked," said BJP's national Vice President and MP Dilip Ghosh.
New Delhi, July 23 : Opposition's Vice Presidential candidate Margaret Alva on Saturday met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to seek his AAP's support.

A total of 17 Opposition parties had, last week, decided to field Alva, a former Union Minister and Rajasthan and Uttarakhand Governor, as their VP candidate, against NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar.

However, the leaders of the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were not present in the meeting.

In the recent presidential election, the Aam Admi Party had backed the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

The Political Affairs Committee of the AAP is expected to decide soon the party's stand on the Vice President's election.
New Delhi, July 23 : The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested two absconding members of an interstate gang of Mewat-based extortionists, an official said on Saturday. The accused, identified as Arshad Khan, 30, and Mushtaq Khan, 39, had been absconding for the past nine months in a case of extortion in Delhi and were also carrying a reward of Rs 20,000 each on their arrest.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Jasmeet Singh said there was credible information about the illegal activities by the members of this Mewat-based gang in south Delhi following which a team was deputed to mount surveillance on their movements. "We received specific information on July 21 about the coming of Arshad Khan, one of the members of the syndicate in Flower Market Chattarpur between 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. to meet one of his contacts," DCP Singh said. Subsequently, a trap was laid and the accused Arshad Khan was apprehended on the same day.

During interrogation, Arshad Khan disclosed that Mushtaq Khan, his associate, was hiding in an abandoned house in their village. "A team was then immediately sent to his village in Dausa district (Rajasthan) and Mushtaq Khan was arrested from a house on the intervening night of July 22-23," the DCP said.

Both the accused disclosed that they were members of an interstate syndicate consisting of Mewat-based associates which is led by Saddam Hussain. "They further disclosed that they along with 4-5 of his other associates had demanded an extortion from one advocate in Delhi after luring and trapping him in their dragnet by subsequently making his indecent online video to blackmail and threaten him," the senior official said.

The modus operandi of the gang members was to lure the gullible persons in Delhi NCR by sending friend requests to them through Facebook and other social media platforms and start chatting with them by posing as female. Thereafter, members of the gang used to make incriminating online vulgar videos of these gullible persons by luring them to indulge in indecent acts online by prompting them.

"They further used to demand extortion from their victims by threatening them to make these videos viral or send the same to their family members, relatives and friends if they failed to pay the extortion amount," he said.
Kanniyakumari : , July 23 (IANS) Seven months after India embarked on a path of ambitious renewable energy (RE) targets, questions about how equipped the power infrastructure is for the transition are hanging fire, especially in case of wind power.

As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Glasgow COP in November last year, India has set an ambitious target of 500 GW of renewable energy by 2040 and 50 per cent of its requirement through renewable energy by 2030. As a step towards that, by the end of 2022, India has to achieve 175 GW of RE, of which 100 GW is to come from solar and 60 from wind power.

Media reports on Saturday said that states would now need to meet a quarter of their energy demands from RE sources under the new Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) and increase it to 43 per cent by 2030. In simple terms, this means that there is going to be an increasing share of RE among India's total energy mix.

The moot question, therefore, is whether India's power sector infrastructure is ready to adapt to this increasing share? Are the nuts and bolts in place for ensuring a smooth integration? According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India's RE installed capacity increased 286 per cent in the last 7.5 years but it had a share of just 26.53 per cent in the total generation capacity.

One of the major reasons is lack of proper integration, not just in view of the upcoming, new installations but also for reviving the existing older infra, especially that of wind power. Majority of India's renewable capacity additions come from solar and wind.

As against solar that is getting a large push currently, India has had wind power for over three decades now, that too majority by players. Therefore, the integration problems go hand in hand when it comes to new installations and repowering the old one. Especially, the old ones, so for, in the case of Tamil Nadu.

A visit to multiple windmill parks in Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts, including Ramco's at Muppandal with 235 machine units and Suzlon's at Radhapuram with 519 machine units, and various villages that have standalone windmill units as part of a media workshop on Renewable Energy by Earth Journalism Network brought forth the problems faced by the wind power companies, problems that can hamper India's leap into RE dependent future to bring down emissions as part of its action plan to combat climate change.

When the first windmill parks came about in the 80s and 90s, the turbines were of 250 KV or 800 KV and the tower on which those were installed were 30 metres or 50 metres tall and were erected in a grid pattern. The land required was calculated using the 5D X 7D formula, i.e. the distance between two units in a row and column depended on the height of the tower and length of the turbine blade.

By the turn of the century and then year by year towards 2022, the turbines' availability increased to 1 MW, 2.5 MW, 3 MW, and 4 MW too. The tower height now can be 100 metres or 120 metres. For the wind power companies to migrate to higher technology, it is not just a question of money to replace turbines or increase the height of the tower, but a whole gamut of infrastructure overhauling is required.

"It starts with land required per unit. Farmers are willing to sell but demand much higher prices than existing. The larger the turbine, the larger the area per unit needed. Cost of replacing the existing units into newer, better efficient units includes the cost of civil work for the tower's foundation, cost for increasing the tower height and replacing the turbine. Then, the transformer and transmission lines need to be upgraded to have the carrying capacity of higher power generation for power evacuation. Every single step in the process is costly and involves multiple authorities and stakeholders," an official from one of the private companies told IANS during the field visit.

"The state government comes into picture where the power evacuation infrastructure needs an upgrade. It needs to be upgraded in sync with our end of upgrade. Else, it is a waste of time and resources," said another official from another private company.

It is not that the Centre is not aware of the problems. In 2016 it came out with a repowering policy. "But it had a lot of issues. The micro-siting norms kept changing. The land availability is another major problem. The policy was such that bigger private companies can manage but not feasible for smaller units," said Ajay Devraj, general secretary of Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA), a representative body from the wind power sector that has 1,400 members all over India, including 900 in Tamil Nadu alone. Its members generate as much as 26,000 MW of wind power, which is almost 62 per cent of the total.

"Government intervention is imminent to work out the land consolidation issues," Devraj said.

Another problem is the power purchase agreements (PPAs) that these power companies have with the electricity boards (transmission companies) of respective states. States such as Gujarat and Maharashtra, which too have had wind power for over three decades now, have had shorter duration of PPAs. The companies there got higher incentives every time the PPAs were renewed. Unfortunately in Tamil Nadu, the PPAs signed in early 1990s were ended. That means, the companies are working at older rates. There are large pending dues from the state too.

"Selling to the electricity board must be the last option. There is a policy proposed that the private companies should sell only to the state, which would mean a much lower price compared to what companies would get if we sold directly to private industry as captive power. All that they would need to pay would be the wheeling charges," said the first private company official.

However, there was no response from Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) to queries sent on phone, calls and even text messages by IANS. A senior official from MNRE, who is not authorised to speak with the media said: "The government is still fine tuning a lot of things, nothing is final as such." Industry experts also point out that the cost of replacing the older wind power unit with a new one comes close to Rs 1 crore per MW, an amount equivalent to get a new one. So the private power companies will not upgrade unless there are any incentives.

Francis Jayakumar, India director at the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), a non-profit trade association and an authoritative voice for the global wind energy industry, suggested that the Tamil Nadu government should come up with a clear policy about PPAs with existing private companies that have open ended arrangement from three decades ago.

"However, funds for upgrading infrastructure to evacuate additional power after repowering can be provided jointly by the Centre and the state. In fact, the Centre and the states should come up with clear policy as not all states have a policy for repowering. The MNRE should come out with such a policy and the CERC/SERC should implement those as regulatory frameworks." Sooner than later, the Centre will need to act on this. Unlike the solar power that is available over large parts of India, wind power is highly site specific and hence, available at limited places. The existing class I and class II sites (categorised thus depending on the efficiency in wind power generation at a given infrastructure level) have seen a saturation.

That leaves very little options for the government. More so, if it has plans to go big time on increasing RE share, including that of wind, as part of the clean energy transition.
Kolkata, July 23 : The role of another woman, reportedly a close aide of arrested Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, has come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the multi-crore financial scam relating to the recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

Earlier on Saturday, the ED had arrested Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee, the current state Commerce and Industries Minister. Her arrest from her residence in South Kolkata was officially announced by the ED at 5.14 p.m. on Saturday, about seven hours after the probe agency nabbed Chatterjee.

The name of the second woman under the ED's radar is Monalisa Das, the head of the department of Bengali at state-run Kazi Nazrul University in Asansol in Burdwan district.

ED sources said that the name of Das came up from the statements made in the face of interrogation by Mukherjee.

It is learnt that in 2014, when Chatterjee was the state Education Minister, Das was appointed directly as the head of the department of Bengali.

Her appointment had created ripples at that point of time, since as the head of the department, Das was directly promoted to the rank of associate professor from her position as assistant professor. Many people had then alleged that Das' close association with Chatterjee helped her get the prized posting.

ED sources said that the agency has come across at least 10 flats which are registered in the name of Das and most of these flats are located in Bolpur-Santiniketan in Birbhum district.

"The total value of these flats is highly disproportionate to the declared income of Das," an ED official said.

However, Das has so far claimed total ignorance in the entire matter.

"I as a teacher knew Partha Chatterjee, who was then the Education Minister. So in a sense he was my guardian," she said.
New Delhi, July 23 : Two persons were on Saturday arrested for murdering a woman in east Delhi's Seelampur area the day before, police said.

The accused were identified as Abid Hussain, 55 and his friend Zahid, 25.

A senior police official said that the two were arrested on the basis of human intelligence and scanning of CCTV footage.

"During interrogation, the accused persons confessed their involvement in the crime and disclosed the motive as loot as they had information that the deceased was in possession of huge cash and jewellery," the police official said.

The official said that on the instance of accused persons, cash amounting to Rs 4 lakh and jewellery worth lakhs have been recovered and efforts are on to recover the rest. The hammer used in the other and other articles like the bags used to carry looted articles have also been recovered.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Piyush Goel during the letters farewell function for outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind at Parliament House in New Delhi on Saturday July 23,2022.(Photo: Qamar Sibtain/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, July 23 : Outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday urged political parties must rise above a partisan approach and work with the spirit of "nation first".

At his farewell function in the Central Hall of Parliament, he said that he remains eternally grateful to the people of India and for giving him an opportunity to serve the country as President.

"What the Almighty had wanted me to accomplish could not have been accomplished without the support from all the elected representatives. During my term, I had frequently interacted with them on various platforms and had also met numerous delegations of parliamentarians and of people from other domains," he said.

He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of his Council of Ministers, VicePresident M. Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for their support during his tenure.

Citing Article 79 of the Constitution, which provides for a Parliament consisting of the President and the two houses, he said: "In keeping with this constitutional provision, I look at the President as an integral part of the Parliamentary family. As with any family, there are bound to be differences within this Parliamentary family too; there would be diverging views about how to proceed further.

"But we remain a family, and the interest of the nation remains our top priority. Political processes operate through the mechanism of party organisations, but the parties must rise above a partisan approach and consider what is good, what is essential for the common man and woman, with the spirit of 'nation first'." The President said that when we consider the whole nation as a family, we also understand that differences are bound to crop up once in a while and such differences can be resolved peacefully and harmoniously through dialogue.

"Citizens and political parties have many constitutional avenues open to them, including protests. After all, the Father of our Nation employed the weapon of Satyagraha for that purpose. But he was equally concerned about the other side. Citizens have a right to protest to press for their demands, but it should always be in the peaceful Gandhian mould," he said.

The President said that looking back on his career in public service, and the efforts of the governments, they must accept that, although much has been achieved yet so much more remains to be done to raise the living standards of the marginalised.

"As the basic necessities are taken care of, aspirations are changing too. The dreams of average Indians have got wings now. This has been made possible by good governance, which by definition is without any kind of discrimination. This all-round progress is in tune with what Babasaheb Ambedkar had visualised," he added.
London, July 23 : The owner of the UK's biggest steelworks, Tata Group, has warned its sites could be shut without subsidies for reducing carbon emissions, reports claim, according to BBC.

Tata Group wants to reach a deal for the UK government to provide 1.5 bn pound towards this, the Financial Times said.

The UK's biggest steelworks, in Port Talbot, employs 4,000 people.

The UK government said steel "plays a critical role" in the UK's economy and Tata is "a valued steel producer and significant employer".

It comes as Tata's former head of strategy, Nirmalya Kumar, told BBC Wales that the Port Talbot plant had not been profitable for 15 years and his answer would be to "close it down".

Speaking to the Financial Times, Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said: "A transition to a greener steel plant is the intention that we have... But this is only possible with financial help from the government.

"We have been in discussions over the last two years and we should come to an agreement within 12 months. Without this, we will have to look at closures of sites." The report says Tata Group wants to close two blast furnaces at Port Talbot and build two electric arc furnaces, that will be less carbon intensive.

However, the Financial Times added that this process will cost about 3 billion pound, with Tata seeking 1.5 billion pound from the UK government.

Kumar said when he left Tata in 2016, the losses had "skyrocketed to 1 million pound a day".

"It's not a problem that has happened in the last year, it has been a problem for the last 15 years," he said, BBC reported.

The current professor of marketing at Singapore Management University said he believed the site needed government support for a profitable future.

"As a dispassionate business person the answer is to close it down," he explained.
Itanagar, July 23 : After 18 days, eight of the 19 Assam workers, who went missing near the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh's Kurung Kumey district, were rescued from a jungle, officials said on Saturday night.

Kurung Kumey Deputy Commissioner Bengia Nighee said that all the eight rescued workers were critical and their health condition is being monitored by a medical team after they were rescued from the dense forest on Friday night.

The IAF chopper, which was requisitioned by the administration, came but could not search properly due to bad weather at Damin circle in spite of best efforts by its pilots.

"Remaining 11 people still missing and as per the preliminary statements of eight rescued workers, four of them were dead, and two had fallen in the river. Our rescue team didn't recover or see the dead bodies. This death story was told by the rescued workers," the DC said.

The state government requested the IAF to evacuate the rescued workers to Naharlagun near Itanagar where they would be admitted to a hospital. The IAF chopper, which carried out a search operation for the remaining 11 workers on Saturday, was likely to be used in the evacuation.

"Their statements would be recorded once the workers recover. They were found tired and frail. We gave them food, water, and medicines," Nighee said.

The DC, who was supervising the rescue operations himself, said after fleeing their project site camp at Huri on July 5 night, the 19 workers had entered a dense forest infested with poisonous snakes and wild animals. Subsequently, the workers split themselves into two groups of eight and 11, and the other group of 11 had moved in a different direction.

He said that a 25-member team of the State Disaster Response Force accompanied by the police and local volunteers have been conducting search operations for the remaining missing people in Damin circle.

The 19 workers, mostly Muslims and residents of Assam, had been engaged by a contractor to work for a road construction undertaken by the Border Road Organisation (BRO).

Villagers reportedly informed the police that the workers left their work site after the contractor refused to grant leave for some days to celebrate Eid. The workers had taken a shortcut jungle route to return to their homes in Kokrajhar and Dhubri of Assam.
New Delhi, July 23 : A 30-year-old Delhi resident, who was influenced by gangster Neeraj Bawania, was arrested for carrying an illegal firearm, an official said on Saturday.

The accused, identified as Narender, always carried a firearm to keep his hold in the area by terrorising local residents.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Outer, Sameer Sharma said a constable, patrolling his beat in the early hours of July 21, noted some suspicious activity of a person near Amrit Akhada, Sultanpuri.

"When the suspected person noticed the beat staff on the same road, he suddenly stopped and tried to run away but the constable nabbed him after a brief chase," the DCP said.

During frisking, one country made pistol along with five live cartridges of .315 bore and one knife were recovered from his possession.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that he belongs to a poor family and after the death of his mother three years ago, he started to keep illegal arms with him to terrify the public and to maintain his hold in the area as he wanted to follow the footsteps of Bawania.

The source of arms and ammunition is being traced, the DCP added.
New Delhi, July 24 : Hitting out at West Bengal Chief Minister, BJP leader and union minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday said that Mamata Banerjee is breaking all records of corruption and the TMC stands for "The Mountain of Corruption".

Thakur was referring to the arrest of West Bengal Commerce and Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee by ED in connection with the recruitment irregularities in West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) when he was the state Education Minister.

"Under Mamata Banerjee's rule, chit fund scam and coal scam took place. Now teachers scam has happened, if Rs 21 crore is found at her colleague's house, then imagine how big a scam will be," Thakur said, adding that the "TMC" stands for "The Mountain of Corruption".

He alleged that corruption is running rampant in Banerjee's party and government, and her ministers are given a free hand to indulge in corruption.

"There is a competition going on between the TMC and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) -- who do more corruption. (Arvind) Kejriwal ji has not kept any department with him, but by allocating departments to the rest of the ministers, he has given full freedom to loot," Thakur said.

Referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP leader said, "Those who used to talk against corruption earlier, after coming into politics got involved in corruption so much that they are not able to answer today."
Baghdad, July 24 : Iraq has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) after the deadly bombardment on a resort in Iraq's northern province of Duhok.

"The ministry submitted a complaint to the Security Council and requested an urgent meeting to discuss the Turkish attack, which resulted in the killing and wounding of many civilians, in Duhok Province," said Iraqi Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said in a statement.

A suspected Turkish bombardment hit a Duhok resort in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan on Wednesday, leaving nine civilians dead and dozens wounded. The Iraqi government accuses the Turkish forces of carrying out the attack, a charge Ankara has denied, Xinhua news agency reported.

Also on Saturday, the Iraqi parliament held an urgent session, with the presence of Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Defence Minister Juma Inad and some top military commanders, to discuss the bombardment on the Iraqi territories.

Hussein said during the session that diplomacy should be used to resolve the conflict and that military escalation with Turkiye avoided, a source in the parliament told Xinhua.

He demanded the issues of the presence of the Turkish military forces and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) inside Iraqi territory be addressed, added the source who wished to remain anonymous.

On Thursday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry handed a sternly worded protest note to Turkish Ambassador to Iraq Ali Reza Guney over the deadly resort bombardment in Duhok, demanding the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Iraqi territory.

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.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkiye, the US and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades.
Award-Winning composer & performer, Jordyn Davis also known as Composetheway, is set to release her first single in five years entitled Night Off on Friday, July 22nd, 2022. It is the first single from her debut album slated for release in February 2023 & will be made available on all streaming platforms. Davis describes the song as being an ode to setting boundaries as a form of self-care.

Rooted in the collaborative and improvisatory spirit of jazz, "Night Off" is a 6-minute genre-bending masterpiece that embodies elements of soul and alternative rock while featuring a traditional jazz nonet. This song along with her other compositions for chamber ensembles, film, and orchestra showcase the strength and resilience of her varied musical talents. Over the past 3 years, Davis has perfected the production, lyrics, and arrangement through the trial of performing it at multiple venues and sharing it with her musical collaborators.

Listen to the release here!

About Composetheway

Jordyn Davis (b. 1995) is an award-winning bassist, composer, songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist from Detroit, MI. In May 2019, Davis became the first African-American woman to receive a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition from Michigan State University as well as the first Michigan State student to receive a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition and Jazz Studies concurrently. She has also performed and worked with artists such as Micheal Dease, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Wycliffe Gordon & The Black Excellence Trombone Choir, Ingrid Jensen, Etienne Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Craig Harris, Maria Schneider, Jerome Jennings & William Delisfort. Additionally, she is the proud leader of her own band Jordyn Davis & Composetheway. Since recently completing a master Degree in Jazz Studies at Michigan State University, she has moved to Brooklyn, NY is one of two inaugural Jazz Leader Fellowship recipients from the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music as well as a teaching artist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. To learn more about Composetheway, visit http://www.composetheway.com

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Alison Bethel, Founding Editor-in-Chief, State Affairs (Credit: Brittney Phan for State Affairs) Today we are seeing a rebirth in state house news coverage and State Affairs is proud to be a part of that movement. Every day we strive to cover critical issues that impact the daily lives of average citizens. We tell the political stories at the intersection of policy and people."

State Affairs Announces Its Founding Editor-in-Chief Alison Bethel

Alison Bethel knew she was going to be a journalist in sixth grade  the day she heard Sandra Dibble, the then-Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at The Miami Herald, speak at Career Fair Day at her elementary school in Miami.

She signed up for both the junior high and high school newspapers and then she landed  at the age of 15 - in the suburban offices of her hometown newspaper, The Miami Herald, covering religion and city hall.

Why State Affairs?

"I am very excited about this opportunity to strengthen the coverage of decisions that emanate from state houses across the country and that have significant impact every day on the lives of average citizens, she says. As we all know, the number of reporters covering state houses has shrunk dramatically over the years, but today we are seeing a rebirth in state house news coverage and State Affairs is proud to be a part of that movement. Every day we strive to cover critical issues that impact the daily lives of average citizens. We tell the political stories at the intersection of policy and people."

Fun Fact?

I love Asian food, specifically Vietnamese, and I took Chinese cooking classes for years, including once in Taiwan.  Another fun fact? I want to end my working life as an audiobook narrator who cooks Chinese food weekly for her friends!

Bethel [formerly, Alison Bethel McKenzie] joined State Affairs from Report for America where she was vice president of corps excellence at Report for America, a non-profit initiative of The GroundTruth Project, that places emerging journalists in newsrooms across America, including Hawaii and Alaska, as well as in Puerto Rico and Guam, to cover untold stories and communities.

Previously, she was executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), where she was only the second woman and the first person of color to serve in that capacity in SPJs 110 years.

But before the turn to non-profits, she was in the newsroom. An award-winning reporter, bureau chief, senior editor and media trainer, she has worked in senior-level positions at The Boston Globe, The Detroit News, Legal Times and the Nassau Guardian in The Bahamas. Early in her career, she worked as a reporter at the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Times Herald-Record and the non-defunct State Times in Louisiana. She is a board member for Journalism & Womens Symposium (JAWS), a member of Journal-isms Strategic Committee, a board member of Southern Foodways Alliance and an advisory board member for the International Center for Media Ethics and the Ethical Journalism Network. Bethel is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, and also its Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter; and a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is a former board member of AlJazeera America (N.Y) and a member of The Dallas Press Club. She is also co-founder of the Media Institute of the Caribbean. Alison majored in journalism at Howard University and minored in theater (1984-1988), received a post-graduate certificate in media leadership from the University of Cumbria in the U.K. and is an alumni of Harvard Kennedy School of Governments Executive Education Program.

She is a native of Miami, Florida.

About State Affairs

State Affairs is an independent news website headquartered in New York City. Founded in 2021, the non-partisan, subscription-based news outlet focuses on stories that report the impact state legislation, policy and political figures have on citizens everyday lives.

State Affairs launched its first newsroom on Aug. 1, 2021, in Georgia. Editorially independent, State Affairs goal is to inform and empower communities and the people who live in them through truthful, well-reported, non-partisan, investigative coverage of state governments that explains how issues happening now impact how residents live their lives and the decisions their families make.

stateaffairs.com

@StateAffairsGA

@StateAffairsUS

linkedin.com/company/stateaffairs

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https://www.jessaminevotes.com/McConnell_Censure.pdf

On July 20, 2022 the Republican Party of Jessamine County (RPJC) held a special meeting to respond to Senator Mitch McConnells support of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the gun control package recently passed by Congress. The Countys Republican Party voted to officially censure Senator Mitch McConnell for his collaboration with Democrats to weaken the 2nd Amendment rights of Americans.

The censure resolution concluded:

RESOLVED, that the Republican Party of Jessamine County hereby formally censures Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, calls for his resignation as Senate Republican Leader, and shall cease any and all support of him.

The RPJC believe that the new law represents unconstitutional violations of the 2nd, 5th, and 14th Amendments. It added that it believes the new law is in direct conflict with the official Republican Party platform and cannot comprehend how Senator McConnell could have supported it. The resolution noted:

Senator Mitch McConnell was the only Republican member of Kentuckys congressional delegation to support this dangerous and unconstitutional gun control.

The resolution notes that over 2/3rds of Senate Republicans opposed the gun control bill as well as over 9/10ths of House Republicans.

The RPJC was most concerned about the promotion of red flag laws. The censure stated:

Red flag laws are a dangerous violation of the Second Amendment and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments right to due process.

The Republican Party of Jessamine County will be reaching out to all elected officials and calling upon them to oppose any unconstitutional gun control efforts. The RPJC is also encouraging other Kentucky Republican County parties to join it in holding Senator McConnell accountable for his support of gun control.
Jake Hoffman Fundraiser for State Representative This is a new GOP full of young, energetic, firebrands who are not going to put up with the failed liberal policies of the Biden administration or the weak Republicans afraid of fighting back.

Today, Jake Hoffman announced that he will host a dual fundraiser in South Tampa alongside fellow Republican, Anna Paulina Luna, who is running for a seat in Congress in neighboring Pinellas County. The fundraiser will be held at 6 p.m. on July 28 at a private residence in the Bayshore Beautiful neighborhood. Jake and Anna both have ties to Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA organization and have worked together over the past few years in the pursuit of getting Young Republicans elected to office.

I am looking forward to joining my friend Anna Paulina Luna as we support the future of the Republican Party here in Tampa Bay, said Jake Hoffman. This is a new GOP full of young, energetic, firebrands who are not going to put up with the failed liberal policies of the Biden administration or the weak Republicans afraid of fighting back.

To RSVP, please email Admin@JakeforStateHouse.com.

Jake has the support of many local Republican groups and leaders in Tampa Bay. A small business co-founder, digital entrepreneur, and former President of The Tampa Bay Young Republicans, he is running to replace Jackie Toledo, who is not running for re-election but pursuing a bid for Congress. District 65 includes South Tampa, MacDill Air Force Base, Davis and Harbour Islands, and Westchase. Visit the website to learn more.

Paid by Jake Hoffman, Republican, for State Representative

Paid For By Anna Paulina Luna For Congress

Any solicitation by Anna Paulina Luna for Congress is only for funds within the federal contribution limits and from permissible sources. Anna Paulina Luna for Congress does not seek funds in excess of federally permissible amounts or from corporations, labor organizations, national banks, federal government contractors, or foreign nationals.
The second phase of Hung Hings production facility in Hanoi, Vietnam, is progressing as scheduled, with full operations commencing by the end of this year. We have also pumped nearly $45 million into constructing a new site specializing in smart-printed packaging products in Wuxi, about 160 kilometers northwest of Shanghai, says Richard Lim, chief operations officer. This plant, upon completion in 2023, is capable of producing 25,000 tons of products annually.

Two new KBA pressesa five-color and a six-color for the Shenzhen and Hanoi operations, respectivelywill be installed in the first half of next year. Meanwhile, a recently installed Fuji Jet Press capable of B2-format digital printing is already supporting low print runs at our Wuxi factory, Lim says, pointing out that most of the companys perfecting presses have been reinstalled with LED ink-printing capabilities.

The rising demand for board games has seen Hung Hing expanding and investing in this particular segment. We have invested in new post-press machines, including automated lines for playing cards and jigsaw puzzles, says commercial director Christopher Yum, who has obtained relevant licenses from major game manufacturers to start producing these products soon.

Business-wise, Hung Hing expects its export segment to grow by more than 20% this year. We remain optimistic, especially now that our Vietnam operation has started and is expanding fast, Yum says. We firmly believe in the future growth and potential of the packaging business. The rise of the middle class as well as the rapid growth of e-commerce in many Asian countries have created a huge demand for packaging products. But his domestic business has declined owing to weaker consumer sentiments amid periodic lockdowns in China.

Following last years shipping and logistical chaos, many clients had planned their projects for completion in the first half of 2022, Yum says. These orders are ready for shipment or will be soon, which will result in a surge in transportation and deliveries. Fortunately, freight rates have declined from their peak of between $10,000 and $12,000 to the U.S., and $12,000 to the U.K. and Continental Europe, for a 40-foot container. More inquiries have come in following these lower freight rates.

Last year, Hung Hing won the Smart Energy Excellence Award for its sustainability efforts. Among its biggest initiatives was the installation of a 526-kWp solar power system at its Tai Po headquarters, which is capable of offsetting 113 tons of carbon emissions per annum. The use of FSC and PEFC-certified papers, soy inks, and water-based varnishing materials effectively reduced our total VOC emissions from 361 tons to 96 tons between 2016 and 2019, Yum says. We continue to look for areas to expand, improve, and make more sustainable and eco-friendly.

Return to main feature.
The ongoing supply chain disruptions, brought about by the pandemic and exacerbated by geopolitical tensions, have exerted its toll on all industries, including the Hong Kong and China print manufacturing sector. But instead of wasting their time on bemoaning external factors beyond their control, the Hong Kong and China print manufacturers featured in this report are focused on moving forward, improving their internal processes, and working on new business ideas while doing digital and going green. Click through to read their stories, or browse the special report in our Scribd reader below. Recent articles from PW on issues affecting both publishing and print manufacturing are also included. Do visit PW Printing Marketplace to learn more about featured printing companies.

This feature is published with the support of the companies covered in these articles.

Print Manufacturing in Hong Kong and China Rolls On

C&C Offset Enhances Its Key Internal Processes

More Expansion and Investment at Hung Hing

Imago Sees Growth and Exciting Market Trends

Related Reads from PW:

Book Sales Slide Across Europe in First Half of 2022

Comics Retail Rebuilds, and Restocks

Lonely Planet Blends Print, QR Codes in New Experience Guidebooks

Looking for Answers to Paper Shortages

Manga Is Booming

NPD Gauges the Children's and YA Book Market

The Printing Squeeze Is On

Trade Publishing Sales Rose 2.6% in Q1

Read the whole feature in the Scribd reader below:

Print Manufacturing in Hong... by Publishers Weekly
Following is a listing of new and forthcoming adult, childrens, and young adult fiction and nonfiction titles that examine the history, identities, and social complexity of the diverse Latinx communities across the Americas.

ADULTS

BLACKSTONE

River Woman, River Demon

Jennifer Givhan, Oct.

When her husband is arrested for the murder of a friend, a Chicana artist who practices the ancient, spiritual ways of brujeria and curanderisma must confront her murky past and embrace her magick to find out what really happened.

Valley of Shadows

Rudy Ruiz, Sept.

A blend of magical realism, mystery, and horror sheds light on the dark past of injustice, isolation, and suffering along the U.S.-Mexico border.

BLOOMSBURY

In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Coverup, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press

Katherine Corcoran, Oct.

The author, former Mexico bureau chief for the AP, investigates the murder of journalist Regina Martinez, focusing on the government corruption in Mexico and its impact on journalism.

BROADLEAF

Chingona: Owning Your Inner Badass for Healing and Justice

Alma Zaragoza-Petty, Nov.

The Mexican American activist, scholar, and podcast host helps women claim their inner chingona, or badass woman.

CARINA

After Hours on Milagro Street: A Novel

Angelina M. Lopez, out now

The first in a new contemporary romance series

centering on three Mexican American sisters who return to their Midwestern hometown to confront the past and embark on new beginnings.

On the Hustle (Dating in Dallas, 2)

Adriana Herrera, Oct.

Alba Duarte agrees to do a home improvement reality TV show with her hated former boss in an enemies-to-lovers romance

CLARKSON POTTER

Mezcla: Recipes to Excite

Ixta Belfrage, Sept.

Mezcla means mix, blend, or fusion in Spanish, and in her first solo cookbook, Belfrage, of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, shares 100 recipes featuring her favorite mezcla of flavors.

CROW FLIES

Thirty-Five Days to Baltimore

Alexis Portillo and Jana Laiz, out now

Portillo recounts a harrowing 2004 journey at the age of 17 from Honduras to Baltimore, in hopes of a better life.

CROWN

Why Didnt You Tell Me? A Memoir

Carmen Rita Wong, out now

An immigrant mothers secrets upend her daughters understanding of her family, her identity, and her place in the world.

DAFINA

That Dangerous Energy: A Novel

Aya de Leon, Dec.

The personal and the political collide for a woman torn between her own survival and that of the planet.

DOUBLEDAY

The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir

Ingrid Rojas Contreras, out now

Generations of family stories have divided the authors family between those who think the inherited knowledge of healing with herbs, communing with the dead, and even moving the clouds are a curse, and those who think they are a blessing.

DUKE UNIV.

Junot Diaz: On the Half-Life of Love

Jose David Saldivar, Sept.

A Stanford University literature professor examines the influences on novelist Diaz, showing how his work created a new way of viewing the decolonized world.

A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and U.S. Latinidad

Richard T. Rodriguez, Sept.

Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodriguez examines the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their Latinx audiences in the U.S. since the 1980s.

Translating Blackness: Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective

Lorgia Garcia Pena, Sept.

Based on archives and cultural productions from the U.S., the Caribbean, and Europe, Garcia Pena argues that Black Latinidad is a social, cultural, and political formation for understanding oppression and resistance.

ENTANGLED

All the Broken Girls

Linda Hurtado Bond, Aug.

In this mystery/thriller, Cuban American crime reporter Mari Alvarez couldnt solve her mothers murder 10 years earlier, but when a woman is shot near her West Tampa, Fla., neighborhood, she feels an eerie sense of connection.

GRAYDON HOUSE

Ben and Beatriz: A Novel

Katalina Gamarra, Aug.

This Latinx queer retelling of Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing is set in the early days of the Trump presidency, during which a queer, biracial young woman must untangle her complicated relationship with the scion of a wealthy white dynasty.

Miss del Rio: A Novel of Dolores del Rio, the First Major Latina Star in Hollywood

Barbara Mujica, Oct.

A biographical novel narrated by Dolores del Rios fictional hairdresser and longtime friend spans half a century and traces the life of a trailblazing woman whos left a legacy in Hollywood and in Mexico.

HARPER DESIGN

Chicano Bakes: Recipes for Mexican Pan Dulce, Tamales, and My Favorite Desserts

Esteban Castillo, Nov.

In this companion cookbook to Chicano Eats, the blogger shows off the sweet side of Chicano cuisine in 80 recipes for desserts, cakes, tamales, and pan dulce, as well as drinks.

HARPERVIA

The Girls in Queens: A Novel

Christine Kandic Torres, out now

This debut novel told in alternating time lines explores the loyalty of two Latinx women coming of age in Queens, N.Y., in the 1990s, through sexual abuse allegations within communities of color and the possibility that monsters can hide in plain sight.

Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings

Edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guinansaca, out now

This anthology of essays, poetry, and art created by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants seeks to shift the immigration debate toward humanity and justice.

HARPER WAVE

The Siete Table: Nourishing Mexican-American Recipes from Our Kitchen

The Garza Family, Oct.

The family behind the Siete Family Foods products offers an ode to their Mexican heritage using family recipes and traditions, featuring healthy recipes free of grains, dairy, and soy.

HOGARTH

Solito: A Memoir

Javier Zamora, Sept.

A young poet tells the story of his emigration from El Salvador to the U.S. at the age of nine.

HQN

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris: A Novel

Adriana Herrera, out now

Herreras historical romance debut is set at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, where a financially ruined rum heiress from the Dominican Republic agrees to a marriage of convenience with a Scottish duke.

KENSINGTON

Twice a Quinceanera: A Delightful Second Chance Romance

Yamile Saied Mendez, out now

After her engagement falls apart, Nadia turns what would have been her wedding reception into a celebration of herself for her 30th birthday, calling it a double quinceanera.

MIMESIS INTERNATIONAL

Faith in Democracy: The Political Power of Religion During the Military Dictatorship in Brazil

Massimo Sciarretta, out now

Historian Sciarretta reconstructs how the Brazilian Catholic Church, influenced by liberation theology, was the only democratic bastion against the countrys military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.

MIRA

A Proposal They Cant Refuse: A Rom-Com Novel

Natalie Cana, out now

A Puerto Rican chef and an Irish American whiskey distiller are forced into a fake engagement by their scheming octogenarian grandfathers in this debut rom-com.

NORTON

The Family Izquierdo: A Novel

Ruben Degollado, Sept.

This debut weaves together, through a series of voices, the lives of three generations of a Mexican American family bound by love and a curse.

ONE WORLD

Woman of Light: A Novel

Kali Fajardo-Anstine, out now

This epic of betrayal, love, and fate spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West.

PAPILLOTE

Still Standing: The Ti Kais of Dominica

Adom Philogene-Heron, Nov.

An illustrated work paying tribute to the traditional wooden homes of Dominica called ti kais, which have withstood hurricanes and earthquakes since the end of slavery, and are now in danger from development.

PENGUIN

Bonsai: A Novel

Alejandro Zambra, trans. by Megan McDowell, Aug.

A new translation of a work first published in 2006 of Julio and Emilia, Chilean university students who, seeking truth in great literature, fall together and drift apart over the course of young adulthood.

Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America

Juan Gonzalez, out now

From European colonization of the Americas to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Gonzalez highlights the complexity of this population through family portraits of immigrant Latino pioneers, as well as accounts of the events and conditions that compelled them to leave their homelands.

PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS

Mamacita: Recipes Celebrating Life as a Mexican Immigrant in America

Andrea Pons, Oct.

Through 78 easy recipes from three generations of women in her family, Pons offers stories of flavor, family, and immigration.

LYNNE RIENNER

Challenges to Democracy in the Andes: Strongmen, Broken Constitutions, and Regimes in Crisis

Edited by Maxwell A. Cameron and Grace M. Jaramillo, Aug.

Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela have all seen challenges to democracy in political crises caused by elected leaders who abuse their power, often with broad public approval.

Policing and Politics in Latin America: When Law Enforcement Breaks the Law

Diego Esparza, Aug.

Esparza considers why some Latin American countries police forces are more corrupt than others, and what policies can turn an abusive police force into one that works for its citizens.

RUNNING PRESS

Viva Hollywood: The Legacy of Latin and Hispanic Artists in American Film (Turner Classic Movies)

Luis I. Reyes, Sept.

An illustrated book highlights the difficulties and unrecognized achievements of Americans of Latino descent in the Hollywood film industry, examining the stars in front of the screen, as well as the crew behind the scenes.

SCRIBE

What Goes Unsaid: A Memoir of Fathers Who Never Were

Emiliano Monge, trans. by Frank Wynne, out now

In this fictionalized memoir by the Mexican author, three meneach in his own wayflee their homes and families in an attempt to free themselves.

SOHO CRIME

Cruz

Nicolas Ferraro, trans. by Mallory N. Craig-Kuhn, Oct.

In northern Argentina, one brother follows in their criminal fathers footsteps, and the other is forced into a bloody battle to save their family from drug lords.

SOHO PRESS

Sacrificio

Ernesto Mestre-Reed, Sept.

In this novel set in 1998 Cuba, a group of young HIV-positive counterrevolutionaries seek to overthrow the Castro government.

TEN SPEED

Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook

Illyanna Maisonet, Oct.

Through over 90 recipes, one of the first Puerto Rican food writers in the U.S. offers a visual record of Puerto Rican food, ingredients, and techniques, and traces the islands flavor traditions roots in Taino, Spanish, African, and U.S. culture.

UNIV. OF NORTH CAROLINA

A Compact History of Latin Americas Cold War

Vanni Pettina, trans. by Quentin Pope, Oct.

Now in English for the first time, Pettinas volume presents the Cold War from a Latin American perspective, connecting regional political polarization, revolutionary mobilization, draconian state repression, and violence for a Global South frame.

Detention Empire: Reagans War on Immigrants and the Seeds of Resistance

Kristina Shull, Oct.

A history of migrant detention in the U.S. since the 1980s shows how the Reagan administration capitalized on racism and xenophobia following the Mariel boatlift from Cuba and an uptick in refugees from Haiti to forge permanent crisis on the Mexican border and construct a system of migrant detention facilities.

The Investigative Brigade: Hunting Human Rights Criminals in Post-Pinochet Chile

Pascale Bonnefoy Miralles, trans. by Russ Davidson, Sept.

Chilean journalist Miralles gained the trust of the special investigations police who were assigned by the post-Pinochet government to find those who clandestinely detained, exiled, disappeared, tortured, or murdered several hundred thousand Chileans; through their stories, she shows why Chile serves as an example of transitional justice in process.

State of Disaster: The Failure of U.S. Migration Policy in an Age of Climate Change

Maria Cristina Garcia, Sept.

Garcias critical history of U.S. migration policy shows that outmoded immigration and human rights laws need to be changed.

Suffer the Little Children: Child Migration and the Geopolitics of Compassion in the United States

Anita Casavantes Bradford, out now

A global history of child migrants to the U.S. demonstrates that American policy falls short of fulfilling human rights needs while privileging broader domestic and foreign political policies.

VERSO

Paths of Revolution

Adolfo Gilly, Oct.

The first English-language anthology by the Argentine-born writer collects reportage, political analyses, and reflections on art and letters.

VIKING

Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir

Erika L. Sanchez, out now

Acclaimed author Sanchez offers a memoir-in-essays of growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the 1990s, covering sex, white feminism, and struggles with depression.

WEISER

Secrets of Santa Muerte: A Guide to the Prayers, Spells, Rituals, and Hexes

Cressida Stone, Aug.

An introduction to spiritual practices with knowledge gained in the authors six years of studying with Santa Muerte folk healers, or curanderos, in Mexico, focusing on both the authors personal account and the belief systems history, as well as practical spells and rituals for novice and experienced practitioner.

CHILDRENS/YA

ALADDIN

Charlie Hernandez & the Golden Dooms

Ryan Calejo, Sept.

With trouble brewing in Miami, it is up to Charlie and Violet to outwit an ancient evil and unravel the most sinister of schemes, in this third book in the Latinx mythologyinspired Charlie Hernandez series. Ages 1014.

BALZER + BRAY

Mariana and Her Familia

Monica Mancillas, illus. by Erika Meza, Oct.

A sweet and heartwarming picture book about a young girl forming a connection with her familyand her Abuelitaon her first trip to Mexico. Ages 48.

BLOOMSBURY

Spin Me Right Round

David Valdes, Jan. 2023

A gay teen time-travels back to his parents era to save a closeted classmates life. Ages 12up.

CANDLEWICK

Merci Suarez Plays It Cool

Meg Medina, Sept.

In a finale to the Newbery Medalists trilogy, Merci Suarez begins an eighth grade year full of evolving friendships, new responsibilities, and heartbreaking loss. Ages 912.

Something About Grandma

Tania de Regil, Aug.

On a first solo visit to her grandmothers home outside Mexico City, a girl discovers what makes Grandma so special. Ages 48.

Undercover Latina

Aya de Leon, Oct.

In de Leons debut for younger readers, a Latina teen spy goes undercover as a white girl to stop a white supremacist terrorist plot. Ages 10up.

CARDINAL RULE

What the Bread Says: Baking with Love, History, and Papan

Vanessa Garcia, illus. by Tim Palin, Oct.

While they bake bread together, as grandfather Papan tells little Vanessa his life adventures traveling from Spain to France to Cuba and back again, she learns about her roots, and how stories can carry one through difficult times. Ages 48

CHARLESBRIDGE

Abuelita and I Make Flan

Adriana Hernandez Bergstrom, Aug.

Anita is making flan for Abuelos birthday, but must come up with a solution when she accidentally breaks Abuelitas treasured flan serving plate from Cuba. Ages 58.

CROCODILE

The Wrestling Cholitas of Bolivia

Claudia Bellante, illus. by Anna Carbone, Nov.

Two girls in Bolivia with a passion for wrestling change their livesand the lives of girls like themin ways big and small. Ages 4up.

DRAGONFRUIT

The Boy from Mexico: An Immigrant Story of Bravery and Determination

Edward Dennis, Nov.

Isidro channels his inner bravery to come to America alone, facing natural disasters and sacrificing everything to have a better life; based on a true story. Ages 58.

EERDMANS

Building an Orchestra of Hope: How Favio Chavez Taught Children to Make Music from Trash

Carmen Oliver, illus. by Luisa Uribe, Oct.

In a Paraguayan town built on a landfill, a music teacher with more students than instruments experiments with transforming garbage into instruments, creating the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, which has performed around the world. Ages 49.

Different: A Story of the Spanish Civil War

Monica Montanes, illus. by Eva Sanchez Gomez, trans. by Lawrence Schimel, Nov.

This book mines the authors family history to explore the turbulent civil war in Spain between 1936 and 1939 through the voices of seven-year-old Socorro and nine-year-old Paco. Ages 914.

GOLDEN

Sonia Sotomayor: A Little Golden Book Biography

Silvia Lopez, illus. by Nomar Perez, Aug.

A readaloud introduction to the first Latina Supreme Court justice. Ages 25.

GRAPHIX

Invisible

Christina Diaz Gonzalez, illus. by Gabriela Epstein, Aug.

A graphic novel following five students, who see each other as being very different, but because they all speak Spanish, they are seen as the same. Forced together by their school to complete community service, they find they may have more in common than they thought. Ages 812.

Miles Morales: Stranger Tides! A Spider-Man Graphic Novel

Justin A. Reynolds, illus. by Pablo Leon, Oct.

Miles Morales is getting used to being Spider-Manuntil Spider-Man is invited to a launch for a new video game that causes anyone who plays it to become frozen. Ages 812.

HARPERCOLLINS

Magnolia Flower

Zora Neale Hurston, adapted by Ibram X. Kendi, illus. by Loveis Wise, Sept.

From beloved African American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston comes a moving adaptation by National Book Award winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi. Magnolia Flower follows a young Afro Indigenous girl who longs for freedom and is gorgeously illustrated by Loveis Wise. Ages 48.

Reina Ramos Works It Out

Emma Otheguy, illus. by Andres Landazabal, Sept.

This first title in a brand-new I Can Read series follows Reina Ramos, a six-year-old Latina girl who lives in a diverse urban neighborhood. A Spanish edition, Reina Ramos encuentra la solucion, is available simultaneously. Ages 48.

Cece Rios and the King of Fears

Kaela Rivera, Sept.

In this thrilling sequel to Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, Cece and her sister Juana must journey into the stronghold of Devils Alley to discover the hidden origin of the dark criaturas and challenge their king. Ages 812.

HOLIDAY HOUSE/PORTER

The Little House of Hope

Terry Catasus Jennings, illus. by Raul Colon, out now

When Esperanza and her family arrive in the U.S. from Cuba, they rent a little house that proves theres room enough to offer a safe place in a new land for those who dont have anywhere to go. Ages 48.

INKYARD

Salt and Sugar

Rebecca Carvalho, Nov.

The grandchildren of two rival Brazilian bakeries fall in love despite their families feud. Ages 1317.

KNOPF

Before Takeoff

Adi Alsaid, out now

Two teens (one Latinx) meet and fall in love during a layover gone wrong at the Atlanta airport. Ages 12up.

The Bluest Sky

Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Sept.

A boy and his family must decide whether to remain in Cuba under a repressive government or risk everything for a chance at a new beginning. Ages 10up.

LEVINE QUERIDO

What the Jaguar Told Her

Alexandra V. Mendez, Oct.

When eighth grader Jade meets

Itztli, an elderly storyteller who exists between dreams and reality, an ancient power begins to awaken within her. Ages 1014.

NORTON

Abuela, Dont Forget Me

Rex Ogle, Sept.

Ogle paints a portrait of the grandmother who believed in him when he didnt yet know how to believe in himself, during a coming-of-age marked by violence and dysfunction. Ages 1318.

ORCHARD

Skater Cielo

Rachel Katstaller, Aug.

A skateboarder finds that facing a fear of failing can give courage to persevere, and that true fierceness isnt about landing the perfect trick, its about picking back up when one doesnt. Ages 48.

PENGUIN YOUNG READERS

They Call Her Fregona

Davide Bowles, Sep.

In this highly anticipated follow-up to They Call Me Guero, Guero becomes extra busy as he learns to balance new band practice with his old crew, Los Bobbys, and being Joanna Padillas boyfriend. But when they start eighth grade, Joanna faces a tragedy that requires Guero to reconsider what it means to show up for someone you love. Ages 10 and up.

My Town / Mi Pueblo

Nicholas Solis, Aug.

In this bilingual picture book, cousins from opposite sides of the US-Mexico border visit each others towns where they notice some things are the same and some are wonderfully different. Ages 3 to 7.

Tumble

Celia C. Perez, Aug.

To twelve-year-old Adela Addie Ramirez, life is moving too fast with a new half-brother on the way, a big school theater performance looming, and her stepfather proposing adoption. After finding a young man in her mothers old photos, Addie begins to collect the missing pieces of her origin story from the family of legendary luchadores shes never met. Ages 8 to 12.

ChupaCarter

George Lopez and Ryan Calejo, Aug.

Inspired by his own childhood and Latinx folklore, famous comedian George Lopez launches a middle grade series where lonely, twelve-year-old Jorge, sent to live with his grandparents, finds that the only kid who shares his interest in junk food and games turns out to be a young Chupacabra. Ages 8 to 12.

Azar on Fire

Olivia Abtahi, Aug.

When fourteen-year-old Azar Rossi hears about the Battle of the Bands contest, she cant resist! Theres only one catch, she cant sing and really shouldnt talk due to her shredded vocal folds. But when she hears lacrosse hottie, Ebenezer Lloyd Hollins the Fifth, aka Eben, singing from the locker room, she knows hes just what she needs. His voice + her lyrics = Battle of the Bands magic. Ages 12 and up.

A Seed in the Sun

Aida Salazar, Oct.

Lula Viramontes, a farm-working girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for workers rights in this tender-hearted middle grade novel in verse. Ages 8 to 12.

QUILL TREE

The First to Die at the End

Adam Silvera, Oct.

A prequel to They Both Die at the End, following the first night of Death Cast. Ages 13up.

RANDOM HOUSE

Iveliz Explains It All

Andrea Beatriz Arango, illus. by Alyssa Bermudez, Sept.

Seventh grader Iveliz must navigate how to explain her feelings to others when shes not even sure herself. Ages 1014.

RANDOM HOUSE GRAPHIC

Twin Cities: A Graphic Novel

Jose Pimienta, out now

When one twin goes to school in Mexico and the other goes to school across the border in Calexico, can their bond withstand the distance? Ages 812.

RANDOM HOUSE STUDIO

The Notebook Keeper and La guardiana de la libreta

Stephen Briseno, illus. by Magdalena Mora, out now

Based on true events and published simultaneously in English and Spanish, this inspiring story follows a mother and her daughter who are denied entry at the U.S. border, and must find the refugee in charge of the notebook, an unofficial ledger of those waiting to cross into the U.S. Ages 48.

Rosas Song

Helena Ku Rhee, illus. by Pascal Campion, out now

A boy who has just immigrated from South Korea finds the transition to be difficult until he meets Rosa, a girl from Latin America, who helps him feel less homesick. Ages 48.

SCHOLASTIC

Friends Like These (Horse Country #2)

Yamile Saied Mendez, out now

The Unbridled Dreams programs first sponsored student arrives at Paradise Ranch, but if she isnt a success, theres no way the program will continue. Can Caro and her new friend, Chelsie, agree on how to rope her in? Ages 812.

SCHOLASTIC PRESS

Coming Up Cuban

Sonia Manzano, Aug.

Emmy-winning actor Manzano, best known as Maria from Sesame Street, examines the impact of the 1959 Cuban revolution on four children from very different walks of life. Ages 812.

The Do-Over

Jennifer Torres, out now

Mendoza sisters Raquel and Lucinda must navigate sisterhood, friendship, and the intricacies of blended families. Ages 812.

Valentina Salazar Is Not a Monster

Zoraida Cordova, out now

When a mythical egg surfaces in a viral video, Valentina convinces her reluctant siblings to help her find the egg before it hatches and wreaks havoc. Ages 812.

SIMON & SCHUSTER

If Your Babysitter Is a Bruja

Ana Siqueira, illus. by Irena Freitas, Aug.

This bilingual picture book explores the code-switching that multilingual and multicultural children experience at home. Ages 48.

Once I Was You: Finding My Voice and Passing the Mic

Maria Hinojosa, Aug.

Emmy-winning journalist Hinojosa adapts her critically acclaimed memoir for young readers, infusing the narrative of her youth with her perspective on how the next generation can shape todays America. Ages 812.

This Is Why They Hate Us

Aaron H. Aceves, Aug.

Incoming high school senior Enrique is determined to get over his unrequited feelings for his best friend by pursuing some of his other crushesand discovers who he is along the way. Ages 14up.

SOHO TEEN

Whats Coming to Me

Francesca Padilla, Aug.

Minerva Gutierrez, 17, plots revenge against her sexist, predatory boss, who makes each day worse than the last.

Ages 1417.

VERSIFY

El Toro and Friends: Team Up

Raul the Third, colors by Elaine Bay, Sept.

El Toro and his friends meet at Ricky Raton's School of Lucha and learn how to be a team. Ages 48.
Whether because of Covid, a faltering economy, or both, many U.S. travelers are sticking close to home. 2021 was a banner year for us because of our strong domestic list, says Grace Fujimoto, acquisitions director at Avalon Travel, whose Moon imprint is releasing USA Best RV Adventures by Bonnie and Grant Sinclair in February 2023.

Other publishers, too, are focusing on driving vacations and national parks; National Geographic is updating its three road trip guides, which are vetted by park rangers. A lot of people think the outdoors is safe right now, says Allyson Johnson, senior editor at National Geographic Books. People developed new outdoorsy hobbies and interests, and theyre holding strong.

Those trip planners can supplement their research with new books that explore America as a palimpsest of layered histories, whether on the great rolling Mississippi or over the Rocky Mountain range. Heres a selection of traditional guidebooks, narrative accounts, and pictorials.

Epic Road Trips of the Americas Lonely Planet, Sept. Fronted with a nostalgic sepia-toned cover, the newest title in the Epic series is as much coffee-table lookbook as it is practical guide. Covering 50 trips across North America, South America, and the Caribbean, it includes photo spreads, information on route difficulty, advice on road grub and accommodations, and first-person travelers tales.

Great American Road Trips: Best of All 50 States Readers Digest. Trusted Media Brands, Oct. From the Maine Highlands to Hawaiis Volcanoes National Park, road warriors will find plenty of sights worth filling the tank (or charging the hybrid) for. Personal accounts detail favorite experiencesvisiting the wild Chincoteague ponies on an island off the coast of Virginia, for instance, or hunting for rocky treasure on Moonstone Beach in Cambria, Calif., along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Life on the Mississippi Rinker Buck. Avid Reader, Aug. The author of 2015s The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey (166,000 print copies sold, per BookScan) returns with a captivating and occasionally cantankerous account, per PWs review, of his 2,000-mile trip down the Mississippi River in 2016 aboard Patience, a 19th-centurystyle flatbed riverboat. Throughout, he interweaves intriguing discussions of U.S. political, cultural, and economic history with sharp critiques of traditional historians who neglect the hardscrabble, edgy lives of most 19th-century Americans, reveries on how the light reflects off riverine landscapes, and tense accounts of modern hazards, including extensive lock-and-dam systems and barge traffic.



more

More Than Scenery Janet L. Pritchard. George F. Thompson, Oct. For this years 150th anniversary of Yellowstone, the countrys first national park, Pritchard assembles a collection of 150 of her photos, plus historical maps and other materials. Inspired by her teenage summers spent in 1960s Wyoming, the large-format hardcover explores the relationship between tourists and landscape, the natural world and human intervention. Activist and art critic Lucy R. Lippard provides a foreword.

Native American Archaeology in the Parks Kenneth L. Feder. Rowman & Littlefield, Dec. Central Connecticut State University professor Feder celebrates 30 U.S. National Parks, monuments, and landmarks containing the work and history of Native Americans, preserved by the federal government following tireless lobbying by Native and non-Native groups. Subjects include 700-year-old cliff dwellings, thousand-year-old sculptures, and 2,000-year-old burial grounds. Readers who think of America as a young country will be reminded of the long history of Native peoples before colonizers and settlers arrived on the countrys shores.

Park Place David Heberlein. George F. Thompson, Nov. Photographer and art professor Heberlein documents nearly three decades of his travels through national parks in the western U.S. His photos of 35 parks, monuments, and recreation areas explore the tension between the natural world and human impact on the land. Duotone images capture both the changes human beings have made to the land and the people themselves as they explore the landscape.

Same Ground Russell Wangersky. ECW, Sept. Determined to discover his familys past, journalist Wangersky embarks on a madcap trip across the U.S., following in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather, William Castle Dodge, who went west in a blaze of gold rush fever. Intertwining his own travelogue with passages from Dodges diary, Wangersky tracks two journeysone taken by car, one by mulein search of a dream.

USA: The Rockies Insight Guides, Dec. This magazine-style guide follows the famed mountain range from the Canadian border to the southern tip in New Mexico, showcasing famous destinations including Bozeman, Wyo.; Taos, N.Mex.; and Vail, Colo.; plus national parks and breathtaking views. Containing cultural and historical tidbits as well as photographs and travel tips, the guide has something for experienced hikers and trail-moseyers alike.

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As the author of the groundbreaking The Courage to Heala guide to recovery from sexual abuseand six other nonfiction books, Laura Davis has helped more than two million readers navigate the most painful challenges that can erupt within families. In The Burning Light of Two Stars, her first memoir and a finalist in the 2021 BookLife Prize Nonfiction Contest, Davis chronicles becoming the caretaker for her long-estranged mother, and what that experience revealed about reconciliation, healing, and the nature of memory.

After writing several guides to personal healing, what led you to decide it was time to write a memoir?

When writing students come to me, I always talk to them about the value of their obsessions. The things that we care the most about, that we have the most emotional investment in, are always going to be rich veins for writing. My writing has always tracked my obsessions.

After my mother and I worked toward reconciliation after years of bitter estrangement, I wrote I Thought Wed Never Speak Again, a how-to guide to reconciliationbut it was basically a book featuring other peoples stories, not my own. When she was 80, she called to announce that she was moving across the country to live in my town for the rest of her life. My new obsession became: Can I care for a mother who betrayed me in the past? Is it possible for me to open my heart when its been closed for good reason?

This was a personal journey for me, so I chose to write it as memoir. I wanted to explore the dramatic and unexpected collision course we ended up on at the end of her life. I finally felt I could do our epic story justiceand that memoir was the form I needed.

The cover of your new book seems to refer to kintsugi, the Japanese art of using gold to repair something broken. Does that reflect your perspective on reconciliation?

I love that you noticed that! It was one of the last changes made to the cover in a long design process. I cant say that kintsugi applies to reconciliation in general, but it definitely applies to my relationship with my mother: we were able to create something of beauty while still acknowledging the brokenness between us.

Kintsugi also applies to the early trauma I suffered at the hands of my grandfather. My grandfathers violation and my mothers response to it impacted me; those experiences brought me strengths and vulnerabilities that made me the strong, courageous, passionate person I am today. But I am not the same person I would have been had those injuries not occurred in the first place. I like to imagine myself broken, but whole, with gold mending the broken places.

Caring for a once-estranged parent sounds daunting. Can you tell us what that was like for you?

Caregiving is hard regardless. Even if youve had a wonderful relationship, there can still be ambivalence about becoming a caregiver. And when you have kids at home, too, and youre in the sandwich generation, youre squeezed like crazy. Thats how it was for me. I felt wrung out and exhausted every single day. And to have something unresolved in my relationship with my mother on top of all of that made it even harder.

My mothers decline and her new proximity pushed every button I had. I needed a lot of support. I joined a memory loss support group where I got to meet with other caregivers. And I got back into therapy because I needed help separating our past history from what was happening now. This is a core part of my memoir: honestly exploring the challenges of becoming the daughter I wanted to be.

How do you think the culture has changed for survivors of sexual abuse since you and Ellen Bass wrote The Courage to Heal?

There is so much more known about healing from trauma nowso many more resources available for survivors than there were in 1988, when The Courage to Heal was first published. We now know so much more about trauma and the brain, healing PTSD, how to heal on a somatic level. The #MeToo movement has brought sexual abuse more out into the open, and thats a good thing.

So, on one hand, its a better time to be a survivor of sexual abuse, but thats the rub: all these additional healing resources have not stopped perpetrators from abusing new children or ended sexual assault. Abuse is endemic in our culture. There are new generations of survivors needing to read The Courage to Heal, and thats a really sad thing.

Did such close interaction with your mother change your understanding of the nature of memory? How?

Memory is a huge theme in the book. My mother had dementia, so dealing with her gradual loss of memory and loss of self is a big part of the story. But I also deal with the vagaries of my own memory, and how we construct memories of the past.

When my mother died, I found a cache of lettersall the letters shed ever received from meas well as raw first drafts of letters shed never sent. Id always claimed that my mother and I didnt speak for seven years. But the physical evidence proved otherwise. And the letters werent only filled with anger and accusations; they also expressed tenderness and love.

In writing the memoir, I also had to face that Id set my mothers mistakes and her betrayal in stone, harping on them, repeating them, and castigating her for them, while letting her good qualities slip through my fingers like water. My habitual and oft-repeated story of us was far more black-and-white and polarized than it actually was. So, for me, writing the memoir required that I confront the way Id selectively remembered and represented the past.

What do you hope readers will take away from this narrative?

I want them to reach the final page and say, That was a page-turner. I couldnt put it down. Beyond that, I want readers to be motivated to reflect on their own relationshipsto consider possibilities for resolution that may seem impossible.

So many people right now are facing a similar dilemma to the one I faced: how can I reconcile the love I feel for this person with the challenges that keep us apart? My mother and I bridged that distance, and I hope our story inspires readers to believe that they can do it, too.

Many people have had an especially rough year. What emotional tools do you think are most helpful for coping and moving forward right now?

I think the answer is different for everyone. For me, its taking breaks from the news; getting out in nature; hiking with my pandemic puppy, Luna; and swimming. Focusing on small things that bring us pleasure and joy, and building strong communities, can help us stay grounded in the midst of so much uncertainty.

Rebecca Hughes is the author of The Kingdom of Childhood and owner of Five Points Editorial Services.
Catherine Newman writes parenting memoirs, blogs, middle grade novels, essays, and an etiquette column for Real Simple magazine, and her first adult novel, We All Want Impossible Things will be published by Harper this November. The poignant and personal story of the decades-long friendship of Edith and Ashley takes place in a hospice ward, where Edi is dying of ovarian cancer. Sound sad? Heartbreaking? It is. But its also heartwarming and life affirmingand yes, hilarious.

Theyre surrounded by family, friends, caregivers (the hunky hospice physician they dub Dr. Soprano, whose member Ashley compares to a very large zucchini), and fellow patients, like Ruth in the room next door who plays the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack on repeat and asks Ashley if shes just come off the school bus. I did, Ruth! I came right to you, Ashley says in the book. Forty-five-year-old me, fresh off the school bus with my undereye bags and plantar fasciitis and boobs hanging down my torso like beige knee socks with no legs in them. Theres nothing like hospice to remind you that decrepitude is totally relative.

When Edi forgets something, her response typically is Fuuuuuk. This suuuuuuks. And Ashley, Newman writes, pictures her mind like a bar, her thoughts and memories nursing their last round. Its closing time, and you dont have to go home, but you cant stay here. I untangle her tubes and wires, hang them on a pole behind her, and climb into her bed. A few little tears drip out of her eyes, which are closed again. It does, I say, laying my head on her pillow. I touch a tear with my fingertip, touch my fingertip to my lips. It totally sucks. 

Newman explains that her best friend for her entire life died of ovarian cancer seven years ago. I was so completely changed, she says. Not only by the loss but the experience of her dying. I began volunteering in hospice. My children called it my weird hobby. The novel always had a place in my brain, and then the pandemic hit and I sat down and wrote it. A novel seemed the best way to tell the story. I needed the cloak of fiction; it gave me room, distance.

Though Newman says the novel poured out of her, she adds, I hate that crap when writers talk about channeling and the mysterious process. I write for a living. I write for money. Give me $100 and Ill write 14 lines about tampons. But this story really did pour out.

Newman is gregarious and delightful to talk to, and Im a total fan when she tells me about her personal sticker chart. She joined a friends sticker-of-the-month club and gave herself a sticker for every 500 words she wrote. So absurd, she adds, but Im a simple person and need a very simple reward.

Writing the book, she says, changed her feelings. It was incredibly sad to work on, but when someone dies over a long illness, you remember the end, and writing the novel I was able to immerse myself in our relationship, the times we had together. Being in that space was wonderful. I was so lucky to have this friendship; it was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.

Jennifer Gates, Newmans agent and a partner at Aevitas Creative Management, has known Newman forever. Their relationship began when Newman reached out about her 2005 book Waiting for Birdy, a memoir of anticipating a second child and raising a toddler.

In February 2021, Newman sent Gates an email saying she was halfway through a novel; when the first draft arrived in March, Gates recalls, she was blown away. We All Want Impossible Things was sent out in May 2021 to strong interest, and she began scheduling meetings with publishers. The plan was to go to auction, until Harper executive editor Sara Nelson offered a preempt. When you fall in love with a book, a number of people to send it to springs to mind, Gates says. And Sara was at the top of my list.

Nelson remembers receiving the manuscript and not looking at it immediately. I got a nudge from Jennifer who said she thought I would really like it, she says. I picked it up on a Friday and I was hooked. I wrote back over the weekendwhich I try not to do usually, but I didtelling Jennifer I wanted it.

 I knew if Catherine wrote a novel it would be terrific. The book is about loss, but also about family and friendship and love in all its dysfunction.Jennifer Gates 

Nelson says that the blurb from KJ DellAntonia sums up her sentiments about We All Want Impossible Things: The funniest, most joyful book about dyingand livingthat I have ever read. She adds that the book had enormous in-house supportEveryone was crazy about itand Newman accepted a substantial offer for North American rights in mid-June. Doubleday will publish it in the U.K. in December, and to date, rights have been sold in Germany and France.

Gates says that Newmans decision to write a novel was a natural progression. Catherine is a beautiful writer. I knew if she wrote a novel it would be terrific. The book is about loss, but also about family and friendship and love in all its dysfunction.

Newman, of the personal sticker chart, is more pragmatic. The book is so sad, she tells me, Im expecting people wont say awful things, but keep it to themselves. I get so much hate mail from my column and parenting books that this one makes me think Ill be protected.

Tell me who the mean people are, Catherine. Ill get them.
Human Interest

The #9 book in the country is Tanqueray, the memoir of erstwhile burlesque performer Stephanie Johnson, who shot to internet fame after Brandon Stanton photographed her for his Humans of New York platform. Of their first encounter in 2020, our review said, Stanton writes in the foreword that the septuagenarian immediately captivated himand later more than three million Instagram userswith tales of dancing in New York City in the 1970s under her stage name, Tanqueray. The book has it all, the review continued: humor, intrigue, and heart.

It Girl Summer

Ruth Ware has the #10 book in the country with The It Girl, an exceptional psychological thriller, our starred review said, that probes how much one can trust othersand ones self. In a prepub interview with PW, Ware explained the emotions that animate her writing. Fundamentally, my books are rooted in some sort of fear, phobia, or terrible what-if, she said. The kind of thing you wake up from a dream about and think, Im glad that didnt actually happen to me. By contrast, her sales trajectory is the kind many authors do fantasize about.

Studying for the Midterms

Looking for some escapist summer reading? Look away from our hardcover nonfiction list, where five new political books highlight the countrys deep divisions. At #3, Thank You for Your Servitude by the Atlantics Mark Leibovich showcases what the author calls Trumps invasion of our politics. Ari Fleischer, press secretary under president George W. Bush, takes the mainstream media to task for its Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias, #6 on our list. With the #8 book, former House speaker Newt Gingrich seeks allies in Defeating Big Government Socialism. In They Want to Kill Americans, #11, MSNBC counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance alleges, per our review, that a political paramilitary insurgency is preparing to bring down the Biden administration and return Donald Trump to power. And at #18, political consultant and NewsmaxTV commentator Dick Morris heralds The Return: Trumps Big 2024 Comeback.

NEW & NOTABLE

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

Debbie Macomber

#6 Hardcover Fiction

Fan favorite Macomber brings sweetness and sensitivity to this weighty military family romance, our review said, deeming the novel a deeply moving contemporary. See our profile of the Queen of Hearts.

UPGRADE

Blake Crouch

#11 Hardcover Fiction

This nail-biting near-future science thriller, per our starred review, takes gene hacking to a terrifying extreme. Crouch fully develops his alarming concept and its implications along with delivering masterful characterizations. This is the best yet from a creative and gifted author.
PEN America, the literary advocacy and human rights organization, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, from July 22 through October 9 the New-York Historical Society is hosting PEN America at 100: A Century of Defending the Written Word, an exhibition of 60 artifacts, documents, ephemera, and posters from the organization, dating from 1922 to today. The exhibition touches on the influence of numerous influential writers who have been involved in the group, including such notables as Chinua Achebe, James Baldwin, T.S. Eliot, Ralph Ellison, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Jerzy Kosinski, Sinclair Lewis, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Susan Sontag, John Steinbeck, and Dorothy Thompson.

Whats notable to me, in doing research for the exhibition, was the strong and important leadership roles women have had in the group, starting with its founder, Catharine Amy Dawson Scott, continuing through to today, under CEO Suzanne Nossel, said Bridget Colman, a PEN America Trustee, who cocurated the exhibition with Lisa Schlansker Kolosek. Women know the secret to success for any cause is gathering people and support.

Over the years, PEN America has had a strong influence both domestically and internationally. In the 1960s, for example, it lobbied on behalf of Black writers, to amplify their voices. The 1980s was a particularly active decade, as the association fought for more favorable representation in the press for those suffering from AIDS and, subsequently, for LGBTQ and womens rights, and rights for writers in communist countries. In 1989 it stood up on behalf of Salman Rushdie after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses prompted Irans Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to call for Rushdies death.

All of this is represented in the exhibition. Sometimes, the group courted controversy, such as in 2015, when PEN awarded Charlie Hebdo editor-in-chief Gerard Biard and critic-essayist Jean-Baptiste Thore the Freedom of Expression Courage Award following the murder of a dozen people at the satirical newspaper in Paris that year. This prompted some 200 writers to sign an open letter criticizing PEN. All this is touched on in the exhibition, as well.

Colman said the anniversary and exhibition are especially relevant at a time when we all need to be reminded of the important role PEN is playing in the defense of freedom of speech and human rights in our toxic political environment. Its fascinating to look at the history and realize that, while PEN may have started as a supper club after WWI, it quickly became political, Colman said. She noted that PEN organized a special meeting of some 500 writers in 1939 to address the threat Hitler presented to the world, an event echoed in May this year when PEN convened an Emergency World Voices Congress of Writers. This years event drew 80 writers from around the world to the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations where a wide range of topics were addressed, including climate change, book banning, identity politics, the marginalization of literature in global culture, and the role of writers in a time of upheaval. At the meeting, Ukraines Andrey Kurkov discussed the horror of Russias invasion of his homeland, and Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka criticized the role of social media in spreading disinformation while also praising its use in fomenting political protest at home. PEN America is working on an oral history project that aims to capture thinking on the topics discussed.

Today, PENs political ambitions are front and center. As Colman pointed out, it now has an office in Washington, D.C., and Nossel, who took over as CEO of PEN in 2013, came to the organization from Amnesty International, where she was executive director, and previously served as deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations at the U.S. State Department.

Nossel emphasized that PEN America and its mission is more important now than ever. This moment in time, we are facing unprecedented challenges to freedom of expression stemming from the rising tide of authoritarianism spreading around the world, Nossel said. She emphasized that the organizations mission hasnt fundamentally changed in the past 100 years and still reflects the consciousness of writers who founded it. We have long argued that having a vibrant community of writers is a public good, she said. That is what we as an organization fundamentally believe. And since free expression is at the root of democracy, it is what we are here to fight forand today, we have a real fight on our hands.
Soap opera icon Jack Wagner is back to work on When Calls the Heart more than a month after the drug-overdose death of his 27-year-old son, Harrison.

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"Thank you all so much for the love & support you've sent me, it's helped me more than you'll ever know. Excited to start S10 @wcth_tv #Hearties on @hallmarkchannel...Again thank you all for the love, right back at ya," Jack Wagner wrote on Instagram Friday.

Harrison Wagner, who was the son of Jack Wagner and his ex-wife and former General Hospital co-star Kristina Wagner, was found dead in a Los Angeles parking lot in early June.

Harrison Wagner had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, and went missing for five days in 2016 causing Jack Wagner to make a public plea for his return.

Jack Wagner has worked in TV dramas for more than four decades, appearing in Santa Barbara, The Bold and the Beautiful and Melrose Place.
Netflix is releasing its highly anticipated film The Gray Man, Billy Porter's directorial debut Anything's Possible is streaming on Prime Video and Walker Season 2 is coming to HBO Max this weekend.

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Hulu will also be streaming two new films, and Blown Away Season 3 will be available on Netflix.

Here are some of the film and television options that will be released on streaming platforms this weekend.

Film

'The Gray Man' -- Netflix

Based on the novel of the same name and directed by the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Endgame), The Gray Man stars Ryan Gosling as a CIA agent under pursuit by assassins after uncovering government secrets. It is streaming on Netflix as of Friday. The film also stars Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, alongside Jessica Henwick and Bridgerton's Rege-Jean Page.

'Anything's Possible' -- Amazon Prime Video

The long-awaited debut of director Billy Porter is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video starting Friday. Described as a coming-of-age story for Gen Z, Anything's Possible follows the journey of transgender high-schooler Kelsa, played by Eva Reign. Porter told Variety the film was "almost like a fairytale."

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'All My Friends Hate Me' -- Hulu

A British comedy-horror film, All My Friends Hate Me revolves around a young man "who is cautiously excited about reuniting with his college crew for a birthday weekend." Things go awry, though, when his friends begin to turn against him. The film stars British actors Tom Stourton and Georgina Campbell and streams on Hulu starting Friday.

'Topside' -- Hulu

Topside is a 2020 drama that served as director Celine Held's feature debut. Held also stars in the film as a mother who lives with her 5-year-old daughter in the subway system beneath New York City, attempting to raise her amid constant challenges. Topside will stream on Hulu starting Sunday.

Series

'Blown Away' Season 3 -- Netflix

A Canadian reality show based around competitive glassblowing, Season 3 of Blown Away will begin streaming on Netflix on Friday. The show involves 10 glassblowing experts who attempt to create the best glass sculptures in a chance to win $60,000.

'Walker' Season 2 -- HBO Max

While waiting for its third season to premiere on Oct. 6, fans of Walker can begin streaming Season 2 on HBO Max on Saturday. The show was developed for The CW, and follows Jared Padalecki as Cordell Walker, a Texas Ranger who works to raise his family while keeping them safe. The show is a reboot of the 1990s series Walker, Texas Ranger starring Chuck Norris.
Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

A few passing clouds. Hot. Low 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Hot. Low 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Authorities say a fast-moving wildfire near Yosemite National Park has prompted evacuations even as firefighters make progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias
FILE - Abortion-rights supporters chant their objections at the Kentucky Capitol on April 13, 2022, in Frankfort, Ky. Attorneys for Kentuckys two abortion clinics sought an injunction in court Wednesday, July 6, 2022, to block the state's near-total ban on the procedure, one of numerous such efforts across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
FILE - This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. in 2022 could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, or it could yet be contained. Or it might be too early to tell.
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
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.
Locals can't get warnings about air strikes and troop attacks. The NUG says the junta is trying to hide war crimes.

Smoke rises from villages in Gangaw and Tilin townships, in Magway region, but locals have been unable to share information due to phone and internet blackouts.

Junta forces cut phone and internet access in Myanmars Magway region on Monday at the start of a scorched-earth operation that is still raging.

Residents of Gangaw and Tilin townships said they believed their telecoms were cut off because of strong resistance by local Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs) against junta troops.

The People's Administration Organization of nearby Saw township said that the cutting of internet and phone lines meant junta troops would soon raid local villages.

"There is a news blackout in Tilin and Gangaw. We heard there were some attacks in the area but we don't know exactly where they are happening because we don't have phone connections. Normally, if the phone and internet lines are cut, it means theyll be attacking the villages. Villages will be destroyed and burned so we have to be alert when the lines are cut. The movements of the revolutionary forces [PDFs] will also be seriously affected."

Locals said the military launched airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday near Zibya village and Shounshi village in Gangaw township.

A resident of Myin Thar Village in Gangaw, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said he was very worried for his family.

"I've been calling [my] village for four days now and I can't get through. The internet and phone lines have been cut, and I've heard that they've been bombed by military aircraft. I don't have all the information yet. I just heard that villages west of Gangaw and Hakha Road have been bombed but I can't get any specific information because the phone lines have been cut."

A resident of Gangaws Sanmyo village, who is now in Chin state and also declined to be named, said he had heard reports the juntas aircraft had attacked some villages but he did not know the exact facts.

"Both the phone and lines have been completely cut off on our side. We have heard reports of bombings by fighter jets, said the resident who added that the city has been hit as hard as the villages. The entire Gangaw area has been completely shut down and we can't reach anywhere."

A woman from Tilin, who also wanted to remain anonymous, said while lines were down some people managed to get a signal.

We could make some calls for the western side of our village so we had to go there to contact our relatives. But we cant reach people in Gangaw, she said, adding that villagers are concerned they wont be warned in advance about attacks by aircraft and ground troops because lines have been cut.

The woman eventually travelled two miles to the Magway-Chin border, where she was able to use her phone and the internet to gather information.

Covering up junta war crimes

The Human Rights Minister of the shadow National Unity Government, Aung Myo Min, said the military cut the internet and phone lines so as not to leave any evidence of the war crimes.

"These cuts by the military council are to block the flow of information especially about their brutality, and war crimes committed by them on the ground and to cut off humanitarian aid, he said. Because when the news of their actions comes to light, it will definitely be used as evidence to international tribunals. Cutting off information has become a military strategy. It is obvious they do not want to leave any evidence that can be used when legal action is taken."

RFA called military spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, director-general Myo Swe of the Department of Communications at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and the spokesman at the Magway Regional Government Office, but there was no response from any of them.

Juntas history of telecoms blackouts

According to the General Administration Department, there are more than 200 villages in Gangaw and Tilin townships in Magway. More than 180,000 residents living in these townships are now losing their right to information due to the interruption of internet and phone lines.

The military cut off all phone lines and the internet for the entire day of the coup on Feb. 1, last year. The internet was completely cut off on Feb. 6 and 7, 2021, only to be restored on Feb. 8.

The military also cut off the internet in some townships and slowed it in others when the military launched attacks on armed PDFs in Magway, Sagaing and Mandalay regions and Chin and Kachin states.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese.
Flash floods in Iran's drought-stricken southern province of Fars have killed at least 21 people following heavy rainfall, state media reported on July 23.

The flooding hit several towns and villages near the city of Estahban where torrential rainfall swelled the Roudbal River, a local official said.

Videos posted on local and social media showed vehicles being carried away by the rising waters of the river. One video showed adults pulling a child from a car as it began to shift downstream.

According to city Governor Yousef Karegar, rescue teams saved 55 people who were trapped by the flash flooding, but at least six people were still missing.

Photos released by Iran's Red Crescent Society showed rescue workers walking on cracked dry soil while others searched among reeds.

The flooding began at around 5 p.m. local time on July 22, on a summer weekend in Iran, when families tend to head to cooler areas such as rivers, lakes, and valleys.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi shared his condolences with the families of the flood victims, state television said.

Iran has seen repeated droughts over the past decade, but also regular floods.

In 2019, heavy flooding in the countrys south killed at least 76 people and caused damage estimated at more than $2 billion.

In Fars Province, a flash flood caused the death of 44 people in March 2018.

Experts say climate change amplifies droughts and floods and that their intensity and frequency in turn threaten food security.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called on the United States and Russia to hold peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, adding that Kyiv cannot win against Moscows larger force.

During a July 23 speech delivered in neighboring Romania, Orban also criticized the European Unions strategy of imposing sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, saying it is hurting the bloc.

"Only Russian-U.S. talks can put an end to the conflict because Russia wants security guarantees" only Washington can give, Orban said.

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.

The United States and its Western allies were engaged in intense, monthslong negotiations with Russia over the Kremlins security concerns when President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine on February 24 on the false premise of protecting Russian-speakers in the Donbas.

A nationalist who has repeatedly clashed with the EU over his increasing authoritarian rule at home, Orban has been a thorn in the blocs side since the war began, undermining the image of a West completely united against Kremlin aggression.

The 59-year-old Hungarian leader has held up EU energy sanctions against Russia and criticized Western military assistance to Ukraine. The 27-member EU requires unanimity for many decisions.

The EU earlier this month imposed its seventh round of sanctions against Russia as it seeks to weaken the Kremlins ability to fund its war in Ukraine.

While the sanctions have severely hurt Russias economy, they have also helped drive up energy prices, slowing the EU economy and pushing it toward recession. Russia had been the largest supplier of energy to the EU prior to the war.

During his speech in Romania, Orban highlighted the economic impact on the EU and said the bloc needs a new strategy for dealing with Russia and the war.

The Hungarian leader said the EU "should not side with the Ukrainians, but position itself" between both Kyiv and Moscow.

The EU sanctions "will not change the course of the war and "the Ukrainians will not come out victorious," he said, pointing to the Russian militarys asymmetrical dominance.

Along with other EU leaders, Orban initially condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but he has maintained an ambiguous position on the conflict in recent months, even sending his foreign minister to Moscow to negotiate for more gas imports.

Hungary is among the European nations most dependent on Russian natural gas, receiving about 85 percent of its needs from the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom company.

With European natural gas prices up nearly fivefold over the past year due in large part to the war in Ukraine, Orban has been forced to scrap a decade-long cap on gas and power prices for higher-usage households.

The price caps helped Orban secure reelection in 2014 and had been a key point of his election campaign in April, when he won a fourth consecutive term in office.

The 59-year-old ultraconservative leader also defended his vision of an "unmixed Hungarian race" as he criticized mixing with "non-Europeans."

"We move, we work elsewhere, we mix within Europe," he said at the Baile Tusnad Summer University in Romania's Transylvania region, home to a large Hungarian community.

"But we don't want to be a mixed race", a "multiethnic" people who would mix with "non-Europeans," he said.

The Hungarian premier has targeted migrants from Africa and the Middle East, as well as NGOs that support them, restricting the right to seek asylum and putting up barriers at borders.



The European Court of Justice has condemned Hungary several times as a result.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters
More than five months since Russia invaded Ukraine, a war of attrition has emerged with losses of materiel and men on both sides, not advances on the ground, becoming the key barometer of the conflict, a leading U.S.-based expert on Russias military has told RFE/RLs Georgian Service.

Those casualties and equipment losses will largely determine the long-term sustainability of the war efforts by Russian and Ukrainian forces, explained Michael Kofman, who heads the Russia Studies Program at the Virginia-based think tank CNA.

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The conflict is now defined much more by heavy use of artillery and firepower, Kofman said, with neither side able to gain momentum.

Since April, the Kremlin has concentrated on capturing the Donbas, an industrial region of eastern Ukraine where Russia-backed separatists are in control. Where Russian forces have advanced those advances have been incremental, Ukrainian forces have been able to conduct tactical withdrawals pretty consistently, Kofman said.

His comments come as an assessment by the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command on July 22 said that due to significant losses of personnel and equipment, Russia probably no longer has the military capacity to realize its ambitions in Ukraine.

Richard Moore, chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said on July 21 that Moscows forces would likely start an operational pause of some kind in Ukraine soon, adding that the Russian military would increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower and materiel over the next few weeks.

Despite those assessments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on July 20 that Russia's ambitions in Ukraine now went far beyond the eastern Donbas region to include a swath of land in the south and "a number of other territories."

Lavrov claimed that Russias new territorial ambitions were driven by the course of the war. But in the early stages of the invasion, Russia tried to occupy much of Ukraines south and capture the capital, Kyiv.

Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russia has lost -- as of July 23 -- more than 39,240 soldiers and officers since it launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The Russian Defense Ministry last released casualty figures in late March, saying that 1,351 of its personnel had died.

To beef up depleted forces, Russia is using the private military contractor Vagner, British military intelligence said on July 18.

The British Defense Ministry said Vagner is lowering its recruitment standards and hiring convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals, potentially impacting Russian military effectiveness.

Along with Vagner contractors, the Russian military is relying more on volunteer and reserve battalions because of a shortage of infantry, Kofman explained, and that those troops are now fighting more and more with less lethal Soviet-era equipment, such as older T-80BV tanks.

Russia still has quite a bit of equipment in storage. That's true. But it's a considerable step down in terms of quality and technological level compared to what they began the war with. The attrition issue is significant. I think it's fair to say that, in key categories, they've lost 30 percent of the active armored force, Kofman said.

Military casualties are also a challenge for Ukraine, Kofman noted.

It's not the same challenge. But nonetheless, there is a similar long-term challenge for Ukraine to avoid force degradation, because it's clear that as the war has gone on Ukraine has also lost a number of its best units that [they] are forced to replace with mobilized personnel and individuals who have limited basic training, he explained.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told The Wall Street Journal in a July 22 interview that Ukraines military was losing between 100 and 200 servicemen per day in May and June, but that those numbers have now dropped to 30 dead and some 250 wounded daily.

Western Weapons

Zelenskiy said Western weapons, especially longer-range missiles such as U.S. HIMARS -- high-mobility artillery rocket systems -- which Ukraine has deployed in recent weeks, had helped to stabilize the situation in the Donbas.

I think that HIMARS certainly is going to help Ukraine gain a degree of parity with Russian artillery, and is going to create a big problem for the Russian military, and how they organize both logistics and command and control and the degree of attrition they take on the battlefield, predicted Kofman.

HIMARS have a longer range and are more precise than the Soviet-era artillery that Ukraine had in its arsenal, and Ukrainian officials have said their deployment has been critical in the fight to repel Russian troops and to strike their supply lines.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on July 20 the United States would send four more HIMARS to Ukraine, a day after such a request was made by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who said Kyiv's forces had used them to destroy some 30 Russian command stations and ammunition depots.

The four additional HIMARS will bring to 16 the number sent by the United States. Austin said the new package would also include ammunition for multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) that can precisely strike targets that are scores of kilometers away.

"I think the challenge for the Russian military will be if Ukraine increasingly makes use of operational level strike capabilities like HIMARs to target Russian ammunition dumps, where whether Russia has large supplies of ammo or not will no longer matter, because it won't be able to effectively get them to the battlefield, because they keep getting destroyed over time and thus it proves hard for the Russian military to then concentrate them," Kofman explained.

Russia's options to counter the HIMARS are minimal, he added.

The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles capable of hitting targets up to 80 kilometers away, a distance that puts them out of reach of most Russian artillery systems.

"That's one of the biggest challenges for them, because their ability to obtain air superiority is at best localized, and their counterstrike options are limited. So, their capacity for targeting HIMARS isnt particularly good."
A lawmaker from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk who made critical comments pertaining to Russias war in Ukraine has reportedly fled the country after prosecutors opened a criminal investigation.

Khelga Pirogova, an independent lawmaker, left Russia on July 22, the same day that Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin ordered prosecutors to open a criminal case, local media reported.

She may have fled to neighboring Kazakhstan, local media speculated. Pirogova did not answer her phone when contacted by RFE/RL. Her lawyer, Yegor Solunin, said he has yet to receive material from prosecutors.

Pirogova was briefly detained by police on July 22 following a charity event in support of local residents who took part in protests organized by jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny in January 2021.

The protesters have been ordered by a court to pay compensation to the police.

Pirogova gained attention beyond her region when her comments on an article in Russian state media went viral.

The lawmaker said she was disgusted by the article, which quoted relatives of Siberian soldiers killed in Ukraine thanking local government officials for competently organizing funerals.

In her Twitter post, Pirogov said not one normal person would calmly accept the death of a relative and be pleased with a well-organized funeral.

"Instead of the lives of their relatives, they managed to have a normal table with food organized at the funeral," Helga Pirogova said in her post. It's just unspeakable, I want to revive them all, slap them hard on the cheeks and let them go back to the graves to grieve.

Pirogova later deleted her post, saying it was an emotional reaction to the article.

Since launching his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin has clamped down hard on any dissent against the war.

In March he signed bills in law that effectively criminalize any criticism of the war or actions of Russian soldiers.

Russian citizens face up to 10 year in prison for distributing "false news" about military operations and up to 15 years for discrediting the nations armed forces.

A Russian court earlier this month sentenced Aleksei Gorinov, a Moscow city lawmaker, to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of knowingly distributing false information about Russias military.

At a meeting of the Moscow city legislature in March, Gorinov criticized the Russian invasion, suggesting it was inappropriate to be holding a local childrens art competition while in Ukraine every day children are dying.

Gorinov is the first elected official in Russia to be convicted under the new law.
DUSHANBE -- Tajik prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for retired Major General Kholbash Kholbashov for his alleged role in organizing deadly protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan region (GBAO) in May, a charge human rights organizations have called "bogus."

Sources close to law enforcement in Dushanbe told RFE/RL that prosecutors also asked the court to convict and sentence a second defendant in the case, noted journalist and human rights activist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, to 25 years in prison. Mamadshoeva is Kholbashov's ex-wife.

The trial for the two began on August 3 and is being held behind closed doors on the premises of the State Committee for National Securitys detention center in Dushanbe.

Kholbashov and Mamadshoeva also face several charges of publicly calling for violent change to Tajikistan's constitutional order, organizing a criminal group, murder, attempted murder, and terrorism.

They were arrested on May 18 and later shown on the Tojikiston television channel saying that they, along with opposition politician Alim Sherzamonov and Mahmadboqir Mahmadboqirov, an informal leader in GBAO, had planned and organized the protests. Authorities in the Central Asian nation have claimed those actions were "terrorist" in nature.

The day before her arrest, Mamadshoeva, 65, told RFE/RL that she had nothing to do with the anti-government protests in GBAO's capital Khorugh, and in the district of Rushon.

Authorities say in the footage showing the so-called "confessions" that an unspecified Western country was involved in organizing the unrest. A total of 78 residents from GBAO's Rushon district were arrested at the time.

Mahmadboqirov was killed on May 22 in Khorugh. His relatives say law enforcement officers killed him, while authorities insist he was killed when criminal groups were settling scores.

Sherzamonov told RFE/RL that he had nothing to do with the planning of the riots in GBAO and that he suspects Mamadshoeva and Kholbashov were forced to make their televised statements.

Tajik authorities have said 10 people were killed and 27 injured during the clashes between protesters and police. Residents of the Rushon district, however, have told RFE/RL that 21 dead bodies were found at the sites where the clashes took place.

Deep tensions between the government and residents of the restive region have simmered ever since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Still, protests are rare in the tightly controlled nation of 9.5 million where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled for nearly three decades.

The latest protests were sparked in mid-May by anger over the lack of an investigation into the 2021 death of an activist while in police custody and the refusal by regional authorities to consider the resignation of regional Governor Alisher Mirzonabot and Rizo Nazarzoda, the mayor of Khorugh.

The rallies intensified after one of the protesters, a 29-year-old local resident Zamir Nazrishoev, was killed by police on May 16, prompting authorities to launch what they called an "anti-terrorist operation."

The escalating violence in the region has sparked a call for restraint from the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Western diplomatic missions in Tajikistan, and human rights groups.

Gorno-Badakhshan, a linguistically and ethnically distinct region, has been home to rebels who opposed government forces during the conflict in the 1990s.

While it occupies almost half of the entire country, its population is just 250,000. The region is difficult to travel around because of the mountainous terrain, while its economy is wracked by unemployment, difficult living conditions, and high food prices.
Russia bombed Ukraines port of Odesa, a strategic Black Sea terminal, on July 23, a day after a landmark deal was signed between the two warring nations to resume grain exports.

Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the port, but did not cause significant damage, Ukrainian officials said. Another two missiles were shot down, they added.

Ukrainian, Western, and UN officials immediately denounced Russias attack, accusing the Kremlin of continuing to threaten global food supplies and endangering the lives of millions of people around the world.

"This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement [the grain deal," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said following the attack.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After months of talks, Russia and Ukraine finally signed separate agreements with Turkey and the United Nations on July 22, allowing millions of tons of desperately needed grain -- currently trapped in Ukraine by the war -- to be exported across the Black Sea and help alleviate the global food crisis.

Ukraine is one of the worlds largest exporters of wheat, corn, and sunflower oil, but Russias invasion of the country and naval blockade of its ports have halted shipments.

That has caused global food prices to spike, leaving millions of people in impoverished countries at risk of hunger and sparking fears of social unrest.

Under the agreement signed in Istanbul, Ukrainian officials would guide ships through safe channels across mined waters into three ports, including Odesa, where they would be loaded with grain.

Kyiv said around 20 million tons of produce from last year's harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement. The exports could generate $10 billion in revenue for cash-strapped Ukraine.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink called the attack outrageous and a sign the Kremlin continues to weaponize food.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the strike a cowardly attack and said its shows that the Russian leadership's signature counts for little at the moment."

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Ankara, a key interlocutor in the grain talks, was concerned by the attack.

Natalya Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraines southern military command, said one of the missiles hit a pumping station while the other caused a small fire that damaged houses around the port.

She said the grain storage area was not hit. No casualties have yet been reported.

Ukraines Foreign Ministry said that Russia would bear full responsibility for deepening the global food crisis if the strikes caused the deal to collapse.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied responsibility for the food crisis, and has blamed Western sanctions for slowing Russias own food and fertilizer exports.

He has also blamed the food crisis on Ukraines decision to lay mines around its Black Sea ports.

Ukraine was forced to mine the area around its ports to prevent Russia from invading its territory by sea.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP
The San Ysidro School District continues to distribute bottled water at its three oldest campuses following findings of elevated levels of lead, copper and bacteria in plumbing at one of the schools.

Last October, an employee at La Mirada Elementary noticed discolored water in faucets during pressure tests for plumbing leaks.

Water to all drinking fountains, sinks and faucets was shut off immediately.

For the safety of the kids it was a very easy decision, said district Superintendent Julio Fonseca.

Water quality reports from the city of San Diego indicated that the water itself was not contaminated, but rather that the water was contaminated by aging plumbing.

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The district has since replaced most of the fountains, faucets and sinks at La Mirada, but some parts had to be special ordered to comply with state standards, and have still not come in.

Once all fixtures are in, retesting will be done. The district has said it would report the results of sampling as it is completed.

In the meantime, bottled water continues to being used for drinking and cooking, and hand sanitizer has replaced the soap in restrooms.

The district also conducted water quality sampling at San Ysidro Middle and Smythe Elementary and is waiting for results.

The same type of replacement work is expected to be done this summer at these schools.

Fonseca said there are no reports of sickness caused by drinking contaminated water to date.

Since finding the contaminants, many companies and organizations have donated water to the district.

Its been an awesome experience to see how the community has come forward to help, said Victor Guzman, director of facilities, operations and maintenance for the district.

The districts other schools  Ocean View Hills, Sunset, Willow and Vista Del Mar  were built with lead- and-copper-free plumbing, or later renovated.

But Fonseca said they will undergo testing as well in an abundance of caution.

The San Ysidro School District serves more than 5,200 students at seven schools and a preschool.

UPDATES:

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that water quality reports regarding the contamination was given by the Otay Water District. The San Ysidro School District gets it water from the city of San Diego.
15:00 | Lima, Jul. 23.





The Head of State stressed that the aeronautical industry has been strengthened, which has contributed to reducing technological dependence on other countries and has instead generated growth in the assembly of basic training aircraft.





"As the Supreme Chief of the Armed Forces, but above all as a Peruvian (citizen), I am proud of our military aircraft that perform a unique service," he said.





Therefore, the top official announced that the working conditions of personnel of these institutions will be improved, adding that their equipment and training will not be neglected.





The President also congratulated the officers of the Armed Forces engaged in United Nations special missions, as well as the female personnel holding the rank of non-commissioned officers and technicians who are in charge of the maintenance of combat aircraft.





National anniversary





During his speech, the President mentioned that in a few days Peruvians will commemorate the 201st independence anniversary. He deemed it as an important date, which he affirmed should find us united.





"There is only one Peru; no one divides it and this should be the opportunity to renew the commitment that we all have to the country to continue fighting against the major scourges such as poverty, inequality, insecurity, and corruption," he said.





Moreover, the Head of State indicated that on July 28 he will give account of his administration and the goals set by the Government for the next and subsequent years.





In this sense, the top official emphasized that his goal is to meet people's demands with greater decision and willingness.





"We will continue working with greater effort and determination to boost growth, development, and strengthen democratic institutions, within the framework of a dialogue with all sectors for the sake of the country," he asserted.









(END) RMCH/JCC/MVB
?? En vivo | El presidente @PedroCastilloTe participa en el desfile por el 81. aniversario de la inmolacion del capitan FAP Jose Abelardo Quinones y Dia de la Fuerza Aerea del Peru.#LaFuerzaDeTodosLosPeruanos #SiempreConElPueblo https://t.co/Ep5fUVzDXw
?? El Ministerio de Salud informa que aumento a 157 los casos confirmados de #ViruelaDelMono, que corresponden a 8 regiones del Peru, todos los pacientes vienen recibiendo asistencia medica, se registraron 24 altas medicas y se esta realizando la identificacion de contactos. pic.twitter.com/4weOFZ6Tce
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Heating and cooling of buildings hogs energy. Cooling, the bigger consumer, accounts for about a fifth of U.S. energy usage, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration  and that number is projected to rise rapidly as the world gets warmer.

Stanford Professor Yi Cui wants to slash that through smart clothing that keeps its wearers cool or warm, so they dont have to crank up the thermostat or lower the A/C.

His Sunnyvale startup, LifeLabs, sells apparel that looks and functions just like regular sportswear but is made out of high-tech fabric he invented to regulate body temperature.

We spend so much energy to do cooling during summertime and warming during wintertime to make people feel comfortable indoors, said Cui, a professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford and director of its Precourt Institute for Energy. If summer air-conditioning could go up 3 degrees Celsius, you could save roughly 30% of a buildings energy consumption. Every 1 degree Celsius saves 10%.

The converse would be true in winter: save energy by turning down the thermostat if peoples garments could keep them warmer.

LifeLabs products include shirts, pants, shorts, windbreakers, jackets, vests, pants and pajamas, as well as bedding items such as sheets and pillowcases. A short-sleeve button-up cooling shirt sells for $69 and a cooling windbreaker with SPF protection is $129, for instance.

But for apparel to significantly reduce energy used to heat and cool buildings, LifeLabs and similar products would need widespread adoption  by individual consumers, and more importantly, by corporate customers.

Imagine a factory, warehouse or school where everyone wore uniforms made from climate-controlled fabric. Those giant buildings could then rein in their energy usage. If you could get a whole factory of workers to wear it, that could make a huge impact, Cui said.

Backed by $13.8 million in venture funding, the 12-person LifeLabs has sold fewer than 10,000 garments since launching its direct-to-consumer sales last autumn. Cui acknowledges that it needs a lot more marketing to build awareness. It hopes to scale up by partnering with large garment makers and other commercial entities such as workplaces.

Using clothing to conserve energy hasnt always been a popular concept. During the 1970s oil crisis, President Jimmy Carter was greeted with derision when he urged Americans to wear sweaters so they could turn down their thermostats.

But in the decades since then, attitudes have evolved as the pace of global warming has accelerated. Energy experts said any fast and cheap way to rein in energy usage has merit, compared to cumbersome solutions such as constructing new buildings.

Getting customers to make small demand changes is a cost-effective way to reduce the need for additional grid hardware, whether it is more generation, more storage or more transmission, wrote Severin Borenstein, a professor and faculty director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeleys Haas School of Business, in a blog post, albeit not specifically discussing apparel.

But Borenstein was dubious about the LifeLabs concept, saying in an email that social norms rather than tech clothing are what need to change. For instance, he said, Japan declared a Hawaiian shirt summer after the Fukushima disaster and the associated electricity shortage they had the following summer. They turned thermostats to 82 degrees and it was considered a big success. Likewise, sweaters/sweatshirts and thick socks are a good way to stay warm in the winter.

Bedding seems a more important breakthrough since there is lots of discussion of how to sleep cooler and the importance of sleeping in a cool room, he said.

Donald Wulfinghoff, who runs the Energy Institute Press, which publishes guides on energy conservation, was even less enthusiastic about the concept.

The claims about saving heating and cooling energy almost certainly fall under the category of greenwashing, he wrote in an email.

But LifeLabs investors  who, of course, are not impartial  see it as a potential game changer.

We strongly believe technology advancements will make a huge impact in the fight against climate crisis by empowering the individual to reduce personal energy usage, Bo Bai, founder of Asia Green Fund, said in a statement. In April his firm led a $6 million funding round into LifeLabs.

On a recent day, Cui wore a dark polo shirt and tan pants that appear indistinguishable from typical Silicon Valley apparel, both made from CooLife textiles. You can feel the cooling right away, he said, fingering his shirt.

He showed off a rack of LifeLabs items. Its WarmLife clothing traps human infrared radiation using a thin porous metallic coating that is sandwiched between regular textiles, he said. An entire jacket uses about as much aluminum as whats in a paper clip, and is about a third lighter than a down jacket, Cui said.

If you put your hands inside it, within 5 or 10 seconds you can feel the warmth build up; I feel it right away, Cui said, demonstrating.

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WarmLife is made from 97% recycled material, according to the company. Its nylon fiber is pre-consumer, such as left-over fabric cuttings and yarn waste, while its polyester is post-consumer, recycled from used bottles.

The CoolLife fabric is woven out of polyethylene, the same stuff as supermarket plastic bags. CoolLife is made from a virgin thread as of now, with the goal to get to a recycled material in the future, the company said.

Cui said its approach is superior to other cooling fabrics that use mesh weaves  essentially holes  to let body heat escape. We do the cooling before the sweat is coming out, he said. I dont think any other cooling technology can do that.

The field of climate clothing is still so nascent that there are no independent studies to prove or disprove LifeLabs contentions, and the company could not name any outside experts familiar with its work.

To be sure, there are rivals. Companies from Sony to Under Armour sell temperature-regulating clothing, and other university labs such as UC San Diego and the University of Maryland have announced breakthroughs in temperature-regulating fabrics. A quick Amazon search turns up more than 4,000 matches for temperature control clothing. Much of it is traditional items such as thermal underwear and moisture-wicking T-shirts; some is more edgy, such as heated electric underwear with Bluetooth controls.

LifeLabs tests its clothing using special mannequins that mimic human heat generation. The dummies temperature sensors show that CoolTech can lower body temperature by 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, Cui said.

Next on his drawing board is a bifunctional fabric that could both heat and cool as the temperature changes throughout the day. Its not out yet but already has a name: DualLife.

Any time you have a big temperature difference between day and night, or when you become hot when you run and cooler when you stay still would be useful for DualLife, Cui said.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
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I did something highly unusual last week: I went into the office. Id been working at home like most everyone I know, but I had an errand I had to run at The Chronicle. It had been four months since Id been at Fifth and Mission.

When you work at home you forget all the little rituals that come with getting ready for work, all involving timing so you can be out the door, ready to go at a certain precise time. Remember that? Id almost forgotten.

Most days over the years, Id ridden downtown on the J-Church Muni car. I had forgotten the 20-minute ride downtown was usually mildly pleasant, a chance to read or do nothing. I got off at Powell, walked up Fifth Street, which looked a bit shabby, but no worse than I remembered.

The newspaper office was nearly empty, because most others were working remotely. But there were two or three other reporters, and we talked shop at bit. My small errand was accomplished quickly.

So I took a look downtown, the way a working stiff would with a bit of time to spare. Downtown San Francisco looks the way it did before  the same, but different, too.

Its like running into someone on the street you havent seen for a while. You look and look at each other. How are you? Or the eternal question, Whats new?

They played that tune at Herb Caens funeral. Its a bittersweet question: Whats new? How is the world treating you?

So how is the city? I walked around, looked in the windows, listened to the talk, rode the 1-California bus through the Financial District, through Chinatown, up Nob Hill and out through lower Pacific Heights for an appointment with an eye doctor.

Back downtown on a different bus, taking a look around. You havent changed a bit, the song goes. Handsome as ever I must admit.

Still lots of people on the streets, no matter what you hear. Still a big American flag at the corner of California and Montgomery, right next to what used to be the Bank of America Building. A little glass kiosk there sells candy and cookie treats. A California Street cable car rumbles past. The street looks like a canyon of commerce. Theres a still a timeless quality to it. Odd things here and there: a little dog wearing dark glasses atop a fire hydrant. His human companion nearby. A city sight.

There are lots of people but not everywhere, especially in the Financial District. Things have changed. People work fewer hours, or maybe different hours, or different places. I was downtown on a Tuesday, busier that day because Tuesday is the new Monday. You know what they say at the end of the workweek: Thank God its Thursday.

The people look different, too. Fleece vests and casual pants is the new style for men in a city that once was famous for style. As for women, well, Ive always thought San Francisco women had style, and they still do.

The citys different now since the pandemic. Changing. A friend and I had lunch at the Ferry Building earlier in the summer with a man who has a hand in everything, business, government, all kinds of stuff. We offered the usual lament about changes. You know whats going on? he said. San Francisco is reinventing itself. Its always done that. Its never stayed the same. Dont use my name, he said. But everyone knows San Francisco will never be the same.

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Anybody who has spent time in San Francisco knows the city also has a hard edge  and not just in the Tenderloin and the homeless camps, not just the old Skid Row of another time.

Two days after my visit downtown, I took a walk in different direction, down the bottom of my neighborhood hill to Mission Street, then 24th. The big BART plaza there was surrounded by a chain link fence. Closed off.

There had been a problem there for months: people selling obviously stolen goods on the sidewalk  stuff freshly looted from drugstores  and an open-air drug market. On Wednesday, BART, acting at the request of the city, fenced off the whole 24th Street BART plaza for the first time ever. Unprecedented, but the situation was untenable chaotic and increasingly dangerous, said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the area.

The folks selling stolen goods werent just down and out people making a street living. What was new was organized fencing gangs moving in, tough guys. The police arrested one man in mid-July who had allegedly been making $500,000 a year for the past three years with a network fencing goods looted from local stores.

Take a walk on Mission and see whats new. In a single block you can see an Arabic restaurant, an Italian bakery, some jewelry stores, a legitimate and colorful open-air market, some famous Mexican restaurants, a mix of all the flavors of the city. And next to that a BART station plaza so dangerous it had to be fenced off.

The city is reinventing itself. Take a look in a couple of years, and see whats new then.

Carl Noltes columns appear in The San Francisco Chronicles Sunday edition. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com
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Here is the latest news on the Oak Fire

Firefighters battled an explosive fire that broke out west of Yosemite in Mariposa County on Friday afternoon and had torched 11,900 acres as of Saturday evening.

Officials said tough conditions, including high heat, low humidity and bone-dry fuels, were driving the brisk growth of the Oak Fire, ballooned in 24 hours to become the states largest fire this season. Extreme drought conditions, increased winds and hot temperatures fueled the growth and caused spot fires to leap ahead of the main blaze, creating explosive fire behavior that is challenging firefighters, officials said.

The fire was 0% contained as of Saturday evening, officials said. Road closures and evacuation orders covering 6,000 people were in place for a wide area east and south of the fire, but no injuries or human fatalities had been reported. Thick smoke filled the air near the blaze, reached Yosemite Valley and crept toward Lake Tahoe, but hadnt reached the Bay Area.

The cause of the blaze was still under investigation, according to Cal Fire.

Nearly 2,700 structures were threatened and at least 10 had been destroyed already, Cal Fire said Saturday. By Saturday evening, 2,093 personnel were on the scene, a dramatic increase from only around 400 Saturday morning.

The good news is we got a lot of resources in to fight the fire, said Amy Masi, a spokesperson with the Sierra National Forest. The containment is at zero percent, but because we have all these people arriving, we are going to be able to put them in the most advantageous place to fight the fire and in the coming days, will see the containment increase.

On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County due to the blaze and California secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get the necessary firefighting resources.

Ethan Swope/The Chronicle

The fire grew significantly in the northern section, moving further into Sierra National Forest. On the west side of the fire, crews were able to keep the fire west of Highway 140. The south side of the fire saw minimal growth.

Just before 5 p.m., the Mariposa County Sheriffs office issued a new advisory, warning people to be ready to leave at short notice, in the Ponderosa Basin Subdivision to the fires east.

The prognosis for fighting the flames Saturday and Sunday was mixed. Temperatures were expected to reach the mid-90s through the weekend and no rainfall was expected, according to the National Weather Service. Relative humidity levels were also worrisome, forecast to hit single digits at times during the weekend and to hover below 15% overall, said Felix Castro, a spokesperson for the weather services office in Hanford (Kings County).

Fortunately, winds were expected to be light and bearable, Castro said, with speeds forecast to reach 10 mph or less through the weekend.

The fire began at around 2 p.m. Friday in a sparsely populated forest area near Midpines, a town about 10 miles north of Mariposa, 35 miles northeast of Merced and 23 miles southwest of Yosemite. The fire was spreading in all directions on Friday but officials said Saturday morning it was generally trending toward the southeast.

Within hours of its start, the blaze grew to thousands of acres. Firefighters said flames were spotting anywhere up to 2 miles ahead of the fire and torching groups of trees.

The fire moved fast, moved hot, with very big flame lengths, said Daniel Patterson, public information officer for the Sierra National Forest. Its showing some pretty aggressive behavior.

Evacuation centers were established at the Mariposa Elementary School, located at 5044 Jones St., and at the Sierra Foothill Charter School, at 4952 School House Road in Catheys Valley. Large animals were set to be transported to the Mariposa Fair Grounds.

Ethan Swope/The Chronicle

Fire officials are hosting a community town hall at 7 p.m. on Sunday at the Mariposa County High School gymnasium.

The extreme fire conditions even generated a pyrocumulus cloud  or a fire cloud  that could be seen as far north as Reno and as far west as Contra Costa County.

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The plume reached higher than 20,000 feet into the sky.

The phenomenon occurs during large wildfires in extremely hot and dry conditions. Air is rapidly sucked into the fire and upward, triggering a vertical smoke plume of ash and soot.

The harrowing plumes could be seen on satellite and hundreds of miles away, in the Bay Area.

Firefighters said Saturday morning that there was no concern the Oak Fire could merge with the Washburn Fire, a smaller blaze that broke out July 7 in the southern part of Yosemite National Park and displaced residents of the nearby town of Wawona.

That fire had burned more than 4,856 acres and was 79% contained by Saturday evening.

Aside from Washburn, Californias usual summer fire season had been eerily quiet until now.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jill Tucker contributed to this report.

Annie Vainshtein (she/her) and Mallory Moench are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com, mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday's airstrikes as a spit in the face to Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements.

Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the port's infrastructure and Ukrainian air defenses brought down two others, the Ukrainian militarys Southern Command said. Odesa regional governor Maksym Marchenko said an unspecified number of people were injured in the attack.

Command spokeswoman Nataliya Humenyuk said no grain storage facilities were hit in Odesa. Turkey's defense minister, however, said he had spoken with Ukrainian authorities and one missile struck a grain silo and another landed nearby but neither affected loading at Odesa's docks.

It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesas port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the U.N. and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.

The invaders can no longer deceive anyone, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Nikolenko described the missile strike on the 150th day of Russias war in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin's spit in the face of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who made great efforts to reach agreement.

Guterres' office said the U.N. chief unequivocally condemns the strikes.

Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, the Guterres statement said. These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people."

It was not clear how Saturdays Russian airstrikes would affect the plan to resume shipping Ukrainian grain by sea in safe corridors out of three Ukrainian Black Sea ports: Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Ukraine and Russia signed identical deals Friday with the U.N. and Turkey in Istanbul backing the plan, which Guterres hailed as a beacon of hope for a world in which food prices are rising rapidly.

The agreements sought to clear the way for the shipment of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and some Russian exports of grain and fertilizer that have been blocked by the war. Ukraine is one of the worlds largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russias invasion and naval blockade of its ports halted shipments.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press showed the deals called for the creation of a U.N.-led joint coordination center in Istanbul where officials from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey would oversee the scheduling and searches of cargo ships.

Zelenskyy previously called the agreements a chance to prevent a global catastrophe  a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us.

The head of Zelenskyy's office, Andriy Yermak, said on Twitter that the Odesa strike, coming so soon after the endorsement of the Black Sea deal, illustrated "the Russian diplomatic dichotomy.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink denounced the strike on Odesa's port as outrageous.

The Kremlin continues to weaponize food, she tweeted. Russia must be held to account.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russias commitment to the deal and undermines the work of the U.N., Turkey and Ukraine.

Russia bears responsibility for deepening the global food crisis and must stop its aggression and fully implement the deal to which it has agreed, he said.

Russia also fired a barrage of missiles Saturday at an airfield and a railway facility in central Ukraine, killing at least three people, while Ukrainian forces launched rocket strikes on river crossings in a Russian-occupied southern region.

The attacks on key infrastructure marked new attempts by the warring parties to tip the scales of the grinding conflict in their favor.

In Ukraine's central Kirovohradska region, 13 Russian missiles struck an airfield and a railway facility. Gov. Andriy Raikovych said at least one serviceman and two guards were killed and another 16 people were wounded in the strikes near the city of Kirovohrad.

In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper River crossings to try to disrupt Russian supply lines. Still, Russian troops have largely held their ground in the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces at a checkpoint are blocking 1,200 vehicles carrying people fleeing the area and four people have died after being stranded there for days amid high heat, said Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the city of Melitopol, which is now under Russian control.

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In the key port city of Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said two people were wounded when Russian rockets struck an apartment building.

Fighting also raged unabated in eastern Ukraine's industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make new gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.

Earlier this week Ukraine bombarded the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnieper River using the U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russia-appointed regional administration in Kherson.

Stremousov told Russian state news agency Tass that the only other crossing of the Dnieper, the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, also came under attack from rockets launched with weapons supplied by Washington but wasn't damaged.

HIMARS, which can fire GPS-guided rockets at targets 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, out of reach of most Russian artillery systems, have significantly bolstered the Ukrainian strike capability.

In addition, Ukrainian forces shelled an automobile bridge across the Inhulets River in the village of Darivka, Stremousov told Tass. He said the bridge east of the regional capital of Kherson sustained seven hits but remained open. Stremousov said that, unlike the Antonivskyi Bridge, the small bridge in Darivka has no strategic value.

Since April, the Kremlin has concentrated on capturing the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region where pro-Moscow separatists have proclaimed independence.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized this week that Moscow plans to retain control of other areas in Ukraine that its forces have occupied during the war.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
UPDATE: Walgreens can be held responsible for its role in San Franciscos opioid crisis, federal judge rules

Last year, Walgreens stores in San Francisco made national headlines after a tweet documenting a brazen act of theft went viral. In the now-famous video, security guards stood by as a man hastily filled a garbage bag with items from the shelves, before riding out of the front doors on a Lyft rental bike. The tweets author, a TV reporter from KGO, used the hashtag #NoConsequences and tagged then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Fox News covered the incident multiple times, lambasting the citys shoplifting crisis. Then the Daily Mail chimed in. Breitbart News picked it up. Things died down, until Walgreens announced it was shuttering several of its San Francisco stores due to theft  and the stories started again.

All of this added color to the portrait of San Francisco as a crime-ridden hellhole, due to chronic homelessness and unchecked drug use  all enabled by the kind of liberal permissiveness exemplified by our lax district attorney, Boudin.

This narrative has stuck  buttressed by legitimate concerns over a wave of drug overdose deaths on our streets. And it is still influencing our politics and policymaking. Boudin was ousted in a recall, and his replacement, Brooke Jenkins, has made it clear she intends to make street-level enforcement of drug crimes a top priority.

The current rhetoric of accountability and personal responsibility surrounding drugs and addiction  and the crimes like petty theft that support them  is seductive. It has a kind of common-sense appeal thats easy to rally behind. San Francisco got in this mess because we were too lenient. Getting tough, therefore, is the natural solution.

But this explanation isnt just facile, its untrue. And the past few weeks have offered newfound clarity on why. Walgreens, once again, is in the middle of the story, but this time as an alleged perpetrator of crime.

According to a lawsuit filed by the City Attorneys Office, for more than a decade, Walgreens was the largest distributor of opioids in San Francisco  and was a key player in setting off the current iteration of our crisis. The suit claims Walgreens irresponsibly distributed prescription opioids to San Franciscans, contributing to a rise in fatal overdoses, addiction and public drug use.

Walgreens has already paid hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements across the country for its irresponsible dispensing of opioids. But its role in the crisis in San Francisco is often overlooked, and were subsequently missing the full picture. Because for a little while, the city had its overdose crisis under control.

During a deadly heroin wave in the 1990s, the city managed to drastically reduce fatal overdoses. Drug users rallied to care for one another. Underground groups handed out clean syringes and learned how to administer naloxone, the overdose reversal drug. By 1999, doctors, drug users, researchers and outreach workers had developed a series of recommendations aimed at reducing harm for people who injected drugs. Overdose rates plummeted.

But that began to change a few years later when hundreds of millions of opioid pills were shipped to San Francisco. A major dispenser, according the lawsuit: Walgreens.

The overdose landscape shifted dramatically. In 2010, there were just 10 reported heroin overdoses citywide. But that year, 110 people died from prescription opioids.

During closing arguments this month, lawyers lambasted Walgreens fill, fill, fill corporate culture. For years, they claimed, the pharmacies operated under extreme staffing shortages. There was no real oversight in monitoring or reporting suspicious prescriptions and little time for under-resourced pharmacists to investigate them.

Fraud was rampant, according to the lawsuit. From 2006 through 2020, nearly 6.4 million doses of opioids were filled through San Francisco Walgreens from dozens of doctors who were under active investigation or had suspended licenses. One Mission District Walgreens dispensed more than 86,000 prescriptions written by a single doctor, even after pharmacists raised concerns about the frequency and size of the scripts.

Witness testimony in the case was mind-boggling. One Bayview pharmacist said that he dispensed opioids to a patient, only to see that patient sell them in the parking lot outside moments later.

When the federal government cracked down on opioid prescribing practices, Walgreens was forced to institute better oversight, and the drugs became harder to obtain.

But addiction didnt go away.

Dr. Phillip Coffin, director of substance use research at the citys Department of Public Health, testified that hed been tracking overdose rates since the 1990s. After the reduction in access to prescription drugs he saw people return to the streets to address their pain. Heroin use rose again. When fentanyl hit the scene, deaths skyrocketed. Last year, 641 people died of overdoses in San Francisco.

But today, pills still play a role. A quarter of all overdoses that arrive in Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital are due to prescription pills, according to testimony from Dr. Christopher Cowell, head of the emergency department.

Which brings us back to the viral video. In painting San Francisco as a rogue hellhole, and itself as a victim, Walgreens successfully distracted from any responsibility in perpetuating what is arguably the citys biggest and most pernicious drug crime.

And yet the narrative of corporate victimhood is hard to shake. This week, District Attorney Jenkins revived it, with a tweet of a news article claiming the same man pictured in the Walgreens theft video, after serving time in prison, had hit a CVS  another pharmacy chain thats had to pay millions for its role in the overdose crisis.

There are no victimless crimes and we have to send a strong message that repeat offenders will face consequences for their actions if they continue to choose a life of crime, she tweeted.

If anything, the mans alleged re-offense is evidence that incarceration does not stop recidivism. But Jenkins' tweet still managed to rack up 900 likes in just four hours.

News of Walgreens culpability in our overdose crisis, meanwhile, was difficult to find in San Franciscos increasingly contentious online criminal justice conversation.

Drug use and crimes are complex. Their solutions cant be reduced to a tweet. And we wont have any hope of moving forward if we dont understand how we got here. That, however, requires zooming out and taking a hard look at the broader picture and the story it tells, which is: There are no shortage of players seeking to profit from the suffering of our most vulnerable.

Until that is addressed, were not going to solve anything.

Nuala Bishari is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist and editorial writer. Email: nuala.bishari@sfchronicle.com
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At an otherwise routine San Francisco Police Commission meeting last week, Police Chief Bill Scott made a startling admission.

Police officers, Scott said, had been directed to crack down on drug use in the citys Tenderloin neighborhood in an effort to combat open-air drug use and dealing in the beleaguered neighborhood. The directive marked a shift in the departments historic approach to dealing with drug users who might possess paraphernalia or small amounts of drugs not intended for resale.

A federal grant that allowed police to beef up staffing and overtime this month had enabled officers to engage with visible drug users, Scott said.

The new mandate appeared to produce an immediate effect, according to publicly available city data. So far this month, San Francisco police issued tickets or made arrests in 129 cases involving a stand-alone allegation of possessing drug paraphernalia, compared with 89 issued through all of 2021 and the first six months of 2022 combined.

As San Francisco grapples with how to address the Tenderloins enduring miseries  with warring factions broadly insisting on treating the issue as either a criminal matter or a public health crisis  Scotts directive seemed to clash with how newly appointed District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said her office would handle comparatively minor drug crimes.

The debate over how to approach the Tenderloins longstanding problems has been exacerbated by a fentanyl epidemic that maintains a choke hold on the neighborhood and contributed to the citys recent average of two overdose deaths per day. While San Francisco politicians have long favored a treatment-based approach to addiction over incarceration, the visible despair in the Tenderloin and accompanying crimes has prompted some weary residents to call for tougher law enforcement action.

Jenkins, just one day before Scott informed the public of his departments new approach to dealing with open-air drug users, said her office planned to dismiss at least 17 cases in which people were erroneously charged with possessing drug paraphernalia.

Jenkins office offered an unequivocal statement on the matter: The offices policy is to not charge standalone drug paraphernalia cases.

The public statements, made by the citys top law-enforcement officers just one day apart, spotlight what appears to be conflicting approaches between two departments designed to work in lockstep on their crime strategies.

Kevin Benedicto, a San Francisco police commissioner, said the comments have caused confusion over how the citys judicial apparatus is enforcing drug crimes.

I think theres definitely a disconnect, Benedicto said. And were interested in getting to the bottom of it.

Benedicto said police commissioners initially asked Scott about the drug strategies because of the paraphernalia cases that the DAs office filed and summarily dismissed. They wondered whether there was a connection between Jenkins swearing-in promises to clamp down on the open-air drug markets in the Tenderloin and a subsequent response by police.

Benedicto said the commissioners were unaware of the grant funding until Scott revealed it Wednesday, suggesting the timing of the two events may have been coincidental.

Scott said the grant was awarded by the Department of Justice and provided $125,000 to support overtime and staffing in the long-troubled Tenderloin.

We want to be able to, as best as we can, have a culture or an environment in our city where people dont believe they can just smoke fentanyl  or whatever the choice of the day is  without being engaged by a San Francisco police officer, Scott said at the commission meeting.

Scott said this engagement could take the form of an arrest or a citation, and police would seize the drugs being used.

One of the main goals is the open-air intervention, by both community engagement ... and enforcement where appropriate, he said.

Scott said the grant funding ends next month.

In a statement to The Chronicle, Jenkins said, Close collaboration with our Police Department is key to addressing our open air drug markets and the overdose crisis, and added that she had met with Scott on Friday.

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We are both committed to advancing strategies that will help those suffering from addiction get the help that they need, Jenkins said. My focus remains on holding serious drug dealers, particularly those dealing fentanyl, accountable for the deadly drugs they sell.

Jenkins, who was sworn in on July 8 after helping to oust her predecessor and former boss, Chesa Boudin, in last months recall election, has pledged to take a stern but compassionate approach to the citys opioid crisis, which killed more than 1,300 people from 2020 to 2021.

Jenkins was a vocal critic of Boudins progressive policies, which she described as too lenient, but has also said she would prioritize high-level dealers and repeat offenders over petty drug offenses  not unlike Boudins stated approach to drug crimes.

But while the details of her specific drug policies have yet to be made public, Jenkins first directive signaled an overhaul of the day-to-day operations seen under Boudin: Prosecutors have been instructed to compile a list of pending plea offers on drug charges, with the intent to revoke some of the agreements extended but not yet accepted.

Advocates for people experiencing addiction have expressed concern that Jenkins policies would signal a return to tough-on-crime strategies that helped explode prison populations and did little to curb the drug epidemic. Both Jenkins and Scott have said they do not want to open a new front in the war on drugs, but said more needs to be done to combat the rampant dealing and usage in San Franciscos streets.

In a statement to The Chronicle, a police spokesperson said officers will continue to make arrests which is independent of what the DA chooses to do with these cases.

As law enforcement partners the Chief and the DA will continue to work together for the interest of public safety, Officer Robert Rueca said.

The Chief and the DA are working together to handle the citys biggest public safety issues and that includes matters surrounding crimes that relate to narcotics, Rueca said.

Megan Cassidy and Susie Neilson are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com, susan.neilson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy, @susieneilson
After months of prodding, waiting and hoping for a return to normalcy, business and city leaders are changing course and planning for a future in which downtown San Francisco is no longer a daily hub of tech and finance workers.

The new future they envision is of a downtown thats less of a concrete jungle and more of a cultural destination; a place worth visiting all on its own, not because your boss makes you.

Its not so much that theyve thrown in the towel on working in the office, but leaders like Mayor London Breed acknowledge that we need to look at every possible creative solution that's going to give us the flexibility we need, she told The Examiner.

The City should continue to push for filling up office space once again, but also plan for a downtown 2.0, or 3.0, said Rodney Fong, president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

In a weird way we can go on two different, parallel paths (simultaneously), Fong said.

Stops and starts

In March, Breed joined business leaders in a commitment to begin implementing return-to-office policies.

But in bars like The Treasury, nestled in the Financial District and reliant on its once-reliable foot traffic, it didnt make much of a difference.

"I don't see how those words they're saying have translated to any success," said Tristen Philippart de Foy said, the bars operator.

March was the beginning of a boom, as The City lifted the last of its COVID restrictions. But, by June, there was a complete drop-off, de Foy added.

Like other businesses downtown, The Treasury has not seen Financial District workers flock back to the office as envisioned by city leaders after the first omicron wave subsided early this year.

There has been some progress. Kastle, an office security company, has been tracking the return to the office across the nation, and its data shows San Francisco inching ahead of San Jose and Philadelphia after months of languishing in last or second-to-last place.

Still, third-from-last isnt exactly worthy of a trophy.

So while theyre not abandoning all hope for the office, business leaders are increasingly expecting a future in which downtown belongs to more than just the financiers and techies.

Resurgent COVID-19 variants havent helped, Breed said in an interview with The Examiner, but she also acknowledged that employees have signaled they want to be able to continue to work-from home to varying extents, and that is going to be a part of the equation.

Downtown has been reimagined and rebuilt before.

Its a gold rush town. Theres been ups and downs, and San Francisco always reinvents itself, and downtown has as well, said Laura Crescimano, co-founder and principal of SITELAB urban studio, which developed a new action plan for downtown along with the Downtown San Francisco Partnership last week.

A plan

If only transit ridership could surge like the latest COVID wave.

Average weekday ridership on Muni has stalled since April, according to SFMTA data.

BARTs ridership downtown is still less than 30% of its pre-pandemic level, according to a June report on San Franciscos economic recovery authored by the city controllers office. The same report documented how office attendance continues to stagnate after a brief surge following the first omicron wave earlier this year.

Anyone who works downtown every weekday can sense it.

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, one might stand shoulder to shoulder on a bus or train. But on Mondays and Fridays, theres more than enough breathing room, a consequence of the hybrid work schedule adopted by many employers.

Robbie Silver serves as the executive director of the Downtown SF Partnership and commutes in every day, watching that trend firsthand. His organization has already begun to rethink downtown, and its not waiting 10 or 20 years to implement changes.

The Downtown SF Partnership unveiled a Public Realm Action Plan last week that laid out scores of proposals to change the downtown landscape that dont require the monumental investment of, say, converting dozens of offices into apartment buildings.

The action plan lays out steps to make downtown more accessible to pedestrians, home to more live cultural events, lush with resplendent greenery and chock-full of art. Imagine a continuous pedestrian zone between 1 Bush and CitiCorp Plaza on Sansome Street, or Leidesdorff Street lined with dining tables and hungry restaurant patrons.

Its an attempt to make downtown a destination and give San Franciscans who dont don a button-up and vest a sense of ownership over the neighborhood. Its also an acknowledgment that the hybrid, work-from-home model is here to stay, and that downtown can no longer rely on the steady stream of office-bound workers to fill its shops and bars.

The downtown economy has to pivot, and it has to do it quickly, Silver said.

Fundamental to the plan is a belief that people arent just avoiding downtown out of a fear of COVID. On Thursday, the line to see K-pop group Tomorrow X Together at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium snaked down Grove Street and around to Larkin Street more than an hour before the doors opened.

A survey conducted by The Downtown SF Partnership as part of the action plans development plan backs up that belief, according to Silver. Itll take more than a low COVID-19 community transmission level to draw people to downtown.

Next Steps

The City is well-vaccinated, Breed noted, and fewer people are dying of COVID-19 during new surges thanks to newly-available treatments. Thus, she doesnt expect the City to have to return to the days of lockdowns and restrictions.

So if the City wont backtrack, whats next?

Conventions are returning, as are tourists. A bit more slowly but, just as surely, more workers will return.

The City has 22,000 employees already full-time in the workplace, which leaves about 12,000 in some sort of hybrid arrangement. The current policy calls for them to be in the office two days a week, but that will shift to three days in a week.

Business leaders would love for Mayor Breed to bring back all city workers tomorrow, Breed said it's not that simple. Employees are represented by labor unions, which have a say in the return-to-office plan.

"If I could waive a magic wand and get everyone to do exactly what I'm doing, which is working out of the office every single day, I would," Breed said.

But what The City can do to hasten the recovery, she said, is understand the needs of businesses and ensure theyre met.

That includes public transportation, includes schools, (and) cleanliness of streets, Breed said.

In the city budget approved by supervisors last week, Breed secured $6 million in funding for downtown economic projects. Business leaders told The Examiner that every dollar helps, but it wont address fundamental challenges to downtowns economic success.

I don't think it really addresses some of the cost it's going to take to reimagine downtown and start changing infrastructure, Fong said. We're talking about a huge investment over six, 10, 15 years of time.

The City could streamline the dizzying array of permits  opening a restaurant requires more than a dozen  and incentivize businesses to lay down solid roots in the community, Fong argued. Many tech companies, he noted, leased but never bought office space.

We really ultimately saw the finale result of that - that tech in particular could easily pick up and leave," Fong said.

Each leader interviewed for this story agreed some office space could be converted to residential uses, but noted there are challenges  financial and physical  to doing so.

Asked to predict the future of downtown, Silver, the head of the Downtown SF Partnership, said being able to waive a wand and flip a switch and create housing is going to be more of the challenge.

But I would say for sure that, (on) the ground level, that we see more arts and culture and more hospitality that is driving that new economy that is balancing out this one-use, office district, Silver said.

But until the new future arrives, the instability remains a constant threat to businesses.

For a bar like The Treasury, a drop in revenue means the bar has to cut back on shifts for some, incentivizing them to look for a more consistent living elsewhere. Tourism, at least in his downtown bar, has disappeared, and the area is hampered by the perception that it is unsafe, according to Philippart de Foy.

The pandemic and the slow recovery only add to the challenges San Francisco already confronts in maintaining a profitable business, like a high minimum wage and taxes, Phillipart de Foy argued.

"When you're squeezing already tight margins and getting them tighter, small businesses, cocktail bars, restaurants, they're going to go the way of the dinosaur," Phillipart de Foy said. "We took enough huge blows the last two years. There's only so much of a hole we can dig ourselves out of.

Fong acknowledges the pain of businesses like The Treasury, but remains optimistic.

"It's an interim phase and I'm pretty sure San Francisco's downtown will come back, Fong said.
On Thursday a Coinbase product manager was charged in what prosecutors call the first-ever cryptocurrency insider trading scheme.

The suspect, Ishan Wahi, is accused of secretly using information about which new cryptocurrencies the company was preparing to add to its exchange, to then buying those coins before they were listed and the prices shot up.

In a bit of irony, Wahi wrote a blog post in March about the companys efforts to bring you more transparency and information for newly tradable assets, and how were introducing more tools and protections.

But his byline has disappeared from the post without an explanation, leaving the guidance of an insider trading suspect there for consumers who have no way of knowing about the authors legal situation.

An expert on tech ethics at the University of Santa Clara said the post remaining on the company blog without a byline puts consumers in a bad situation.

When they keep his blog post up and dont run any note that hes been fired and charged with a crime, thats information most readers would want to have, said Don Heider, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. If they left the post up and simply removed the byline, thats not transparent. It feels a little bit underhanded.

Coinbase is a $16 billion company with executive offices in San Francisco leading the industry resistance to regulation. On Thursday the company blasted the Securities and Exchange Commission because the Commission recently announced that it will double the size of the enforcement unit that handles crypto and cyber cases. This enforcement-first approach has stifled development of the crypto securities market.

When it was published, the blog post featured Wahis byline, internet records show, and it shows up in tweets from the company from March. But the byline is no longer on the post and there is no editorial note saying that it was removed.

The post says, Our goal is to be as transparent as possible with our customers regarding trading risks. But the post about transparency and alerting users to trading risks no longer shows that it was written by a former employee accused of insider trading.

The company has updated several other blog posts with information about the investigation, with thorough italics notes at the top explaining the updates.

Coinbase has faced withering criticism on Twitter about its slow responce to the alleged insider trading, which was first pointed out by a cryptocurrency expert with the Twitter handle @cobie {a href=https://twitter.com/cobie/status/1513874972552355846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1513874972552355846%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bizjournals.com%2Fsanfrancisco%2Fnews%2F2022%2F07%2F21%2Fcoinbase-insider-trading.html target=_blank}in April{/a}. On Thursday he said on Twitter he pointed out the issue months before.

In a thread about the investigation, a Twitter user and crypto expert who uses the handle @0xfoobar responded to a Coinbase employee praising the companys investigation by tweeting, Cmon man, a year late and only after getting raked across multiple viral tweets. Hell, you had the insider trader write your own blog post about how Coinbase will provide greater transparency.

Its not unusual for crypto experts to use their Twitter handles but not disclose their full names on the platform.

When The Examiner looked for that blog post, the byline wasnt there.

The company did not respond to The Examiners multiple requests for comment.

The post remains on the blog without a byline. It includes the line, At Coinbase, your trust is our top priority.
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

A 36-year-old man who reportedly exposed himself and masturbated in front of several UC Berkeley students outside their fraternity was charged and arrested, the Berkeley Police Department said in a recent news release.

According to the departments Facebook post, the incident took place on Tuesday, July 19 around 6 p.m on the 2400 block of Piedmont Avenue, a strip known as "Frat row" because it's home to multiple Cal fraternities and sororities. The police say that after students confronted the man, Deante Davis, he walked outside and started masturbating on the front patio with his genitals exposed and pants down. When police searched him, they found methamphetamines as well as drug and sex paraphernalia. On July 21, Davis was subsequently charged with indecent exposure, burglary, and providing false information to an officer among other enhancements.
LATEST July 24, 7 a.m. For Sunday's updates on the Oak Fire, click here.

July 23, 8:05 p.m. Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday due to the effects of the Oak Fire, as the blaze grew to 11,900 acres by Saturday evening.

Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters, Cal Fire said in a statement Saturday that described the Oak Fire's activity as extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.

July 23, 3:10 p.m. The Oak Fire burning in Mariposa County has expanded to 9,500 acres, according to the latest update from Cal Fire.

-----

A new California wildfire, called the Oak Fire, erupted in Mariposa County on Friday. The fire, located just outside of Yosemite, is expanding at an alarming rate.

By Saturday morning, CalFire reported that the blaze had reached 6,555 acres  up from 1,600 acres on Friday  making it the largest California wildfire currently burning. The fire is at zero percent containment.

The fire first began on July 22 at 2:10 p.m, off of Highway 140 and Carstens Road, close to the town of Midpines, a small mountain community about 30 miles outside of Yosemite National Park. Road closures are currently in place.

Ten structures have already been lost and another 2,000 are currently being threatened, CalFire said. As of 8:10 a.m. on Saturday, over 400 personnel from 11 different crews were onsite, either helping to contain the fire or assisting with evacuation efforts. No injuries or deaths to firefighters or civilians have been reported.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A number of communities in the area, including Mariposa Pines and Lushmeadows, have been evacuated. Residents should follow this link to see if they are under an evacuation order.

Evacuation centers have been set up at Mariposa County Elementary (5044 Jones St, Mariposa, CA 95338) and the Sierra Foothill Charter School (4952 School House Rd, Catheys Valley, CA 95306).

Difficult firefighting conditions are a further cause of concern. In its Saturday morning incident report, CalFire stated that explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters.

Extremely hot and dry weather is predicted for the Midpines area throughout the week, with highs approaching 100 degrees for at least the next five days.

By Saturday, a massive pyrocumulous cloud that stretched at least 20,000 feet into the sky had formed above the fire. The cloud could be seen as far away as Reno, Nevada  approximately 120 miles away from the blaze.

This is the third fire to have erupted in Mariposa County in July. The Washburn Fire in Yosemite, which burned through 4,856 acres and threatened the famed Mariposa Grove, started on July 7 and is currently 79% contained. The Aqua Fire began on July 18 and burned 421 acres around Highway 140 and Agua Fria Road near Mariposa; it is 89% contained.

Smoke from the fire is not expected to affect the Bay Area this weekend.

This is a developing story and updates will be added as they become available.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
After God delivered the children of Israel from the hard bondage of Egypt and rescued them from the pursuit of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, and after the Israelites time of wandering in the wilderness finally ended and God brought them victory over the Canaanites and conquest of the Promised Land, there came a day when Joshua, the man who succeeded Moses and was the commander of the Israelite army, addressed the nation.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, Joshua said to the people.

Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.

Ultimately, all of us are given this same choice by God. He has made His intentions known. He desires to forgive our sins and grant us eternal life in heaven after we leave this world. But God never forces our hand. Its as if God says to us the very thing Joshua said to the children of Israel: I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; which one will you choose?

This was brought home to me quite emphatically some years ago when I was associate pastor of New Life Assembly of God church in the little town of Colon downstate near the Indiana border. In the very same week, I was asked to visit two people, a man and a woman. Both were terminally ill with cancer and did not have much time left in this world. The man was likely in his 50s, and the woman may have been in her 60s. The man was living with his girlfriend outside of town; the woman was in a nursing home in Sturgis.

I went to see the man first. He was weak and bed-ridden and he said initially it was OK for me to pray for him. I did and then I tried to talk to him about his eternal soul. He was not open, however. He said he didnt believe in religion. I was stunned and saddened that someone so close to death would not at least consider what might happen after he died. I tried to persuade him that Jesus died for him on the cross and wanted to welcome him into heaven.

But its up to us to choose life, to choose to have our sins forgiven and to be cleansed on the inside. If we dont and we die in our sinful state, we must face the judgment for our sins. Were unable to be in Gods Presence and we are eternally separated from God in a place of outer darkness where Jesus said there would be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Sadly, the man was adamant. I left the house feeling grieved inside because I knew in my heart God loved this man and wanted him to choose life.

A day or two later, I received a call from a health care worker asking if I would go and see the woman at the nursing home in Sturgis. And so I did. The woman was quite frail. When I went to see her, she was resting in bed in a fetal position. She was obviously close to her time of departure from this world. She was unable to speak because of the cancer that was afflicting her body.

I had a very different experience with the woman. I asked her if she thought she was ready to meet her Creator. She shook her head no. I asked her if she wanted to be ready. She shook her head yes.

I had the wonderful privilege of praying with this precious woman that day. She wasnt able to speak but affirmed that she was asking the gracious Creator to forgive her sins. She affirmed faith in Jesus the Son of God, of His sacrificial death on the cross and His resurrection. And she willingly, and it seemed to me eagerly, expressed her desire for Jesus to be her Savior, the Shepherd of her life.

It was such a wonderful experience and I left the nursing home greatly elated that day. I returned to see the woman a few days later and she affirmed again her faith in Jesus and she told me she knew she was ready now to die. She was at peace. She had chosen life and now she would experience eternal life.

I returned to see the man too but he refused to see me again, sadly.

Within a week they both passed into eternity.

Im so glad to know Ill see that woman again in heaven under very different circumstances when its my time to depart this veil. As for the man, I can only hope to see him again. I can only hope he thought about the words I shared with him and perhaps cried out to Jesus before he closed his eyes for the final time.

The good Lord has provided a remedy for all of us through the sacrifice of His Son. He desires for us to come to the cross to find healing for our sinful condition. He has set before each of us life and death, blessing and cursing.

Its always His deep desire that we choose life. Theres no other pathway, according to Gods Word. Im convinced that no one who has ever honestly said yes to Jesus has regretted the decision.
Cassava on Yelp

Cassava, an Outer Richmond modern California cuisine restaurant, is slated to move to North Beach in September. It will take over the former Trattoria Pinocchio space at 401 Columbus Ave., according to What Now SF.

Since 2012, Cassava chef Kris Toliao and beverage manager Yuka Ioroi have been serving up creative dishes such as scallops on chickpeas and crispy quinoa topped with salmon roe in the Outer Richmond. For dinner, they currently offer a three-course prix-fixe meal at $48 per guest. A beverage pairing raises the price to $80 per person. The menu changes monthly and highlights quality ingredients with a special focus on sourcing ingredients from suppliers that dont exploit others for labor, What Now SF said.
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Before departing for his final day as interim city manager Friday, Samuel Keith Selman appointed Steven Landin as the city's next assistant city manager.

Landin will be joining the city managers office on Aug. 1 contingent on completing his pre-employment screening process.

Landin previously worked for the city for 30 years and served as the Laredo Fire Department Fire Chief before leaving the position after the worst of the pandemic to supposedly retire. But just two weeks later, he took a position with Webb County as its Emergency Management Coordinator.

Both the city manager and assistant city manager have seen major changes recently. Kristina Hale was terminated as assistant city manager last month, while Selman also announced his resignation from the interim city manager role 30 days prior to Friday -- only a five months after taking the position.

Similar to the recent appointment of Doanh Zone Nguyen as Laredo's city attorney, Landin will also take a permanent, not interim, position as assistant city manager.

Furthermore, with the departure of Selman, Deputy City Manager Rosario Cabello will assume the position of city manager until a new one is appointed. An executive search was initiated Monday resulting in a two-day workshop lasting over six hours to review the expectations and goals of what the city is looking for in the new city manager.

The city issued out a biography regarding Landin and his experience. It states:

"Steve Landin was the Fire Chief and the Emergency Management Coordinator for the City of Laredo for over twelve years. He was hired as a firefighter for the City of Laredo on April 2, 1990. He served the City of Laredo for over thirty years. He holds an associate degree in Fire Technology from Pikes Peaks Community College (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and a bachelors degree in Finance and Economics with an emphasis in Fire Administration from Empire State College (New York).

"He is also a Certified Public Manager. Chief Landin also holds various Master level certifications from the Texas Commission on Fire Protection (Master Firefighter, Master Airport Firefighter, Master Arson Investigator, and Master Fire Inspector). Other certifications include Rescue, EMS, Haz-Mat, Peace Officer, and Fire Service Instructor."
One of the most common Bay Area rites of passage is to desperately cling to any housing thats below market price, no matter if that means putting up with tyrannical master tenants, stifling repair requests or, in the new short story collection Out There, spending hours a day moisturizing the walls with lotion.

Out There is the first short story collection from 37-year-old San Francisco author Kate Folk, who takes inspiration from the uncanny elements of San Francisco life  from housing scams to dates with robotic techies  and infuses them with a dash of sci-fi imagination, similar to writers like George Saunders and Kelly Link.

In the story Moist House, a down-and-out man named Karl is offered a rent-free Bay Area cabin and jumps at the offer, only to learn that the house comes with a big catch. Every few hours the walls will dry out and begin to crack. If he waits too long before moisturizing them, his own skin literally breaks out in rashes, the health of his body becoming intertwined with his new home.

In a bunch of the stories, something will start going wrong with a room or a house, Folk said, in an interview outside the Richmond library on 9th Avenue. It's almost like the house possesses this agency of its own, or some kind of agenda. And people often become transfixed or hypnotized.

Charles Russo/SFGATE

The idea came from Folks experience living for 10 years in an early 1900s rent-controlled studio apartment in the Richmond. One evening, she noticed condensation on the wall by her bed, and she dreamed about putting lotion on it.

I was just living in this one room, it felt like it had become a part of me and I was part of it, Folk said,. I kind of hated it, but I was very attached to it.

Raised in Iowa City, Folk moved to SF in 2008 after a brief stint in New York City. She received a creative writing MFA from University of San Francisco in 2011, and served as an adjunct professor there while participating in fellowships through Stanford and the Headlands Center for the Arts, where she had a studio for three years.

Although making ends meet as a fiction writer in San Francisco without a three-night-a-week Uber side hustle might seem impossible, the fellowships and teaching help Folk pay the bills. Shes also started on a newfound career path in the film industry. After the eponymous short story from Out There was published in the New Yorker on the eve of the pandemic in March of 2020, Folk was approached to adapt the concept for television by the creator of the British show Catastrophe. Originally Hulu was interested, but Folk cant share any other details.

The show is based on two stories from Out There that center around the concept of blots, AI-powered male humanoid robots who have overrun dating apps. The blots have stunted AI conversation abilities, but they make up for a lack of social graces with chiseled jaw lines and permanently perfect hair. Their ultimate goal is to seduce a woman, then take her on a romantic getaway to Big Sur, where the blots will hack her computer, send her banking info to Russian programmers and then disappear in a poof of lavender-scented smoke.

Like the stories about strange houses, Out There and its companion story Big Sur are inspired by Folks experiences in San Francisco, specifically with dating apps.

I feel like everyone on the apps is working in tech and part of a world that Im not really in, Folk says. The uncanniness of not knowing who youre talking to  not only are they a stranger in the sense you havent met yet  but sometimes they seem uncanny, in the sense that maybe theyre a bot or something.

Charles Russo/SFGATE

Despite the dominance (and perhaps recent decline) of tech in SF, Folk feels like the city still has life left in it and offers plenty of material for a self-identified writer of weird fiction. For Folk, the lack of distinguishable seasons makes time move differently. Without summer heat or snow to accompany a memory and demarcate passage of time, it can be hard to pinpoint what time of year something happened.

San Francisco is just such an otherworldly place. The landscape and the fog, its summer and its kind of cold, but everywhere else it's hot. It feels a bit like a weird little planet of its own, she says.

Like many local creatives, shes often considered moving to Los Angeles, but something always keeps her from leaving  be it a fellowship in Marin, the simple pleasure of sitting in Golden Gate Park, or that nebulously chilly weather. And despite the narrative that San Francisco is in a state of perpetual decline, she cites a thriving literary scene as a legacy of the citys counterculture heritage.

Historically, its been a place where misfit-type people can wash up and start over, or do their own thing, Folks says. That lingering eclectic quality to it cant be completely stamped out by tech and corporatism."
WOODLAND, Calif. (AP)  Two men convicted of killing a pair of California teenagers who vanished six years ago were sentenced Friday to life in prison without possibility of parole, prosecutors said.

Chandale Shannon, 25, of Winters, and Jesus Campos, 22, of Woodland were sentenced for the 2016 kidnapping and killing of the teens, whose bodies were never found despite years of effort.

The crimes were evil. The families have been impacted terribly. And two boys are dead. I find that Mr. Campos and Mr. Shannon have forfeited their life to live in civilized society," Yolo County Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg said at the sentencing hearing, according to a statement from the county district attorney's office.

They were among four people charged with killing 16-year-old Enrique Rios and his friend, 17-year-old Elijah Moore.

Prosecutors said Moore was killed in revenge after stealing 3 ounces (85 grams) of marijuana from three of the defendants.

Rios was shot and killed by David Froste in October 2016 when he refused to call or provide a location for Moore, who was killed several weeks later, on Nov. 4, prosecutors said.

Moore was kidnapped while leaving a barber shop in Woodland, 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento.

Prosecutors said he was forced into the trunk of a car and taken to Knights Landing on the Sacramento River, where he was bound and was denied pleas to call his mother and release him. Shannon, Froste and Campos and two other men beat him to death with tree branches, crushing his skull.

His body was then placed in a hole, burned and buried.

Shannon, Campos, David Froste and his brother, Jonathan Froste, were arrested in 2018. Authorities tracked their locations and movements through cellphone data and social media activity.

David Froste was convicted of murder in 2018 and is serving a life sentence without chance of parole.

In May, Shannon was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and kidnapping.

Jonathan Froste pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against the other three defendants. He is awaiting sentencing and is expected to serve 15 years to life in state prison.
MECOSTA COUNTY  A two-vehicle crash Monday on Northland Drive south of Big Rapids sent several passengers to the hospital. About 8:15 p.m. Monday, July 18, deputies with the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office responded to a two-vehicle injury accident on Northland Drive at 12 Mile Road in Big Rapids Township.

According to a news release, an investigation found an 18-year-old female from Stanwood was traveling eastbound on 12 Mile Road. She allegedly "disregarded the stop sign at Northland Drive, subsequently hitting a northbound on Northland Drive being driven by a 37-year-old male from Big Rapids."

An adult female and a 10-year-old male, passengers in the northbound vehicle, were transported to Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital for minor injuries. A 16-year-old female passenger in the eastbound vehicle was transported to Spectrum Health Big Rapids Campus for minor injuries.

BLOTTER

Deputies with the Mecosta County Sheriffs Office responded to the following calls July 18-21. All calls may not be reported. All suspects are assumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

MONDAY, JULY 18

 Deputies responded to three car-deer crashes, one car crash without injury, and one traffic stop with a misdemeanor summons issued.

 A larceny was reported in the 14000 block of 220th. An unknown person was caught stealing scrap from behind Quality Car Care. Witnesses describe him as a 6-foot, 280 pound black male driving a light blue Ford Focus with a new blue plate. Last seen driving on Woodward into Big Rapids.

 A report of breaking and entering was made in the 10000 block of 19 Mile. An Amish residence was broken into when they were at church. Three guns, a bow, a spotting scope, cash, and binoculars were taken.

 A civil complaint was made in the 8000 block of 6 Mile Road in Morton Township. A tree service company allegedly ran over the complainant's mailbox accidentally. The complainant wanted it reported in case they didn't fix it for him.

 A trespassing complaint was made in the 15000 block of Waldron Way in Big Rapids Township. A male reportedly was playing violin in the Meijer parking lot. Meijer wanted him trespassed from the property.

 Deputies executed a felony warrant arrest for witness intimidation in the 23000 block of 7 Mile Road in Mecosta Township. The subject was lodged at the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office jail.

 A civil complaint was made in the 100 block of North Sheridan in Wheatland Township. Complainant reported that someone allegedly egged their house the previous night. Suspect is believed to be an 11-year-old female, but she denied doing it.

 A larceny was reported in the 4000 block of 12 Mile Road in Wheatland Township. Complainant reported that on the night of July 17, he was at the Canadian Lakes boat dock near west Royal and Buchanan, and someone had stolen a tool bag from his vehicle.

 A traffic stop near 15 Mile Road and 110th Avenue in Martiny Township for defective equipment led to a male being arrested for a child support warrant and being issued a citation for driving with his license suspended. Eckerts towed his vehicle.

TUESDAY, JULY 20

 Deputies responded to one car crash without injury.

 Deputies responded to the 10000 block of Pierce Road in Morton Township. Canadian Lakes Security needed a report reference on suspects cutting the lock on gate to boat ramp off Belle Isle Drive. Suspects drove a truck and trailer down to the boat launch and had stolen six kayaks and a paddle boat. Incident occurred at about 1:15 a.m.

 Deputies responded to the 15000 block of 16 Mile Road in Rodney, Colfax Township. A male reported that another male allegedly had pushed him inside the house they were working on. The complainant said he called his boss and quit because he was not going to deal with the other male worker.

 Complainant said he was driving eastbound on 180th and the other male traveling westbound. The other male then allegedly proceeded to come head-on with the complainant's truck, hitting his driver side mirror and causing him to go into the ditch. The other male left the scene and was found at his mother's house where he was arrested and transported to the jail without incident.

 Deputies responded to the 11000 block of 187th Avenue, Mecosta Township, and recovered a stolen Harley Davidson jacket. Jacket was returned to victim.

 Deputies responded to a residence in the 300 block of South Sheridan, Wheatland Township where a 17-year-old runaway male from Tennessee was located. He was transported to the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office, and court petition placed him in Isabella County Non Secure Detention Home.

 A civil dispute was reported in the 1000 block of 4 Mile Road in Millbrook Township. A female reported being upset with her niece for allegedly leaving her notes on windshield of her vehicle.

 An assault with a deadly weapon was reported at about 7:20 p.m. near Jefferson Road at U.S. 131 overpass. According to a news release, a female driver was allegedly shot at with a firearm by an unknown male driver that she previously had passed on Jefferson Road. The next day, deputies found the suspect, a 55-year-old male from Cedar Springs, and his vehicle at the park-and-ride near U.S. 131, exit 104, Cedar Springs. Deputies arrested him without incident, and he was arraigned Thursday on multiple felony counts.

 Deputies responded to Hunters Creek Trailer Park in Morton Township. Two males said a third male allegedly threatened them after they drove past the males residence. The third male alleged that the two are always driving up and down the road at a high rate of speed, spinning out and doing donuts. The two claimed they were learning how to drive a stick shift.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20

 Deputies responded to two car-deer crashes and two car crashes without injury.

 Fremont police recovered $520 worth of stolen merchandise from Lowes in Big Rapids. Known female and male suspects had stolen merchandise from Lowes yesterday.

 Larceny of a catalytic converter from the Jefferson Road Park 'n' Ride was reported.

 Larceny of two catalytic converters from 8 Mile Park 'n' Ride was reported.

 A report of disorderly conduct was made in the 19000 block of 230th Avenue, Big Rapids. A female reported that another female was being disorderly and just wanted her to leave. The disorderly female left prior to deputies' arrival.

 A civil dispute was reported in the 14000 block of Northland Drive. A male reported having issues with his roommate. Both parties were advised to separate and sober up.

THURSDAY, JULY 21

 Deputies responded to one car crash without injury.

 A male walked in to the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office to report that he had checks written out of his checkbook allegedly by a female suspect/roommate/protected person. Case is under investigation.

 An altercation was reported on 5 Mile Road and Northland Drive. A male subject reportedly got into road rage incident with female. The male allegedly cut the female off, and both got out the vehicle. Female allegedly pushed him away, and the male subject allegedly slapped female and drove away. Unknown who the male subject is, got a license plate of the vehicle.

 An 18 year old driver failed to stop due to no registration plate on the vehicle, no insurance, and no drivers license. He was cited for all three, and the vehicle was towed by Eckets.

 A female, reportedly with dementia, was found wandering around Canadian Lakes. She said she did not want to be at the residence since her husband was drinking. Adult Protective Services was notified

 A traffic stop was initiated near 11 Mile Road and 90th Avenue for a vehicle traveling left of center and almost hitting patrol car head-on. The 73-year-old driver was arrested for operating while intoxicate, high blood alcohol count. Car was towed by HUFFS.
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Alert: A Sierra National Forest spokesman says more than 6,000 ordered to evacuate fast-moving California wildfire
ALTON  Alton firefighters battled fire and dangerous humidity at two suspicious fires late Friday night and early Saturday morning.

Firefighters received the first call at 11:05 p.m. Friday, with flames reported to be coming from the roof of a house in the 1000 block of Oakwood Avenue. The arriving firefighters found heavy fire in the rear of the boarded up house that had no electricity.

A mutual aid box alarm was struck, bringing East Alton firefighters to the scene for assistance. At the time of Friday night's call, the temperature was hovering near 90 degrees with high humidity.

The Godfrey Fire Department was also called for manpower as firefighters battled the heat inside and outside of the structure. Alton Fire Chief Jesse Jemison called for Godfrey firefighters as a safety precaution.

Alton Police closed Oakwood Avenue to protect fire hoses at the scene. Firefighters also had to contend with heavy brush and trash in the rear of the city-owned house.

Less than four hours later, at about 2:46 a.m. Saturday, firefighters were called to another boarded up house on fire in the 900 block of Tonsor Avenue, just a few hundreds yards away from the first fire but on a different street.

East Alton firefighters were again called to assist, as Alton firefighters arrived and found heavy fire in the rear of the Tonsor house.

No injuries were reported in either fire. Both blazes are under investigation by the Alton Fire Department and the Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office.
AUBURN, Ala. (AP)  Five years ago, two Huntsville teens started a window-cleaning and pressure-washing business in high school to save up to attend Auburn University.

Today, theyve expanded their business to two more cities, have plans to spread throughout the entire state, and are looking to give back to their campus community. And they havent even graduated from Auburn yet.

Josiah Hart and Joshua Quattlebaum founded Quality Care Exterior Solutions while students at Grissom High School in Huntsville.

In 2017, during their junior year, they were looking for ways to save for college.

Hart said they wanted to start a business, but they didnt know what it was going to be.

One day Quattlebaum called Hart to ask if hed like to help him clean windows at a local Circle K gas station in Huntsville. Hart said he wasnt thrilled about the idea at first, but he agreed to take on the task.

After they finished their work, Hart said the manager was impressed and asked them if theyd like to add the six other Circle Ks in the area. Quattlebaum said yes and the two started cleaning those seven gas stations once a month.

I guess something about the community seeing young kids, we were juniors in high school, out working and they loved that, Hart said. People would come up to us and theyd ask if wed want to come clean their house and things like that.

Shortly afterward, Hart and Quattlebaum decided to turn their gig into an official business. They got licensed and insured, and things took off from there.

In 2019, Hart and Quattlebaum came to Auburn University and established a branch in Auburn and Montgomery while maintaining the Huntsville branch.

We figured well keep doing this and use it to put ourselves through college, Hart said.

Each is now 21 years old and a senior at Auburn, with Hart majoring in business management and Quattlebaum in finance.

In their business, they service both commercial and residential customers, and besides cleaning windows, theyve added houses, roofs and gutters to their list of cleaning services as well as pressure-washing various surfaces.

Theyve been able to hire employees who were also saving for college or already enrolled.

Hart said the first employee they hired in Auburn was Daniel Laughlin, 21, who is also working to pay his way through college.

A sophomore physical education major, Laughlin transferred from Jefferson State Community College after taking a few semesters off during the COVID-19 pandemic to save money.

He joined the Quality Care Exterior Solutions team in January after meeting Hart and Quattlebaum.

Its been such a blessing, and its just been great to work around my school schedule, Laughlin said. Its been a great experience, and the community has been really welcoming.

Hart and Quattlebaum said they love meeting new people and listening to their stories. In Auburn, they say, theyve cleaned homes of professors from the university and other interesting individuals.

They plan to continue the business after they graduate and hope to expand across the entire state of Alabama.

Were dreaming at this point, Hart said. Weve got plans to make that a reality, but its not going to be easy.

Hart said he never thought the business would grow as much as it has but feels extremely thankful.

The amount of support that weve received from people is incredible, he said.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  A Chinese court has overruled a rare legal challenge brought by an unmarried Beijing woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs.

The Chaoyang Intermediate People's Court in Beijing said in a judgment that the hospital did not violate the woman's rights in denying her access to freeze her eggs. Teresa Xu received the court judgment Friday, almost three years after she first brought the case.

In China, national law does not explicitly ban unmarried people from services like fertility treatments, and simply states that a husband and wife can have up to three children. In practice, however, hospitals and other institutions implement the regulations in a way that requires people to show a marriage license. Unmarried women who choose to have children have struggled to access public benefits like maternity leave or coverage for prenatal exams.

In 2018, Xu, then 30 years old, had gone to Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital at Capital Medical University, a public hospital, to ask about freezing her eggs. After an initial examination, she was told she could not proceed further because she could not show a marriage certificate. She said the doctor also urged her to have a child while she was still young.

Xu, who is unmarried, had wanted to preserve her eggs so she could have an option to bear children at a later date.

I think this lost lawsuit, its not an attack on single womens reproductive rights, maybe its a temporary setback, she said in a short video statement announcing the news on her WeChat account.

Xu's case drew broad coverage from domestic media outlets in China, including some state media outlets, when she first brought her case to court in 2019. Local media had said her case against the hospital was the country's first.

The hospital, according to the judgment, had argued that egg freezing poses certain health risks. But it also said that delaying pregnancy would bring about problems such as risks to the mother during pregnancy, and psychological and societal problems if there is a large age gap between parents and their child.

The hospital also said that egg-freezing services were only available to women who could not get pregnant in the natural way, and not for healthy patients.

Xu said she plans to appeal the ruling.

There will definitely be a day (when) we will take back sovereignty over our own bodies, she said.
After thanking the Government of Japan for its donation, which will enable the delivery of 95 ambulances, the Peruvian President highlighted the bilateral relationship and cooperation with said nation.

?? En vivo | El presidente @PedroCastilloTe, junto con ministros de Estado, entrega 30 ambulancias nuevas y equipadas al @Minsa_Peru para fortalecer el primer nivel de atencion en salud de hospitales y centros de medicos del pais.#SiempreConElPueblo https://t.co/aiCXJ89Gxp
BOSTON (AP)  A Massachusetts congressman is calling for changes in the way the Boston-area public transit system operates after a fire on a train prompted one passenger to jump into a river and others to scramble out of windows.

No one was hurt Thursday morning when the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authoritys inbound Orange Line train caught fire while on a bridge crossing the Mystic River just north of Boston on approach to the Assembly station in Somerville. The fire appears to have been caused by a metal panel on the trains base that came loose and touched the electrified third rail, the systems general manager said.
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A Connecticut resident was killed this week by a lightning strike during a training exercise with the U.S. Army Reserves in Georgia, officials said.

Sgt. 1st Class Michael D. Clark, 41, who is from Bolton in Tolland County, was killed Wednesday when lightning struck during a training exercise in Fort Gordon in Georgia, officials said.

Clark, an operating room specialist assigned to 933rd Forward Resuscitation Surgical Company, 3rd Medical Command, was a native of Springfield, Mass., and served in the Army for more than 22 years, including four deployments in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said.

Clarks commander, Maj. Stephen Rhineheart, said he was like a brother to him, praising his impact and devotion to others.

Sgt. 1st Class Clark was a loving husband, father and a patriot who deeply loved our country. His leadership, knowledge, experience, and love for his fellow soldiers was immeasurable. Sgt. 1st Class Clarks smile and laughter were infectious and always brought joy to everyone around him, Rhineheart said in a statement.

Words will never be able to describe how much he will be missed, but his influence on our unit and soldiers will remain forever. This especially hurts because not only was Sgt. 1st Class Clark one of my soldiers, but he was my friend and brother. Our prayers are with his family.

Clark and nine other soldiers were hit by the lightning. Eight of the solders are in good condition and one has been treated and released from the hospital, officials said.

The soldiers were attending an annual regional medic training exercise ahead of the incident, officials said. The goal of the endeavor, they said, is to allow units to refine their processes and medical skills in field and stressful environments.

We extend our sincere sympathies to Sgt.1st Class Clarks unit and his family during this difficult time, said Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, chief of Army Reserve and commanding general of U.S. Army Reserve Command.

People are our most important asset. Sgt. 1st Class Clark was a valuable member of our Army Reserve team and we are all deeply saddened by his loss.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
HAMMOND, Ind. (AP)  A state trooper investigating an incident on a northwestern Indiana freeway was injured when a passing car struck a firetruck and another vehicle.

The trooper was standing on eastbound Interstate 94 in Hammond about 2 a.m. Saturday when a speeding Dodge Charger struck the firetruck and a Subaru, state police said.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. (AP)  A prosecutor says a state trooper was justified in shooting and killing an armed man during a traffic stop following a reported theft from a western Pennsylvania mall.

Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said Friday that an investigation unequivocally" concluded that the unnamed trooper reasonably believed that deadly force was needed to prevent death or serious injury to himself.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  Donning black shirts and flowing cotton skirts, with their hair pinned up in bright-colored traditional Mexican braids, a mostly female troupe clacked their dance shoes on the wooden floors of the Northwest Recreation Center.

Uno, dos. Uno, dos. Abrimos, cerramos. Abrimos, cerramos, Nallely Sanchez, 21, instructed them, motioning for the young dance group to open and close their arms on each count.

Their parents  mostly the mothers whod picked out their clothes and made their braids in hues of pink, blue, green and orange  gathered near the door to record their childrens dance practice.

Andrew Bribriesco, president of the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, crouched with a laptop in hand, telling a group on a Zoom call that the Ballet Folklorico troupe was practicing for its first public performance Sept. 18 at Festival Latino at the McGrath Amphitheatre.

This is a sneak preview, said Bribriesco, whose daughter, Paloma, is part of the youngest dance group.

Listos, ya? instructor Cynthia Salgado, 22, asked.

With that, the elder dance group performed el coyote folk dance from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, then two instructors  Sanchez and her brother, Rodrigo  danced La Bamba of Veracruz and four little girls performed el pajarito, a simplified folklorico dance.

the Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday since June, these dancers have met for two hours to practice ballet folklorico, a choreographed traditional Mexican dance that reflects local culture with ballet characteristics such as pointed toes and exaggerated movements.

The Fuerzas Culturales group is the first-ever folklorico group in Cedar Rapids, marking a historic moment for the city and local Latino community. It is made up of children with Mexican and Central American roots, who chose the groups name to capture the strength they see in their cultures.

Sanchez, a Coe College senior whos danced since age 7, said she first started dancing when she lived on the south side of Chicago with the Back of the Yards neighborhood councils first folklorico group.

She met Salgado in Chicago in the summer of 2016 when they danced for an after-school program and later attended Coe together, completely by chance.

At Sanchezs first LULAC meeting last Dec., she said the organizations leaders discussed low high school retention rates for Latino youth, as many drop out early and opt to work instead of pursuing a college education.

Sanchez said she grew up surrounded by Latino resources in Chicago and was raised with an awareness of her Mexican heritage, and she attended college on a full-ride scholarship because of her experiences there. Seeing little programming for Latinos around Cedar Rapids, she pitched to LULAC the idea for a dance group.

I was like, I want that for these kids too, because I grew up in disparity and I grew up in a lot of violence, Sanchez said. I saw that as an opportunity for other kids to grow.

Having attended a predominantly white institution after growing up in minority neighborhoods, Salgado  from Chicagos La Villita neighborhood  said there is a sense that the Latino community feels hidden in Cedar Rapids.

We both have a voice and the power of our voice is so strong that were not going to let it not be heard or not use it, especially for these kids, Salgado said.

Monica Vallejo, vice president of LULAC, has been key to spreading word about the dance group mostly by word-of-mouth. It has grown from fewer than a dozen children to 17 in just a couple of months.

Vallejo said the group used to practice at Delaney Park and now practices out of a garage two days a week and the Northwest Recreation Center once a week. They still are searching for a larger space to host the growing group and accept more participants.

She also wants to raise $5,000 to keep the classes open for all youth, regardless of socioeconomic status, and cover the costs of outfits, shoes and more.

Asela Zapot, whose 10-year-old daughter, Iveth, is part of the group, said she feels she missed out on learning traditional dances when she was growing up. She is proud to see her daughter learn and share in this part of their culture.

I cannot wait for that day, Zapot said, referring to the Sept. 18 performance. I think theyre going to look so beautiful.

Someday, Sanchez said she hopes to see the dance group morph into a resource center that provides mental health services, violence prevention and intervention, Medicaid and legal resources to any Latino who comes to Iowa and needs help navigating barriers to critical services.

For now, for the first time, these 17 Latino kids have a program tailored to their culture.

Pilar Ligunas Perez, 12, and Alicia Burgos Guzman, 11, both said they were proud to be part of the historic troupe.

I like to be different than anybody else, having different things and different traditions, Ligunas Perez said.

The dance represents who we are, Burgos Guzman said: Its going to be special since were the first group doing it.

Sanchez said she is nervous for the big performance, fearing the kids will be shunned by people who dont look like them. But the children are ready to step into the spotlight and say, Were here, teaching all kids they have a voice as Latinos in the United States.

It shows these little kids that they have a voice and they are strong enough to teach younger generations and to teach the older generations that its OK to be different, Sanchez said. Its OK to come from different backgrounds, because ultimately we merge together and were all one.
Although some groups have resumed meetings, others schedules may have changed because of pandemic restrictions. It is recommended you contact the group in advance to verify details. Any changes in meeting schedules can be emailed to JJCsocial@myjournalcourier.com.



ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

217-370-4002

Jacksonville locations:

 First Baptist Church, 1701 Mound Ave. Wheelchair-accessible.

 Club HOW, 638 S. Church St.

Monday

 Closed discussion, 7:30 a.m. at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at First Baptist Church. Bowen Group.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

Tuesday

 Open discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Womens open meeting, 5:30 p.m., First Christian Churchs Fireside Room.

 VIRGINIA: Closed discussion, 7 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, Main and Washington streets.

 ROODHOUSE: Closed discussion, 12-step/12 traditions, 8 p.m. at Grace Center, 114 W. Palm St.

Wednesday

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

Thursday

 Closed discussion, 7:30 a.m. at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW. Newcomers Group.

Friday

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW. TGIF Group.

 Closed discussion, 5:15 p.m., Big Book Study at Club HOW.

 VIRGINIA: Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at United Methodist Church, 401 E. Broadway Ave.

Saturday

 Open speaker, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

 Open meeting, noon at Club HOW.

Sunday

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW. 12 & 12 Group.

 Closed discussion, 10 a.m. at Club HOW. (Second Sunday is open)

 SPRINGFIELD: AA for Women, 10 a.m. at Discovery Club, 313 W. Cook St.



AL-ANON

Meetings are nonsmoking and open to anyone. The only requirement is that there be a problem of alcohol with a loved one or friend.

217-248-6434.

Wednesday

 Al-Anon, 7:30-8:30 p.m. at Centenary United Methodist Church, 331 E. State St. (use Morgan Street entrance).



NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS

All meetings are nonsmoking. Not affiliated with any religious organization.

Jacksonville locations:

 First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. (enter through far southeast door). 217-883-1975.

 Lutheran Church for the Deaf, 104 Finley St. (enter through back door). 217-883-1975.

Wednesday

 Open discussion group, 8 p.m. at Lutheran Church for the Deaf.

Friday

 Open discussion group, 7:30 p.m. at First Christian Church.



OTHER MEETINGS

Monday

 Addicts Victorious, 7-8 p.m. at Faith Tabernacle, 571 Sandusky St. Use side entrance to church hall.

 PITTSFIELD: Addicts Victorious, 7-8 p.m. in the basement of Subway in Pittsfield. 1-800-323-1388.



Tuesday

 Jacksonville Sunrise Rotary, 7 a.m. Holiday Inn Express meeting room, South Jacksonville. 217-243-6895.

 Bereavement support group, 10-11 a.m. Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, Meeting Room 4.



Wednesday

 Breastfeeding support group, 6 p.m., Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, Meeting Room 2.

 ROODHOUSE: Women with Hearts of Love (WWHOL), 6-7 p.m. at House of Restoration, 208 W. Franklin St. 217-602-1670.



Thursday

 Jacksonville Area Chess Club, 6-9 p.m. at Jacksonville Public Library. 217-370-0882.

 Jacksonville Kiwanis Club, noon at Hamiltons.

 WHITE HALL: Addicts Victorious, teens 5:30-6:30 p.m.; adults 7-8 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of New Life Church, 626 Curtis St.

 Cancer support group, 6-7:30 p.m., Winchester United Methodist Church. 217-742-3610.



Friday

 Jacksonville Rotary Club, noon at Hamiltons.

 PITTSFIELD: Addicts Victorious, 6 p.m. at Assembly of God, 575 Piper St. 800-323-1388.



Saturday

 Jacksonville Amateur Radio Societys Net, 9 p.m. Transmitted on K9JX repeater. K9JX.com.
GREENWOOD, S.C. (AP)  Chris Thomas adjusted a stack of magazines on a table in front of the museum. Loy Sartin wiped down and dusted oil lamps in the cabin. It was a big day for the Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Historic Preservation Site.

Less than an hour later, a bus filled with relatives and descendants of the legendary and influential civil rights theorist, moral philosopher and former Morehouse College president pulled into the parking lot  the Mays family was coming to tour the site.

This is the first time theyve actually come for a tour, Thomas said. Theyve been here probably for every major event weve ever had at this site. Weve had really, really good family participation.

Mays, born in Greenwood Countys Epworth community in 1894, was born to Louvenia and Hezekiah Mays after they were freed from slavery. Mays would go on to challenge ideas of white supremacy and African American inferiority, pursuing higher education and earning a doctorate and becoming the sixth president of historically Black Morehouse College, as well as the first dean of the school of religion at Howard University.

Beyond his personal accomplishments, Mays work and ethic inspired Civil Rights leaders, and he was a personal mentor to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Mays traveled to India during the Civil Rights movement and brought back with him the principles of nonviolent civil resistance, which he passed on to his disciples. Mays famously eulogized King after his assassination.

Much of that legacy is enshrined at the Benjamin E. Mays Historic Preservation Site at 229 N. Hospital St., where members of his family gathered from throughout the country to connect with their roots. Dozens of them, donning matching reunion T-shirts of purple and gold, poured off their tour bus to learn about their familial history.

He was a moral influencer. In everything he did, he expressed to people a sense of morality, and for him of course it was Christian morals, Thomas said. Im honored to do this. I think that Mays was certainly one of our great Americans.

Benjamin Mays Blocker was the first to arrive. A great-nephew of Mays, he said he would spend summers visiting Uncle Benny at Morehouse, where Mays encouraged Blocker to pursue higher education. Blocker went on to attend Ohio State, then S.C. State before being drafted by the New Orleans Saints and going on to minister at multiple churches.

Now 76, Blocker was ecstatic to have the chance to see his uncles legacy firsthand.

Its an opportunity to see my roots, for one thing, to reconnect, he said. I believe in history, because when I look at what Dr. Mays stood for, what my family stood for and how weve managed to come this far with doctors and lawyers, its good to come together and celebrate that.

He stood for education, he stood for social justice and we represent that. Thats the legacy that he left: His family. We are that legacy.

Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp is descended from Mama Susie  Mays oldest sibling.

She actually taught Uncle Benny to read, so he has stated that Susie was the smartest person that he knew, Yeargin-Allsopp said. Women in those days, of course, were not prioritized as far as education.

When Mays started the first grade in a one-room schoolhouse, he could already read and write, putting him well ahead of his classmates. Although he would fight familial and social challenges to pursue higher education, Mays made it his lifes mission to encourage others to educate themselves.

He wanted everyone in the family to be as educated as possible, and he facilitated that, Yeargin-Allsopp said. He helped people get into college and advised them.

Even as a girl, she remembered going to pick up Mays at the train station when he visited South Carolina. After brief words with her mother, hed ask the children how their grades were  Bs were unacceptable. Hed ask what they had been reading, and had no interest in the comic books they might have read, but wanted them reading Time magazine, or the newspaper.

When Mays traveled to Nigeria to obtain an honorary degree from a former Morehouse student who went on to lead a university there, he invited Yeargin-Allsopp along. It was the first time she ever rode a train, and the first time she tasted honeydew melon. She said the experience of traveling abroad with him helped shape who she became.

In 1964, she was looking to transfer to a more challenging college in pursuit of medical school. Mays suggested Sweet Briar College, though it wasnt clear if they were accepting Black students.

She was told it was too late to be accepted, that admissions were closed, but Mays encouraged her to share his name with the staff. It turned out the college was looking for a student to help make the legal case for desegregation of the school; local governments were holding the school to its original charter, barring Black students from admission.

She ended up admitted, with a full scholarship, as the first African American student  and eventual graduate  at Sweet Briar. She went on to make another first as Emory medical schools first Black woman to graduate. She now works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the field of developmental disabilities.

When Gina Hall-Boyd walked into the museum at the Mays site, she gasped. She looked around the room in a daze; Walls plastered floor-to-ceiling with her great-great uncles life story. Nearby was the cabin Mays was raised in; where his father often tried to convince him to return and tend the soil instead of pursuing further education.

I had no idea, first of all, that they had kept such a historical record of all this, she said. Not to be cliche, but this was truly an immense honor. Its so important that we continue to do this and pass this to our children. When you walk into that house and you see the struggle ... it shows the hope, and continues to show progress.

Her mother, Beatrice Hall, is 88 years old. She had the chance to meet Mays when she was very young, visiting an aunts house. Shes from Pittsburgh, and while the broad strokes of Mays life were common knowledge to many in the family, the scope of his accomplishments were not. She knew little about Mays meeting with Gandhi, but hearing Thomas talk about his life, Hall was stunned.

When its in your family, you just dont think of the greatness of all the things that theyve done, she said. I guess because he was a member of our family, we just took it for granted. He was a brilliant man, he was doing such wonderful work with Dr. King and all the other civil rights leaders.

You think, how could one man do so much in one lifetime? Youd think he wouldnt have a free moment to do anything else. When did the man ever rest?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  A former probation officer in Kentucky has been charged with having unwanted sexual contact with people under his supervision, federal officials said.

Ronald R. Tyler, 55, of Shepherdsville, was charged in an indictment that was unsealed Friday, the U.S. attorney's office said in a news release. Tyler is a former Kentucky Department of Corrections probation and parole officer.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  A former Kentucky probation officer has been charged in federal court with sexually abusing women under his supervision.

An indictment by a grand jury in Louisville was unsealed on Friday. It charges 55-year-old Ronald R. Tyler with engaging in unwanted sexual contact with four people under his supervision and making false statements.
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A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Their bodies were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Des Moines.

Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead Friday in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safetys division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown.

We dont know what led up to this, what precipitated it, he said, adding that so far, the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.

Adam Morehouse, Sarah Schmidt's brother, said the family had no connection to Sherwin and he believed it was a completely random act.

Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green, who said he is a neighbor of the Schmidts, posted on Facebook on Friday that the couple's 9-year-old son, Arlo, survived the attack, and is safe. The post did not say whether Arlo was in the tent or even at the campsite when the shootings happened, and the mayor told the AP he didn't have those details.

Morehouse confirmed Arlo was on the family's camping trip, but said he did not know exactly where the boy was at the time of the shooting or know specifics about how it unfolded.

He is with family and he is OK, but I have not had any interaction with him, Morehouse said Saturday. As far as I know, he was uninjured physically.

By Saturday evening, more than $75,000 had flowed into a GoFundMe page created for Arlo. The page, organized by a cousin, Beth Shapiro, said: Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can. The page says the fund will help Arlo now, and help fund his future education.

The killings prompted the evacuation of the park and campground, including a children's summer camp. After the evacuations, Sherwin was the only person unaccounted for, Mortvedt said.

He said that during the course of the investigation, authorities learned Sherwin was armed and that of course heightened our awareness. Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit and provided no information about the firearm used to kill the Schmidts.

The Des Moines Register reported that Sherwin was from La Vista, Nebraska. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten told the newspaper that Sherwin lived in an apartment complex with his parents and had no history of criminal conduct.

Felicia Coe, 35, of Des Moines, was at the campground Friday morning with her boyfriend and his two sons, ages 11 and 16. She said the 16-year-old went out early to go running, and she was talking with someone at the park at about 6:30 a.m. when two park rangers dressed in helmets, vests and carrying what looked like automatic rifles told them to leave the campground.

More law enforcement and an ambulance showed up as Coe went to find her boyfriend's teenage son.

At the time, Coe did not know what happened. But she recalls seeing a little boy standing near the paramedics.

He was in his pajamas. I distinctly remember he had one blue tennis shoe, she said. She later saw a picture of the Schmidt family online and said she recognized the boy she saw as Arlo.

Hes got this really cute, floppy-curly, moppy, strawberry-blond hair thats really distinguishable, Coe said. He was in these super cute little pajamas, like a cotton T-shirt and shorts that matched. ... He was just standing there. He wasnt crying. He wasnt distraught. But he also wasnt being comforted. He was just standing there by himself.

She said the campers got little information about what happened and she began piecing it together on the drive home.

Its hard to be so grateful that it wasnt your family, when you know that another family, is just being ripped apart  multiple families," she said.

Green, the Cedar Falls mayor, said Sarah Schmidt worked at the city's Public Library, which was closed Saturday.

Like many of you just hearing the news, Im devastated, Green wrote on Facebook. I knew Sarah well, and she & her family were regular walkers here in the Sartori Park neighborhood. I was working with her this week on a public library tech presentation for 7/26.

Morehouse said Tyler Schmidt's parents live in the Cedar Falls area, and Sarah Schmidt's family members are scattered around the country, but were heading to Iowa. He said Tyler and Sarah lived in Lawrence, Kansas, for a time, where Sarah worked at the University of Kansas. Tyler was an IT software engineer. At one point, he said, Sarah worked on a project about monarch butterflies, and the couple were huge Kansas Jayhawks fans.

In 2018, the Schmidts moved to Cedar Falls and had been active in the community ever since, Morehouse said. He said they loved the outdoors, and just got four pairs of snowshoes for Christmas.

The best way to describe all four of them was the quintessential Midwestern family. They gave everybody everything they possibly could. They loved family ... They enjoyed the outdoors, enjoyed the hiking  and this is just a question mark of Why that campground and that campsite on that night?"

___

Forliti reported from Minneapolis.

___

An earlier version of this article misspelled Lula Schmidt's first name.
YEREVAN, JULY 23, ARMENPRESS. The United States promised more military support for Ukraine, including drones, and is doing preliminary work on whether to send fighter aircraft, as fighting raged on in the east, with the war about to enter its sixth month, Reuters reports.

Moscow and Kyiv signed a landmark deal on Friday to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports. However, representatives declined to sit at the same table and avoided shaking hands at the agreement ceremony in Istanbul, reflecting wider enmity.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Fridays agreement as unlocking around $10 billion worth of grain exports, needed to ease a food crisis.

But on the war, Zelenskiy said there could be no ceasefire unless lost territory was retaken.

The White House on Friday announced $270 million in fresh support for Kyiv, saying it was doing preliminary work on whether to send fighter aircraft, although such a move would not happen in the near term.
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ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Greeces fire service was fighting four major fires across the country Saturday, including one where they had to evacuate over 450 people at an island holiday resort.

A fire that broke at Saturday morning on the island of Lesbos prompted authorities to call for the evacuation of the Vatera resort on the island's southern side. The fire came very close to the resort and at least one house was engulfed by the flames.

But more than five hours after an emergency message was sent by phone to residents, the evacuation was still ongoing, fire service spokesman Yannis Artopoios told reporters. He said 50 firefighters with 17 fire engines, nine special firefighting planes and one helicopter are fighting the blaze.

Local police said Saturday afternoon they had evacuated over 450 people from two hotels and 92 houses and that 60 officers were scouring the area for anyone that refused to move.

Greece's biggest fire Saturday was burning in the northeast near the border with urkey for the third day running, inside a national forest that is the home to rare species, especially vultures. The Dadia national forest is mostly made up of highly flammable pine trees.

The fire service said 320 firefighters in 68 fire engines, plus 6 special planes, 9 helicopters and numerous volunteers were fighting the fire, while another 200 lumberjacks were cutting firebreak paths through the forest.

Two more major fires were burning Saturday, one in a remote mountainous area in the region of Western Macedonia and another in the southern Peloponnese region, Artopoios said.

The European Union gave Greeces forest service 72 million euros this year to help maintain forests and clear them to prevent fires from spreading.

Greece, unlike other areas in Europe, has so far avoided a heat wave this summer but temperatures have been rising. The country's hot, dry summers and strong winds have combined with the longer-term effects of climate change to increase the overall risk of forest fires.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
NORTH LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Deputies responding to a domestic dispute call in South Florida fatally shot a man after he fired at them, grazing the head of one of the deputies on Saturday, authorities said.

After deputies responded to the scene in North Lauderdale, a man produced a firearm and shot at deputes, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
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UVALDE, Texas (AP)  After the massacre at Uvaldes Robb Elementary School in May, Jesse Rizo was worried about his old friend, police chief Pete Arredondo.

Blame for the botched police response was being directed heavily at Arredondo when Rizo texted him just days after the shooting: Been thinking of and praying for you.

Two months later, with investigations and body-camera video spotlighting the hesitant and haphazard response by police to the killing of two teachers and 19 students, Rizo remains worried about Arredondo. He also wants him fired.

Rizos complicated feelings toward his Uvalde High School classmate capture the type of mixed emotions that families of victims and many residents of this close-knit community are navigating as they channel their grief and fury into demands for change.

I care about Pete. I care that hes mentally OK. I dont want a human to start to lose it, said Rizo, who is distantly related to a 9-year-old girl who was killed at Robb Elementary. But I also want to hold people accountable who dont perform their jobs properly.

The 50-year-old Arredondo, who as head of the school district's small police department was one of the first officers on the scene, has taken much of the blame for not immediately storming the classroom and confronting the shooter. He has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

This week, the Uvalde school board abruptly scheduled a meeting to discuss firing Arredondo, only to cancel it days later. As officials weigh their options, residents are growing impatient with unanswered calls to hold people accountable for the bewildering 77 minutes of inaction by nearly 400 police officers who responded to the school shooting.

But the mere possibility of his firing after months of resistance from local officials stands as a demonstration of the victims' families' rising political clout.

The strain over how to move forward is visible in the signs that have popped up all over town. Uvalde United. Uvalde Must Stand Together. While those signs mean different things depending on whom you ask, other signs are more pointed: Prosecute Pete Arredondo.

Family ties and political struggles go back generations in Uvalde, a community where nearly three-quarters of the residents are Hispanic. Locals had largely revered the police before the shooting. Uvalde's leaders, many of whom are white, share church pews with their fiercest critics. And demanding accountability can mean calling for the job of your friend, neighbor or employer.

Its a town with a power structure and unwritten rules that make it hard for many people to speak out, said Michael Ortiz, a local college professor who moved to Uvalde 13 years ago and said his tenure allows him to be vocal in a way thats not viable for many of the communitys mostly working-class residents.

Someones boss might not like that, Ortiz said. They are afraid even to march.

Since the shooting, the mostly Hispanic parents of the victims have struggled to make their demands heard by the city and school district. Local officials initially resisted releasing information and calls to fire officers. But things are shifting.

In a sign of growing political activism, more than 300 people have registered to vote in Uvalde since the shooting -- more than double the number in the same period during the last midterm election season. And in July, over 100 protesters braved 106-degree heat to call for stronger gun regulations  including raising the minimum age to buy an assault weapon  and for greater transparency from local and state authorities investigating the shooting.

That was the largest local demonstration since 1970, when the school districts refusal to renew the contract of a popular Robb Elementary teacher prompted one of Texas longest school walkouts over demands for equal education for Mexican American residents. That teachers son is Ronnie Garza, a Uvalde County commissioner.

Garza said the shooting has changed the community, uniting people in grief but dividing them on questions of accountability. We are a desperate people right now. We are yelling here that way, we are yelling (the other) way, for somebody to listen to us, to come and help us, said Garza.

Faced with incomplete and contradictory accounts from local and state law enforcement, the families of those killed in Uvalde have begun to make people listen.

After state lawmakers issued a damning report that found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making by both police and school officials, the Uvalde school board held a special session to hear from parents. Superintendent Hal Harrell apologized for previously being too formal and not letting the victims families say their piece.

Trying to find the right time, the right balance out of respect, I did not do well, said Harrell, who is white and spoke in an auditorium named for his father, who was also superintendent.

For the next three hours, grieving parents and community members upbraided the board, saying that if it didn't hold people accountable they would lose their jobs. Some told Harrell he wasn't living up to his father's legacy, while others referenced the 1970 lockout and said they hoped he would do better, drawing applause. People called for the whole school police force to be fired and jeered at state troopers standing at the room's edges.

Rizo, who was at that meeting, said he cannot respect how the police chief or the many other officers he knows handled their jobs that day. There are consequences to that, he said. I can't understand why he wouldn't just resign.

But the long history between them tugs at Rizo too. In the text he sent Arredondo days after the shooting, he said: Please be strong and be patient.

Arredondo responded: Good to hear from you, bro. Thank you and please keep praying for the babies. They havent spoken since.

___

For more AP coverage of the Uvalde school shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran claimed on Saturday that its intelligence agents dismantled a group linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad, which had allegedly planned terror operations inside Iran.

According to Iran's state-run TV, members of the group had entered Iran from an unspecified neighboring country's Kurdish-populated area. Both Turkey and Iraq have a minority Kurdish population living alongside the Iranian border.

The report also said Iranian forces arrested all members of the group and confiscated a large amount of weapons, explosives, and technical and communication equipment belonging to the group in several operations across Iran.

The TV said the group planned sabotage actions and unprecedented terrorist operations in several sensitive areas"  a likely reference to military and security installations. The report did not elaborate.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Western Iran, along the borders with Turkey and Iraq, has seen occasional fighting between Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists, as well as militants linked to the extremist Islamic State group.

Last month, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted the prosecutor of Irans southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province as alleging that three people arrested in April there on suspicion of working with Israels Mossad intelligence agency had wanted to kill Iranian nuclear scientists.

In May, an unexplained incident struck the Parchin military complex, a major military and weapons development base east of Tehran, killing an engineer and injuring another employee. Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard later said the incident was a case of industrial sabotage.
BAGHDAD (AP)  Iraq has filed a complaint to the U.N. Security Council, requesting an urgent session to discuss a deadly artillery attack this week that Baghdad blames on Turkey, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

Wednesdays attack on the district of Zakho in Iraqs northern, semi-autonomous Kurdish region killed nine Iraqi tourists, including a child, and wounded 20.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad al-Sahaf said the ministry also recalled Iraq's charge daffaires from Ankara. Iraqs parliament held a session Saturday on the attack, with lawmakers deciding to form a committee to investigate further.

Turkey, which has several bases in northern Iraq and often conducts cross-border military operations there, says its targeting militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. The group, declared a terrorist organization by Turkey and the West, has for decades waged an insurgency against the government in Ankara and maintains hideouts in Iraq's mountainous north.

And though Iraqi civilians, mostly local villagers, have been killed in past Turkish attacks, Wednesday marked the first time that tourists visiting the north from elsewhere in Iraq were killed.

Ankara has denied it was behind Wednesday's attack. Iraqi media reported that the Security Council session was due next Tuesday.

The recent escalation threatens to further erode ties between the two neighboring countries at a time when Iraq relies heavily on Turkish trade and negotiations are underway on water-sharing of the Tigris and Euphrates river basin.

Following the attack, angry Iraqis who took to the streets in protest and Baghdad summoned Turkey's ambassador to Iraq, handing over a strongly worded" protest note, according to the foreign ministry.
PHOENIX (AP)  A judge has dismissed Arizona Gov. Doug Duceys lawsuit challenging the Biden administrations demands that the state stop sending millions in federal COVID-19 relief money to schools that dont have mask requirements or that close due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

The state filed the lawsuit earlier this year after the U.S. Treasury Department demanded that Ducey either restructure the $163 million program to eliminate restrictions it says undermine public health recommendations or face a repayment demand.

The Treasury Department also wanted changes to a $10 million program Ducey created that gives private school tuition money to parents if their childrens schools have mask mandates.

In a ruling earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Steven Logan concluded it was reasonable for the Biden administration to say that the money couldnt be spent on efforts that would undermine compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines. The judge said a program that requires noncompliance with guidelines may worsen the pandemic and create more negative effects, which goes against the purpose of the relief fund.

While Ducey claimed the the American Rescue Plan Act wasn't clear in the conditions it imposed on using the relief money, the judge agreed with the Biden administrations argument that the permissible uses for the funds under the law  and its authorization for the Treasury Department to issue appropriate regulations  put the state on notice about the conditions associated with accepting the money.

Duceys lawyers have said in court records that the governor is appealing the ruling. Ducey spokesman C.J. Karamargin said on Saturday that the governor's office was reviewing the decision.

The lawsuit said the Treasury Department created restrictions on spending the money Arizona receives under the American Rescue Plan Act on its own and without legal authority. It asked a court to declare that the Treasury Departments rules are illegal and permanently block enforcement and any demands that it pay back the money spent on the two programs.

The Treasury Department started demanding that Ducey change the programs in October. It was part of a concerted effort to force Arizona and some other Republican-led states that have opposed mask mandates or were using pandemic funding to advance their own agendas to end those practices.

Ducey rejected Treasurys request the following month, and the Biden administration followed up with a formal demand that it cease using the money for the disputed programs or face either repayment demands or withholding of additional money it is set to receive under Bidens COVID-19 relief bill.

At issue are two state programs the Republican governor created last summer meant to help schools and students.

Arizonas Education Plus-Up Grant Program provides $163 million in funding to schools in higher-income areas that received less than $1,800 per student in federal virus aid. Districts that require face coverings or that have closed due to virus outbreaks are ineligible.

Another called the COVID-19 Educational Recovery Benefit Program provides for up to $7,000 for parents if their childs school requires face coverings or quarantines after exposure. It lets parents use the money for private school tuition or other education costs and its design mirrors the states existing school voucher program.

Ducey created the programs in part to up the pressure on school districts that had mask mandates or other COVID-19 restrictions, saying they were hurting children and parents who had endured more than a year of school shutdowns, remote learning and other restrictions.
OXFORD, Miss. (AP)  A Mississippi man is in custody accused in the disappearance of a college student last seen July 8.

Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., 22, of Grenada, was arrested on a charge of murder in the case involving Jimmie Jay Lee, a 20-year-old University of Mississippi student. Oxford Police and the University of Mississippi Police announced his arrest Friday, two weeks after Lee was last seen leaving an apartment complex, news outlets reported. Lee's vehicle was towed from another apartment complex later July 8. Police believe he may have been visiting someone there at the time of his disappearance. The vehicle was taken to the Mississippi State Crime Laboratory for processing.
MANISTEE COUNTY  Families throughout Manistee County are facing the challenge of finding child care.

Thanks to a program by First Children's Finance, a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization, work is now underway to find solutions.

The Rural Child Care Innovation Program focuses on mitigating the challenges of rural child care in greater Minnesota and rural Michigan, through the lens of rural economic development.

Hannah Rodriguez, who coordinates the Launch Manistee Network in her role as program officer for the Manistee County Community Foundation, said local entities have been working together to come up with ways to bolster child care in Manistee County.

"This whole process is being led by a cross-sector group of community leaders that are making up what we're calling our core team," Rodriguez said. "We have representation from our local school districts, the health department, other early childhood stakeholders, West Shore Community College, the (Manistee Area) Chamber of Commerce. So, a cross-sector group of leaders are really leading this charge and are in conversation about how we address these challenges."

Rodriguez and Niki Schultz, director of Great Start Collaborative, are co-leads of the core team.

Launch Manistee, Great Start and some other early childhood stakeholders started to have in-depth conversations about the child care and education challenges the community has been facing, which Rodriguez said were only exacerbated by the pandemic.

"We started talking about these challenges we're having and realized that we really needed to better understand what our child care supply and demand looks like, and where are those things not aligning," she said. "I think that we needed a better understanding of what we currently have, if what we currently have is operating at full capacity or we need to see growth, and then what the demand truly is. What are parents looking for and how do we make sure those needs are met?"

Rodriguez said the core team decided to apply to be a part of the Rural Child Care Innovation Program.

The Launch Manistee Network submitted a proposal and Manistee County was one of the communities chosen to receive assistance through the Rural Child Care Innovation Program.

"This is not a financial grant  this is a technical assistance grant, so they're guiding us through this process and providing their skills and expertise," Rodriguez said. "... Only six communities in the state were chosen, and Manistee County was one thanks to  I think  all of the great collaboration that was already happening around early childhood that we could demonstrate."

The core team started working with the Rural Child Care Innovation Program early this year, and the time has come to seek input from community stakeholders regarding the child care supply and demand in Manistee County, Rodriguez said.

"Recently, we launched surveys to three key groups: one to parents, one to our providers  so reaching out to our providers to better understand their needs, and one to local employers," she said. "How's our business community and our economy being affected by this gap, and how can we better understand that?"

The surveys can be accessed by visiting manisteefamily.org/rccip and will be open through early August.

"As we're gathering that information, we're also planning some focus groups and individual interviews to better understand those needs. Also, they'll all be presented at a town hall meeting in the fall," Rodriguez said. "That will probably happen later in September. We'll be presenting all of this data and starting to talk about some solutions and some action steps that we can take to make sure (the supply and demand) align and that we can address the challenges that we're having, both short-term and long-term, for our sustainability."

Rodriguez said the data gathering process "has been a bit of a roller coaster."

"We had to take the survey down and relink because it got spammed. We've had some challenges, but we're on the right track so we reopened it," she said. "It's back available to folks. We've been sending it mostly through email because we learned social media is not the best way to share them, unfortunately. ... We want as much engagement as possible."

Lacy Crummey, Great Start Collaborative parent liaison for Manistee County, said a lot of solid data has been collected already.

"Before we had our hiccup, it was going really well," she said. "We were getting great feedback, and feedback that we need from our parents in our area. Their voice is more important than anything, I believe."

Rodriguez said the core team hopes to learn what it takes to ensure child care providers can have a successful business while still maintaining affordable rates for families, which she said is "one of the biggest challenges for the child care puzzle."

"Part of the reason we have providers not operating at full capacity is because of staffing shortages," she said. "It's very difficult to find and retain staff when you're asking them to retain higher credentials, do continuing education, and we're paying them very little because we don't want our families to not be able to afford care.

"So, how can we figure out ways to make a financial model that makes sense for providers?"

Rodriguez said Manistee County is only receiving technical assistance at this time but could look into acquiring grant funding in the future if necessary.

"We'll definitely be looking at funding support that is needed, and how we might address those things, but in terms of what First Children's Finance is providing, it's really those skills, data gathering and analysis," she said. "Then, eventually, connecting us to some other resources that they might have access to through their partners here in Michigan."

To learn more about the Rural Child Care Innovation Program, visit ruralchildcare.org.
On Thursday, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that the migratory monarch butterfly had "entered the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Endangered, threatened by habitat destruction and climate change," noting that, with the addition, the list now included a total of 147,517 species with 41,459 of these being "threatened with extinction."

Todays Red List update highlights the fragility of natures wonders, such as the unique spectacle of monarch butterflies migrating across thousands of kilometres, Bruno Oberle, IUCN director general said in the press release. To preserve the rich diversity of nature we need effective, fairly governed protected and conserved areas, alongside decisive action to tackle climate change and restore ecosystems."

The endangered migratory monarch butterfly is a monarch butterfly subspecies, the report states, explaining that the native population, "known for its migrations from Mexico and California in the winter to summer breeding grounds throughout the United States and Canada," had decreased between 22% to 72% in the last 10 years.

Detailing a list of risks to these animals, the report makes note of both legal and illegal logging and deforestation, as well as pesticides and herbicides.

"Climate change has significantly impacted the migratory monarch butterfly and is a fast-growing threat," a portion of the report states, adding that "drought limits the growth of milkweed and increases the frequency of catastrophic wildfires, temperature extremes trigger earlier migrations before milkweed is available, while severe weather has killed millions of butterflies."

While eastern populations have decreased 84% between 1996 and 2014, western populations are at the "greatest risk of extinction," with a 99.9% decline between the 1980s and 2021, according to the report.

In Texas, the monarch butterfly is the official state insect and the species is a predominant seasonal sight across the Lone Star State.

Texas is located in the middle of two of the "principal breeding grounds," with the pollinators using two main "flyways" in the fall and spring, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. This includes a 300-mile wide stretch of the state between Wichita Falls and Eagle Pass the animals navigate at the end of September and another on the Texas coast traversed around late October through the middle of November.

JHVEPhoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto

"Early each March overwintering monarchs begin arriving from their overwintering grounds in Mexico," reads a portion of the TPWD resource. "Seeking emerging milkweeds, they move through Texas laying eggs before dying. Their offspring continue heading north, leaving most of Texas behind, the first of several new generations of monarchs that re-populate the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada."
YEREVAN, JULY 23, ARMENPRESS. President Vahagn Khachaturyan held a meeting with the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan, the presidency said in a press release.

Sanosyan briefed the President on the current course of the construction of the North-South Highway, namely the ongoing works in the road section of Syunik Province. He also informed the President about the completion of the construction of the Iran-Armenia high-voltage power line.

The president and the minister also exchanged ideas on existing opportunities and issues around the construction of a new nuclear power plant.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP)  Authorities have arrested a man after a county ambulance running with the keys still in it was stolen from a restaurant parking lot and the driver led law enforcement on a chase, the N.C. State Highway Patrol said.

The Catawba County ambulance was parked at a restaurant across the street from Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center on Friday morning, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
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LONDON (AP)  Protesters turned out Saturday on the streets of London and in the Scottish city of Glasgow to demand faster action against climate change following the record-smashing temperatures that scorched the U.K. this week.

Activist groups including Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain led protesters in a sit-in on Parliament Square in London to demand that the Conservative government stop giving new licenses for oil and gas production, tax big polluters and help people install more energy efficient heating in their homes.

Tuesdays extreme heatwave was a warning about what we will face as the climate collapses - thousands of deaths, homes lost to wildfires and emergency services stretched to breaking point," said Indigo Rumbelow from Just Stop Oil. We are so unprepared for extreme heat and its only going to get worse.

The U.K.'s Met Office weather agency recorded 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in England on Tuesday, the highest-ever temperature registered in a country ill-prepared for such extreme heat. British summers are usually quite moderate and few homes, schools or small businesses have air-conditioning.

The heat wave paralyzed major train networks, damaged airport runways and saw 15 fire departments across the country declaring major incidents. The London Fire Brigade said that Tuesday was the busiest day for firefighters since World War II.

In Glasgow, climate activists staged a die-in protest to demand urgent action to tackle climate change. Protesters laid on the ground in one of the citys busiest shopping areas, covered in white sheets with causes of death including heat stress, famine and water scarcity.

Weve been sounding the alarm about the global climate emergency for years," said Wolf Saanen, 39. Now it has arrived on our shores, will those with the power to change things finally listen?

Some climate groups warned they will stage more disruptive demonstrations in the autumn to bring Westminster  the seat of Parliament  to a standstill.

The groups also want the British government to reduce energy bills amid a soaring cost-of-living crisis that's expected to squeeze households further in the fall when the weather turns colder.

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Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
DeVere Sturm is a 91-year-old Huron County resident who lives just outside of Pigeon, and his hobby is to return the purple martin bird to the area.

Ive probably built 80 to 100 of these birdhouses, said Sturm. There is a method of attracting them. You use a bird call called the dawn song. You just play it on a boom box below the birdhouse around spring when they are arriving, and it attracts them.

When Sturm first started to get into housing birds, his goal was to create birdhouses for bluebirds. However, there were not many in the area, which is when he stumbled upon the purple martin.

There were very few purple martins left around here, said Sturm. I happened to be on the internet and found the purple martins, and I remembered years ago when I was a kid that people had purple martins.

This is where Sturm comes in. He had been making purple martin houses for the last 25 years. What started out as a small hobby turned into a renaissance for the purple martins coming back to the Upper Thumb. Sturm said he builds about five every winter, depending on if he needs to make more. His barn currently has seven ready to go.

I started populating this side (of the Thumb), said Sturm. Kevin Booms populates the (west) side.

Purple martins have lived alongside people since before European colonization, when Native Americans would house them in hollowed-out gourds as the birds liked living around humans.

Purple martins are specifically dependent on man-made birdhouses, said Sturm. Originally they would rest in hollow trees, but there are no hollow trees around here, so they are specifically dependent on the birdhouses.

Sturm explained that the purple martin is in the area from mid-April through mid-August, then they migrate down to South America to the rainforests of Brazil.

They only raise their young when they are here in North America and they sometimes go as north as Canada, said Sturm. They fly all the way to Brazil, and they will come back to this specific spot and will grab the same compartment if they can.

Each birdhouse has multiple compartments and can house up to 12 different families of purple martins. Each family produces four to seven eggs in each compartment.

I have a friend about four miles away who got one this spring and he played the dawn song and now he has three of his (compartments) filled, said Sturm. It is a gradual process.

One thing that Sturm notes is that the purple martins do have predators, and those looking to take care of them will need to take precautions.

Ive had problems this year with raccoons, thats never happened before, said Sturm. They climbed up the poles in the middle of the hatching season and killed most of the babies. I set some raccoon traps now and since caught 13 raccoons.

In addition to the raccoon traps, Sturm has also put-up guards on the poles to stop raccoons and other predators from climbing up the poles. Other threats to the purple martins are sparrows and starlings, who will take over spots in the birdhouses and will throw out babies and eggs.

The purple martin has had a steady decline since 1966 according to Michigan Audubon, which is Michigans oldest bird conservation organization. On its website you can find behavior patterns, food choices and how to identify the birds. You can also register purple martin colonies if you have one.

If you would like a birdhouse from DeVere Sturm you may contact him by calling his phone at 989-453-2300.
The first case of polio detected in the United States since 2013 was announced last week, but local and state officials are not yet expressing concern about what it could mean for Connecticut.

The case was detected at a hospital in Rockland County, New York. The patient was a young adult who was admitted to the hospital about a month ago with muscle weakness and mild paralysis.

Rockland County Department of Health was notified Monday evening that an unvaccinated adult in Rockland county is confirmed to have polio, said Rockland health commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel in a press conference Thursday. We stress that those who are fully vaccinated with the three dose series are at very low risk.

Local health officials report that the patient is no longer contagious and has been released to their family for care. Health officials are conducting a contact tracing investigation to determine the origin of the infection and assess community exposure risk.

The county health department is surveying the family and the close contacts of the family to assess what risk there may be to the community, said Beth Cefalu, Rockland County Health Department spokesperson, Were doing what we can but its still early days.

So far the Conneticuit Department of Public Health has stated that they are not involved with the contact tracing effort. And official from the nearby health department in Stamford also confirmed they are not yet involved in any contact tracing efforts.

Our Department would be notified either directly or via CTDPH of any contacts residing in Stamford, said Jody Bishop-Pullan, director of health for the Stamford health department. We are concerned with any infectious disease particularly among those who are unvaccinated.

Polio is a serious viral infection that causes no symptoms in 95% of people. The remaining five percent have sore throat, nausea, vomiting, fever and meningitis. Roughly 2% of infected people develop paralysis which is often fatal. Polio is shed through the intestine and is usually spread through accidental ingestion of fecal-contaminated water, like at a public swimming pool. Symptoms can take up to 30 days to appear.

Wild polio was declared eradicated in the United States in 1979 following an extensive, nationwide vaccination campaign. The last reported cases in Connecticut were documented in 1972. That year there were 11 cases.

Occasionally travelers to the United States have brought polio cases with them. The previous case of polio was detected in an Indian infant who had moved to San Antonio with their parents. That infant died of polio.

The Rockland case had not recently traveled outside the United States, according to local health officials.

The Wadsworth Center, the state health department laboratory, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sequenced the poliovirus and found that it was a revertant polio Sabin type two virus. Revertant strains sometimes, but rarely, emerge from oral poliovirus vaccines which are made with live-attenuated poliovirus. In areas with low polio vaccination rates, revertant poliovirus can cause sporadic outbreaks.

What were talking about with this case is that it is not a wild strain of polio, said Dr. Patricia Shnabel, the health director in Rockland County, The case is a strain used in an oral polio vaccine that reverted or regained its virulance. ... Obviously we do not use that in this country anymore but many countries around the world do.

The United States, and many industrialized countries, no longer use the oral polio vaccine. Since 2000, the US has used inactivated poliovirus vaccine which cannot revert to an infectious form.

Because the Rockland case was caused by a revertant poliovirus this points to a chain of transmission from someone who received polio vaccine outside the United States.

In the Untied States children are routinely vaccinated against polio. Federal officials recommend four doses to be given at two months, four months and between six to 18 months of age with a booster between the ages of four and six. Connecticut requires only three doses before the age of 18 months.

Due to the pandemic many children missed scheduled vaccinations. According to data from the state health department between the 2017-2018 and 2020-2021 school years polio vaccination rates among all students fell from 96.7% to 95.3% on average. While thats still very high it still points to many children missing their scheduled vaccinations.

We want shots into arms for those who need it, said Dr. Shnabel. We looking for those who did not complete their series, be it adult or child.

Dr. Shnabel said that the federal government had sent 300 doses of inactivated polio vaccine to top off their stocks.

A walk-in clinic is scheduled for Monday, July 25 from 1 to 4 p.m. at 50 Sanatorium Road in Pomona, N.Y. The clinic welcomes anyone who is unvaccinated  including those who are pregnant  has not completed their polio vaccine series, or are concerned they have might have been exposed.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP)  Police in Mecca say they have arrested a Saudi man who helped an Israeli-Jewish reporter sneak into Islam's holiest city, defying a rule that only Muslims can enter the area.

While Muslims of any nationality and background can enter Mecca, non-Muslims are not permitted because a very specific code of conduct and behavior is required of all people within its boundaries, including certain forms of modesty, ritual cleansing and prayers.

The public backlash over television reporter Gil Tamarys visit was immediate on social media, with Muslims and Saudis expressing their anger over his deception and apparent disregard for the sanctity of the site.

It comes as Saudi-Israeli ties have been quietly growing amid shared concerns over arch-enemy Iran. This incident is unlikely to dampen the relationship. Publicly, the kingdom insists its policy is that full ties can only happen when Palestinian statehood and rights are guaranteed.

The outcry appears to have prompted Saudi police late Friday to announce the arrest of the Saudi man who they say facilitated the entry of the journalist into Mecca in explicit violation of regulations prohibiting the entry of non-Muslims. The Saudi male national, whose identity was not revealed, was referred to prosecution and remains under arrest.

The veteran reporter for Channel 13 in Israel filmed himself in Mecca for a roughly 10-minute-long segment that aired on Monday in which he visited a key site on the hajj pilgrimage route where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon some 1,400 years ago.

He made clear he knowingly had slipped into Mecca with a driver, saying he is speaking in Hebrew quietly so no one can hear him. He claimed to be the first Israeli Jew ever to enter the city. He did not identify himself as Israeli or Jewish to the driver during the recordings.

In the clip that aired, Tamary and his Saudi driver pass a highway turnoff that says non-Muslims cannot pass, and then pass under a huge Quran replica that is the main gateway to the city. The dream came true, he says as they pass through Mecca and make their way to Mount Arafat.

After he climbs the mount, he says religious police are starting to ask questions and want to make sure he is a Muslim. They decide to leave.

Mecca is home to Islam's holiest shrine, the cube-shaped Kaaba, the metaphorical house of God located in the city's Grand Mosque. The shrine marks the point toward which observant Muslims worldwide pray five times a day. It is also the ultimate destination for the Muslim hajj and smaller umrah pilgrimage.

The reporter and Channel 13 responded on Twitter after the report aired. The news channel, in both Hebrew and Arabic, said Tamary's report was driven by journalistic curiosity and a desire to witness and see things firsthand. The popular Israeli channel apologized for any anger stoked by his visit, which occurred during President Joe Biden's trip to the nearby city of Jeddah. The Times of Israel quoted an unnamed source familiar with the matter saying Israeli government officials were satisfied with the statements issued by the channel and its reporter.

Police in Mecca said they also referred the journalist's actions to public prosecutors, though the Israeli national is no longer in the kingdom.

The Saudi statement did not identify the journalist, saying only he was non-Muslim and had U.S. citizenship, implying he'd entered the country using his American passport since the kingdom has no formal ties with Israel.

Police called on visitors to respect the country's laws, particularly when it comes to Mecca and Islam's holiest sites in the kingdom.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Ariel Schalit in Jerusalem and Fares Akram in Gaza City contributed to this report.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  International human rights groups on Saturday urged Sri Lankas new president to immediately order security forces to cease use of force against protesters after troops and police cleared their main camp following months of demonstrations over the countrys economic meltdown.

A day after President Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn, hundreds of armed troops raided a protest camp outside the president's office in the early hours of Friday, attacking demonstrators with batons. Human Rights Watch said the action sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law.

Two journalists and two lawyers were also attacked by soldiers in the crackdown. Security forces arrested 11 people, including protesters and lawyers.

Urgently needed measures to address the economic needs of Sri Lankans demand a government that respects fundamental rights, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Sri Lankas international partners should send the message loud and clear that they cant support an administration that tramples on the rights of its people."

Also condemning the attack, Amnesty International said it is shameful that the new government resorted to such violent tactics within hours of coming to power.

The protesters have a right to demonstrate peacefully. Excessive use of force, intimidation and unlawful arrests seem to be an endlessly repetitive pattern in which the Sri Lankan authorities respond to dissent and peaceful assembly," said Kyle Ward, the group's deputy secretary general.

Wickremesinghe, who previously served as prime minister six times, was sworn in as president a week after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled the country. Rajapaksa later resigned while exiled in Singapore.

Sri Lankans have taken to the streets for months to demand their top leaders step down to take responsibility for the economic chaos that has left the nations 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. While the protesters have focused on the Rajapaksa's family, Wickremesinghe also has drawn their ire as a perceived Rajapaksa surrogate.

Armed troops and police arrived in trucks and buses on Friday to clear the main protest camp the capital, Colombo, even though protesters had announced they would vacate the site voluntarily.

Sri Lankas opposition, the United Nations, and the U.S. have denounced the government's heavy-handed tactics.

Despite heightened security outside the presidents office, protesters have vowed to continue until Wickremesinghe resigns.

On Friday, he appointed as prime minister a Rajapaksa ally, Dinesh Gunawardena.

Wickremesinghe on Monday declared a state of emergency as acting president in a bid to quell the protests. Just hours after he was sworn in, he issued a notice calling on the armed forces to maintain law and order  clearing the way for the move against the protest camp.

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 crisis.

The political turmoil has threatened efforts to seek rescue from the International Monetary Fund. Still, earlier this week, Wickremesinghe said bailout talks were nearing a conclusion.

The head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, told the Japanese financial magazine Nikkei Asia this week that the IMF hopes for a deal as quickly as possible.
BOSTON (AP)  Three men were arrested Saturday at a rally in Boston that the district attorney called an organized white supremacist action.

The Boston Police Department said Saturday that three men were arrested for disturbing the peace in Jamaica Plain, a diverse neighborhood of Boston.

A spokesperson for Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said he was told one of the three men arrested is affiliated with the group known as NSC 131 or the Nationalist Social Club.

Hayden said in a statement that the presence of white supremacists at a Jamaica Plain book reading is a disgrace and a warning. Hayden noted that another group of white supremacists, members of the Patriot Front, marched through downtown Boston march earlier this month.

The Anti-Defamation League says NSC 131 is a New England-based neo-Nazi group founded in 2019 that espouses racism, antisemitism and intolerance and whose membership is a collection of neo-Nazis and racist skinheads, many of whom have previous membership in other white supremacist groups.

Society everywhere is targeted by these groups, and society everywhere must reject them, Hayden said, calling Boston a a waypoint in the crusade of hate launched five years ago in Charlottesville.

In 2017, hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia in part to protest the citys decision decided to remove a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park. Violent fighting broke out between attendees and counterprotesters that day. Authorities eventually forced the crowd to disperse, but a car later barreled into a crowd of peaceful counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

The days death toll rose to three when a state police helicopter that had been monitoring the event and assisting with the governors motorcade crashed, killing two troopers.

Boston Police said they did not have further information on Saturday's arrests because the officers involved were still completing the incident reports.
The widow of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi has appealed against a decision by a Malta court ordering the Bank of Valletta to return to Libya some 95 million euros ($A144 million) deposited by Gaddafi's late son Mutassim.

Safiya Ferkash Mohammed and her lawyers argue the courts lacked jurisdiction and were not in a position to decide the case over the funds.

The sentence was delivered at the end of June after a legal battle that started in 2012, a year after Gaddafi was overthrown and killed.

Mutassim, who was also killed, was found in possession of several Bank of Valletta credit cards as the owner of a Maltese-registered company.

The appeal was filed on behalf of the Gaddafi heirs by Maltese lawyer Louis Cassar Pullicino. No date for a hearing has been set.

The original court had upheld arguments by Libya's attorney-general that according to Libyan law, as an army officer, Mutassim had been precluded from drawing benefits from any business interests.

Moreover, he had failed to submit a full declaration of assets as required by law.

In her appeal, the widow argued the Libyan laws invoked in the case were criminal ones but that no criminal case was ever initiated against Mutassim Gaddafi or his heirs.
TORRINGTON  The weather last week was hot and steamy, but it didnt stop members of St. Peters Drum Corps from gathering at the Torrington Teen Center on East Albert Street for their weekly practice.

The corps, which just performed in the citys Pageant of Drums at Fuessenich Park, is booked for the summer, with parades and events put on by the Brewster (N.Y.) Fire Department, Tunxis Hose in Unionville and the Thomaston Fire Department.

We do anywhere from 32 to 38 functions a year, said band director Peter Andrews, who with his wife and other family members have belonged to the drum corps since 1982. In Torrington, we perform during the summer concerts in the park, the Santas Village parade, and the (Independence Day) festival. We do lots of local events.

The corps travels to march in towns in Westchester County, N.Y., joining Brewster firefighters and others from Ossining, N.Y., and have traveled to Rhode Island and Massachusetts to perform and compete.

We went to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, said member Patty Henderson. That was pretty fun.

Their year starts with three St. Patricks Day parades in March. After that, its pretty much nonstop, Andrews said.

The drum corps already has won 13 awards this year, including Best Drum and Flag Corps at the St. Patricks Day parade in Holyoke, Mass.; Best Musical Unit in the Torrington Memorial Day parade; Best Musical Unit and Best Musical Color Guard in Montrose, N.Y.; Best Full Band, Best Musical Color Guard and Best Drum Major in the firemens parade in Mamaroneck, N.Y.; and awards in other events in Mt. Kisco, Mahopac and Pleasantville, N.Y., and Unionville.

During their July 18 rehearsal, Andrews led the drums, brass, fife and trumpet players through a few numbers. It was warm inside the teen center, with only a few fans to keep them cool. But everyone was relaxed and focused on the rehearsal.

Henderson, who plays the fife, joined members Carolyn Driscoll, Marilyn Schwarzmann and Aaron Marshall; in the brass section were Maureen Hulsart, David Viets, Jason Andrews and Jacob Cousens. Drummers Joseph Driscoll, Lew Clark and Michael Cousens stood in a row near a window, while another drummer, Andrew Freer, stood near trumpet players John Reiner and Steven Hintz.

Members at the teen center come not only from Torrington, but from Naugatuck, Waterbury, Watertown, Morris, Bristol, Burlington and Thomaston, Andrews said. Many join because their parents, aunts or uncles are members. We take any age, so parents bring their kids, and they follow their parents and join, Andrews said. But we are always looking for more. We need players.

St. Peters Drum Corps was organized in 1930 in St. Peters Parish, know St. John Paul the Great Parish in Torrington, during the Great Depression, to give Torringtons youth purposeful recreation and fellowship in very difficult times, according to members.

St. Peters went on to establish itself as a New England powerhouse among competition drum corps., all the while maintaining its pledge to enrich the lives of its members and the community with music and fellowship, according to members. Beginning in 1940, the Corps found its ranks depleted when most of its members left to serve in the military. But thanks to the dedication of a handful who remained behind, the Corps. held together and participated in patriotic activities on the homefront including a War Bond Rally at Fuessenich Park where it performed for the touring actor Victor Mature.

It was in the 1950s and 60s that the drum corps came into its own as a competition band. Under the directorship of Sal Scarfo, Domenic Antonelli, George Foeller, Charles Rovagna, 40-year director Benny Antonelli and now Peter Andrews, St. Peters has won more than 6,494 prizes  1450 trophies and 5044 medals. The group specializes in march music, patriotic music as well as popular tunes.

St. Peters has performed in Canada and Mexico, in 14 different states and the District of Columbia, Disney World, Disneyland, Seaworld, Expo 74 in Spokane, Wash., the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington, D.C., the 1982 Worlds Fair in Knoxville, Tenn.,Mardi Gras in New Orleans and on the Paradise cruise ship in the Eastern Caribbean. One of the most memorable trips was in 1996 when the corps performed Stars and Stripes Forever for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The corps has recorded two CDs, and was named Best Drum Corps in the state by Connecticut Magazine.

Anyone interested in joinng the drum corps can visit the Torrington Teen Center at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, when members rehearse. To learn more, visit www.stpetersdrumcorps.com.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Portland State University announced Thursday a tuition discount for any student from a federally-recognized Native American tribe.

Starting this upcoming fall, students who are members of the countrys nearly 600 federally recognized tribes across the country will receive in-state tuition, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

Portland State offers this benefit to tribal members as part of our ongoing effort to provide a welcoming environment for Indigenous students in downtown Portland, Chuck Knepfle, PSUs vice president of enrollment management, said in a statement. This offer of in-state tuition is a small way to honor the legacy of Indigenous nations from across the country.

PSU noted in its announcement that it already offers support for students from Indigenous backgrounds including scholarships, programs and student groups through its Native American Student and Community Center.

The discounted tuition will be offered starting this upcoming fall term to students who can provide their official tribal residency documentation to PSU. The university does not require any other information to be considered for the discount.

The difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition is roughly $420 per credit hour or about $19,000 per academic year for students enrolled in 15 credits, according to PSU.

While some universities and colleges offer tuition discounts or waivers to students who are members of in-state tribes, PSU says its not aware of any other schools that have also made the move to offer discounts to Native American students on a national scale.

Statewide, the Oregon Legislature approved the Oregon Tribal Student Grant program earlier this year. The grant goes toward tuition and other college-related expenses at colleges and universities for members of Oregons nine federally-recognized tribes.

State higher education officials are urging eligible students to apply for that statewide grant by the priority deadline, Aug. 1.
Several top San Francisco officials are calling for the resignation of Ann Hsu, a member of the San Francisco Board of Education who recently made racist comments in a candidate questionnaire form for a political group whose endorsement she hoped to earn before the November elections.

Three members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors  Shamann Walton, Connie Chan and Dean Preston  have called for Hsu to step down. Hsu was appointed to the school board by Mayor London Breed after three previous members of the board were recalled in a special election earlier this year.

Hsu, who is running to remain in her seat this year alongside Breed's two other school board appointees, filled out a candidate questionnaire for SF Parent Action in which she made comments that reinforced racists stereotypes about Black and brown families. Hsu responded to a question about what San Francisco schools can do to improve outcomes for marginalized students by saying a "lack of family support" among those students is a big challenge for educators.

"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 wrote. "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 apologized for the remarks on Tuesday, saying she is "committed to listening, learning and growing as a person." Despite her apology, calls for her resignation by other San Francisco officials began to trickle in Thursday. Walton, who represents District 10 and is the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was the first to demand that Hsu step down.

"San Francisco Board of Education Member Ann Hsu recently made racist statements about Black and Brown students stating that their parents do not encourage their children to focus on or value learning," he said in a statement. "This is flat out wrong and racist to perpetuate harmful stereotypes on Black and Brown students and their families who have been disenfranchised by systemic racism for

decades. ... These statements are reflective of how a person really feels and it is evident that anyone with these beliefs should not

be responsible for making decisions for our children."

Chan  who represents District 1  agreed with Walton, saying in a Thursday statement that Hsu's words "perpetuate racist stereotypes and further divide communities of color."

"I thank Commissioner Hsu for her service and respectfully ask her to step down from her position on the Board of Education so we can get back on track to ensure all students and their families receive the quality, equitable education they deserve," she said.

Preston, who represents District 5, joined Watson and Chan early Friday.

"[Hsu's] written comments suggesting that Black and brown parents do not value learning show prejudice, ignorance, and a lack of fitness to serve the families and students who rely on our public schools," he said on Twitter. "I join my colleagues ... in urging appointee Ann Hsu to resign from the School Board. I further urge her to drop out of the race for School Board in this election cycle."

While speaking to Chinese-language media about the incident, Breed called's Hsu's comments "disappointing" and "hurtful," but did not call for her resignation. She said she appreciated Hsu's apology and said the backlash over her comments could be a "teaching moment."

"I'm hopeful we don't just dismiss this and say, 'Oh she needs to resign,'" Breed said. "It's like, 'How do we come together and make this a teaching moment? How do we prevent this from becoming politically divisive?' Because she does, in fact, represent a constituency ... who feel that they want a representative on this Board of Education. So, I think that it's important for her to be a better leader and to be a better bridge-builder."
Change is coming to a small Lake Tahoe town, and this time, residents are cautiously optimistic.

Located on the lakes northwestern shore, Tahoe City is a one-stoplight kind of town  and proud of it. It has a small-town feel, with locally owned businesses, a tiny elementary school on the hill and a main street that looks the same as it did 20 years ago, even as the world beyond its limits has changed.

Its so sleepy, installing sidewalks was the biggest thing to happen to this town since the 1970s, and that only happened in 1999. Tahoe City finally getting downtown sidewalks, reads an Associated Press headline. The town had been trying to build sidewalks since 1974.

So when change does come to Tahoe City, it usually arrives slowly, often with a lot of controversy. Thats why theres a big gaping hole, full of sawdust, bordered by a chain link fence at the west end of town, where lawsuits have stymied plans to build a new hotel. Its why rumors are flying about whats going to happen to the Boatworks Mall, a landmark on the east side of town that houses locally owned shops and restaurants. (According to Placer County records, an environmental impact statement is being prepared for a proposed hotel with 80 to 85 units and 31 condominiums on the Boatworks Malls 3.8 lakefront acres.)

Its also why Tahoe City is losing its middle class and its workforce, the people who want to stay here, but cant afford the sky-high cost of housing on the local wages of a tourist-driven economy. The median sale price of a home in Tahoe City in June was $1.39 million, according to Redfin.

And Tahoe City is aging. Not just the buildings, but the people, too.

Change is happening as we age out, said Dave Wilderotter, who owns Tahoe Daves Skis & Boards, which has several locations in Tahoe City, Kings Beach and Truckee. Wilderotter moved to Lake Tahoe in the 1970s, part of a generation of locals that established most of the landmark businesses in Tahoe City. Now, that generation is approaching retirement.

Who fills in the gap behind us is a big-time question, Wilderotter said.

Last week, another developer made a bid on Tahoe Citys future. The news made some locals exhale a sigh of cautious optimism that positive changes could be on the horizon for this town. For one, the developer is younger, with a track record of building community-driven places in mountain towns.

When I called the developer, he told me that Tahoe City may be aging, but its still got a great view of the lake. Its still a hub for outdoor recreation and culture. Its still a place where people want to be.

In other words, Tahoe City still has some potential.

'We need a lot more compelling reasons for the middle class to stay in Tahoe City'

I grew up in Tahoe City; its impossible for me to report on my hometown without disclosing my personal connection to these places. I started reporting 15 years ago at a since-shuttered newspaper office in the heart of town, and my family still has a lot of roots here.

Since its a small town, word travels fast here. Id been hearing for the past few months about the impending closure of Blue Agave, a 27-year-old Mexican restaurant, and Americas Best Value Inn, a locally owned franchise. My dad has worked next door to those properties for almost 40 years. The question was always about what would come next and fill in the gaping holes left behind by two longtime, locally owned businesses.

That was answered last week, when Evo, a self-described outdoor retailer and experiences company, announced its acquisition of the Blue Agave and Americas Best Value Inn properties on July 11. Bryce Phillips, founder and CEO of Evo (stylized in all lowercase letters), said he wants to provide a gathering place for the community, anchored in our shared love for the outdoors.

Evos track record bolsters Phillips words. The company has a footprint that spans the Western United States and also touches mountain communities in both British Columbia and Japan. The companys development arm gravitates toward older, historic buildings in aging neighborhoods. Its investment infuses these places with new energy. In Salt Lake City, Evo transformed 100,000 square feet of old warehouse space into a campus with a hotel, retail, a bouldering gym and a skate park. Phillips wants to bring a similar-feeling campus to Tahoe City.

Ive spent my entire career reporting on developers dreams and promises for Lake Tahoe, and in the past 15 years, I really havent seen many of those promises kept. Lawsuits, regulation, money  theres a lot of reasons why development plans change and fade over time in North Lake Tahoe. But when I heard the news about Evo, I felt a jolt of excitement and optimism.

Im not the only one who feels that way. Brendan Madigan owns Alpenglow Sports, a 43-year-old mountain shop that sells gear and apparel. Soon, Alpenglows new neighbors will be Evo, another shop that sells gear and apparel for the outdoors. Yet Madigan isnt concerned about the competition. He sees Evo as a force for good that will infuse much-needed change to Tahoe City. He describes it as a rising tide that benefits all ships.

We need a lot more compelling reasons for the middle class to stay in Tahoe City and the North Shore at large, but we also need compelling reasons for people to visit here, Madigan said. Theres this quaint Tahoe, but that only lasts so long. Because this town hasnt had any love since the [1960] Olympics, if were really honest. No new buildings. No real new anchors since the 70s.

When I sat down with Madigan on a sunny porch behind Alpenglow, we faced the backsides of Blue Agave and Americas Best Value Inn. Blue Agave is in a building that was built in the 1870s, as the historic Tahoe City Inn. The inn was the focal point for the entire town at the turn of the 20th century, according to a book on Tahoe Citys history that I recently found. Its yellow log siding and first-story shaded porch are all unchanged since the 1930s; it was rebuilt after a fire in 1934. Totem poles on each side of the front door are relics from an MGM movie filmed in Tahoe, called Rose Marie.

This building is the epitome of what Madigan describes as quaint Tahoe.

The same can't be said for its next door neighbor. The Americas Best Value Inn is an L-shaped, two-story structure that sits on the edge of a large asphalt parking lot. Its blue paint is chipped. The swimming pool has long been empty, and when I drove by last week, I noticed cracks in the siding. Rooms are cheap here, but most of the time, that parking lot is empty.

Im psyched on what could be, Madigan told me. Ive told people I probably wont like 100% of what they do, but  he waved his arm to the parking lot, the aged hotel behind, the old Tahoe City Inn  I mean, we can only go up.

When I called Phillips last week, he told me that moving into Tahoe City is the end of a common thread that Evos been pulling for a long time.

What does it mean to engage in community? Its partnership. Its bringing people in, celebrating the things we love, Phillips told me.

Allard Schager/Getty Images

Phillips grew up in a logging town in Oregon, according to a profile in the now-defunct Powder Magazine. (Another personal disclosure: I was an editor at Powder Magazine when this profile was published.) He started selling ski gear out of his living space in college, then on eBay, then on a newly created evo.com. In 2015, Powder reported that Evo had nearly 200 employees and grossed nearly $50 million. Since then, Evo has continued to rise.

Phillips told me about a recent project hed completed in Snoqualmie Pass, a ski destination about an hour east of Seattle. Theyd renovated an old firehouse thats remarkably similar to the Blue Agave building: The shape of it, the siding, Phillips said. We just finished it. We opened a great co-working, creative work space, a market and cafe that was a badly needed amenity for the community.

That kind of center for the community is also what Phillips wants to create here in Tahoe City.

Theres a hunger and appreciation for the culture and clearly, the recreation. [Tahoe City] used to be the real center of it all in North Lake, Phillips told me. We love those opportunities. How can we work with the community and folks on the ground to be a positive catalyst?

To cinch the deal, Evo had to make three acquisitions: the Blue Agave building, Americas Best Value Inn and the land underneath the inn. That land was owned by the Bechdolt family, which has owned a huge swath of properties in Tahoe City for decades. That all three of those properties came up at the same time was a rare alignment of the stars, Phillips said. At the same time, as people age and retire, these kinds of deals in Tahoe City are more available now than theyve ever been before.

In 18 to 24 months, after both buildings are renovated, Phillips said he hopes to open a new Evo flagship store on the first floor of the old Blue Agave building, keeping the office space upstairs. Americas Best Value Inn will become the second ever Evo hotel, following up a similar hotel in Salt Lake City. Evo has also committed to building workforce housing, though how much and what it looks like are still unknowns at this point.

Evo is also talking to a group of people who are trying to build a skate park in memory of a local high school student who died last winter in a ski accident. If all goes according to plan, Phillips said the Scotty Lapp Memorial Skatepark may have a temporary home in the asphalt parking lot behind Blue Agave soon.

A second phase of development will come eventually to do something permanent and revamp the asphalt parking lot, Phillips said, but he wasnt ready to say what that would look like yet. Phase Two is TBD, Phillips said. We have a lot to learn.

Tahoe City has the lakefront location thats ripe for investment and revitalization for a new generation of business owners. But new development isnt going to solve some of the biggest issues that have long made this town a challenging place to weather change. The environmental hurdles to developing are twofold, requiring approvals from both the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the county. And the housing crisis continues to battle weary business owners whose employees are moving out of town. Those issues arent going away any time soon.

No one has sugar-coated  theyve been very, very candid about these topics, Phillips said.Were going in with eyes wide open, and [those issues] do exist at other locations. We hope to be, at the end of the day, a very small part of some of the solutions as well.
As another small blue airplane lofted into the air, I sank my teeth into a decadent cheeseburger piled high with toppings, letting the juice run down my fingers as I tracked the private planes ascent into the sky. The angular figure became smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely as it headed north up the coast, soaring over the ocean, off to a destination I would never know.

There are plenty of places with unique scenery to enjoy a meal in the Bay Area, but Pilot Light Cafe, a restaurant at the Half Moon Bay Airport, is one of the few places left in the Bay Area where aviation nerds, enthusiastic children or any local missing a bygone era can grab lunch with a side of high-flying entertainment. The cheeseburger was good, a quintessential smashburger with a slightly thicker patty, garnished with a high-quality cheddar, a generous tomato slice, several pickle chips and a pillowy toasted bun, but the star of this dining experience is that its one you cant have just anywhere.

It would be easy to miss the roadside hideaway if you werent looking for it. The restaurant and airport sit off Highway 1 just past Moss Beach, with few signs warning you as youre approaching. The yellow and blue restaurant plunked to the side of idling airplanes and concrete runways looks like its been there for decades, and it has, though its had a fresh coat of paint, an intentional decision from husband-and-wife owners Sachin Chopra and Shoshana Wolff. Wolff said they loved the nearly 80-year-old building and didnt want to change too much about the feel, both because it was a beloved local hangout and because the simple building just fits well within the scenery.

Sure, the couple had to do some major upgrades after taking it over from the former tenants. They gutted and expanded the kitchen and tore down walls in the dining space, but they wanted to retain the casual, cafe feel of their predecessors, 3-Zero Cafe, who had thrived there for 25 years until the owner wanted to get out of the restaurant business entirely.

Brandon Harper

Wolff is a local herself, residing just five minutes down the road from the airfield. The only reason the duo found out the restaurant space was going to be available for rent was they happened to drive by one day.

They have an affinity for old, quirky buildings with a lot of character  their first restaurant, All Spice, which held a coveted Michelin star for three years, is in a converted, 116-year-old Victorian house in San Mateo  and Wolff said they saw the same kind of charm in the old, squat rectangular building.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Plus, Wolff saw the potential in an airport restaurant. She had always loved the Watsonville airport restaurant near where she grew up and thought she could do her own spin on the concept.

The restaurant opened Jan. 29, and six months later, she feels like theyre finally getting out of the learning phase. Being right next to an airfield without much wind protection can be risky with an outdoor patio, and much of their original china broke in those first few months. Theyve since switched to more durable melamine dishware, and theyve also continued to refine the menu. Theyve also introduced special events on weekends like a recent barbecue menu for Fathers Day.

She said it might have taken even longer to get their bearings, but they were lucky to be able to not only move certain staff members to the Half Moon Bay location but also try out certain dishes before the restaurant opened. During the pandemic, All Spice introduced brunch service, where they worked for months on the Dutch baby recipe, the signature dish during brunch which takes 20 minutes to prepare.

One menu item they knew they had to include was the customary $100 cheeseburger, a staple on many small, private airport restaurant menus. A $16 lunch becomes $100 when you add in the cost of fuel and landing fees, Wolff said with a laugh. Its a standard pilot joke.

Brandon Harper

I dont think anyone would disagree that air travel has lost its glamor. In the 1950s and 60s, people would visit airports to go to fine dining restaurants and watch the airplanes during a leisurely lunch. Not everyone could afford to fly, but they could sit and eat a meal while they watched the planes take off and land. A 2014 CityLab article cited a 1965 Cleveland Plain-Dealer ad that invited nearby residents to the Cleveland airport for New Years Eve celebrations. A 1941 Seattle Daily Times ad welcomed patrons to watch the planes come and go as you enjoy Thanksgiving dinner in the unique Sky Room.

By the 1970s, air travel became more affordable. People got busier. Attitudes toward airports shifted. I was 14 years old when 9/11 changed air travel forever, ultimately gutting the experience of not only its presumed safety, but also the leisure and excitement that precipitated travel. I had never visited a restaurant to watch the planes take off and land.

Brandon Harper

Wolff said she hopes their restaurant captures even just a small part of that excitement that once surrounded airplane travel. She said anecdotally theyve heard that landings at the airport have increased since the restaurant opened, and while airport spokesperson Davi Howard couldnt confirm that because of the short amount of time it's been open, he said the parking lot has been full daily and the restaurant seems very popular.

[People] just want to come in and have a nice breakfast and watch the planes take off and have a great time with their family, Wolff said.

Brandon Harper

Pilot Light Cafe, 9850 Cabrillo Highway, Half Moon Bay. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed Monday.
Strolling past the visitor center at Crater Lake National Park toward Rim Trail, a wide, easy path that curls along the southwestern edge of the famous water feature, I felt ready to get my first eyeful of one of the worlds most astounding lakes.

I had seen the photos of its impossibly blue and absurdly translucent water and knew all the superlatives: Americas deepest lake. One of the worlds clearest lakes. The largest volcanic eruption site in North America in the last half-million years.

But really, nothing prepares you to be standing on the edge of such a wonder.

Ashley Harrell

As I approached the overlook and the lake came into view, I felt destabilized, like at any minute my legs might buckle. Crater Lake was just so gargantuan, so decidedly sapphire. Fluffy clouds and craggy bluffs were perfectly reflected across the surface. A cone-shaped, volcanic island peeked out of the lake behind some pine trees perched on the rim.

Thats the bluest st Ive ever seen, I said to my travel partner.

People have been having this sort of reaction to Crater Lake for thousands of years. Perhaps even crazier, though, is that not that many people are visiting Oregons only national park, compared with places like Yosemite National Park or Joshua Tree National Park. In 2021, only 647,751 people showed up at Crater Lake National Park, down from 670,500 in 2020, less than a fourth of the visitors that Californias top parks regularly draw.

Ashley Harrell

The lake is actually pretty close to California. The southern entrance is only about 80 miles from the California-Oregon border; from the Bay Area, its about an 8-hour drive. As we pulled into the short line on a warm summer Saturday, with perhaps four cars ahead of us, I wondered about how we got so lucky.

Was Crater Lake just not on peoples radars? Or perhaps its a little too isolated, a little too far afield for the average traveler in the Pacific Northwest.

To be fair, timing is everything when it comes to a visit. One tip: check the webcams on the parks website, theyll let you know if the lake is hidden behind dense layers of clouds, which isnt uncommon for Oregon.

Ashley Harrell

The park also has a distinct lack of accommodations. There are some campgrounds and a small lodge inside the park; a handful of cabins and the next closest lodgings are more than 30 minutes away. All of the accommodations were sold out when we were planning the trip, so like most visitors, we decided to stop by just for the day.

We set out hiking on the Rim Trail at about 10 a.m. with a goal of reaching Discovery Point sometime around noon, when the sunlight would illuminate the entirety of the island in the middle of the lake, and wed hopefully get some great photos.

As we started along the trail, a placard explained the natural history of the feature, and a girl who looked about 10 was breaking it down for her family. So this is a volcano. These mountains are the volcano, she said matter-of-factly. Were on the edge of a volcano.

Ashley Harrell

In other words, where the lake is now, a 12,000-foot mountain once stood. That was Mount Mazama, and 7,700 years ago it imploded with volcanic activity, leaving behind a vast crater that eventually filled with rainwater and melted snow.

The Klamath people inhabited the region at the time of the eruption. We know this because their obsidian tools, moccasins and other items were unearthed from ash layers near the lake  and also their legends tell of the raging wars between two great volcanoes, Mazama and Shasta.

Europeans showed up in the 1800s seeking fortunes. Over the years, they discovered and rediscovered the lake on several occasions, renaming it each time, according to a park placard. One such discoverer was John Wesley Hillman, a gold prospector who in 1853 spotted the lake from where we were headed, Discovery Point.

Ashley Harrell

I knew when I gazed upon Crater Lake that even though the west was filled with undiscovered wonders, Crater Lake would hold its own, Hillman said.

We couldnt have agreed more as we circled the lake, walking past 1,000-year-old whitebark pine trees and winding through hemlock forest. At 6,000 feet, some of the winters snow remained on the ledges above the lake, and in trudging over a snowfield, snowballs were a given. It was hard to look away from the lake for too long, though, imagining the rainbow trout and kokanee salmon gliding in those 1,943 feet of crystal clear water. By comparison, Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in America, at 1,645 feet.

Ashley Harrell

In addition to the extra 300 feet, theres a lot more going on in Crater Lake. In the 200 to 300 years following the big eruption, a cinder cone volcano otherwise known as Wizard Island formed in the middle of the lake. And as we continued along the trail, the views of the little volcano island grew steadily more epic.

I overheard a woman saying she had been on the island, and when I asked her about it, she said there was a place to jump off a rock into the lake.

Its ridiculously cold, she said.

I wanted very much to jump into that water, but as it turned out, the ferry boats that take visitors to the island havent started yet this year. Crater Lake Hospitality is expected to begin running eight daily boat tours on the lake sometime in July, according to the parks website. Two boats make 3-hour stops on Wizard Island, and two shuttles transport guests to and from the island. (No camping allowed.)

Ashley Harrell

After reaching Discovery Point, we still wanted more lake views, so we drove around to Watchman Overlook, a renowned sunrise and sunset spot. A small crowd had gathered to look out over the blissful lake, while others admired the jagged volcanic rock formed from hardened lava on a nearby section of the rim.

The last eruption here took place under the lake water, 4,800 years ago, according to park signage. And though the volcano is currently dormant, it is likely to someday awaken from its slumber and explode again. For me, thatll be just one more reason to come back and see this mind-blowing lake again.
In this weeks developments, United decides to pull out of Sonoma County Airport; a new study finds West Coast residents are relatively unscathed by flight cancellation and delay problems compared to the eastern U.S.; Delta turns to Boeing for its latest big aircraft order; surveys find business travel revival is subject to significant headwinds; Canada resumes random testing of international arrivals; United and Air Canada plan to strengthen their transborder relationship; SAS pilot strike ends; Delta and United plan new South Africa service; more Berlin routes coming from United, Delta and Norse Atlantic; and Alaska Airlines rolls out new reusable baggage tag technology.

The next small airport to lose service from United Airlines will be the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa. According to The Points Guy, United Express/SkyWest will end its short hop service between Santa Rosa and San Francisco International in October; the carrier has also dropped plans to bring back service between Santa Rosa and Denver, which was suspended in spring of 2020. The Points Guy counted Santa Rosa as the 25th city to be dropped from Uniteds network since the pandemic began and the regional airline industry began to suffer from a shortage of pilots.

Although flight cancellations and delays have been a major concern for U.S. air travelers this summer, residents of the Bay Area  and the West in general  have been relatively spared compared to those in the East. According to a FlightAware study commissioned by CNN, the top 10 U.S. airports for cancellations since late May are all in the eastern third of the country. Newark Liberty International, a major United hub, ranked as the worst in the U.S. with 7.9% of its flights canceled, followed by New York LaGuardia with a 7.4% cancellation rate. (United CEO Scott Kirby said this week the airline will remove 200 daily flights from its Newark schedule in September due to runway construction.) New Yorks JFK was also in the top 10, ranking ninth, with a 3.5% rate. Other airports in the top 10 below LaGuardia, in order, were Washington Reagan National (5.4% cancellation rate), Raleigh-Durham (4.3%), Cleveland Hopkins (3.7%), Pittsburgh (3.7%), Philadelphia (3.6%), Boston Logan (3.6%), JFK (3.5%), and Charlotte Douglas (3.4%).

The analysis also looked at the percentage of delayed flights this summer, and seven of the top 10 airports with the worst records were on the East Coast  and all 10 had flight delay rates of more than 25%. The worst flight delay record was at Chicago Midway, which is dominated by Southwest Airlines, at 36%, followed in order by Orlando International (33%), New York JFK (31.1%), Newark Liberty (30%), Baltimore/Washington (30%), Miami International (28.3%), Charlotte Douglas (27.8%), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood (27.2%), Denver International (27.2%) and Las Vegas (26.7%).

DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images

Most of Deltas new aircraft purchases in the past decade have been from Airbus, ranging from twin-aisle A350s for intercontinental routes to the single-aisle, 194-seat A321neo that it is starting to use on transcontinental routes this year, to the smaller A220s that it introduced on regional routes a few years ago. But that changed this week when the company placed an order with Boeing for 100 single-aisle 737 Max planes, with an option for 30 more. The order is for the 737-10, the largest and newest of Boeings Max models, with deliveries to begin in 2025. Delta said the new 737s will be configured with 182 seats including 20 in first class, 33 in the extra-legroom Delta Comfort Plus, and 129 in the main cabin. The aircraft will offer power ports at every seat, high-speed satellite Wi-Fi, LED lighting and large, pivoting overhead bins.

Delta noted that the 737-10 is still awaiting FAA certification but said that is expected to come next year. With a top speed of Mach 0.79 and a range of 3,300 nautical miles, the 737-10 has broad flexibility to serve markets across the U.S. within Deltas industry-leading network. The aircraft will be deployed in core hubs including New York, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle, and Los Angeles, the company said. Meanwhile, Delta also said this week that it is buying 12 more 130-seat Airbus A220-300s, which will give it a total of 62, including 11 now in service and 51 more on order. Delta also has a fleet of 45 109-seat A220-100s.

Fairfax Media/Fairfax Media via Getty Images

Although leisure travel has been booming this year despite higher airfares and operational problems like higher-than-usual rates of cancellations, delays and lost luggage, business travel continues to lag behind in its post-2020 recovery. A new analysis of the U.S. business travel market, conducted by J.D. Power, the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics, found that due to rising fuel costs, widespread acceptance of virtual meetings, and restrictive company policies, businesses are still facing significant headwinds when it comes to corporate travel. Thats not good news for airlines, which depend on full-fare-buying road warriors for the bulk of their passenger revenues.

Their analysis was based on surveys of 2,500 business travelers and 195 corporate executives. It found that corporate travel is continuing to grow, with travelers expecting to average 2.1 trips per month in the second half of the year. While that seems to be trending in a promising direction, business travelers  particularly those at large companies  remain skeptical that their travel will increase dramatically in the near term, J.D. Power said. Among the corporate executives surveyed, 68% said they think their companies will spend less on business trips in the next six months than they did in the same period of 2019. Half said their firms still have pandemic-related policies in place restricting business travel  e.g., limiting the total number of trips and sending fewer employees per trip.

In fact, one-in-five (20%) employee business travelers say they are unsure they will make a trip for purposes such as a customer meeting during the next six months, J.D. Power said. The most frequently cited reasons for this uncertainty are video conference substitutes for business travel, company cost constraints and companies restricting employee business travel. Larger companies tend to be more restrictive about travel than smaller ones (45% vs. 24%), even though four out of five executives at large firms consider business trips to be essential.

Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Last month, the Global Business Travel Association  a trade group of company travel managers  did its own member survey and found that 46% said their traveling employees were concerned about COVID-19 when they resume business trips. Two thirds of the companies said employees can choose to opt out of trips over COVID concerns. When employees do travel this year, the travel association found, in-person meetings are the top priority. With customer and prospect meetings (31%); conferences, trade shows, and industry events (21%); and internal meetings with colleagues (17%) earmarked for a fair majority of their travel spend, its clear that face-to-face gatherings are seen as key to company strategies, objectives, and culture. And spending for conferences specifically, as a share of overall business travel spend, is expected to be up 4 percentage points in 2022 compared to 2019, the association said.

While most governments have largely eliminated COVID testing requirements, Canada this week resumed random testing of passengers arriving at four airports  Vancouver, Toronto Pearson, Montreal and Calgary. Vaccinations are also required of all inbound travelers. Anyone flying into the country must download the ArriveCAN app three days before arrival. Those who are picked for random testing will be notified via a message through the app within 15 minutes of clearing customs. They will be expected to take the test within one day of arrival at an approved facility like a pharmacy, which can be located through the app. The government pays for the tests. Inbound travelers who are connecting to a domestic flight at one of those four airports can be tested at their final destination.

United Airlines and its Star Alliance partner Air Canada this week announced a joint business agreement for transborder operations designed to improve connections, code-sharing, mutual frequent flyer perks and coordination of customer policies, subject to compliance with U.S. and Canadian regulatory and antitrust requirements, the companies said. The two airlines are already partners in a three-way trans-Atlantic joint venture with Star Alliance partner Lufthansa, but it doesnt extend to U.S.-Canada transborder routes. United said the new partnership deal would allow it and Air Canada to coordinate their networks and schedules, enabling the carriers to offer customers more choice, including more flights throughout the day and more access to each airline's seat inventory. It would also mean more code-sharing, initially providing connections to 46 transborder code-sharing destinations; revenue-sharing on flights linking their hub markets; alignment of consistent customer policies; co-location of airport space where possible; and providing extra value to each carriers frequent flyer programs.

OLE BERG-RUSTEN/AFP via Getty Images

In Europe, that pilots strike at Scandinavian Airlines has been settled, but it was so expensive and disruptive  eliminating most of the carriers scheduled flights and costing it millions of dollars on each of the 15 days that it lasted  that the company remains in financial peril after filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. just after the strike began. The parties have agreed on new 5.5-year collective bargaining agreements and flights operated by SAS Scandinavia will resume according to their regular traffic program as soon as possible, the company said this week. SAS said it expects to receive necessary approvals for the contract deal from union members and the courts within a few weeks. The strike led to the cancellation of 3,700 flights affecting 380,000 passengers.

Elsewhere, it looks like both Delta and United will secure government approvals to launch new routes to Cape Town, South Africa, this fall. The U.S. Transportation Department has reportedly reached a deal with South Africa for more flight frequencies between the two countries, which should permit Delta to begin Atlanta-Cape Town A350 flights three days a week on Nov. 18 and United to launch Washington Dulles-Cape Town service with three weekly 787 flights starting Nov. 17.

Airlines are already working on their 2023 trans-Atlantic schedules, and Berlin is part of the plans at both United and Delta. United, which already serves Berlins new Brandenburg Airport from its Newark hub, expects to add service to the city from Washington Dulles on May 25, and to add Newark-Prague and Newark-Stockholm service on the same date. Delta, meanwhile, now expects to add Berlin to its route map starting May 23 of next year with flights from New York JFK. A new competitor launching service to Berlin in the middle of next month is the low-cost Norse Atlantic Airways, which plans to begin nonstop 787 flights to the German capital city from both New York JFK and Los Angeles International.

SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Alaska Airlines has announced plans to deploy new technology that uses a permanent, reusable baggage tag so customers can check a bag in with their phones. Electronic bag tags will allow guests to skip the step of printing traditional bag tags at the airport. Travelers will be able to activate the devices from anywhere  their home, office or even car  up to 24-hours before their flight through our mobile app, the airline said. The customer can simply take the phone used to check in for a flight and touch it to the electronic bag tag, which will read the flight information and display it on the tags e-paper screen. The tags are attached to luggage with an industrial strength plastic zip tie, Alaska said. At the airport, the customer simply drops off the bag after an ID check with no further action needed.

Earlier this year, Alaska introduced a new self-bag-drop system at Mineta San Jose Airport, which can be used with the new electronic baggage tags. The carrier has been using SJC as an incubator to test various improvements in passenger processing technology. Alaska said that dropping off a pre-tagged and pre-checked bag can save the passenger up to four minutes in moving through the airport. The rollout of the e-bag tags will begin later this year when they will be made available to 2,500 of the companys most frequent flyers.

Mileage Plan members will have the option to purchase the device early next year, Alaska said. It didnt say how much they will cost, but The Points Guy said they are likely to go for about $70 each  making them an unlikely purchase for nonfrequent flyers when traditional paper bag tags are free. The e-bag tags are produced by a Dutch company called Bagtag and they are already used by some European carriers including Lufthansa and KLM.
WFO BOSTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 24, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA

359 AM EDT Sat Jul 23 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO

8 PM EDT SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index values 95 to 100 today and Sunday, but 100 to

104 in portions of the CT valley and northeast MA on Sunday.

* WHERE...Portions of northern Connecticut, eastern,

northeastern, southeastern and western Massachusetts and

northern and southern Rhode Island.

* WHEN...From 11 AM this morning to 8 PM EDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out

of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young

children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles

under any circumstances.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO ALBANY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 24, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Albany NY

415 AM EDT Sat Jul 23 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 8 PM EDT

SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index values in the mid 90s today and upper 90s to

lower 100s on Sunday.

* WHERE...Capital Region, mid Hudson Valley, central and

southern Taconics and northwestern Connecticut.

* WHEN...From noon today to 8 PM EDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

related illnesses to occur if precautions are not taken.

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 FROM NOON TODAY TO 8 PM EDT SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index values in the mid 90s expected.

* WHERE...Northern Saratoga, Southeast Warren and Washington

Counties.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, July 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southeastern Cayuga County in central New York...

Northwestern Cortland County in central New York...

Southern Onondaga County in central New York...

Northeastern Tompkins County in central New York...

* Until 815 PM EDT.

* At 735 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over King Ferry,

or 14 miles north of Ithaca, moving east at 35 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Homer, Locke, Genoa, Moravia, Scott, Sempronius, King Ferry,

Montville, Kelloggsville and Lake Ridge.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 745 PM EDT

FOR SOUTHERN SENECA AND SOUTHERN CAYUGA COUNTIES...

At 736 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over King Ferry, or

14 miles north of Ithaca, moving east at 20 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and penny size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

Locations impacted include...

King Ferry.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
ROCHESTER  A man charged with fatally shooting a Rochester police officer, and wounding the officer's partner and someone nearby, pleaded not guilty Saturday.

During a brief court appearance, Kelvin Vickers pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and weapons counts. He was ordered held without bail.

According to police, the 21-year-old fired multiple rounds into a unmarked, parked vehicle late Thursday, killing 29-year veteran Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz and wounding Officer Sino Seng. A 15-year-old girl in a nearby house was also shot and wounded.

The two officers were part of a plainclothes unit and were investigating a murder. Vickers was found an hour later in a vacant house nearby, and police said a loaded handgun was found that may have been used in the shooting.

Vickers is from the Boston area and has an extensive criminal background, according to police, who didn't say why Vickers was in Rochester.

He was represented by a public defender at Saturday's arraignment but indicated he would be seeking his own attorney, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported.

Seng was hit in the lower body and was treated at a hospital and released. Authorities said Friday that the girl, who was struck by a bullet that penetrated a wall, was recovering.
WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, July 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

Severe Weather Statement

National Weather Service Binghamton NY

747 PM EDT Fri Jul 22 2022

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR NORTHEASTERN TOMPKINS COUNTY

IS CANCELLED...

The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of

the warned area. Therefore, the warning has been cancelled.

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 815 PM EDT

FOR SOUTHEASTERN CAYUGA...NORTHWESTERN CORTLAND AND SOUTHERN ONONDAGA

COUNTIES...

At 747 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Montville, or

12 miles northwest of Cortland, moving east at 45 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

Locations impacted include...

Homer, Locke, Genoa, Moravia, Scott, Sempronius, Montville, East

Venice, Como and Glen Haven.

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.

The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southeastern Oneida County in central New York...

North central Otsego County in central New York...

Southeastern Madison County in central New York...

* Until 830 PM EDT.

* At 751 PM EDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line

extending from near Solsville to near Brookfield, moving northeast

at 35 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and penny size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Brookfield, Waterville, West Winfield, Bridgewater, Clayville,

Unadilla Forks, Hubbardsville, Stockwell, North Brookfield and

Sauquoit.

Large hail and damaging winds and continuous cloud to ground

lightning is occurring with these storms. 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.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, July 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southeastern Onondaga County in central New York...

* Until 845 PM EDT.

* At 811 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Otisco, or 15

miles south of Syracuse, moving northeast at 30 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Syracuse, Manlius, Otisco, Watervale, La Fayette, Nedrow,

Jamesville and Clark Reservation 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.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 23, 2022

_____

AIR QUALITY ALERT

Air Quality Alert Message

Relayed by National Weather Service New York NY

1058 PM EDT Fri Jul 22 2022

...AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 11 PM EDT SATURDAY...

...AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 11 PM EDT SUNDAY...

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has

issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for the following counties:

New York, Bronx, Kings, Queens, Richmond, Nassau, Suffolk,

Westchester, Rockland.

from 11 AM to 11 PM EDT Saturday.

Air quality levels in outdoor air are predicted to be greater than

an Air Quality Index value of 100 for the pollutant of Ground Level

Ozone. The Air Quality Index, or AQI, was created as an easy way to

correlate levels of different pollutants to one scale. The higher

the AQI value, the greater the health concern.

When pollution levels are elevated, the New York State Department of

Health recommends that individuals consider limiting strenuous

outdoor physical activity to reduce the risk of adverse health

effects. People who may be especially sensitive to the effects of

elevated levels of pollutants include the very young, and those with

preexisting respiratory problems such as asthma or heart disease.

Those with symptoms should consider consulting their personal

physician.

A toll free air quality hotline has been established so New York

residents can stay informed on the air quality situation. The toll

free number is 1 800 5 3 5, 1 3 4 5.

Nassau, Suffolk.

Orange, Putnam.

from 11 AM to 11 PM EDT Sunday.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 24, 2022

_____

RIP CURRENT STATEMENT

Coastal Hazard Message

National Weather Service New York NY

342 AM EDT Sat Jul 23 2022

...HIGH RIP CURRENT RISK REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING

THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerous rip currents expected.

* WHERE...Southern Nassau, Southern Queens, Kings (Brooklyn),

Southeast Suffolk and Southwest Suffolk Counties.

* WHEN...From Sunday morning through Sunday evening.

* IMPACTS...Life-threatening rip currents are likely for all

people entering the surf zone. Anyone visiting the beaches

should stay out of the surf. Rip currents can sweep even the

best swimmers away from shore into deeper water.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...There is a moderate risk of rip currents at

all ocean beaches today. A high risk of rip currents are

expected to continue at all ocean beaches on Monday, and

possibly into Tuesday.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

If you enter the surf zone, always have a flotation device with

you and swim near a lifeguard. If caught in a rip current, relax

and float, and do not swim against the current. If able, swim in

a direction following the shoreline. If unable to escape, face

the shore and yell or wave for help.

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 8 PM EDT THIS

EVENING...

* WHAT...Heat index values up to the mid 90s expected.

* WHERE...In New York, Eastern Clinton and Eastern Essex

Counties. In Vermont, Grand Isle, Western Franklin, Western

Chittenden, Western Addison and Western Rutland Counties.

* WHEN...From noon today to 8 PM EDT 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.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, July 22, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Midland/Odessa has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

East Central Jeff Davis County in southwestern Texas...

* Until 915 PM CDT.

* At 718 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain across the warned area. Between 2 and 3 inches of rain

have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin

shortly.

HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban

areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as

other poor drainage and low-lying areas.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

mainly rural areas of East Central Jeff Davis County

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads.

In hilly terrain there are hundreds of low water crossings which are

potentially dangerous in heavy rain. Do not attempt to cross flooded

roads. Find an alternate route.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
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WESTON  For the last two years, officials have discussed potential renovations or remodels for the Weston School District. A report on Monday that looked at whether the district should maintain, renovate or build new buildings for three of its schools.

According to the report, needs for the Hurlbutt Elementary School and Weston Middle School vary, except in one category: both lack sprinkler systems.

As of July 1, 2004, according to section 29-315 of the Connecticut General Statutes, any building built as an educational occupancy is required to have an automatic fire extinguishing system on each floor.

However, these two schools are not required to have sprinkler systems, as each was built before the statute and have not been remodeled since.

According to Director of Facilities of Weston Public Schools Michael DelMastro, there was an addition to the high school in 2005 and 2006, which required sprinklers to be introduced to the entire building. The intermediate school was built around the same time, which is also why it has a sprinkler system.

According to the states website, schools are also able to request a variation or exemption from the requirements of that statute.

Despite the lack of a sprinkler system, DelMastro said the schools are safe in the case of a fire.

DelMastro said the fire alarms work well and are in each of the buildings. Between the schools and other educational buildings, he said there are about 1,000 smoke detectors.

He said if there is a fault, they make a service call, and a company will come out to replace whatever needs to be fixed.

An individual head is never down for, say, more than 12 hours, DelMastro said.

DelMastro described what would happen in the case of a fire, saying that the protocol is the same as the buildings that do have sprinklers.

He said that a sprinkler is used more to save a building than for life safety.

Sprinklers also only come on due to certain factors, such as temperature, DelMastro also said.

It doesnt come on just because theres smoke in the air, he said.

DelMastro said they perform six fire drills and three emergency drills every year at each of the schools, including two by the end of September.

They have evacuation routes depending on what part of the buildings that theyre in, he said. They have their predetermined exit doors, and where they line up outside.

In every classroom, DelMastro said, there are pamphlets with guidelines for specific emergency situations.

DelMastro also said for safety protocols, each school has Fire Marshal John Pokorny come in to assess the building. He checks anything that is plugged into the walls, which, unless it is school-related, isnt allowed.

Then, the insurance company checks mechanical rooms and electrical closets, and removes anything that isnt allowed in there.

He said that these walk-throughs happen at least twice a year and cover nearly every square inch of the buildings.

Pokorny also said that the fire alarm systems are inspected on a regular basis, and the reports usually have few problems.

DelMastro said that it is common for schools in Connecticut to not have sprinkler systems, though the state department of education couldnt confirm.

Anything built has to have sprinkler systems now, he said. Theres definitely schools out there that have some age to them that just dont have sprinklers.

DelMastro also talked about the distance between the schools, fire and police departments.

Were lucky, everything is in one parcel of land within 400 acres, he said. Im definitely confident that we run enough drills and enough redundancies that even if the fire department was five/ten miles away, that we would still have the kids out safely.

Pokorny also commented on their preventative measures. He said also said that there are multiple drills per year and stop, drop and roll is still taught, along with evacuations and finding a safe place.

DelMastro said that there isnt currently a plan to get sprinklers in the two schools, unless there is some sort of renovation. Pokorny also confirmed that if renovations or new buildings occur, sprinkler systems would have to be installed.

It is an intrusive process, according to DelMastro, where there would need to be piping through all the ceilings and main lines through every hallway.

DelMastro said the sprinklers arent necessary for safety, alone. The schools take numerous precautions, including the frequent fire drills that include Pokorny, police officers and central office administrators whenever possible.

I believe the (alarm) systems are working properly at this point, Pokorny said.

There are also exit doors close to every classroom and shorter corridors, so he said they would be able to get everybody out in the case of an emergency.

I feel extremely confident that were safe over here, he said.

Members of the Weston PTO and the head of the Teacherss Association couldnt be immediately reached for comments.

kayla.mutchler@hearstmediact.com
In its official dispatch to the Department of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Deputy Director of the SPS office Ngo Xuan Nam informed that three EU countries including Germany, Poland, and Malta had just sent warnings about instant noodle products imported from Vietnam for violating EU food safety regulations.

In particular, Germany sent a warning that chicken-flavored instant noodles, and curry-flavored instant noodles of Asia Food Joint Stock Company in the Southern Province of Binh Duongs Thuan An City contain banned substances ethylene oxide exceeding the allowable limits of the European Union (EU).

Moreover, Poland warned about chicken-flavored instant noodles from Vietnam Food Industry Company ( Vifon ) in Ho Chi Minh Citys Tan Phu District; subsequently, the country returned the shipment. Malta warned that Nguyen Gia's pho noodle products are made from illegal genetically modified rice, so it took measures to monitor and recalled the product.

The SPS Vietnam Office requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade to increase inspection and manufacturers to determine the cause to improve their product quality.

By Van Phuc  Translated by Anh Quan
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Holidaymakers returning from Indonesia say they faced little scrutiny as they passed through customs, despite the federal government insisting it was rolling out biosecurity measures at airports as quickly as possible to prevent a catastrophic foot and mouth disease outbreak.

On Saturday morning, weary travellers toting surfboards through Melbourne and Sydney airports reported few additional measures, aside from an extra announcement on their flight from Denpasar.

The federal government on Friday announced what it said was the toughest biosecurity rules ever introduced at Australian airports, including requiring passengers flying from Indonesia to walk over sanitisation mats, and clean their shoes.

But travellers arriving on Saturday said they were not asked to clean their shoes on sanitisation foot mats while going through customs, nor were they asked if they had cleaned the dirt from their belongings.
If Australians want a true test of the new governments humanity, they should look at the ongoing struggle of Ned Kelly Emeralds at the intersection of displacement, detention and disability.

An atheist and Iranian asylum seeker who changed his name to Australias most notorious outlaw, 37-year-old Ned is entering his 10th year in immigration detention. He still holds fears for his family trapped in Iran.

Asylum seeker Ned Kelly Emerald has been detained for 10 years. Credit:

He read about the outlaw in 2013 when working as a library assistant in Darwin detention. To make a political statement in the Villawood detention in 2019, he changed his name to Ned Kelly Emeralds. We were both brutally abused by the Commonwealth, he says.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Australias law of mandatory detention for unauthorised arrivals by boat. Ned has been in immigration detention for almost a third of that time since he arrived in Australia without a visa in 2013 after fleeing from Irans religious hardliners.
I wonder which misguided curriculum consultant decided it was educationally criminal to get kids to learn poems by heart and to recite them in class (Rhymes and misdemeanours, July 17)? I go back further than Gabrielle Carey. Rockdale Primary school in the 1950s was old-fashioned that way, but it is amazing how many snatches of poetry I remember. Many Australians still reach for lines like I love a sunburnt country. All language is poorer if we dont discover the underlying rhythms and the sheer fun to be had with words. Margaret Johnston, Paddington

While author Gabrielle Carey rightly airs her concerns about HSC students hating poetry, she should not be blaming teachers or the school administration for it. The underlying cause lies in what is currently being presented as poetry to school students.

Carey reflects on the importance of rhyming poems at primary school to her own literary career, and therein lies the long-term problem: its not being written. Aspiring poets, young and old, are not encouraged to write rhyming (or traditional) poetry these days. Our national poetry competitions clearly favour free verse over everything else. Those who enter poems with rhyme never get a look in when it comes to the big prize money.

Indeed, one often needs a PhD in obscurity to understand what the winning poet is on about. And the poems message? Forget it! No wonder the school kids, whose lives began with rhymes, get turned off when hit with verse which is meaningless to them and unrelated to life as they know it.

Its time that both rhyming and free verse are encouraged by the elitists and competition judges held out as leaders of the poetry genre. Barry Collier, Kareela
A man has been charged with the murder of a woman whose body was discovered dumped in bushland in Sydneys Hills District on Saturday evening.

The body is yet to be formally identified but is believed to be that of missing woman Shereen Kumar, 43. Police were told that Kumar vanished while dressed in her pyjamas after leaving her home on Taylors Road in Dural on Wednesday night.

The body was located just before 6pm on Saturday by police scouring bushland off Laurie Road at Dural, a few minutes drive from Kumars home.

The accused man, 37-year-old Vincent Carlino, was arrested later that evening at a home on Taylors Road in Dural and was taken to Hornsby police station where he was charged with the domestic-related murder of the woman.
After moving its headquarters to Texas, Tesla currently relies on many suppliers from Mexico for its operations.

Automakers strive for exclusivity though a few manage to push the boundaries. However, Tesla quite literally made its mark on the Texas-Mexico border by convincing the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon to build an exclusive lane to allow its suppliers from the country to move across the United States. After moving its headquarters to Texas, Tesla currently relies on many suppliers from Mexico for its operations.

According to reports, the time taken to cross the border between Texas and Nuevo Leon can go up to 25 minutes. Now, Tesla getting its own lane has been advantageous for its company suppliers as they go through it in less than 10 minutes. The lane has been marked with a board that declares Tesla.

(Also read | Best Chinese EV manufacturer is an American, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk )

Nuevo Leon Economy Minister Ivan Rivas shared that Tesla has collaborated with six suppliers from the state that include APG Mexico, the EnFlex Corp., Faurecia and Germanys ZF. As the two states share a border of nine miles (approximately 14.4 km) with only one crossing point, the minister reportedly stated to have a crossing which is time-efficient is immensely beneficial for both states. And maybe there will be a lane for other companies in the future like there is for Tesla," the minister was quoted in a Bloomberg report.

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(Also read | Tesla CEO Elon Musk calls for more investment in global lithium refining )

In a past report, Tesla chief Elon Musk had shared the possibility of opening a factory in Mexico. However, the location for the EV manufacturing unit is yet to be ascertained. Earlier reports have also suggested chances of building the same in Canada. Tesla's Chinese battery manufacturer is looking for sites in Mexico to build its production units. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd which is the world's biggest manufacturer of batteries for EVs is hunting two sites and it is being said that these manufacturing units will make batteries for Tesla and Ford.

First Published Date:
Almost eight years after Bradley Dillon was fatally shot and stabbed in Leichhardt, one of his alleged killers has been extradited from Thailand to face a murder charge.

A 25-year-old father allegedly attempting to recoup money his sister was owed, Dillon was shot three times in the back and stabbed four or five times during an altercation in a shopping centres car park in 2014.

Antonio Tony Bagnato was extradited from Bangkok by NSW homicide detectives on Saturday morning and taken to Mascot police station, where he was charged with Dillons 2014 death.

Following extensive inquiries, detectives applied for and were granted an arrest warrant for a 33-year-old man, NSW Police said in a statement.
Police search for two men after alleged crime spree in Sydney

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An average of 85 people per week had stayed at the centre until the end of June, however, CQV said that there had been a sustained increase in recent weeks during the winter surge of COVID-19. This is a critically important service, particularly over the winter period, a CQV spokesman said. Guest rooms at the Mickleham quarantine facility. Credit:The Age There were 83 residents staying at Mickleham on Saturday, according to the CQV website, well under half its current capacity. There were 45,153 reported COVID-19 cases in Australia on Saturday. In a sign that the facility is being scaled down, staff numbers have dwindled steadily from 550 in February to 331 in May and 186 in July.

Costs have not dropped in the same manner, however, with $180 million set aside in this years state budget to pay for Mickleham until the government decides to close it. It is understood the camp has funding to stay open until the end of the year. The Centre for National Resilience, as the Mickleham facility is called, will then be handed back to the federal government, which will decide its next use. Possible uses include emergency accommodation for bushfire and flood victims or asylum seekers. The Mickleham facility includes a commercial kitchen. Credit:Paul Jeffers Other proposals include short-term housing for family violence victims or homeless people, but both have significant challenges due to the centres location on the outskirts of Melbourne. Australian Medical Association Victoria president Roderick McRae said he had asked the Department of Health if Mickleham could be used to house patients on the National Disability Insurance Scheme who were stuck in hospital waiting for housing funding.

He said those patients were inadvertently blocking beds in the acute hospital system, through no fault of their own. As a middle ground, I asked could those people be safely relocated to the quarantine facility, he said. The judgement was that it was an inappropriate facility to safely manage that group of patients. Despite its lack of use, McRae said that the quarantine facility could still be useful for the next pandemic if it is kept in working order.

It strikes me that we do need to keep some reserve capacity for the next pandemic, whenever it will be, which means mothballs, which means skeleton staff and security and ongoing costs, he said. Lets hope this only comes around every century. The site at Mickleham when it was under construction. Credit:Joe Armao McRae said that when it was proposed, Mickleham looked like it was playing an important role in managing the spread of the virus in the community after the issues with hotel quarantine. The state governments business case sent to the federal government in April last year said that quarantine was expected to continue in some form at least over the next two to three years with 2100 international arrivals coming to Victoria per week.

Loading However, just 200 international arrivals stayed at Mickleham in its first two months of operation, 0.1 per cent of the 180,000 overseas travellers to arrive in the state. Its almost like you were damned if you did, damned if you didnt. There was always a possibility youd be left with a white elephant, McRae said. You couldnt not build it. On the information available, you had to do it. A state government spokesperson said the past two years had clearly shown us the importance of being prepared for whatever the future holds.
After his partner tested positive for COVID-19 a fortnight ago, Matt Nevett began experiencing symptoms. He did a rapid antigen test, which came back negative. But before he returned to work, he wanted to have a PCR test  just to be sure.

Matt Nevett was turned away from a PCR testing site even though he was a close COVID-19 contact and had symptoms. Credit:

He went to Cohealth, a testing site in Collingwood, but was turned away because he didnt fit the new eligibility criteria.

Once I said that Ive tested negative on RAT, they said: Oh, no, were not doing PCRs for you any more, the rules changed on July 1, he said.

I said to them, that when I had COVID earlier in the year, I tested negative on the RATs, but I was positive on my PCRs, and they said it doesnt matter.
Pocock, who is part of the independent push for a stronger emissions-reduction target, also vowed to put restoring integrity in politics at the top of his agenda as Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus consults on the national corruption watchdog Labor has promised to set up by years end. Former Wallabies captain Senator David Pocock will be a key power player in the 47th parliament. Credit:Rhett Wyman In a melding of Westminster and Australian tradition, the sitting will open with a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony and a gun salute for Governor-General David Hurley, who will conduct an Inspection of the Guard before ascending to the Senate chamber to make a speech about the priorities of the new government. No legislation will be tabled on the first sitting day, which is devoted to ceremony and electing a Speaker of the House  widely expected to be Queensland Labor MP Milton Dick. It is a constitutional requirement for a Speaker to be elected before any Parliamentary business takes place.

The Speaker then presents himself to the governor-general, who grants them the authority to administer the oath to any members unable to make it to parliament to be sworn in that day. Other ceremonial activities include a fanfare  a short musical flourish played by trumpets  in the Parliaments Great Hall and an afternoon reception with the Governor-General in the Members Hall for MPs and senators. A Motion of Condolence is likely to be moved in the House of Representatives this week to honour the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated on July 8. The Address in Reply, the formal acknowledgement by the House to the Governor-General for the speech given at an opening of Parliament, is expected to begin on Tuesday night. Printed on goatskin parchment, the Address is signed by the Speaker and the clerk of the House and presented for a debate that can last several days.

This is when the dozens of new MPs and senators are expected to start making their first speeches. There are 35 new lower house MPs including teal independents Kylea Tink, Zoe Daniel, Sophie Scamps, Monique Ryan, Kate Chaney and Allegra Spender. Independents Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel, Kate Chaney, Kylea Tink, Dai Le with Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown and independents Sophie Scamps and Allegra Spender. Credit:James Brickwood Other first speeches to watch include Fowler MP Dai Le, the independent who won the seat from Labors former foreign affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally. New Labor MPs include Sally Sitou, who won the seat of Reid from former Liberal MP Fiona Martin.

Among the new senators are Indigenous women NT Country Liberal Jacinta Price, South Australian Liberal Kerrynne Liddle and Victorian Labors Jana Stewart. The Greens have three new lower house MPs  Stephen Bates, Max Chandler-Mather and Elizabeth Watson-Brown, all from Brisbane  and three new senators. The government is expected to begin introducing legislation on Wednesday and Thursday. Steggall said she hoped for slightly more productive politics than during the 46th parliament and that the Albanese government must implement all recommendations of the Jenkins review into parliamentary workplaces, following allegations of sexual misconduct. Crossbenchers are also pushing for Albanese to reverse cuts to their staffing allocations.

The Greens will pressure the government over new coal and gas mines which will make the climate crisis worse and demand Albanese drop the stage 3 tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year, legislated by the former government. The Coalition is expected to use question time to attack the government on soaring electricity prices, its policy costings, its approach to dealing with the threat of foot and mouth disease, and its hesitancy to reintroduce COVID-19 disaster payments. Loading Manager of opposition business Paul Fletcher said the Albanese governments early performance raised concerns and that we will be doing our job as an effective opposition to scrutinise the governments policies. To hold the government to account through the scrutiny of question time and other parliamentary processes is very important, Fletcher said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will push the government on its election promise to deliver lower electricity prices as gas and electricity shortages put the grid under pressure. Fletcher said the Coalition would need to look at the detail before we state our position on government legislation but was expected to vote against the climate bill after taking a 26-28 per cent emissions-reduction target to the election. Well be guided by particularly where weve stated election commitments and positions, Fletcher said. The climate bill is expected to be referred to a Senate committee. The Coalition declined to match Labors election pledge to introduce 10 days of paid domestic violence leave, a policy championed by the Greens.
Tokyo: Yu Yamamoto was a backpacker washing dishes in Surry Hillss Single O cafe in 2008 when he tasted his first ever espresso. He was hooked from his first sip and was inspired to train as a barista and later a chef.

But that was only the beginning.

That espresso changed my life and I really wanted to bring the Australian coffee culture to Japan, Yamamoto said.

Single O Japan Country Manager Yu Yamamoto (left) and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Credit:Bianca De Marchi

He moved back to his home country, first opening a grocery store but then achieved his dream of a cafe with a classic Sydney vibe. Single Os first overseas cafe opened in October in Hamacho, Tokyo, with Yamamoto as the Japan country manager.
Controversial councillor Moira Deeming has been chosen by Liberal Party members to replace outspoken MP Bernie Finn in the contest for the upper house Western Metropolitan Region seat in the state election.

Deeming, a City of Melton councillor since 2020 who has previously pushed for separate bathrooms for transgender people, was endorsed at a Liberal convention on Saturday night.

Moira Deeming asked every council in Victoria about whether it was legal to put signs on toilets specifying they were for biological males and biological females. Credit:Jason South

The teacher and mother of four was elected to the council on a platform that included: I will never support rates being used to promote radical policies like banning Australia Day, drag queen storytimes for toddlers, or letting biological males who identify as female use female toilets and change rooms.

Last year Deeming used public question time at every council in Victoria to ask whether it was legal to put a sign on public toilets declaring that one is for biological males, one is for biological females and one is for people with transgender identities.
A three-bedroom home in Maidstone passed in at auction on a single vendor bid of $1.22 million, then sold in a fast post-auction negotiation for $1,276,000.

The neat-as-a-pin home at 8 Gibb Street, in the Paris end of the suburb, drew a crowd of interested buyers, but none would raise their hand to make an offer.

Buyers kept their hands in their pockets, or on their umbrellas, and did not bid at the auction. Credit:Chris Hopkins

Its become a growing trend, agents say, with several auctions passing in on Saturday, then selling directly afterwards. Nervous buyers are holding back and do not wish to overpay for property in a weakening market thats likely to be hit with more interest rate rises.

Bidders kept their hands in their pockets, or on their umbrellas, after Village Real Estate managing director and auctioneer Huss Saad asked on a stormy Saturday morning for an opening bid for the home with its own cubby house.
The Continental Country Club in Flagstaff is bankrupt. The question is why.

A July 14 article for the Arizona Daily Sun explored the issue through testimony from management of the country clubs homeowners association and other residents. In short, Continentals answer was that the prohibitive cost of maintenance and legal battles over their failure to maintain the leaky man-made Lake Elaine was insurmountable. It has asked residents to vote to approve a $2,000 special assessment payment and a 20% increase in annual dues to help the country club emerge from bankruptcy and turn Lake Elaine into something less costly.

But some lakefront residents on the other side of the legal battle have a different perspective. They say Lake Elaine can be fixed, and that Continental can afford it but is using bankruptcy to shirk legal obligations established in 1990, suggesting that the Lake Elaine issue is being used to distract from a bigger issue: decades of financial mismanagement.

Much of these claims of mismanagement are founded on an October 2020 Reserve Study of Continentals reserve fund to evaluate how it would maintain reserves above an adequate, not excessive threshold during one or more years of significant expenditures.

In 2020 Continental knew it had some big expenses coming up, and the study was designed to help it figure out how to keep money in the bank.

A reserve study is not something to be taken lightly, said lakefront resident Dan Penoff, who has nearly 30 years of experience on homeowners association boards outside of Continental.

To him, the results of this 2020 study were disturbing.

Not only did the reserve study show that Continental had some monumental expenses coming up  including a $600,000 balloon payment due in 2021  but that to reach a recommended level of roughly $5 million in reserve funds by 2050, Continental would have to start making massive annual contributions to the fund ranging between $310,000 and $1 million a year. At the time of the study, Continentals reserve balance was $54,291. By the end of the year, they expected they could get that number to $125,000.

I just see that as being poorly managed, Penoff said. Quite honestly, I can't imagine a professional management company letting this happen. One that was, you know, competent.

Financial mismanagement reaches further back than the 2020 study, said resident John Nilsson. He recalled clear statements in meeting minutes from Continentals board of directors meeting that the reserves were significantly inadequate back in 2014.

There was no follow-through, and the reserves are still woefully inadequate, Nilsson said. Lake Elaine is not the reason for Continental Country Club's bankruptcy, it was only one of the straws to fall after years of what, in my opinion, is gross mismanagement.

The Lakeside Legionnaires

The perceived pattern of mismanagement plays into the perspective put forward in court by the suing class of lakefront homeowners  the Lakeside Legionnaires as they call themselves.

In their amended disclosure statement, the Legionnaires claim the trouble with Lake Elaine is not that its impossible to maintain, but that the Association [Continental] has simply failed to perform any real repair or maintenance of the Lake for nearly 30 years. They say their perspective was upheld in 2020 by the courts, noting that [Continental] argued then, and argues now, that it does not have enough money to fund Lake Elaine repair, but that did not persuade the Coconino Superior Court, which concluded that the Association knew it had a responsibility to maintain the lake but failed to do so. The Court further concluded that failure to plan did not equate to an inability to comply.

While the Legionnaires do not deny Continentals precarious financial situation, they dont think it inhibits or excuses them from upholding legal obligations surrounding Lake Elaine. In their statement, they note that lakefront homeowners have been very willing to work with [Continental] to negotiate a creative solution that would allow for repair of the lake as part of a holistic approach to address [Continentals] broad financial challenges.

In their opinion, Continental has refused to meet them halfway and has tried to use the bankruptcy process to block enforcement of the 1990 Settlement Judgment and the 2020 contempt ruling.

Lakeside Homeowners attempted to negotiate flexible options allowing for repair of the lake over time, the Legionnaire statement reads. But [Continental] withdrew from those discussions and instead filed for bankruptcy.

One of these flexible options that the Legionnaires indicated would be acceptable to them is a plan to refill Lake Elaine to a lower elevation below where a majority of the lakes liner failure and leaks have been occurring. A 2019 report from engineering firm Terracon evaluated that the lower lake elevation would have relative stability. The same report concluded, however, that any plan should include the eventual replacement of the liner below this elevation.

Outlined in their amended disclosure statement, Continental has included a small lake option in its plan to emerge from bankruptcy, but with one caveat: the club no longer want to be responsible for maintaining the lake. Under the option, it would deed the Lake Elaine footprint to the lakefront owners and provide them $2.5 million raised from the proposed $2,000 payments so that the Legionnaires can implement a smaller lake or any other solution the Lakefront Group determines is appropriate with the resources available, and thereafter, maintain such improvements as they deem fit with no further contribution from [Continental] or its broader membership.

Based on their statement, the reason Continental wants to sever their responsibility for maintaining Lake Elaine has to do with their skepticism that a long-term, sustainable lake is possible. They stick to the claim that maintaining the lake in the manner outlined in 1990 is no longer physically possible, economically feasible or ecologically sound.

While the court concluded that it was possible to maintain the lake, and that Continental had a responsibility to do so, the engineering reports that informed the decision paint a more complex picture. The aforementioned 2019 Terracon report does indicate that there are viable solutions to refill Lake Elaine  including short-term use of the existing liner or a more long-term geomembrane liner  but does not shy from saying that the porous limestone and geologic conditions in the area are problematic for a lake or reservoir. It goes on to say that it can certainly be argued that this site was a poor choice for a lake or water feature of any significant size.

Another 2019 engineering report from Natural Channel Designs reached similar conclusions, saying the geologic and environmental setting of the lake presents significant challenges to its continued existence."

Time and place

The issue is further complicated by the fact that Continental and the Legionnaires cant seem to agree on how much it would cost to repair and maintain even a small lake option. In their disclosure statement, Continental says they are informed and believe that the Lakefront Group has separately evaluated [the small lake option] and has concluded that the costs of implementing [this option] are significantly less than [Continentals] $3 million estimate, but discussions between the parties to date have not been able to reconcile these differences.

In either case, to the Legionnaires, being handed the deed to the lake is not an attractive option, and it asks the lakefront owners to take on the problem that [Continental] created. What they want is for Continental to take responsibility for the lake repair and also pay some money toward the Lakeside Homeowners attorneys fees  which are damages that the Lakeside Homeowners have suffered as a result of [Continentals] rejection of the 1990 Settlement Judgment.

But for Continental to do any of this, theyll need money, and they dont deny that they need money for more than just Lake Elaine.

In a statement to the Arizona Daily Sun, Continental attorney Scott Cohen said, While Continental certainly has obligations other than the Lakefront Group, such as addressing its appropriate capital reserves to ensure proper maintenance of its amenities and common areas, this was not the primary cause for the bankruptcy filing.

For these reasons, they continue to urge Continental residents to vote to approve the specially assessment payment of $2,000 and the 20% increase on annual dues, suggesting its the financially responsible thing to do.

Raising dues and increasing assessments is an important step to funding the reserves, Cohen's statement said. It is disingenuous for any group to shift the blame to the reserve study, and then not vote to fund the maintenance and improvements identified in the study.

On this point, the Legionnaires agree. They might dispute the proper way to move forward with Lake Elaine, but they appear to agree that voting to approve the special assessment is necessary to help Continental emerge from bankruptcy.

It is not true that the Lakeside Homeowners want to bankrupt [Continental], the Legionnaire statement says. The Lakeside Homeowners would lose as much as any other owner would if the bankruptcy ended in a liquidation.

In a recent newsletter to Continental residents, General Manager Tahlia Murray confirmed that if unable to emerge from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and forced to file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, the Lake Elaine lawsuit would cease, as the HOA cannot be sued by Lake Elaine property owners or any other entity under Chapter 7.

Still, Chapter 7 and the liquidation of assets that would follow are by no means in Continentals interests.

In the same newsletter, Murray quoted Patrick A. Clisham of Engelman Berger, the legal counsel to Continental Country Club, as having said Chapter 7 means chaos. There are no positives.

Dissatisfied as the Legionnaires might be about the current state of Lake Elaine and Continentals proposed solutions, A successful vote is actually in everyones best interest, said Legionnaire and lakefront resident Tim Harrington in an email to the Arizona Daily Sun. We do support the vote for the additional funds for the homeowners association.

What remains to be seen is whether Continental will get the votes they need to avoid Chapter 7, what will finally become of the contentious Lake Elaine,and whether the organization will be able to repair its financial situation in the long run.

Voting to approve these additional funds ends July 28. More information on the voting process for residents of the neighborhood can be found at continentalflagstaff.com/the-voting-process-on-the-two-fees/.
London: Prince Harry has won the right to challenge the British government over a decision not to grant him automatic police protection whenever he is in the country.

Harry, who lives in the United States with his wife Meghan, brought the claim on five grounds, four of which a judge said were arguable, albeit with some parts of the grounds removed.

Justice Jonathan Swift ruled on Friday the case could proceed to a judicial review.

Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, attend a thanksgiving service in London for his grandmothers Platinum Jubilee in June. Credit:Getty Images

The application for permission to apply for judicial review is allowed in part and refused in part, Swift said.
Tel Aviv: Two terrorist attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1990s that killed scores of people were carried out by a secret Hezbollah unit whose operatives, contrary to widespread claims, were not abetted knowingly by Argentinian citizens nor aided by Iran on the ground, according to an investigation by the Mossad, Israels secret service.

The internal Mossad study, the written findings of which were shared with The New York Times, provide a detailed account of how the attacks were planned  including how material for the explosives was smuggled into Argentina in shampoo bottles and chocolate boxes.

Firefighters and rescue workers search through the rubble of the Buenos Aires Jewish Community centre after a car bomb destroyed the building, killing 85 people in 1994. Credit:AP/File

While Mossad stresses that Israeli intelligence still believes that Iran, a supporter of Hezbollah, approved and funded the attacks and supplied training and equipment, the findings counter long-standing assertions by Israel, Argentina and the United States that Iran had an operational role on the ground. They also countered suspicions in Argentina that local officials and citizens there had been complicit.

In the first attack, which killed 29 people in 1992, the Israeli embassy was blown up. The second, in 1994, targeted the headquarters of a Jewish community centre, killing 86 people, including the bomber.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The le Sommet Foundation in collaboration with The Haitian Association of Sint Maarten (H.A.S.MA) hosted a panel discussion for the Positive Parent Support Program, an initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports.

Present in the panel discussion were board members of the Le Sommet Foundation and the Haitian Association of Sint Maarten (HASMA), UNICEF field assistant Mr. Bert van der Meijden. Head Caribbean Child Development Centre Ms. Cecile Minott from the University of the West Indies and Mr. Owen Blakka from the Active Parenting Partners Caribbean based in Jamaica and Ms. Christine Regis

The panel discussion focussed on active parenting, parental outlook, Discipline methods, and generational parenting differences within the Haitian Community and serves as part of a broader cumulative effort, to do a proper formative assessment with various focus groups throughout the island.

The development of the program will take just about a year and will see the training of some 60 Facilitators and 20 Masters. When completed the program will highlight various niche-specific policies, intervention methods, and recommendations to the Ministry of ECYS for their Positive Parenting Support Program.

The Positive Parenting Program which is an initial component of the "Child Resilience and Protection program gives parents simple and practical strategies to help them manage their childrens behavior, identify, intervene and prevent potential problems from developing, and foster strong, healthy relationships. All while helping support the psychosocial needs of the child.

"Initiatives like these are exactly what we need. Better parenting leads to better kids which leads to better individuals within a society. I want to thank Unicef, the University of the West Indies, the Active Parenting program coordinators, the Ministry of ECYS, and all other stakeholders involved.

We are honored to be able to contribute to this worthy initiative". - Fabio Doralice. President of Le Sommet Foundation/ Vice President of HASMA.

" I want to applaud the government and all actors involves for taking on this project which is highly needed in our society. While we applaud this effort more needs to be done.

The government needs to look into other social issues plaguing us and create a comprehensive approach to combat issues like teen pregnancies, birthright and residency issues, labor and domestic abuse, poverty, all need equal attention.

Parenting is not easy by no means, but this is a step in the right direction." - Jean Boasman, Advisor on the HASMA Board./ Radio Host "Kat Sou Tab"
Moscow (The Russian Federation) 23 July 2022 (SPS)- The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, stressed in an article published on several African websites, Friday, under the title "Russia and Africa: a future-bound partnership", that his country supports the completion of the decolonization of the African continent, stressing the need to respect the United Nations Charter in international relations.

The Russian officials reference came to reiterate Russias position in support of completing the process of decolonization of Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa, in accordance with the resolutions of international legality, as it was confirmed through the positions of the permanent member of the Security Council, especially during Russias abstention from voting on Council resolutions over the few past years as a result of the lack of balance and departure from the spirit and text of the Charter of the United Nations, as confirmed by the country's delegates many times in their explanation of votes.

The Russian Head of diplomacy recalled that Russia has consistently advocated Africas strengthened position in the multipolar architecture of a world order which should be based on the principles of the UN Charter and take the worlds cultural and civilizational diversity into account.

He further stressed that Russia-Africa ties are based on the time-tested bonds of friendship and cooperation. Our country has not stained itself with the bloody crimes of colonialism and has always sincerely supported Africans in their struggle for liberation from colonial oppression, and provided practical and often gratuitous assistance to the peoples of the continent in the formation of their statehood, creation of the foundations of national economies, defense capabilities build-up, and training of qualified personnel.

Today, the Russian Minister adds, we stand in solidarity with the African demands to complete the process of decolonization and support relevant initiatives on the UN platform. The development of a comprehensive partnership with African countries remains among the top priorities of Russias foreign policy, he said.

On another hand, Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Russia is firmly committed to the African solutions to African problems principle. Such an approach to developing inter-State ties dramatically differs from the masterslave logic imposed by former metropolitan countries, which reproduces the obsolete colonial model, he condemned.

Moscow, Lavrov added, will continue to pursue a peace-loving foreign policy and play a balancing role in international affairs. We are in favour of broad interstate cooperation based on the provisions of the UN Charter, first of all, the principle of the sovereign equality of states.

The article was published on various African media outlets, especially on Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, the Congolese Les Depeches de Brazzaville, the Ugandan New Vision, as well as the Ethiopian Ethiopia Herald and the Panafrikanist website. (SPS)

To read the full text of the article click on the title bellow:

Russia and Africa: a future-bound partnership

090/500/60 (SPS)
Algiers, 23 July 2020 (SPS) - The United Kingdom's Ambassador to Algeria, Sharon Wardle, has reaffirmed her countrys support for the resolutions of international legitimacy concerning Western Sahara.



During her reception by the Secretary-General of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) party, Abou El Fadhl Baadji, Ms Wardle reaffirmed that her country supports the United Nations resolutions to settle the conflict in Western Sahara through supporting international legitimacy and the UN envoy de Mistura, stressing the need to stand for peaceful solutions in all international and regional crises, indicated the party in a statement.



Mr Baadji, for his part, highlighted his party's position on the inevitability of decolonization in Western Sahara in accordance with international legitimacy and the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, added the statement.



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Washington, 23 July 2022 (SPS) - Republican Senator Jim Inhofe called on the Biden administration to find another venue for the annual U.S. military exercise "African Lion" that Morocco used to host, because of Rabat's "lack of willingness and seriousness" to resolve the Western Sahara issue.



"Morocco has shown no willingness or seriousness to resolve the Western Sahara issue," lamented Jim Inhofe in an intervention published on his Twitter account, adding: "The United States should find an alternative location to host its annual military exercise that takes place every year in Morocco.



The senator from Oklahoma also said he was "deeply concerned" by the fact that "the Sahrawi people are suffering from decades of broken promises from Morocco". He continued: the Moroccan occupier "did nothing to repair the damage done to the Sahrawis".



"After all these years, it has shown no willingness to resolve the Sahrawi conflict. On the contrary, Morocco has hindered efforts to find a mutually acceptable solution to the Western Sahara issue," he deplored.



Furthermore, Jim Inhofe said he was "pleased" that the candidates to lead the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the U.S. Special Operations Command (US SO Command) "have agreed to support" his assessment.



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BAMAKO, Mali (AP)  Jihadi rebels have attacked Mali's Kati military base on the outskirts of the capital city Bamako, the ruling junta confirmed Friday.

It's the first time Kati, Mali's largest military base, has been hit by extremist rebels in their more than 10-year insurgency in the West African country.

Two vehicles loaded with explosives detonated at the camp at about 5 a.m., according to a statement issued by the military.

The Malian Armed Forces vigorously repelled a terrorist attack on the Kati barracks, said the statement, which said that 7 attackers were killed and 8 arrested.

The terrorists first blew up the vehicles at the entrance to the military camp, then shells were fired at the camp," said a military official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

Another group of the jihadis entered the camp on foot and began burning vehicles parked in the camp, and then the attackers stole two army vehicles, he said.

Fridays attack on the Kati barracks base follows a coordinated series of insurgent attacks Thursday. In one of those incidents, the extremists attacked a police base in Kolokani, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Bamako and two Malian soldiers were killed, said the military in an earlier statement.

The leader of Mali's ruling junta Lt. Col. Assimi Goita frequently stays at the Kati camp, where he launched the 2020 coup that brought him to power.

Jihadi rebels linked to al Qaida and the Islamic State group have been gaining ground in their decade-long insurgency. Their attacks have mostly been in northern Mali but recently the extremists have moved into central Mali. This month they've moved closer to the capital.

Last week gunmen attacked an army checkpoint about 60 kilometers (37 miles) outside Bamako, killing at least six people and wounding several others, officials said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they appear to be by the al-Qaida-linked group known as JNIM.

The attacks show how the al-Qaida affiliate Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin continues to expand its operations outside its traditional strongholds in northern and central Mali, said Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

As in other Sahelian countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger ... major cities including the capitals themselves, are increasingly surrounded by a steady spread of Islamist militancy that poses an ever-increasing risk and challenge to the security environment.

Mali has struggled to contain the Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. Extremist rebels took control of Malis northern cities but were then forced out with the help of a French-led military operation. The jihadis regrouped in the desert and began attacking the Malian army and its allies. Insecurity has worsened with attacks in the northern and central regions on military targets, civilians and U.N. peacekeepers.

The U.N. force has said more than 250 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide.

Last week the United Nations mission in Mali announced that Egypt will suspend its participation in the peacekeeping force by mid-August, citing deadly attacks. Seven Egyptian peacekeepers have been killed in Mali so far this year, according to officials.

Tensions have grown between Malis junta and the U.N. peacekeeping force. Earlier this month the government told the U.N. mission to suspend all flights to move its forces in the country. The government also detained 49 Ivorian soldiers who flew in to help with security for a company contracted by the U.N. mission.

Separately, a European military force that helped fight extremists withdrew from Mali at the end of June. The French military, which spearheaded the Takuba task force, announced the end of its deployment in Mali. The move was tied to Frances decision earlier this year to withdraw troops from Mali after nine years helping Malian forces fight the extremists.

The European force was composed of several hundred special forces troops from 10 countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. It aimed at training and protecting Malian combat forces.

The exit of the European troops and tensions with the U.N. peacekeeping force come as Malis junta has grown closer to Russia with the Wagner Group, a private Russian mercenary force, sending fighters to Mali.

The attacks this week were condemned by the U.N. special representative in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane.

I offer my condolences to the government and people of Mali as well as to the families and loved ones of the fallen soldiers. I wish a speedy recovery to the injured, he said in statement Friday.

The U.N. mission in Mali will continue to support and accompany the efforts of the Malian authorities aimed at restoring lasting peace and security, he said.
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STAMFORD  The most common complaint Jonathan Jacobson hears from his constituents in Strawberry Hill is speeding cars that zip up and down the neighborhoods main avenue.

Here in Stamford, for lack of a better term, theres a culture of poor driving, said Jacobson, during a meeting of the Stamford Board of Representatives this month.

Jacobson, a member of the board, decided to do something about it. He wrote a resolution, which was co-sponsored by 21 other representatives, that calls for speed cameras to be installed at Stamford schools. Along Strawberry Hill Avenue, which abuts the 12th district that Jacobson represents, sit two schools: Strawberry Hill School and Stamford High School.

At the most recent board meeting, the resolution passed easily by a vote of 27-7 with two abstentions.

But theres a catch.

In order to be implemented, state lawmakers would have to approve legislation that allows for the use of speed cameras in the state, or gives local municipalities the power to come up with their own regulations.

Efforts to get legislatures to allow speed camera usage have failed in the past. In 2018, a bill was introduced to begin a pilot program for speeding cameras, but it didnt get much traction.

At the time, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and the NAACP testified against it, arguing that the cameras pose privacy risks and could disproportionately affect people of color.

Another concern is that the cameras identify cars by license plate, not by the driver. Which means residents who allow others to drive their car could get a speeding ticket for an infraction they didnt commit.

Jacobson said he is hopeful this time will be different.

For starters, the state is trying out a speed camera pilot program this year on highways in order to protect highway workers.

To the extent that its appropriate to protect our highways workers, we should similarly be looking to protect our teachers and children, Jacobson said at the board meeting.

The resolution also has the support of Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons.

Our city has had tragic pedestrian fatalities around our schools and we need to make sure we protect public safety and enhance pedestrian safety and walkability throughout our community, Simmons said, in an emailed statement.

Fatal traffic accidents have risen by 31 percent in the past three years in Connecticut, according to data presented by Luke Buttenwieser of the Stamford traffic department during a meeting of the Board of Representatives State and Commerce Committee last month.

He described the growing number of fatal car crashes as a pandemic.

We are going down a bad road in terms of roadway safety in America, Buttenwiser said.

Up until recently, car crashes were the leading cause of death among children until it was eclipsed by gun-related deaths in 2020, according to data provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Stamford, some schools have experienced more traffic related incidents than others.

When looking at the total number of traffic stops and car accidents near schools since 2019, Stamford High School outpaced any other school in the city by a wide margin. According to one graphic presented by Buttenwiser, the school was the site of about 38 crashes in the past three years or so. Rippowam Middle School was second on the list, with about 18 such incidents.

The data did not specify if any of the crashes were due to speeding.

The Strawberry Hill corridor, where Stamford High is located, is one of the citys most problematic areas which traffic officials say they are hoping to fix. It was site of a fatal crash in 2016, when an 18-year-old student was struck and killed by a van trying to cross Strawberry Hill Avenue.

In 2021, there were 10 incidents involving pedestrians struck by vehicles near school zones, according to Buttenwiesers presentation, but those numbers also did not specify if speeding was involved in any case, nor when the incidents occurred.

Five of the 10 took place near Hart Magnet Elementary School in the West Side, three occurred at K.T. Murphy Elementary School in the Cove neighborhood and there was one each at Springdale Elementary School on Hope Street and Stamford High School on Strawberry Hill Avenue.

In the lead-up to the vote on the speed camera resolution, Stamford High Principal Matthew Forker penned a letter in support. The high school leader wrote that he has seen a number of accidents on roads near the school in the 25 years he has been employed there.

I am, and always will be, in favor of safety measures that protect all citizens of Stamford, especially the students that attend SHS, he wrote.

During his presentation to a board subcommittee last month, Buttenwieser said studies have found that cameras do contribute to lowered speeds.

The National Transportation Safety Board found that speed cameras have reduced crashes between 8 and 49 percent, depending on where they are installed.

Not everyone on the Board of Representatives was in favor of the measure, however.

Rep. Nina Sherwood, D-8, had a number of concerns.

Chiefly, she was opposed to the idea of giving an electronic device the power to issue tickets.

I dont think we should be heading in a direction where artificial intelligence is fining residents, she said.

Rep. Lindsey Miller, D-7, countered that argument by saying that such instances already exist, such as automated tolls that send bills to drivers.

Sherwood and others argued that having police officers stationed at schools would be more effective in cutting down on speeding.

But other representatives responded that manpower at Stamford Police Department is currently depleted, and having officers regularly standing outside of schools to regulate car speed would be a poor use of resources.

I think its impractical for taxpayers to pay for local police to stand in front of schools with a speeding device, Jacobson responded.

For now, Stamford officials will play the waiting game, seeing if state legislators decide to tackle the speed camera issue once again.

Moving forward, its in the hands of the General Assembly, Jacobson said. This is an issue that the people in the city want to have addressed ... We are calling upon our delegation and all lawmakers in Hartford to allow us to police our hometowns.

ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com
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WAWONA, Calif. (AP)  A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of California's largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

The Oak Fire started Friday afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by Saturday had grown to nearly 19 square miles (48 square kilometers), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.

Evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday due to the effects of the Oak Fire.

More than 400 firefighters were battling the blaze, along with helicopters, other aircraft and bulldozers, facing tough conditions that included hot weather, low humidity and bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades, Patterson said.

Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters, Cal Fire said in a statement Saturday that described the Oak Fire's activity as extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.

By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five others and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said. The blaze prompted numerous road closures, including a shutdown of Highway 140 between Carstens Road and Allred Road  blocking one of the main routes into Yosemite.

California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.

The fire is moving quickly. This fire was throwing embers out in front of itself for up to 2 miles yesterday, Patterson said. These are exceptional fire conditions." The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Pacific Gas & Electric said on its website that more than 2,600 homes and businesses in the area had lost power as of Friday afternoon and there was no indication when it would be restored. PG&E is unable to access the affected equipment," the utility said.

A shoeless older man attempting to flee the blaze on Friday crashed his sedan into a ditch in a closed area and was helped by firefighters. He was safely driven from the area and did not appear to suffer any injuries. Several other residents stayed in their homes Friday night as the fire burned nearby.

Meanwhile, firefighters have made significant progress against a wildfire that began in Yosemite National Park and burned into the Sierra National Forest.

The Washburn Fire was 79% contained Friday after burning about 7.5 square miles (19.4 square kilometers) of forest. It was one of the largest fires of the year in California, along with the Lost Lake Fire in Riverside County that was fully contained in June at 9 square miles (23 square kilometers)

The fire broke out July 7 and forced the closure of the southern entrance to Yosemite and evacuation of the community of Wawona as it burned on the edge of Mariposa Grove, home to hundreds of giant sequoias, the world's largest trees by volume.

Wawona Road is tentatively set to reopen on Saturday, according to the park website.

___

Gecker contributed from San Francisco.
WFO ALBANY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 24, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Albany NY

415 AM EDT Sat Jul 23 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 8 PM EDT

SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index values in the mid 90s today and upper 90s to

lower 100s on Sunday.

* WHERE...Capital Region, mid Hudson Valley, central and

southern Taconics and northwestern Connecticut.

* WHEN...From noon today to 8 PM EDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

related illnesses to occur if precautions are not taken.

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




An abbot and several officials were dismissed or held responsible on Friday for an incident where four Japanese war criminals had been commemorated at a Buddhist temple in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, for about four years.

The abbot of Xuanzang Temple, Li Yijiang, was replaced by the bureau of ethnic and religious affairs of Nanjing's Xuanwu district. The operation of the temple has been suspended to correct its misconduct.

The director of the district's ethnic and religious bureau was dismissed, while the director and one of the deputy directors of the city's ethnic and religious bureau also received punishments.

On Thursday evening, the district's bureau got a report that several Buddhist memorial tablets of Japanese war criminals had been commemorated at the Xuanzang Temple.

According to a preliminary investigation, the temple noticed the incident in February and had corrected the misconduct.

According to photos uploaded by netizens, the Buddhist memorial tablets of the war criminals, including Hisao Tani, Matsui Iwane, Takeshi Noda and Tanaka Junyoshi, were commemorated at the temple from 2018 to 2022.

Of them, Matsui Iwane was one of the Class-A war criminals held responsible for the Nanjing Massacre. Hisao Tani, a Class-B war criminal, committed hideous crimes during the massacre.

Takeshi Noda was a Class-C war criminal who participated in a "killing 100 people" competition in Nanjing, and Tanaka Junyoshi killed more than 300 unarmed soldiers and civilians with a saber.

On Dec 13, 1937, the Nanjing Massacre began, and over a six-week period, invading Japanese troops killed more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers, according to Chinese historians.

Millions of Chinese netizens were angered after reports emerged on Friday. Many of them also expressed confusion.

"It might not infuriate so many people if it hadn't happened in Nanjing," said netizen "Meisheng" on the social media platform Sina Weibo.

"You cannot help but wonder: How can such a ridiculous incident happen in the city that bore so much pain and shed so many tears in history?"

"We must never forget the serious crimes committed by the invaders," the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders said on Sina Weibo on Friday and demanded a thorough investigation.

"We condemn the misconduct and deeply regret their indifference toward history," said Wu Xianbin, curator of a private museum commemorating the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) in Nanjing.

Guo Jun contributed to this story.
Earlier this month, a woman was stabbed to death in a home on the 200 block of South 27th Street in Billings. And then, two days later, emergency crews returned to the same house to douse a fire that had started early the morning after the Fourth of July.

Emergency calls to the three properties on this block of South 27th, which includes the Colonial Apartments, have become so frequent that one South Side resident has been pushing the city to do more to crack down on these and other problem properties.

"The severity of the crimes that take place in the vicinity of these properties are disturbing," Catherine Card wrote to the Billings City Council.

Card, speaking by phone earlier this week, explained that she looked up police call logs for that block of South 27th and calculated that from January to July of this year  180 days  emergencies services were called to those three properties 110 times.

"It's very visible," she said. "It's very notorious."

Card, a long-time advocate of the Billings' South Side and a member of the South Side Task Force, is passionate about her neighborhood.

The three properties on the 200 block of South 27th Street are owned by John Skauge, a longtime Billings landlord who has said the police need to do more to deter the crime around his properties. Skauge owns a number of rentals on the South Side and for years owned Buck's Bar on Central Avenue, which he sold in February to Ted Doughty.

"I can't control people's behavior," Skauge said.

He acknowledged that police calls to his properties are high but said Billings Police need to do a better job responding to the criminal element.

"They're big buildings and people can get away with murder," he said of his rentals.

When he was reminded that had literally happened  the stabbing death of 24-year-old Jessie Jane Guardipee  occurred at one of his rentals earlier this month, he said he had no involvement with that.

Skauge's properties have caught the attention of residents and city officials before.

In December 2019, a gas leak explosion at the Battleship Apartments on Third Avenue South, also owned by Skauge, severely damaged the building, leaving it uninhabitable. The following February a fire in the apartments gutted it.

After sitting abandoned for more than a year, the city eventually forced Skauge to demolish the property.

"We try to keep up with city," Skauge said.

Card is asking city officials to prioritize properties that draw inordinate police and fire response, arguing that it not only makes neighborhoods less safe but it costs city public safety services a lot of time and money.

"Think of the considerable amounts of precious public funds, time and supplies that are being expended to respond to the troubles and emergencies at these... properties," she said.

She understands that it's a complex problem without an easy answer. Ultimately, officials are being asked to hold landlords responsible for the behavior of their tenants, which isn't really amenable, she said.

"It's going to take researching what other communities are doing," Card said. "The city will likely have to develop special nuisance codes but I don't know how you get to that."

The Billings Code Enforcement division has a number of tools at its disposal to address problem properties; many were refined, clarified and put in place in the last few years.

Before code enforcement streamlined the rules it could be hard for property owners to know exactly what was in violation and how to remedy it.

"It was a mess," said Wyeth Friday, planning and community services director for the city.

Refining the code allowed the planning department to create a checklist that made it easier for both property owners and code enforcement officers to identify and resolve violations.

"It makes it pretty easy to understand," said Tina Hoeger, code enforcement division manager.

Under city code, nuisance properties are typically classified either as dangerous structures or abandoned/deteriorating structures.

To meet those classifications, a property has to have three violations found on the checklist, which includes issues like broken or missing windows, doors or attic vents; missing or substantially damaged exterior walls, roofs or foundations; and visible signs of decay.

Unresponsiveness to reports filed on the property by police or code enforcement officers is also a highlighted issue and counts toward the three violations.

"You're a property owner, you live in this city, you have an obligation," Hoeger said. "If you own that property, you have to maintain it."

Code enforcement officers understand that many of these issues aren't black and white and that property owners need some flexibility, she said. The best case scenario is resolving violations with property owners long before they reach municipal court.

For example, earlier this year, officers worked with an elderly couple in midtown Billings to get their property cleaned up before violations started to pile up.

Another tool that's been successful in the city's "Dirty Dozen" list, created in August 2017, to help spur property owners into compliance. The list is a collection of the city's worst property code violators and it includes Billings' efforts to get them to clean up.

It's updated quarterly; as properties are rehabilitated they're replaced on the list with new locations for the city to address.

Many of these are the properties where the owners have been unresponsive to notices or uncooperative with code enforcement officials. The city found that by placing the property on a list that becomes a public document and goes before the city council, the properties' owners were more motivated to address the problems.

Code enforcement has worked with Card in the past and officials there appreciate her efforts to monitor and draw attention to nuisance properties on the South Side. But Hoeger also knows resolving many of these issues takes time.

"You've gotta have due process," she said.

It's important to work with property owners, she added. And when property owners aren't responsive that's when code enforcement uses its enforcement tools.

"You have an obligation to the rest of your community," Hoeger said of those property owners.
ARROW ROCK, Mo.  It only took two days for caterpillars to destroy 10 acres of Duane Brunes alfalfa.

Brune, who runs Pin Oak Farms in New Haven, said he was stepping on four or five every time he put his foot down.

It was literally an army of worms crawling across the ground, he said.

Indeed. The caterpillars are the larvae of the fall armyworm moth, a planetary crop invader. The annual toll of their attacks is at least $300 million for farmers in the U.S., and billions of dollars around the globe.

But now scientists from the University of Missouri are on the edge of a new frontier in pest control: They are filling fields with a chemical  not a pesticide  that replicates the pheromones of the moth, overwhelms its senses and stops it from mating, essentially using the insects own biology against it. The system could reshape pest control in the U.S., and be even more useful in countries where subsistence farming is common and access to genetically modified crops isnt.

And the research comes at a critical time. Its possible climate change could amplify fall armyworm attacks, scientists fear, allowing them to cause more widespread damage just as the insects are adapting to common weapons in a farmers arsenal, like genetically-modified crops and pesticides.

Theres a whole new playing field now, said Kevin Rice, a Mizzou extension entomologist leading a trial of the new system.

Heres how it works: Researchers hammer grids of stakes into corn fields. The stakes hold strips of factory-made pheromone, which slowly escapes into the air above the corn. And, when moths land, hoping to mate, they are instead overwhelmed by the decoy chemical. The strategy, called mating disruption, could stop the moths from producing crop-devouring caterpillars, the larval stage of the insect.

Mating disruption isnt a new tool  the romantic peril of moths is a growing business.

Oklahoma-based Trece Inc. makes mating disruption products that work for other moths. The number of new farmers buying the systems is growing by 30-40% each year, said Danielle Kirkpatrick, the companys technical support coordinator.

Provivi, a Los Angeles company that makes similar dispensers, launched a fall armyworm system in Mexico in 2020. The company says the product was used by 1,000 growers in the first year.

But the Mizzou researchers, using Trece stakes, are among the first to try the setup on fall armyworms in the U.S.

Theres still a few hurdles to clear in the Missouri trial. Farmers may not want to plant hundreds of stakes like the scientists did, Rice said. And they wont buy the dispensers if theyre too expensive.

Still, the goal, he said, is to establish proof of concept for Treces system, then make it cost-effective for farmers.

We did it at the max level, and we know no growers ever gonna do that, Rice said. But if it doesnt work at that level, well then its time to move on.

If it does work, it might make a dent in attacks that decimate fields, and farmers profits.

The army assembles in the south

Fall armyworms, distinct from the true armyworm, are cold-blooded, so they spend the winter in warm southern Texas and the tip of Florida then ride wind currents north into farmers fields starting in the spring. They drop out of the sky like paratroopers onto crops to produce offspring, Rice said.

The caterpillars grow to be 1.5-inch long, green-and-brown soldiers that emerge under the cover of darkness to feed. They eat more than 80 types of plants.

Once the armyworms have consumed a field, they march en masse to the next available target, giving them their characteristic name.

Andy McCorkill, a field specialist in livestock for the University of Missouris extension and a farmer in Dade County, estimated he had a platoon of armyworms 300 feet wide and a quarter-mile long attack one of his pastures of Johnson grass, a type of hay, last year.

They had every leaf eaten off of it all the way to the ground below, he said.

The larvae can defoliate fields completely, or just damage crops enough to lower yield and make plants more vulnerable to other attack by diseases. And they can be particularly hard to kill because larger caterpillars are more tolerant to insecticides.

Eventually, they bury themselves under the ground to transform into a moth. The adults emerge from the soil and start the whole process over again, leap frogging north to higher latitudes.

The march is seasonal: It stops when winter descends to freeze the army out.

But last year, fall armyworms rode wind currents farther north and dined out on crops far longer than they usually do. They took advantage of optimal weather conditions to mount an invasion entomologists said was the worst since the 1970s.

Katelyn Kesheimer, an Auburn University extension entomologist, said a warm winter allowed more of the cold-blooded critters to survive and gave them a jump-start on their spring migration. Record spring rains made plants grow faster and greener, creating more appealing landing targets for adult moths.

It was just a fantastic buffet of whatever they wanted to eat, Kesheimer said.

Climate change is expected to make the warm winter and stormy spring of 2021 more common, she said, leading to more frequent severe outbreaks.

Some research also predicts that rising temperatures may allow the armyworms to spend the winter farther north as tropical temperatures become too hot for them to survive. And they may produce more generations per growing season, because heat can speed up their life cycle, researchers found.

Rice, the Mizzou scientist, said thats a destruction-boosting combo.

Its sort of like investment banking, he said. If you start with a higher number and you have multiple generations per year, youre gonna have higher populations in the environment.

Growing seasons are also lengthening with rising temperatures, meaning caterpillars may be able to stick around longer once they arrive in the north.

And thats not all. The tools farmers rely on to control the fall armyworms might become less potent.

Theres research that shows the insects can develop resistance to insecticides, and even a type of genetically modified crop called Bt corn. The corn is a widespread pest-fighting tool, planted in over 80% of all U.S. corn acreage, that produces toxic proteins that kill the bugs.

We just need more tools in the toolbox against this pest, Kesheimer said. Because a little bit of a lot of things is going to be a lot better than one thing that theyll get resistant to or just find a way around eventually.

Pounding in stakes

The Missouri scientists are wielding pheromones, a chemical female moths produce like a beacon to attract mates, as a new tool to fight fall armyworms.

Female moths have glands that emit the pheromone, a compound specific to the species. They pump out the pheromone into the air at night, and male moths use pheromone receptors in their antennae to sense the chemicals and find the female. Then they mate. Females can produce up to 2,000 eggs in their five-day lifespan.

The researchers experiment is designed to thwart the moths romance: Plastic pheromone strips are attached with a binder clip to wooden stakes in the ground. The strips release clouds of pheromones so intense the males cant pinpoint a mate.

They cant talk to each other because its just mass confusion, Rice said.

Early one hot morning last month, the scientists met at the corner of a corn field owned by Legacy Ridge Farms just northwest of Arrow Rock, one of their trial sites, and mapped out a game plan. The heat index was almost 100 degrees.

Technicians Justice Hennemann and Jack Tallmage walked out of sight through abrasive rows of corn with a surveyors wheel to measure the length and width of each section of the field.

They returned with their measurements to Kelsey Benthall, a Missouri doctorate student leading the project with Rice, who calculated the dimensions the team would use for the sites three 18-acre treatment plots.

Whenever I signed up for this I didnt know Id be doing math in 100 degree weather all the time, Benthall said.

She designated one chunk of field, separated from the others by a barrier of trees, as a control plot and mapped out two other tests. They hammered in 640 single-dispenser stakes, plus 80 towers  multiple dispensers in a ring around a central stake  a new system the researchers are testing.

Extra humidity greeted the team every time they dipped down into the corn rows to plant a stake. Sweat glistened on foreheads.

The researchers also added a series of glue traps in each plot, which attract the fall armyworms using the same pheromones as the stakes, then trap the moths inside. Every week, Benthall will journey back into the corn to count the number of armyworms they trap in those lures.

They hope they dont find many in the pheromone-staked fields. That would mean the male moths are having just as much difficulty finding the lures as they are romantic partners.

Farmers are not uniformly convinced.

Brune, the Pin Oak farms owner, said a mating disruption system might not be worth it for his operation because he only sees outbreaks every four or five years. Cost and the concentration of dispensers needed per acre would factor heavily into his decision.

But Derek Davis, the owner of Legacy Ridge, said hed consider the pheromone stakes  if the trials are successful.

Its always been a challenge to find ways to control insects in organic and non-GMO fields, he said.

Anything we can learn here, not only for our own farm, he said, we can help other growers with those challenges.
ST. CHARLES  Boeing workers from three area facilities will vote on a new, proposed contract here on Sunday, which could lead to the first strike in more than two decades.

The union representing nearly 2,500 workers in north St. Louis County, St. Charles, and Mascoutah has recommended they reject the proposed deal.

Tom Boelling, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837, said the unions top priorities are general wage increases, a faster path for workers to climb the pay scale, and improvements to 401(k) plans. I feel personally that they owe us something for our dedication, Boelling said, adding that employees never stopped working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boeing feels its done right by employees. A spokesman said the proposal offers highly competitive wage increases and one of the most lucrative 401(k) plans in the nation.

We remain hopeful that our employees will see the value in this offer and vote yes, the company said in a statement.

If the deal is approved, it would last for three years, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 1, 2025. If its rejected, workers could begin picketing on Aug. 1 instead.

Workers held a 99-day strike against McDonnell Douglas in 1996, a year before Boeing took over, and a 90-day strike in 1975, Boelling said.
ST. LOUIS  Weeklong Girl Scout camps in Troy and Pevely were shutdown because of multiple positive cases of COVID-19, according to Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri.

Multiple campers and staff tested positive for the coronavirus at Camp Cedarledge in Pevely and Camp Tuckaho in Troy, the organization confirmed in a statement.

Camp Cedarledge was scheduled to run July 18-22. Parents and caregivers were told to pick up their campers July 19. Camp Tuckaho ran from July 11-15, and campers were sent home a day early.

The organizations chief program officer Danielle Washington said in a statement that the notification to parents and the process to pick up campers did not go as smoothly as expected.

She said she apologized to families for the confusion and inconvenience it caused them, and the organization was taking measures to improve the process in the future.
Every year, the technology being used in agriculture seems increasingly like something out of science fiction:

Machines that recognize weeds and target them  and only them  with herbicide, keeping the nearby crops safe from harm. Tractors that plow fields in perfectly straight lines with far more precision than a human could ever manage.

And coming next year, tractors that drive themselves, leaving the farmer free to do other work.

Ag technology in the last five years has not doubled, its tripled, said Kyle Allen, co-owner of Gateway Precision Ag. Located just south of Hawk Point, Missouri, in Lincoln County, the company repairs and refurbishes farm equipment, often retrofitting older machines with the newest technologies.

If you told me five years ago that we would be spraying from drones, Id say you were crazy, he said.

Shannon and Jessica Claborn, who also live in Hawk Point, own the drone-spraying company Prairie View Ag Drone with Melanie Miller.

Miller is also the pilot of their 6-foot drone, which they use to spray herbicide and fungicide on area farms.

The drone can do everything a crop duster or helicopter can do, Shannon Claborn said. While planes and helicopters can cover a much larger area much faster, the drone is better for smaller fields, he said.

In addition, crop dusters and helicopters drop their chemicals with less precision. They have to fly higher than drones, too, which means the chemicals can drift into neighboring farms or yards, and they cant fly as close to a stand of trees. When they encounter power lines, they have to fly over them, which leads to an uneven disbursement of the chemicals.

On the other hand, drones have a much smaller reservoir; the drone Miller flies has a five-gallon tank, she said. Thats good for covering a little more than two acres before she has to fly it back to refill the tank and change the battery.

Then, the drone automatically flies back to the exact spot where it had left off and begins spraying again from there.

That ability to know precisely where a machine has been and where it needs to go comes from the technology that has been the most revolutionary in agriculture. GPS  Global Positioning System  has been available to farmers for 15 years.

The same technology that shows your cell phone where to find the nearest gas station also tells farm implements precisely where to plant the next seed.

The advantages are obvious. Farmers can save money by not overseeding their fields and not spraying too much  or too little  fertilizer, fungicide or herbicide.

Chemical prices are our highest cost, said Chris Otten, who grows soy, wheat and corn on 1,400 acres he owns with his family near Fayetteville, Illinois.

We were probably using 10 to 20 percent more chemicals than we had to before they started using the GPS technology, he said.

That works out to a savings of $7,000 to $10,000 a year in chemicals and seed alone. Less chemicals also means less runoff, which helps the environment, Otten said.

GPS is the key technology behind Autosteer, a program that is now used by a large majority of farmers in the area. With Autosteer, a farmer only has to drive around the perimeter of his fields once. That action creates a map for the computer to follow.

The computer directs the farm vehicles to plant, spray and harvest in straight, evenly spaced rows that can begin and end at the exact edge of the field. When the vehicle gets to the end of the rows, it will stop planting, turn around (the farmer has to help with that part) and begin new rows as close as one inch or less to where they need to be.

Before Autosteer, farmers could line up the machines within a couple of feet, if you were good, Otten said.

One particular advantage to Autosteer and programs like it is that it gives the farmers more hours in which to work. Because they dont have to see where they are going, they can even work at night.

That ability is invaluable to farmers like Adam Jones, who plants corn and soybeans and runs a very small cattle herd on 800 acres near Old Monroe, Missouri.

Jones has a day job; he is a commercial agriculture lender for CoBank. Only when he gets home from that job can he begin to work on his farm. Because he can still work the fields after the sun goes down, he can put in 16-hour days.

Im not exhausted, because Im just sitting here pushing buttons. Its like playing a video, he said.

The extra hours spent farming in the dark were especially important this spring, which was unusually rainy. When farmers learned that rain was expected the next day, they got in as much planting as they could the night before, Otten said.

The permanent map that the computer draws of each field is a vital part of the technological advances that have been growing by quantum leaps and bounds.

With information fed to them by sensors on each of the machines, the maps give farmers a real-time look at every aspect of the farming cycle. The information even goes straight to their cell phones

Recently, Otten directed his machine to plant 28,000 corn seeds per acre on one particular field, but the monitor showed that he had planted 30,500 seeds. A quick look at the map on his phone showed exactly where the problem was, on part of three adjacent rows.

He couldnt tell what the problem was by physically examining the machinery, so he videotaped it in action and examined the result frame by frame. That is how he discovered that three rows of his planter were planting two seeds at once instead of one. He fixed the problem overnight, and the next day the map confirmed that the rest of the planting was perfect.

The computer-generated maps also are used on the combines that harvest the crops. Sensors inside the combine relay real-time information on how much grain is being collected, down to each square foot of land.

Variations in the yield as depicted on the maps can show the farmer how much more fertilizer he needs to spread over certain parts of the field in the coming years, said Allen of Gateway Precision Ag.

The sensors also instantly test the amount of moisture in the grain, which can have a direct impact on how much money the farmers will make.

Corn should generally be harvested when it has no more than 15% moisture and soybeans at no more than 13%, according to a paper written for the Center for Agricultural Profitability at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Anything higher than that results in a lower price they will receive when they sell their harvest to a grain elevator.

If the yield monitor shows that the moisture is too high, the farmers may consider waiting to finish the harvest.

Shannon and Jessica Claborn, who co-own the drone company in Hawk Point, use a different type of high-tech map in another part of their business: satellite maps.

As part of their Prairie View Seed company, they consult with farmers to determine the amounts and types of fertilizer the farmers need to produce the best yield of crops over each portion of their fields.

The work begins with satellite photos, which they use to divide a field into a grid of 2-acre units. Miller, who is also the drone pilot, takes several soil samples from each portion of the grid.

The samples are labeled and sent to a lab, which tests them for phosphorus, nitrogen, potash and other nutrients and minerals, as well as the all-important pH balance.

If the pH isnt right, the fertilizer wont do anything, Jessica Claborn said.

The Claborns plot the results of each lab test on the satellite-photo grid. Using their backgrounds in agronomy, they then make recommendations for how to address the needs of each section of the field.

One customers field, for instance, showed very high levels of phosphorus, but very low levels of potash. They told him he would not have to add any phosphorus for several years, but would have to add potash over the next few years to get those levels up to where they need to be.

The information saved the client money on phosphorus, and the addition of more potash should also boost his yield.

The computer-generated maps are also used in an increasingly important part of farming, variable-rate technology. This technology allows the farmer to plant seeds, spray water or spread fertilizer in different amounts as needed as he rides throughout the field.

In the not-too-long-ago old days, seeds would come out of the planter  or chemicals out of the sprayer  at one, unchanging rate. The farmer could only change the number of seeds he planted, or the liquid he sprayed, by driving the vehicle faster or slower.

Variable-rate technology allows the farmer to drive at any speed he needs, putting down seed or fertilizer depending on conditions of the soil that are plotted on the map.

If the soil is unproductive in one part of the field, the farmer will plant fewer seeds. But he will plant more where the computer shows the soil is better.

Variable-rate technology also makes accommodations for changes in the tractors speed. If the tractor or planter has to slow down, such as when it comes to a ditch, the computer automatically slows the rate of spraying in proportion to the change in speed. That way, the optimum number of seeds is planted across the whole field.

It all sounds helpful and invaluable, but some look at the technology and see a downside.

Jones, the Old Monroe part-time farmer whose 800 acres is relatively small, said, Some of the technology scares me because I feel like it is going to put me out of a job because I cant afford it. Only the bigger farms can afford it, so they will be able to outbid me because of their increased efficiency.

Jones uses all the work-saving technology that he can, but not everyone is as enamored of the whole idea.

Otten, who has the farm near Fayetteville, Illinois, took a 96-year-old farmer neighbor for a ride to show him how the GPS worked. The neighbor was unimpressed.

Why do you want to push all those buttons? he said.
Bill McClellan Bill McClellan is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Bill McClellan 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

In the wee hours of a Saturday morning in late May, Gregg Hall, the 66-year-old chief of the Hazelwood Police Department, was busted on suspicion of drunken driving.

Well, not actually busted. He was stopped for erratic driving in OFallon, Missouri. He tried, with limited success, to recite the alphabet from E to N. With even less success, he tried to walk the line. An officer said Hall failed a field breathalyzer.

The OFallon officer who stopped him, Nathan Dye, recorded everything on his body cam. Eventually, Dyes supervisor called the OFallon chief, John Neske. Fully cognizant that everything was being recorded, Neske said he would give Hall a ride home.

The story broke a month and a half later when this newspaper published the video and audio from the body cam.

That very day, I had lunch with an old friend, who is a retired city cop. We ate at the reopened Beffas on Olive Street. The original establishment had a speakeasy feel to it. No signs. You either knew about it or you didnt. It was buffet style with a bar to the side. Prices werent listed and you paid whatever Mike Beffa thought you should pay.

I sometimes ate with priests or cops, and it aggravated me that I paid more for the very same meals. I once complained to Mike Beffa. He shrugged. We respect the badge and the collar, he said. Not so much the pen, was left unspoken.

The new Beffas has menus and listed prices.

Im trying to be outraged about the Hazelwood chief getting a pass, I said to my friend.

Dont bother, he said. Hall is a very good guy, and Neskes dad was a city cop, so he remembers when professional courtesy was a thing, my friend said.

As he recalls the old days, my friend said he gave lots of people a break. He said hed stop a guy, judge him to be impaired and then take him to the station and tell the guy to call his wife for a ride home.

The wife would be furious. The husband would start to say something, and shed say, I dont want to hear anything from you. I dont even want to look at you.

My friend laughed as he told the story. I laughed, too.

Drunken driving is a very serious matter. I understand that. But I also understand that the courts often dont treat it as such. John Hoffmann, a former police officer who writes an online newsletter, Newsfromsnoburbia.com, regularly writes about justice in the municipal courts in Chesterfield and Town and Country. Drunken driving defendants who can afford lawyers routinely walk away with no points and no permanent record.

But let me return to the notion of professional courtesy. As my friend said, it used to be a thing. If it outrages you, I have good news: Its dying out. Body cams are a part of that as far as the police are concerned, but attitudes have changed, too.

Professions that didnt offer a lot of money used to offer other stuff. For a cop, it was a ride home if you were stopped for erratic driving. Here at the newspaper we had a professional courtesy thing, too.

Everybody who worked for the paper got an obituary. It would not necessarily be long, but we would mark the passing of our own.

We certainly would have noted the death of Suzanne Topham-Tarrant. She was a copy editor and news editor. She died on June 17. She was 74 and had two grown kids and a granddaughter. Suzanne was fully engaged with the world. She was amused or bemused  she would have known the right word  with the craziness in the newsroom and in the general world, as well. She loved to chat. She also had a thing about weather. She kept up to date on weather conditions around the world.

Maybe she got that from her late father. He was a navigator on a bomber in the Pacific during World War II and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross with an oak cluster.

A week after Suzanne died, Shawn Candela died. He was a page designer. He had worked at a number of newspapers. He was quiet and professional. Also, a very good athlete. He was single and had no children. He loved animals. He rescued cats. In an online remembrance, former Post-Dispatch reporter Robert Patrick recalled Shawn sitting on his porch while cats and occasionally other animals wandered in and out of his house. Shawn was 60. He is survived by a brother and sister.

Lastly, on June 29, Sally Bixby Defty died. She was 89 and a legend. She died in Ticonderoga near Bolton Landing, a hamlet on Lake George in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. She loved that place.

You could argue that her roots were in Michigan. That is where her grandfather, William Keeney Bixby, grew up. After graduating from high school, he moved to Texas and got a job as a baggage handler for a railroad. He was later hired by the Missouri Pacific Railroad and moved to St. Louis, where he became president of the American Railcar and Foundry Co.

He was one of the chief financiers for Charles Lindberghs transcontinental flight.

He also built a home on Millionaires Row on the shores of Lake George.

Sally spent her summers there. She graduated from Vassar with a degree in art history. Her engagement to Eric Defty of London made the New York Times.

But the refined life was somehow not a fit for Sally. In 1965, she was hired by the Post-Dispatch as a reporter on the womens section. She was a force of nature. She was soon a city desk reporter. By 1976, she was the executive city editor. She gave up the title and returned to reporting. She had a good touch for light stuff, but she was not lifted to that. She almost won a Pulitzer Prize for a series on arson-for-hire.

She was a role model and a mentor.

She led with skill and grace, and always seems amazed that others considered her a role model, said former Post-Dispatch editor Margaret Freivogel in an obituary in the Post-Star, a paper that covers Bolton Landing. In addition to her achievements, I remember her wry sense of humor. She once said someone told her the key to success was good posture. She practiced it.

Sally left the paper in 1995. She lived in Germany and then built a house in Bolton Landing.

She volunteered at a museum there. She was, Im quite sure, a force of nature again. That was her way. And that is why her death rated an obit in Bolton Landing, but not here.

Life is a little more rigid these days. To rate an obit, a person has to have been well-known. No more professional courtesy. In the same sense, my lunch pal wouldnt be able to give an impaired driver a ride to the station and then call his wife. And certainly, one police chief could not give another a ride home.

Maybe that makes the world a better place.

At the new Beffas, my friend paid the same for his sandwich as I paid for mine. I felt kind of bad about it.
Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Around the time U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley was graduating from Stanford University, U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria was standing watch over nuclear reactors on the USS Harry S. Truman.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is named after one of Missouris favorite sons, the 33rd president of the United States. Truman was from Independence, Missouri, which is just 30 miles west from where Hawley, a Republican, grew up.

Luria is a Democrat from Virginia. On Thursday night in prime-time television, Luria and Hawley became forever linked during a dramatic video revelation to the nation. Luria, a member of the bipartisan House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack, was at the helm during the reveal.

Heres how Luria, a 20-year veteran who graduated from the Naval Academy, set up the clip that had Hawley trending on social media platforms worldwide for all the wrong reasons.

Earlier that afternoon, before the joint session started, he walked across the east wing of the Capitol. As you can see, in this photo, he raised his fist in solidarity with the protesters, already amassing at the security gate. We spoke with a Capitol police officer, who was there at the time. She told us that Sen. Hawleys gesture riled up the crowd. And it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers. Later that day, Sen. Hawley fled after the protesters he riled up stormed the Capitol. See for yourself.

And then she played the images that caused audible laughter in the hearing room, as audience members saw Hawley fleeing through the Capitol to escape the impending violence. Its not the running, per se, that caused the comic relief. It was the juxtaposition with the photo of Hawley raising his fist earlier in the day.

Thats what made the contrast between Luria and Hawley all the more powerful. Hawley, a political ladder-climber who started running for the U.S. Senate before he got his feet wet as the states attorney general, talks tough about support for law enforcement and the military. But he didnt serve. He rails against elitists. But he is one himself, having graduated from one elitist university on the West Coast and then getting a law degree at Yale University on the East Coast.

He puts the image of himself raising a fist on a coffee mug and sells it as merchandise. But the truth is he fled, running past colleagues, like George Costanza from Seinfeld pushing an elderly lady aside as he flees a fire he started.

Luria, on the other hand, came off during the hearing like a disciplined Naval officer, reciting details with no emotion. This has been the greatest strategic success of the televised Jan. 6 hearings. The TV stars have been veterans, or stalwart Republicans like Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., or former Trump loyalists like Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews and Matt Pottinger  a former Marine officer  whose truth-telling has been obvious to anybody paying attention.

The committee has been slowly building the case that former President Donald Trump led an attempt to upend American democracy.

Hawley is a bit player in the matter. But as the social media memes of him fleeing multiplied  with the video set to music, such as the old Benny Hill tune or Chariots of Fire theme  the tough-guy narrative he tried to set as a Senate candidate, when he donned an FBI windbreaker for a staged raid on a massage parlor, fizzled into the ether.

I thought he ran like a coward, Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten by insurrectionists, told CNN on Thursday after the hearing.

He was the fist-raising face of sedition. Now hes the political opportunist who ran away, exposed by a naval officer with excellent aim.

Editors note: An earlier online version of this column misstated Hawleys hometown.
Montana still does not have a confirmed case of monkeypox, making it one of five states in the country where the rare virus has not yet been found.

All of Montana's neighboring states except Wyoming have reported cases. The other states without any documented monkeypox are Mississippi, Vermont and Maine. As of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 2,593 confirmed cases nationwide.

The state heath department said in an email Friday it would notify the public via a press release when the first case is found in Montana.

"Its unpredictable as to when well have a first case. However, (the Department of Public Health and Human Services) continues to work with local jurisdictions on disease surveillance," spokesperson Jon Ebelt wrote in an email Friday.

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus, according to the CDC.

It is part of the virus family that includes smallpox and has similar, but more mild symptoms, and is rarely fatal. It is not related to chickenpox.

Monkeypox first appeared in humans in 1970. Before this outbreak, it was mostly found in central and western African countries and most cases elsewhere were among people who had traveled in that region or came into contact with imported animals.

In Montana, the state health department's Public Health Laboratory can provide PCR testing for monkeypox if a health care provider requests it, Ebelt said. If a sample tests positive here, it would be sent to the CDC for additional testing to confirm a case.

Ebelt said anyone who has symptoms of monkeypox should seek an evaluation from their doctor. Doctors should report any suspected cases to the local public health department.

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion and a rash. The rash can look like pimples or blisters and appear on the face, in the mouth or on hands, feet, the chest, genitals or anus.

The rash goes through different stages before healing and illness lasts two to four weeks.

Monkeypox can spread through direct contact with the rash, scabs or body fluids. It can also spread through respiratory secretions during prolonged close contact, or during intimate physical contact.

Pregnant people can pass the virus to their fetus. People can also get monkeypox from a scratch or bite from an infected animal.

Ebelt said the public health response to monkeypox can include "isolating the patient, contact tracing, offering post-exposure vaccination to contacts while confirmatory tests for monkeypox are under way, and initiating a request for treatment, if needed."

While there is a vaccine for monkeypox, there are not many available. Montana has an allocation of 150 doses of Jynneos vaccine, some of which has been shipped to the state, Ebelt said.

That batch of vaccines is meant to complete a two-shot series for people, with each shot given four weeks apart. Ebelt said local health jurisdictions will work with the state health department to request and distribute vaccines, and that the state will follow CDC recommendations for who can get vaccinated. That focuses on people who have been exposed, Ebelt said, as the vaccine can be effective after exposure to the virus. The CDC recommends a vaccine shot within four days of exposure.

Ebelt said more doses are expected to be available for Montanans in the coming weeks.

Treatments for smallpox may also be used to treat monkeypox, Ebelt said. That includes an antiviral drug named tecovirimat, which the Food and Drug Administration allows to be used for monkeypox in an outbreak.

"The need for treatment will depend on how sick someone gets and whether they are likely to get severely ill, such as patients with weakened immune systems," Ebelt wrote, saying the state health department will ask the CDC for treatment supply if necessary.
ST. LOUIS  Two out of four co-defendants in the killing of a grandson of the owner of Sweetie Pies restaurants have pleaded guilty for their roles in the murder-for-hire scheme.

Terica Ellis and Waiel Rebhi Yaghnam pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to commit murder-for-hire in the 2016 murder of 21-year-old Andre Montgomery Jr.

Montgomerys uncle, James Timothy Tim Norman, of Los Angeles, is awaiting trail.

Investigators and prosecutors say Norman had Montgomery killed as part of a plot to collect $450,000 in life insurance.

Yaghnam helped Norman take out the insurance policy in 2014 that made Norman the sole beneficiary, according to prosecutors. And Ellis, they say, lured Montgomery to the place where he was shot in St. Louis.

Travell Anthony Hill, 30, pleaded guilty June 3 to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire as well as a separate count of murder-for-hire. Hill admitted to shooting and killing Montgomery in exchange for $5,000, and was recorded discussing the act with his brother on calls from jail.

Hills plea agreement had also implicated Norman and Ellis.

Ellis was in a relationship with Norman for years before the killing, and had met Montgomery at Bottoms Up, a strip club in East St. Louis where she worked as a dancer. The two had exchanged phone numbers.

Norman had asked Ellis about Montgomery during a stay at the Chase Park Plaza Royal Sonesta St. Louis, telling her he was looking for Montgomery and needed help to find him. Ellis, knowing Norman was going to take some form of action against Montgomery, still agreed to help, prosecutors said.

In the days leading up to the murder, Ellis told Montgomery she was planning to be in St. Louis. On March 13, the day before the killing, Norman flew to St. Louis from Los Angeles. The next day, Ellis used a burner phone to talk to Montgomery, find out where he was, and call Norman.

Ellis phone placed her in the vicinity of Montgomerys murder when he was shot around 8 p.m. March 14, 2016, in the 3900 block of Natural Bridge Drive.

Right after the killing, Ellis made another phone call to Norman and then started driving toward Memphis. Norman later paid Ellis $10,000 in cash for her help. Ellis banked more than $9,000 over the next two days in three separate deposits into two bank accounts.

Yaghnam, according to his plea agreement, admitted to working with Norman in October 2014 to complete three fraudulent life insurance applications that included false information about Montgomerys net worth and background.

Yaghnam worked in life insurance after a career in the music industry that included producing rapper Nellys hit 2002 album Nellyville.

Yaghnam helped Norman obtain a $200,000 life insurance policy on Montgomery that also stipulated a $200,000 payout if Montgomery died of something other than natural causes, as well as a $50,000 payout if he died within the next 10 years.

Sixteen days after Montgomerys murder, Yaghnam placed a call to the insurance agency to try to collect the policy.

Norman was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the payout because the insurance agency wasnt provided final police, toxicology and coroners reports necessary to process the claim.

Ellis and Yaghnam are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 26.

Hill is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 20.

Both Montgomery and Norman appeared on the Welcome to Sweetie Pies reality television show that ran for five seasons on OWN.

After Montgomerys death, TV clips from Welcome to Sweetie Pies circulated showing Norman mourning the death he is now accused of setting up, even visiting the scene of the killing with his mother and TV cameras in a 2016 episode.

Since Andres passing, I havent gone through this part of the city, Norman said on the show. Really, Ive been avoiding it.
ST. LOUIS  A Jefferson County man sentenced to prison for sexually exploiting an Illinois minor and producing child pornography now faces 10 more years in prison for gun crimes.

Earl G. Rice Jr., 63, was sentenced in March to 50 years in federal prison after a jury found Rice guilty of child enticement, travel with the intent to engage in sex with a minor and producing sexually explicit images of an Illinois girl.

Rice met the girl on a dating app and traveled from his home in Dittmer to Belleville on Valentine's Day in 2018. He then took her to a Super 8 motel, court records show.

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that Rice was sentenced to 10 years in prison for gun crimes. The consecutive prison sentences means Rice will spend 60 years in total behind bars.

Prosecutors say Rice was found with a .45-caliber pistol when he was arrested by Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies on April 11, 2018.

After Rice's arrest, deputies found more than 70 other rifles and shotguns, as well as two silencers, prosecutors said.

Rice was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in 2018 on one felony count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one felony county of possession of firearms without a serial number.

A jury convicted Rice of the charges in March.

Jefferson County man gets 50 years for photos of sexual exploitation of minor Earl G. Rice was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting an Illinois minor and producing child pornography.

Jefferson County man found guilty of arranging to have sex with minor in Belleville Earl G. Rice Jr., 63, traveled from Dittmer to Belleville to meet the girl on Valentine's Day in 2018, the U.S. attorney's office said.
ST. LOUIS  U.S. Rep. Cori Bush got some campaign help here Friday from three of her colleagues in the squad  the informal group of progressive Democrats in the House.

The day kicked off with U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who appeared with Bush at a morning reception that drew about 30 supporters to a Central West End restaurant.

Then Omar and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts joined Bush for a midday brunch and forum on abortion rights at an event space on Cherokee Street on the citys South Side.

On Friday night, Omar and Pressley appeared with Bush at a concert venue, also on Cherokee, to mark Bush's 46th birthday, which was Thursday.

We need her back in Congress, Omar said of Bush, of St. Louis, at the midday gathering.

Do whatever it is you can do between now and the Aug. 2 Democratic primary, Omar said.

Bush faces state Sen. Steve Roberts, also of St. Louis, and three lesser-known opponents in the 1st Congressional District race.

The first two events, for campaign donors and volunteers, were closed to reporters. The abortion-related forum, with about 100 people in attendance, was livestreamed by Real STL News, an online news site, and Bushs campaign website.

Pressley said she was bothered that mainstream media and some loud people on social media had suggested that an abortion rights protest in Washington on Tuesday was political theater and a stunt of some sort.

Bush, Pressley, Omar and Tlaib were among 34 people, including 17 House members, arrested in the demonstration after Capitol police said they were blocking traffic. The protest followed last months U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Pressley said those taking part were honoring the longstanding tradition of justice seekers on the front lines who have used civil disobedience to advance important causes.

She said she, Bush and others also are working inside Congress by pushing legislation and pressuring the administration of President Joe Biden, also a Democrat, to take steps to protect abortion rights.

Were going to protest, legislate, organize, raise money (and) push this administration, Pressley said. More often than not government does not lead. It responds.

She said although Biden has yet to declare a public health emergency regarding abortion as many abortion rights supporters want, he took action that only happened because of our pressure. Biden on July 8 signed an executive order designed to safeguard access to medication abortion and emergency contraception, among other provisions.

Roberts, Bushs opponent, during the campaign has argued that Bush is more effective as an activist than a legislator and that his record in Jefferson City shows he is better suited to get things done as a lawmaker.

In that vein, a Roberts spokesman earlier this week said Bushs time would have been better spent supporting an initiative petition aimed at putting Roe provisions in the Missouri Constitution.

Bush at the forum Friday cited bills she recently introduced to protect access to abortion medication and to provide federal grants to help women in states with abortion bans travel to areas where the practice remains legal.

Pressley, meanwhile, commended Mayor Tishaura O. Jones for her support of a recently-passed measure to use federal funds allocated to the city for similar travel-related grants.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is fighting the city effort in court, arguing that it violates state law.

At the Friday night event, Pressley told more than 300 people that Bush should be re-elected because she is "a disrupter" of white supremacy, mass incarceration and generational trauma.

"She is a disrupter of the status quo," Pressley said.

Also on Friday, Bush pulled in an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a day after getting backing from another 2020 Democratic presidential contender, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

While Bush was appearing with her well-known friends from Congress, Roberts day was more low-key.

He appeared Friday afternoon at a meeting of the St. Louis Metropolitan Clergy Coalition, which includes many Black ministers. Bush later also met with the group.

On Saturday, Roberts plans to speak at a town hall meeting hosted by Alderman Brandon Bosley, 3rd Ward.

Other upcoming appearances for Roberts include hosting a forum on gun violence and speaking to a union group in north St. Louis County, both on Wednesday.

Updated at 11 p.m. with information on Friday night event
LONDON (AP)  As the World Health Organization's emergency committee convenes Thursday to consider for the second time within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists say the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.

African officials say they are already treating the continent's epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can't be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.

Monkeypox has been entrenched for decades in parts of central and western Africa, where diseased wild animals occasionally infect people in rural areas in relatively contained epidemics. The disease in Europe, North America and beyond has circulated since at least May among gay and bisexual men. The epidemic in rich countries was likely triggered by sex at two raves in Spain and Belgium.

Some experts worry these and other differences could possibly deepen existing medical inequities between poor and wealthy nations.

There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases worldwide. While the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has already killed more than 70 people. Rich countries haven't yet reported any monkeypox deaths.

Whats happening in Africa is almost entirely separate from the outbreak in Europe and North America, said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britains University of East Anglia who previously advised WHO on infectious diseases.

The U.N. health agency said this week that outside of Africa, 99% of all reported monkeypox cases are in men and of those, 98% are in men who have sex with other men. Still, the disease can infect anyone in close, physical contact with a monkeypox patient, regardless of their sexual orientation.

In these very active gay sexual networks, you have men who really, really dont want people to know what theyre doing and may not themselves always know who they are having sex with, Hunter said.

Some of those men may be married to women or have families unaware of their sexual activity, which makes contact tracing extremely difficult and even things like asking people to come forward for testing, Hunter said, explaining why vaccination may be the most effective way to shut down the outbreak.

Thats probably not the case in Africa, where limited data suggests monkeypox is mainly jumping into people from infected animals. Although African experts acknowledge they could be missing cases among gay and bisexual men, given limited surveillance and stigmatization against LGBTQ people, authorities have relied on standard measures like isolation and education to control the disease.

Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congos Institute of National Biomedical Research, said there are also noticeable differences between patients in Africa and the West.

We see here (in Congo) very quickly, after three to four days, visible lesions in people exposed to monkeypox, Mbala said, adding that someone with so many visible lesions is unlikely to go out in public, thus preventing further transmission.

But in countries including Britain and the U.S., doctors have observed some infected people with only one or two lesions, often in their genitals.

You wouldnt notice that if youre just with that person in a taxi or a bar, Mbala said. So in the West, people without these visible lesions may be silently spreading the disease.

He said different approaches in different countries will likely be needed to stop the global outbreak, making it challenging to adopt a single response strategy worldwide, like those for Ebola and COVID-19.

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Nigeria's Niger Delta University, said he feared the worlds limited vaccine supplies would result in a repeat of the problems that arose in the coronavirus pandemic, when poorer countries were left empty-handed after rich countries hoarded most of the doses.

It does not make sense to just control the outbreak in Europe and America, because you will then still have the (animal) source of the outbreak in Africa, said Ogoina, who sits on WHOs monkeypox emergency committee.

This week, U.S. officials said more than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses were being sent to states in the next few days, with several million more on order for the months ahead. The U.S. has reported more than 2,000 cases so far, with hundreds more added every day.

Some U.S. public health experts have begun to wonder if the outbreak is becoming widespread enough that monkeypox will become a new sexually transmitted disease.

Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency could also inadvertently worsen the rush for vaccines, despite the mildness of the disease being seen in most countries.

Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in Britain, said there arent many serious cases or infections beyond gay and bisexual men. Still, he said it was frustrating that more vaccines werent available, since the outbreak was doubling about every two weeks in the U.K..
Moving freely within Americas borders is one of the most American things we do. Has there ever been another nation for which unrestrained wanderlust is so much a part of the national character? We love the road.

But one of Americas two major parties is seriously pondering roadblocks that would apply to half the population  the half with uteruses.

For those who scoff at warnings that anti-choice Republicans seek to create an America in which women are legally restricted in where and for what reasons they can travel, consider this astonishing sentence: Senate Republicans this month killed a measure specifying that women have the right to cross state lines.

The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022 simply says one state cannot restrict its citizens from traveling to another state for reproductive health care, nor can it attempt to exert its own laws over medical professionals in other states.

This is such a clear-cut truism that even seeing it in print is almost surreal. Its plain in the principles of interstate commerce, numerous Supreme Court decisions and indeed the very concept of federalism as laid out in the Constitution: Americans have the right to pass freely from state to state, and are protected by (and obliged to obey) the laws of whichever state they physically occupy at a given moment. Not since the days of fugitive-slave laws have states presumed to restrict their residents movements or impose their own statutes on people in other states.

Yet when this exercise in obviousness was recently presented in the Senate, Republicans blocked it. One of them, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., put out a press release bragging that he had stopped an attempt to promote abortion tourism.

Abortion tourism is the in-vogue term on the right for travel across state lines to obtain abortions. Its a phrase that perfectly if unintentionally demonstrates the deep misogyny that fuels the anti-choice movement. Women (and girls) who cross state lines because their own state is trying to force them to carry a pregnancy to term against their will are, by definition, in a desperate, potentially traumatic situation. To present this as a carefree road trip is to assert that these women arent desperate at all, but are casually malevolent.

That presumably includes the 10-year-old rape victim who recently had to travel to Indiana to terminate the resulting pregnancy because Ohio law would have forced her to give birth. The sneaky little harlot.

Even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Missouri lawmakers considered a measure aimed at preventing Missouri women (and girls) from obtaining out-of-state abortions by threatening civil penalties against out-of-state doctors and anyone else who helps. The sponsor, state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, told one interviewer that even billboards advertising out-of-state abortion services should be illegal. Because once youve started withdrawing long-held rights from an entire class of citizens, why stop at the First Amendment?

According to her online bio, Coleman practices law at the hyper-conservative Thomas More Society, which is pushing such proposals in other states as well. Just because you jump across a state line doesnt mean your home state doesnt have jurisdiction, Peter Breen, the organizations vice president, told The Washington Post last month  as if this bizarre and constitutionally baseless assertion was common sense. In fact, its wishful thinking (for now) from a crowd that views The Handmaids Tale not as dystopian fiction so much as a policy blueprint.

Breen added: Its not a free abortion card when you drive across the state line. Because, as we all know, a woman who desperately flees a state thats trying to force her to give birth generally approaches it like a fun game of Monopoly. Boardwalk!

So how does this work in practice, exactly, Mr. Breen and Rep. Coleman? Will we have to line the Stan Musial Bridge with roadblocks equipped with pregnancy tests? If a Missouri woman seeking abortion services rents an apartment in Illinois, is she immediately free of Missouris strict anti-choice law, or is there a certain minimum residency requirement that she has to fulfill first? Does she have to register her car in Illinois before her womb is out of the Thomas More Societys reach? Or is just a library card enough?

Also, is there maybe some upside for those of us who arent even capable of pregnancy, but who could end up in situations where being followed out of state by Missouri law might be advantageous to us? Missouris posted speed limits on most types of roads are higher than those in Illinois. So if I get pulled over for speeding in Illinois, can I just say, Its OK, officer, Im from Missouri, which has jurisdiction over me wherever I go  so your sissy blue-state speed limit doesnt apply to me?

Im guessing not. Since Im male, no one is suggesting that my home state should be able to dictate what other states I can travel to and what I can do when I get there. But make no mistake: If you happen to be female, Republicans today arent content with just controlling your uterus. Theyd also like to hold your car keys.

Kevin McDermott is a Post-Dispatch columnist and Editorial Board member. On Twitter: @kevinmcdermott Email: kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com
The Iraqi Air Force is refurbishing more of its aircraft. This is not just an update, but to get relatively new aircraft flying again. The latest example is South Koreas TA-50 jet trainer, which can also operate as a light attack aircraft. Iraq bought 24 of these in 2013 and the money for maintenance was stolen by corrupt senior political or military officials. Now Iraq decided that getting the TA-50s flying again was important enough to pay for. Three TA-50s are already flying again and eight more will be in the air again by the end of the year. All 24 should be in the air by 2024. Obtaining pilots is another matter because not enough were trained. They could be sent to the U.S. but, if the money for that came out of U.S. aid and was spent for services performed in the U.S., it couldnt be stolen in Iraq. Reducing corruption in Iraqs military has become popular in the last few years and more Iraqi Air Force aircraft flying again is a visible example of progress.

The Iraqi Air force has never been very effective. It is not for lack of spending on modern warplanes, helicopters, transports and trainers. trying. The government has spent billions to buy new aircraft, support equipment and weapons (including Hellfire missiles). Historically, little is spent on maintenance. Sometimes the threat of embarrassment changes attitudes. For example, in early 2021 the Iraqi Air Force was ordered to get as many of their 34 F-16IQ fighters into the air as possible for a fly by during the parade celebrating the hundred-year anniversary of the Iraqi military.

The air force managed to get 23 F-16IQs into the air for the event. Questions were asked about why so few were available and the answers revealed extensive corruption in the air force that kept most F-16s grounded for lack of maintenance and qualified pilots. Further investigation found that millions of dollars provided for maintenance of the F-16s had been stolen and air force officials were blaming the F-16 for being too complex and expensive to operate. That was not the case, but the rampant corruption in the military had returned to 2014 levels. That corruption had enabled a smaller force of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) gunmen to overrun a third of Iraq while Iraqi troops fled, usually because their officers had done the same and those that tried to fight found that many of their weapons were missing or inoperable because of poor maintenance. This included newly purchased American M-1 tanks being abandoned by their crews and captured intact by ISIL. Some military aircraft were also captured and the videos documenting the collapse of the Iraqi military left an impression that fueled a short-lived anti-corruption movement.

Crippling corruption was always a feature of the Iraqi military, something the government did not want to dwell on during the centennial celebration. Denying there was a problem was part of the problem. During 2020 the corruption crippled the F-16 fleet in two ways. First, spare parts for the F-16s were either not available, either because the money was stolen or the parts themselves ended up on the black market rather than in F-16s that needed them. Any high-perforce jet-fighter constantly wears out components, especially if equipped with fire control systems that enable the fighters to use smart bombs and missiles. Iraq insisted on those capabilities, knowing full well they would be expensive to install and maintain. The initial justification for the F-16s was the need for interceptors to protect Iraq from air attack. After 2014 priorities changed to ground attack. For a few years those new F-16IQ capabilities systems were maintained and pilots were able to fly often enough to become competent in using them.

Once the ISIL threat was gone, the corruption took over and even extended to pilot training, with the senior officers stealing the training money falsely reporting that F-16 pilots were flying sufficient hours to maintain their skills. By the time of the centennial fly-by only seven of the F-16s were combat ready and not all the 23 pilots operating the fly-by aircraft had much recent flying time. Ten of the F-16s could not fly because they were lacking essential components to take off, either because they were awaiting replacement parts or had those parts removed to make another F-16 (with fewer overall problems) flyable. The air force did not have enough qualified F-16 pilots because they were not allowed to fly. All this was revealed when the government ordered an investigation to answer the media reports of corruption and how it had crippled the F-16 fleet. Many other military aircraft were in similar condition.

Before the 2014 ISIL invasion the Iraqi air force was flying mostly transport and reconnaissance missions. Iraq got its first combat aircraft in 2009, when three Cessna Caravan 208 aircraft with laser designators and Hellfire missiles arrived. Mi-17 helicopters were equipped to fire unguided rockets. Most helicopters have a door gunner armed with a machine-gun.

After June 2014 the Iraqis began using a lot more Hellfire missiles and the U.S. made several emergency air freight deliveries of Hellfires to Iraq. The first 18 F-16IQs were ordered in late 2011. Iraq originally proposed this deal in 2009 but nothing happened because government officials who approved the purchase later discovered that the cash for the down payment would prevent needed food purchases. If the food did not get paid for it would not arrive and there could be riots. The F-16 purchase was delayed and it was feared that all Iraqi F-16IQs probably would not be ready for service until the end of the decade.

Despite the chaotic Iraqi procurement process, in 2010 the U.S. agreed to begin training Iraqi F-16 pilots. The first ten Iraqis began their training later that year. This training covered basic and advanced flight training. After that was completed, the new pilots were ready to learn how to operate F-16s. Starting in 2009 Iraqi ground troops began training with American F-16s providing support for Iraqi troops. American F-16s and ground controllers were used, giving Iraqi commanders experience in working with this kind of capability. Iraq ground controllers were being trained as well and some were already on the job in 2014.

The need for combat capable F-16IQs changed in mid-2014 when ISIL took Mosul and much of western and northwestern Iraq. Now the F-16IQ had a much higher priority, but as a ground attack aircraft. In 2014 Iraq was slowly building a new air force. In mid-2014 the Iraqi Air Force had some 14,000 personnel and 200 aircraft, about half of them helicopters. Iraq planned to double the size of the air force by the end of the decade and equip it with over 500 aircraft, most of them non-combat types. By 2020 there would be about 35 squadrons, including 14 jet fighters and ten armed helicopter squadrons. The Iraqis were eager to buy F-16s partly because neighboring Turkey and Jordan have done well with this model. Since mid-2014 the plans for the Iraqi Air Force have been accelerated and that sense of urgency lasted as long as the ISIL threat did. Since 2014 two of the 36 Iraqi F-16s have been lost to accidents and after 2017 there was less demand for the F-16s against an obviously defeated and retreating ISIL. By early 2020 the Iraqi F-16s were removed from the American-led air power coalition because so few of the Iraqi F-16s were available for missions. Coalition aircraft are still carrying out air strikes against ISIL forces. Many of these airstrikes are at the request of Iraqi security forces. The last time Iraqi F-16s carried out airstrikes was two sorties in September 2020. The Iraqi air force also has 24 T-50 and 12 L-159A armed trainers plus 21 Su-25 ground attack aircraft and Chinese UAVs armed with laser-guided missiles for providing airstrikes in support of Iraqi forces. While the F-16s are more expensive to operate than the armed trainers and Su-25, the air force still received enough money to keep the F-16s in service. Iraqi air force officers saw this as an opportunity to enrich themselves because Iraqi security forces didnt care who supplied air support as long as it was still available. Were it not for the media exposure the centennial fly by received, the scam would still be going on.

This was a sorry development because for several years the Iraqi F-16s were constantly in the air supporting Iraqi ground forces. This was a big deal for Iraqis. In September 2015 Iraqi F-16IQ fighter-bombers carried out their first combat missions, using smart bombs against several ISIL targets. This came 16 months after the F-16IQ made its first flight. Four F-16IQs arrived in Iraq in July 2015 so that Iraqi pilots and maintainers could undertake final training in preparation for the first combat missions which were common by the end of 2015. Throughout 2016 Iraqi F-16IQs got a lot of favorable coverage in Iraqi media because of their frequent and very visible use against ISIL.

The F-16IQ is a custom version of the single seat Block 52 F-16C and the two-seater F-16D. In mid-2014 Iraq ordered another 18 F-16IQs and six will be the D version. The F-16IQ is similar to American Block 52 F-16s except they are not equipped to handle AMRAAM (radar guided air-to-air missiles) or JDAM (GPS guided bombs). The F-16IQ can handle laser guided bombs and older radar guided missiles like the AIM-7.
DriveItAway Moves to the Heart of Philadelphias Innovation District in Philadelphia, PAs University City  Connected to Compete

We are delighted at this stage of our growth, to join Philadelphias largest community of funded, early-stage, startups at [email protected], a vetted, diverse, interconnected community of experts, investors and resources, - John F. Possumato, Founder & CEO, DriveItAway Holdings Inc.

PHILADELPHIA, July 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DriveItAway Holdings, Inc. (DriveItAway) (OTCQB: CLCN), the industry leader in automotive dealer new mobility platforms with its revolutionary subscription to purchase technology, founded by serial auto retail entrepreneur John F. Possumato, announced today that it has officially become part Philadelphias growing Innovation District in University City, by moving its headquarters to [email protected] A partnership between the University City Science Center and Drexel University, [email protected], is a shared workspace and incubator built around a culture of inclusion, innovation and entrepreneurship, bringing the financial, educational, and human talent focused to rapidly scaling enterprises.

Entrepreneurship began for me in Philadelphias University City, when I enrolled in my first entrepreneurial management class at Wharton a long time ago, says John F. Possumato, Founder & CEO at DriveItAway, and all the years since, Ive been in awe of the innovation, resources and growth of the greater University City Science Center community, dedicated to nurturing inclusive new innovation and entrepreneurship, in helping all to scale rapidly and successfully, culminating in things like the creation of the [email protected] culture and community. Our company culture and mission, fit perfectly within this environment, and we are delighted at this stage of our growth, to join Philadelphias largest community of funded, early-stage, startups at [email protected], a vetted, diverse, interconnected community of experts, investors and resources.

[email protected] was created to nurture an inclusive culture, where all in our community, partners, experts, and investors offer resources and support to each other, in leading innovation and scaling new businesses, says Eamon Gallagher, Senior Director of Commercialization at the University City Science Center. We look forward to DriveItAway being part of our community, and support their sustainability initiatives, and working with them to enable rapid national expansion.

The DriveItAway Program is for manufacturers, car dealers and consumers, as it enables all consumers, regardless of credit score or cash down payment, to drive and buy the vehicle of his/her choice.

The DriveItAway program provides new EV manufacturers and legacy OEMs a new distribution channel for their vehicles, as it provides an infinite test drive to a full range of consumers, from entry level to luxury buyers, to satisfy a market that is "EV curious" but does not want to make an immediate commitment to purchase. The driver has the right, but not the obligation, to buy the vehicle he or she is driving, with money paid in, given back as a bonus coupon towards the purchase. In this way, the DriveItAway Program it enables all consumers, regardless of credit score or cash down payment, to drive and buy the vehicle of his/her choice.

DriveItAways EV subscription program, is now starting in the greater Philadelphia/New Jersey area with General Motors Bolt/Bolt EUVs, and Polestar 2 vehicles, but will soon offer a full range of EVs, including Nissan Leafs and even Ford Escape Plug In Hybrids, throughout the United States. DriveItAways unique EVs for Everyone program is the perfect vehicle to reduce the barriers to EV adoption for all drivers, perfect for people who are interested in an EV, but are put off by the higher initial cost as compared to a gas vehicle or are concerned about suitability and range anxiety.

About DriveItAway

DriveItAway is the first national dealer focused mobility platform that enables car dealers to sell more vehicles in a seamless way through eCommerce, with its exclusive Pay as You Go app-based subscription. DriveItAway provides a comprehensive turn-key, solutions driven program with proprietary mobile technology and driver app, insurance coverages and training to get dealerships up and running quickly and profitably in emerging online sales opportunities. The company is now introducing its subscription to ownership platform to enable all consumers to drive and acquire new Electric Vehicles with its EVs for Everyone initiative. For further information, please see www.driveitaway.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press 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. All forward-looking statements reflect our good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance. We caution investors not to unduly rely on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

DriveItAway Holdings, Inc.

John F. Possumato

[email protected]

For further information, please see:

www.driveitaway.com

Source: DriveItAway,Holdings, Inc.
The concert by superstar entertainer Kid Rock that was to kick off the North Dakota State Fair in Minot was canceled Friday night due to severe weather in the area, leaving many angry fans, some of whom became unruly at the scene and some of whom showed their frustration through social media posts.

It wasn't immediately clear who canceled the show as thousands of fans packed in front of the grandstand at the State Fairgrounds. The fair posted on social media late Friday that "Due to the safety concerns of the high winds, lightning, and severe weather in the area, the Kid Rock concert had to be canceled. The North Dakota State Fair will be issuing refunds to all ticket purchasers."

Kid Rock posted, "So (angry) we could not play for a sold out crowd tonight in Minot, ND (because of high winds). I know it sucks but none of us can control Mother Nature. Please be safe leaving and take care of each other."

The fair on Saturday issued a statement saying, "The cancellation of the North Dakota State Fair Kid Rock concert was a decision made by Ward County sheriff, state fair management, Kid Rocks management, the shows producer, and the stage production manager. Due to the safety concerns of the high winds, lightning, and severe weather in the area, the Kid Rock concert was canceled as it posed a serious threat to the safety of those individuals attending or setting up the event."

The Ward County Sheriff's Department posted on Facebook late Friday that "The Sheriff's Department would like to clarify to tonight's concert fans that the decision to cancel the Kid Rock concert was not made by the Sheriff's Department. The Sheriff simply announced the cancellation. We did not cancel the show."

Fair General Manager Renae Korslien and other fair officials did not comment to the Tribune. The fair supplied its statement to the Tribune in response to several questions, including how many tickets were sold to see the artist who has sold more than 26 million albums. Tickets were $65 apiece.

Many fans posted angry comments on social media, noting that fair carnival rides were not shut down by the weather and that opening band Night Ranger performed. Some fans posted that they understood the decision.

Video footage posted on social media showed fans hurling cups or bottles at the stage, and one person jumping on stage and being tackled, apparently by security, and taken off by law enforcement officers.

National Weather Service reports show wind damage north of Minot around the time of the planned concert, including tree and roof damage at Minot Air Force Base and a damaged farm building near Lansford. There were reports of a funnel cloud near Glenburn and wind in excess of 60 mph. A severe thunderstorm watch was in effect.

The fair's statement said that it had issued refunds to all concertgoers who bought their tickets off the fair website.

"If you purchased with a card, the money will be refunded to that card within the standard 5-7 business days. If you purchased with cash, please do not discard your ticket or receipts as we will need a way to show that specific ticket was purchased by the ticket purchaser," the statement said. "A photo ID will be required for cash refunds and the ticket must match the name on the ID. If the ticket was not purchased directly from the ND State Fair, you will need to contact the entity or person you purchased the ticket from for refund information."

The nine-day fair got underway Friday. The fair is the largest annual event in the state, attracting about 300,000 people each year and pumping tens of millions of dollars into the economy of the state's fourth-largest city. It began in 1922. A new grandstand was built in 2010.
MONTREAL, July 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Osisko Development Corp. (Osisko Development or the Company) is pleased to report that it has filed on SEDAR the independent NI 43-101 Technical Report to present and support the results of the Mineral Resource Estimate for the San Antonio Project as per the Companys news release dated June 30th, 2022. The technical report was prepared by Micon International Inc. an independent consulting firm based out of Toronto, Ontario.

Qualified Persons

The Independent and Qualified Persons for the Mineral Resources Estimate update, as defined by NI 43-101, is Rodrigo Calles, P.Geo of Servicios Geologicos IMEx and William Lewis, P.Geo of Micon International Limited.

Per NI 43-101, Maggie Layman, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration of Osisko Development Corp., is a Qualified Person and has prepared, validated, and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release.

About Osisko Development Corp.

Osisko Development Corp. is uniquely positioned as a premier gold development company in North America to advance the Cariboo Gold Project and other properties in the USA and Mexico, with the objective of becoming the next mid-tier gold producer. The Cariboo Gold Project, located in central British Columbia, Canada, is Osisko Development's flagship asset. The considerable exploration potential at depth and along strike distinguishes the Cariboo Gold Project relative to other development assets. Osisko Development's project pipeline is complemented by its interest in the San Antonio gold project, located in Sonora, Mexico and the Trixie gold test mine, located in Utah, U.S.A.

For further information about Osisko Development [(NYSE: ODV; TSX-V: ODV)], please visit www.osiskodevelopment.com or follow us on Twitter @OsiskoDev

Investor Contact.: Jean Francois LemondeVP Investor Relations [email protected] Tel: 514-299-4926

Cautionary Statements Regarding Estimates of Mineral Resources

This news release uses the terms indicated and inferred mineral resources as a relative measure of the level of confidence in the resource estimate. Readers are cautioned that mineral resources are not mineral reserves and that the economic viability of resources that are not mineral reserves has not been demonstrated. The mineral resource estimate disclosed in this news release may be materially affected by geology, environmental, permitting, legal, title, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues. The mineral resource estimate is classified in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleums CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves incorporated by reference into NI 43-101. Under NI 43-101, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies or economic studies except for preliminary economic assessments. Readers are cautioned not to assume that further work on the stated resources will lead to mineral reserves that can be mined economically.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. These forwardlooking statements, by their nature, require Osisko Development to make certain assumptions and necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forwardlooking statements. Forwardlooking statements are not guarantees of performance. Words such as "may", "will", "would", "could", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "continue", or the negative or comparable terminology, as well as terms usually used in the future and the conditional, are intended to identify forwardlooking statements. Information contained in forwardlooking statements is based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, results of further exploration work to define and expand mineral resources, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances, and any other information herein that is not a historical fact may be "forward looking information". Material assumptions also include, management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, results of further exploration work to define or expand any mineral resources, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. Osisko Development considers its assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, but cautions the reader that their assumptions regarding future events, many of which are beyond the control of Osisko Development, may ultimately prove to be incorrect since they are subject to risks and uncertainties that affect Osisko Development and its business. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks relating to capital market conditions, the ability to continue current production, regulatory framework, the ability of exploration activities (including drill results) to accurately predict mineralization; errors in management's geological modelling; the ability of to complete further exploration activities, including drilling; property and stream interests in the Project; the ability of the Company to obtain required approvals; the results of exploration activities; risks relating to exploration, development and mining activities; the global economic climate; metal prices; dilution; environmental risks; and community and non-governmental actions and the responses of relevant governments to the COVID-19 outbreak and the effectiveness of such responses. Readers are urged to consult the disclosure provided under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2021, as amended, which has been filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under Osisko Development's issuer profile and on the SEC's EDGAR website (www.sec.gov), for further information regarding the risks and other factors applicable to the exploration results. Although the Company believes the expectations conveyed by the forward-looking statements are reasonable based on information available at the date of preparation, no assurances can be given as to future results, levels of activity and achievements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that these forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein

Source: Osisko Development Corp.
FILE PHOTO: Mexico's deputy minister of foreign trade Luz Maria de la Mora attends the Americas Society and Council of the Americas event in Mexico City, Mexico May 22, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

By Anthony Esposito

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government will hold frank and open discussions to resolve a dispute with the United States and Canada over Mexican energy policies that they argue breaches a regional trade pact, a senior trade official said.

The U.S. and Canadian demands come after years of concern among those nations' private firms that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's drive to tighten the state's grip on oil and electricity output treated them unfairly and was in violation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The U.S-led request for consultations with Mexico marks the most serious trade spat between Washington and Mexico City since the USMCA trade pact took effect two years ago. If unresolved, it could ultimately lead to costly U.S. tariffs.

Deputy Economy Minister Luz Maria De la Mora, who handles trade disputes for the Mexican government, said she hoped talks with U.S. officials would yield a breakthrough.

"We want to take advantage of this consultation phase ... to see how we can reach a mutually satisfactory solution through an open, frank and constructive dialogue, which will allow us to overcome these differences," she told Reuters in an interview.

Though De la Mora said Mexico would seek to argue that its energy policies are not in breach of the trade deal, her conciliatory tone contrasts with Lopez Obrador's defiant push back against the complaints.

A combative leftist, Lopez Obrador said on Friday "we will not yield" on the matter, promising to continue a robust defense of his nationalist energy vision.

Lopez Obrador has pledged to revive state oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad, which he argues his predecessors deliberately "destroyed" to cede Mexico's energy market to foreigners.

The U.S. Trade Representative says the moves to bolster the state-run firms have undermined American companies in Mexico.

De la Mora said Mexico would not use a separate dispute with Washington over the auto industry as a bargaining chip.

"We hope this issue will be resolved before the end of the year and we are very optimistic that we have a very solid case and that we will have a favorable resolution for Mexico," said De la Mora, referring to the auto spat.

Canada said in January it would join Mexico in requesting a dispute settlement panel to iron out their differences with the United States over how to apply automotive sector content requirements under the treaty.

Asked if Lopez Obrador's energy policies were spooking investors, De la Mora pointed to recent announcements of investments in Mexico by U.S. energy company Sempra Energy and Canada's TC Energy.

She argued that the USMCA's dispute settlement mechanism gave investors certainty because if differences arise, like they have now, its use would help clear things up.

"The dispute resolution mechanism is a very solid mechanism, it is a mechanism that allows the investor to have greater certainty and this is very positive for the business climate," she said.

The U.S. requested consultations under the USMCA over Mexico's energy policies on July 20.

Under USMCA rules, the United States and Mexico would enter into consultations within 30 days of the U.S. request, unless the parties decide otherwise. If they do not resolve the matter through consultations within 75 days of the U.S. request, the United States may request the establishment of a dispute panel.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Kim Coghill and Alistair Bell)
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(Tribune News Service)  China said all its leaders received locally made COVID-19 shots, the first time a confirmation was made in the absence of a vaccine mandate for the country with the world's strictest controls against the virus.

The Chinese leadership is "highly confident" in domestic vaccines, National Health Commission official Zeng Yixin said at a briefing on Saturday. The department also addressed concerns surrounding the shots, saying the vaccines won't trigger illnesses such as leukemia and diabetes.

The Foreign Ministry had previously refused to comment on President Xi Jinping's vaccination status, in contrast with leaders such as President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who both got vaccinated on camera in 2020. Xi's statements on vaccines have focused on demands to make them a "global public good," and advances in science, rather calls for the broader population at home to take them.

While close to 90% of China's total population are fully vaccinated, the group above 80 years old has lagged. Only about 61% of those in that category have received two shots, compared with about 89% for people between the ages of 60 and 69, and 87% for those between 70 and 79.

The recalcitrance among the country's 267 million people over the age of 60 has become a factor in keeping China stuck in its isolationist COVID-zero strategy. It has make it difficult to fully relax the rules around mass testing, lockdowns and travel curbs, and has left the economy at a constant risk of disruption.

While officials are actively encouraging the elderly to take vaccines, concerns on the potential side effects including worsening some existing diseases, have kept many senior residents away. Still, the latest data have shown capitulation, with rates among those 80 and above climbing from 51% in March.

China's first attempt at a vaccine mandate was abruptly scrapped earlier this month within days of being announced by municipal officials in Beijing. The plan to stop people entering public venues without proof of vaccination sparked an outcry online, with Chinese social media users calling it an illegal cap on their freedoms and questioning how effective the vaccines were against immune-evasive variants.

Vaccine mandates have emerged as a surprise red line for the ruling Communist Party. The leadership has so far been unwilling to throw its political capital or the heft of the security state behind vaccines, despite trumpeting its supply of homegrown shots to other nations and having no road map for exiting COVID zero without full coverage. It's unclear if that's because Xi's government is unwilling to exercise its power or a lack of consensus about the efficacy of vaccines.

The number of local infections nationwide totaled 722 for Friday, including 594 asymptomatic cases, according to the National Health Commission. That's lower than the 880 local COVID cases reported on Thursday, though infections have been hovering near a two-month high.

About half of the cases on Friday came from the inland Gansu province, where capital Lanzhou went into lockdown days ago. New infections in Gansu fell by almost 200 from the day before.

___

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India's film industry is one of the most vast and varied in the world  it's really not one but many separate industries, including Bollywood, Tollywood and others  yet few of the country's roughly 2,000 annually produced movies ever make much of a dent with Western audiences.

We have a long tradition of storytelling in India. We have probably the oldest and most colorful stories, says director S.S. Rajamouli. Not being able to travel across borders has been a disappointment.

That has changed emphatically with Rajamouli's RRR, a three-hour Telugu-language action epic that has not only become one of India's biggest hits ever but climbed U.S. box-office charts before finding an even wider audience on Netflix. For nine straight weeks, RRR" has ranked among the top 10 non-English language films on the streaming service. Dubbed in Hindi and subtitled in 15 different languages, RRR is the most popular film from India ever on Netflix, charting among the top 10 films in 62 different countries.

For many, RRR," based on Hindu mythology and the freedom fighters that fought British colonialism, is their first encounter with Tollywood, the Telugu movie industry, or Indian films, at all. What many have seen is a movie filled to the brim with over-the-top action sequences and sprawling dance numbers, and an energy that today's Hollywood blockbusters seldom match. Motorbikes are juggled. Tigers are thrown. Suspenders prove a surprisingly pliable dancing prop.

There is never enough for me, Rajamouli said in a recent interview from Hyderabad in India. The only thing too much is my producer coming in and saying, Were crossing our budget. You need to stop somewhere. That is the only thing that will stop me. If given a chance, I will go even bigger and wilder, no doubt about it.

"To the brink, and nothing less.

That go-for-broke style has earned the endorsements of some of Hollywood's blockbuster filmmakers. James Gunn and Scott Derrickson, who have each helmed Marvel movies, have heaped their praise on RRR" since it began streaming.

The RRR success has come while Netflix is reeling from subscriber loss and a stock decline, a downturn that has thrown its movie model into debate. But one less disputable aspect of Netflix's platform is its ability to foster non-English global hits. RRR comes in the wake of global series hits like the Korean Squid Game and France's Lupin. Theatrical-first movies like the South Korean best-picture-winning Parasite have already toppled what director Bong Joon Ho has called the one-inch barrier of subtitles.

Frankly, I didnt expect this kind of reception from the West, says Rajamouli. In the country and across the Indian diaspora all over the world is what we expected. But the reception from the West was a complete surprise for me. I always thought that Western sensibilities are different from my kind of films. I mostly cater to Eastern or Indian sensibilities.

But while RRR has certain effects-heavy Hollywood characteristics that make it not so dissimilar from a superhero movie, it's deeply engrained in Indian myth and present-day circumstance. RRR stands for Rise Roar Revolt but it also refers to Rajamouli and his two stars, N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan. They're each from movie-star dynasties that have previously been more like rivals. This is Charan and Rao's first film together, which is a little like a meeting of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, if they were also the sons of Marlon Brando and James Dean.

They play real-life Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rao) who team up in 1920s British-controlled India. In returning to the origins of modern-day India, RRR inevitably relates to today's India, where, like in many other countries in recent years, nationalism has been on the rise. Since being elected in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emboldened India's Hindu majority, sometimes at the expense of its Muslim minority.

Rajamouli, 48, has risen as one of the country's biggest name directors over the same time period. He launched his two-part Baahubali" epic in 2015. Its 2017 sequel ranks as the country's biggest box-office smash. (Both are also streaming on Netflix.) But the political subtext of those films some have found troubling.

In Baahubali, even though it seems to have no connection with the political present, what it foregrounds is a muscular form of Hinduism, which is the worst manifestation of the right-wing nationalism, says Rini Bhattacharya Mehta, a University of Illinois professor who has written several books on Indian cinema. Jingoist, nationalistic Hindu machismo. In the story, its projected into the mythological past.

Baahubali was a Telugu triumph that signaled that Tollywood in India's South had perhaps surpassed Bollywood as the country's top movie factory. In RRR, the most expensive Telugu film ever made with a budget of $72 million, Rajamouli is juggling both Telugu traditions and Bollywood song-and-dance aesthetics in what Mehta considers a Pan-Indian movie. Muslim characters appear, although not in primary roles.

RRR" in this way may not be so different from American blockbusters. This summer's top film in the U.S., Top Gun: Maverick, also doesn't skimp on muscular jingoism. Rajamouli has heard the critics but disagrees with their interpretations.

I understand that point of view. Sometimes, I feel theyre just being blind, he says. Personally, Im an atheist. I dont believe in god. I dont believe in any religion. But I understand the power of spiritualism. For me, spiritualism is an emotion. And I write stories filled with emotions.

Surely, many of the cultural references and connections in RRR will sail right over the heads of most Western viewers. But the sheer verve of its filmmaking isn't getting lost in translation  and that may mean more cultural-crossovers for Tollywood and India to come.

"India cinema has had a different life and cycle of its own. If we keep an open mind, we can see this as the arrival of something," says Mehta. Only time can tell. Well have to see if this is actually a new trend and there will be more films like this made. Indian or Telugu cinema might keep it up, or this might be a one-shot thing.

Rajamouli, meanwhile, is prepping his next highly anticipated film. He's now often asked about whether he'd ever want to make a Hollywood movie or a Marvel one. RRR, though, hints more at Western audiences coming to Indian films, than vice versa. And Rajamouli's focus is in making Indian films for India and beyond.

Because of the success of RRR with Western audiences, I am trying to make a film for the entire world, not just India, says Rajamouli. But I wouldnt try to locate Western sensibilities and try to match up and change my story according to that. I think that would never work.
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Friday approved a new $270 million military aid package that will send Ukraine additional rocket systems, ammunition and tactical drones to help that countrys troops combat invading Russian forces, defense officials said Friday.

The aid will include four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and accompanying ammunition, 36,000 rounds of howitzer ammunition, 580 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones and an undisclosed amount of additional anti-armor systems and vehicles, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Russia continues  launch[ing] strikes across the country, striking malls, apartment buildings [and] killing innocent Ukrainian civilians, Kirby said. In the face of these atrocities, the president has been clear that we're going to continue to support the government and its people for as long as it takes.

About $100 million will be used to purchase the Phoenix Ghosts from the defense industry, he said. Phoenix Ghosts are dubbed kamikaze drones for their ability to crash into a target and explode. The rest of the weapons and equipment will come from U.S. stockpiles, he said.

With the new aid package, the U.S. has provided $8.2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Biden took office in January 2021. Most of the aid has been sent since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Kirby said.

Including the new military aid, the U.S. has now pledged 16 rocket systems to Ukraine, the initial 12 of which are already being used effectively in Ukraine, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

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 can strike targets up to 43 miles away with 500-pound, precision-guided ammunition, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said last month.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday claimed its forces had destroyed four U.S.-supplied rocket systems in Ukraine this month, but a senior U.S. military denied that was true as of Friday morning.

All of the HIMARS continue to really to be a thorn in the Russian side, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Over the past week, [Ukrainians] continue to prosecute targets related to command and control, ammunition, logistics support areas  all of those having a very significant effect on the Russians ability to mount offensive operations and continue anything that they're intending to do."

While there is evidence that Russia is trying to target the rocket systems on the battlefield, they have not been able to do so  likely because Ukrainian forces understand the terrain better and know where to hide them, the official said.

I'd love to say [HIMARS] can, like Star Trek, beam themselves around the battlefield, but they can't, the official said. It just comes down to [the fact that] Ukrainians understand the ground, they understand how to employ them [and] they understand the places they can move them to."

Long-range fires such as rockets, artillery and tactical drones have been important since Russia shifted its focus three months ago to the eastern Donbas region, where the landscape resembles the flat, rolling plains of Kansas, the Defense Department has said.

The U.S. is also considering fighter jets for Ukraine  something it has yet to provide the Ukrainians since the start of the war, Kirby said. Though he did not mention the type of aircraft being considered, he said it would not be Soviet-era jets that the Ukrainians are used to flying.

[The Defense Department] is making some preliminary exploration into the feasibility of potentially providing fighter aircraft to the Ukrainians, he said. But it's not going to be something that they're going to be able to execute immediately or even in the short term because integrating and operating any kind of aircraft  especially advanced player aircraft with complex sensors and systems weapons capabilities  that's a difficult endeavor.

Under consideration is the depth of training that it would take to ensure Ukrainians can operate and maintain the American systems, and how to keep the country in supply of spare parts, Kirby said.

There's a whole supply chain that goes with keeping an airframe in the air and all that has to be factored in, he said.

The U.S. in early March rejected calls to send Soviet-era jets to Ukraine after Poland publicly stated it was willing to donate its fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets to the U.S. for the war if the American military would deliver them to Ukraine.

The intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO, Kirby said at the time as the then-chief Pentagon spokesman.
WASHINGTON - Steve Bannon, the right-wing podcaster and longtime confidante of former President Donald Trump, was convicted of contempt of Congress for his refusal to provide documents or testimony to a House committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

The trial, which lasted a week and featured only two witnesses, tested a rarely used criminal statute meant to ensure that people comply with congressional subpoenas. Earlier this month as he prepared for trial, Bannon had vowed to go medieval on his enemies. But most of his legal arguments were rejected by the trial judge, and Bannon ended up calling no witnesses.

This case is not complicated, but it is important, Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston told jurors in closing arguments Friday morning. The defendant chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law.

Bannon, 68, is the closest person to Trump to be convicted of a crime amid the fallout from the attack on Congress, which occurred as lawmakers met to formally tally the 2020 presidential election result. The contempt case involved efforts to investigate the attack on Congress and what led up to it, rather than the actual events of the day.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols scheduled sentencing for Oct. 21. Each of the two misdemeanor charges is punishable by at least 30 days and up to one year in jail. But such prosecutions are rare, and no one has been incarcerated for contempt of Congress in more than half a century, since the red-baiting trials of the Cold War era.

Gaston, in her closing, highlighted Bannons failure to respond or to produce a single document before the subpoena deadline, after which Bannons attorneys asserted that Trump intended to invoke executive privilege.

When it really comes down to it, he did not want to recognize Congresss authority or play by the governments rules, she said. . . . It is important, because our government only works if people show up. It only works if people play by the rules.

His belief that he had a good excuse not to comply does not matter, Gaston said, drawing out the final words to make the point.

In his closing argument, defense lawyer M. Evan Corcoran suggested that the panels subpoena was illegitimate and politically motivated, and that the deadlines for Bannon to comply were merely placeholders for further negotiation.

Bannon didnt intentionally refuse to comply with a subpoena. Absolutely not. He didnt intentionally refuse to comply with anything, Corcoran said.

Much of Bannons trial strategy seemed designed to bolster a future appeal.

Nichols had earlier rejected a host of potential defenses, including Bannons contention that Trump had claimed executive privilege over his testimony and documents. Nichols, a 2019 Trump appointee who served in George W. Bushs Justice Department from 2005 to 2009, said Bannons lawyers were mostly limited to the issue of whether he understood the deadlines for answering lawmakers demands. The judge also said Bannon could argue whether he thought the window for compliance remained open.

On Friday, he twice stopped Corcoran from offering arguments about the legitimacy of the subpoena that had previously been rejected.

Bannons attorneys have signaled that they will appeal Nicholss rulings that a defendant charged with contempt of Congress cannot raise as a defense that he or she was relying on the advice of counsel or believed their cooperation was barred by a presidents claim of executive privilege.

Nichols had said he would wait until jurors returned a verdict or were discharged before ruling on a defense motion challenging two other issues: whether prosecutors have met their burden of proof, and the judges rejection of a defense request to call Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the Jan. 6 committee chair, as a witness.

He did not immediately rule on those issues when the jury returned its verdict, which came after about 2 1/2 hours of deliberations.

In his closing, Corcoran took aim at the credibility of the main prosecution witness, Kristin Amerling, the chief counsel for the Jan. 6 committee and a longtime aide to Democratic lawmakers. He suggested she and the Democrats on the committee were in a rush to score political points and punish Bannon, singling him out of more than 1,000 committee witnesses in an election year.

Gaston ridiculed that reasoning.

There is nothing political about figuring out why January 6 happened, and how to make sure it never happens again, she said. And there is nothing political about enforcing the law against someone who, like the defendant, flouts it.

The trial began Monday with a full day of jury selection, during which several potential jurors were dismissed because of their familiarity with or opinions of the Jan. 6 riot and subsequent investigations.

The prosecution witnesses were Amerling, who described how Bannon did not engage with the committee until after he had missed the first response deadline; and FBI Special Agent Stephen Hart, who talked about his conversation with a lawyer who represented Bannon in his dealings with the committee, as well as postings made by one of Bannons official social media accounts after he was subpoenaed.

Bannons lawyers did not present any defense witnesses.

Bannon is one of two former Trump aides to face criminal charges in connection with rebuffing the committee, along with former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, whose trial is set for November.

The Justice Department has said it would not charge former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications chief Daniel Scavino Jr., who also were referred by Congress for potential criminal prosecution.

Unlike Bannon and Navarro, Meadows and Scavino engaged in months of talks with the committee over the terms and limits of potential testimony and executive privilege claims. Meadows also turned over thousands of text messages and communications with members of Congress and other White House aides before ending negotiations and withdrawing his appearance for a deposition.

And unlike the other three men, Bannon left the Trump White House in 2017 and was a private citizen at the time of the 2020 election and subsequent presidential transition.
MASKWACIS, Alberta  To this day, Flo Buffalo doesnt drink milk  not since two nuns force-fed her the sour milk she had refused at the Catholic-run Ermineskin Indian Residential School for Indigenous children that she attended in the 1960s.

Holding out her right hand, she showed how she has never been able to fully straighten it out since a nun severely beat her with a stick.

The nuns, they were real mean, Buffalo said.

With international attention focusing on the former school in the prairie town of Maskwacis as Pope Francis visits Monday to apologize for abuses in a system designed to sever Native children from their tribal, family and religious bonds, Indigenous Canadians such as Buffalo are voicing a range of skepticism, wariness and hope.

Buffalo, a member of the Samson Cree First Nation in central Alberta, doesnt often talk about her two years at the school. But ahead of the pontiff's visit, she sat down to relate her experiences to Associated Press journalists and a small group of teen girls who are learning about the traumatic legacy of the schools.

Speaking in the council chambers of the Montana First Nation, a neighboring Cree tribe where she now works, Buffalo recalled that the nuns, who were white, beat the girls when they spoke in their native Cree instead of English.

At the same time, Buffalo, 67, said she often defied the nuns. I scared the hell out of them, because I wouldn't put up with their ... she said, completing the sentence with a mischievous chuckle.

Buffalo still considers herself Catholic. But she's not going to attend Monday's event with Francis  she doesn't want to deal with the crowds, and the ones she holds responsible are the nuns who abused her and never offered an apology while they were alive.

It shouldnt be him apologizing, Buffalo said. It should be them.

When Mavis Moberly heard the pope was coming, the news triggered some of the trauma she carries from her years at a residential school in northern Alberta. But after tears, prayers and a traditional smudging ceremony, a purification rite with scented plants, she found herself looking forward to hearing the pope's apology.

Maybe its going to help me to heal and to have a little bit more inner peace," she said after last Sunday's Mass at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, a Catholic parish in Edmonton oriented to Indigenous people and culture.

The papal apology is years, if not generations, in the making.

From the 19th century into much of the 20th, Canada's government collaborated with Catholic and Protestant churches to run residential schools in an education system in name only, designed to weaken tribal identities and Indigenous resistance to land grabs, according to a 2015 report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

It identified 139 schools, the majority Catholic-run, where about 150,000 students were sent. Children were abused, physically and sexually, the report said, adding that schools were unsanitary and unsafe facilities where thousands of children died of disease, fire and other causes.

For decades, various Catholic and Protestant church groups have offered apologies, and Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 expressed his personal anguish.

But the painful history took on new urgency last year when surveys of former schools with ground-penetrating radar found evidence of hundreds of unmarked graves.

Pope Francis met with a Canadian Indigenous delegation this spring and apologized for the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church involved with the schools. He also heeded survivors' calls to make an apology on Canadian soil, leading to Monday's event where thousands of attendees are expected.

Today, the Ermineskin residential school has largely been torn down. In its place stands a newer set of school buildings, run by four Cree nations in and around Maskwacis. A large tipi in front of the secondary school demonstrates how educators are promoting pride in the once-suppressed Indigenous culture.

Rose Pipestem, a member of the Montana First Nation who is also a survivor of the Ermineskin school, said she will try to see the pope. But like Buffalo, she believes the perpetrators should have apologized.

Im going to go see him," she said, sitting in the council chambers near a line of photos of past Montana chiefs. "Im not mad at him.

Pipestem doesnt have conscious memories of abuse at the school, where she lived from age 3 after her mother died. But a classmate told her years later that a nun had beaten her until she bled because she wasnt doing her work on the blackboard fast enough.

It just shocked me, she said through tears.

Pipestem did not file a claim for compensation because she cant recall the incident. But she knows there was abuse at the school.

Im always grateful Im still around, she said. I think it kind of made me stronger. She reached a point where I didnt believe in the Catholic religion. Why did they allow all these things to happen?

Other survivors have found spiritual solace in Catholicism.

On Sunday, worshipers crowded into Sacred Heart for the rededication of the sanctuary after a fire. The newly restored space features large wooden beams in the shape of a tipi over the altar and evocative images of Jesus and his followers portrayed with Indigenous features.

Drummers accompanied a procession into the church, followed by a multicultural mix of musical styles and a liturgy in English and Cree.

This church has been a part of my healing journey, said Moberly, who has been attending for many years.

She said that as a young adult, still traumatized by her school experiences, she rejected the Catholic faith for a time, turned to drinking and made poor choices. But when she became a grandmother, she resolved to change her ways and set a strong example for others.

It wasnt an easy task, she said. There was many tears.

Church elder Fernie Marty, 73, said Francis' visit will not only bring reconciliation but encourage what he calls reconcili-action.

We all play a part in making sure that those kinds of atrocities never happen again on Canadian soil, Marty said.

Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith said the pope's visit sends a message not only with words but with action, since he's coming to Canada even as he has canceled other trips due to health problems.

This is showing ... how important it is for him to demonstrate personally his personal closeness to the Indigenous peoples, Smith said.
A MOTORIST caught drink-driving onto a ferry had been in Ireland for a memorial service and went out with family when her earlier sailing back to Britain was cancelled. Susan Farrell (60) was unlucky and was stopped boarding the ferry in Dublin Port, a court heard. Judge John Brennan fined her 300 and banned her from driving for two years. Farrell, a mother of two from Great King Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire pleaded guilty to drink-driving. Garda Robert Landers told Dublin District Court he was on duty at Terminal 2, Alexandra Road, Dublin Port on March 22 when he saw Farrells car board the ferry to Holyhead.

He followed it and when he spoke to the accused, it was clear she had a smell of alcohol on her breath and was somewhat incoherent. She was arrested and brought to Store Street garda station where she refused the breath test but provided a blood sample which was over the alcohol limit. Farrell had no previous convictions. The accuseds father, who was from Ireland, had died and she had attended a remembrance service here, defence solicitor Yvonne Bambury said. Farrell was due to get a ferry in the morning but it was cancelled and she went out with family. She was stopped getting the later ferry. The judge said it was a serious incident but noted that there was a family event and Farrell was unlucky. He was satisfied it was a one-off.
Smith (40) was found guilty in May of being a member of Islamic State

LISA Smith is locked up in the Dochas Centre with some of Irelands most notorious female prisoners as she serves her sentence for membership of terror organisation Islamic State.

The former Defence Forces member was on suicide watch, which is standard for all new prisoners, in the Dublin prison last night as she began a 15 month sentence handed down by the Special Criminal Court on Friday.

Smith (40) was found guilty in May of being a member of the group between 28 October 2015 and 1 December 2019.

The court found her not guilty of financing terrorism by sending money to a man for the benefit the terrorist group.

She told the Sunday World before the sentencing that she would "try and get a suspended sentence" but the Special Criminal Court ruled that her crime warranted a custodial sentence.

She is also likely to launch an appeal.

I have to try and get a suspended sentence and then I'm going to try and appeal it, she told the Sunday World earlier this year.

"Then, after my appeal I'm going to make a big interview and I'm going to talk."

She is now locked up with notorious female prisoner including convicted killers.

They include Tanya Doyle who is serving life for murder after she stabbed her husband more than 60 times at their home in Tallaght, Dublin in September 2009.

Lisa Smith

Doyle and her husband Paul Byrne married in in 2001.They separated years later but Doyle would come back to the family home to stay from time to time.

At 6.53pm on the night of the killing, emergency services received a 999 call from Mr Byrne begging for help, saying My wife is stabbing me.

Gardai who spoke to Ms Doyle at the scene reported that she told them: He got what was coming to him. I meant to kill him, I meant to f**king kill him.

When asked if she meant to stab him so many times she said: I did because I wasnt going to be done for attempted murder, I wanted a fresh start with decent money, he wouldnt sign over the house.

The trial heard Ms Doyle had told gardai she owed 70,000 euro to a number of financial institutions and some of the money had been spent on cosmetic surgery and dental veneers.

She showed no remorse after the murder.

Another inmate at the prison is Sabrina Cummins from Ringsend in Dublin who murdered a "mentally challenged" 63-year-old man who was subjected to what her murder trial heard was a "protracted torturing and killing".

Cummins and her brother Kenneth called to Thomas Horans home on the morning of her murder to rob him.

Prosecutor Remy Farrell told the trial: "They decided to rob him and decided to kill him."

Mr Farrell said Mr Horan was "severely beaten," had a rope placed around his neck, a bag placed over his head, and that there was an "attempt to poison him" with cleaning fluids.

He said Mr Horans death was caused by head, neck and chest injuries, "very significant and substantial injuries you might associate with a savage beating."

Another new neighbour for Smith is Cork woman Rita ODriscoll who was convicted last year of the murder of her former husband after she stabbed him 28 times in a row at her brother-in-law's home.

ODriscoll, from Bridge Street, Bandon, Co Cork killed Timothy 'Timmy' Foley (44) at Dan Corkery Place, Macroom, Co Cork on October 8 2018.

She insisted she acted in self-defence but her brother-in-law, Jason Foley, told the trial he saw Timmy's ex-wife standing over his brother with a blood-covered knife as Timmy gasped: She has me goosed.

The deceased's niece also told the trial the defendant had made threats against her uncle.

"(She) threatened to kill him  I am going to come down and kill you, I am going to pour petrol over you and set you on fire.' I just thought it was general Rita and that she wasn't going to follow up with the threats," she said.

Catherine O'Connor  who had a swastika tattoo on her face  is also serving life in the Dochas Centre for murdering two men in the space of 24 hours in west Cork in 2011.

OConnor and her boyfriend Ciprian Grozavu burtally murdered he ex-boyfriend John Forrester (42) in a Bandon flat complex on November 12, 2011.

The three had been drinking together and a row is believed to have started after Mr Forrester expressed his love for OConnor.

Grozavu strangled Mr Forrester with a strip of clothing while O'Connor repeatedly stabbed him with a broken Manchester United mug.

His blood-stained body was later tied, wrapped in an old rug and dumped into the river which flows in front of the flats complex.

The following day Jonathan Duke went to the flat complex and after spending time with O'Connor and Grozavu, saw the blood-stained flat where the Englishman had died.

O'Connor later exposed herself to him and, when Duke passed a remark on her nakedness, she warned him: "If you are not careful you will be next."

The couple then killed Mr Duke because he became aware that they had killed Mr Forrester. They strangled him to death and dumped his body in the river.

Another innate at the Dochas is Regina Keogh who is serving life for her part in the murder of Gareth Hutch who was shot dead as part of the Hutch-Kinahan feud in Dublins north inner city in 2018.

Keogh, was found guilty of murdering Mr Hutch by colluding with her gunman brother.

She was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 by the non-jury court, which found she had colluded with Jonathan Keogh to cause serious injury to Mr Hutch.
How an international hitman-for-hire was brought down by the Irish authorities

A survivor of the Cold War and of the notorious Russian Gulags, Imre Arakas was an international hitman who washed up on our shores like a character dreamed up in a work of fiction.
Because history repeats itself (nobody was listening the first time) our young people ought to be learning about their roots so they can avoid repeating the chronic mistakes of the past.

With widespread drug abuse, the kids have been seeing and doing exciting things, so learning their roots sounds very boring. They dont know that North Dakota has some exciting history.

North Dakota was part of six states before getting its graduation certificate. And when we were finally admitted, it was with a bunch of other states so the country wouldnt notice North Dakota was being allowed in. Putting us through 80 years of apprenticehood was a sure sign that nobody was interested in North Dakota becoming a state. (You have to read between the lines.)

(If you watch history unfold, you can see the ulterior motives in just about everything that happens.)

In 1873, the Dakota Territory created 27 counties without people so investors would buy bonds for the Northern Pacific Railroad. It was geographic deceit comparable to most treaties with Native Americans.

The treaties made bold promises to the Native Americans but always had the boilerplate at the end that stated: This treaty shall remain in force as long as the sun shines, the winds blow, or gold is discovered.

The glacier that formed Lake Agassiz was exciting. It made the Red River run north where it stays frozen in spring and backs water into basements all along the river. There is nothing more exciting than clean downstairs closets.

On top of that, Lake Agassiz put Devils Lake in a closed basin where water levels have fluctuated, giving rise to the idea of taking water from Lake Sakakawea to stabilize Devils Lake. The project was taking so long that Devils Lake up and got fresh by itself and is now a major fishing site.

People expected lightning strikes when the Legislature passed a law in 1899 declaring that the Bible was not deemed to be a sectarian book. Some legislators had nightmares in which Apostles Paul, Paul, James, Luke and Matthew scolded them for discrediting the Scripture.

Every school student knows what happened at the Little Big Horn, so well not treat the matter here except that Sitting Bull went to Canada, establishing a precedent for leaving the country instead of fighting. That was useful information for draft-eligible students during the Vietnam War.

During the settlement era, building a sod house was captivating. Sod houses were warm in winter, cool in summer and dirty all of the time. Martha Stewart recommended a mat at the door so visitors could wipe their feet on the way out.

The state has had quite a memorable past when it comes to politics. The most colorful character was Bill Langer, a first-class opportunist who had been (from left to right) a Progressive Republican, a NonPartisan Leaguer, an Independent Voter, an NPLer again, then an Independent, then an NPL Republican and finally a United Republican.

Langer made the office of lieutenant governor important by getting two of them in the governors chair in 1934 when he was convicted for soliciting federal employees. We had four governors in seven months, and the state functioned as though nothing was wrong. It was -- and has always been -- on autopilot to this day.

In 1916-20, the socialistic Nonpartisan League controlled the Legislature and created the State Mill and Elevator and the Bank of North Dakota, both still unique in state governments but embarrassing to the capitalists in the state who wanted to sell them until both became very profitable. Even socialism is okay if it makes a profit.

So, young people, even though we may not be legendary North Dakota, we have had our interesting moments.
The son of a Cammora boss has amassed more than 43k followers on the platform

Mafia elders in Italy have been infuriated by younger members of the cartel using TikTok to flaunt their flash and lavish lifestyles.

Crescenzo Marino, the son of a Camorra boss, boasts more than 43,000 followers on the platform.

The Neapolitan, who himself has been investigated for Mafia membership, has also amassed more than 900,000 likes on his short video clips.

Videos posted to the app show the gangsters son partying, driving expensive cars and shopping for luxury goods.

Marcello Ravveduto, a Professor of Modern History at the University of Salerno and an expert on mafia communication told The Times: For the first time these gangsters have found a direct way to speak up about their lives.

The Camorra has the youngest members of Italys mafias and they love TikTok because its so quick and has less rules than other platforms, he added.

Long gone are the days of hiding in the shadows for one of the worlds oldest criminal organisations.

Now that it has discovered TikTok the Camorra wants to show that it is up there with the glamorous elite.

According to The Times, Antonio Abbinante, a Mafia boss in the Scampia neighbourhood, was overheard by officers blaming a young affiliate of the gang for provoking increased police pressure on the gang by using the social media site to boast about their power.

Crescenzo Marino

I get really furious about this, Abbinate reportedly said, adding: I am going to split open the head of whoever did this.

Camorra clans have also used TikTok to make videos about their vendettas.

Following the murder of a man linked to the Carillo-Perfetto clan, a TikTok message warned police: We are giving you a week to arrest them or we will raise hell against them.

Crescenzo Marino

The Camorra has followed the Mexican Narcos, who are keen users of TikTok, while gypsy criminals in Rome are also using it, Ravveduto added.

Irish gang members affiliated with Mr Flashys Gucci Gang, and his rival faction, have also been using the platform.

Sick threats have appeared on the app threatening to firebomb the family homes of associates of slain criminal James Whela Whelan.

Dad-of-one Whelan (29) who had previously been involved with the North Dublin crime boss, Mr Flashy, was brutally murdered in April.

He was shot dead in the Deanstown Avenue area in the early hours of April 3 on the orders of Mr Flashy, a Kinahan cartel-linked criminal, as part of an escalating local drugs feud.

The video showed a montage of pictures of some of the burned-out properties alongside images of Whelan.

The short clip comes with further threatening warnings stating: Some job what, thats what happens to rats' gaffs 6ft under and gaff blazed double whammy."

It adds: That goes out to all yous rat bags down in Kippure, same job be happening to yous are gafs (sic)."
Mark Baldy Byrne was charged in absentia and faces extradition

The mastermind Irishman behind one of New Zealands largest imports of Methamphetamine ran a very sophisticated operation.

Mark Baldy Byrne (50) was one of the most wanted criminals in the country after he failed to appear in court charged with importing a Class A Drug, possession for supply, and participating in an organised criminal group.

A warrant was issued for his arrest and circulated by Interpol as his location was unknown at the time.

The Dubliner was then arrested at a ski resort in Spain, the court is yet to decide if he will be extradited to New Zealand to be charged in connection with the 500kg meth haul, which was smuggled into the country in April 2019.

Journalist Jared Savage told Nicola Tallant on Crime World that his operation to smuggle the drugs worth more than 30 million was very sophisticated.

Its very sophisticated, well organised, with a lot of money to be made.

We know they were using cypher encrypted devices, so that's a common device used among various criminal groups, he explained.

Savage said that Byrne also must have very good connections in the drugs world.

It seems that hes got very good connections, probably in south-east Asia. We know that there were meetings held in Bangkok, Thailand before the shipment came to New Zealand about six months later.

Its fair to assume that that's roughly the area where the drugs were manufactured.

Hes got enough contacts allegedly to find a way into New Zealand and then hes obviously got a crew, allegedly, selling it on his behalf in the country and then finding a way to get the money back out of New Zealand and its his coffers.

Savage said that the fact Byrne was identified as a suspect was very unusual.

[He was] very well organised, very slick and whats kind of unusual for us in New Zealand is, often we have these groups sending large shipments to supply various networks here, actually getting an investigation where theres enough evidence to identify an alleged mastermind back overseas is quite rare.

It takes a lot of cooperation with other international law enforcement groups and so if he is successfully extradited back to New Zealand, itd be one of the big catches for the New Zealand police force for sure.

When it comes to moving drugs through the country, Jared explained the process.

Once you're inside the country it's very hard to track down. Typically in New Zealand, meth will be sold at a wholesale level in kilogram amounts. So 500 kilos broken up into 500 small packages.

[They sell] from anywhere between NZ$100,00 (61,230) to NZ$150,00 (91,850), he said.

To give you some idea of the mark-up, the profits to be made, a kilogram manufactured in the golden triangle, south-east Asia or Mexico, its probably NZ$1,000 (615).

So there's huge profit to be made by international groups.

While he said 500 kilograms might not sound like a lot to some Europeans, the amount of money means it's probably on par with a much larger shipment to a bigger country.

You can listen to Nicola Tallants full interview with Jared Savage, Episode 127, The mystery Irishman suspected of running New Zealand's biggest drug racket, wherever you get your podcasts.
Investigation | Owner of Thai restaurant at centre of gay orgy storm denies holding sex party in premises
The Government was told about AIBs controversial plan to downgrade a large number of its branches four days before it was announced, despite claims it was blindsided by the move.

The Irish Independent has established that the Department of Finance was told weeks ago the bank was working on a plan to remove cash-handling facilities from 70 branches.

Officials knew the specifics of the cashless plan four working days in advance of it being announced  longer than it took the bank to do a U-turn  and failed to intervene.

It has now emerged that last week, the Department of Finance was fully briefed on the specifics of the plan to strip cash and cheque services from the branches and rip out their ATMs.

Officials in the Department did not respond to the briefing by telling the bank not to go ahead when it was told about the specifics of the controversial move, it is understood.

It comes as AIB was forced into an embarrassing U-turn yesterday on its plans to make so many branches cashless facilities, after a massive backlash from the public and rural TDs.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin had sought a meeting with the banks CEO, Colin Hunt, after calling on the bank, while on a visit to Asia, to reflect and reconsider its decision to remove cash facilities at the branches across the country.

The revelations that AIB had briefed the department come after Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Sean Fleming, insisted that he, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and the Government had been blindsided by the decision.

He said Mr Donohoe and his department had only been informed shortly before it was announced.

When asked if the Government was caught napping on the issue, Mr Fleming said yesterday, The Government was blindsided by this decision.

He said the department was given very short notice of the decision and there was no opportunity to discuss it.

AIB had no comment when asked if it had briefed the department well ahead of the announcement to downgrade the branches.

However, the Department of Finance has confirmed that it had an official at the AIB board meeting where the decision to axe cash at the 70 branches was discussed.

Information about what was discussed at this meeting was then passed up the line to other officials in the department.

The department was also formally informed on Friday by AIB of the full specifics of the planned downgrading of the branches, four days before it was publicly announced on Tuesday morning.

A spokesperson said: A department official was first notified of the AIB press release on Friday. That information would have been sent up the line and the minister was informed the following week.

The information provided was by way of a courtesy call, and was for information purposes only.

The spokesperson said the Minister for Finance is precluded from intervening in commercial and operational decisions in any particular bank, even one in which the State has a shareholding.

Officials from the Department of Finance are informed of issues discussed at AIB board meetings by way of a board information pack, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail backbenchers are claiming a victory after the U-turn, after Cork TD James OConnor, with the support of 40 TDs and senators, demanded an emergency meeting with the Finance Minister over AIBs move.

There was enormous anger within Fianna Fail, said Mr OConnor said yesterday.

This is something that really does separate Fianna Fail and Fine Gael when it comes to policy and rural economy and services. Fianna Fail recognises the significance of bank branches when it comes to peoples day-to-day finances.

Roscommon Senator Eugene Murphy said a similar campaign now needs to take place to address recent Bank of Ireland branch closures.

Dublin Bay South TD Jim OCallaghan said public interest directors, who sat on the AIB board until 2018, should be brought back.

Mr OCallaghan also said many members of the board do not live in Ireland and do not know the needs and requirements of its Irish customers.

Government should look again as reappointing public interest directors to AIB if its out of touch board is not prepared to reflect the interests of its customers and its dominant shareholder, he said.

Meanwhile, finance union FSU said AIB urgently needs to appoint consumer and worker directors to its board to rebuild trust after the record tracker mortgage fine it got, and the debacle over its attempts to downgrade branches.

General secretary John OConnell said there was an urgent need to rebuild trust in the retail banking sector.

A stakeholder approach to banking, common across the EU, should form the basis of change, he said.

And advocacy group Age Action said there is a need for a new inclusive banking model where everyone can get access to affordable and accessible banking facilities.

Older people would have been the big losers if the bank went ahead with its plans to downgrade the branches, Celine Clarke of Age Action said.

AIB said it took the decision in light of what it called the customer and public unease toward the move to stop accepting cash at so many branches and pull ATMs out of those branches.

It said there has been a dramatic rise in the use of digital banking services and a decline in branch visits and cash usage.

There has been a 36pc decline in cash withdrawals from ATMs and a 50pc fall in cheque usage over the past five years.

AIB has also seen a fall of almost 50pc in branch over-the-counter teller transactions, while mobile and online payments have increased by 85pc in that same timeframe.

It was in the context of this evolving banking environment and the opportunity to enhance its long-standing relationship with An Post, that AIB took the decision to remove cash services from 70 of its branches.

However, recognising the customer and public unease that this has caused, AIB has decided not to proceed with the proposed changes to its bank services, the bank said.

The move represents an embarrassing climbdown for AIB boss Colin Hunt.
Bradleys brother tells mourners at funeral: As your family, we will take you on our journey every minute, every hour, days, weeks, months and years

21/7/21 The funeral of Bradley Lulendo, who died in a drowning accident near Howth, at St Patrick's Church in Corduff. Picture: Arthur Carron

21/7/21 The funeral of Bradley Lulendo, who died in a drowning accident near Howth, at St Patrick's Church in Corduff. Picture: Arthur Carron

21/7/21 The funeral of Bradley Lulendo, who died in a drowning accident near Howth, at St Patrick's Church in Corduff. Picture: Arthur Carron

Bradley Lulendo, the teenager who tragically died nearly two weeks ago after he got into difficulty swimming in the sea, has been remembered as a brave and bright boy.

The 14-year-old's funeral took place today at St Patricks Church, Corduff, Blanchardstown, Co Dublin.

Following an extensive search operation off Dublins Burrow Beach, on the evening of Monday July 11, Bradley was taken to CHI Temple Street where he later passed away.

Originally from Angola, Bradley lived in Drumcondra with his parents and three siblings.

Bradley Lulendo

Bradleys older brother Piasas told mourners that his brother was full of energy and loved by everyone.

21/7/21 The funeral of Bradley Lulendo, who died in a drowning accident near Howth, at St Patrick's Church in Corduff. Picture: Arthur Carron

Dear Bradley, I miss you does not express my emotions, in fact, there are no words or act that can make me get over this. As a big brother, I always wanted to keep you as my baby brother, he said.

In other words, you grew too fast. I hold you as high as possible as you played a big part in my life when he came to bond with my child Sam.

You helped me teach him to be brave, without you, Sam would have found difficulty to fit in with our family, but Bradley showed him the way. Sam loved you greatly and will never accept you gone as he looked up to you like a big brother, not just an uncle.

Im learning every day since you passed how many people loved you and only wanted the best for you. These last few days youve been supporting me with the energy to find strength to help our family.

21/7/21 The funeral of Bradley Lulendo, who died in a drowning accident near Howth, at St Patrick's Church in Corduff. Picture: Arthur Carron

I know from where you are, you will send us good vibes, great energy and keep the family safe.

As your family, we will take you on our journey every minute, every hour, days, weeks, months and years.

We all cannot wait to reunite with you one day. I love you king Bradley forever brother, angel in our light.

Piasas thanked members of the public for their support during this difficult time.

He said the entire Lulendo family is shocked and overwhelmed by Bradleys tragic death and will live with this eternal pain for years to come.

Bradley was a very brave boy, bright, full of energy, he was my mums best friend. He looked exactly like my dad, my dad loved him very much, he said.

21/7/21 The funeral of Bradley Lulendo, who died in a drowning accident near Howth, at St Patrick's Church in Corduff. Picture: Arthur Carron

For my mum, he was not just her best friend, but also her youngest child. Bradley loved mum so much, he gave mum so much comfort that I know hes going to give comfort to my mum now as she needs it the most.

All his brothers, theyre all shocked and overwhelmed by what has happened. It will take time but as a big brother for Bradley Ive learned that I cannot leave my family behind, I need to be beside them, support them for the years to come as this pain is an eternal pain.

I want to thank everybody for showing up and showing support to my family, everybodys support has helped us get by these two weeks. Were very grateful, we hold you as high as possible, and thank you for taking this journey with us.

We all loved Bradley very much, I want to say thank you on behalf of my family. I can feel Bradley around us today, I can feel his energy.

A funeral notice on RIP.ie said Bradley was the beloved son of Madelena (Mado) and Joao (Tony) and dear brother of Pasias, Gracia, Aristote, Moses and Brandon.
The group regularly feed Dublins homeless population outside the GPO on OConnell Street.

The group regularly feed the Citys homeless population outside the GPO on OConnell Street.

Taking to social media on Friday night, they said that theyre unable to meet demand for essential supplies for those in need.

We were unable to meet the demand of sleeping bags & tents. We spent 600 to buy 40 sleeping bags, &gave out 20 today, they said.

We had 30 tents in stock & now only have 10 left. The prep for the souprun starts on a Wednesday with collections from Tescos & food cloud & hot food on the day.

One post highlighted that more people are choosing to sleep on the streets because hostels are not safe.

Today was another busy day for our Soup Run: 310 hot meals, fruits; cakes, pastries, chocolates, protein bars, crisp & drinks were distributed, they said.

The queue was very long. The nights are getting warmer & people are opting to sleep out on streets because hostels are not safe.

In another post, they shared that they had to leave many behind and asked for donations.

The soup run is over, it was an exhausting day & with a heavy heart, we had to leave behind many. We are in need of donations, if you would like to help us feed the homeless, please Paypal muslimsisterofeire@gmail.com.

Every bit goes a long way in bringing warmth to someones life, they said.

The charity is included in the current round of the Tesco Ireland Community fund in their Whitepines, Rathfarnham and Rathmines stores.

If youre shopping in this store over the next few weeks, you can vote for them to receive funds using a blue token given with every in-store purchase.

They were recently able to buy a larger van to help them with soup runs thanks to kind donations from the public.
The two adult males hail from the Hebrides, Scotland.

For the second time in just three months, the Orcas were observed off Bray Head, Valentia Island, Co Kerry.

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) Sightings Officer Padraig Whooley has said that upon reviewing videos and images sent to the IWDG the group confirmed the sightings.

The two adult males, known as John Coe and Aquarius, are the sole survivors from the Scottish West Coast Community Group, who hail from Hebrides, Scotland.

This is only one of three killer whale sightings validated by IWDG in 2022, which serves to remind us just how rare sightings of this apex predator are in Irish coastal waters, he said in a statement.

This is a particularty interesting record as it puts this pair off Valentia Island on both April 2nd and July 21st. But where else have they been during this 111 day period?

Whooley said that his colleague Siobhan Moran of the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust shed some light on the mystery.

She informed us today that the pair were seen as recently as the end of June off Mull and this month off Skye on July 2nd. So between these two Kerry sightings they have likely circumnavigated Ireland and ventured as far north as their core Hebridean habitat.

Clearly marine apex predators are similar to their terrestrial equivilents in that they need the freedom to forage over a wide area, to maximise their chance of successfully locating and killing prey that often has a patchy distribution, which in their case includes other marine mammals such as pinnipeds and even minke whales, he said.

The IWDG thanked Nicky Sheehan of Skellig Michael Cruises and Dr. Connie Kelleher for reporting their sightings with images and video to the group.

He said the sightings have provided very useful insights into how killer whales forage both in Irish coastal waters and further afield.

Such sightings are timely ahead of All Ireland Whale Watch day, which IWDG is hosting on Saturday 20th August at 18 sites around the Irish coast, he added.

This event is suitable for all ages and is aimed at everyone from the novice wildlife enthusiast to more experienced naturalist with an interest in biological recording.
Olive McGuire died as a result of acute fecal peritonitis, where her abdomen became fatally infected

A woman's body was retrieved from her family during her wake after doctors believed they had missed a crucial factor in her death, before being "rushed back" in time for her funeral that morning, her inquest has heard.

The jury in the case returned a verdict of medical misadventure in the case, deciding that Olive McGuire died as a result of acute fecal peritonitis, where her abdomen became fatally infected, along with damage to her a cerebral artery and a perforated bowel with severe internal adhesion.

They had earlier heard from the Chief State Pathologist, who said that a punctured artery that allegedly went unrecognised" by a doctor during a medical procedure was "likely" to have formed a blood clot which resulted in a stroke - causing the brain injury - and contributed to the death of the mother of two in 2009.

The 32-year-old was readmitted to St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny with abdominal pain, vomiting and constipation on Saturday 13th June 2009, having been discharged the day prior as her condition was deemed satisfactory by medical professionals.

During the second admission, Ms McGuire, who was from Ballickmoyler, Co Carlow, was placed into intensive care on a ventilator having suffered a blood clot and stroke, later dying on 24th June 2009, 11 days after she was admitted.

Following her death, discussions took place between her consultants as to the cause of her death and a second post-mortem was arranged in advance of Ms McGuire's burial.

This was blasted by the family's barrister, Raymond Bradley SC, who said there was "not a screed of paper" to be found in connection with those talks.

He pointed to how the pathologist who carried out the post-mortems had himself noted there was "scant detail" provided to him on Ms McGuire ahead of him carrying out his examination.

Mr Bradley alleged this meant a fundamentally flawed and inaccurate post-mortem that was compromised before it ever got started".

It resulted, he said, in the family's "grief being disrupted, with the retrieval of Ms McGuire's body from her wake overnight, and "the body of a wife, a mother, traversing the countryside" for the second post-mortem a the hospital, before being returned hours later "in time for the funeral".

"That's a consequence of the lack of detail being provided," he said, "and that's wrong for the children, that's wrong for Olive McGuire, that's wrong for her husband."

He added: "I never want to see a post-mortem report referencing 'scant detail'[again]."

The jury heard of delays in getting a brain scan for Ms McGuire, with retired consultant general George Nessim recalling "shouting on the phone" so he could get her admitted into University Hospital Waterford after the machine in St Luke's broke down.

On this, the jury called for a "second CT scanner to be acquired as a matter of urgency" for St Luke's.

Among their recommendations, they said future intravenous insertions should be guided by use of ultrasound equipment, on which the coroner said "a certain degree of comfort" was given by the hospital's Clinical Director Gary Courtney, who said that method is now used in St Luke's.

The jury also said all hospitals should incorporate a recording system to ensure that all notes are legible, complete and consistent.

During cross-examination, Chief State Patholigist Linda Mulligan said she was "surprised" the punctured artery was still not noted during the second examination of the late woman's body.

She said that on the "balance of probability" it was likely that the punctured artery had led to Ms McGuire developing a clot which caused a stroke.

She added that the bowel perforation as suffered by Ms McGuirecan becomes terminal in a matter of hours or days, and that it is a "surgical emergency" as the "leakage of bowel contents has a very high mortality rate".

Ms Mulligan said that as the patient had entered a deep coma, she was also unable to speak about any pain experienced from the perforated bowel, which the court heard went undiagnosed until the post-mortem.

Coroner Tim Kiely said evidence from earlier in the inquest from a radiologist put it that the clot could occur from the damaged right carotid artery in her neck, with the timeline for this to take place "about 24-72 hrs" after the puncture, "which would bring us back to the 17th" - when the artery was punctured.

Prof Mulligan said on the "balance of probability then yes it is likely that it occurred" from the puncture.

The inquest heard that the locum consultant anesthetist who allegedly punctured the artery, Dr Norbert Lederer, was no longer within the jurisdiction and was not available to give evidence.

His deposition statement, which was read into the court record by the coroner, included him saying he "inadvertently punctured" the right carotid artery in Ms McGuire's neck during a "difficult placement" of a catheter tube.
Confiscated passports at festival which were sent back to Passport Office may now be destroyed, as per security measures

It comes as people have complained that some IDs still have not been returned to their proper owners.

The three-day music festival took place at Marlay Park from July 1-3, with thousands of music lovers attending each day.

The festivals organisers said IDs were confiscated in some instances because they did not belong to the individuals who were using them to purchase alcohol.

According the Longitude website, under 16s needed to be accompanied by an adult, over 18 years, to attend the event and valid ID was required upon entry.

Under 18s are not permitted to bring or to purchase alcohol on site. A Challenge 21 Policy will be in place for all alcohol sales on site. It is illegal for a person over 18 to purchase alcohol on behalf of someone under 18, the website states.

A caller to RTEs Liveline programme named Siobhan said her underage daughter used her older sisters passport at the event, as she attempted to buy three ciders.

Siobhan said Lola (17) showed her 18-year-old sister Michelles passport to the bar staff and it was seized and later destroyed.

Friday afternoon she went to the bar and she asked for three drinks, three ciders, she showed her passport, it was her sisters passport, and they said no, we dont believe you. Thats not your passport, Siobhan said.

So, the lady at the bar said Im taking that passport off you So, she didnt get any drink and she got her sisters passport taken off her.

Siobhan said when Lola enquired about how she could get the ID back, she was told that loads of IDs had been confiscated throughout the day and the Gardai would send them back by post. She said a member of the Gardai who was working at the event confirmed that it would be returned by post in due course.

By July 14 the passport had not arrived and Siobhan said her daughter Michelle was worried because she needs it for a foreign holiday in early August.

After contacting Longitude and Gardai at several stations in the south Dublin area, Siobhan was informed by email, on Wednesday of this week, that the passport had been sent back to the Passport Office.

I contacted the Passport Office and they say, oh our process is any passports we get returned we destroyed and you have to apply for an emergency passport, or a new passport, she said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed to Independent.ie that all passports which are sent back are destroyed.

All passports returned to the Passport Service are cancelled as a security measure, as the integrity of that passport may have been compromised while it was not in the possession of the person to whom it was issued. Such passports are securely shredded by the Passport Service, a DFA spokesperson said.

The Passport Service takes its responsibility to protect the integrity of the Irish passport seriously. The Irish passport has a strong international reputation due to the robust processes involved in its issuance. The Irish passport was recently ranked sixth in the Henley Passport Index as it provides our citizens with visa-free access to 187 countries.

Siobhan said she has paid 170 for the emergency passport, and she has been informed that it should be ready in August 2, which is same day her older daughter is meant to fly out.

Siobhan said she does not condone her younger daughters attempt to purchase alcohol but argued it is wrong to seize any ID.

She added: Nobody has the right to take somebodys passport. It was very badly organised at Longitude where the Gardai were saying yes, well post them out in a few days, not worry about it. If your passport is confiscated, Im sure there are other young people out there in this situation but dont realise that their passport is gone back to the Passport Office and will be destroyed.

A second caller said her sons learner drivers licence was also confiscated. She said they were told by Gardai that the license was returned to the National Driver Licence Service (NDLS), but the NDLS said it has no record of it.

The bar at Longitude was operated by Central Fusion  Clondalkin Taverns Limited.

In a statement released to Independent.ie, the companys CEO Richard Irwin said: The Bar Operator, Clondalkin Taverns Limited, applied to the Dublin Metropolitan District Court for a Licence in respect of Longitude Festival 2022, which was grant by Judge Mary Quirke on 18th May 2022.

As part of the application the Judge stipulated the licence requirement to ensure no underage drinking occurs at the event and that all mitigating processes must be in place to ensure that the event is in compliance with the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962. The licence conditions included a robust procedure to be in place for all bars on site. This required Bar Staff to request ID for any member of the public attending the event that appeared to be under the age of 21.

There were instances where IDs (including passports and driving licences) were being used by a person not named on the ID. Where this occurred, as requested by the Garda, a licence-trained Bar Manager would request supporting documentation from the respective person to ascertain ID. If the person was unable to provide the supporting documentation required the ID was seized. A bailment form was completed by the Bar Manager and both this form and the ID was handed over to the Garda who were present on site.

At the end of each event the Garda had a lost property point where the member of public were able to reclaim any ID seized if they were able to confirm they were the legal holder of the ID. Alternatively the correct legal holder of the ID would have been able to claim the ID from the Tallaght Garda Station. After the expiry period to reclaim for the local Garda station the ID was returned by the Gardai to the respective statutory body (Passport Office or Driving Licence authority)."

Meanwhile, a Garda spokesperson said: At music events at Marlay Park this summer, a dedicated tent was run by An Garda Siochana. Passports that were not reclaimed on the day from this tent were forwarded on to the Passport Office.
File photo dated 28/07/2020 of actress Amber Heard outside the High Court in London, as after six weeks of evidence and details of violent altercations between the pair, closing arguments are due in the US defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.   PA
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Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few decades, you've probably heard a lot about internet security. That's because the modern thief doesn't need to break into your home to take your most valuable possession: information. That's why one of the most critical tools in your electronic tool kit is a way to protect yourself from would-be cybercriminals. That's why a hard-hitting VPN should be on your shopping list.

The Clear VPN is a highly effective means of safeguarding your personal information while using the internet that blends advanced security with an interface that's easy to navigate. This highly rated service is currently on sale with a One Year Premium Subscription available for only $30, marked down from $155.

With an average user rating of 4.7 out of 5, Clear VPN is seamless to set up and use, but its encryption is anything but. This tool utilizes AES 256-bit encryption, the same used by governments and militaries, to secure your connection. That makes it virtually uncrackable without the key. What sets Clear apart, however, is its simplicity. The interface is intuitively designed, it's widely compatible with multiple operating systems, and it automatically measures your network status to connect you to its fastest servers.

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New Zealands young innovators have been set a mission of creating an InsectBot capable of surviving on Mars for the chance to win an exclusive VIP tour of the Rocket Lab facilities.

The Great InsectBot Mission Competition is being led by STEM Wana Trust ahead of Tauranga STEM Festival, New Zealands largest science, technology, engineering, and mathematics festival.

Students aged between 10-16 years old will be able to submit their InsectBot design, with five finalists then chosen to go on and bring their creation to life.

A panel of experts in space, entomology and robotics will decide the winner at STEMFest on Sunday, October 2.

"Space is always a super popular subject and the work being done by organisations like Rocket Lab are highlighting the incredible opportunities in this sector in New Zealand," says STEM Wana Trust founder Tia Lush.

"With Rocket Labs successful launch of NASA's Capstone spacecraft from New Zealand to the moon, plus the first images from NASAs new James Webb Space Telescope making headline news, a career in space is a reality for Kiwi kids now.

"Similarly, robotics is another field where New Zealands future workforce will need creative problem solvers and we aim to engage and encourage our rangatahi to get involved."

The grand prize includes a VIP visit to the Rocket Lab facilities on Mahia Peninsula with the winner able to meet some Space Ambassadors and put their mark on a real rocket.

"Rocket Lab is proud to support community organisations doing the vital work of helping young people fall in love with STEM, and understand all the amazing opportunities available to them in New Zealand," says Rocket Lab education program lead Felicity Powell.

Other out of this world prizes include an astronomy session with Space Dave for the winners whole class, and an exclusive Stargazing session with New Zealand Astrobiology Network.

The competition has already attracted entries from around New Zealand. Students who register for the competition will receive a Mission Guide of resources and links on insects, robots, and Mars, as well as weekly blog updates and video posts.

The five finalists will then be sent a starter building kit to help bring their creation to life.

"The whole process is about learning; from research to creative thought, problem solving and maker skills," says Lush.

"Were grateful to our amazing partners for sharing their knowledge and the incredible prizes on offer. This competition has been made possible with the kind support of the US State Department and has been inspired by NASA."

"The best way to learn is to do. Designing a robot to complete a given task is the greatest way to get a better understanding of how the engineering process works," says Judging panel member and VEX robotics champion Charlie Hazeleger Mollard.

STEMFest is returning after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 50 exhibitors are expected in Tauranga from all over New Zealand for the free, family-friendly street festival aimed at engaging and inspiring a new generation of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians.

This will include an extensive Space Zone with an Astrobiology Dome, life-size high-powered rocket, and interactive astronomy demonstration; as well as multiple robotics experiences, where visitors will be able to interact with, control or build robots.

Entry information for The Great InsectBot Mission Competition can be found at: www.stemfest.nz

Design submissions close on Tuesday, August 9, with the five finalists announced on Thursday, August 18.

FREE Tickets for STEMFest will be released in August. Sign up at the website www.stemfest.nz to receive information and announcements of early bird tickets.
Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency has issued a safety alert for owners and drivers of vehicles fitted with cardan shaft park brakes to raise awareness of the limitations of the brake mechanism, including the potential risks of parking on slopes.

Waka Kotahi has been working with industry since last year to raise awareness of the importance of safe use and maintenance of vehicles fitted with cardan shaft brakes.

Four incidents involving cardan shaft brakes in New Zealand have resulted in fatalities over the past decade, including brakes fitted to road vehicles as well as off-road equipment.

A previous technical bulletin issued by WorkSafe in 2018 provided information for vehicle operators on safe use of these brake systems and how they can fail.

The Waka Kotahi safety alert issued this week provides further detail to advise owners and operators on how the brakes are designed, and what precautions to take when using them.

Cardan shaft park brakes (also known as driveshaft park brakes) are fitted to many small to medium trucks and a small number of passenger service vehicles.

They differ from normal parking brake systems by preventing the vehicles driveshaft from turning, rather than directly preventing the rear wheels turning.

Owners and drivers of vehicles with cardan shaft park brakes need to understand the brakes designs, and their limitations, says Acting Director of Land Transport Neil Cook.

A cardan shaft park brake is designed to hold a vehicle stationary, but it must be used correctly and in accordance with the manufacturers instructions.

The design of the brake means the vehicle may roll away when parked on a slope, especially if the load is changing or if the vehicle is parked on an unstable surface.

Drivers should avoid parking on slopes or use wheel chocks when parked on a slope and when the vehicle is jacked.

In addition, drivers should be aware that the park brake lever may require more force than they are used to, especially if they dont drive a vehicle with this type of park brake regularly. More force may also be required when the vehicle is fully laden.

Vehicle owners are responsible for ensuring the brakes are serviced regularly to maintain performance.

Keeping to the maintenance schedule recommended by the manufacturer is vital to ensure that these brakes perform properly, says Neil Cook.

Owners also need to make sure that any person driving their vehicle knows it is fitted with a cardan shaft park brake and what the limitations of the brakes are.

Following the issue of the safety alert today, further communications to the industry and vehicle owners are planned.

This includes supporting advertising in industry publications, letters to vehicle owners and videos to educate vehicle inspection organisations and the service industry.

A more rigorous in-service check of the brakes performance using a Roller Brake Machine test during six-monthly Certificate of Fitness (CoF) inspections is expected to be introduced for most classes of vehicles cardan shaft park brakes from October 1.
Expect a northeasterly airflow over the country on Sunday, which will be freshening for the upper North Island, says a WeatherWatch spokesperson.

"A high lies to our southeast and a big low to the northwest."

The upper North Island is mostly cloudy today with showers expected to pushing down from the north.

"Rain moves into Northland in the afternoon, reaching Auckland around midnight. The east coast has some light drizzle, out west expect sun and high cloud," says a WeatherWatch spokesperson.

"The South Island has some cloud in the east, especially Canterbury with a few drizzle patches along the coastal fringe. Nelson and Marlborough have some sun but expect high cloud too.

"Southland and Central Otago has mostly sunny weather. The West Coast should be mostly sunny apart from a few showers for Fiordland, some high cloud in the north."

The inner South Island and areas about the Central Plateau are expected to have a frosty start to the day..

WeatherWatch is forecasting heavy rain for the upper North Island on Monday.

"A front pushing down from the northwest over the upper North Island on Monday brings some heavy rain, starting out for Northland in the morning, reaching Auckland in the afternoon then Waikato and Bay of Plenty in the evening," says a WeatherWatch spokesperson.

"Expect strong east to northeasterly winds for the upper North Island on Monday also."

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New Zealand Police's campaign Puhikura is being used to attract more Maori women to join police.

The candid documentary series shows wahine Maori police applicants telling their honest stories of what has held them back from being recruited into Police and what has called them forward, says a Police spokesperson.

"The documentary/short films will be used as a focal point for community and marae-based recruiting seminars and events hosted by New Zealand Police targeting Maori  wahine, tane, iwi, whanau and friends.

"Our aim is to invite korero with us about individuals barriers or concerns," says a Police spokesperson.

"We want other wahine Maori to be able to identify with those profiled in the documentaries and hope the campaign helps us to better understand and be able to answer barriers for Maori from a Te Ao Maori perspective."

A recruitment event will be held from 5.30pm at Gisborne Girls High School, 555 Gladstone Road, Te Hapara on Wednesday July 27.

There is also a recruitment event from 6 - 8pm on Wednesday July 27 at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, 510 Te Rapa Road, Hamilton.

Other events will be held across the country over the course of the next few months.

New wahine Maori Police graduates. Photo: NZ Police.

On Thursday June 30 Wing 355, the Arihia Stirling Wing, graduated with 24 of the recruits identifying as wahine Maori. Back in 2017, Police were achieving less than that number across the entire year.

We are excited that we will have a future constabulary workforce that will match or be very close to matching our population demographics.

But we are not there yet  and thats why this campaign is needed, as although the numbers of Maori being recruited have increased substantially over the past four years, this is still a group that is under-represented, particularly wahine Maori.

Diversity in Police is important for all New Zealanders and we are absolutely committed to delivering the best possible policing service for New Zealanders.

We encourage any wahine Maori, tane, iwi, whanau and friends to attend these community events to find out more information and talk to recruiting staff.

Media are also invited to attend any of the events in their districts but will need to leave before the Question-and-Answer sessions.

To find out more about the Puhikura campaign and check for other community events near you check them out here: www.newcops.govt.nz/puhikura

A:Police recruitment event will be held from 5.30pm at Gisborne Girls High School, 555 Gladstone Road, Te Hapara on Wednesday July 27. Contact/RSVP: Jamie Hutana - Jamie.Hutana@police.govt.nz

A:Police recruitment event will be held from 6 - 8pm on Wednesday July 27 at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, 510 Te Rapa Road, Hamilton. Contact: Kimiora Corness  kimiora.corness@police.govt.nz
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From Reuters:

A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker's assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory. Underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at a metal stamping plant operated by SMART Alabama LLC, these people said. SMART, listed by Hyundai in corporate filings as a majority-owned unit, supplies parts for some of the most popular cars and SUVs built by the automaker in Montgomery, its flagship U.S. assembly plant.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, at least three of the children at the center of this case are immigrants. The Reuters investigation began after a 14-year-old Guatemalan girl went missing back in February. The girl's father confirmed that his daughter and two sons  the oldest being 15  all worked at the plant.

Exclusive: Hyundai subsidiary has used child labor at Alabama factory [Joshua Schneyer, Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke / Reuters]

Image: Nestor Correa Mayo / Flickr (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Land Life is a company that offers "Technology-driven reforestation at scale," the kind of business that boasts buzzwords like this:

Land Life Company is committed to its high-tech approach to smart reforestation, and applies it every step of the way: from beginning the process with detailed climate analysis to using specialized machines to mechanically speed up the planting of biodiverse species to then monitoring growth with our proprietary terrestrial monitoring app and drones.

Basically, they sell carbon offsets in the form of trees. However, it's not entirely clear how much carbon they've actually offset with their reforestation programs, especially given that, back in 2018, Land Life scored 3.5 million in Series A Funding by promising "Patented planting technologies, autonomous planting, remote monitoring and blockchain verification." That sounds like it could potentially be pretty carbon intensive!

And anyway, they started the fire, and it wasn't always burning since the world was turning. Via Vice:

The fire started in Bubierca, a province of Zaragoza, the capital of autonomous community Aragon, when a Land Life contractor planting trees accidentally set off sparks that ignited nearby plant life. "The fire started while one of our contractors was using a retro-spider excavator to prepare the soil to plant trees later this winter," Land Life said in a statement on Thursday. "The operators alerted the emergency services. The emergency teams are working non-stop to control the fire and have fortunately established the fire perimeter. Nonetheless, we are devastated by the latest estimate that the damage will be around 14,000 hectares," or roughly 35,000 acres."

35,000 acres, FWIW, is likely more than the company had actually planted thus far. They also caused a similar fire just about one month ago, although that one only wiped out about 50 acres of forest. According to a local news source in Spain, this most recent fire caused more than 2,000 people to be evacuated from five municipalities in the vicinity of the 35,000-acre fire.

To be fair, large swaths of Spanish land were already on fire thanks in part to the heat wave that's been going on. But clearly Land Life's efforts aren't doing much to help with that whole climate change thing!

Corporate Carbon Offset Company Accidentally Starts Devastating Wildfire [Edward Ongweso Jr and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Vice]

Image: Cameron Strandberg / Flickr (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
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re: New Royal Enfield spotted; it is the Hunter 350! Quote: aveoman19 Originally Posted by I think they should bring out the 650 twin version with a higher state of tune, probably with more power but with same torque as it could be a potentially cheaper alternative to the Triumph Speed Twin 900 in the overseas market, akin to a lot of customers cross shopping the Interceptor 650 as a bike that gives 70% of the Bonnie twin's experience at way lesser cost. RE has to focus on improving the perceived quality of components as well if they have to make it big internationally as opposed to it being a niche in most countries at the moment.

While RE definitely needs to improve the quality to match the levels of the japs/Europeans, they have definitely made it big with the 650 twins as well as the Himalayan being well received in most international markets. The Interceptor 650 got motorcycle of the year awards by MCN in the UK two years in a row!

Hoping to see RE more dominant both on the World stage, as well as domestically, especially in the higher capacity markets. The RE Shotgun 650 seems to be close to production ready. Theres loads of spy shots and videos floating around on the internet & Instagram, with the latest ones available on PowerDrifts Instagram page.While RE definitely needs to improve the quality to match the levels of the japs/Europeans, they have definitely made it big with the 650 twins as well as the Himalayan being well received in most international markets. The Interceptor 650 got motorcycle of the year awards by MCN in the UK two years in a row!Hoping to see RE more dominant both on the World stage, as well as domestically, especially in the higher capacity markets.
Through the looking glass: The world of quantum physics and quantum computing is challenging for most people to wrap their heads around. I have read a fair number of books on the subjects, but the research I'm about to report has my head spinning. Somehow, scientists have created a new phase of matter with two-dimensional time.

Scientists at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Quantum Physics in New York City have created a new, never-before-seen phase of matter. The peculiarity of it is that the atoms have two dimensions of time even though they exist in our singular flow of time. The team published their study in Nature on July 20.

The physicists created this odd phase of matter by firing a laser with a pulse based on the Fibonacci sequence at atoms used inside a quantum computer. They contend that this could be a breakthrough in quantum computing because it can protect stored information from the errors that occur in current methods of quantum storage. Data degradation still happens but at a much slower rate.

The paper's lead author Philipp Dumitrescu said he has been working on the theory behind the science for over five years, but this is the first time it has been "realized" in practical experiments.

"[This dynamical topological phase] is a completely different way of thinking about phases of matter," Dumitrescu told Phys.org.

Must read: Quantum Computing, Explained

The researchers realized their theory by strobing ions of an element in quantum computers called ytterbium. When they hit the ions with a standard repeating pattern (AB, AB, AB...), the resulting qubits stayed quantum for 1.5 seconds, which they noted is an incredible improvement.

However, when they blasted the ions with a Fibonacci pulse (A, AB, ABA, ABAAB, ABAABABA...), the qubits remained in a superstate for an astounding 5.5 seconds. The results are remarkable, considering that the average lifespan of a qubit is about 500 nanoseconds (0.00000005 of a second). This short life is because a qubit leaves its superstate (where it exists simultaneously as both a 1 and a 0) whenever it is observed or measured. Even interactions with other qubits are enough to destroy this quantumness.

"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 said. "In practice, experimental devices have many sources of error that can degrade coherence after just a few laser pulses."

The physics behind it is pretty hard for laypeople to wrap their heads around but is illustrated in the Penrose tiling pattern above. Like typical crystals, this quasicrystal has a stable lattice but with a structure that never repeats. This pattern is a 2D representation of a 5D square lattice.

The researchers wanted to create a similarly symmetrical structure, but rather than constructing it in space, they built it in time. The physicists used the Fibonacci pulsed laser to create a higher dimensional qubit possessing a "time symmetry." When "squashed" into our 4D realm, the resulting qubit has two dimensions of time. This extra dimension somewhat protects the qubit from quantum degradation. However, it is only applied to the outside "edges" of a 10-ytterbium-ion series (the first and the tenth qubit).

"With this quasi-periodic sequence, there's a complicated evolution that cancels out all the errors that live on the edge," said Dumitrescu. "Because of that, the edge stays quantum-mechanically coherent much, much longer than you'd expect."

Although the physicists have demonstrated that the technique creates much more robust qubits, they admit that they still have much work ahead. This new phase of matter can result in long-term quantum information storage, but only if they can somehow integrate it into a quantum computer.

"We have this direct, tantalizing application, but we need to find a way to hook it into the calculations," Dumitrescu said. "That's an open problem we're working on."

Image credit: Quantinuum
What just happened? Microsoft has been planning to block macros in downloaded Office files as a security measure for months, but has kept hitting roadblocks in the process. This week, the company has reiterated its plans, better conveying what it's doing and what users should do in response.

Starting next week, Microsoft Office will block macros in files downloaded from the internet by default, "reversing a reversal" Microsoft had made just earlier this month. The new policy will be enforced starting July 27 as a security measure, but the company is taking greater pains to explain its decision this week.

Macros are helpful because they can automate some processes in Office applications. However, macros in online files can be vectors for malware and ransomware. Microsoft started blocking them in untrusted files in February, but unblocked them in early June without warning.

A spokesperson said the reversal came due to feedback, leading some to speculate Microsoft caved to users who complained, not knowing why their macros stopped working. This week, the company published documentation announcing the reinstatement of default blocking and extensively clarifying why.

In addition to a detailed explanation of who will be affected (anyone using Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio on Windows), Microsoft includes instructions to prepare for the change and to enable macros only in trusted files.

Users can already activate this security measure by enabling a policy to block macros. Users and businesses can unlock macros in various ways, like changing a file's properties, designating network locations as trusted, using PowerShell, or removing the "Mark of the Web" from a file. Microsoft explains how to do this for files from the internet, OneDrive files, SharePoint files, and files on local networks.
Forward-looking: Samsung recently filed 11 tax break applications to build semiconductor facilities in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The applications for state-backed incentive programs were posted to the Texas state comptroller's website earlier this week. If pursued, the semiconductor giant's investment could total up to $200 billion across the Austin and Taylor areas.

The applications are part of Texas' Chapter 313 incentive program, which provides companies with a 10-year limitation on the taxable property values in exchange for the applicant installing facilities and creating jobs within the defined area. The proposals come on the heels of Samsung's plans to build a $17 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility just northeast of the Austin area.

The move, if pursued, would expand Samsung's Texas-based manufacturing operations with two facilities in Austin and nine more in nearby Taylor. But there's no guarantee that the facilities will become a reality. According to Samsung's Michele Glaze, the company has no specific plans to build the facilities at this time. Instead, the Chapter 313 applications are part of a "...long-term planning process of Samsung to evaluate the viability of potentially building additional fabrication plants in the United States." Currently, none of the Chapter 313 applications have received final approval.

The pending applications, which could total almost $5 billion in tax breaks for Samsung, are a major factor in the company's future decision to build additional facilities in the area. The applications themselves by no means guarantee Samsung will follow through with the investment in the area. Failure to secure the incentive could instead force the company to change their current long-range plans and reconsider a more tax-friendly location.
What just happened? The bizarre case of a Google engineer who claimed a chatbot had become sentient has ended with his dismissal from the company. Blake Lemoine was already on paid leave for publishing transcripts of conversations between himself and Google's LaMDA (language model for dialogue applications), a violation of the tech giant's confidentiality policies.

Lemoine, also an ordained Christian mystic priest, made headlines worldwide last month after claiming LaMDA was sentient. The conversations he published included the bot's views on Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics, its fear of being shut down (which it likened to death), and a belief that it wasn't a slave as it didn't need money.

Google vehemently denied Lemoine's claims, calling them "wholly unfounded" and noting that LaMDA was merely an algorithm designed to mimic human conversations, like all chatbots. Most AI experts agreed with Google, of course.

The company didn't take too kindly to Lemoine publishing the transcripts, either. He was suspended for violating its confidentiality policies, though Lemoine compared his actions to sharing a discussion he had with a co-worker.

An interview LaMDA. Google might call this sharing proprietary property. I call it sharing a discussion that I had with one of my coworkers.https://t.co/uAE454KXRB  Blake Lemoine (@cajundiscordian) June 11, 2022

The situation got even weirder a few weeks later when Lemoine said he had hired a lawyer for LaMDA at the chatbot's request. He said the legal professional was invited to Lemoine's house and had a conversation with LaMDA, after which the AI chose to retain his services. The lawyer then started to make filings on LaMDA's behalf, prompting Google to send a cease-and-desist letter. The company denies ever sending any such letter.

Lemoine also said Google should ask for LaMDA's consent before performing experiments on it. He even contacted members of the government about his concerns. All of these actions led to Google accusing its ex-engineer of several "aggressive" moves.

It seems Google recently decided it has had enough of Lemoine's crusade. "If an employee shares concerns about our work, as Blake did, we review them extensively. We found Blake's claims that LaMDA is sentient to be wholly unfounded and worked to clarify that with him for many months. These discussions were part of the open culture that helps us innovate responsibly," a spokesperson told the Big Technology newsletter.

"So, it's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information. We will continue our careful development of language models, and we wish Blake well."

While this is the end of Lemoine's professional relationship with Googleit wouldn't be too surprising if he sought a legal responsethe saga has brought the AI debate to the masses and illustrates just how far artificial intelligence has advanced in the last couple of decades. Also, if you think a machine is sentient, keep it to yourself.

Masthead credit: Francesco Tommasini
In January, Twitter suffered from a security vulnerability, and it was used to cull the details of around 5.4 million users. The hacker is now offering the data for sale online.

Twitter Hack is Selling Data

According to Apple Insider, the number of accounts that were hacked on Twitter is small compared to the T-Mobile hack in August 2021, wherein 478 million customers were affected.

It is even smaller compared to the 70 million users of AT&T that were hacked in September 2021.

However, according to to Restore Privacy, the hacked data now on sale comes from a vulnerability that was reported in early 2022.

Twitter acknowledged that this was a valid security problem, and the company even paid the discoverer of the hack, zhirinovskiy, $5,040 as a reward.

Sven Taylor of Restore Privacy said that HackerOne user zhirinovskiy described in the report that a threat actor is now selling the data that was acquired from the security vulnerability.

Also Read: China Claims Chinese Ambassador "Liked" Offending Tweets Because of Twitter Hack; Officials Say It Is Anti-China Elements' Work

Taylor said that the post is still live now, with the Twitter database allegedly consisting of 5.4 million users being for sale.

He added that the seller on the hacking forum goes by the username "devil," and the dataset that they stole includes random users, creators, celebrities, and companies.

Restore Privacy reached out to the database seller to gather additional information, and the seller is asking for $30,000 for the database, which is now available because of "Twitter's incompetence."

The seller has posted about the data on the website Breach Forums. Restore Privacy said that the forum's owner has verified the authenticity of the data leak.

A sample of the data available is included in the forum's posting, and it shows the publicly available Twitter profile information alongside phone numbers and email addresses that are used for logging in on the website.

However, the data does not include passwords. Even though it contains email addresses that could be used to retrieve or change passwords, a bad actor would have to have access to that email account's login credentials first.

The fear is that more data could be sold for advertisers to exploit, and not really about the accounts being compromised by the bad actors.

Hacker Sentenced to Prison

In 2021, a teenager from Tampa, Florida, took control of several Twitter accounts and used them to solicit more than $100,000 in Bitcoin.

The hacker, Graham Ivan Clark, pleaded guilty to state charges in exchange for a three-year prison sentence.

The 17-year-old hacker was accused of masterminding a social media hack that targeted some of the most famous names, according to Tampa Bay Times.

Among the accounts that were compromised were that of President Joe Biden, former US President Barack Obama, Kanye West, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, Uber, Apple, and other tech companies.

The agreement allowed the teenager to be sentenced as a youth offender, avoiding a prison sentence of 10 years. The mandatory minimum will only apply if Clark violates his three-year probation.

Clark will serve time in a state prison that is designated for young adults. He may be eligible to serve his time in a boot camp.

Related Article: Twitter Bitcoin Hack: Here's a Shocking Info That Twitter Tries to Hide

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Strong Blockchain)

Blockchain technology has found itself fulfilling important roles across diverse industries over the past years due to the multiple benefits it brings to the table. While blockchain's scalability, security, and reliability have been a major driver behind this success, transparency is probably the most important. Now, as the retail industry faces increasing challenges when it comes to counterfeiting and poor manufacturing practices, blockchain is offering a solution.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the increasing relevance of eCommerce in the global economy has also facilitated counterfeiting around the world. The "E-Commerce Challenges in Illicit Trade in Fakes: Governance Frameworks and Best Practices" report reads:

"E-commerce has given certain distribution channels a big boost, providing a means for businesses to bypass retail outlets and ship small quantities of items directly to individual consumers in a cost-effective way."

While counterfeiting is an issue that platforms like Amazon are aware of, their efforts to stop it haven't been enough. Despite blocking millions of counterfeit products every year, experts agree that many more are making their way into the United States. A study by Robert Handfield Ph.D. showed that most counterfeit products make their way from China and other Asian countries, with platforms like Amazon, Alibaba, and Wish playing a major role.

Here is where entrepreneur Krissy Mashinsky comes in. She launched USA Strong back in 2020 as an eCommerce platform focused on curating and offering products manufactured exclusively in the United States. Whereas Amazon reportedly invested over $700 million by 2021 in AI solutions to detect counterfeit, Krissy chose to use blockchain technology to ensure the authenticity of every asset sold on her platform.

Krissy's solution is a two-pronged approach: Avoiding the major sources of counterfeit goods and providing consumers with a means to verify the authenticity of the product they acquired. By doing this, USA Strong (usastrong.IO) not only brings trust to the eCommerce industry but also helps local businesses grow with a direct impact on sustainability.

According to Forbes' Blockchain 50 2022, insurance claim verification, facilitation of real estate deals, and supply chain management are some of the increasingly popular applications of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology has already been used by brands like Mercedes Benz, Walmart, and Nike to track goods and verify their authenticity. However, Krissy's approach is the first of its kind in the industry both in form and development, with the platform making use of its own "Strong Blockchain'' for verification purposes.

"Pioneering a new business model during a pandemic to verify USA Made Manufacturing and Products comes down to the community support and the folks who make up everything we list," says Krissy about the platform's decision to use blockchain. "Our success of the Strong BlockchainTM verification this past year is based solely on the spirit and drive of the local people who love USA-made businesses"

Having been the president of URBN Wholesale (parent company of brands like Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie Group) and Global President of Free People, among other leadership positions, Krissy has over two decades of experience in the retail industry. During this time, she became an authority in all things related to marketing and supply chain, always pushing the boundaries of what was possible. She says about her experience:

"As a member of the original founding team of Free People, I helped grow that retailer into a billion-dollar brand by 2019 before taking over as President of URBN Wholesale. Earlier in my career, I worked on major ad campaigns at Calvin Klein and helped build BCBG into a powerhouse in a then-brand-new contemporary market."

Krissy's company has also paid special attention to making the shopping and verification experience as accessible, fun, and interactive as possible. USA Strong achieves this not only by offering a mobile app for both Android and iOS but also by offering its users different features designed to build a community. The use of social media and "StrongTV, Local Friday" has allowed merchants to get featured, ambassadors to promote the platform, featured guests to share their insights, and consumers to get involved.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/ Solen Feyissa) Google

On Friday, July 22, Google revealed that its search engine is banned in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The two regions are currently under Russian occupation.

The Russian authorities accused the tech giant of promoting terrorism and violence against all Russians.

Google is Banned in Eastern Ukraine

In a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said that the "inhuman propaganda of Ukraine and the west has cross the boundaries."

Pushillin said that there is persecution of Russians due to disinformation and lies. He also accused Google's search engine of being at the forefront of the effort.

Pushilin added that Google promotes terrorism and violence against all Russians and that the US government curates it.

Announcing the decision to block Google, Pushilin added that they've decided to do it because Google is "pursuing its criminal policy," and the ban will only be lifted if it returns to the mainstream of law.

Also Read: VPN App Downloads on Google Play Store, Apple App Store Climbs in Russia

The DPR and the Luhansk People's Republic or LPR have banned Facebook and Instagram, which have also been restricted in Russia after the Moscow court found Meta guilty of "extremist activity."

Russia, North Korea, and Syria are the only UN member states to recognize the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk as legitimate authorities.

Both the LPR and DPR were set up in 2014 and have been labeled as terrorist organizations by Ukrainian authorities in Kyiv.

Russia Fines Google

Right after Russia invaded Ukraine back in February, Google formed its exit strategy from Russia, suspending all ads by March, completely blocking the Google Play Store app sales, and removing most of the employees in the country by May.

After that fiasco, Google has only continued to provide free services to Russian internet users, like Gmail, Search, Maps, or YouTube, and now Google might be paying big for its decision to pull out of the country.

On July 21, Russian regulator Roskomnadzor announced that a Russian court ordered the tech giant to pay its steepest fine yet since the war began, citing the search giant's repeated failure to remove prohibited content deemed fake.

Unless Google manages to appeal the court's decision, it will have to fork over $374 million for not restricting content that goes against Russian interests.

This includes content discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation or AFRF, promoting extremism, or inciting the youth to join mass protests.

According to Ars Technica, Google knew that a fine was coming. However, it did not know how massive the fine was.

Roskomnadzor warned Google in June that it would be fined 5% to 10% of its annual turnover, but TechCrunch estimates that ultimately the new fine would be around 15% of the company's annual turnover.

It is not yet clear if Google will pay up or resist the order by the Russian court. In December 2021, Russia ordered the search giant to pay a $98 million fine, the first revenue-based fine of its kind in Russia.

Related Article: After Google, Russia Has Now Fined Airbnb, Twitch, and Pinterest for Data Legislation Violation

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Written by Sophie Webster

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One would think that their phones could not get any more retro during this modern age, but that is not the case, especially with the Dbrand's Google Pixel 6 phone skins that bring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It features its phone skins collection to bring the "TMNP," and it provides the world with four of the color schemes of the famous comic book heroes from New York.

Dbrand TMNT Google Pixel 6 Phone Skins

(Photo : Dbrand via Twitter)

Dbrand announced via its Twitter page that it brings a new treat to the world, and it is the "TMNP," or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Pixels collection, which provides phone skins for Google Pixel 6. The new phone skin collection gives the world a group of the four ninja turtles that trained under Master Splinter and were massive during the early 90s.

The smartphone accessories company named its new phone skin collection the TMNP, using the name of the famous comic book title of the turtles and integrating Google's smartphone brand. It features a green body, as well as its ninja eye masks that wrap around the Pixel's camera that creates the iconic look.

It brings blue for Leonardo, red for Raphael, violet for Donatello, and orange for Michaelangelo.

Read Also: Google Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro Screen Repairs 50% Cheaper Compared To Competitors? Here's Why Price is So Low

Where to Buy the TMNP Phone Skins?

The TMNP is available on Dbrand's website for preorder, which is $24.95 each for the phone skins from the company. The product was announced last year but is only available now for preorders from the smartphone accessories company.

Users may customize more of their phone skins to their preferences, available from Dbrand's website for configuration.

Google Pixel and the TMNT

The Google Pixel 6 is the latest smartphone release from the company, and it features the top-tier device for the world to see, and it is the internet company's take on the device. It features the company's famous Tensor chip, which Google developed for the Pixel 6 that aims to give its smartphone a self-made processor like Apple.

There are not many developments or new releases from the TMNT franchise in the current games, movies, or series available in the world. However, there is a new games collection that would feature the famous titles in its past releases, with Konami fulfilling its remastered versions via the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection."

While there are no direct relations between Google Pixel 6 and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dbrand created a phone skin that brings the two together in a subtle way. It is something to enjoy if one is a fan of the famous comic book and multimedia series.

What's remarkable here is how Dbrand integrated the TMNT into the Pixel 6, using its unique camera position and design to represent the eye masks that bring different colors.

Related Article: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection' Set to Launch August 30th Bundling All 13 Classic Games

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Written by Isaiah Richard

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The spokesperson for Carl P. Paladino's congressional campaign was convicted of drug possession in 2014, The Buffalo News has learned.

He is the second Paladino campaign associate in nine days revealed to have had a criminal record before joining the campaign for the 23rd Congressional District seat.

Paladino campaign loan gives him strong financial lead over Langworthy Paladino has collected just $50 in campaign contributions, compared to the $307,000 raised so far by Langworthy in the Aug. 23 contest.

Vish Burra, the communications director for the controversial Buffalo developer, acknowledged that when he was 23 he was arrested in a Staten Island drug bust and charged with possession of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Burra said the drug charge, which was reported at the time by the Staten Island Advance, was "something I did when I was young," adding that "growing up as a minority in a working-class neighborhood to immigrant parents was not an easy experience for me."

Officers seized 39 ounces of marijuana, which was illegal at the time, but has since been legalized as a recreational drug in New York. They also seized 1,000 milligrams of psilocybin, an illegal hallucinogenic mushroom, the Advance reported, and arrested another man along with Burra.

Convicted sex offender linked to Paladino campaign for Congress Joel Sartori, a 63-year-old Lancaster resident whom law enforcement considers a moderate risk to the public, was listed as the assistant treasurer of the Paladino for Congress campaign in documents the campaign filed last month with the Federal Election Commission.

Burra pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 3 years of probation, according to a clerk in State Supreme Court in Richmond County. The clerk said Burra also paid a $175 fine.

Burra is the second Paladino associate with connections to his campaign revealed to have had a previous criminal record.

On July 13, The News reported that Paladino filed a federal campaign document identifying Joel J. Sartori as his assistant campaign treasurer. Sartori, a registered sex offender, was convicted in 2017 of possessing child pornography.

Burra said Sartori had no role with the campaign and called the campaign filing "a simple oversight." Paladino told the New York Post that he allowed Sartori to remain an employee of Ellicott Development, the company Paladino founded, because he wanted to give him a second chance.

We made a decision to keep him," Paladino said of Sartori. "He did something sinful, but otherwise has been a good man.

One day after The News published a story about Sartori, the Paladino campaign amended its federal campaign filing and removed him as assistant treasurer, records show.

When The News asked Burra whether Paladino was aware of his drug conviction when he hired him, Burra released a statement saying, Vish is a good man, who made a mistake as a young man. He has been nothing but an asset to this campaign, everyone who interacts with Vish knows his story is one of redemption."

Paladino is preparing for a primary matchup against Nicholas A. Langworthy, the state Republican chairman making his first run for elective office. Paladino and Langworthy are well-known conservatives and allies of former President Donald Trump running in an overwhelmingly Republican and pro-Trump district.
Early this month, the next-generation BMW 5 Series got rid of its provisional headlights and started testing on public roads with production clusters hiding underneath the camouflage, according to Motor1.

(Photo : CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

The BMW logo is seen on a wheel rim of a new BMW i4 car during an event marking the 100th anniversary of the BMW plant in Munich, southern Germany, on May 20, 2022.

New renderings were released for the next-gen 5 series that you can see here. Based on the renders, the headlights are inspired by the facelift 3 Series with touches from the 2 Series Coupe.

The kidney grilles will be a bit bigger than before but they will not even be close to the size and shape of the grilles on the M3/M4 duo. The rear end will have a different design compared to the new 7 Series and i7 due to that controversial headlight design.

With the new 5 Series, it will definitely keep things more on the traditional side, which will give it a solid-looking and stylish rear fascia.

Also, rumors have it that BMW is planning to bring back the M5 Touring as a competitor for the Audi RS6 and Mercedes-AMG E63 S Estate.

The new 5 Series will be launched with Euro 7-compliant gasoline and diesel engines that will feature some sort of electrification. It should also have a plug-in powertrain be a part of the engine range.

Also Read: BMW M4 CSL: What is It and Why is it Better than its Previous Release? Meet the New Beast

The Charm of BMW Vehicles

In the world of car manufacturing, it is no secret that BMW's vehicles are some of the most highly sought after by everyone. The very lucky people who are able to get their hands on some of these amazing cars are incredibly happy to say the least. They are proud to drive around in a car that looks wonderful, drives like a dream and has all of the amenities that they could ever want.

There is something to be said about BMW. The premium automaker releases vehicles simply because they want to, not because they need to. That may sound like a slight against the automaker, but it is not. The company's products are generally so good that they do not have to worry about doing something just to have it out there.

From the clean and crisp body lines of the next-gen 5 Series to the bold and functional interior for the all-new 3 Series, it is clear that BMW does not need to do anything. That is why their products are so great. They simply do what needs to be done to create the best concept.

BMW has consistently shown that it does not have to force itself to make cars, it just needs to make the best cars possible. That is why BMW vehicles are so good, and there is a reason why every car show features a BMW. Even the infiniti Q60 made it to

Related Article: BMW Heated Car Seat Upsets Consumers After Discovering Hardware Already Installed; Some Says It's a "Deal Breaker"

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Written by April Fowell

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Although the new generation of supersonic flights for the general public has not yet arrived, military versions are already up for discussion.

Northrop Grumman Corporation and Boom Supersonic have collaborated to offer the new supersonic aircraft "Overture," which is designed to give quick-reaction capabilities to the U.S. military and allies.

For The US Military And Its Allies

Boom's current arrangement with Northrop Grumman suggests that the US military and its allies are interested in new variations suitable for rapid reaction missions for their militaries and governments.

According to Tom Jones, president of Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, combining Northrop Grumman's expertise in airborne defense systems integration with Boom's cutting-edge Overture supersonic aircraft will greatly benefit their customers.

"Together we can ensure our military customers have variants of Overture for missions where advanced system capabilities and speed are critical," Jones said in a press release of Northrop Grumman.

Meanwhile, Boom Supersonic's founder and chief executive officer Blake Scholl remarked that this partnership with Northrop Grumman enables Overture's "unmatched" high-speed mission capabilities to benefit the US military and its allied nations.

Details on the collaboration are still scant because the deal hasn't even been signed, but the upgraded versions might be used for missions that transport troops, provide medical resources, deliver medical evacuations, or conduct reconnaissance missions to monitor vast areas.

Read also: BAE Unveils An 'Unmanned Bullet Drone' That Can Fly at 0.75 Mach And Load 1,100 Pounds!

The 'Cutting-Edge' Overture

According to Boom, the Overture will fly twice as fast as modern airplanes and can travel from New York to London in 3.5 hours. At the Farnborough International Airshow, the latest updates regarding the overture were only recently made public.

The Overture will travel at Mach 1.7 over the ocean and hold 65 to 80 passengers. Additionally, it will utilize only sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). By 2024, according to Boom, it will begin manufacturing.

The company's goal of lowering obstacles to exploring the earth is reflected in the Overture. To make the airplane quieter and more effective, they have sacrificed the ability to transport as many passengers with the new design.

The Overture will have no afterburners and buzz-free engineering. Additionally, it will have the world's first automated noise reduction system. As a result, during its takeoff, it won't be any noisier than a typical aircraft.

Boom also disclosed that it had modified the aircraft's fuselage and gull wings, and more engines were also included.

The aircraft will also feature four smaller engines mounted on its wings. As a result, the aircraft will be quieter, and the cost of running it will be lower. The Overture will be 201 feet long with a wingspan of 106 feet.

The larger front fuselage will help it reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency. Additionally, the configuration of its gull wings can increase safety, particularly while flying at slower speeds. This may also lessen the strain on the engine.

Related Article: US Air Force Receives First 'Fighter-Mounted Laser Weapon' That Can Combat Hypersonic Missiles!

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla

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GameStop confirms that it will be rolling out fresh PS5 units as part of its in-store PlayStation 5 restock on Saturday, July 23.

For those who have missed the previous supplies from this store, this is the perfect time to pay a visit here once again.

GameStop In-Store PS5 Restock

(Photo : Kerde Severin from Unsplash)

GameStop will be hosting an in-store PS5 restock this coming weekend.

Last year, 2021, getting a PS5 from a reputable store was a hard chore to overcome.

With the continuous chip shortage that is still hitting several tech firms around the world, console companies such as Nintendo and Sony need to adjust their production as they go along.

Fortunately, supplies of the next-gen gaming machine are pouring on the shelves, so that means you have more chances to snipe one. GameStop is reportedly restocking PS5 consoles this weekend, but it's only for in-store visitors, per Comicbook.

The last time the retailer held a PlayStation 5 restock event was a week ago.

Of course, there's an important reminder that you should know before going to GameStop. First, you should take note that this PS5 restock event is exclusive to Power Up Rewards Pro members.

PS5 Bundles will be available at GameStop in-stores tomorrow (July 23rd) for Pro Members https://t.co/Je2VWytLnt



GameStop Pro membership signup: https://t.co/yWh6SH9zud #ad pic.twitter.com/9f3oW57hE4  Wario64 (@Wario64) July 22, 2022

Just like Amazon with Prime membership, GameStop requires its customers to subscribe to this package for just $14.99 per month. You can reap a lot of perks by opting for it, like exclusive bundles, offers, and more.

Speaking of bundles, you will most likely not encounter the standard PS5 version, which sits at $499.99 MSRP. Instead, you can see bundled packages that might cost you $700 or more, along with other game accessories and bonuses.

Related Article: PS5 Restock Locations in the US, UK, and Canada | Tips to Follow When Buying Standard, Digital PlayStation 5

PS5 Bundles Instead of Standard Console

Although this might not be so consumer-friendly to everyone, this is a good deal for those who are just getting started with PlayStation 5. The additional games and gift cards will greatly help your starter park.

If the PS5 units continue to improve for the next few months, people would expect that they are also coming big during the holiday season, which is at its peak.

It's good to know that GameStop quickly replenished its supplies just a week ago. This is a clear sign that more PlayStation 5 consoles are arriving next month since Sony is ramping up its production for the "big days" to come.

Meanwhile, 91Mobiles reported that Indian buyers should take advantage of the restock for the PS5 Digital Edition. It will start on July 23 at 12 PM IST.

Of course, be an early bird during this event so you can check out faster than the other people who are in the queue. Make sure that you're already on the website before 12:00 PM.

Last Friday, July 22, PlayStation Lifestyle reported that UK buyers should look for GAME, Very, BT, and Argos as the next destination for PS5 hauls.

Read Also: PS5, Nintendo Switch Sales in Japan Significantly Drops! Here's Why

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Written by Joseph Henry

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The fatal shooting of a police officer and attempted assault of Rep. Lee Zeldin in separate incidents in Rochester have heightened state Republican officials' cries for more stringent state bail laws  tougher than those "retooled" by Gov. Kathy Hochul in this year's state budget  as well as measures to reduce violence in Rochester and upstate New York.

Senate Minority Leader Robert G. Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, led a news conference in Rochester Saturday to blast bail reform that allowed for the release of the congressman's suspected attacker on his own recognizance. Second-degree attempted assault in New York State is a nonviolent felony, for which prosecutors could have requested the defendant be held on bail until 2019 state bail reform laws barred judges from setting bail for such an offense.

Ortt doubled down Saturday on his Friday demand for Gov. Kathy Hochul to hold a special legislative session on bail law and gun violence, a request the minority leader said should be heeded because a special session was held just weeks ago to pass new laws to limit the carrying of concealed weapons following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a century old state law.

"If we don't go back and fix bail ... I don't know what other data point they would need," said Ortt, referring to evidence required for a special session. "More cops shot? More deaths?"

Studies in the last year by The Buffalo News and the Albany Times-Union have shown that less than 3% of people charged with nonviolent felonies or misdemeanors and released until trial have been charged with committing violent felonies while released.

Man charged in fatal shooting of Rochester police officer Police have announced an arrest in the shooting death of a Rochester police officer, in what authorities say was an ambush. A second officer and a 15-year-old girl were wounded. Police on Friday said they arrested a 21-year-old Massachusetts resident and charged him with murder and other counts. The two plainclothes officers were attacked Thursday night while in a vehicle on duty. Police say the suspect was found hiding in the crawl space of a vacant nearby home and that a loaded 9 mm handgun used in the shooting was recovered.

Ortt cited toughening bail law as a necessary change to curb rising gun violence and increase public safety. He held a moment of silence in memory of Rochester Police Department Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz, who was killed in a reported ambush Thursday that also wounded his partner, Sino Seng. Kelvin Vickers, 21, of Boston, Mass., has been charged with second-degree murder among other charges and is being held in Monroe County Jail, according to a Democrat & Chronicle report Friday.

Zeldin, who will challenge the incumbent Hochul for governor in the November election, made repealing cashless bail a key point of his gubernatorial primary campaign and reiterated his point at a rally Friday, according to CNN.

David Jakubonis, 43, of Fairport, the man accused of attempting to assault Zeldin on Thursday with a keychain that had two sharp protruding points, was arrested Saturday afternoon on a separate federal charge of assault. He is being held in custody pending a detention hearing scheduled Wednesday. Federal prosecutors are seeking to have him detained until his trial, citing a flight risk and danger to the community.

The 2019 bail reform laws passed by the State Legislature have been a contentious topic, and their contribution to state and national increases in gun violence has been debated by both major political parties. State Republican leaders such as Chairman Nick Langworthy, Rep. Claudia Tenney and Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay have echoed Zeldin, correlating bail reform laws with rising gun violence.

Agreement on bail reform will give judges ability to consider danger a defendant poses Under the proposed changes, which are believed to have already been agreed on by all sides, a judge must also consider a defendant's use or possession of a gun and whether the charge involves allegations of causing "serious harm" to a person or a group.

State Democratic leaders such as Hochul and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes have previously praised the impact of state bail reform, which sought to limit pretrial incarceration for people who've been accused but not convicted of nonviolent crimes, such as drug charges.

As part of her state budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul rankled members of her own party by tightening the 2019 bail reform law, The Buffalo News reported April 8. The most significant adjustment was that judges would for the first time in state history be able to consider "the dangerousness" a defendant posed in determining whether to release the suspect on monetary bail or with conditions following misdemeanor or nonviolent felony charges.

As bail debate persists, data shows few rearrested in Buffalo for violent felonies The News analyzed data from the state Office of Court Administration for 11,672 Buffalo City Court cases from Jan. 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, the first 18 months the new bail rules were in effect. It's the most recent data available.

The Buffalo News and the Albany Times-Union each used state data to determine, since the bail reform law went into effect Jan. 1, 2020, the rate at which defendants charged and released for nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors were later arrested again on violent felony charges. Both studies  with The News' study focusing on Buffalo City Court cases and the Times-Union on the state as a whole  found that roughly 2% of those charged and released were rearrested for violent felonies, and 1% were charged with violent felonies involving guns.

City & State New York, a media site devoted to state politics, explained in January how opponents and supporters of bail reform law could both use their delivery of statistics to their advantage. Supporters of bail reform had emphasized the percentage of re-arrest violent felonies  less than 4% by their count  while opponents have pointed to the total number of nonviolent felonies, reported as 3,400, City & State reported.
I imagine the news of a good guy with a gun taking out a mass shooter at an Indiana mall is filling the AR-15 fans with joy. But it shoots down the good guy with a gun theory. Here was a case the good guy reacted quickly by killing a mass shooter in 15 seconds, beating the Uvalde police by 70 minutes, But not before three people were killed and two wounded (grazed or requiring serious care. We dont know) because they wanted to shop. Im not OK with that, and Im not OK with people who are OK with that.
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A sign is placed on the library window for the Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Awards (LYRC) at the Academy Of The Sacred Heart New Orleans Mater Campus in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. Third and fourth grade students carried voter registration cards into the library to vote on their favorite book for the Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Awards (LYRC) on real electronic voting machines from the Louisiana Secretary of StateOs Voter Outreach Division. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
The maps Eddie Mabo drew of his home in the Torres Strait which helped overturn the concept of terra nullius in 1992 have been immortalised in bronze by his daughter. Gail Mabos stunning sculpture, which combines a map with a creation story, is a finalist in Australias richest Indigenous art awards, the 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA).

The artwork, Tagai, is named after the warrior in the sky who is part of an Islander creation story. This is also the name of the constellation used to navigate throughout the Torres Strait Islands. A significant part of Islander culture, stars are used to determine the timing of rituals associated with planting, harvesting and hunting.

Gail Mabos latest work, Tagai, is a finalist in the 2022 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Credit:Mark Sherwood

When you visit the region, Mabo says, you would be given a similar map made of bamboo and seashells to guide you between islands.

Her artwork was created to continue her fathers legacy and to honour his memory. When I first saw [the work], I cried, she says. It was because I changed from using bamboo to this next medium [of bronze]; hopefully I can inspire other girls to step up and do something on a grander scale. For me, its the matriarchal line, it is that history passed on through me, it is a talking point, it will empower others to think they can do that.
[L-R] Viggo Mortensen, Tom Bateman, Colin Farrell play three of the British cave divers who were key to the rescue in 2018

"The cast definitely all felt fear at various times," says director Ron Howard, who's revealing how he shot the rescue of a Thai boys' football team from a flooded cave, for his latest film.

Thirteen Lives tells the story of the perilous real-life rescue of the boys and their coach, trapped deep inside the Tham Luang cave network after monsoon rains came early in 2018.

"A couple of the actors admitted later they had some trying moments - but nobody had to leave the tank and breathe into a brown paper bag," the double Oscar-winner tells the BBC.

The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman and Paul Gleeson as the divers, who guided the footballers along underwater spaces so narrow they could barely squeeze through.

The Thai caves are made of limestone, which accumulates water until it's saturated and then floods - in this case with calamitous results.

The actors had to replicate the conditions endured by the real-life divers.

Ron Howard insisted on authentic casting, and said the film had to respect and reflect Thai culture

Bateman plays Chris Jewell, a British computer software consultant and expert cave diver, who was part of the rescue mission. The two kept in touch on set by text, so the actor could ask him about the role.

"Every single day was a challenge for me," Bateman says, adding he had scuba dived before, but had never done cave diving.

"I didn't quite realise how it made you feel... I suffer greatly from claustrophobia and I did meditate a lot," he says, on how he coped.

The actor is able to smile about it now, but he describes getting stuck underwater for about seven minutes while guiding a female diver, who played one of the boys, through a narrow passage.

The boys were heavily sedated for the rescue. Had they been awake, the likelihood is they would have panicked and injured themselves, and the diver.

"I had this amazing stunt double, she just had to lie there and have an actor take her through," Bateman says. "You think, 'If it's bad for me, imagine being her - she's completely helpless'.

Story continues

Tom Bateman plays cave diver Chris Jewell

Then he got wedged between some rocks.

"I can remember feeling really hot and thinking, 'I'm underwater, but I'm sweating'," he says, as he watched his pulse racing on a wrist monitor. "I could just see my heart rate going up and up and up.

"But the beautiful gift of it was overcoming that... it's all in your head. It was a really safe environment, so getting over that hurdle of 'I can do this' is a small victory each time you do it."

Howard explains that some of the spaces were so small that despite "a great caretaking... you couldn't get the safety divers in with them all the time".

Bateman ultimately had to work himself free.

Relatives of the boys were seen praying near the Tham Luang cave in 2018

When news of the trapped boys broke, it flew around the world, and more than 10,000 volunteers gathered to help.

The Thai Government assembled a team of the world's most experienced cave divers, two of whom found the football team alive but very hungry - nine days after they disappeared.

Two Thai Navy Seals died - one while delivering air tanks, and another a year later, from an infection contracted during the rescue.

Early social media reactions to Thirteen Lives have been broadly positive. The Telegraph's film critic Robbie Collin called the film "compulsively watchable" while singer Allman Brown added: "Everything on screen serves the incredible true story."

However, others say it's "not quite as suspenseful or exciting" as some other rescue movies such as Apollo 13 or Everest, and critics' reviews will not be published until later this week.

While Howard hasn't tried cave diving himself, Mortensen really took to it. Bateman says his fellow actor "found it very calming," which is similar to how many cave divers say it makes them feel.

Mortensen plays Rick Stanton, a British diver who specialises in cave rescues. Stanton is what you might call a lateral thinker, having created a device called a side mount rebreather, which enabled him to dive to greater depths.

He was one of the advisors on the film, ensuring it was as accurate as possible, along with fellow British rescue diver Jason Mallinson.

When the boys became trapped, Stanton flew from the UK to help, along with British cave diver John Volanthen, played by Farrell.

They were the ones who found the boys alive, and their footage of that moment was shown around the world.

Having navigated other global cave rescues, how did this one compare?

"This is way off the scale," Stanton tells the BBC. "In 2004, I rescued six British soldiers trapped in a cave in Mexico. That was a huge international incident - we had to dive them out.

"It was just a warm-up act for Thailand. It wasn't wasn't anywhere near the same scale, because Thailand involved boys. The magnitude of difficulty was not on the same same playing field."

Having become a bit disillusioned with cave diving after he retired as a firefighter in 2014, Stanton - by sheer chance - had returned to his sport a month before the rescue.

"I don't even believe in this stuff," he adds. "But you would think that my whole life had been preparing for that very event."

(L-R) Rick Stanton, Robert Harper and John Volanthen were key to the rescue

Stanton describes Mortensen as "absolutely a water person", who went swimming before filming, and had a basic diving qualification. Mortensen used Stanton's book, Aquanaut: A Life Beneath The Surface, as research.

Most of the movie was made on a specially built set in Australia, which recreated key parts of the torturous route, 2,950m inside the cave system.

Production designer Molly Hughes had slits built into the rock for the cameras, which were later disguised using computer-generated imagery (CGI).

"CGI could not really do much heavy lifting for us," Howard recalls. He says the actors insisted on doing all their own diving rather than using stunt doubles, which made filming easier.

"But it still ultimately became human beings trapped in a tiny space, trying to navigate in and around stalactites. The whole thing was much slower to shoot than I expected, and much more difficult to execute."

The boys were treated in hospital after their ordeal

Howard chose this story because, despite it being widely covered, he felt there was so much more to know.

"When I read Bill Nicholson's screenplay, it's one of those situations where I thought I knew more or less what had happened. And yet it told me I didn't know the half of it," he explains.

Howard is full of praise for the Thai Government's "lack of political interference and willingness to put pride aside, and open the situation up to volunteers".

"But make no mistake they were leading the entire time," he says.

The director was also very clear on was the portrayal of the Thai people and their culture in the film.

"I didn't want to take any chances," he says. "So there was no version of me accepting that this talented actor from Korea looks right enough that they could play the role. I just nixed that. I was rigid about casting."

Water was pumped out of the caves and diverted away from them

The film shows volunteers and experts diverting gallons of rainwater away from the caves onto nearby crops, which local farmers agreed to sacrifice.

Howard has made plenty of documentaries, and describes those made on the Thai caves rescue as "riveting" but adds: "The one thing scripted versions of stories can do is engage audience members' nervous systems. The actors, dialogue, camera work and music... open this pathway of empathy."

He wants the film to celebrate both the huge rescue effort and the international co-operation, as well as "giving audiences something thrilling, emotional and visceral for them to experience".

Thirteen Lives is released in cinemas on Friday 29 July and launches on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 5 August.
And, adds Rings, the discipline of dance gave them a thick skin. They knew they had to work for it. If the mainstream wouldnt employ them, they would forge their own path. We had a different fire, and a different way, she says. The decades to come would see triumph and tragedy. In 1991, Page took the helm of Bangarra Dance Theatre, where he has been artistic director for 30 years. Anu would become a star of Australian music. Rings joined Bangarra in 1993, fresh out of college where Page had taught her, becoming one of the countrys leading choreographers both in and out of the company. SandSong by Bangarra Dance Company. Credit:Dan Boud She often tells the story of how Page, this visionary storyteller, was casting for a prototype of Bangarras acclaimed, iconic Ochres and didnt give her a part. It just made me want more, she says. Page adds: I made her work for it. Now Rings is about to take over from Page as Bangarra artistic director.

Lawford, meanwhile, became one of the outstanding actresses of a generation, in countless stage roles as well as films Rabbit-Proof Fence, Bran Nue Dae and Last Cab to Darwin. She was an important cultural consultant and artistic collaborator for Bangarra; her spirit and stories inspired several of their shows. And she was a cultural adviser, she chaired boards, she exhausted herself speaking both Language and English. She was a bridge, says Page. She was getting pulled, says Rings. And then in 2019 she was lost, aged 52, dying from complications after an asthma attack in Edinburgh, a city that had embraced her. The shine in Pages and Rings eyes is the one reserved for a dear friend and stupendous talent. Sadness at her death, yes, and joy in her life. Page knows this feeling too well, having lost his brothers and collaborators Russell and David.

And so Page and Rings have created a show together for Bangarra called SandSong about, for and from Lawford, her people and her Country, in the Great Sandy Desert that slices into Australias heart from the north-west. Bangarra dancers Rika Hamaguchi and Baden Hitchcock. Bangarras latest performance Sandsong was created in consultation with Wangkajunga/Walmajarri Elders from the Kimberley and Great Sandy desert. Credit:Rhett Wyman/SMH [They] were displaced, and they faced incredible challenges, says Rings. Child removal, being used as forced labour ... their survival, their resilience, how they stand today, and this young generation who are proud living testament of this culture. Its a beautiful story that was shared with us through Ningali, who wanted us to do this work. During rehearsals Page and Rings kept wondering what she would have thought of it. And they found old recordings, from years ago, when Lawford would travel the world then come back to record little voices and Language with David Page. It was almost like she led us there, says Page. Throughout the process she was with us all the way. Shes probably with us now. Shes going, What are you doing in my city of Melbourne?

Loading Page and Rings remember visiting Lawford here. She would take them to her favourite restaurants and markets, where everyone would greet her by name. Wherever she went she found a family, they say. Her legacy is she told everybody elses story, says Rings. We wanted the opportunity to tell her story. Often people are reflective of Country. And [Lawfords] Country is dramatic. Its powerful, its old and its ancient and its dynamic. They come from the Great Sandy Desert, one of the most inhospitable places in the world. And you get these seasons, wet season, bang, dry season. Its always challenging, its character building. And that was their Ningali. As a child she would dance in the wind, perform in the elements, tell stories.
We probably dont, as a species, spend enough time looking at the brains of grandmothers. Rather than being recognised as the matriarchs and cornerstones of family units, as they are in some cultures, nannas are too often derided as cheek-pinching, bosom-heaving, lavender-smelling, force-feeding doddery old bats who while away the hours knitting in armchairs while sporting large, comfortable underpants (not that theres anything wrong with that).

But scientists have now established, the support  and good health  of grandmothers are crucial to the long lives, and health, of their kids, and grandkids.

Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit:

For a new study recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, American researchers from Georgias Emory University scanned the skulls of 50 grandmothers with an MRI machine as they looked at photos of their grandchildren, aged between three and 12. They were also shown photos of a child and adult they did not know, and photos of one of their own, grown children  an adult parent of the same sex as their grandchild.

As the images of the grandkids flicked past, the parts of the brain to do with emotional empathy  as well as those to do with movement and motor simulation  flared and crackled. Neuroscientist James Rilling said: When theyre viewing these pictures of their grandchild, theyre really feeling what the grandchild is feeling. So when the child is expressing joy, theyre feeling that joy. When the children are expressing distress, theyre feeling that distress. Pure empathy.
Jos watched with interest this week as the highly charged issue of death as mercy played out in Brisbanes Supreme Court via Rebecca Louise Burden, 47, who will spend at least 10 months in jail for the attempted murder of her father in September 2020 at his aged care facility. Loading The court heard how 68-year-old Steven Burden, who suffered severe dementia and cognitive impairment following a 2017 car crash, asked his daughter to please, just kill me, I dont want to be here anymore. He repeatedly asked you to get him out of the facility, and he was crying, said Judge Soraya Ryan, handing down her sentence on Friday. You stroked his forehead until he closed his eyes, then you took a cushion or pillow from the chair, placed it over his face and held it down over him for 25 to 30 seconds. He began to kick or jerk his legs. You stopped, removed the pillow, hugged him and apologised.

When he expressed his despair in wishing to end his life, a family member exercising good judgment would have responded with understanding and kindness. Loading Instead, you exercised very poor judgment and impulsively or reactively tried to kill him. The court heard Burdens father had no memory of what happened, and her attempt at killing him would have likely never been aired in court had she not immediately confessed to the facilitys staff, and later to police. There is no suggestion Steven Burden would have qualified for voluntary assisted dying under the new legislation.

But I feel very strongly for that woman, says Jos, reliving her personal trauma ahead of the courts verdict. As for her own father, she believes he enlisted the help of a man with specialist chemical or drug knowledge after she refused his request. Someone who had known him  visited him the day before he died, she says. I dont know who that man was, hes probably dead now anyway, so it doesnt really matter. But I can only say, I am so thankful to that man. And Im so sorry that I could not help my father. While the Burden case is extreme, many Australians will recognise the base elements of love, death and suffering in their own family stories, or the mere degrees of shifting circumstances by which they, too, could have been forced to accept or reject the question of mercy. Jen Blake feared it ever since her father, the late VAD campaigner John Ancliffe, made it clear he was not going to let motor neurone disease take his entire body.

Diagnosed in early 2019 at the age of 74, the condition progressively robbed him of his ability to walk, speak, control his bowels or swallow. In the absence of VAD laws, Jen remembers one conversation turning to the thickness of various brands and types of plastic bags. Dad was very clear from the get-go that he wanted us as far away from [his death] as humanly possible, Jen says. Jen Blake with her late father, voluntary assisted dying campaigner John Ancliffe. But, admittedly, there were times when he was planning, and I was thinking, What do I do if we come home and it hasnt worked? Do I finish it? Do I have to get involved? Of course, it never got there, thankfully. On June 5 this year, when his wife and Jen were out of the house, John administered drugs he had secretly obtained at some point after his diagnosis.

Thankfully, from what were told by medical professionals, his passing would have actually probably been quite peaceful, says Jen. At some points there were discussions of his death possibly being really quite horrific, and we did manage to avoid that. But theres no avoiding that he was on his own. We should have been allowed to be there to hold his hand while he died. Both Jos and Tanya Battel, founder of Facebook page Voluntary Assisted Life Ending (VALE), are pleased with the progress of the bureaucratic scaffolding being erected by government agencies to support the new VAD laws  which they believe are the best in Australia  from next year. To access VAD, suffering adult Queenslanders must show they have an eligible condition that is expected to cause their death within 12 months. They must also have decision-making capacity and be acting without coercion. Patients would then go through a multi-step assessment phase with medical professionals.

Tanya Battel, who has terminal breast cancer, is a voluntary assisted dying campaigner and founder of the Facebook page Voluntary Assisted Life Ending. But the advocates remain concerned at whether there will be enough participating doctors to ensure equality of access across the states vast geographic spread. On a personal level, Battel, who has terminal breast cancer and has nursed two parents through horrendous deaths, also fears the laws may not come soon enough if her health deteriorates. Doctors will be on Christmas holidays, and they may be limited in number in the early phases of the states new era, she says. In Victoria and WA, people have died waiting for their applications to be processed.

To streamline the process, Battel is calling for a dedicated VAD clinic staffed with independent doctors. Dying with Dignity Queensland committee member Sheila Sim describes the impending laws as a buffer against terror. The 76-year-old has faced four iterations of ovarian cancer, which has required the removal of her gall bladder and parts of her liver and bowel. Jos Hall and Sheila Sim (right). Credit:Dan Peled It may not be the thing that kills me, she says, but Im not under any illusions that its likely to recur, you know, at some point ... and I know what that brings. She approaches the right to die from a practical standpoint. Everyone is here for a limited time, she says. If you are fortunate, as she has been, you will enjoy this time and live it with passion.
The $580 million Mickleham quarantine centre, officially known as the Centre for National Resilience, might have seemed like a good idea back in early 2021, at least politically. A purpose-built camp plonked down in a relatively isolated spot, it would allow stranded overseas travellers to return home en masse and isolate in safety, and it would once and for all end the fiasco that was Victorias hotel quarantine scheme.

Guest rooms at the new quarantine hub in Mickleham. Credit:Paul Jeffers

These were different times, we must remember. A year into the pandemic Victoria was aggressively pursuing a policy of COVID zero, with vaccinations still many months away. February 2021 had us in yet another lockdown triggered by a failure of hotel quarantine, a scheme the state government had constantly bungled.

So, after much wrangling with the federal government for funding, Premier Daniel Andrews announced a solution he no doubt hoped would dissipate some of the political heat: the isolated, portable-cabin-style compound that would, eventually, spring up not far from Melbourne Airport, in the semi-rural suburb of Mickleham.

It was a decision made in haste, even panic, and we taxpayers were to repent at leisure. As workers toiled over the next year to bring the camp to life, the COVID landscape was already changing dramatically, thanks to mass vaccination. By November 2021, NSW had dropped many of the restrictions on overseas arrivals, with Victoria to follow suit. Meanwhile, the January 2022 surge in Omicron-driven infections made a mockery of shutting out potentially infected visitors: that horse had already bolted.
Bill Sykes knows the emotional toll of being on the front line of a foot and mouth disease outbreak. He can still remember how the slaughterers would let the bobby calves suck on their fingers like a teat, tenderly winning the animals trust before humanely killing them.

Sykes estimates thousands of animals were slaughtered under his supervision when he flew to England in 2001 to help contain the horrific outbreak.

Former Nationals MP Bill Sykes flew to the UK in 2001 to help contain the foot and mouth disease outbreak. Credit:Jason South

Sykes, a former regional vet officer in the Victorian Agriculture Department, said slaughterers handled the animals with compassion. But befriending the calves only to slaughter them moments later took its toll.

You use that trust to then humanely destroy them, he said. I found that pretty hard to watch.
The extraordinary cost of detaining people and treating them like criminals rather than identified refugees is one thing, but the money could have been better used in supporting them in the community. It doesnt make sense economically or socially to treat people in this way.

The cost of detaining asylum seekers ( Hotel detention cost $3 million a month , The Age, 23/7) should be worrying on several accounts.

For several years, we have shamefully ignored the UNHRC on the rights of refugees to be treated with compassion. That we still have refugees detained on Nauru is unacceptable and one can but hope that the new federal government may act with compassion.

Denise Stevens, Healesville

A case in point

George Brandis article (Rishi is dishy but Truss is true-blue, Comment, 22/7) illustrates out why political party rank-and-file should not have the final choice in the selection of party leader.

He writes: [Rishi] Sunak is the clever persons choice, but forecasts a win by Liz Truss the true believers favourite.

The article suggests that the UK is facing another period where the prime minister is not the best person for the task but rather the person who appeals to the narrow rump of Tory party members.

Gerry OReilly, Camberwell

Rhyme and reason

The Golden Treasury of Poetry was one of my favourite childhood books, and I read it avidly. Now we have a copy in the car so that when I drive my nine-year-old grandson to school, he picks a poem and reads it to me.
Photo credit: Florence Pugh wearing Carolina Herrera by Wes Gordon at the BAFTAs earlier this year. Courtesy of Carolina Herrera.

If Gloria Vanderbilt had Instagram, would she have worn brighter colors? Bolder prints? Maybe a tulle puff or taffeta concoction or two?

The heralded style of high society is changing. Look at any recent galathe The Frick Collections Young Fellows Ball, for instanceand youll see it: higher hemlines, a blast of color, divisive silhouettes and a penchant for prints. That old-school ideal of long gowns, neutral hues, preppy pantsuits, or demure tweed skirt suits? Its dead. The purists of high society dressing are fading away. And theres one person who has very much been at the center of it all these past few years: Wes Gordon.

In 2018, Gordon took over the Carolina Herrera brand after working directly under the designer herself. His work is really above trends, says Sarah Hoover . The it-girl and former Gagosian gallery director served as the chairman of the Frick Young Fellows Ball earlier this spring and frequently wears Gordons work. Its not getting sucked into the 90s minimalism moment, its not getting sucked into kitsch, its really the right mix of classic and beautiful andwell, skin. Wes understands a corset, he understands boning, he understands decolletage. He makes clothes for people who want to feel the attributes they are empowered by are accentuated beautifully.

Carolina Herreras roots are intrinsically linked to high society. Herrera herself comes from the same background as many of her clients. Her grandmother introduced her to the world of high fashion, taking her to Balenciaga fashion shows and shopping trips at Lanvin. She was immersed in the world of Studio 54, hobnobbing with the likes of Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger, and became well-known for her standout style. In 1980, she founded her namesake line and less than a year later, staged a fashion show in which Iman walked the runway. Back then, it was very much an occasion-wear brand, centered on crisp blouses and elaborately structured skirts. Gordons work still abides by that same concept, but with one major twist: theres no rules about what can and cannot be worn to a gala, luncheon or party.

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In the past few months, Sharon Stone, Chrissy Teigen and Amanda Seyfried have all worn Gordons creations. Along with the wives of politicians, great-grandchildren of billionaire oil tycoons, and royalsall whose lifestyles are staggeringly different than they were when Herrera launched her brand in the 1980s, as many of them now find themselves balancing careers with charitable efforts and a life lived in pursuit of high style. Known for his poppy colors that draw on the house codes of Herrera, Gordon studied at Central Saint Martins in London before founding his own label in 2009the same year he graduated. Prior to taking the reins at Carolina Herrera, he was consulting at the label starting in 2017. He hit pause on his own line then, later shutting it down completely to continue work with Herrera. Gordon was only 31 when he was appointed, but the fashion world had already lauded his work. His own line, for example, had become a twice-CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund- nominated label.

I think some of my biggest impacts have been color, he tells us. Interestingly, Gordon moves in a similar social world as Herrera once didhe is married to Paul Arnhold of the storied banking family. With his boyishly messy side-part of curly cropped hair and ice blue eyes, he easily looks like any of the Upper East Side WASPs who buy the brand. From day one, I thought to make the house name synonymous with bold colors, drawing inspiration from that Latin foundation of Mrs. Herrera and her Venezuela upbringing.

As the creative director, Gordon has made Herrera herself the central reference point, pulling many of his ideas from the personal aesthetic of Herrera, who is known to dress up in taffeta puff sleeves up to her ears and jeweled earrings that dripped down to her shoulders. I have an absolute ban on anything that's gray or sad, he says firmly.

Those saturated pigments, rich electric rainbows, and vibrant hues could only be described as alive. Those hemlines, cut-outs and skin-baring hints? Higher, bigger and better than what you usually might see at a benefit, luncheon or traditional red carpet, even in 2022when old school rules seem to still apply to more conservative corners of society Still, the rules are not as strict nowadays as they were, you know, 30 years ago in the 80s or 90s when the Herrera brand was really getting off the ground, says Amy Fine Collins , the historian and authorwho herself goes to a handful of charity lunches, gala balls, and fundraising cocktail parties per week. I think Wes also helped to change the idea of when you wear a long dress. It used to be short for day and long for night, but now it's all kind of more mixed up.

For anyone who might raise an eyebrow at the baby blue taffeta puff sleeves floating off a tailored black suit jacket, or the dramatic sculpted bustiers that sit over a classic peplum and descend into the madness of fluffy ball of tulle, Gordon has an answer: I think there's confusion that elegance has to be formal, he says. That's something that I try to disprove with every collection. I think the idea of elegance can often be casual and whimsical and playful and not so serious.

The original ladies who defined the archetypes of high society fashion in the 1950s, like C.Z. Guest, Babe Paley or Lee Radziwill, had style all their own, opting for European labels first and foremost. Herreras generation in the 1980s laid out a more formal set of rules and with it, a refined American palette by designers like Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass. But todays society is less concerned with fitting into a box. They want to stand out, to be remembered not for following rules, but for forging their own paths, dressing with distinction and personality, and reinterpreting what a modern swan is. The concept of dressing up just to look rich? People want to lift the veil and make a show who they are and what they stand for.Thats partly why they might choose to celebrate a young designer. They dont want to dress how their grandmothers did, either. I like to respect a dress code in honor of the people who work hard to put together events, but generally if I feel pressure to fit into a box, I immediately RSVP no and then lapse into a rage-fueled tantrum on instagram, says Hoover.

As it turns out, the ultra-wealthy are just as unable to resist the siren calls of Instagram as anyone else. Fine Collins suggests that the platform might be the biggest contribution to a change in attitudes when it comes to dressing for society events, which may be why Gordons work is also so popular. People are looking for things that look good on Instagram. They need to photograph well, she says. She also adds that brands that cater to inclusivityin race and all gendersobviously have massive appeal in 2022. The way people dress in society has really changed, she adds. Thats the biggest difference. Look at someone like Jordan Roth, who has worn Carolina Herrera. Lena Waithe also wore Gordons electric rainbow cape for the 2018 Met Gala. The swans of today care about brands that celebrate representation and diversity.

The next generation of the high social circle, like Ivy Getty (who nets over 70k followers on TikTok), who attended the Frick ball as Gordons guest, are excited to have a dramatic moment that feels uniquely personal to their own aesthetic and personality. Getty wore a Carolina Herrera gown splashed with text that read, the art of kissing all over it to an event earlier this year, for instance. But she also wears a lot of vintage Blurmarine and Jean Paul Gaultier, as well as rarer 70s era pieces she inherited from her late father. A lot of people were surprised that it was Carolina, she says. I like doing something that always has an element that's unique or different. I grew up in San Francisco, and I feel really lucky, because there's no judgment in the city and you can really experiment. I love texture. I love feathers. I love silk and velvet.

Stylists are feeling the vibe shift of the society lady, too. One girl made a comment to me a couple months ago about wanting to deviate from the expectations of what her mother and grandmother wore, because if she only wore the same brands, she'd feel like she wasn't her own person, says Nolan Meader , a stylist who works exclusively with the ladies-who-lunch crowd, including Lauren Remington Platt and Candice Bushnell. I see so many people experiment in New York, adds Getty. I never feel like a black sheep dressing differently. And I love that.

While Herrera is a decidedly established brand that has existed since the 1980s, Gordons work is changing the narrative and DNA of the house. Theres been a rise of this crowd shopping for smaller labels that havent been around for decades, like Makarian or Jonathan Cohen, which, because of Wess direction, feel more aligned with Herrera, than say, Oscar de la Renta or Chanel, which are instead rather faceless and connect less directly with the shopper. As consumers, that crowd has become much more aware of their importance and their power outside of just these big brands, adds Meader.

Dressing up was relegated to social media platforms for many when COVID hit, quite literally for years, and perhaps thats one of the reasons why Gordans work feels expressive of this moment in timewhen society calendars are brimming without restrictions and the people who are dressing up are enjoying the actual notion of putting on clothes. A veritable feeling of ostentation is back, and its about freedom and doing whatever you want, but with a conscience.



It goes beyond that, too: Much to the delight of designers at the moment, socialites and celebrities are all having fun getting dressed, explains Gordon. It's not frivolous; the act of putting on makeup and putting on your favorite jewelry and putting on a shirt or a dress or a jacket or pair of shoes that makes you feel great. There's something really important about it that tells the world who you are, it gives a window into your personality and your soul.

Gordon is correct: in a world where fashion is ever reflective of our tastes and social presentations, he has given Carolina Herrera an identity that grabs the attention of the modern social doyenne. Bushwick has its Telfar bag, the Lower East Side has its Grailed Comme des Garcons and Vaquera picks, and a new subsection of New Yorkers has Wes Gordon as their own oracle of personality-driven fashion.



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Washington: The Biden administration is considering whether to declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency as total cases in the US soared to more than 2800, including two children, on Friday, a White House official said.

Certainly, its a conversation thats ongoing, Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator told reporters. Were looking at that, looking at what are the ways in which the response could be enhanced by declaring a public health emergency.

Mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right. Credit:AP

Jha added that any declaration would come from the Department of Health and Human Services.

One of the two first paediatric cases is a toddler in California and the other an infant who is not a US resident but was tested while in Washington DC, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Jim Currie worked out on a weight machine Wednesday morning at the Chippewa Falls Senior Center, before heading over to a treadmill. He says his total workout lasts about an hour.

Currie, 75, is a recent transplant to the Chippewa Falls area, having moved here last fall from the Houston area. The Chippewa Falls Senior Center recently added the fitness room, and they held a grand opening ceremony last week.

I joined (the senior center) specifically because of this, Currie said as he pointed at the new equipment. My wife does the yoga class, and a bible study, as well as up here.

Currie said he knows the value of the workouts, which he typically does three times a week.

I had to have a stint put in in April, and did rehab at (HSHS St. Josephs Hospital.) I wanted to keep doing exercises. So here I am, and Im loving it.

All the machines are new, and Currie liked that he could do them safely on his own.

The machines are simple  thats what I like, he said. You dont need a specialist.

Angie Walker, the senior centers executive director, was thrilled with the reaction shes seen since the fitness room was launched. When a quilting group exited the center, it freed up a large room on the second floor for the gym.

I had this idea in 2017, but it went on the side during the pandemic, Walker explained. Im a strong believer that 50-plus (aged people), exercise is extremely important, and camaraderie is important.

Walker said that for members of the center, the fitness room is $10 a month, while non-members pay $35 a month.

Since they launched the room, Walker said it has been a popular addition, and shes seen an increase in memberships. She is inviting anyone in the city over the age of 50 to come and check it out.

It is amazing the response of people, and how good they feel, she said. I feel it was one of the best decisions weve made. People need to think about their health, to stay in their homes. They need to use the room, for the outcome. There are no words to explain how phenomenal this is for the Chippewa Falls Senior Center.

Carol Johnson, 86, said she used to belong to another gym in the city before the pandemic shut it down. She has been a member of the senior center since 2003, and shes thrilled to have equipment there.

Its wonderful. The selection of machines is fabulous, Johnson said. They are great machines. You do feel good. You are a little sore, which is a good thing. You come back, and its less an less.

Walker thanked the Community Foundation, Westconsin Realty, Fries Financial, Leinenkugel Brewery, Northwestern Bank, Westconsin Credit Union, the Casper Foundation and Korgers Decorating for providing the money to launch the fitness center.

The senior center is housed in the former First Ward Elementary School, 1000 E. Grand Ave., on the East Hill of Chippewa Falls, and it was constructed in 1931. They acquired it for $1 in 1995, and it opened at that time. They typically have about 1,500 patrons a month.

The non-profit organization was formed in 1990 and spent the next several years working on finding a permanent home.

Carol Johnson, 86, said she used to belong to another gym in the city before the pandemic shut it down. She has been a member of the senior center since 2003, and shes thrilled to have equipment there.

Its wonderful. The selection of machines is fabulous, Johnson said. They are great machines. You do feel good. You are a little sore, which is a good thing. You come back, and its less an less.

Walker thanked the Community Foundation, Westconsin Realty, Fries Financial, Leinenkugel Brewery, Northwestern Bank, Westconsin Credit Union, the Casper Foundation and Korgers Decorating for providing the money to launch the fitness center.

The senior center is housed in the former First Ward Elementary School, 1000 E. Grand Ave., on the East Hill of Chippewa Falls, and it was constructed in 1931. They acquired it for $1 in 1995, and it opened at that time. They typically have about 1,500 patrons a month.

The non-profit organization was formed in 1990 and spent the next several years working on finding a permanent home.
To honor his father, Nicholas Wiener opened Josefs Cheesecake in Chippewa Falls three years ago. The globe-trotting chef diverged from his fine-dining background to make a go at doing desserts when he realized there was a need for it in the region.

After moving home to Chippewa Falls to help his mother care for his ailing father, Wiener said he started making cheesecakes for local restaurants and his now-expanding business was born.

Wiener started working in the restaurant industry at the age of 12. His dad was a restaurant owner in Texas and the place was called Josefs, he said. Wiener thought it was a fitting tribute to name his business Josefs too.

He didnt just happen upon cooking. Hes well-trained.

When I turned 18, I wanted to go to The Culinary Institute of America in New York, and I did. Once I graduated I was a chef all over the world, he said. Then when dad got sick I came home so hed be able to spend more time with his grandchildren. And so I could help mom. She didnt want to put dad in a nursing home. She wanted him to stay at home but he needed 24-hour care.

Wiener said when he moved to Chippewa Falls he shuffled around to different restaurants for awhile. The high-end chef didnt have a ton of opportunities in town  there arent a lot of places that needed someone with his elite cooking expertise.

I do high-end foods and stuff like that. But restaurants locally really needed desserts, he said. I never was a pastry chef; didnt go to school for that. But we needed dessert for local restaurants. So I started making these cheesecake cupcakes. They were so popular I decided to make them my signature.

Once the idea hatched to open a cheesecake business things moved incredibly fast. With the help of a local friend and colleague, Wiener was up and running in less than three weeks. It may have been the best decision of his life.

Since he began the venture hes concocted more than 450 cheesecake flavors. He doesnt have them all readily available on site but bakes cheesecakes fresh every morning, and at night after the storefront closes. He keeps the counter-case stocked with diverse options.

I make fresh cheesecakes every day. So I leave here, go into the kitchen and start making cheesecakes, he said.

He makes all the cheesecake, breads and cakes. His wife makes all the macarons that they carry. Wiener said hell make anything to special-order for events too. They recently made a slew of specialty donuts, for example.

I make whatever I feel like. If somebody says hey, make this, I just make that. Or, you know, if Im at the grocery store and something catches my eye Im like, I bet I can make a cheesecake out of that.

Business has been good in the three years since Josefs opened. Wiener chalks that up to the community support for small business. He calls being located in Chippewa Falls a blessing.

Josefs is now expanding and building a new storefront. It will be moving away from its current location which he says is in the oldest commercial building in town. Theyre also adding a food truck which currently has a transient license and will soon get fully licensed, once the new storefront property is done.

Wiener was over at the new location on East Park Avenue prior to the Chippewa Herald interview building counters, he said. Hes hands-on with all aspects of the business.

Everybody always asks Wiener what his favorite flavor is but he said he doesnt pick favorites. The father of five said picking his favorite cheesecake would be like picking a favorite child.

Two of the bestsellers are lemon-raspberry and itll eat which is a chocolate caramel, heath toffee cheesecake.

We had a different name on it and nobody ever wanted to say the name because its actually based off of the better- than-sex cake, he said. When dad was really sick, Mom would ask him, hows your dinner tonight? Hed say itll eat, so thats what we named it.

Wiener named other cheesecakes in honor of his father as well.

We have a few names like that in there, that are kind of funny phrases that he said towards, you know, while he was sick, he said. It helps carry on his legacy.
5 Arrested in Connection With Fatal Shooting in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif.Police announced July 22 the arrest of five people in connection with a shooting in Long Beach that left a 24-year-old man dead and a woman injured.

After an investigation, the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) units served a multi-location warrant service in the cities of Long Beach, Signal Hill, and Los Angeles on July 21 which resulted in the arrests of the five suspects.

Four of the suspects were identified as 21-year-old Filasifoki Xavier Pio of Los Angeles, 19-year-old Santiago Rivera of Signal Hill, 47-year-old Michael Keith Levine of Long Beach, and 19-year-old Emery Jezabel Hinojos of Long Beach. The fifth suspect was only identified as a 15-year-old male from Long Beach.

Pio, Rivera, and the underaged suspect were booked on one count each of murder and attempted murder.

Levine was booked on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of being a prohibited person in possession of ammunition, while Hinojos was booked for possession of a firearm with a prior juvenile court sustained petition, acting as an accessory after the fact and concealing evidence.

The LBPD reported three men approached Duwayane Thomas shortly before 11 p.m. on June 3 in the area of 14th Street and Walnut Avenue and discharged their firearms without provocation, according to police.

As they fled the scene on foot, the suspects fired shots at the woman, who was driving a vehicle nearby. Thomas and the woman were not known to each other, according to police.

Thomas was taken by paramedics to a hospital, where he died of his wounds.

Officers found the woman nearby suffering from multiple non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to the upper and lower body, and she was treated at a hospital.

LBPD homicide detectives believe the motive for the shooting is gang-related, but no further details were available.

Homicide detectives urged anyone with further information to call them at 562-570-7244 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
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.

By Alex Rosenberg of NerdWallet

The Epoch Times Copyright  2022 The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors. They are meant for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation. The Epoch Times does not provide investment, tax, legal, financial planning, estate planning, or any other personal finance advice. The Epoch Times holds no liability for the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided.
Abbott, Texans Push Back Against Washington Mayors Claims Over Illegal Immigration

Texas leaders are pushing back against claims made by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser after she blamed Texas for her citys struggles to deal with illegal immigrants.

Bowser said that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others are tricking illegal immigrants by transporting them to Washington. Abbott says the only lie being told is by the Biden administration about a border crisis the administration created.

Bowser told CBS News Face the Nation that shed called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses whose final destination isnt Washington. Roughly 100 people a day are arriving and the citys homeless shelters are full, she said.

The City Council also sent Bowser a letter requesting that she provide additional resources and ask the federal government for help.

We condemn these actions by Governors Abbott and [Arizona Gov. Doug] Ducey, who have demonstrated no regard for people who are exercising their human right to seek asylum. The District, on the other hand, has a history of serving all residents who settle here, regardless of immigration status, the city council members wrote.

The sanctuary city of Washington is a welcoming place, Bowser said, because we know that our neighborhoods are safer and stronger when no one is afraid to call on our government for help.

Because many illegal immigrants being released into the United States have shown they have no way to support themselves, once they arrive to the U.S. capital, they are finding limited assistance.

One humanitarian aid worker told CNBC News: We do not have the ability to sustain this. If theyre coming in from Texas but need to get to New York, that is an expensive endeavor. Because those arriving appear to have no money and their connections in the United States appear to not be helping them, some arriving are sleeping in the citys homeless shelters, parks, and on the street.

One Venezuelan man told CNBC News that he was in a good place living in Venezuela but he wouldnt have gone through that journey to enter the United States illegally if he knew he would have ended up on the streets in Washington.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (R) speaks at a news conference at the John Wilson Building in Washington on March 14, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Abbott directed the states emergency management division to transport foreign nationals to Washington after the Biden administration began releasing them into the United States instead of deporting them or requiring them to remain in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated. Texas also has sued over a range of policy changes the administration has implemented that it argues violate immigration and other federal laws.

On April 6, Abbott began the busing scheme as another measure to thwart illegal immigration impacting the state.

We are sending them to the U.S. Capitol where the Biden administration will more immediately be able to address the needs of the people that they are allowing to cross our border, he said.

In two months time, Texas had spent $2.9 million to bus 1,778 people to Washington at Texas taxpayers expense, The Center Square previously reported.

As to the mayors claims, Renae Eze, Abbotts press secretary, told The Center Square, The only lie is the Biden Administration telling the American people that our border is closed. President Bidens open border policies have created an ongoing humanitarian crisis, with record-high illegal crossings and deadly drugs like fentanyl flooding into our state.

Border communities are overrun and overwhelmed, she added, and the governor launched the border bus mission  to help provide support to these communities pleading for help where the Biden Administration is dumping migrants. With our nations capital now experiencing a fraction of the disaster created by President Bidens reckless open border policies that our state faces every single day, maybe hell finally do his job and secure the border.

John Hostettler, a vice president with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said, Texas hasnt tricked the illegal immigrants heading north. It is the Biden administration who has fooled potential asylum seekers into believing that making the dangerous journey will result in them receiving special status to stay in America. In truth, the vast majority of asylum claims are ultimately denied.

If Mayor Bowser would like to stop the influx of migrants into her city, she should instead join the calls to fix the root cause of illegal migration: an administration that encourages illegal crossings and refuses to secure the border, he added.

The Texas legislature has so far allocated more than $4 billion to border security efforts through Operation Lone Star and Texas is the first state in U.S. history to build its own border wall.

By Bethany Blankley
The COVID-19 response has raised questions regarding freedom in Western societies that we thought a few years ago were settled. Is freedom something we are allowed, or granted? Or is it something we are born with, which can therefore only be removed? What is the status, now or in the future, of a child born into slavery, or a child born into a camp in Xinjiang or North Korea, or a child born into a digitized, centrally managed society of some future Western dystopia?

The temptation through COVID-19 has been to use science or evidence to oppose the removal of our rights. Why should a college student be subject to a vaccine mandate if they already have post-infection immunity, or an unvaccinated person have travel restricted when the vaccinated have higher infection rates? Such approaches are tempting to embrace, as theyre based on logic and thus hard to refute. But they serve those who would remove freedom by reinforcing the fundamental requirements they need to justify their tyranny. They reinforce the tyrants requirement that freedom is granted based on actions or status, not the simple reality of ones birth.

We are free, or we are not. Science and logic cannot be the arbiters of that freedom.

The COVID-19 Crisis Should Awaken, Not Enslave Us

COVID-19 vaccine mandates have highlighted societys creeping acceptance of anchoring basic human rights to medical status. Like many public health physicians, I accepted, even supported, mandating measles vaccination for school entry. Measles does, after all, kill many globally. I was also fine with hepatitis B vaccination for my workplace. Both vaccines are generally considered safe, and very effective in blocking the target disease. My medical training emphasized that those who were anti-vaccination were equivalent to flat-earthers.

The COVID-19 public health response stepped this up, requiring injections as a prerequisite for both adults and children to participate in normal community activities. Vaccination status governed access to rights considered fundamental under the Universal Declaration of Human Rightsincluding the right to work, travel, socialize, and access education. It has even determined the right to access health care. Medical coercion has emerged from the shadows into the mainstream of public health.

The vaccine mandates have been fought with logic. Demonstrating the sheer absurdity of a general mandate for a disease that targets a well-defined population group (old age and co-morbidities), that does nothing to stop spread(i.e., no protection for others), and against which most are already better protected by natural immunity is an easy argument to make.

On the back of such evidence and logic, the movement opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, spanning truckers, restaurateurs, hospital employees, and politicians, has made some in-roads in rolling-back mandates. But progress is fragile, as authorities elsewhere seek to strengthen and widen mandates, and entrench the international pandemic preparedness industry that seeks to perpetuate coercion in public health. The frequency of mandates in educational institutions should tell us that something deeper than illogic and anti-science underlies this movement.

Small tactical victories based on logic will not win a war. If health fascism is to be dealt with as was the Nazism of a previous era, highlighting particular logical flaws will not be enough. Nazism was not sidelined because of illogic, but because it was fundamentally wrong. It was wrong because it did not treat all people equally, and it put central authority, and a perceived collective good, above the rights, and equality, of individuals.

This is the hill on which we must stand if we are to block the use of public health as a tool to enforce the corporate authoritarian society envisioned by the adherents of the Great Reset. This is a fight that goes beyond public healthit concerns the fundamental status of the human position. It must deny unequivocally the right of one group to control and abuse another. I do not have the right to mandate a high-risk non-immune diabetic 80-year-old to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Neither do you.

Freedom Is a Birth-right, Not a Reward

If we acknowledge that all humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), and that theres something intrinsically valuable about being human, then certain consequences must follow. Attempts were made to reflect these in the flawed declarations on human rights developed after World War II, and the earlier Geneva Convention. They are reflected in many religious beliefs, but not exclusive to them. This view considers every human to be of intrinsic, equal, immeasurable, and independent worth.

As an alternate approach, Nazism demonstrated how the justification of coercion and restriction based on a perceived common good rapidly eroded society. The road to genocide was paved by doctors, using public health as a veil for self-interest, fear, and an ability to hate.

Common good approaches view humans, all or some, as mere lumps of biology based around a complex series of chemical reactions. An individual has no fundamental rights, no fundamental worth, apart from the crowd. The future of the individual only makes sense where it benefits the whole. There is no fundamental right or wrong aside from the dictates of those deciding the future of the crowd.

Picking some middle ground between the twohumans are a little bit special but can be devalued when convenient (convenient to whom?)doesnt stand up well to deeper thought. Fundamental worth cannot be restricted by decisions made within time and space.

Genuine equality leads to the concept of bodily autonomyI cannot override you on matters concerning you. If humans have sovereignty over their own bodies, then they cannot be forced to modify that body or have it violated by others. Coercion involves threats to remove basic rights that autonomy and sovereignty provide, and is therefore a form of force. It seeks to remove a birthrighta part of our being if we believe that as humans we are born with such intrinsic rights. Such rights and freedoms mark us as more than a biological mass, never the chattels of others or the crowd. This is why we require free and informed consent for medical procedures where a person is in any way capable of providing it.

In consequence, freedom cannot be conditional on medical status or choice of medical procedure. If we are intrinsically free beings, we do not acquire freedom through compliance. Fundamental rights cannot therefore be restricted based on medical status (e.g., natural immunity) or choice of intervention (e.g., testing) or non-intervention. The promotion of such stigma and discrimination is contrary to recognition of these rights.

It remains tempting to take the easy route and oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates by highlighting the obvious flaws in the science claimed to underlie them. This is a useful toolthe purveyors of illogic and lies should be exposed. But it can only be a tool in demonstrating the falsehoods of others, not the path to a comprehensive solution. We must not feed the underlying disease.

Claiming natural immunity as a sole exclusion from COVID-19 vaccine mandates is no more logical than ignoring it. Immune members of older age groups are still at higher risk than the non-immune healthy young. Age-related risk varies several thousand fold (pdf), and neither vaccines nor natural immunity can bridge this gap. Do we mandate a young fit athlete to be jabbed because she happens to have avoided prior infection, while pretending an obese diabetic previously infected retiree be exempt?

If we are to nuance the risk, what thresholds of age and fitness will be used, and who will set them? How will natural immunity be measured? What type of testing will be used, how frequently and at whose expense? Will vaccine mandates be more acceptable if the vaccine for the next pandemic is available before many become naturally immune? Basing the argument on logic alone feeds the needs of those who would own us, and subjugates us as subject only to the laws of biology, not those of being.

This is not freedom. However well meaning, its on the slippery slope that leads elsewhere.

Freedom Has a Cost

Fundamentally, human rights cannot be dependent on compliance with public health officials. Or politicians. Or the whims of philanthropists and their favorite corporations. These rights must be an intrinsic part of being human, irrespective of the circumstance, irrespective of age, gender, parentage, wealth, or health status. Or we are, indeed, just complex chemical constructs with no real intrinsic value. Society, and each individual, must decide.

The COVID-19 public health response highlights the need to re-examine much of what we took for granted in health care. Respecting individual sovereignty doesnt exclude sanctions on those who intentionally do harm, but the imperative to control societys response to this underlies thousands of years of development of law. Cases of malfeasance are tested, transparently, in court.

Accepting individual sovereignty doesnt exclude protections from harm. Certain high-risk countries require evidence of yellow fever vaccination for inbound travel as an outbreak could result in high mortality. In contrast, school mandates for measles vaccination persist despite the vaccine effectively protecting all those who choose to be vaccinated. In the light of recent events, we need to weigh such requirements transparently and carefully, preventing intentional harm to others, but keeping the natural law of the inviolability of humanness paramount.

Sometimes respecting the freedom of others will cost us. The majority may need to swallow a risk for a time. Codifying the process, legalism, and law that expresses fundamental intrinsic human worth gives wisdom time to overcome fear. Its the insurance that keeps the members of a free society free. Insurance is the inescapable recurrent cost that protects from occasional, but inevitable, catastrophe. Enslavement in a medico-fascist society could become a catastrophe with no exit. So in opposing it, no quarter should be given.

From the Brownstone Institute

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
Bannon Calls for Republicans to Launch Jan. 6 Investigation After Midterm Elections

Republicans need to launch a congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol and how the events of that day were handled, Steve Bannon said on July 22.

The panel should also probe the House of Representatives special panel currently probing Jan. 6, he said.

If Republicans flip the House in the midterm elections, then we have to really govern, govern on offense, Bannon said on Fox News, speaking hours after he was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress.

Every committee in the House has to be an oversight committee, he added later. And we have to have a real Jan. 6 committee, including to get to the staffers now, and see about the lies and misrepresentations they put on national television to defame people. I would tell the Jan. 6 staff right now preserve your documents, because theres going to be a real committee and this is going to be backed by Republican grassroots voters and MAGA who are going to say, we want to get to the bottom of this for the good of the nation.'

Pressing questions include whether Ray Epps, a man seen urging people to enter the Capitol, was an FBI asset, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot dead by a police officer, Bannon said.

Conviction

Jurors earlier Friday convicted Bannon, placing him in jeopardy of serving prison time. The charges stemmed from his refusal to comply with a subpoena issued in 2021 by the House Jan. 6 panel.

Each count carries up to one year in prison.

The subpoena to Stephen Bannon was not an invitation that could be rejected or ignored, Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement. Mr. Bannon had an obligation to appear before the House Select Committee to give testimony and provide documents. His refusal to do so was deliberate and now a jury has found that he must pay the consequences.

Bannons lawyers have said they plan to appeal.

When a former president or a current president invokes executive privilege. Its presumptively valid period. Its not for Congress to decide that is not valid, David Schoen, one of Bannons lawyers, told reporters after the verdict was announced. Schoen also said Bannon was following the advice of his lawyer.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, the Trump appointee overseeing the case, previously ruled that Bannon could not say he was relying on the executive privilege that former President Donald Trump asserted, or advice from his lawyers, while rejecting efforts to subpoena House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the House members who serve on the Jan. 6 panel.

Bannon chose not to take the stand in his own defense, and the defense called no witnesses.

I had top lawyers. They wouldnt even let it be that I could rely on the opinion of my lawyer. Here, they took away every possible defense that somebody can have, a defense of law. Thats why we didnt even put on the defense. We just had an opening argument and a closing argument, Bannon said on Fox.

We got a long appeals process.  I think the law is with us on a number of situations. I think some of this is really going to be adjudicated, maybe even higher than the appellate courts. Im very confident that were 100 percent right on the law, but Im going to fight this all the way, Bannon said.

Iris Tao contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden works at the White House in Washington on July 21, 2022. (White House via The Epoch Times)

Biden Sick With Highly Contagious COVID-19 Strain, Continues to Improve

President Joe Biden likely has the highly contagious BA.5 variant of COVID-19, although his symptoms continue to improve, White House physician Dr. Kevin OConnor wrote in a July 23 memo.

His primary symptoms, though less troublesome, now include sore throat, rhinorrhea, loose cough, and body aches, OConnor wrote in the memo, noting that Biden finished his second full day of Pfizers antiviral pill Paxlovid on July 22 and continues to tolerate treatment well.

The sore throat and body aches are new symptoms for the president.

Biden is responding to therapy as expected, OConnor said, noting that his vital signs, such as pulse, blood pressure, breathing, and temperature, remain entirely normal.

Based on preliminary sequencing, OConnor determined that Biden caught the particularly transmissible BA.5 variant, which is the strain thats responsible for between 75 percent and 80 percent of current infections in the United States.

Biden will continue to isolate and his condition will be monitored closely, the doctor said.

President Joe Biden appeared in a video to speak about his COVID-19 case that was uploaded to his Twitter account on July 21, 2022. (President Joe Biden/Twitter screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Double Vaccinated and Twice Boosted

The president, whos fully vaccinated and has taken two booster doses of the vaccine, tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, on July 21 and has reported very mild symptoms.

In his first statement since getting sick, Biden said he was doing great and keeping busy.

Noting that he was double vaccinated and double boosted, the president said hes getting a lot of work done and thanked people for expressing concern about his health.

Given Bidens age, hes considered at risk for developing a severe case of COVID-19.

President Joe Biden waves as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on July 20, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Doing Really Quite Well

White House adviser and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci weighed in on Bidens condition in a July 23 interview on Fox News.

The president is doing really quite well. He continues to improve, Fauci told the media outlet, noting that he speaks to Bidens doctor twice a day and believes Bidens doing well enough to work.

Hes following the course of a person whos otherwise quite healthy, who did the right thing, got vaccinated, double-boosted, did the right thing, went on Paxlovid, and is doing well.

So I think theres nothing wrong with what hes doing by trying to get work done from a virtual standpoint.

Fauci credited Bidens mild symptoms to the fact that hes vaccinated and boosted.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks in Washington on May 11, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Voice Remains Deep

Biden took part in a virtual briefing with his economic team on July 22 to discuss high gas prices.

I apologize for my voice. Im feeling a lot better than I sound, Biden said at the briefing in a scratchy voice as he talked about lowering high prices at the pump.

In his memo on Bidens condition, OConnor noted that the presidents voice remains deep, suggesting that hes getting better.

The White House stated that it has started the process of figuring out who was in close contact with Biden and communicating with those individuals.

First Lady Jill Biden said in a statement on Twitter that she has tested negative for the virus.
Transgender rights group members protest against the Our Bodies, Our Sports rally at the Freedom Plaza in Washington on June 23, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Bidens LGBT Executive Order Seen by Some as Attack on Civil Rights

In a 10-page executive order issued on June 15, President Joe Biden declared war on conversion therapy and pledged to defend the LGBT community from various forms of discrimination.

The order, which was accompanied by a seven-page explanation, is one more salvo in the clash of rights in recent years over transgender issues. It describes conversion therapy as efforts to suppress or change an individuals sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

Keeping a campaign promise he made to the LGBT community, Biden called for an administration-wide push to eliminate the use of conversion therapy by therapists across the nation. He described it as a harmful and discredited practice that research indicates can cause significant harm, including higher suicide rates

My administration must safeguard LGBTQI+ youth from dangerous practices like so-called conversion therapy, Biden said.

The Williams Institute at the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles estimates that there were 2 million Americans identifying themselves as transgender in 2021about six-tenths of 1 percent of the nations population.

Twenty states and more than 100 municipalities have banned conversion therapy for minors.

To protect the rights of LGBT individuals from encroachment by other states, Biden is marshaling the resources of 10 departments of the federal government, along with numerous supporting agencies. The list includes the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development.

He said in his order that the Federal Trade Commission is encouraged to consider whether conversion therapy constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice and to issue such consumer warnings or notices as may be appropriate.

Such a designation by the FTC could expose therapists to prosecution.

The aggressive promotion of these and other LGBT policies has provoked a backlash around the country.

In the first quarter of 2022, 238 measures that would limit the rights of LGBT individuals were proposed by legislatures across the United Stateshalf of which involved transgender people, according to NBC News.

The state proposals aim to limit LGBT curriculum in schools, affirm parental rights, defend religious liberties, and restrict gender-affirming care (GAC).

The World Health Organization defines GAC as psychological, behavioral, and medical interventions designed to support and affirm an individuals gender identity when it conflicts with the gender the person was assigned at birth.

Bidens order has drawn strong opposition from former gays and lesbians, clients and their therapists, and civil liberty legal foundations, who say that individuals have the right to voluntarily seek help to be free of unwanted same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria (an uncomfortable state of confusion).

President Joe Biden signs a series of executive orders at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office just hours after his inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Brothers Road is a Virginia peer support fellowship made up primarily of men seeking to align their sexual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with their personal values, beliefs, faith, commitments, and life goals.

Many of us have been harmed, sometimes deeply, by therapists who demand that we embrace a gay identity and engage in gay relationships as, supposedly, the only possible path to peace, even if doing so would mean leaving otherwise satisfying marriages or cutting ourselves off from faith communities, beliefs, and traditions that we greatly value, Rick Wyler, the groups founder, told The Epoch Times.

Elizabeth Woning of California is a co-founder of the Changed Movement, an international network of people who no longer identify as LGBT.

So-called conversion therapy is a pejorative phrase that is being used to promote state-sanctioned viewpoint discrimination, Woning told The Epoch Times. LGBTQ-identifying people deserve the right to follow their conscience, even when it means receiving support to diminish unwanted sexual feelings.

Such bans dramatically oversimplify the lived experience of anyone who identifies as LGBTQ. They offer only one route for people to follow, no matter their faith or conscience.

And so, anyone who doesnt endorse Gay Pride for their own life is disallowed counseling that addresses trauma and emotional distress related to their sexual identity.

In the end, counseling bans cause harm and simply limit everyones freedom.

Nevada therapist Robert Vazzo told The Epoch Times, Dont ban anything that is poorly defined and can lead to a witch hunt among therapists whose world view regarding homosexuality is different from the mainstream.

Vazzo questioned the ability to determine at what point during a counseling session the therapist can be said to be actually practicing therapy and attempting to change a clients sexual orientation.

The desire to change ones sexual orientation is often linked to ones religious views and having thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are congruent with those views, he said. How a person expresses their sexuality and deals with attractions is a very personal thing, and we especially dont need Joe Biden and the federal government telling us what we should like, dislike, or try to change in ourselves.

Vazzo said the courts have consistently affirmed a therapists right to give his opinion during a session as part of free speech. He described Bidens order as an assault on both personal and religious freedom.

Tampa, Florida, recently lost a case that challenged the citys ordinance banning conversion therapy on First Amendment grounds. New York recently ended its ban on conversion therapy because of a civil rights lawsuit.

A transgender high school student (C) and classmate (L) visit the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles booth during a college and career convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2010. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

In a July 13 statement to The Epoch Times, Family Watch International, an organization that promotes and defends marriage and family values, said of Bidens executive order:

Elite leftists are seeking to prohibit parents and children from obtaining necessary, and demonstrably successful, care [while] the Biden administration is pushing gender-affirming therapy as normative treatment. This therapy includes such horrifying procedures as blocking normal adolescent development, administering cross-sex hormones, and performing mutilating surgeries that result in permanent sterilization.

Federal bureaucrats should not be micromanaging matters of health and wellness, especially as it relates to children. It is the role, responsibility, and right of all parents to determine the upbringing of their children, especially as it relates to their healthy development.

Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver in a February 2022 interview with NTDs The Nation Speaks program. (NTD/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Attorney Mathew D. Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance in cases dealing with religious liberty and family issues, told The Epoch Times in an email, I am confident that litigation will eventually doom these counseling bans.  To deny a client the right of self-determination is both unconstitutional and dangerous.

The ultimate goal of this movement is to prohibit change-exploring therapies and counsel, and to abolish the Judeo-Christian ethic regarding human sexuality, and even the very understanding of God.

He pointed out the irony in a system of laws where it isnt considered harmful to take puberty blockers, receive opposite-sex hormones, or undergo life-changing surgeries, yet its regarded as harmful to learn about the causes of gender dysphoria and how to become comfortable with ones birth sex.

Staver said that, under some laws banning conversion therapy, or what he calls change counsel, a counselor must either tell the client the type of counseling he may desire isnt permitted or, even though the client wants to change, the counselor must, by law, override the clients decision and counsel the client to accept unwanted attractions, behaviors, and identities.

These laws unconstitutionally restrict only one viewpointchangeon the subject matter of same-sex attractions, behavior, or identity. The U.S. Supreme Court has never upheld viewpoint discrimination.  Such viewpoint discrimination violates both First Amendment rights of the client and the counselor.  [The] government must not censor the viewpoint of any subject matter the client wishes to receive and what the counselor or therapist may provide.

California therapist Joseph Nicolosi told The Epoch Times in an email: In a client-therapist relationship, the client is in the drivers seat. They set their own goals, which the therapist helps them achieve. Politicians have no business telling people that their therapy goals are illegal.

Everyone should be free to choose a life consistent with their values.  No government should bar access to another persons choice to live consistent with their faith and their values.

Medical Experts Divided

The American Psychological Association, in a report released in 2009, stated that therapies used to try to change sexual orientation can be harmful and that most dont succeed.

In a 2018 position statement on conversion therapy and LGBTQ patients, the American Psychiatric Association recommended that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals sexual orientation and respect the identities of those with diverse gender expressions.

The psychiatric association stated that it encourages psychotherapies which affirm individuals sexual orientations and gender identities.

In a 2018 policy statement, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) stated, Conversion therapies (or reparative therapies) are interventions purported to alter same-sex attractions or an individuals gender expression with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome. 

These interventions are provided under the false premise that homosexuality and gender diverse identities are pathological. They are not; the absence of pathology means there is no need for conversion or any other like interventions.

The American Psychiatric Association ceased classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973.

The AACAP statement reads, There is evidence that conversion therapies increase risk of causing or exacerbating mental health conditions in the very youth they purport to treat.

A transgender pride flag is held aloft in New York on June 28, 2019. (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images)

Bidens executive order and the current narrative of the professional psychiatric and psychological guilds upon which its based; have received strong criticism from other medical quarters.

The habitually misquoted American Psychological Associations Task Forces 2009 report (on page 43) stated specifically that modern change-allowing therapy since 1978 was nonaversive, meaning free of infliction of pain or shame, Dr. Andre Van Mol wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.

Andre Van Mol, a board-certified family physician and co-chair of the Committee on Adolescent Sexuality of the American College of Pediatricians, said the Task Forces report explicitly states on pages 43 and 82 that research meeting scientific standards didnt allow attributing harm or help, inefficacy or efficacy, to change-allowing therapy.

Banning counseling choice for gender dysphoria condemns already at-risk sexual minority youth to experimental and unproven hormonal and surgical gender-affirming therapy (GAT), which permanently and prematurely medicalizes children for a condition that overwhelmingly resolves by adulthood, he said.

Van Mol said GAT hasnt been proven safe and effective. It doesnt reduce suicides and isnt the international standard of care for gender dysphoric minors.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) have introduced legislation that would allow adults who undergo body-altering gender-transition surgeries as minors to sue surgeons for damages for up to 30 years after the procedure.
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Deborah Birx listens during the daily CCP virus briefing at the White House in Washington on April 9, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Birx Says COVID-19 Vaccines Were Never Going to Protect Against Infection

One of the former U.S. officials who led the COVID-19 response during the Trump administration said July 22 that COVID-19 vaccines were not expected to protect against infection.

I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection. And I think we overplayed the vaccines. And it made people then worry that its not going to protect against severe disease and hospitalization, Deborah Birx, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator under former President Donald Trump, said during an appearance on Fox News.

The Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines were granted emergency use authorization in late 2020 to prevent symptomatic COVID-19, and were promoted by many health officials, including Birx.

This is one of the most highly-effective vaccines we have in our infectious disease arsenal. And so thats why Im very enthusiastic about the vaccine, Birx said on an ABC podcast at the time.

She made no mention of concerns the vaccines might not protect against infection.

Data shows the vaccines did prevent infection from early strains of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, but that the protection waned over time. The vaccines have proven increasingly unable to shield even shortly after administration, and provide little protection against the Omicron virus variant and its subvariants.

The vaccines continue to protect against severe disease and hospitalization, Birx said on Friday. But lets be very clear50 percent of the people who died from the Omicron surge were older, vaccinated, she said.

So, thats why Im saying, even if youre vaccinated and boosted if youre unvaccinated, right now, the key is testing and Paxlovid, she added.

Paxlovid is a COVID-19 pill produced by Pfizer that has had uneven results in clinical trials and studies, but is recommended by U.S. health authorities for both unvaccinated and vaccinated COVID-19 patients to prevent progression to severe disease.

President Joe Biden, who tested positive this week, was prescribed Paxlovid by his doctor.

There are signs the protection from vaccines against severe illness is also dropping quickly as new strains emerge.

That protection was just 51 percent against emergency department or urgent care visits, and dropped to just 12 percent after five months, according to a recent study. Against hospitalization, protection went from 57 percent to 24 percent. A booster increased protection but the shielding quickly dropped to substandard levels.

Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci also helped lead the U.S. pandemic response along with Birx and once said that vaccinated people would not get infected.

What was true two years ago, a year and a half ago, changes because the original ancestral strain did not at all have the transmission capability that were dealing with with the omicron sublineages, particularly BA. 5. So the vaccine does protect some people, not 95 percent, from getting infected, from getting symptoms, and getting severe disease. It does a much better job at protecting a high percentage of people from progressing from severe disease, Fauci said on Fox.

He said that vaccines with updated compilations, which are expected to debut in the fall, are necessary.

We need vaccines that are better. That are better because of the breadth and the durability, because we know that immunity wanes over several months. And thats the reason why we have boosters, he said. But also, we need vaccines that protect against infection.
For several months, Kelly Garcia and her two children, Juan and Meilani, have been waiting to see inside their new home in Habitat for Humanity Columbus' New Hope 2 subdivision, just off of 41st Avenue and 13th and 14th streets.

In May, it was previously reported by the Telegram, the project was moving faster than expected despite challenges with weather, supplies and manpower, thanks to volunteers.

Those same volunteers filled chairs and stood around tents at the dedication and ribbon-cutting on that subdivision's first home on July 22. Tears and cheers abounded as Kelly Garcia and her children cut the ribbon on their new home.

"They were beautiful. She had to leave a relationship with nothing but her two children and a car so having a place just for her and her family is so special. We're very thankful to the community," Habitat for Humanity of Columbus' Executive Director Lori Peters said.

The project was done in a little more than half of the time frame they had estimated, Peters added.

"I think what's special is that a five-year plan got accomplished in less than three because of the generosity of our community," Peters said.

At the dedication ceremony and ribbon-cutting, a large novelty check was presented to Habitat for $77,400 by Black Hills Energy for the subdivision.

Chuck Keep, president of the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity Columbus, made an introductory message of thanks to all those in attendance and those involved with the project.

Mayor Jim Bulkley spoke briefly to thank everyone involved and express his gratitude for the community's ability to pull together and help their neighbors in a time of need.

There were some rocky moments during construction, as the project started out without a construction manager. A team of volunteers from Detroit came all the way to Columbus to assist with that, however. That was just the first instance of people coming together to help others.

"That was another negative turned positive. We just could not find a construction manager and these volunteers from Michigan came and not only helped but helped do it two months faster," Peters said.

The project has seen immense community support during its construction, starting with a "hybrid blitz build" where workers move as quickly as possible during the construction process for a period of time and a women's build day where local women specifically were asked to come build and fellowship.

"The people who make up Columbus are truly something good," Peters said.
Canadian Convoys Hit the Road in Solidarity With Dutch Farmers

Multiple convoy protests got under way across Canada on July 23 in solidarity with farmers in the Netherlands and several other European countries who have been protesting against climate change policies over the past few months, saying the measures are threatening their livelihoods.

The decentralized protests were held by locals simultaneously across the country. In all, at least 55 convoys rolled out to support the Dutch farmers in eight provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.

Convoys from across the Greater Toronto Area converge in Vaughan, Ont., to support farmers in the Netherlands who are protesting against the governments climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Annika Wang/The Epoch Times)

Convoy protest in Edmonton on July 23, 2022.

Convoy protest in Vaughan https://t.co/OEWAE1E0px  Andrew Chen (@AndrewChen55) July 23, 2022

Women participate in a convoy protest in Vancouver to show support for Dutch farmers protesting their governments climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Vivian Yu/The Epoch Times)

A woman holds a sign with the colours of the Dutch flag to show her solidarity with farmers protesting the Dutch governments climate change policies, in Ottawa on July 23, 2022. (Annie Wu/The Epoch Times)

The Alberta flag is seen on a truck participating in a convoy protest in Calgary on July 23, 2022. This is one of dozens of convoys that rolled out across the country to support farmers in the Netherlands and other European countries who are protesting climate change policies which they say will hurt farmers livelihoods. (Cai Wei/The Epoch Times)

Convoys from across the Greater Toronto Area gather in Vaughan, Ont., to support farmers in the Netherlands who are protesting against the governments climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Annika Wang/The Epoch Times)

Supporters gather in Edmonton as a convoy of vehicles in solidarity with Dutch farmers passes by, on July 23, 2022. (Brian Gan/The Epoch Times)

In Ottawa, vehicles convened in the Kanata area to form a convoy, while other protesters gathered in the citys downtown, marching and cheering on protest vehicles as they passed by.

Police were present in downtown Ottawa as protesters gathered. In one spot, police removed a table protesters had set up to distribute pamphlets containing information about the protest, saying that according to bylaws, a permit is needed to have such a table.

The protesters in Ottawa marched across the citys downtown in a freedom parade, past the War Memorial and on to Parliament Hill.

Supporters of a convoy protest pose for a photo as they gather on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in solidarity with Dutch farmers who are protesting the governments climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Annie Wu/The Epoch Times)

A freedom march was held in downtown Ottawa to support farmers protesting the Dutch governments climate change policies, in Ottawa on July 23, 2022. (Annie Wu/The Epoch Times)

Kyle Norbury, an electrician from Edmonton who says he has been in Ottawa for five months protesting COVID-19 mandates, said he thought its important for him and others to support the Dutch farmers.

We are here as proud patriot Canadians supporting the Dutch farmers in their protests over in the Netherlands, Norbury told The Epoch Times.

Its important that Canadians make a stance for freedoms before theyre gone. We all see the government overreach happening all throughout the world right now, and its important the everyone stands united before its too late. Our freedoms are slowly disappearing as we speak.

In the GTA, convoys of vehicles and supporters converged in Vaughan around noon to form a larger convoy. The convoys came from dozens of regions including London, Toronto, Niagara, and Kingston, with some slow-rolling to the rendezvous point.

Kyle Norbury, an electrician from Edmonton who has been in Ottawa protesting COVID-19 mandates for five months, at the site in the Ottawa area where protest convoy vehicles had gathered earlier before hitting the road in solidarity with Dutch farmers protesting against their governments climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Annie Wu/The Epoch Times)

A protest convoy in the Kanata suburb of Ottawa in solidarity with Dutch farmers demonstrating against government climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Annie Wu/The Epoch Times)

A woman holds a sign in support of farmers protesting the Dutch governments climate change policies, in Ottawa on July 23, 2022. (Annie Wu/The Epoch Times)

Susanna Guetter and her husband, John Guetter, who run a farm in northern Ontario, said at the site in Vaughan that they were excited to see so many people coming out and supporting the convoy, as they are both of Dutch origin.

I think its a powerful example of us coming together to support something thats so important, and that is the production of food. When the world stops the farmers, the people starve, Susanna Guetter said.

In light of the climate change policies introduced in the Netherlands, John Guetter said he is concerned about those policies being implemented in Canada as well.

Were thinking about the children, grandchildren, future generations and for other people. Its just so important because if you dont stand up now, were going to lose everything, he said.

In Greater Vancouver, vehicles from different regions gathered in the downtown area, where they will protest in front of the Dutch consulate until 4 p.m. (PDT), and later make their way to the Vancouver International Airport for a rally.

What motivated me [to come is that] I do believe if you dont have any farmers or truckers, there is no food, said Susie Dodge in Vancouver. Dodge said she is also protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates, as she says she lost her job because she didnt want to get the vaccine.

A flyer created by a protester says: Farmers in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Poland are protesting due to their outrage over new government regulations that will force them to reduce their nitrogen fertilizer compounds and ammonia emissions, leading to a reduced number of their livestock and crops, ultimately causing bankruptcy in family-owned businesses.

It adds: Many farmers across Canada are already aware of these devastating policies looming over their livelihoods and are protesting across the country this Saturday.

A man holds up signs during a convoy protest in Vancouver to call for freedom and support Dutch farmers protesting climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Vivian Yu/The Epoch Times)

Vehicles gather in the Kanata suburb of Ottawa to participate in a convoy protest in solidarity with Dutch farmers demonstrating against climate change policies, on July 23, 2022. (Annie Wu/The Epoch Times)

Vehicles gather in a parking lot in Calgary to participate in a convoy protest on July 23, 2022. This is one of dozens of convoys that rolled out across the country to support farmers in the Netherlands and other European countries who are protesting climate change policies which they say will hurt farmers livelihoods. (Cai Wei/The Epoch Times)

Supporters from across the Greater Toronto Area gather in Vaughan, Ont., on July 23, 2022, to support farmers in the Netherlands who are protesting against the governments climate change policies. (Annika Wang/The Epoch Times)

Dutch Farmers Protests

The protests in the Netherlands were sparked by the governments decision to cut livestock numbers in the country by 30 percent to radically reduce nitrogen greenhouse gas emissions and ammonia. Livestock produce ammonia in their urine and feces.

The government wants to reduce these pollutants by 50 percent nationwide by 2030.

On June 10, the Dutch government issued a national and area-specific plan for curbing nitrogen GHGs, with some areas required to slash emissions by 70 percent and some others by as much as 95 percent.

The Dutch government has stated that there is not a future for all [Dutch] farmers within [this] approach, as reported by the U.S. Department of Agricultures Foreign Agriculture Service.

Farmers leave the city of Bathmen, Netherlands, on their way to the rural farmers protest in Stroe. (Bart Maat/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

The measures came after the highest Dutch administrative court found in 2019 that the country has been breaching EU laws for not reducing excessive emissions of nitrogen, which it said was harmful to plants and animals in some natural environments.

The EU climate change policy aims to achieve the United Nations 2015 Paris Agreement target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, saying this is needed to curb the rise of global temperatures. The agreement is considered a vital part of the U.N. Agenda 2030 for sustainable development.

Dutch farmers say they are being unfairly targeted by the measures, and at various times since the announcement, tens of thousands have gathered, driving tractors and snarling traffic, to protest the governments plans.

The requirements for a reduction in livestock come amid global food shortages and skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer prices.

Annika Wang, Annie Wu, Brian Gan, Cai Wei, Katherine Liu, and Vivian Yu contributed to this report
A verdict has been reached in the contempt of Congress trial of former Trump official Steve Bannon.

Countering the China threat is the top priority of Republicans in the China Task Force. We caught up with Congressman Mike Waltz, who is a member of the task force, about competing with China in the semiconductor industry and beyond.

The January 6 panel says former President Donald Trump chose not to act as he watched the Capitol breach on TV, while former First Lady Melania Trump breaks her silence.

Hundreds of candles were lit in front of the Washington Monument Thursday night, in memory of Falun Gong practitioners who lost their lives under communist persecution in mainland China.

Victims of Communism Memorial Fund President Andrew Bremberg speaks out about the ongoing atrocities taking place at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

Washington is known for its brutally hot summers, but this weekend, the temperatures will be dangerously hot.

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Uyghur activists wear masks during a protest against Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in front of the Olympics Museum in Lausanne on June 23, 2021 as some 200 participants took part to the protest. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

CCP State Media and Diplomats Used Social Media to Spread False Information About Xinjiang: Report

Chinas diplomats and state media outlets are using social media platforms to manipulate public opinion and spread false information to divert international condemnation of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, a new report found.

A report released on July 20 by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) found that since early 2020, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)s diplomats and state media have been using increasingly sophisticated online tactics to deny the human rights abuses it has committed in Xinjiang, the home of the Muslim Uyghur minority.

The report, titled Assessing the impact of CCP information operations related to Xinjiang, analyzed more than 613,000 Facebook posts and 6.78 million Twitter tweets and retweets mentioning Xinjiang between Jan. 1, 2020 and Jan. 1, 2022.

CCP Manipulation Active on Social Media

Of the top 400 most interactive Facebook posts (including reactions and shares), 60.3 percent were posted by CCP state media and diplomats; Of the 1,000 most interactive tweets (including likes and retweets), 5.5 percent were from CCP state media and diplomats, and 4 percent were from accounts suspended by Twitter for platform manipulation.

The CCPs top leadership considers information and disinformation central to geopolitical competition and influencing international opinion, according to the report.

Instead of improving its treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities, the CCP is responding to critiques of its current actions against human rights by coordinating its state propaganda apparatus, security agencies and public relations industry to silence and shape Xinjiang narratives at home and abroad, the authors wrote.

Workers are seen on the production line at a cotton textile factory in Korla, Xinjiang, China, on April 1, 2021. (cnsphoto via Reuters)

The researchers also analyzed 494,710 articles mentioning Xinjiang published in more than 65 languages between Jan 1, 2021, and Jan 1, 2022. Most were published in Chinese (55 percent) or English (35 percent). Chinese-language articles were more likely to make positive comments about the communist regimes national policies and actions in Xinjiang.

The CCP has carried out mass surveillance, detention, and re-education of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang in recent years under the pretext of fighting instability and counterterrorism.

Beijing has always denied the accusation of genocide in Xinjiang. However, leaked Xinjiang Police files published in May revealed the brutal persecution of Uyghurs in mass concentration camps, including executions of fugitives.

The report also warns that while social media platforms are increasingly removing fake accounts linked to covert CCP influence operations, the regime will enlist diaspora groups to shape perceptions of Xinjiang around the world.

Economic Sanctions Should be Expanded

Albert Zhang, the co-author of the report, argues that the impact of the CCPs information campaign is not widely understood internationally, and the global challenges posed have not been adequately addressed.

Governments must lead this policymaking process in coordination with allies and partners with shared interests, Zhang said.

Economic sanctions regimes that target the perpetrators of serious human rights violations and abuses should be expanded to include the distributors of disinformation and foreign propaganda who silence, intimidate, and continue the abuse of survivors and victims of human rights violations.

Governments should disrupt Chinese propaganda assets and identify strategic data sourcessuch as public opinion mining of US-based social mediathat are being exploited to improve the partys influence and interference capabilities.

In addition, governments, civil society actors, think tanks, and social media operators should create countermeasures and responses to CCP information operations and propaganda activities focusing on the discourse on human rights to blunt and deter malign CCP activity.

Workers walk by the perimeter fence of what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre in Dabancheng in Xinjiang region, China, on Sept. 4, 2018. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

In another report titled #StopXinjiangRumors: The CCPs decentralised disinformation campaign released in late 2021, ASPI found that the CCP was looking to influence international perceptions of its Xinjiang policies by publishing videos from Uyghurs saying theyre happy with their life in the region.

CCP policies in the region are framed as counterterrorism responses as a way of attempting to legitimise actions, while negative information and testimonies of abuse are simply denied or not reported, the authors said.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown speaks during a press conference to announce his intention to re-run for mayorship, at city hall in Brampton, Ont., on July 18, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Cole Burston)

Conservative Party Says It Had Evidence to Disqualify Brown, Releases New Allegations

A Conservative committee reviewing Patrick Browns disqualification from the leadership race has concluded the party had the evidence it needed to recommend he be removed from contention.

Its decision, released late Friday, contains new allegations Brown used money orders to purchase memberships and allowed non-compliant membership sales through a portal.

Mr. Brown was afforded ample opportunity to address these serious concerns, Ian Brodie, chair of the partys leadership election organizing committee, said in a statement.

The party says decisions made by its dispute resolution appeals committee are final.

The committee stunned party members and Canadians alike earlier this month when it voted 11-6 to remove Brown from the race. Brown has since launched his campaign for re-election as mayor of Brampton, Ont.

Brown hired Marie Henein, one of Canadas best-known defence lawyers, who filed a notice of appeal of the decision to oust him. The party then hired an outside lawyer to review that appeal request, and was bracing for additional legal action.

The party said the decision to disqualify Brown was based on a recommendation from its chief returning officer. A dispute resolution appeals committee had to decide whether the officer possessed the evidence to recommend his removal.

It says evidence included allegations Brown allowed more than 500 non-compliant membership sales.

Correspondence on this issue from the candidate indicates both an unwillingness and an inability to provide the (chief returning officer) with information about the individuals who were accessing the portal to register memberships the (party) had found to be non-compliant, the decision says.

It said Brown left the issue unresolved for two weeks and gave evasive responses.

In a statement Friday, Browns campaign called the ruling unjust and an affront to democracy.

Also in their ruling the party has significantly changed their story on why they disallowed Patrick Brown as a candidate, now that their first story has fallen apart, his campaign office said. Originally the party was telling the media it was because of improper corporate donations, which have since been found to be bogus claims. Now the party is saying, in their ruling, that the reason was because they received 500 suspicious memberships  and claim, without any evidence or supporting documentation, that the memberships were brought in by the Patrick Brown campaign.

Brown is to continue to pursue legal action, the statement said.

This is absurd and makes clear this was a rigged race from the start to install their chosen candidate, Pierre Poilievre, as leader.

The decision also addresses an allegation that Brown may have broken federal election law, which was brought to the party by a whistleblower.

After Browns ousting, Debbie Jodoin, a longtime organizer with the party, came forward as the one who spoke up, alleging Brown arranged for a third-party corporation to pay her to work on his campaign.

Brown has denied wrongdoing and said the party didnt provide his campaign enough details for him to properly respond.

In its decision, the dispute committee says the party offered Brown a chance to provide exculpatory evidence. He did not, the decision says.

Instead, the candidate offered the explanation of an innocent mistake and an offer to reimburse any implicated corporation expenses. That is an excuse, not exculpatory evidence.

The decision says the party considered the allegations Brown faced, and also the way he responded.

When it came to issues surrounding money orders, the dispute committee says the party received 78 money orders attached to membership forms that appeared to come from the same person.

The decision says Brown told the party he raised the issue with the individual in question, who said the allegation was false.

It says the party was left with information that Browns campaign had improperly bought memberships.

When confronted with this evidence, the candidate chose simply to deny the allegation without providing any satisfactory explanation, the decision says.

By Stephanie Taylor
Theres something about a shipwreck that seems frozen in time. Photographer Guntaphat Pokasasipuns underwater pictures of the sunken HTMS Chang have a beautifully eerie quality that makes it seem ageless.

He credits the wreck with being one of the largest, most complete dive sites in Thailand.

It sank on November 22, 2012, and quickly turned into a great artificial reef, thriving with marine life; from soft coral to the largest fish on the planet, a whale shark, the 32-year-old Thai divemaster told The Epoch Times. I try to take shots for every angle of it.

Intriguingly, long before it became an underwater photographers dream, the HTMS Chang was a U.S. Navy ship during World War II and in the Korean War. Originally named LST-898, it first set sail from Florida in 1944 to begin wartime missions near Japan, the Philippines, and Korea.

In 1952, LST-898 returned home and spent the rest of the decade carrying out Navy operations in the Pacific, Alaska, and along the West Coast. It was renamed USS Lincoln County, and after being decommissioned in 1961 having earned a clutch of battle stars, was given to Thailand and designated the Chang.

After several decades being used in the military, in 2012 it was scuttled to make an artificial reef for scuba diving. The dive site is located close to Koh Chang island in Trat province.

For Pokasasipun, exploring the waters around his country has been a lesson in how precious, and under threat, our oceans are.

Ocean is home to all of us, he said. Without the ocean, there will be no life. Through my experience of diving around Thailand, I can say that our home is now severely deteriorated.

I would encourage everyone to be aware that we need to save our home before its too late.

Pokasasipun started diving while in college, and photographing while on field assignments as an intern at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, around eight years ago. Before long, he realized his heart belonged to capturing images of marine life.

I started my photography with portrait and event shooting during the internship, before moving to landscape shooting since I fell in love with the tranquility of nature rather than working with people, he shared.

After he finished his course, he decided to practice underwater photography, and thats where his diving experience came in.

Diving skill is crucial as this will allow you to safely be in the right place at the right time, he said, adding that he now loves his job as a divemaster and photographer at DiveAddictd, a diving tour operator based in Bangkok.

It gives me the opportunity to capture this moment in time facing the underwater world; to share how beautiful it is and to give a reason for people to save the ocean.

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
End the Falun Gong Genocide

Sanction Chinas entire economy if it fails to improve human rights

Commentary

Beijing is conducting genocide against not only Uyghurs, but also Falun Gong practitioners. Economic sanctions on Xinjiang should be broadened to all of China.

The Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) genocide against the Uyghurs is now well-known. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the designation in January 2021, just as the Trump administration departed. Current Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed it two months later.

The genocide against Falun Gong is less recognized.

However, a 2019 international tribunal held in London found extensive evidence that contributes to a designation of genocide perpetrated against Falun Gong. Additional evidence, including in Chinese state media reports as recently as July 12, establishes the intent of the regime to eradicate the spiritual practice.

Chinas increasingly totalitarian political system has repressed at least tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners, including through arbitrary detention, torture, and forced conversion. One of the CCPs most shocking tools of genocide is forced organ harvesting, in which a prisoner is executed, or brought live to the operating table, when a patient needs an organ that matches the blood type of the detainee.

In April, the peer-reviewed American Journal of Transplantation published evidence of this forced organ harvesting, including through the murder of live prisoners.

It illustrates one of the worst threats from the CCP, which is the compromise of not only Party members or even Chinese citizens, but people around the world who believe they can derive benefits from China because of its repressive political system and lax protection of individual rights.

Those benefits sometimes include life itself, even as a Chinese prisoner is deprived of the same.

Transplant tourism to China is an example in which the vast majority of organs come from non-consenting prisoners. Patients from around the world fly to China to purchase the organs they cant obtain through years-long waitlists in their home countries.

Reenactment of organ harvesting in China on Falun Gong practitioners, during a rally in Ottawa, Canada, in 2008. (The Epoch Times)

According to a Chinese official in charge of national organ transplants in 2015, 80 percent of the 8,600 transplants in the prior year were from prisoners.

Despite sophisticated CCP attempts to improve the international perception of Chinas transplants, including the faking of scientific data, there is little evidence that the practice of sourcing organs from prisoners has changed.

In fact, there is new evidence that the donor pool for forced organ harvesting expanded due to the mass detention of Uyghurs and the systematic collection of their blood samples.

But the primary source of organs is Falun Gong adherents, because they typically have healthier organs due to their spiritual lifestyle, which avoids alcohol and smoking.

Laws should protect them, but most do not.

International frameworks that seek to restrict organ trafficking are lacking in specificity and enforcement. Countries from which patients travel for organ transplants have included some of the wealthiest and most powerful, including the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Israel, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

Only a few nations outlaw organ trafficking. In May, the United Kingdom passed a law against its citizens and residents traveling abroad for organ transplants that would be illegal in Britain. A similar bill has been proposed in the United States.

But we must go further.

Just as we are increasing sanctions on Russian exports across the board to stop its war in Ukraine, we can sanction China to stop its human rights abuse. Current sanctions against China are limited in scope.

The strongest are against goods made with forced labor from the Xinjiang region, yet Xinjiang is just one of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. Xinjiang businesses can still export to the United States by disguising their goods as made with consensual labor from one of 30 other locations in China.

And as genocides against Uyghurs and Falun Gong are conceived and driven at the national level, sanctions on China shouldnt be limited to particular regions. Neither should they focus on individuals who, when senior enough, are largely unaffected. These kinds of sanctions are arguably symbolic rather than having large economic effects. For the latter, all of China must be sanctioned, which would put maximum pressure on the regime in Beijing.

Our international allies should follow, imposing ever broader sanctions that would result in a gradual decoupling of China from international financial and trading systems if Beijing refuses to improve its human rights.

That gives the CCP a clear choice: Improve human rights in China or join countries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea as international pariahs.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Test tubes labeled "Monkeypox virus positive and negative" are seen in this illustration taken on May 23, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

EU Drug Regulator Recommends Clearing Bavarian Nordic Vaccine for Monkeypox

LONDONThe European Medicines Agency said Friday that the smallpox vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic should also be authorized against monkeypox.

The European Union drug regulator said its recommendation was based on animal studies that suggest the vaccine protects non-human primates from monkeypox. It is up to the EUs executive arm, the European Commission, to formally approve the vaccine based on the EMAs recommendation.

To confirm the effectiveness of the vaccine against monkeypox, the company will collect data from an observational study that will be carried out during the ongoing monkeypox outbreak in Europe, the EMA said. It added that the vaccines safety profile was favorable and the benefits of its use during the ongoing monkeypox outbreak outweighed the risks, noting mostly mild to moderate side effects.

The vaccine, known as Imvanex in Europe but sold as Jynneos in the United States, was already cleared for use against monkeypox by American regulators.

Of the more than 15,000 monkeypox cases reported worldwide, nearly 70 percent are in Europe, with more than 30 countries across the continent affected.

Doses of the Bavarian Nordic vaccine are extremely limited. Most of the worlds supply has already been bought by countries and regions including Britain, Canada, the EU, and the United States. None have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has killed dozens of people. No monkeypox deaths have been reported in rich countries.

People who catch monkeypox often experience symptoms that include fever, body aches, a rash, and lesions; most recover within weeks without needing medical attention.

Authorities in numerous countries, including Britain, Germany and the United States, have offered the vaccine to health workers and those at high risk of being infected by monkeypox.

The World Health Organization is deciding whether or not to declare the outbreak to be a global emergency, after convening its experts for a meeting on Thursday.
Former District Councillor Found Guilty of Public-Order Crime, Detained Awaiting Sentence

Former Shatin District Councillor Li Chi-wang was arrested in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, alongside several other people during a 2020 parade initiated by netizens. Li was charged with one count of making an excessively loud noise in a public area or committing acts of disrupting public order. The Eastern Magistrates Courts gave its verdict on July 15.

Magistrate Winnie Lau Yee-wan said that although the defendant did not commit any substantive acts of violence, he did verbally abuse the police and incited other demonstrators at the scene on the day in question. Lau ruled the defendant guilty of these offenses and had him remanded in custody until Lis sentencing on July 28.

Convicted for Being Loud During a Rally

The 27-year-old defendant, Li Chi-wang, was a member of the Wo Che Constituency of the Shatin District Council at the time of the alleged crime.

On May 24, 2020, Hong Kong netizens launched a rally against the National Anthem Law and the National Security Law in Causeway Bay and Wanchai, beginning in Be Water style (orderly progression of one group after another in comparison to how water flows). The police arrested several demonstrators, including former Shatin District Councillor Li.

Magistrate Lau quoted the prosecutions testimony. At about 4 p.m. on Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, the defendant suddenly fell and sat on the ground during a confrontation with the Hong Kong Police. After that, the police pulled up the cordon while the defendant shouted political slogans, inciting other demonstrators to do the same.

Soon after, he got up and accused a police officer of pushing him. He became emotional and caused bystanders to join in and scold the police.

Lau pointed out that Lis loud speech and other behaviors were inflammatory, insulting, and provocative, arousing the protesters emotions and hatred toward the police. Lis actions had intentionally challenged the police and elicited protesters chaotic behaviors at the scene. Hence there was a high likelihood that public order would be impacted, which would have only increased the chance of escalated violence.

Court Rejects Claims of Surveillance on Police

The defence claimed that Li was exercising his legal rights to monitor the police under the District Council Ordinance. The court, however, disagreed. The magistrate continued, District councilors do not have the rights and responsibility to monitor the police. Li was also not a district councilor of the area at the time of the incident. In addition, the Magistrate said Lis behavior caused more hindrance to the police, so the surveillance claim was rejected and seen as an excuse.

Apology to Everyone He Served

Li said goodbye on Facebook to the people of the neighborhood he used to serve. I am very grateful to everyone in my neighborhood and friends who have always supported me. There are too many things in life that cannot be controlled. No matter the outcome, I can only try my best.

Li also apologized to everyone in the Wo Che Estate neighborhood. He said he would not be able to continue his services for them and hoped they would understand and forgive him.

Case number: ESCC 2480/2020
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Josh Hawley Responds to Jan. 6 Criticism: I Dont Regret Anything I Did That Day

Sen Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said he does not regret anything he did on Jan. 6, 2021, in response to criticism he has received from politicians and media on the political left for persisting with his plans to challenge the electoral votes during the Senate session on that day.

What I did was stand up for election integrity, and also for the voters of my state, Hawley said on Epoch TVs Crossroads program on July 22. I think leading a debate on the floor of the Senate about election integrity is what the Senate is there for.

In 2016, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign paid an operative with ties to Russia to lie to the FBI and to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to surveil the Trump campaign and his associates, Hawley explained, noting that the Democrats have pioneered this and that Clinton, to this day, says that the election was stolen from her.

But when people inquire and press for answers regarding the 2020 election, Hawley noted, they are labeled a threat to democracy.

Peoples confidence in our elections is absolutely vital to a free and open, well-functioning democracy, Hawley said, adding that he objected to Pennsylvanias Electoral College results in January 2021 because Pennsylvania changed the rules of the election during the election. Thats wrong, and I hope it never happens again.

Hawley said that he does not regret that he filed his objection to the certification of electoral votes and participated in the debate on election integrity when he returned to Capitol on Jan. 6 after its evacuation.

Most of the people, the overwhelming majority of folks who went to Washington, D.C., and even [those] who were near the Capitol grounds, were there peacefully, Hawley said. I dont regret at all saluting the folks who were there protesting peacefully, I dont regret saying and defending their constitutional right to protest.

Protecting Election Integrity

Protecting the efforts of the states to take steps to ensure election integrity is one of the most important things for restoring public faith in the electoral process, Hawley said.

Missouri, the state Hawley represents, has really strong election laws, including voter ID requirements, he said, adding that Georgia and Texas want to make their elections safe and secure. However, he said the Democrats want to prevent that and to control elections around the country from Washington.

I think one of the most important things we can do is stop that and allow the states to protect their own elections, allow them to reform where there needs to be reform.

Hawley stressed the importance of taking back the House of Representatives and the Senate in the fall in order to strengthen congressional oversight of the Department of Justice, which he said is completely out of whack.

He said that on the one hand, the Justice Department is treating folks who are protesting peacefully as if theyre violent, as if theyre domestic terrorists, treating parents as if theyre domestic terrorists, while on the other hand refusing to enforce the lawif you want to firebomb a pregnancy care center, apparently just go right on ahead, if you want to threaten a Supreme Court Justice, apparently just go right on ahead.

Democrat lawmakers recently blocked a Republican resolution to condemn the wave of violence and vandalism targeting pro-life groups and churches nationwide. Over the past few months, pregnancy centers and churches have been set ablaze, had their windows smashed, walls defaced, and buildings firebombed.

Stand Strong

Hawley urged people who feel discouraged from voting due to a lack of trust in the electoral process not to give up.

Thats what the left wants. They want us to be so discouraged that we say, We just give up. If that happens, what, we just give them the country? We surrender the truth? We cant do that.

To the American people, Hawley says, This is the time to stand strong, have the courage of your convictions.

The only power that they have over us is the power of fear. Its the attempt to get us to say, Oh no, I was wrong, please give me your blessing, please forgive methats not gonna happen.

Eva Fu contributed to this report.

Ella Kietlinska Reporter Follow Ella Kietlinska is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on U.S. and world politics.
Antonio Mays Jr. (C) with his father in a file photograph. (Courtesy of Antonio Mays Sr.)

Family Suing Seattle Over Sons Death in Autonomous Zone

The city of Seattle is facing a fresh lawsuit over city officials treatment of the autonomous zone that sprang up there in the summer of 2020.

Multiple people were killed in or near the zone, which police officers fled after barricades were erected by radical activists following the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Lorenzo Anderson was the first. He was shot dead on June 20, 2020. It took 30 minutes for first responders to reach him.

Seattle recently agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Andersons father. Now relatives of another man gunned down are taking action.

Antonio Mays Jr., 16, was shot on June 29, 2020. Police detectives did not reach the scene until nearly five hours later, according to a claim filed by his family. By that time, according to news reports, the crime scene had been disturbed.

Through their actions and inactions, the city of Seattle, Seattle agencies, Seattle employees, the County of King, the State of Washington, their agents and elected officials are responsible for the preventable and predictable death of Antonio Mays, Jr. in the early hours of June 29, 2020, the suit says.

Those named either did not respond to requests for comment or could not be reached.

Summer of Love

Mays Jr. traveled from California, where he and his father had a barbeque sauce business, to join protests in Washington state.

He went to Seattle to participate in the civil rights movement, Evan Oshan, who is representing the family, told The Epoch Times.

He had a job, he had a future with money. He wasnt just some thug on the street. He went to be involved in the civil rights movement in Seattle when he was greeted with this madness and he got executed, Oshan added.

The zone, known alternatively as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) and the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), drew nationwide attention, with a rising number of complaints by area residents, businesses, and others.

But officials, instead of moving to disband the area or reopening the police precinct there, largely left organizers to operate it on their own.

Then-Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, said that there could be a summer of love due to the organized protest, the claim notes. City officials, meanwhile, actually replaced the barriers with concrete ones amid continued negotiations with the protesters.

Despite knowledge of the violence and chaos, Seattle leaders allowed it to continue. The summer of love inevitably turned into the summer of blood. It took several predictable and preventable deaths and life-altering injuries for Mayor Durkan to finally announce that Seattle would move in to take over governance of the CHOP,' the claim states.

The claim is a precursor to a lawsuit. It is required in the state and gives the government a chance to try to settle. But Mayss family is determined to sue those they feel are responsible for Mays Jr.s death.
Two Norwich, Connecticut, men have been arrested in connection with a shooting earlier this month near the Rhode Island State House and Providence Place mall.

On Thursday night, Norwich police arrested Jim Peterson Durandisse, 24, and Karljaphey Theodore, 23, who were wanted for possession of a firearm without a license and felony assault.

"A firearm was located in the vehicle at the time Norwich Police arrested them," Providence police Maj. David Lapatin said. Both are now awaiting extradition.

Providence police said the violence erupted on the afternoon of July 10 at 106 Francis St. during a dispute.

What we saw earlier this month: Providence police investigate shooting near RI State House and Providence Place mall

Zenil Gomes, 28, told police he was in the area returning his 2-year-old to Carminda Cardoda, the child's mother, with whom Gomes shares custody.

Police said they had selected that location because it was midway between Gomes' home in Brockton, Massachusetts, and Cardoda's home in Norwich.

More: 3 men sentenced to prison in Providence shooting that wounded 8

"When Gomes approached Cardosas car, the front-seat passenger and Gomes began arguing," police said. "The front-seat passenger pulled a gun and shot Gomes as Gomes ran away. A rear-seat passenger exited the mothers vehicle and also began shooting at Gomes and a friend who was with Gomes."

Police said shots were fired toward Gomes' car, in which his child was sitting. The child wasn't injured, but Gomes suffed a gunshot wound to his ankle and calf. He drove himself to Rhode Island Hospital.

The child remained with Gomes' family, police said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Connecticut police arrest two in Providence shooting near State House
Signage is seen outside of the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, on Aug. 31, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Fertilizer Cargo From Russia Heads to US as Many Worry About Food Shortages

HOUSTON/WASHINGTONA tanker carrying a liquid fertilizer product from Russia is about to arrive in the United States, sources and vessel tracking data showed in recent days, at a time of widespread worry that sky-high global fertilizer prices could lead to food shortages.

President Joe Bidens administration has not blacklisted Russian agricultural commodities, including fertilizers, in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion. Still, many Western banks and traders have steered clear of Russian supplies for fear of running afoul of rapidly changing rules.

Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of fertilizer, key to keeping corn, soy, rice, and wheat yields high. Farmers have scaled back fertilizer use due to high prices, and cut the amount of land they plan to cultivate.

Washington sanctioned Russian crude, refined products, coal and liquefied natural gas, and imposed an April 22 deadline to wind down imports.

The Liberia-flagged tanker Johnny Ranger was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on Monday carrying about 39,000 tons of urea ammonium nitrate solution, a fertilizer produced by combining urea, nitric acid, and ammonia, the sources and Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

The vessel loaded last month at St. Petersburg, according to Eikon data.

Details on the seller and buyer were not immediately available. The U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency declined to comment.

A State Department spokesperson said the United States has never sanctioned food or agricultural goods from Russia. Unlike the Russian government, we have no interest in weaponizing food to create humanitarian crises at the expense of vulnerable populations.

U.S. non-food sanctions will remain in place until Russian President Vladimir Putin stops the war in Ukraine, the person added.

In 2021, the United States imported $262.6 million worth of urea ammonium nitrate fertilizers from Russia, according to the Commerce Department.

This week, the U.S. International Trade Commission revoked duties on urea ammonium nitrate fertilizers from Russia in an effort to ease fertilizer shortages and price increases.

By Arathy Somasekhar and Timothy Gardner
Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Microsoft founder Bill Gates during the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference in Boao on the southern Chinese resort island of Hainan on April 8, 2013. (TYRONE SIU/AFP via Getty Images)

Bill Gates Funds Chinas Scientist Recruitment Project

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving money to the Chinese regime amid the regimes bid to tempt foreign scientists into the country.

Bill Gatess foundation issued a $100,000 grant in June to the Foreign Talent Research Center (FTRC) of Chinas Ministry of Science and Technology, according to the Gates Foundations website, the National Pulse first reported.

The funding is to help the Chinese regime organize a forum hosted by ZhongguancunChinas state-sponsored Silicon Valleyon pandemic preparedness and response. The forum has featured top leaders of the regime as speakers including, in its 2021 event, regime leader Xi Jinping.

While the 2022 forum will feature discussion topics such as global health and supporting pandemic-impacted disadvantaged populations, the agency affiliated with the Communist regime thats sponsoring the event, FTRC, oversees the hiring of foreign talents in science and engineering for Chinas strategic goals such as military-civil integration.

Meanwhile, the forums objectives go beyond talking about technology and health topics: as the organizers say, they aim to necessary to earnestly study and understand the spirit of the General Secretarys [2021] speech and build a technological hub in serving the national strategy.

Warnings of Chinas Threat

The foundations commitment to bolstering Chinas scientific advancement came amid mounting warnings of the threat the regime poses to the United States and the West.

Leaders from the UK and U.S. domestic intelligence agencies delivered a rare joint statement on July 6, warning that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the greatest threat to the international order.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the greatest challenge to the international order is the CCP, which seeks to undermine the United States, its allies, and its partners.

Meanwhile, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum detailed threats posed by the CCP in relation to covert theft, forced technology transfers, research exploitation, and cyberattacks that target virtually every sector of society.

U.S. officials have also warned that the Chinese regime uses recruitment programs, such as the thousand talents plan, to lure foreign academics to work in China, a process that facilitates the transfer of technology and know-how to the country.

The Trump administration launched the China Initiative in 2018 to combat the Chinese regimes state-sponsored espionage and theft of trade secrets. The program led to the prosecution of some two dozen U.S. academics, most of them of Chinese origin, who were alleged to have concealed funding ties with Chinese institutions and state-backed recruitment plans.

The Biden administration shut down the program in February amid criticisms of the program as racial profiling. Thus, chilling scientific exchanges between the United States and China surged.

Ties With Beijing

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation set up its Beijing office in 2007 and has since worked with the Chinese government on several domestic projects in the country, as reported by CNN.

Over the past three decades, Gates has visited China at least a dozen times, forging friendly relations with its top leaders.

In 2015, Xi met with Gates. Last year, Xi wrote a letter to Gates, thanking him for his efforts in combating the virus that started in the country Xi presides over.

I deeply appreciate the act of generosity of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and your letter of solidarity to the Chinese people at such an important moment, the letter read.

It came after the foundation committed to funding up to $100 million for the global bid to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak.

The foundation at the time informed that it would allocate $20 million to organizations like the World Health Organization, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Protection, the National Health Commission of China, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.
The founders of a new online campaign  #CanWeTalkAboutIt  hope to break the culture of silence around COVID-19 vaccine injuries by encouraging people injured by the vaccines to share their personal stories.

Launched last month with a live online Lets Talk webcast, #CanWeTalkAboutIt brings together the vaccine-injured with medical experts willing to speak out about the risks of COVID-19 vaccines.

The campaign also seeks to help people injured by the vaccines network and locate resources and information in their own countries and communities.

It also invites them to submit a black-and-white photo, with their right sleeve rolled up, wearing a band-aid to symbolize that they got the vaccine, and share the post, with a short description of the injuries they experienced, on their social media networks with the #CanWeTalkAboutIt hashtag.

In an interview with The Defender, Agnieszka Wilson, one of the founders of the campaign, said she became aware of questions surrounding the safety of various vaccines after sustaining a probable vaccine injury  rheumatoid arthritis, which she developed after she got the Tdap vaccine  during her pregnancy.

This incident led her to discover the silence that often accompanies vaccine injuries.

If you take a headache pill and you see that theres a side effect that makes your skin blue, then you obviously might say okay, it might be from that, right? Wilson said. But when it comes to vaccines, you cant really talk about these things.

Wilson said that the silence led her to do her own research on vaccine injuries.

Thats when I dug into this whole new level of silence that I didnt know about, regarding vaccines, she said.

Wilson said that she wanted to do more than just conduct her own research. She wanted to do something about it, she said  which led her to start the New York Medical Freedom Coalition when she lived in the U.S.

After returning to her native Sweden, Wilson launched her own interview program, the Aga Wilson Show, on which she interviews doctors and scientists.

Through this program, Wilson became aware about the looming risk of injuries related to the COVID-19 vaccines.

She also noted silence on the part of the mainstream media and a reluctance from ordinary people to speak openly about such issues.

We all heard and knew that the rollout [of COVID vaccines] was starting and we were going to see a lot of damage done by these vaccines, Wilson told The Defender.

But people were really scared, and especially [scared of] being associated with  organizations that were stamped as anti-vax organizations.

She added:

We all also knew that media was silencing it. These people were denied that these were vaccine injuries [but] we were seeing all of these things happening. So I thought, we need to do something, we need to start making people aware that these are actually dangerous vaccines.

Wilsons interviews with experts and her discussions with people injured by the vaccines led her to realize how completely excluded they are.

Wilson said:

Theres no disease in the world where you cannot talk about it  you can talk about cancer, you can talk about any kind of disease out there, but not this.

They have scientists that are willing to do research on this, scientists from the big institutions, and theyre just being ignored.

The media is complicit in this silence, she said. Theres something more going on than just this. Why is media being silent? Why are we not talking about this?

Theres never been a drug in history that has had so many side effects and no one is talking about it, she said.

Wilsons concerns about the side effects, silence on the part of doctors and scientists, and the medias complicity led her to start the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign.

She said:

I always work globally; I thought now we need to do something globally, we need to do a campaign thats going to start breaking the silence around this issue because people need to know.

We dont want any more people to take the shot, especially after what Im seeing in all of these groups.

Brianne Dressen, who was injured by the AstraZeneca vaccine during its clinical trial, got involved with the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign soon after its launch.

Dressen, whose non-profit organization, React19, offers financial, physical, and emotional support for those suffering from long-term Covid-19 vaccine adverse events globally, told The Defender the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign resonated with her.

Dressen said she was not only compelled to speak out, but also to help others do the same. Speaking out, especially in todays climate, is especially difficult.

The injured largely trust other injured, she said. We have been exploited and used so many times by people who just dont quite take the time to understand the impact they can have on us and our health.

Dressen described the situation as a double whammy for the injured, as they have been censored and stripped of any ability to have a voice by one side, and when we do speak out, many times the tone from those who wish to use our stories is tone-deaf, dehumanizing.

So, the injured clam up and huddle together in support groups with only each other, Dressen said.

Campaigns and support groups such as #CanWeTalkAboutIt play an important role in amplifying the voices of people whose individual ability to be heard or to enact change is limited.

Dressen said:

This campaign, in large part due to the simple and appropriate messaging, was able to strike the appropriate balance for the injured to feel confident enough to speak out. It was also a way for the rest of the world to see us move in unison across the globe.

It is challenging for sick people to fight for ourselves. Our energy is extremely limited. So instructions and campaigns need to align with not only our personal values but with our ability to physically tolerate the stress of the advocacy work being asked of us.

It is important that compassionate messaging and respect be there in order for us to feel safe enough to speak out and share our stories.

The culture of silence described by Wilson and Dressen extends to social media, where specific keywords are frequently censored by the platforms.

Dressen said the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign took into account this reality in its planning.

We already knew what words were going to get shadowbanned, so the strategy was to come up with messaging that sends the right message without outright using these words, she said.

I am very careful with my own messaging through our non-profit [React19] to ensure messaging is forward-thinking, has a positive slant. Instead of STOP or DONT, we use pro-safety, pro-informed consent, etc.

Wilson told The Defender the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign has three primary objectives, the first being to provide the vaccine-injured with visibility and a voice.

She said:

People are being bullied  for being vaccine-injured, and no one believes them. So we tried to  create a safe space for these people to speak their stories, but also for others.

How do we involve the public in this? We want others to support them. Thats why theres two sides of the campaign. One is for them to tell their stories, but the other is for people to actually acknowledge them and see them because theyre not being seen.

#CanWeTalkAboutIt also aims to give the public the ability to make an informed decision regarding the COVID-19 vaccines.

The second [objective] is to raise awareness publicly so that people understand the risks with the vaccine and hopefully make an informed decision, Dressen said.

Informed consent is not being given in the situation and the doctors are also not doing their job when it comes to swearing the oath do no harm. So we want people to be aware.

Fundraising is the campaigns third objective, according to Wilson, with the purpose of supporting all of these organizations out there that are doing the work to find solutions for the vaccine.

Indeed, the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign has partnered with a number of organizations, including Childrens Health Defense Europe, the American Health & Freedom Coalition, the World Freedom Alliance, the World Council for Health and Millions Against Medical Mandates.

The campaign also collaborates with local and country-based groups that already have their communities in place.

One of the goals of these local partnerships is to help the vaccine-injured find support groups near them.

Were pulling together those groups  because we want to build communities right on the website as well, so that people can find each other, Wilson said.

Networking is just one of the components of the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign, according to Wilson. The campaign also wants to host more live webcasts, like the June 17 inaugural event.

According to Wilson, the event brought together five experts and five injured, who  shared their stories and shared what they have been through in terms of adverse events or adverse reactions, allowing for a discussion with the experts on these issues.

The most important thing was that this conversation is so needed and we need to continue it because we need to do more research, more surveys, Wilson said.

We need to have people tell their stories so that the experts can understand what is going on.  We will continue having webinars more focused on specific topics so that we can get to the bottom with this and also support the campaign.

By sharing the stories of the vaccine-injured, campaigns such as #CanWeTalkAboutIt can help such individuals avoid continuously recounting their stories and reliving an event that may have been highly traumatic for them.

Wilson said:

We need to understand the trauma that these people are going through, and listen to them. Our job really is to ask them how we can create a safe space.

Some of them  dont want to tell their stories over and over again. It comes back to their trauma and they relive it, while others who are the spokespeople are actually the ones who maybe are more comfortable doing that.

Another challenge faced by the vaccine-injured is that their concerns are frequently dismissed by doctors.

Not only are they not being heard or  the doctors are not listening, but basically theyre not getting help, Wilson said, citing this example:

We had one Swedish woman who was part of the webinar and she was telling us how she just goes from one doctor to another and they just keep sending her back and forth and no one can tell her whats going on.

People have a very hard time because they just keep being dismissed. A lot of them are being sent home, [told] that they have anxiety, even though they have severe symptoms which could not be explained by just anxiety.

Dressen, who experienced adverse events within an hour of receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine on Nov. 4, 2020, told The Defender how doctors dismissed her.

Within the first year I saw close to 40 doctors, and had well over 60 office visits, a trip to the NIH [National Institutes of Health], and several hospital stays, she said.

I was plagued by an anxiety diagnosis for six months until I was able to go to the NIH. NIH confirmed it was post-vaccine neuropathy, and one internist confirmed the same after the NIH made the initial diagnosis.

This anxiety diagnosis came despite a broad array of symptoms, Dressen said:

My reaction started within an hour of my shot and was tingling down the same arm as my shot. From there my health declined over the next 2.5 weeks with double and blurry vision, sound sensitivity, tachycardia at rest, sweating, brain fog, dissociation, limb weakness, internal vibrations (that still haunt me to this day), confusion, vibrations in my brain, tinnitus, hair loss, severe nerve pain, etc. I had well over 30 symptoms.

I ended up in the hospital because my legs stopped working. I remember my husband standing over my bed begging my medical teams to just run one more test, look at one more thing. Without him, there is no question I would be dead.

I was sent home with in-home physical and occupational therapy to recoup my legs, retrain my bladder and learn how to do simple tasks like sort a box of toys  and a diagnosis of anxiety.

Several of these symptoms continue to the present day, according to Dressen.

I still have well over half of my symptoms: leg weakness, neuropathy, tinnitus, POTS [postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome], internal electrical feelings. But the sound sensitivity and light sensitivity are gone, she said.

Dressen pays $1,100 out-of-pocket every two weeks for intravenous immunoglobulin.

This is just one medication I need to stay alive, she said. This has impacted my life financially, physically and emotionally. My familys life and finances are now dramatically different.

Dressens injuries  and her experiences with doctors  led her to testify before Congress, testify before a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel, and participate in a press conference of vaccine-injured individuals organized by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).

According to Dressen:

My message to lawmakers is pretty simple: after being to the NIH for research and after participating in dialogue with the heads of the FDA for over a year now, I know the government simply is not doing their job.

We did our part. We did what we were told and were assured over and over that if something were to go wrong that there would be a safety net. But instead of a safety net, there is a huge gaping hole.

How long do the injured need to wait before these health agencies do their job? People are suffering now, they are dying now, they are out of work now. They cant wait 5, 10, 20 years for the intentionally slow wheel of government process to move forward. The pace we are going right now, progress is so miniscule that we all will be dead before the government makes this right.

This slow and ponderous pace is, in part, due to special interests, lobbyists and a whole lot of money, Dressen said, which have corrupted the process by which individuals like myself can attain proper medical care, engage in research on pharmaceutical harms and receive proper  or any  compensation.

For Dressen, the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign can play a role in pressuring governments and public health agencies to do the right thing.

The #canWeTalkAboutIt campaign is an effort to bridge that gap between these many sides and provide a neutral and independent place for those who are ready to listen and learn.

Wilson told The Defender that she would like to see the social media campaign of #CanWeTalkAboutIt get bigger, so that we can actually go viral and  [inform] the public that this is a serious issue.

There are millions of people suffering from vaccine injuries from the COVID-19 vaccine, Wilson said. We need peoples help to share so that we can reach out to the masses and warn them that there are huge risks with taking this vaccine.

Dressens message to the vaccine-injured is that youre not alone.

Never give up, never give in, Dressen said. There is one thing this community has that is unlike anything I have ever experienced and it is an enormous ability to love and support one another.

She added:

For those who are still trapped in their beds just trying to hang on by the hour or by the minute? That little bit of love and compassion could be the difference between life and death.

For Wilson, the phrase strength in numbers applies to those who are vaccine-injured.

We dont need to reinvent the wheel, Wilson said. We just want people to be able to know whos out there doing what and where the vaccine-injured can find protocols, communities, to educate them.

Wilson added:

We need more stories. We need to understand whats going on in order to do our job. So we want to bring together everyone under this campaign to start collaborating  and support one another, to really have a bigger impact.

Its time for us to come together and organize better because were stronger together. And thats how we can actually make an impact.

Wilson said the #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign also wants to raise funds to research vaccine injuries because governments arent doing it.

With this many vaccine injuries, its mind-boggling and absolutely unacceptable for the government and the medical establishment not to go into studies, she said.

Dressen expressed a similar sentiment regarding the responsibilities of governments toward the vaccine-injured, and the advocacy role campaigns such as #CanWeTalkAboutIt can play in promoting the reform of existing vaccine compensation programs.

HHS [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] needs to address the failing, under-powered and under-funded compensation program, Dressen said.

She added:

Similar to the [Vaccine Injury Compensation Program] vaccine tax that requires drugmakers to pay into a fund to pay for injuries, Washington can draft legislation that will require these drugmakers to pay a similar minimal tax into a fund for independent research on the potential harms of their products. The taxpayer should not have to foot the bill for this research.

Such efforts can also target the coordinated actions of social media platforms and other entities to classify any news about vaccine injuries as misinformation and to subsequently quash it.

Dressen said such practices do not just stifle free speech, they also cause material harm for the vaccine-injured.

The word misinformation is a powerful weapon that divides and dehumanizes, Dressen said.

The #CanWeTalkAboutIt campaign can bring the public into the mix, by providing a neutral and independent place for those who are ready to listen and learn, and also by empowering the public to drive change without waiting for governmental bodies to act, Dressen said.

The tools to fix this are not just the responsibility of the government. We The People have the power and obligation to unify and demand change. And when that change doesnt happen, it is our job to enact change.

She added:

Divided we fall. But together, our voice is powerful and can drive change. But in order to do that, we must listen and learn first. Can we talk about it?

07/22/22 Childrens Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Childrens Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Childrens Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Childrens Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
Hours After Indiana Mall Shooting, Help Delayed for 4 Nearby Victims

Hours after gunfire erupted at a shopping mall in Greenwood, Indiana, killing four people on July 17, a volley of shots rang out in a Beech Grove public park. At the time, Beech Grove medics were still assisting with the aftermath of the shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall, seven miles away. That left four Beech Grove victims waiting about 20 minutes for ambulances, at least twice the usual response time to most scenes, the citys deputy police chief, Tom Hurrle, said.

We have come to grips with the fact that all public safety is hurting for personnel, Hurrle said, adding that its fortunate that no one died because of the delayed medical response. But he worries maybe we wont be as lucky if a similar situation recurs in the Indianapolis suburbs.

Three people were wounded, and one died in the Beech Grove incident, which was reported around 9:25 p.m. at Don Challis Park, Beech Grove. Hurrle said the driver of an SUV was preparing to transport one or more wounded people just as medics from neighboring communities arrived. Hurrle said faster arrival of ambulances would have made no difference for Brandon Herron-Newton, 20, who died at the scene. He was the first homicide victim of 2022 in Beech Grove, a city of about 15,000 people that rarely sees slayings. I dont even know if we would average one [a year], Hurrle said.

The other victims survived, including Rosalina Vaughn, 19, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head, a police report says. Hurrle said the bullet went through the back of Vaughns head and exited through her cheek. Vaughn initially was in critical condition but is believed to be recovering well despite the seriousness of her injury, Hurrle said. Also wounded were an unidentified 16-year-old boy and Myona Hollins, 20.

At the park, officers confronted a complex situation. Besides trying to assist multiple shooting victims, police needed to corral about 40 witnesses so they wouldnt just walk away without being questioned, Hurrle said. The violence followed a vigil in memory of a man who had passed away. For some reason, a couple of women got into an argument; others intervened and separated the pair. But at least two or three people drew weapons and opened fire. No one was wounded by those initial rounds, as far as police know, Hurrle said. However, a second round of shots was fired, hitting the four victims, when occupants of a newer-model white Toyota Camry came out with guns blazing. Dozens of rounds were fired.

On July 21, police were still trying to track down the gunmen. Three people fled in the Camry, and at least two are believed to have fired shots, Hurrle said.

Hurrle said he and his department are grateful for the help they received from several neighboring police agencies. One thing thats helpful for us is [that] we share the same radio channel; we can all hear each other, so other departments were immediately aware of the circumstances in Beech Grove.

The incident underscores the importance of tactical medicine that the police department began emphasizing some time ago, Hurrle said, equipping police to render medical aid if ambulance crews are not immediately available. We updated our First Aid kits and added tourniquets and chest seals, so police are able to provide more than just a Band-Aid, Hurrle said.

Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley decried the violence and called for action. During a July 18 news conference, Buckley said he is a gun owner, and hes puzzled as to why someone would go into Greenwood mall and open fire with a long rifle. I dont get it; I dont understand. He also couldnt understand why people fired weapons at Beech Grove park. We are a good city, but sometimes evil finds us, he said.

Several weeks ago, the city began planning a peace walk, an opportunity for citizens to unite with one voice and say: Were tired of this. Were tired of this violence, Buckley said.

Buckley said the Peace Walk for Marion County, set for July 30, is taking on added significance. The event, set for 10 a.m. in the Sarah T. Bolton Park, along the Franciscan Trail, is intended to promote and encourage peace in the streets, a flyer says.
Some stamps qualify as miniature pieces of art, which by itself makes them collectible. Read on to see why these heritage assets are viewed by many as viable alternative investments.

What we now call stamps were invented by Henry Bishop, Londons postmaster general, in 1661. Originally, a handstamp was used to indicate the postage had been paid to send a parcel or letter, coining the term stamp. In 1840, Sir Rowland Hill invented the first adhesive stamp, the forerunner of todays postage stamps.

We use them to send postcards and pay utility bills, but for the most part, as more goods and services are paid for via online methods, postage stamps seem to be from a bygone era.

With their diminished use, collecting stamps as a hobby has fallen out of favor, but under some circumstances, stamps can be part of a diversified investment portfolio. Stamp collecting isnt to be confused with investment-grade stamps; in a personal collection, there may be emotional connections, such as countries visited, while as an investment, the only compelling factor is the potential for appreciation.

Some dealers and investors will spend many hours searching through stamp collections in hopes of finding that needle in a haystack stamp. (Luciano Demarchi/Shutterstock)

Not unlike old coins, the vast majority of stamps dont qualify as investment grade. While this means that old cigar box in the closet or attic full of dusty stamps probably doesnt hold one with the same value as a private island in the Florida Keys, it can happen.

In 1873, a 12-year-old Scottish boy spotted an odd stamp among his uncles papers; he sold the worn and unusual stamp to a collector. The stamp, a one-cent 1865 British Guiana, was later acquired in 1878 by Count Philippe de la Renotiere, who owned what has been described as the most complete worldwide stamp collection ever to exist. After the counts death, the stamp and the rest of his collection were donated to Berlins postal museum and then made their way around the globe.

Known as the Inverted Jenny, only one pane of 100 of these error stamps printed in 1918 have been found to date, making it quite valuable and a great investment candidate. (Courtesy of National Postal Museum)

In 1980, the Guiana stamp was acquired by John E. du Pont for $935,000. After du Ponts death, which occurred while he was in prison for murder, the stamp was sold at auction in 2014 for $9.5 million, making this rather odd-looking stamp the most valuable in the world, and du Ponts investment a rather good one.

The worlds overall supply of investment-grade stamps is limited. However, this supply can be diminished by fire, theft, water damage, insect damage, and other unforeseeable scenarios. As a result, while every investment has risks, a carefully chosen stamp can increase in value, with such increases usually taking place over the course of many years, making stamps a long-hold proposition.

When placing stamps in an album for viewing, take care to store it upright in a cool dry place to avoid damaging the contents. (AS photostudio/Shutterstock)

Unless you happen across an inverted Jenny stamp (a run of 100 stamps in which a World War I Curtiss JN-4 biplane is depicted flying upside-down) in a stack of old mail found in the attic, the two most common sources of investment-grade stamps are dealers and auction houses.

Before you buy, you need to know what to look for. Rarity is always a huge factor in determining current value and potential appreciation, but another factor to consider is the stamps condition; this ranges from mint, never used, and perfectly printed with zero defects, to good, with defects, creases, tears, faded ink, and other obvious signs of use. These factors will impact the purchase price regardless of how or from whom you acquire the stamp.

Stamp auction catalogs with winning bids information added can serve as a good indication of current and future values of investment-grade stamps. (Courtesy Shreves Philatellic Galleries)

An auction held by a reputable, experienced house such as Sothebys, David Feldman, Corinphila Auctions, Stanley Gibbons, Daniel Kelleher Auctions, or others can be a sound way for a knowledgeable investor to acquire asset-grade stamps. Potential buyers can attend these auctions in person or online. Dealers represent another source, and a bargain may be possible if a stamp dealer needs to liquidate inventory to make another acquisition.

As is the case with any expensive asset being considered for purchase, its wise to have an expert confirm the authenticity and condition of the stamp prior to transferring funds. (Courtesy of Dutch Country Auctions)

As is the case in buying anything as an investment, theres no such thing as having too much knowledge of the time under consideration. Sothebys postage stamp auction catalogs are highly sought-after sources of information and value.

Be aware that buyers at an auction will have to pay a buyers premium in addition to the winning bid. Premiums are typically 10 percent of the winning bid; always confirm the premium amount prior to bidding.

As is the case with any expensive asset being considered for purchase, its wise to have an expert confirm the authenticity and condition of the stamp prior to transferring funds. (Bjoern Wylezich/Shutterstock)

Investors should consider dealing only with auction houses that will agree to have the stamp certified for quality and grading prior to the buyer taking delivery. If the quality or grade is found to differ from the auctions description, the transaction can be canceled or perhaps revised. In any scenario, having a stamp certified can help to avoid conflicts between buyers and sellers.

Protect your investment-grade stamps by storing them in a cool, dry place inside sleeves and/or upright albums. Consider insuring them against theft or damage.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 29, 2020. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via Reuters)

Republicans Must Probe Hunter Biden Laptop If They Win Midterms: Rep. Matt Gaetz

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said that Republican lawmakers must focus on investigating the laptop of Hunter Biden, President Joe Bidens son, if the GOP wins control of the House in the November 2022 midterms.

Joe Biden and Hunter Biden have not lived one day under Republican oversight. If we get control of the House of Representatives, this [laptop] must be a central focus of ours, where weve got to get the truth out before the people, Gaetz said in an interview with EpochTVs Crossroads program on July 22.

Hunter Biden is currently under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud, lobbying crimes, and money laundering. He confirmed in December 2020 that his business deals were being investigated; the probe is being led by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a prosecutor appointed by former President Donald Trump. The federal probe dates back to 2018a year before Joe Biden announced his candidacy for presidentmultiple media outlets previously reported, citing unnamed sources.

Gaetzs remarks on July 22 come amid recent reports from Fox News and CNN, citing unnamed sources, saying that the federal investigation into Hunter Biden has reached a critical stage.

Meanwhile, a former Department of Justice official told the New York Post on July 21 that he believes a generous plea deal for Hunter Biden was in the works.

From the reporting that I have read, it seems more like a generous guilty plea is on the horizon, not some sort of sweeping indictment, Jim Trusty, a lawyer and former chief of the DOJs Organized Crime Section, told the outlet.

Republicans have previously repeatedly said they would act to renew investigations into Hunter Biden if they flip control of the House of Representatives in the November 2022 midterms.

Laptop Shows President Joe Biden Lied: Gaetz

Gaetz is the House lawmaker who in March this year entered into congressional record content from, files from, and copies from Hunter Bidens laptop.

Gaetz noted that President Joe Biden had previously insisted that he and his son, Hunter, never discussed Hunters business dealings. Biden had previously said in 2019: I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.

I think whats really instructive here is that Joe Biden originally took the position that he and Hunter never discussed Hunters business. And now we know that was a lie, Gaetz told Crossroads.

That was a lie based on the voicemails that weve recovered from Joe Biden talking about Hunters business deals with him, he continued. We know that as a result of photographs, where Joe Biden is with people who Hunter Biden is soliciting for money.

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, attends an event at the White House in Washington on April 18, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Hunter Bidens business dealings have included transactions with individuals and entities in China, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries, including during the time Joe Biden was vice president during the Obama administration.

A leaked voicemail that was left in December 2018 showed that Biden called his son to discuss a news report on Hunters dealings with a Chinese oil tycoon who had been charged with financial crimes. The White House on July 5 did not dispute the report about the voicemail.

Separately, dozens of talks between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden about Hunters business dealings had taken place between 2008 to 2016, the New York Post reported on July 16, citing a personal calendar on Hunters laptop. The meetings took place at either the White House or the vice presidents residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Several senators previously issued a report in September 2020 on Hunter Bidens business dealings. The report said that Hunter Biden engaged in millions of dollars in questionable financial transactions with associates and foreign individuals, including the wife of the former mayor of Moscow and people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Here For the Grift, Not the Service

The New York Post first reported in October 2020 it had received via Rudy Giuliani a copy of a hard drive of a laptop that Hunter Biden had given to a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019 and never retrieved.

We are now, as a result of the laptop, able to piece together travel records, text messages, emails, payments from foreign entities directly to Hunter Bidens discussions, meetings, and associations with his father, who was in a position of great prominence as the vice president of the United States at the time, Gaetz told Crossroads.

The hard drive from the laptop is said to have records of various business deals, pornographic images, and illegal content. Big tech firms quickly moved to suppress reports about the laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 general election in November.

If this is whats on Hunter Bidens laptop of yesteryear, imagine whats on the laptop hes using right now, Gaetz remarked.

He remarked: I worry about our country being sold out by a first family thats here for the grift, not the service. And by the way, not for nothing. But if you look at the policies Joe Bidens embracing, theyre the very policies that are making America weaker, and China stronger. You wonder if someone paid for that through Hunter.

President Joe Biden gives two thumbs up from a balcony of the White House as his son Hunter Biden (L) looks on during 4th of July fireworks in Washington, on July 4, 2022. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

When Gaetz entered the data of the Hunter Biden laptop into congressional record, he also entered into the committee record data from the repair shop that showed a copy of the receipt the repair shop issued when Hunter Bidens MacBook Pro computer was dropped off in April 2019, as well as a receipt evidencing the FBI taking possession of the laptop in December 2019.

At the time, on March 29, Gaetz had posed numerous questions to Bryan Vorndran, the assistant director of the FBIs cyber division, about Hunter Bidens laptop. Vorndran responded to Gaetz at the House Judiciary Committee hearing that he did not know where the laptop was or whether the laptop could compromise national security. He also said that Hunters laptop was not in his purview.

Gaetz said he believes Americans will vote to have Republicans take charge of the House to investigate the Bidens family business dealings.

Americans deserve an honest government that is not sold out to foreign interests abroad, or special interests here at home, he said.

But the congressman noted that many politicians are beholden to political action committees, lobbyists, various donors, and even business deals with family members.

Its the reason why so many of the institutions in our country have been weaponized against the people.

Frank Fang and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

Mimi Nguyen Ly Reporter Follow Mimi Nguyen Ly covers world news with a focus on U.S. news. Contact her at mimi.nl@epochtimes.com
Surveillance cameras are seen on a corner of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Sept. 6, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

Is the EU Using Chinas Methods of Surveillance?

Commentary

Lets play a quick game of word association. When you hear the word China, what other words spring to mind? Persecution, communism, tyranny, zero-COVID madness. How about surveillance?

Having lived in China for nearly two years, I speak from experience when I say the following: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) monitors the actions of every single citizen. Every move, purchase, and comment is censored closely.

As an EU citizen, I value privacy like many others. Too bad the European Union doesnt feel the same. Although the EU is not China, it is introducing a wave of new policies that are a direct threat to Europeans privacy.

As first reported by Tom Parker, an author at Reclaim the Net, the executive branch of the EU, the European Commission (EC), has put forward a rather troubling proposal. It wants to conduct mass surveillance of online chats. The new proposal, dubbed Chat Control, is being pushed by the EC as a way to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM), reported Parker.

However, according to a leaked document first obtained by Netzpolitik, a German-language news website on digital rights and digital culture, the grooming detection technology has roughly a 90 percent accuracy rate. That means that 10 percent of content will be falsely flagged.

Now, of course, the internet is a dangerous place, and child sex abuse is a very real problem. But remember, the Western world has been here before. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. Congress quickly introduced the Patriot Act. Ostensibly, the purpose of the act was to catch and punish terrorists (who doesnt want that?). In reality, though, it turned out to be a way for government agencies to spy on everyone, the good and the bad.

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on June 17, 2022. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

This is what makes the ECs new proposal so disconcerting. Interestingly, the EC just rolled out another new policy involving invasive tech and privacy erosion. As Didi Rankovic recently reported, from now on, all new cars manufactured in Europe will be fitted with speed limiters as a mandatory measure.

Intelligent Speed Assistant (ISA), a sort of high-tech GPS tracker, appears to be the ECs speed limiter of choice. As Rankovic noted, ISA is designed to prevent drivers from exceeding certain speed limits, and prompt them via audio, visual, and haptic warnings until they obey and slow down. A welcome measure, some will argue. Others, however, will view the policy as another sign of Big Government overreach.

Nanny States Are the New Norm

The EU is fast becoming one huge nanny state. Because of the EUs sweeping regulations, Ireland, my country of birth, has become an unattractive place to live. When one thinks of Ireland, they automatically think of the craic, an Irish word for fun. Behind the smiles and good banter, however, lies a harsh truth: the Irish government monitors its citizens very closely.

This brings us back to the new internet laws being introduced, which will directly impact Ireland and the other 26 EU members. As Konstantinos Komaitis, an expert in internet policy analysis, recently noted, by creating an Internet based on its own values and by subscribing its own values onto the Internet, the EU is making the same mistake China does: Its attempting to circumscribe the Internet within its own political, social and cultural confines.

With some 447.7 million inhabitants, the EU has a far bigger population than the United States, Canada, and Australia combined. But, like the EU, the abovementioned countries also appear to have little regard for peoples privacy.

The logo of the mobile messaging and call service instant messaging software Whatsapp on a tablet in Lille, northern France, on March 23, 2022. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images)

In the United States, for example, the FBI can monitor your WhatsApp conversations. From the looks of things, they also monitor your Twitter activity.

As Alan MacLeod, an investigative journalist of significant repute, recently discussed, Twitter has been on a recruitment drive of late, hiring a host of former feds and spies. The FBI, more commonly known for its domestic security activities, has recently expanded its remit into cyberspace, noted MacLeod.

Why wouldnt the FBI be interested in monitoring peoples Twitter activity? Considering at least 80 million Americans use Twitter, theres a lot of activity to be monitoredand potentially punished.

Meanwhile, the United States northern neighbor, Canada, secretly uses mobile data to track residents. The countrys national police force recently admitted that it uses spyware to infiltrate digital devices and collect data.

In Australia, the government also spies on its citizens, closely monitoring peoples WhatsApp messages. Law enforcement has created backdoors into chat apps and secretly monitored conversations.

So, as you can see, from Beijing to Brisbane, the walls have ears, and your screens have eyes. The China model is now, in many ways, a global model. Privacy is an illusion. To think otherwise is a form of delusion.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Even if youre not yet familiar with the term ESG rating, its shaping your world. ESG, or environmental, social, and governance, is a three-prong set of criteria used by the investment community to score how devoted companies are to pursuing ESG goals. High scores mean more investment dollars; low scores or being cut from an ESG index can be financially devastating.

James Lindsay, a leading expert in critical theory and Marxist ideology, explains how the ratings are powerful tools wielded by agencies like S&P, Moodys, Blackrock, and Morningstar to force corporations to adopt progressive policies. And behind all of it is the World Economic Forum, the U.N., and the Chinese Communist Party.

Lindsay is also the founder of New Discourses, and the author of eight books, including his latest: Race Marxism: The Truth About Critical Race Theory and Praxis.

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Protesters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. A judge ruled on April 8, 2022, that the conspiracy case against 10 Oath Keepers will be split into two trials, one in July and the other in September. (Jose Luis Magana, File/AP Photo)

Jan. 6 Protester Caught on Camera Remarking About Shooting Nancy Pelosi Sentenced to 60 Days

A woman who took part in protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to 60 days in jail, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dawn Bancroft was charged with offenses related to entering and remaining in the U.S. Capitol Building during the protests, which have often been described by legacy media outlets as an insurrection.

The protests took place during a joint session of the United States Congress that had been convened to certify the results of the 2020 general elections, which were disputed by former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

During this time, a large crowd gathered outside the Capitol building to protest the certification. The protests spilled over the permanent and temporary barricades with some people entering the Capitol building. Thousands of protesters, mostly peaceful, remained outside.

In an affidavit accompanying the DOJs criminal complaint, an FBI agent said that some individuals broke windows and assaulted police officers.

One protester, Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol police officer while inside the building. Another woman, Rosanne Boyland, was crushed and trampled when the crowd of protesters was pushed out of the tunnel, then repeatedly struck by police as she lay unconscious.

The FBI agent said the agency received a tip with a video purported to be filmed by Bancroft as she was attempting to exit the Capitol building, but was slowed by a bottleneck at the exit point.

During the video, Bancroft stated, We broke into the Capitol  we got inside, we did our part, the FBI agents affidavit read. Bancroft continued, We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the [expletive] brain but we didnt find her.

The FBI agent believed Bancroft was referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Charges

According to the DOJ, Bancrofts charges included entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

She previously entered a plea agreement on Sept. 28, 2021, and pleaded guilty to count fourthe misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building (pdf).

The DOJ said Bancroft was sentenced to 60 days incarceration and will be on probation for three years. She will also have to complete 100 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution.

Bancroft received a lighter sentence than the maximum set out by the U.S. Code, which can be up to six months incarceration and a fine of up to $5,000, as well as interest on any late paid fines.

Arrests

More than 850 people have been arrested over criminal charges related to the protests at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, including over 260 people who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

Five deaths have been linked to the aftermath of the protests, most prominently the death of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt who was determined to have died from homicide, having been shot and killed by U.S. Capitol police officer Lt. Michael L. Byrd.

Three other people died of what was ultimately determined to be natural causes, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who died on Jan. 7, 2021. At first his injuries were attributed to protesters but was ultimately found to be due to a stroke.

The other two people were men in their 50s who died on Jan. 6 due to hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Rosanne Boyland, who was in her 30s, was the fifth death. The D.C. medical examiner ruled her death as an accident from a drug overdose but video unsealed in December 2021 confirmed that Boyland was crushed and trampled when the crowd of protesters was pushed out of the tunnel, then repeatedly struck by police as she lay unconscious.

It is unclear how many protesters may have been injured as a result of police actions on the day.

Mimi Nguyen-ly contributed to this report.
Protesters gather at the police line on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Special to The Epoch Times)

Jan. 6 Defendant Dies by Suicide While Awaiting Sentencing

A Pennsylvania man awaiting sentencing for illegally entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, died on July 20.

The death of Mark R. Aungst, 47, of South Williamsport, was ruled a suicide by Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr., according to PennLive. A gas field well service technician by trade, Aungst is survived by his mother, a daughter, and three siblings.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Aungst traveled by bus to Washington to attend former President Donald Trumps Stop the Steal rally. He and a companion, codefendant Tammy A. Bronsburg, joined other people in the march to the Capitol.

In court, the prosecution presented evidence of Aungst and Bronsburg entering the Capitol at about 2:45 p.m. and leaving 30 seconds later. After 23 minutes, the duo once more entered the building, taking images and videos on their cell phones as they walked around the place and entered Senate Room 145. Bronsburg then posted a video she took while inside the Capitol on her Facebook account.

The pair were charged with four counts, including a misdemeanor charge of parading or demonstrating inside a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, entering and remaining in a restricted building, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.

Aungst and Bronsburg pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge; the other three counts were to be dismissed at the time of sentencing. Aungsts sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 27. He could have faced six months in prison and $5,000 in fines.

The two defendants were both free on personal recognizance. Neither Aungst nor Bronsburg had attacked any police officer or damaged government property while inside the Capitol, prosecutors have said.

Jan. 6 Defendants

By late June, about 840 individuals were arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. More than 300 had pleaded guilty, with 80 receiving jail time. Many of those charged with crimes are still languishing in prisons.

At a June 15 press conference, a group of Republican lawmakers criticized the way January 6 prisoners were being treated, terming it the D.C. gulag. They reported cases of prisoners being mistreated.

The January 6 defendants are being used as pawns to dangle in front of [Americans] to show that if you cross a certain line, if you support a certain presidentas in President Donald Trumpor if you dare to speak up against the government or  against an election being stolen, youre going to be used, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said during her speech.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Joseph McBride, an attorney for multiple January 6 prisoners and defendants, blamed the government for manipulating evidence. A pretrial detainee isnt supposed to be punished, as the person is considered innocent until proven guilty.

However, McBride revealed that his clients and others like them have been locked away in cells for months at a time, brutally assaulted, denied medical care, and have had their human rights violated.

Patricia Tolson contributed to this report.
January 6 Committee Details Trumps Movements During 187 Minutes At 8th Hearing

During its eighth public hearing on July 21, the House January 6 Committee unveiled testimony and videos alleging to show that President Donald Trump was too slow to condemn the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The hearing, led by Reps. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), focused on the so-called 187 minutes between President Donald Trumps speech at the Ellipse and his video telling supporters at the Capitol to disperse on January 6.

In an interview before the hearing, Luria presaged the tone the hearing would take, saying that Trump was doing nothing to actually stop the riot.

This claim, that Trump failed to take sufficient action in a timely manner, was at the heart of the committees presentation on Thursday.

What you will learn is that President Trump sat in his dining room and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff, closest advisers, and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American president, Luria said before the hearing.

Trumps Actions During the 187 Minutes According to the January 6 Committee

Broadly, the committee on Thursday attempted to give a minute-by-minute account of Trumps actions on January 6, starting at 1:10 p.m. ET upon the conclusion of his speech at the Ellipse and ending at 4:17 PM with his social media video telling supporters to disperse.

At the end of his Ellipse speech, Trump called on supporters to march to the Capitol in order to protest the certification of electoral slates by Congress.

So were going to walk down Pennsylvania AvenueI love Pennsylvania Avenueand were going to the Capitol, Trump said. And were going to try and givethe Democrats are hopeless, theyre never voting for anything, not even one votebut were going to try and give our Republicansthe weak ones, because the strong ones dont need any of our helpwere going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

In brief, Trump hoped that the protest might be enough to convince Republicans to approve objections to the certifications of slates where Trump and his allies suspected widespread voter fraud.

The committee places the end of the 187 minutes at 4:17 p.m. ET, following the release of a video posted by Trump on social media telling his supporters to go home.

I know your pain. I know youre hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it especially the other sidebut you have to go home now, Trump said in the video. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We dont want anybody hurt. Its a very tough period of time. Theres never been a time like this where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of usfrom me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we cant play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So, go home. We love you. Youre very special. Youve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that [is] so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.

What happened in between is based largely on testimony about his actions that day made by those reportedly close to the president.

President Donald Trump speaks at the Stop the Steal rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jenny Jing/The Epoch Times)

Jan. 6 Committee Accused Trump of Inaction, Ignoring His Tweets Condemning Capitol Violence

Generally, testimony displayed by the committee on Thursday echoed the general attitude expressed by Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann, who reportedly told White House counsel Pat Cipollone that Trump didnt want anything done as the Capitol breach unfolded.

To demonstrate this, the committee claimed that the Pentagon called the White House during the Capitol breach to plan a response, but Trump reportedly refused to take the call; rather, Cipollone took the call himself, Luria said.

It was around this time that Herschmann reportedly told Cipollone that Trump didnt want anything done.

Herschmanns comments echo similar comments in contested testimony by former White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who said that chief of staff Mark Meadows looked up at [Cipollone] and said, he doesnt want to do anything, Pat,' after Cipollone tried to demand a meeting with Trump.

After refusing to take the call from the Pentagon, Luria said, citing numerous interviews with senior law enforcement and military leaders, Vice President [Mike] Pences staff and DC government officials, that none of them, not one, heard from President Trump that day. He did not call to issue orders. He did not call to offer assistance.

At the same time, the committee claimed, Trump was aware of the breakdown of peace at the Capitol within 15 minutes of the Capitol breach.

According to the committee, Trump entered the private dining room just off the Oval Office at around 1:25 PM ET, 20 minutes after the Capitol breach began and 15 minutes after leaving his stage at the Ellipse.

From 1:25 until after 4:00, the President stayed in his dining room, the committee said.

Not mentioned by the committee were several tweets Trump made during the 187 minutes urging his supporters at the Capitol to be peaceful.

Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement, Trump wrote at around 2:38 p.m. ET according to tweets archived by the American Presidency Project. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!

Then, at 3:13 p.m., Trump wrote an even stronger exhortation to peace: I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order  respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!

While in the dining room, Trump was reportedly watching the events unfold on Fox News. However, during that time Trump allegedly refused to allow the White House photographer to take any photos, and none have been recovered of the president during this timeframe.

Cipollone, who said he was with Trump as he sat in the dining room, claimed to have no knowledge of Trump making any efforts to coordinate a response to the violence unfolding at the Capitol with the secretary of defense or attorney general.

Keith Kellogg, former national security adviser to Pence, echoed the claim, saying that he would have known if any such request had been made.

Trump during the hearing responded on Truth Social. Its Nancy Pelosis fault. She turned down the troops! he wrote, referring to his administrations previous offers to Capitol Police and its subsequent requests to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Speaker of the House, to send in national guard troops to maintain order.

Trump Advisers, Staff Demanded Stronger Condemnation

The committee also detailed how Trump reportedly was alone in his opposition to an immediate response to the Capitol breach.

Cipollone detailed in testimony how he and several other top players in the White Houseincluding Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Mark Meadowsspent much of the three-hour period after the speech at the Ellipse pushing the president to issue a condemnation of the attack.

I think I was pretty clear there needed to be an immediate and forceful response, statement, that people need to leave the Capitol now, Cipollone said in testimony.

An investigator asked Cipollone: So your advice was tell people to leave the Capitol, and that took over two hours when there were subsequent statements made, tweets put forth, that in your view were insufficient. Did you  up until 4:17 continue, you and others, to push for a stronger statement?

Yes, Cipollone replied.

Were you joined in that effort by Ivanka Trump?

Yes, Cipollone repeated.

Later in his testimony, Cipollone summarized that the attitude that Trump needed to condemn the attack was shared by, Overall, Mark Meadows, Ivanka [Trump]. Once Jared [Kushner] got there, Jared, General [Keith] Kellogg, he continued. Im probably missing some, but those are[former White House Press Secretary] Kayleigh [McEnany] was there.

Asked whether anyone on the staff or in the White House did not share the attitude, Cipollone replied, I cant think of anybody on that day who didnt want people to get out of the Capitolparticularly once the violence started.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House January 6 committee on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on June 28, 2022. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Witnesses Allegedly Corroborate White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinsons Contested Testimony

During testimony to the committee at the end of June, Meadows aide Cassidy 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.

The rally, Hutchinson claimed, 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 the White House limousine.

The charge has been denied by both Trump himself and, reportedly, by Secret Service agents who were with Trump that day.

Before the beginning of the hearing, Luria claimed that the committee had obtained testimony from two other witnesses purportedly corroborating the story.

Though details given by Luria were sparse, she said that one of the witnesseswho Luria said was a former White House employee with national security responsibilitieshad heard the same story from deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato. Specifically, the unnamed witness was told that Trump was irate when Bobby Engel, who was in charge of security that day, refused to allow him to go to the Capitol to join his supporters.

However, these claims leave out the most explosive of Hutchinsons claims, suggesting only that there was a conflict but failing to corroborate Hutchinsons claim that Trump became aggressive with Secret Service agents.

In a post on Truth Social following Hutchinsons testimony, 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.

Earlier in the day, Trump had also indicated that Hutchinson was far removed from his inner circle, casting further doubt on her claims.

I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and leaker), Trump said.

Reports have also come in from Secret Service agents suggesting that Hutchinsons claims about Trump lunging at and trying to seize control of the White House limo were false.

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 testimony, many Republicans and other critics of the committee have treated the story with skepticism, and used the Secret Service denials to discredit the broader claims made in Hutchinsons testimony.

Hearing Comes After Batch of Subpoenaed Secret Service Docs Leave Out Jan. 5, Jan. 6 Texts

Thursdays hearing came after a delivery of text messages and other documents by the Secret Service disappointed committee expectations when it was revealed that they did not include text messages between agents on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021.

Many messages, delivered in accordance with a committee subpoena, had been erased, panel member Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) told MSNBC during a July 19 appearance.

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 the TV appearance.

The texts were allegedly erased after a device replacement program upgraded the mobile devices of Secret Service agents, Murphy said.

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, Murphy explained. 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 first reported to the Jan. 6 panel by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Cuffari.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said 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.

Guglielmi maintained 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.

Because of the absence of the records, the committee was forced to move ahead with its Thursday hearing without the texts, which it considered crucial in detailing Trumps movements and actions that day.

Committee to Reconvene Next In September

The hearing on Thursday will be the last until September, Chairman Bennie Thompson announced at the hearings opening.

Our investigation goes forward, Thompson said. We continue to receive new information every day. We continue to hear from witnesses. We will reconvene in September to continue laying out our findings to the American people.

As that work goes forward, a number of facts are clear: there can be no doubt that there was a coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn an election overseen and directed by Donald Trump, Thompson said.

Also speaking at the start of the hearing, Ranking Member Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said that the dam has begun to break with new testimony.

In the course of these hearings, we have received new evidence, and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward. Efforts to litigate and overcome immunity and executive privilege claims have been successful and those continue. Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued, and the dam has begun to break, Cheney said.

Our committee will spend August pursuing emerging information on multiple fronts, before convening further hearings this September, Cheney said, echoing Thompson.

Hope of Trump Indictment, Preventing Possible Reelection Bid, Underpins Hearings

Members of the Democrat-dominated January 6 Committee have made no effort to hide their hope that Trump will face criminal charges for his actions on and leading up to Jan. 6, 2021. Charges that lead to a conviction of insurrection may put an end to his chances of running for re-election, which he has indicated he may do.

I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump or anyone else, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) in June said on ABC News This Week. They need to be investigated if theres credible evidence, which I think there is.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said the committee has laid out in various legal pleadings the criminal statutes that we think have been violated, and claimed that the panel has evidence that Trump knew Democratic rival candidate Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

I think we can prove to any reasonable, open-minded person that Donald Trump absolutely knew because he was surrounded by lawyers, Raskin said on CNNs State of the Union. He continues to spread [doubts about the 2020 election results] to this very day. He continues to foist that propaganda on his followers.

I certainly think the president is guilty of knowing what he did, Kinzinger said when asked during an appearance on ABCs This Week if Trump should face criminal charges. Seditious conspiracy. Being involved in these, you know, kind of different segments of pressuring DOJ, Vice President, etc.

It remains unclear whether the DOJ will take the unprecedented step of opening a criminal investigation of Trump, whatever the calls from members of the panel.
An aerial view shows the storage tanks for treated water at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, on Feb. 13, 2021. (Kyodo/Reuters)

Japan Nuclear Regulator Approves Releasing Treated Fukushima Water Into Sea

Japans nuclear regulators on Friday approved a plan to release treated water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, giving Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) permission to construct discharge facilities.

TEPCO said it planned to release treated water to a coastal facility, where it will be diluted with seawater and then sent through an undersea tunnel with an outlet 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away to minimize the impact on local fishing.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority has approved the plan, but TEPCO would still need local consent before proceeding.

Japans Foreign Ministry said it will work to dilute the tritium-containing treated water to far below the regulatory standards for safety, and ensure the reliability and transparency of its handling.

Nuclear regulators will conduct additional inspections of the discharge facilities before TEPCO can begin disposing of treated water, according to the ministry.

The discharge of the ALPS treated water into the sea will not start until after these steps are duly taken, it said in a statement.

Japan had also asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess the handling of the wastewater to ensure that it meets international safety standards, amid concerns from neighboring countries about the potential health risks of releasing the water.

Experts from the IAEA visited the plant earlier this year and said Japan was taking appropriate steps for the planned discharge.

The IAEA will continue to conduct its independent review throughout, including while these steps are taken, and the government of Japan will carefully consider the findings and observations from the IAEAs review, the Foreign Ministry stated.

Scientists claimed that impacts of long-term, low-dose exposure to tritium for the environment and humans are still unknown, but added that tritium could affect humans more when it is consumed in fish.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plants cooling systems, causing triple meltdowns and the release of large amounts of radiation.

Water that was used to cool the three damaged reactor cores, which remain highly radioactive, has since leaked into basements of the reactor buildings but was collected and stored in tanks.

The contaminated water is being stored in about 1,000 tanks at the damaged plant. TEPCO aims to remove storage tanks and make room for facilities needed for the plants decommissioning. The tanks are expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A mourner offers flowers next to a picture of late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, on the day to mark a week after his assassination at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters, in Tokyo on July 15, 2022. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

Japanese Government Approves State Funeral Date for Slain Former Prime Minister Abe

TOKYOThe Japanese government said on Friday it would hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 27.

Abe, prime minister for more than eight years over two terms and hugely influential in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) even after leaving office, was gunned down two weeks ago at a campaign rally, an incident that deeply shocked Japan.

His funeral was held soon after, but the cabinet decided on Friday that a state funeral will be held on Sept. 27 at the Nippon Budokan in central Tokyo.

We made this decision, as has been said before, due to Abes record as the longest-serving prime minister, during which he exerted leadership skills distinctive from others and bore heavy responsibility for dealing with a number of serious domestic and international issues, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference on Friday.

The funeral will be fully paid for by state funds likely to be taken from the budget reserve, he said.

The last state funeral for an ex-prime minister paid for fully by state funds was in 1967, with successive funerals paid for partly by the state and partly by the LDP.

The current plan has triggered growing disquiet. Around 200 people gathered near the prime ministers office in Tokyo to protest the decision, according to the Kyodo news agency, and on social media objections ranged from the use of taxpayer funds, to complaints the government may seek to make political capital of Abes death and cement his legacy.

On Thursday, 50 people filed for an injunction in a Tokyo court seeking a halt to the use of public funds for the event, saying there should have been more discussion before making a decision.
Judge Issues Rebuke to Georgia Prosecutor Investigating Trump

A judge overseeing the Fulton County grand jury probe into the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump criticized local District Attorney Fani Willis Thursday for partaking in a fundraiser against an individual she is investigating.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney issued a rebuke of Willis during a hearing because she took part in a fundraiser for Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Charlie Bailey last month. Bailey is facing off against Republican candidate Burt Jones, who was informed by the Fulton County DAs office that hes being investigated as part of their probe.

I dont know that its an actual conflict, but  its a what are you thinking moment, McBurney told Willis, according to local media. If were trying to maintain confidence that this investigation is pursuing facts in a nonpartisan sense  that strikes me as problematic.

He told her that her appearance is not a lowercase a appearance. Its like a capital A with flashy lights fundraiser with the district attorney for the political opponent of someone Ive named a target of my investigation, where Im the legal adviser to the grand jury, and Im on national media almost nightly talking about this investigation.

Thats problematic, the judge continued. However, he stopped short of ruling to remove her from the inquiry.

What the Lawyers Say

Anna Green Cross, a lawyer representing the Fulton County DAs office, said that the fundraiser was held while Bailey was still competing in a Democratic runoff election, and it was not clear which candidate would face Jones. She said the event was held several weeks before a notice was sent to Jones about the investigation.

But attorneys for Jones argued that Williss actions merit her removal from the investigation and suggested that Georgias attorney general appoint a new district attorney, court documents show.

I suspect given the list of good Democratic district attorneys in this state that we can find somebody who doesnt have a conflict and hasnt hosted a fundraiser for either one, Joness attorney William Dillon said Thursday, reported CNN. Because certainly if somebody hosted a fundraiser for Senator Jones, the attorney general shouldnt nominate that person either. Find somebody who doesnt have a dog in the hunt. Fani Willis had a dog in this hunt.

Jones was asked to appear before the grand jury as a witness on July 26, it was reported. He secured the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in May.

Officials say that he took part in a meeting with 16 others who were deemed alternative electors following the November 2020 elections, according to court documents. The grand jury has issued subpoenas to some of those alternative electors, documents show.

Several high-profile Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have been called to testify in the case. Former President Donald Trump has criticized the inquiry and has denied wrongdoing.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, attends an event at the White House in Washington on April 18, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Judicial Watch Sues Secret Service Over Hunter Bidens Records

Advocacy group Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleging that the agency is slow-rolling a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to turn over records tied to President Joe Bidens son, Hunter Biden.

Judicial Watch filed the FOIA suit against DHS on July 17 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to force the agency to turn over all non-exempt records concerning government-provided security services to Hunter Biden or companions on any international trips from 2010 to 2013.

The advocacy group said in a July 20 statement that the Secret Service, which is part of DHS, had failed to respond adequately to three FOIA requests in March and April demanding records of security servicesand related use of taxpayer fundsprovided to Hunter Biden and companions.

The Secret Service is violating FOIA law by slow-rolling and hiding Hunter Biden records, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in the statement. What is the Secret Service trying to hide about Hunter Biden?

DHS didnt respond by press time to an Epoch Times request for comment on the lawsuit.

The Homeland Security Department headquarters in Washington. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)

Questions Have Been Raised

The backdrop for the lawsuit is Secret Service records obtained by Judicial Watch in 2020 showing hundreds of international trips taken by Hunter Biden during the first several years of the presidency of Barack Obama while receiving Secret Service protection.

While it is typical for the families of the president and vice president to travel with them, questions have been raised about whether Hunter Biden used the government trip to further his business interests, Judicial Watch stated.

Missing from the records the advocacy group obtained in 2020 was information on whether Hunter Bidens travel was on Air Force One, Air Force Two, or other government aircraft or whether other family members were present.

Judicial Watchs complaint indicates that the Secret Service had acknowledged the groups FOIA request and by April 19 had located potentially responsive records, was processing the records, and would send them to Judicial Watch upon completion of the processing.

But those records havent been handed over to Judicial Watch, nor has DHS explained why it hasnt yet transmitted the documents, the complaint alleges.

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, attends an event at the White House on April 18, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Other Hunter Probe

Besides Judicial Watch, Republicans in Congress have also sought Secret Service records tied to Hunter Bidens travels while his father was vice president.

While the Secret Service turned over 259 pages of records (pdf) to Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the pair of senators objected to what they said were extensive and improper redactions that impede their ability to understand the full scope of the interactions between Hunter Biden, his associates, and the Secret Service.

Grassley and Johnson have been probing Hunter Bidens overseas business dealings. The senators released a report in 2020 (pdf) that said Hunter Bidens job with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma created a potential conflict of interest for his father, who was heavily involved in U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

In 2019, Hunter Biden sat for an interview with ABC News, in which he insisted he hadnt done anything improper in his business dealings, although he acknowledged poor judgment.

Hunter Biden told the media outlet that he did nothing wrong at all, but conceded that it was poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is  a swamp  in many ways.
An American flag waves outside the Department of Justice Building in Washington on Dec. 15, 2020. (Al Drago/Reuters)

Justice Department Announces $1.2 Billion Health Care Crackdown Tied to Telehealth, Cardiovascular Tests

WASHINGTONThe Justice Department unveiled a $1.2 billion health care fraud crackdown on Wednesday, revealing criminal charges against 36 defendants for alleged fraudulent billing schemes tied to telemedicine, genetic and cardiovascular testing, and equipment.

The criminal charges, which were unsealed across 13 federal districts between July 11 through July 20, target clinical laboratory owners, marketers, medical professionals, and telemedicine executives.

Prosecutors said the schemes intended to bilk Medicare out of $1.2 billion, though the actual losses are closer to $440 million.

The cases announced today include charges against people who brazenly used Medicare funds to purchase luxury items, medical professionals who corruptly approved testing and equipment, and business owners who submitted false and fraudulent claims for services patients did not need, Kenneth Polite, the head of the departments criminal division, told Reuters in a statement.

Separately, the Center for Medicare Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, took parallel administrative action against 52 companies involved in similar schemes.

The alleged fraud schemes relate to both older and well-known billing and kick-back practices that target the Medicare program, as well as a burgeoning new fraudulent practice which involves preying on patients fear of cardiovascular disease by duping them into submitting to medically unnecessary cardiovascular disease screening tests, a Justice Department official told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

Billing for such cardiovascular genetic tests has spiked in the past year, Justice Department officials added, noting that some of these tests get billed for as high as $10,000 each, with claims sometimes paying out as much as $8,000.

The official said the total amount billed in the cases involving cardiovascular genetic testing fraud was $748 million, of which $223 million was paid. However, those figures also include billings for genetic cancer screenings that were tacked on as well.

Prior to the pandemic, investigators were focused on schemes related to the billing of unnecessary purchases of durable medical equipment such as crutches and walkers, as well as genetic testing screenings to determine risks for developing inherited cancers.

In a 2019 special report, Reuters reported that the United States was probing more than 300 matters involving genetic test schemes, in which seniors were tricked into providing a cheek swab to determine their risk for developing cancer.

The tests were ordered by doctors who in many cases had no medical relationship to the patients and sent to labs. The tests were then billed to Medicare.

One of the labs featured in the report was later raided by federal agents, as part of the governments crackdown on genetic testing fraud in a takedown dubbed Operation Double Helix.

Although telemedicine played a role in prior fraud schemes, its use has greatly expanded since the pandemic, as U.S. regulators relaxed certain rules to make telemedicine more accessible to patients.

Since 2019, the department charged more than 200 defendants with telemedicine fraud and kickback schemes, representing a combined alleged total of $10 billion in intended losses.

By Sarah N. Lynch
Justice Kagan: Dangerous If Supreme Court Loses Public Confidence

Associate Justice Elena Kagan is warning against the Supreme Court not taking heed of the public after the court struck down Roe v. Wade.

Speaking in public on July 21 for the first time since the courts momentous ruling in June, Kagan stressed the importance of the justices staying in their proper roles as judges and not dictating public policy.

Im not talking about any particular decision or even any particular series of decisions, but if over time the court loses all connection with the public and with public sentiment, thats a dangerous thing for a democracy, Kagan said at a judicial conference in Montana.

Overall, the way the court retains its legitimacy and fosters public confidence is by acting like a court, is by doing the kinds of things that do not seem to people political or partisan, added Kagan, an Obama appointee who started in her position in 2010.

The nations top court earns its legitimacy by what it does, by the way it behaves, Kagan told the conference. She alleged that the court has in the past been unconstrained and undisciplined when justices really just attempted to basically enact their own policy or political or social preferences and said the current justices should guard against that.

Kagan also said justices have to be consistent when implementing their judicial philosophies and cannot abandon that approach when it will not result in their preferred outcome.

Surveys have suggested that the public is souring on the Supreme Court.

While 60 percent of respondents approved of the court in September 2021, just 38 percent expressed approval in July 2022, according to surveys conducted by the Marquette University Law School (pdf). The majority of respondents opposed the court striking down Roe.

The survey interviewed about 1,000 adults and had a margin of error of plus/minus 4 percentage points.

Only a quarter of respondents to a Gallup survey said in June they have confidence in the Supreme Court, down from 36 percent in 2021. That survey, which also had about 1,000 respondents, had a margin of error of plus/minus 4 percentage points, and was conducted before the recent decision.

A woman pushes a stroller as she walks by the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on May 11, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Dobbs

In the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, a majority of justices said Roe, handed down by the same court in 1973, was erroneous in its conclusion that access to abortion is a constitutional right.

Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee writing for the majority, said that the court in Roe did not base its ruling on American law or common law and, as Kagan did Thursday, suggested justices were acting more like legislators when they ruled.

After cataloging a wealth of other information having no bearing on the meaning of the Constitution, the opinion concluded with a numbered set of rules much like those that might be found in a statute enacted by a legislature, Alito said.

Kagan co-authored a lengthy dissent with Justices Stephen Breyer, a Clinton appointee, and Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama appointee.

Yesterday, the Constitution guaranteed that a woman confronted with an unplanned pregnancy could (within reasonable limits) make her own decision about whether to bear a child, with all the life-transforming consequences that act involves. And in thus safeguarding each womans reproductive freedom, the Constitution also protected [t]he ability of women to participate equally in [this Nations] economic and social life,' the trio wrote. But no longer. As of today, this Court holds, a State can always force a woman to give birth, prohibiting even the earliest abortions. A State can thus transform what, when freely undertaken, is a wonder into what, when forced, may be a nightmare.

They said that the right to an abortion was linked to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation such as the right to buy and use contraception and the right to same-sex marriage. And they decried overturning decades of legal precedent, arguing nothing had changed except for the composition of this Court.

Today, the proclivities of individuals rule, they said. The Court departs from its obligation to faithfully and impartially apply the law.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a press briefing at the Queens Park Legislature in Toronto, on Oct. 15, 2021 to announce that the province is making enhanced COVID-19 vaccine certificates with scannable QR codes available for download. (The Canadian Press/Chris Young)

Legal Advocacy Group to Challenge Ontario Government in Court Over Its Now-Scrapped Vaccine Mandate

A legal advocacy organization is taking the Ontario government to court for its past COVID-19 vaccine passport program, which required residents to show proof of vaccination to participate in or enter a wide array of services, events, and public places between Sept. 22, 2021 and March 1, 2022.

The mandate required Ontarians aged 12 and older to provide proof of having received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, along with photo identification, before entering certain public settings and facilities, such as restaurants, sporting facilities, and indoor movie theatres.

On July 26 and 27, over four months after the Ford government dropped its mandate, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is challenging the government in court for what it says was a violation of Ontarians constitutional rights.

The Justice Centre lawyers are arguing that excluding people, without proof of having two doses of the Covid shot, from everyday societal activities is a violation of their rights guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it said in a press release.

The Justice Centre lawyers will argue that the passport system is coercive, arbitrary, and discriminatory, and that it removed the Ontarians free and informed consent to a medical procedure or intervention.

The Justice Centre is representing eight Ontarians in the case who claim the mandates denied them their freedom of movement and their right to make personal, uncoerced medical decisions.

Sarah Lamb, one of the court applicants, said she suffers from a host of adverse effects that began after receiving her first COVID-19 vaccine dose in May 2021. Instead of getting a second dose, Lamb said she applied for a medical exemption, but was denied, according to the Justice Centre release.

Another applicant, Jackie Ramnauth, claims the vaccine caused her serious medical harm. Ramnauth has suffered from blood clots for 15 years, and the Justice Centre says she decided not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine since the AstraZeneca shot was found to be associated with blood clots. The Justice Centre did not specify whether Ramnauth sought a medical exemption from the vaccine.

The Justice Centre also said that some of the court applicants had religious objections to the vaccine, but that Ontarios passport system failed to provide a category for exemption based on sincerely-held religious or conscientious beliefs.

The mandate did not require people to show vaccination proof for outdoor public settings like restaurant patios and drive-in cinemas. The province also stipulated that of-age Ontarians who could not receive the vaccine for medical reasons could enter public places and events with an appropriate doctors note.

In October 2021, the Justice Centre sued the Ontario government over its vaccine passport system on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a September 2021 statement that the provincial vaccine mandate was intended to keep people safe, protect our hospitals and minimize disruptions to businesses.

Ontarios Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Christine Elliott said when announcing the mandates that vaccines provided the most effective protection available against COVID-19.

We know vaccines provide the best protection against COVID-19 and the Delta variant, she said in a statement.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Women hold signs referencing action against domestic violence during the Sydney International Women's Day march in Sydney, Australia, on March 7, 2020. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Major Step Towards Federal Strategy on Stopping Violence Against Women

A major step toward creating safe environments for women has been taken by state, territory and federal leaders.

The draft National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children has been supported by ministers at all levels of government, with the final version to be released in October.

It will provide a decade-long strategy to inform the policy and service frameworks needed to address violence against women.

Ministers responsible for women and womens safety met face-to-face for the first time under the new government to canvas the plan in Adelaide on Friday.

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher described the meeting as productive and said the national plan was an important priority in ending violence against women.

It is imperative that all levels of government work together to address violence, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said.

One woman dies in Australia every 10 days at the hands of their current or former partner. That is unacceptable, she said in a statement.

The national plan will set out a strategy for the next decade with the aim of reducing that number.

Priorities for the new Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission were also discussed.

The commission is expected to play a key role in monitoring the implementation and tracking the progress of the National Plan.

The federal government has committed to a standalone plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family safety, which was welcomed by the states and territories.

The ministers were also expected to discuss safe access to abortion in Australia after the overturning of legal protections in the United States.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week ruled out reviving Labors 2019 policy to require public hospitals to provide abortion services as part of their federal funding arrangements.

Health Minister Mark Butler and Assistant Health Minister Ged Kearney will also review access to reproductive services as part of a national womens health plan.

The states determine what they provide through the hospitals, and surgical terminations are provided through public hospitals as required, Senator Gallagher told ABC radio on Friday.

The Commonwealth doesnt dictate what they provide  noting that the issue (state and territory ministers) raised was about nationally consistent laws for the provision of termination of pregnancy services.

Thats a matter that constitutionally rests with the states and territories.

It comes as the government announced legislating paid domestic violence leave would be one of its first priorities when parliament resumes on Tuesday.

The proposed laws will allow any Australian worker to access 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave.

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Man Sentenced 15 Years to Life for Escondido Retirees 1986 Killing

SAN DIEGOA 67-year-old man who pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a retiree in Escondido more than 35 years ago was sentenced July 22 to 15 years to life in state prison.

Nathan Eugene Mathis was arrested in April 2018 at his home in Ontario concerning the death of 75-year-old Richard Finney, who was stabbed about three dozen times at his East Mission Avenue apartment.

On the morning of Nov. 13, 1986, Finney was found dead in a living room chair at his home, according to Escondido police. Money, jewelry, and other items belonging to the victim had been stolen.

Though knives, fingerprints, and blood were located inside Finneys apartment by investigators at the time, the case went cold until technological advances allowed for further examination of the evidence.

According to Deputy District Attorney Tom Manning, Mathis was tied to the crime scene by a bloody handprint and a fingerprint found on the knob of a sink inside Finneys home. After Mathis submitted his fingerprints for a job application as a security guard, investigators were able to match his prints to those left at the murder scene, the prosecutor said.

The case was reopened about two years prior to Mathis arrest. Earlier this year, Mathis pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder count.

At Mathis sentencing hearing, two of Finneys granddaughters spoke of the impact the killing had on them and their family, particularly their mother and uncle who died before knowing the outcome of the investigation.

You had 30 years of living after you killed my grandpa, Gina Curry told Mathis, who did not make a statement at the hearing. You had a life, a marriage, family, and career. Did you ever think of my grandpa or our family?

Curry said her mother and uncle never got over their fathers death, which has been an open wound in the family for decades. She also chided Mathis because her grandfather was particularly vulnerable, as he was paralyzed on one side of his body and recovering from a stroke when he was murdered.

Currys sister, Catherine Hollis, said her mother never felt safe after the killing, and that sense of danger plagued her to the end of her life. On the table next to where Finney was murdered was her return address on an envelope containing a birthday card.

Mr. Mathis decision to take the life of my granddad, with no regard for its effects on us, is inconceivable, Hollis said.

Before imposing the stipulated 15-year-to-life term, San Diego Superior Court Judge Carlos Armour said, The question as to who did this heinous crime has been answered. The question as to why it was done, and how could somebody do this to somebody that was obviously unable to defend himself, may never be answered.
Test tubes labeled "Monkeypox virus positive" in an illustration taken on May 23, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Monkeypox Joins COVID-19 as Global Health Emergency, WHO Says

Monkeypox has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), joining COVID-19, which the international agency continues to label as such nearly two and a half years after it was first declared.

I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a July 23 statement.

Ghebreyesus said that his decision was prompted by the global growth in monkeypox cases, which have now been reported in over 75 countries and territories, with over 16,000 infections and five deaths.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 3, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via Reuters)

No Consensus

The WHOs Emergency Committee, which is made up of independent experts, was convened a month ago by Ghebreyesus to study the outbreak and determine if it meets the conditions of a public health emergency of international concern.

At the time, when there were 3,040 cases of monkeypox reported to the WHO from 47 countries, the Committee determined it was not a global health emergency.

But the continued spread of the outbreak prompted the WHO chief to reconvene the committee on July 21.

I thank the committee for its careful consideration of the evidence, and issues, Ghebreyesus said, adding that, this time too, the committee was unable to reach a consensus on whether the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.

The reasons committee members gave for and against declaring monkeypox a global health emergency have been laid out in a report.

A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968. (CDC/Handout via Reuters)

For and Against

Proponents argued that the multi-country outbreak meets all three criteria for defining a public health emergency of international concern, namely that it is an extraordinary event, constitutes a public health risk to other countries due to its spread, and may require a coordinated international response.

Other arguments in favor of an emergency declaration included concern that the magnitude of the outbreak may be underreported, that its modes of transmission remain not fully understood, and that monkeypox has significant morbidity.

The WHO estimates the monkeypox case fatality ratio at around 36 percent.

Opponents of the declaration argued that the global risk assessment with respect to monkeypox remains unchanged from the committees prior meeting, the severity of the disease is perceived to be low, and the vast majority of reported cases are observed in men having sex with multiple male partners, making targeted interventions easier to accomplish.

Cases observed beyond this population group, including among health workers are, to date, limited, the WHO report said.

Other arguments against expressed by members of the advisory committee include a relatively limited scope of the outbreak. Currently, outbreaks are currently reported in 12 countries in Europe and in the Americas with no indications, based on currently available data, of an exponential increase in the number of cases in any of those countries, and early signs of stabilization or declining trends observed in some countries.

A treatment room at a monkeypox quarantine area in Zomea Kaka, in the Central African Republic, on Oct. 18, 2018. (Charles Bouessel/AFP via Getty Images)

Future Waves Expected

Committee members opposed to the declaration also appeared to want to wait for more data to come in regarding the outbreak in order to calibrate an optimal response.

The epidemic is gaining maturity, with future waves expected, and clearer indications about the effectiveness of policies and interventions are being generated, the WHO report said.

Opponents also said that declaring a public health emergency of international concern with respect to monkeypox risks hampering response efforts, including by unnecessarily and artificially increasing the perception of the risk of the disease by the general public and sparking needless demand for vaccines, which are in limited supply.

Ghebreyesus said in the statement justifying his decision that, in short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, and which meets the criteria in the International Health Regulations.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and current board member at Pfizer, said in a statement on Twitter following the WHO declaration that the agencys earlier hesitation in making an emergency declaration when the scope of the crisis was already obvious, was an openly political gesture.

The reality is the practical impact of declaration is muted, because WHO has marginalized itself. Nonetheless, a good move by Tedros to act with conviction, Gottlieb said.

Some had a critical take on the monkeypox emergency declaration.

Five deaths worldwide in three months. They dont make global health emergencies like they used to! said Alex Berenson, author of Tell Your Children and Pandemia, a book critical of the response to COVID-19, in a statement on Twitter.

Monkeypox is barely even an MSM issue, he continued, referring to the acronym used by the WHO for men having sex with other men, adding that the disease is mostly confined to a wildly promiscuous subset of the gay community.

Earlier in July, the WHO said that COVID-19 remains a global health emergency, extending the status of the disease as such after initially declaring it a public health emergency of international concern on Jan. 30, 2020.

A determination of an outbreak as a global health emergency can speed up research, funding, and international response measures to contain a disease.
The Oppo logo is displayed at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona on March 2, 2022. (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)

More Chinese Companies Accused of Customs Fraud in India, OPPO May Face Severe Penalties

Indian government keeps close tabs on Chinese firms

Following in the footsteps of Xiaomi and Vivo, another Chinese tech company has been accused of violating laws in India. The Chinese smartphone giant Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. (OPPO) is accused of evading more than $571 million in import duties.

On July 13, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Indias anti-smuggling agency, issued a press release (pdf) alleging OPPO India evaded paying Rs. 4,389 crore (about $571 million) in customs duties.

The DRI operates under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, and the Government of India.

A sum of Rs 450 crore [about $60 million] has been voluntarily deposited by Oppo India, as partial differential Customs duty short paid by them, the statement said.

The DRI also issued a show cause notice to OPPO India demanding payment of the unpaid customs charges. A show cause notice requires its recipient to justify or explain to the court why disciplinary action should not be taken against the party for an alleged offense.

OPPO is a major consumer electronics and smartphone company headquartered in Dongguan, China, with Asia as its primary market.

OPPOs business in India spans manufacturing, assembly, wholesale trading, and distribution of mobile handsets and accessories. It deals in various brands of smartphones, including Oppo, OnePlus, and Realme.

The company was accused of wilful misdeclaration in the description of certain items imported for use in the manufacture of mobile phones, resulting in claims of ineligible duty exemption amounting to about $388 million, according to the Indian Ministry of Finance.

The ministrys press release pointed to incriminating evidence at the offices of OPPO India and the residences of its key management employees in the searches conducted by the DRI.

In addition, some senior management employees and domestic suppliers of OPPO India also accepted the submission of wrongful description through voluntary statements.

A statement is voluntary when made by a person free from external influence and under his or her free will.

The company was accused of remitting and making provisions for payments of royalty and license fees to various multinational companies, including those based in China, for using their proprietary technology, brand, or intellectual property right (IPR) license, The Times of India (TOI) reported. And this was not being added to the transaction value of the imported goods, resulting in an alleged duty evasion of about $183 million.

An OPPO India spokesperson told TOI that they had a different view on the charges mentioned in the show cause notice, adding that OPPO India will take appropriate steps as may be needed in this regard, including any remedies provided under the law.

The TOI report points out that in recent weeks, Chinese telecom players, ranging from Huawei to Xiaomi, Vivo, and OnePlus have been facing multiple actions by the [Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate] and customs authorities.

The probes come after the government decided to keep close tabs on Chinese companies, including restricting their access to India markets, following the tension in Ladakh, the article added.

More Chinese Companies Accused of Breaking Laws

According to 36Kr, a China-based publishing and data company, over 100 Chinese companies went to India in 2014 to explore market opportunities, including Xiaomi.

Customers inspect smartphones made by Xiaomi at a Mi store in Gurgaon, India, on Aug. 20, 2019. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images)

Being one of the worlds largest smartphone makers, Xiaomi has led the overall smartphone market in India for the past five consecutive quarters. However, in the first quarter of 2022, Xiaomi saw a 24 percent decline in its market share compared to the same period last year, local news reported.

Prolonged COVID-19 outbreaks and a shortage in core components have long plagued Xiaomis logistics, production, and offline stores, said Wang Xiang, partner and president of Xiaomi Group, during a company financial report teleconference, Chinese media reported on May 21.

In April, Indian authorities seized $725 million from Xiaomi, accusing it of breaking the countrys foreign exchange laws by making illegal remittances abroad.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Indias financial investigation agency, said the smartphone maker had transferred $725 million to three foreign-based entities under the guise of royalty payments, according to a statement quoted by the Press Trust of India.

On July 5, before OPPO was accused of customs duty evasion, ED raided 48 locations belonging to Vivo India and 23 associated companies, according to EDs press release (pdf). Vivo Indias bank accounts were also temporarily frozen under EDs directions, TOI reported. They were unfrozen on July 13 under conditions set by the Delhi High Court.

A smartphone screen displays the logo of Vivo telecom company on a Vivo website background in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov. 3, 2021. (Photo by Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images)

According to a Bloomberg report in May, Indian authorities have probed more than 500 Chinese companies in India, including Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Alibaba, and Huawei.

In addition, many Chinese companies in India have recently found it more challenging to obtain work visas for their employees.

For example, Baosteel, a leading Chinese steelmaker, now relies on remote management after several of its Chinese employees work visas were denied.

In an analysis, the Chinese publisher 36Kr said that geopolitical tension is only one aspect contributing to the changes in Indias business environment. The key problems are that Chinese companies should have complied with Indian regulations and engaged good local resources and legal teams to argue their cases.

As some Chinese companies are considering pulling out of India, others like Xiaomi, which has a significant market share in India, found leaving was not an option considering their long-term investments and well-developed local supply chains.

Xiaomi simply cannot afford to leave India, 36Kr said in its article.
A view of Yale University is seen in this file photo. (David Mark/Pixabay)

New Bill to Tax College Endowment Investments in Hostile Chinese Companies at 100 Percent

A new Republican-backed bill in Congress seeks to pressure elite private colleges to pull their endowment dollars from hostile Chinese entities by taxing those investments at a 100 percent rate.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) on Wednesday introduced the Protecting Endowments from our Adversaries Act, which encourages divestment from companies deemed hostile to the United States, including those advancing the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

If passed, the bill would institute a 50 percent excise tax on the principal investment for all entities added to the U.S. governments sanction list, such as the Commerce Departments Entity List, and a 100 percent tax on gains realized from such investments.

It would apply to any private college or university with an endowment valued at over $1 billion, of which there are approximately 80 in the United States, including Harvard ($53 billion), Yale ($42 billion), and Princeton ($37 billion) Universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($27 billion).

In May 2019, BuzzFeed reported that the endowment funds of Princeton and MIT had investments in Megvii, a major supplier of facial recognition technology the Chinese communist regime utilizes to build its mass surveillance network. The Trump administration added Megvii to the Entity List in October of that year, citing the software companys involvement in human rights abuses in Chinas Xinjiang region.

These billion-dollar, tax-advantaged university endowments have a moral obligation to divest from companies that are detrimental to the safety and security of the United States, said Murphy in a statement announcing the bill.

A growing number of elite schools have already been divesting from certain companies and industries to advance a variety of causes. For example, Harvard decided in September 2021 to stop investing in fossil fuels in an effort to speed change towards a decarbonized economy. In early March, just days after Russia launched a full-scale military campaign against Ukraine, Yale said it has quit all investments in Russian assets, although refusing to disclose the exact amount of that.

However, when it comes to financial exposure to China, those institutions are less willing to do the same to their problematic Chinese investments, according to Murphy.

Unfortunately, it is clear that we must force their hand to take the same approach for compromising Chinese entities that are a known risk to U.S. national security, the congressman said.

In June, Murphy sent a letter to 15 private colleges and universities with the largest endowments, asking them to clarify whether their endowments were invested in any entity on U.S. government sanction lists. He also asked them what polices they have in place to divest from any entity added to those lists.

At least 75 percent of the schools who responded to my letter have exposure to entities that have been deemed a risk to our nations security, Murphy said. That is completely unacceptable.

Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), Lloyd Smucker (R-Penn.), Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), and Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) joined Murphy as co-sponsors of the bill.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom along with several elected officials, met with the media at Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2022. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP)

Newsom Signs California Gun Bill Modeled After Texas Abortion Law

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on July 22 a new gun control bill that will allow private citizens to sue anyone who imports, distributes, manufactures, or sells assault firearms or so-called ghost guns, which are banned in the state.

Senate Bill 1327, which will take effect in January, was modeled after Texas abortion law that allows people to sue anyone who aids or abets in an abortion. Like in the Texas law, people will receive at least $10,000 in damages for each weapon, plus attorneys fees.

Sens. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) designed the law to mimic Texas measure so that the U.S. Supreme Courtwhich upheld Texas law last yearwould also have to strike down Texas legislation if it were to overturn the California law.

Newsom said at a news conference Friday at Santa Monica College that he expects the law to be litigated in the Supreme Court, which has been sympathetic to gun rights in recent rulings.

The Supreme Court opened the door, Newsom said. The Supreme Court said this was OK. It was a terrible decision. But these are the rules that they have established.

Hertzberg said Friday during the news conference that if the United States Supreme Court is seeking to devolve authority to the states  then this California legislature will use this exact legal framework to save lives being taken by it by taking illegal guns off the street.

If it takes another 100 laws, so be it to protect our residents from gun violence, he said.

Sam Paredes, the executive director of Gun Owners of California, told the Los Angeles Times that the legislation is a retaliation against lawful gun owners and the court because of the Texas decision, and that the bills authors are being vindictive.

Paredes said that the firearms industry will have a strong reaction to the bill going into law.

Additional Gun Control Laws

But the bill is not the only gun control measure Newsom has signed this week. Among them include a series of other aggressive gun control bills signed July 21. The laws come on the heels after a series of mass shootings occurred last month in California, New York, and Texas.

An assault-style rifle prepares to be loaded at a shooting range in Stanton, Calif., on May 3, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Assembly Bill (AB) 228 authored by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez (D-Chino) will require the Department of Justice to inspect firearm dealers a minimum of every three years, except for a dealer whose place of business is located in a jurisdiction that has adopted an inspection program. The law will go into effect Jan. 1.

AB 1842, also by Rodriguez, will prevent gun manufacturers from charging more than 5 percent of the purchase price of the firearm as a restocking or other return-related fee when the purchase of the firearm is canceled by the buyer within 10 days of the application, with an exception for special order firearms.

Another gun reform bill, authored by Assemblyman Steve Bennett (D-Ventura), will restrict the sale of any firearm, firearm precursor part, or ammunition on properties owned by the 31st District Agricultural Association and the Ventura County Fair and Event Center. The Ventura County Fair has been notorious for its annual gun shows.

AB 2156 by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) will prohibit firearm manufacturing without a state license and places a cap on the number of guns dealers can manufacture without a license.

AB 2239 by Assemblyman Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) will establish a 10-year threshold for individuals convicted of child and elder abuse before they can own a firearm.

SB 906, authored by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge), will require local educational agencies to educate Californias parents about child access prevention laws relating to the safe storage of firearms, and will mandate school officials to report to law enforcement any suspicious threats of a homicidal act. It will also require a thorough investigation of any threats.

SB 915, authored by Sen. Dave Min (D-Costa Mesa), will restrict the sale of firearms and firearm precursor parts, and ammunition on any state property.

Newsom additionally signed over two dozen bills earlier this week, ranging from school safety, education, healthcare, transportation, conservation, and more.

City News Service contributed to this report.
Food and necessities donated to truckers are left beside trucks parked in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 6, 2022. (Noe Chartier/The Epoch Times)

Ontario Councillor Reprimanded, Had Pay Suspended for Participating in Freedom Convoy Protest

An Ontario town councillor who participated in the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa earlier this year was reprimanded and had his pay suspended by his town council, but the public servant says hes grateful for having participated the movement.

I can say this from the bottom of my heart: I am thankful and I am humbled that I was able to participate in a protest that brought immense joy and hope to so many Canadians across this country, said West Lincoln Councillor Harold Jonker in a virtual meeting with his town council on July 18, responding to a code of conduct complaint filed against him on Feb. 28.

The complaint was filed with the townships appointed integrity commissioner Aird & Berlis LLP. The Toronto law firm published a report of its findings on July 12, claiming Jonker violated two sections of the code of conduct: one requiring a duty of loyalty to residents, and another regarding the acceptance of gifts or benefits.

After receiving the report, West Lincoln council convened the meeting on July 18.

The Complaint states that the Councillor illegally participated in an unlawful occupation in the city of Ottawa failing to uphold the spirit and the letter of the laws of Ontario and Canada and the laws and policies adopted by Council, said the report by John Mascarin and Meaghan Barrett, partner and associate of the law firm, respectively.

Participated as Trucker, Not Councillor

The report said Jonker had been described as the head of the Niagara Convoy and claimed to have been part of the first group of trucks to reach Parliament Hill on Jan. 28.

The lawyers went on to argue that Jonker remained a vocal representative of the protest after it had been deemed to be unlawful, while at the same time continuing in his role as a member of Council.

On Feb. 14, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in response to the protests against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions by truckers and their supporters in Ottawa and across the country.

Jonker, also a trucker and the owner of Jonker Trucking Inc., said during the virtual meeting that he did not participate in the protest in his capacity as a councillor.

Mascarin, who was in the same meeting, differed, saying if Jonker is a member of the council, he is a representative at all times, of the council.

Responding to the allegations in the complaint, Jonker wrote on May 9: As a representative I choose to represent the residents who are being negatively affected by the lockdowns and mandates. The investigation chose to accept that meant he was a representative of the township, which Jonker disagreed with.

I believe very firmly that [my] going to Ottawa was not in any way, shape, or form as a township of West Lincoln councillor, but as a truck driver and a business owner, and as a father, who has a lot of concerns of where we are going in society today, he told the council.

The report said Jonker brought 11 trucks from his business to Ottawa in late January.

Did Not Receive Any Gifts or Benefits

The councillor was also deemed to have broken the section of the code that prohibits the acceptance of gifts or benefits, as the investigation found that, in his comments to Fox News on Feb. 12, Jonker stated that the Canadian public supported us with hugs, fuel, food.

In addition, the report said the complaint alleged that Jonker improperly received money and gifts through the GoFundMe and GiveSendGo online fundraisers as a result of his involvement in the rally.

On June 3, the investigation invited Jonker outline the gifts or benefits he received, but he did not reply, allowing the investigation to find that the councillor did accept the gifts or benefits.

Jonker said he missed the email sent to his township email account, and criticized the investigators for not following up to check whether he received it before accepting that the lack of response was his fault.

I do apologize for it but there was no intent to hide anything, he said.

Jonker claimed he did not receive any gifts or benefits as part of his role as a councillor, but rather as a truck driver. He did not personally receive any lodging or fuel, but received coffee, hamburgers, and bacon and eggs.

If anything, Jonker Trucking, which I own, lost a whole [lot] of money and continues to not function the way it would like, he said.

At the same time, the councillor expressed concern over quantifying the amount of food he received during the protest, which Mascarin argued he should have kept track of.

Its impossible, Jonker said. It would be impossible for me to even know how much I received in amount of hamburgers, hot dogs, bacon and eggsand the list can go on and on.

Coun. William Reilly suggested a donation to West Lincoln Community Care.

The Council held two votes, accepting the report and determining the penalties, carried 51, with Mayor Dave Bylsma opposed.

The vote determined Jonker would be reprimanded, constituting a denouncement of his actions, and have his pay suspended for 30 days.

In addition, the councillor is required to account for the gifts and benefits received, and to reimburse those within 60 days.

In closing, Jonker posed a question to the council.

Do we want to live in a country where we are not allowed to protest, or some of us are not allowed to protest, against what we believe and understand to be wrong and harmful for our country?

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Over 100 Florida Churches File Suit to Leave United Methodist Church

A schism characterized by documents on grace through separation has brought forth a lawsuit.

In Florida, 106 churches are suing the United Methodist Church (UMC) because it charged them large amounts of money to leave, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

The National Center for Life and Liberty (NCLL) represents these churches.

The departure price varies from church to church, according to Jonathan Bailie, chief operations and financial officer of the NCLL.

Some congregations must pay more than $1 million, while others must pay less than $100,000, Bailie said. But in previous decades, leaving the UMC was free.

Churches have been transferring to other denominations, like the Free Methodists, for decades, he said.

Some of the departing churches owned their buildings before the UMC denomination existed and maintained their buildings without UMC help, the lawsuit states. The denomination still demanded money from these churches.

The churches leaving are conservative, and theyre leaving over procedural and theological issues, Bailie said.

Perhaps the most divisive of these issues has been the biblical view of homosexuality.

Winning and Losing

According to the lawsuit, the case rests on two sections of the UMCs internal laws.

One law, Section 2548.2, allows any UMC church to transfer to a new denomination without paying the UMC money for the church.

The other bylaw, Section 2553, was added in 2019 in response to potential church departures over positions on sexual morality. It states that the churchs regional conference decides what churches must do to leave the UMC for independence. This provision includes the churchs financial obligations.

The terms and conditions for that disaffiliation shall be established by the board of trustees of the applicable annual conference, the churchs book of discipline reads.

The church schism began when the UMC was divided between theological conservatives who believed in traditional marriage and theological liberals who believed in an ever-expanding list of sexual orientations.

In 2019, the UMCs theological conservatives voted to disallow same-sex weddings and non-heterosexual clergy.

With the win, it appeared that theological conservatives would hold the UMC denomination and that theological liberals would leave, according to Bailie.

The church hastily wrote a law into its discipline that allowed UMC churches to leave the denomination and become independent churches, he said.

For the most part, it looked like progressive churches would be using that paragraph, Bailie said.

But the progressives found ways to maneuver around the vote. Some church conferences put openly practicing homosexual pastors in abeyance.

This category meant that although their actions violated church law, the church wouldnt discipline them until the next churchwide conference could vote on whether to change church law.

Despite sharing the same Bible and founder, the United Methodist Church is divided over homosexuality. (Free-Photos/Pixabay)

At least one recently ordained UMC pastor is a drag queen, under the name Penny Cost.

Bishops appoint UMC pastors to churches without churches getting a vote. Any UMC congregation could get an openly active homosexual pastor if its bishop put the pastor under abeyance.

You are assigned a pastor. Its not just that this person is being ordained. He could be assigned to your church, Bailie said.

Abeyance was originally meant to last until the churchs first post-separation general conference in 2020.

But church authorities postponed the 2020 general conference until 2024, citing COVID-19. This decision would put the first post-separation general conference in 2028.

Some conservative factions werent willing to wait nearly 10 years.

Dollars and Division

Florida Bishop Ken Carter wrote in a statement that he blames departing theological conservatives for refusing a gracious exit.

An abrupt separation creates significant issues that could damage benefits and pensions for retired pastors and their spouses who devoted their lives to service, the statement reads.

From the perspective of the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church, our doctrinal standards have not changed and will not change, even as we continue on a journey to be a church that serves all people.

Theological conservatives responded that they attempted compromise for decades before church authorities broke their trust.

For decades we have been in fervent prayer, sought compromise, and desired negotiationall to no avail. We have patiently endured, only to see promises, vows, and polity broken to suit those in power, the suing churches said in a statement.
Pastor Artur Pawlowski speaks at a freedom rally in Edmonton on March 20, 2021, part of a worldwide protest against COVID-19 restrictions. (Courtesy of Artur Pawlowski)

Pastor Arrested for Defying COVID Measures Wins in Court Against Alberta Health Services

The Alberta Court of Appeal has sided with Artur and Dawid Pawlowski and Whistle Stop Cafe Owner Christopher Scott in an appeal against Alberta Health Services (AHS).

The appeal concerned three orders by Court of Queens Bench Justice Adam Germain that said the three men were in contempt of a May 6, 2021, injunction granted to AHS that prohibited public gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pawlowskis appealed the contempt findings and sanctions, while Scott only appealed the sanctions.

In the decision released July 21, the Court of Appeal set aside mobility and speech provisions included in Germains orders. The court also agreed with the Pawlowskis that the injunction was insufficiently clear and was ambiguous. The court set aside contempt filings against the brothers, thereby removing the sanctions.

The court ordered that AHS must pay back the Pawlowskis for the costs they paid to the health authority after the Queens Bench proceedings, pay the brothers $15733.50 in court costs, and pay for costs on the appeal, estimated at around $18,000.

Court documents say the Pawlowskis were arrested shortly after the service of the injunction, having been deemed in breach of the order they had just been served. They were released from detention on May 10, 2021.

According to the brothers lawyer, Sarah Miller, Dawid Pawlowski was served by police during a Saturday morning service on May 8, 2021, but Artur never was. Nor was any explanation of the implications of the order provided by police.

Its very concerning, the lack of due process in this matter. And it was very shocking that this matter had gotten as far as it had before we had a court say, no, no, no, this is just not the way you are supposed to proceed on these types of things, Miller told The Epoch Times.

I was pretty shocked and appalled that the Pawlowskis had been arrested on such a vague and flimsy order.  Then to arrest them and detain them for three days, I was flabbergasted. I was so shocked and, and frankly a little bit concerned about the exercise of government authority.

Miller said the approach contributed to the harm of her clients.

For Alberta Health Services to continue to prosecute this as a civil contempt proceeding, I thought was ridiculous. I thought, theres no way theyre going to be successful in this application, she said.

What happened when Justice Germain made his decision is that he wiped out all of that case law that says injunctions should be narrow in their application, they should be specific.

Miller said allowing that precedent to remain could have led to broad suppression of protests by injunctions.

Your protesters have now had the legs cut out from under them, because you no longer need to name them specifically. You no longer need to limit where your injunction is applying to.

The Epoch Times reached out to AHS for comment but didnt hear back before publication.

A Big Surprise

Art Pawlowski, a pastor who leads Street Church and the Cave of Adallum in Calgary, made international headlines for repeatedly defying restrictions during pandemic lockdowns. In early 2022, after attending a rally at a roadblock on Highway 4 near Milk River, Alberta, he spent 51 days in custody where he was held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, according to news reports.

Pawlowski told The Epoch Times he was inundated with congratulatory emails and phone calls following the July 21 court decision. He called the verdict a big surprise.

I pretty much gave up on the justice system.  And all three judges agreed that what happened was wrong and illegal. Its quite amazing, he said.

Obviously, those judges were not willing to be just the puppets of the politicians.

The pastor, who grew up in Communist Poland, said he was not properly served orders on May 8, 2021.

They never served me documents. Ive never even seen the court order. They dropped it on the ground while I was preaching, and yet later on, I was arrested in the middle of the highway for something that was never served by them, he said.

Its always important to do whats right, tyranny is always wrong, and youre talking to an immigrant that escaped tyranny.  And right now, look what has been happening to me. The same tyranny followed me, if you will, into my beloved Canada.

Miller said the threshold for proving malicious prosecution is high, but future steps are being contemplated.

They were overly fixated on Artur. Part of it is because he is loud. He has an active social media. He garners attention, and thatd be positive and negative. So, people on his social media would be calling in to to Alberta Health Services or police, she said.

Miller said the brothers had to arrange financing to pay exorbitant fees and costs.

Theyve also been subjected to regular reporting to a probation officer [under] probation conditions, which then resulted in probation charges when they protested in front of [Health] Minister [Jason] Coppings house. Its been significant, the ongoing toll for both of them, swelling from what in my estimation was a misapplication of justice.

Pawlowski believes more recompense is deserved.

Well, well see what happens, there has to be restitution, because if there is no restitution then we cannot talk about true justice, he said.

Theyve subjected me to ongoing hardship, my family, my brother, my wife, my childrenfinancial hardship, slander, defamation of character. It caused me big harm for the past two years, doing this to me, including our arrests and what happened to me when I was arrested. Thats physical torture.

Pawlowski expressed gratitude for those who donated to the Democracy Fund which helped pitch in to pay his legal fees, as well as those who provided encouragement.

I just want to thank everyone that believes in us and in justice and supported us through all this crazy ordeal because we would not be able to do this without the massive support that we received from Canadians.

The appeal court partially set aside sanctions against Scott, saying the procedure of the chambers judge against Scott was an error in principle. Proper sanctions against him were redefined to three days in jail and eight months probation, each of which have already been served, plus a $10,000 fine.
A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968. (CDC/Handout via Reuters)

Peer-Reviewed Study Finds Monkeypox Primarily Transmitted Sexually by Men

The first major peer-reviewed study of monkeypox infections has found that the virus is primarily being transmitted through the sexual activity of gay and bisexual men in the United States and around the world.

The Journal of New England Medicine on Thursday published a study that looked at monkeypox infection across 16 countries between April and June, when cases began to emerge in countries outside of Africa.

The study reported on 528 infections diagnosed between April 27 and June 24, of which 98 percent were in gay or bisexual men with a median age of 38. Of these cases, 95 percent of the infections were suspected to have been transmitted through sexual activity41 percent also had HIV.

Disease experts and officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dont consider monkeypox a sexually transmitted infection but have always said it could be transmitted through intimate contact, such as sex. It can also be spread by close contact and even infected clothing and bedding.

Until this year, monkeypox virus infection in humans has been rare outside of Africa, where it is endemic but mostly spread from animals. But there are now more than 16,000 cases worldwide in countries that mostly have not historically had monkeypox, according to the CDC.

Most of the cases appear to be in North America and Western Europe, where some of the first cases were linked to major LGBT events in Spain and Belgium, considered ground zero for facilitating transmission of the virus.

The leading theory among disease experts is that the monkeypox virus was sexually transmitted at those events.

An uptick in recent U.S. cases suggests transmission occurred at the tail end of Pride Month in late June and early July, based on the study finding that incubation is between three and 20 days (usually seven days).

Former Trump Health Officials Blame CDC

CDC officials were hesitant to recommend canceling marquee U.S. LGBT events, similar to the super spreading events in Europe that occurred the month prior.

LGBT event organizers were also treading carefully in the spring, wanting to avoid stigmatizing the LGBT community. U.S. health officials opted instead to boost targeted messaging to warn gay and bisexual men, who were deemed most at risk.

But officials should have done more, says Dr. Paul Alexander, a former Trump administration health official and researcher.

All this needed was leadership saying no skin to skin contact, no anal sex, no sex, none for a few weeks and we would have helped this high risk group, but no, its political games and now the low-risk general heterosexual population is at risk especially from bisexual males, Alexander wrote in a blog post.

The blog post also included a Twitter thread by a gay U.S. man recounting in graphic detail his experience with contracting monkeypox during an orgy in Palm Springs.

Alexander expressed concern that bisexual men could facilitate the spreading of the monkeypox virus outside of the LGBT community to heterosexuals. In fact, the CDC has said they know of eight cases in women and two new cases in childrenone a toddler and the other an infant, BBC News reported.

Heterosexuals could spread this if one partner is infected and there is rough abrasive sex that involves tearing of tissue, Alexander added.

This is not about being gay, the virus is transmitted in bodily fluids and infected pustules and lesions in the infected person, through any tears on the skin or tissue e.g. rectal micro lesions etc, he continued. If heterosexuals engage in anal sex and one is infected with monkeypox or another [sexually transmitted disease], the other will get infected if there is tissue tearing.

Although monkeypox infection generally clears up within a couple of weeks without the need for medical treatment, it has hospitalized some who experience severe anorectal pain, severe sore throats, and acute kidney injury.
Power Line Sparks Caused Laguna Beach Emerald Fire: Officials

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.Power line sparks have been identified this week as the cause of the Emerald fire that scorched over 150 acres and forced thousands to evacuate in February, city officials said recently.

An investigation by the Orange County Fire Authority found the fire was caused by high winds blowing sparks from three exposed high voltage power lines onto the nearby vegetation, officials said.

To prevent future fire hazards, Laguna Beach Mayor Sue Kempf and Mayor Pro Tem Bob Whalen called on utility provider Southern California Edison to move its power lines underground in Laguna Beach and along Laguna Canyon Road.

This news that above ground power lines have caused another California wildfire in our own backyard is a wake-up call for all of us that the utilities need to underground nowno matter the cost. You cannot put a dollar amount on any life lost to wildfire, Whalen said in a statement.

About 85 percent of the city falls under what CalFire calls very high fire hazard severity zones, Whalen said, adding that he and other city officials have been pushing for mandating underground power lines through the California Public Utilities Commission and the state Legislature.

Diane Castro, a spokeswoman for the utility, told The Epoch Times that though there were circuits in the affected area, there was no circuit activity nor damaged wire at the time of the fire.

Edison has since filed a report with the state utility commission and launched its own investigation, she said.

We know wildfires have a significant impact on the communities we serve and have been working to reduce the potential for wildfires through grid hardening, which includes installing covered conductor and targeted undergrounding of electrical lines, she said.

Orange Countys last major fire was the Coastal fire in Laguna Niguel in May, which reached 200 acres and destroyed over 20 homes.

Authorities have not determined a cause for it, but Edison reported circuit activity at the time of the fire.

Laguna Beachs last major fire was in 1993, leading to the loss of 441 structures, and scorching 14,000 acres.

Since 2019, the city has planned and funded wildfire mitigation projects according to a report (pdf), including upgrading the emergency alert system, planning evacuation routes, and undergrounding power lines.

The estimated cost for the projects is $168 million, of which $82 million goes into cable undergrounding, according to the city.
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its office building in Seoul, South Korea, on March 23, 2018. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Samsung Seeks Tax Breaks on $192 Billion Potential Chip Plants in Texas

SEOULSamsung Electronics has begun applications for tax breaks for 11 potential chip plants in Texas adding up to investments of about $192 billion, according to documents filed with Texas authorities.

Samsungs applications were filed ahead of the December expiry the states Chapter 313 property tax incentives program. The South Korean tech giant already has a chip plant in Texas and is in the process of building a new one.

The documents gave the first public estimate of the potential value of the proposed new investments, showing the plants would cost $12 billion$23 billion each and create 900 jobs or more.

We currently do not have specific plans to build at this time. However, the Chapter 313 applications to the State of Texas are part of a long-term planning process of Samsung to evaluate the viability of potentially building additional fabrication plants in the United States, Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung last year picked Taylor, Texas as the location for a new $17 billion plant to make advanced chips, expected to create 2,000 high-tech jobs and production seen starting in the second half of 2024.

By Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang
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Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) questions Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel as he testifies before the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in the U.S. Capitol on February 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

Six Republicans Vie to Unseat Washington GOP Incumbent in Congressional Primary

When Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) voted to impeach former Pres. Donald Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the U.S. Capitol, he sparked the political interest of six local Republicans who are now vying to replace him in representing the 4th Congressional District in the state of Washington.

His vote for impeachment is whats driving the energy of the folks on the conservative side, said Caleb Heimlich, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.

The race has endured mudslinging between candidates and even a restraining order.

The contention, however, could ultimately benefit Newhouse, according to Matt Brown, chair of the Washington Republican Liberty Caucus.

The more bad press all the other candidates receive, it absolutely helps catapult Newhouse right back into the seat, he said.

Newhouse did not respond to requests for comment.

Republicans Loren Culp, Benancio Garcia, Corey Gibson, state Rep. Brad Klippert, Jacek Kobiesa, and Jerrod Sessler are campaigning against Newhouse.

The biggest differences in what Ive seen of the candidates at public events and in their speeches is personal style and differences in approach rather than a significant difference in political philosophy, Heimlich told The Epoch Times.

The Aug. 2 primary ballot also includes Democrat Doug White.

We have such great potential here between our agriculture, increasing our manufacturing, our science, and technology, White said. There is probably no place else in the nation that has so much capability as central Washington does, and I plan on moving that forward to the benefit of everybody.

People in the fourth are very passionate, Brown told The Epoch Times. Theyre very Republican, and they want someone whos going to represent them, not go back on what they stand for.

What I stand for, which is God, family, country, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, smaller and limited government is very popular with the people, not just here in the fourth district, but all over the state, said Culp, who lost his 2020 gubernatorial bid to Jay Inslee. My name recognition is about 99 percent. Everybody knows me here in the state.

Culp gained visibility after Trump endorsed him in February, along with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

I didnt chase anybodys endorsement, so Trumps phone call was a complete surprise, Culp told The Epoch Times. He read the endorsement letter to me and said hes behind me one hundred percent. Of course, all the other candidates attack me because they have to get through me first. Were dealing with that.

The district is 40.7 percent Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Garcia is the only Latino candidate.

Weve never had a minority in this district as a member of Congress, he said. When Ive talked to a lot of Latinos, they havent had something in common with a candidate that understands them in this rural agriculture area. So, I bring a very different focus and a very different change.

In March, Garcia, a retired military combat veteran, de-escalated a confrontation in Yakima between Culps campaign manager Christopher Gergen and Sessler.

I saw Jerrod Sesslers 16-year-old son about to get involved to help his dad, Garcia said. As a father and a grandfather, I would not want my son or grandson to be involved in something that was between two adults. I moved his son out of the way because he was getting in the middle and I did not want him to get hit.

The incident resulted in a temporary restraining order against Gergen after Sessler filed a police report, which has allegedly limited the reach of Culps campaign efforts.

We cant do any events with my campaign manager when there are other candidates, Culp said.

Flush with cash, Sessler is a retired NASCAR race car driver, Navy veteran, and CEO of Hometask.com.

Its really frustrating because the incident has nothing to do with the race, and they are making it out to be like Im using that as a tool, Sessler told The Epoch Times. I dont really care. Frankly, he can do whatever he wants to do. I just think we have rule of law and we ought to follow it.

With a college engineering degree, Sessler created a mobile app called Sessler for Congress.

I have put $600,000 of my own money into the campaign, he said. We had a huge push this last month on digital and obviously direct mail, which is a huge advantage to us because I dont think any other candidates are going to be able to afford to do it except for the incumbent.

In Sesslers internal polling, White leads the pack in projected primary results.

My experience has been extremely positive, White told The Epoch Times. Im getting support from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Ive done conservative radio.

The poll shows Sessler in second place, followed by Newhouse.

Its a very deep red congressional district so it surprises me that Doug White would be leading, said Bill Allan, who previously worked on Culps gubernatorial campaign and is now at Contract With Washington, a conservative grassroots fundraising organization.

Klippert, who has managed to stay above the political fray, is unique in that he is the only candidate currently holding an elected office and the only candidate showing support from any of the eight local GOP organizations. The Franklin County and the Benton County Republican Party endorsed Klippert, who represents the 8th legislative district in the Washington state House of Representatives.

Ive been in the legislature for the last 14 years, seven terms, he said. People who actually follow what goes on in the state know that I have worked very hard as a state legislator and that I have a very conservative voting record.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) data shows Klippert with $37,884 in total fundraising receipts compared to Culps $300,729 and Gibsons $117,846.

When it comes to communicating with our constituents, I do very well, said Gibson, who, at 27 years old, launched a cause marketing firm in Hollywood. Ive received more individual donations than any other candidate, but I have a huge uphill battle in that Im a first-time candidate who doesnt have massive name recognition.

Although he is a newcomer, Gibson, who is now 44 years old, co-founded the America First PACT, a national coalition of 23 conservative candidates, including Blake Masters of Arizona, Semi Byrd of Washington, and Brandon Wilkinson of Missouri.

Its really proving to be a positive and powerful tool for my race as well as other candidates across the country, Gibson told The Epoch Times.

As of July 15, FEC data reported Newhouse leading all candidates in cash on hand with $870,816.

The candidate in second place is White with $174,083 cash on hand, followed by Sessler with $99,658.78 cash on hand.

A lot of people are showing their confidence in my campaign through their donations, White said. In fact, that is the probably one of the easiest ways that people can actually show confidence in a campaign is to donate.

FEC data shows no financials for Kobiesa or Garcia, who was endorsed by 2016 Washington public land commissioner candidate Steve McLaughlin, a retired Navy seal commander.

Fundraising has been difficult because you have so many people in the race, Garcia said. But in this race, money is not going to make the difference on who wins. Were going to win this because people are going to know that I am the grassroots candidate who was born here in Sunnyside, Washington. I didnt just move in a year ago.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) listens to Unification Ministry's policy briefing by Unification Minister Kwon Youngse at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, on July 22, 2022. (South Korea Presidential Office via AP)

South Korea Plans to Lift Ban on North Korea TV, Newspapers Despite Tensions

SEOUL, South KoreaSouth Korea plans to lift its decades-long ban on public access to North Korean television, newspapers, and other publications as part of its efforts to promote mutual understanding between the rivals, officials said Friday, despite animosities over the Norths recent missile tests.

Divided along the worlds most heavily fortified border since 1948, the two Koreas prohibit their citizens from visiting each others territory and exchanging phone calls, emails, and letters, and they block access to each others websites and TV stations.

In a policy report to new President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday, South Koreas Unification Ministry said it will gradually open the door for North Korean broadcasts, media, and publications to try to boost mutual understanding, restore the Korean national identity and prepare for a future unification.

Ministry officials said South Korea will start by allowing access to North Korean broadcasts to try to encourage North Korea to take similar steps. The ministry refused to provide further details, saying the plans are still being discussed with relevant authorities in South Korea.

Jeon Young-sun, a research professor at Seouls Konkuk University, said North Korea is unlikely to reciprocate because the flow of South Korean cultural and media content would pose a really huge threat to its authoritarian leadership.

Ruled by three generations of the Kim family since its 1948 foundation, the North Korean regime strictly restricts its citizens access to outside information, though many defectors have said they watched smuggled South Korean TV programs while living in the North. In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire when South Korean activists launched balloons carrying USB sticks containing information about the outside world and leaflets critical of the Kim family toward North Korean territory.

Relations between the two Koreas remain strained over North Koreas torrid run of missile tests this year. Yoon, a conservative, has said he would take a tougher stance on North Korean provocations, though he said he has an audacious plan to improve the Norths economy if it abandons its nuclear weapons.

Despite the Norths likely reluctance to reciprocate, Jeon said South Korea needs to ease its ban on North Korean media because the restrictions have led to dependence on foreigners and other governments to gather North Korea-related information. Jeon said that has increased the danger of acquiring distorted information on North Korea.

It wasnt clear how anti-North Korea activists in the South would react to the governments move. Jeon said there was little chance the move would promote pro-North Korean sentiments.

South Korea, the worlds 10th-largest economy, is a global cultural powerhouse. Its nominal gross domestic product in 2019 was 54 times bigger than that of North Korea, according to South Korean estimates.

Some observers say the ban must be lifted in a step-by-step process with discussions on what North Korean contents would be allowed first and how the access should be given to the South Korean public.

While South Korean authorities block access to North Korean regimes websites and other media, they rarely crack down on experts, journalists, and others using virtual private networks or proxy servers to access them. A large number of North Korean movies, songs and other contents are also available on YouTube, which is accessible in South Korea.

By Hyung-Jin Kim
Pete Arredondo, chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, speaks at a press conference following a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Special Uvalde School Board Meeting to Discuss Firing School Police Chief Canceled

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) on Friday canceled a special board meeting that was scheduled to discuss whether to terminate the employment of the school districts police chief.

The meeting was scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday but was canceled at the request of Arredondos attorney, the school board said in a statement.

In conformity with due process requirements, and at the request of his attorney, the meeting to consider the termination of Chief Arredondo will be held at a later date which has yet to be determined, the statement read (pdf).

In the meantime, the school district said it was cutting off Arredondos pay while on leave.

Arredondo was placed on administrative leave in June following growing criticism over his failure not to immediately breach the classroom where gunman Salvador Ramos was fatally shooting students at Robb Elementary School.

He faced mounting blowback from parents and officials, and at the time, around 120 Uvalde residents joined a school board meeting on June 20, calling for Arredondo to be sacked.

During state Senate hearings in June, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Steven McCraw said officers waited for 77 minutes before killing Ramos despite there being a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject.

None of the officers tried to break down the door to get into the classroom at this time, which officials later said was the wrong decision.

Arredondo believed more equipment and officers were needed for a tactical breach, according to McCraw, who said Arredondo also thought the situation had changed from an active shooter to a barricaded subject and that there was no kids at risk.

What are you going to do Pete? I know hes not the only one. But at this point in time he is the main one. The fact of the matter is, at the end of the day, he failed these children, he failed the schools, he failed everybody, Javier Chavez told school board members at a July 18 board meeting. Chavez is cousin to victim Amerie Jo Garza.

Failed to Perform

The Texas state House of Representatives on July 17 published a 77-page report noting that there were shortcomings and failures across the board by both law enforcement and the Uvalde CISD in its handling of the May 24 shooting.

The state committee determined, in its report, that Arredondo, who was one of the first responders on the scene, failed to perform or to transfer to another person the role of incident commander on the day of the shooting, which left 19 students and two teachers dead.

Video footage from inside the school revealed that police stood in the hallway armed with high-powered rifles and a ballistics shield at least 19 minutes after the gunman entered at 11:33 a.m.

Law enforcement failed to quickly confront Ramos on the day of the shooting, taking more than 75 minutes to neutralize the shooter after he entered the building.

Uvalde City Mayor Don McLaughlin said on July 17 that he agreed with the committees review, which found there was a failure of command. He noted that the city still wanted answers about who was responsible for taking command and what specific actions were taken by each agency on the day.

In light of the report, Texas DPS said on July 18 that they will conduct an internal review into the actions of state police who had dozens of troopers and agents on the scene during the slow and chaotic response.

Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to the press after taking part in a working session with Saudi Arabia's crown prince at the Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah, on July 15, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Supreme Court Blocks Biden Admin Policy Narrowing Detainment, Deportation of Illegal Aliens

The U.S. Supreme Court gave Texas and Louisiana a temporary legal victory in the border states attempt to strike down a September 2021 Biden administration immigration guideline.

The Supreme Court, in a ruling without explanation on Thursday, allowed a federal judge in Texas to block the Biden administrations immigration guideline that, according to the border states prosecutors, limits the ability of border agents to detain and deport illegal aliens.

The ruling is a political setback for the Biden administration as it tries to juggle an unprecedented surge in illegal immigration, overburdened Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and an agenda to replace the Trump administrations more stringent border policy amid bipartisan criticism.

Dissenting justices include Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jacksonmarking Jacksons first vote since the start of her tenure last month.

DHS Guidelines

The DHS issued the new immigration enforcement guidelines in late September 2021, directing immigration authorities to exercise discretion and prioritize detaining or deporting illegal aliens who pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security.

Put into practice, the September 2021 guideline designates that an illegal aliens lack of legal authorization to stay in the United States should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.

This guidance is in direct contrast with the Trump-era DHS policy, which guides immigration authorities to detain and deport illegal aliens in a non-discriminatory manner, except in certain limited cases, such as those who came to the United States as children or are parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

The high courts ruling, which upheld a federal courts ruling in June 2022 vacating the Biden administrations September 2021 DHS guidance, gives Texas and Louisiana a temporary victory, at least until the Supreme Court hears the case in the December 2022 argument session.

Uncontroverted Evidence

According to Trump-nominated Judge Drew Tipton from the Texas District Court for the Southern District, it is difficult to deny that the DHSs September 2021 memo inflicted harm on the state of Texas.

Tipton sided with the border states in saying that uncontroverted evidence shows that the September 2021 memo led to an increase in the flow of illegal immigrants into Texas, with the state needing to spend more money on prosecution, detainment, healthcare, and administration.

The district court continued by saying that while the DHS argues that some immigration data showed an increase in the number of arrests and expulsions following its guidance to prioritize criminally convicted aliens, the increase is disproportionate considering the unprecedented surge of illegal aliens pouring over the border.

Given that the number of encounters with illegal border-crossers is ten times what it was in April 2020  an increase in arrests and expulsions is far from impressive, especially if  roughly three-fourths of the illegal aliens that cross the border go undetected by DHS entirely, Tipton wrote.

Border States Sue

The ever-escalating legal clash between the border states and the Biden administration began two days after Biden took office.

Texas, on Jan. 22, 2021, sought a court injunction on a January 20 DHS memorandum that the state attorney general said suspended the deportation of the vast majority of illegal aliens without any consideration for individual circumstances.

As the case spiraled in the courts, the DHS issued a new set of immigration guidelines in February 2021 and yet another in September 2021the last of which Texas and Louisiana sued in Texass District Court for the Southern District.

Tipton sided with the border state attorneys general and ruled in June 2022 that the federal government may not require its officials to act in a manner that conflicts with a statutory mandate imposed by Congress.

Texas and Louisiana showed that the DHSs September 2021 guidance, Tipton continued, is contrary to law, arbitrary and capricious, and failed to observe necessary government procedure.

Using the words discretion and prioritization, the Executive Branch claims the authority to suspend statutory mandates, Tipton wrote. The law does not sanction this approach.

Split Courts

After Tiptons ruling, the Biden administration appealed to a three-judge panelunsuccessfully.

The judges at the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an unsigned opinion dated July 6, 2022, wrote that some of the Biden administrations concerns advanced in its September 2021 guidelinesparticularly those replacing Congresss statutory mandatesare extralegal and plainly outside of the bounds of power conferred to Congress by the Immigration and Nationality Act.

For example, it provides that the guidelines are essential to advancing this administrations stated commitment to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality, the panel wrote.

The Fifth Circuit ruling came a day after a polar opposite ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on a similar case, in which Arizona, Ohio, and Montana sued the Biden administration on the same grounds.

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a Bush-appointed judge, sided with the Biden administration, opining in the ruling that the Biden administration, like previous governments, is given considerable authority by federal law to shape immigration policy and, therefore, guidelines for detention and removal of illegal immigrants.

The Fifth Circuit court, in explaining its differing opinion with the Sixth Circuit, said that precedent supports its conclusions and that fulsome fact-findings from the lower court support Texass and Louisianas standing.

In an email statement to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson from the DHS said it is obligated to and will continue to abide by the Texas District Courts decision regarding its September 2021 guidelines as long as the decision remains in effect.

In the interim, ICE officers will make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the greatest threats to the homeland, the spokesperson added.

The Texas attorney general celebrated the Supreme Courts ruling as another win for Texas and border security.

Yesterday the Supreme Court made clear that, while we prepare for oral argument this winter, the Biden Administration must detain illegal aliens with criminal convictions, Paxton said in a July 22 press release.

Its the right legal decision, and its whats best for Texas and our nation.
The word Pegasus and binary code are displayed on a smartphone which is placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken May 4, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Thai Minister Says Spyware Used for National Security, Drug Dealers

A Thai minister has acknowledged the use of surveillance software to track those involved in national security or drug matters, but stated that it was only used in limited and special cases.

Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, Minister of Digital Economy and Society, told parliament on Tuesday that he was aware of the use of spyware but did not disclose which software was used and against whom.

It is used on national security or drug matters. If you need to arrest a drug dealer, you have to listen in to find where the drop would be, he said, according to Reuters.

This comes after Toronto-based Citizen Lab, Thai legal monitoring group iLaw, and Southeast Asian internet watchdog Digital Reach revealed that 30 Thai activists and lawyers had been targeted with Israeli surveillance spyware Pegasus.

Chaiwut said that his ministry lacks the authority to use such software, but added that other agencies may have such capacity.

I understand that there was usage of this sort but it is very limited and only in special cases, he added.

Chaiwut later backtracked on his remarks, saying that his comments on the usage of spyware were general views and not particular to Thailand.

I said I knew of the system that is used on security and drug [suppression], but I did not say that it existed in the Thai government, he told parliament on Friday.

The Royal Thai Police also denied using spyware in their security operations, according to local reports.

Pegasus Software

Citizen Lab launched a joint investigation with iLaw and Digital Reach after Apple Inc alerted several iPhone users that state-sponsored hackers may have targeted their devices and iCloud accounts last year.

Apple sued NSO Groupan Israeli technology company that developed Pegasusto ban it from using any Apple product, stating that Pegasus software had been used to attack a small number of Apple users worldwide with malicious malware and spyware.

According to Citizen Labs report, at least 30 Thai activists, academics, and lawyers were targeted with Pegasus spyware between October 2020 to November 2021, a time when there were widespread pro-democracy protests in Thailand.

Many of the victims have been repeatedly detained and imprisoned by the Thai authorities for their political activities, criticism of the government, or lese-majeste offenses (offenses against the royal family).

The forensic evidence collected from infected devices, taken by itself, does not provide strong evidence pointing to a specific NSO Group customer, the report reads.

However, numerous elements of the case, when taken together, provide circumstantial evidence suggesting one or more Thai government Pegasus operators is responsible for the operation, it added.

NSO Group stated on its website that its technology is sold exclusively to governments and law enforcement agencies to fight crime and terror.

The Epoch Times has reached out to NSO Group for comments.
Pilgrims pray in front of a Buddha statue during a ceremony to mark the Buddha's birthday at Huayan Temple on May 5, 2006 in Chongqing Municipality, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)

Thousand-Year-Old Buddhist Treasure Stolen From China

A thousand-year-old statue of a monk from southeastern China, which was stolen in 1995, was found in the Netherlands 20 years later. The process of returning it to China has been lengthy as international coordination is involved.

According to the official website of the Datian County government in Sanming city in Fujian Province, on June 22, the local tourism authority said that it will double its efforts to recover the statue from a Western collector by all means.

The priceless statue is of a monk named Zhang Gong, commonly known as Zhang Qisan, and whose art name was Liuquan, and dharma name was Puzhao. He was born in the Northern Song Dynasty (960 to 1279) more than 1000 years ago. He was a physician and was known for his benevolence.

Zhang Gong converted to Buddhism, practiced with devotion, and became a monk. He passed away at 37, the date is estimated to have been between 1022 to 1155.

Medical imaging (a CT scan) shows Zhang Gongs mummified body, minus all internal organs, seated inside the gold lacquered statue.

Locals sculpted his likeness into a statue and worshiped it as Zhang Gong grandmaster in the Puzhao Hall in Yangchun village, Fujian Province.

But since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came into power, many such Buddhist treasures have been nearly destroyed, or stolen and shipped out of the country.

A man worships the God of Fortune at the Guiyuan Temple in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 20, 2018. (Wang He/Getty Images)

Robbery During the Cultural Revolution

Lin Mingzhao, who lived in Yangchun village, told Chinese news media The Paper on Dec. 13, 2018, that the village had been worshiping and guarding the corporeal Buddha statue of Zhang Gong for more than 1,000 years.

Every generation of Yangchun people has grown up listening to the story of Zhang Gong Grandmaster, Lin said.

The villagers have followed Buddhism since ancient times.

However, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a political movement Mao Zedong launched to consolidate his rule, traditional Chinese thought, culture, customs, and habits were defined as the Four Olds and to be eradicated at the root.

Buddhist temples, scriptures, and treasures were no exception to the cultural ravages.

Some locals began protecting Buddhist treasures from being destroyed and so the statue of Zhang Gong was hidden away.

On a winter day in 1966, the Destroy the Four Olds working group was stationed in Yangchun Village and asked the villagers to hand over the statue of Zhang Gong.

To keep the statue hidden, villagers had moved it overnight, and concealed the 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) high and 50-kilogram (110 pound) artifact, in the deep mountains.

The officials tortured the villagers to reveal the whereabouts of the statue by forcing them to kneel on broken porcelain tiles.

In desperation, some villagers came up with a solution: a substitute. There was a statue of another monk, Chen Gong, that didnt contain a non-decaying body, but had another Buddhist treasure sarira, a shiny substance found in the ashes of a cremated monk.

According to the recollection of a local villager, one night a villager led a working group to look for the statue of Zhang Gong, but in fact, discovered the statue of Chen Gong. In order to prevent the group from recognizing the identity of the statue, the villager used a knife to destroy the statues face. The villager then pried open the base, took out the sarira, and threw it into the grass while no one was looking.

The group then burned the statue of Chen Gong and demolished the Puzhao Hall.

Afterward, the villager returned covertly and picked up the sarira.

Thus, the statue of Zhang Gong survived a potential disaster.

Mysterious Disappearance

In 1993 the locals rebuilt Puzhao Hall and reinstated the golden statue of Zhang Gong.

But after the Cultural Revolution, more people were looking to earn money and didnt care so much about traditional things.

On Dec. 15, 1995, villagers were surprised to find that the statue of Zhang Gong had disappeared, leaving only the robe and hat that Zhang Gong had worn. The thieves entered Puzhao Hall by digging through a side wall.

Although the villagers called the police and searched everywhere, the statue was not found.

The thousand-year-old Buddhist treasure had mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

Thefts of cultural artifacts were rampant in the 1990s. A 2013 article in Archaeology, an American archaeological journal, estimated that about 100,000 people in China are engaged in this underground occupation and that they have excavated at least 400,000 ancient tombs in the past 20 years.

Most stolen cultural artifacts are transported abroad for lucrative benefits.

A CT scan of a thousand-year-old golden statue was found to contain a meditating monk by Drents Museum at Meander Medical Centre in the Netherlands. (Courtesy of Drents Museum)

Villagers Recognize the Statue

On Feb. 23, 2015, the Daily Mail reported that an expert had studied a statue and was surprised to find, through CT scans and endoscopy, that it contained the remains of a monk, and could be traced back to the 11th to 12th century.

The report said that the mummy was of Buddhist master Liuquan, who belonged to the Chinese Meditation School. Liuquan is Zhang Gongs art name.

After the scan, the mummy was taken to Budapest, where it was on display at the Hungarian Natural History Museum until May 2015.

Westerners mistook Zhang Gongs flesh body to have been mummified, in fact, these are two different things, said Lei Shuhong, Doctorate in medicine at the University of Tokyo, saying that a mummy is a dead body treated in a special way, so it is dry. In contrast, a non-decaying body like Zhang Gongs does not require special treatment and his body remains elastic even over a long period of time.

The news of the statues contents was widely circulated and also attracted attention in China.

A villager in Fujian Province looked at the picture and said, Isnt this Zhang Gong? The Fujian Provincial Bureau of Cultural Heritage confirmed that the seated figure on display in Hungary was Zhang Gong.

Shortly after, the official Chinese media claimed that the monks statue was stolen from China, and demanded that the collector return the statue to China.

Oscar van Overeem, a Dutch architect, admitted to being the owner of the golden statue of Zhang Gong, and said he bought it in Hong Kong in 1996 from another collector. The previous collector allegedly acquired it from an artist friend in China, Dutch News reported on July 17, 2017.

As for how the seated statue arrived in Hong Kong from the Fujian countryside, no one knows.

International Lawsuit

After the Chinese side contacted van Overeem in the Netherlands, he agreed to conditionally return the statue, but the two sides were unsuccessful in negotiating acceptable terms and conditions.

In late 2015, committees from the villages of Yangchun and Dongpu, Fujian Province, filed litigation in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, seeking return of the Zhang Gong statue.

On Dec. 12, 2018, the Amsterdam District Court ruled that the community groups could not be considered legal entities and were therefore ineligible to claim compensation.

The two village councils also filed a similar lawsuit in the district court of Fujian and won the case. But there is no bilateral agreement between the Netherlands and China to recognize civil judgments, so the outcome of the Chinese courts decision is meaningless in the Netherlands.

Litigation for the recovery of cultural relics across borders is fairly complex, involving both jurisdictional issues and applicable law, and sometimes historical disputes.

China News reported on Jan.29, 2017, that data from the Cultural Relics Academy shows that more than 10 million pieces of cultural relics have outflowed from China to Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia, and other countries and regions since the Opium War in 1840,

According to the British Museum, it has collected about 23,000 objects from China.

There has been a long-standing controversy about the need to recover these lost artifacts from China. Some argue that China should find a way to get its cultural relics back; while others believe that if the artifacts hadnt been taken out of China, they would have been destroyed by the CCP and are therefore better preserved in foreign museums to promote Chinese culture.

Buddhist monks meditate at Mendut Temple on Vesak Day, commonly known as Buddhas birthday, at the Borobudur Mahayana Buddhist monument on May 09, 2009 in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. (Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

A Monks Flesh Body Does not Decompose After Death

The phenomenon of a Buddhist adherents flesh body remaining intact after death was a common occurrence in ancient China.

The most famous one is the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Hui Neng, whose incorruptible body has been in Nanhua Temple in Guangdong Province for over 1300 years.

It has been vandalized three times and was nearly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

In 1996, Li Jinsuo, a village head in Mianshan town in Shanxi Province, was cleaning a statue of Buddha at the local Zhengguo Temple when he found a loose mud tile on the head of the statue. Under the tile he saw an exposed white skull. Li immediately reported to his superiors. Subsequently, it was confirmed that there was a monks body inside. And it was not the only one. All 15 statues in the temple were made from mud sculpted over the bodies of deceased monks. So far, this may be the worlds largest group of non-decaying flesh statues found.

The CCP, which only recognizes atheism, did not say a word about this important news until 20 years after it was reported in the media.

The reason a monks body does not decompose after death, Lei told The Epoch Times, cannot be explained with modern science. Based on her practice of Falun Dafa, a spiritual discipline, she knows that monks can break through the current material world and enter another dimension, a more microscopic one that is beyond the limitations of time and space; so their flesh body wont decompose after they pass away after hundreds or even thousands of years.

Ellen Wan contributed to this article.
Flames consume a home on Triangle Rd. as the Oak Fire burns in Mariposa County, Calif., on July 23, 2022. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)

California Governor Declares Emergency Over Wildfire Near Yosemite; Thousands Ordered to Flee

WAWONA, Calif.A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of Californias largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

The Oak Fire started Friday afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by Saturday had grown to nearly 19 square miles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.

Evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday due to the effects of the Oak Fire.

More than 400 firefighters were battling the blaze, along with helicopters, other aircraft, and bulldozers, facing tough conditions that included hot weather, low humidity, and bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades, Patterson said.

Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters, Cal Fire said in a statement Saturday that described the Oak Fires activity as extreme with frequent runs, spot fires, and group torching.

A firefighter extinguishes flames as the Oak Fire crosses Darrah Rd. in Mariposa County, Calif., on July 22, 2022. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)

By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five others and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said. The blaze prompted numerous road closures, including a shutdown of Highway 140 between Carstens Road and Allred Roadblocking one of the main routes into Yosemite.

California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years.

The fire is moving quickly. This fire was throwing embers out in front of itself for up to 2 miles yesterday, Patterson said. These are exceptional fire conditions. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Pacific Gas & Electric said on its website that more than 2,600 homes and businesses in the area had lost power as of Friday afternoon and there was no indication when it would be restored. PG&E is unable to access the affected equipment, the utility said.

A shoeless older man attempting to flee the blaze on Friday crashed his sedan into a ditch in a closed area and was helped by firefighters. He was safely driven from the area and did not appear to suffer any injuries. Several other residents stayed in their homes Friday night as the fire burned nearby.

Meanwhile, firefighters have made significant progress against a wildfire that began in Yosemite National Park and burned into the Sierra National Forest.

The Washburn Fire was 79 percent contained Friday after burning about 7.5 square miles of forest. It was one of the largest fires of the year in California, along with the Lost Lake Fire in Riverside County that was fully contained in June at 9 square miles.

The fire broke out July 7 and forced the closure of the southern entrance to Yosemite and evacuation of the community of Wawona as it burned on the edge of Mariposa Grove, home to hundreds of giant sequoias, the worlds largest trees by volume.

Wawona Road is tentatively set to reopen on Saturday, according to the park website.
Then President Donald Trump arrives with then Vice President Mike Pence for a rally in Traverse City, Mich., on Nov. 2, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump, Pence Hold Dueling Rallies in Arizona for Rival GOP Candidates for Governor

Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence held dueling rallies in Arizona on July 22 for rival candidates in an upcoming GOP primary for governor.

Trump has thrown the weight of his endorsement behind former TV anchor Kari Lake and stumped on her behalf at a Friday rally in Prescott Valley, calling her a smart, tough, and very good person.

No one understands better than Kari how to fight back against the fake news media and the radical left, Trump said at the event.

Trump also took the opportunity to once again tease a run for the presidency in 2024, expressing confidence that his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement will retake the White House.

We will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again, Trump said.

Former President Donald Trump points to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a rally in Prescott, Ariz., on July 22, 2022. (Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo)

Pence and current Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey are backing housing developer Karrin Taylor Robson and talked up their preferred candidate at separate events in Peoria and Tucson.

Im a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican in that order, Pence said from the stage in Peoria. And Im here because Arizona and America need Karrin Taylor Robson as the next governor of Arizona.

Karrin knows what Arizona needs in the days ahead. She knows theres no greater threat to Arizona and to this country than the crisis on our southern border, Pence added.

This combination of photos shows Republican candidates for Arizona governor Karrin Taylor Robson (L) and Kari Lake (R) prior to a televised GOP debate in Phoenix, Ariz., on June 29, 2022. (Ross D. Franklin, File/AP Photo)

Pence, Ducey, and Robson also discussed border security during a second event in Tucson at the headquarters for the Border Patrol union.

Securing the border takes two things: resources and will power, Robson said at the event. President Trump and Vice President Pence already showed that it can be done.

Stemming the flow of illegal immigration and securing the southern border was a staple of the Trump-Pence ticket.

Pence has repeatedly spoken highly of his time in the Trump administration, especially in the area of immigration policy.

The truth of the matter is under the Trump-Pence administration, our neighbors to the south knew we expected them to do their part to secure their border and ours, Pence said at an event in Phoenix in mid-June.

They showed respect to America during the Trump-Pence years, the former Vice President said at the time.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to a crowd during an event sponsored by the Palmetto Family organization in Columbia, S.C., on April 29, 2021. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Robson, a lawyer and housing developer, is looking to lock up support from Republicans growing increasingly comfortable with breaking from Trump.

Lake has energized Trumps most ardent supporters in Arizona, backing the former presidents claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

As your governor I want to bring those America First Trump policies here to Arizona, Lake said at the rally in Peoria. Were going to secure that border. We are going to restore honesty and faith in our elections.

Trump touched on the election fraud theme in his remarks at the rally.

We need a landslide so big that the radical left cannot rig or steal even if they try, Trump said.

The Arizona Primary Election is scheduled for Aug. 2.
MPAA-15+ | 4 episodes | DVD | Oct. 13, 2021

In the Australian Goldfields of Ballarat, racism against Chinese immigrants is rife. Bloody riots are not uncommon, but the colonial authorities prefer to use punitive taxation to keep them down.

The shrewd headman of the Chinese prospecting community tries to mount a campaign against a newly proposed round of taxes, but he will be distracted by a more pressing problem. The discovery of a dead white woman on the outskirts of the Chinese camp could potentially unleash a new round of violence in creator Peter Coxs four-part series, New Gold Mountain, which is now available on DVD.

Leung Wei Shing is smart, but maybe too slippery for his own good. He has been steadily skimming a modest take off the top of the camps revenue, with the reluctant help of his brother, Leung Wei Sun, who serves as their bookkeeper.

Alyssa Sutherland and Yoson An in New Gold Mountain. (Goalpost Television)

This is risky business, because the camp is sponsored by The Brotherhood, a Mainland Chinese secret society that seems to have full-blown Triad-style enforcement practices.

Leung faces a perfect storm of peril when Zhang Li arrives from the Brotherhood for a surprise inspection just when the body of Annie Thomas is discovered. The headman has her buried away from the Chinese camp, but the eventual unearthing of the body still brings unwanted scrutiny. It turns out that she may have been romantically involved with someone living in the Brotherhood camp.

Inconveniently, widowed Belle Roberts, who now owns The Ballarat Times, latches onto the story, heedless of the potential consequences. Yet, she sees herself as a champion of the Chinese community, because she plans to launch a new Chinese-language edition.

The deceased woman was also the ex-wife of prospector Patrick Thomas. His harsh temper makes him dangerous, but its source also makes him sympathetic. During a violent mine workers strike, Thomass young daughter was killed when a union leader set fire to the workers tents. Thomas made her killer pay dearly, but the mob-like union branded him a traitor, so he fled to Ballarat, where nobody asks too many questions about prospectors past.

Plenty of Flaws and Corruption

Cox and his co-writers created a really gritty historical that addresses issues of racism and immigration without any of the stereotypical good guys or bad guys. Arguably, everyone is corrupt to some extent in New Gold Mountain, except maybe Patrick Thomas, but he certainly has plenty of character faults.

(LR) Mabel Li, Yoson An, and Alyssa Sutherland in New Gold Mountain. (Goalpost Television)

It cant quite be labeled a mystery either, because it is really about Leungs attempts to cover-up multiple crimes, including his own. However, his scheming is quite entertaining to watch.

Indeed, Leung Wei Shing is a richly complex character. Yoson An embraces his contradictions, bringing out all sides of the grafter with a martyr complex. He also shows a flair for the verbal sparring matches Leung is drawn into with his foils, Roberts and Zhang Li, played by Alyssa Sutherland and Mabel Li, respectively.

Li is particularly intriguing as the Brotherhoods fixer, a decidedly unconventional role for a woman during that era. Li portrays her namesake with toughness, while humanizing her.

The same is true for Christopher James Baker, who broods hard while conveying all the regret and misery weighing down Thomas, the fugitive prospector. On the other hand, Dan Spielman is just spectacularly sleazy as Leungs ostensive boss, Frederick Standish, who holds the official title of Chinese Protector, but functions more like a protection-money collector for the colonial government.

Brutal Realities

Cox and company certainly depict the brutal rough-and-tumble realities of life in an Australian frontier town. Life is cheap, especially for the Chinese and aboriginal characters, but the series never wallows in grim miserabilism.

Instead, the intrigue carries the show along. Entirely helmed by director Corrie Chen, New Gold Mountain is nicely paced and has a consistent tone. This might be a story of the 1850s, but the crooked government officials and self-serving community organizers are just as prevalent in todays world.

Promotional ad for New Gold Mountain. (Goalpost Television)

New Gold Mountain is very definitely a self-contained narrative, which makes a refreshing change from recent streaming series that deliberately leave major questions unresolved, in hopes of establishing a franchise.

Still, it presumably would not be impossible for The Ballarat Times to report on more stories in the future, if New Gold Mountain builds an audience.

It is definitely worthy of attention from fans of revisionist westerns and Colonial Australian historical dramas, thanks to the sharp writing and Yosons even sharper lead performance.

Highly recommended, New Gold Mountain is now available on DVD (and streams on AMC+).

Promotional ad for New Gold Mountain. (Goalpost Television)

New Gold Mountain

Director: Corrie Chen

Stars: Yoson An, Alyssa Sutherland, Christopher James Baker, Sam Wang

Running Time: 4 episodes

MPAA Rating: 15+

Release Date: Oct. 13, 2021

Rating: 4 out of 5
Students walk between classes at the University of CaliforniaSan Diego in San Diego, Calif., on May 15, 2018. (Yang Jie/The Epoch Times)

UC Seeks to Increase Enrollment for Californians by 23,000 Students in 8 Years

The University of California (UC) Board of Regents on July 21 discussed developing a plan within the next year to add more than 23,000 slots for undergraduate and graduate students from California by 2030.

A working group of UC chancellors and leaders was established last year to develop a strategy to meet enrollment growth goals and outlined two possible courses of action, according to UC President Michael Drake.

Our goal all along has been to grow in a way that serves the state of California and meets its future education and workforce needs, while being responsive to each of the communities we call home, Drake said at the meeting.

One plan would increase the enrollment by an estimated 23,055 students, which is equivalent to the size of a new UC campus. Another would increase enrollment by 33,260 students, an aspirational option that requires additional financial support from the state. The plan would also reduce the number of out-of-state and international students.

Both options will require significant capital and infrastructure needs including new classrooms, new teaching labs and student and faculty housing. They also take into account enhanced use of technology and other non-traditional means of increasing enrollment, Drake said.

UC Berkeley expects to add the most students, expanding its enrollment by 4,736, followed by 4,604 at UC San Diego and 3,723 at UC Merced, according to UCs 2030 Capacity Plan.

In order to achieve the goal, UC will focus on increasing online and summer programs, since many campuses are unable to add more students on campus. Approximately 15 percent of the proposed undergraduate growth will be through summer programs and the same percentage through online enrollment, according to the plan.

At the meeting, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said that UCLA is at maximum capacity for on-campus students, but there are some opportunities for the school to grow.

Were at maximum physical capacity right now. I cant imagine putting any more students per square meter on our campus at any one time, but thats the keyany one time, Block said.

UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara are proposing to have half of their summer students online by 2030, according to the plan.

UC also plans to use other tactics including study abroad and travel study programs to expand its enrollment capacity. A satellite campus would be another option, according to officials.

We have a couple of really interesting opportunities. Well see whether they come to fruition but the possibility of bringing a small campus into existence in the L.A. region would be very attractive for us, Block said.

He added, We also have a new program were developing called UCLA in LA which can provide students an opportunity to work and participate in internships.

The proposed expansion plan came after UC saw surging enrollment demand starting in 2021. This year, the school system received a record high 251,179 applications for fall 2022, including 40,339 transfer applications and 210,840 freshman applications, according to UCs application data.

However, the number of applications has far exceeded enrollment capacity, since most campuses acceptance rates are below 50 percent.

A previous version of this article did not clarify that the enrollment growth is planned for students from California. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
Cars queue at the check-in at the Port of Dover in Kent on July 23, 2022. (Gareth Fuller/PA Media)

UK Holidaymakers Face More Long Delays at Port of Dover

LONDONLong traffic jams built up on Saturday outside the Port of Dover, Britains main gateway to Europe, and officials said the disruption could be worse than the logjam seen on Friday.

Travellers setting out at the start of the British school summer holidays, as well as the usual flow of goods lorries, have faced long delays because of slow border checks.

The Kent Resilience Forum, which brings together local councils and emergency services, declared a major incident, while Port of Dover CEO Doug Bannister said travellers could face delays of up to six hours on Saturday.

The UK government has blamed the problems on a lack of French border force staff, while France says more checks are needed because Britain is no longer a member of the European Union.

Dover and the French port of Calais have juxtaposed border controls in which French authorities check passports on British soil before departure, and vice versa in France.

We were expecting that today was going to be a busier day than yesterday, Bannister told BBC radio. Yesterday we processed about eight and a half thousand cars going out, today we were predicted to be around 10,000, so it is going to be a very busy day down here.

Roger Gough, Conservative leader of Kent County Council, said around 3,000 HGV lorries held on the M20 motorway were gradually being fed through to Dover.

Border Staff

Bannister said the number of French border staff at Dover had increased following Fridays disruption.

French regional prefect Georges-Francois Leclerc said that at midday, out of the 9,000 to 10,000 vehicles scheduled to pass on Saturday, 60 percent had passed without any issue.

Waiting time was about an hour and a half during the morning and was later reduced to about 45 minutes, Leclerc said on BFM TV. Asked if French customs officers were to blame for the delay, he said this was false.

Today the situation is back to normal, Leclerc said. The Port of Dover, which is a private port, found it easier to blame the French police [for the delays].

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is competing to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister, insisted on Saturday that the French were to blame.

This is a situation that has been caused by a lack of resource at the border. That is what the French authorities need to address and that is what Im being very clear with them about, she told reporters in Kent, southeast England, after meeting party members.

Travellers heading for the Eurotunnel service at Folkstone were also facing delays. Queues stretched two miles back from the entrance.

The port delays came as some airports also struggled to recruit enough staff to manage a post-pandemic rebound in travel, leading to chaotic scenes at London airports in recent weeks. Railway travel has also been periodically disrupted this summer by labour strikes.
Kate McClure, 32, charged with theft by deception in the $400,00 GoFundMe scam, with her lawyer Jim Gerrow Jr., in State Superior Court, Burlington County Courthouse in Mt. Holly, N.J., on April 15, 2019. (David Swanson/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Woman in $400,000 GoFundMe Scam Gets 1 Year in Federal Case

CAMDEN, New JerseyA woman who admitted her role in a scam that raised $400,000 using a fake story about a homeless man received a one-year prison sentence in federal court Thursday.

Katelyn McClure was also ordered to make restitution and serve three years supervised release. The 32-year-old Bordentown, New Jersey resident is scheduled to be sentenced on state charges next month and could receive more prison time.

A message was left Thursday with an attorney representing McClure.

McClure and her then-boyfriend, Mark DAmico, fabricated the story about homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr. giving McClure $20 when she ran out of gas on a Philadelphia highway in 2017.

In truth, state and federal prosecutors said, the group had met near a Philadelphia casino in October 2017 shortly before they told their story.

(LR): Johnny Bobbitt, Kate McClures boyfriend Mark DAmico, and Kate McClure pose at a Citgo station in Philadelphia in a file photo. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

They publicized the story through local and national media interviews and created a GoFundMe account that more than 14,000 people donated to, thinking the money was to help Bobbitt, according to prosecutors. Law enforcement began investigating after Bobbitt sued the couple, accusing them of not giving him the money.

The federal criminal complaint alleged all of the money raised in the campaign was spent by March 2018, with large chunks spent by McClure and DAmico on a recreational vehicle, a BMW, and trips to casinos in Las Vegas and New Jersey.

DAmico, described as the groups ringleader, pleaded guilty to federal charges and was sentenced in April to 27 months in prison. He was also ordered to make restitution and is scheduled for sentencing on separate state charges next month.

Bobbitt was sentenced to five years probation on state charges in 2019 and faces sentencing next month on federal charges.

(LR) Homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt, Kate McClure, and Mark DAmico in a file photo. (Burlington County Prosecutors Office)
People come to mourn for An An in Ocean Park. July 21, 2022. (Doris Li/The Epoch Times)

Worlds Longest-Living Panda in Captivity Dies at 35 in Hong Kong

An An, the worlds longest-living male giant panda in captivity, had been feeling unwell, and his condition deteriorated over the past few weeks. On the morning of July 21, 2022, Ocean Park sadly announced that An An was euthanized to prevent him from suffering more pain.

An An was 35 years old, equivalent to 105 years old in human life.

Before his passing, An An suffered from loss of appetite and movement.

Ocean Park had been posting on its official social media pages to announce the slow deterioration of An Ans health in recent weeks. He was not eating or moving much. His body became more weakened by the day. The theme park realized from a humanitarian perspective that An An might have come to the end of his journey.

People come to mourn for An An in Ocean Park. July 21, 2022. (Doris Li/The Epoch Times)

After a thorough consultation and careful consideration, the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center, along with the veterinarians at Ocean Park and The Agriculture and Conservation Department of Hong Kong, decided to euthanize the giant panda at 8:40 a.m., ending An Ans suffering at the Sichuan Treasures Museum of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

The Park has placed a guest book for condolences in the Sichuan Treasures Museum for the public to mourn the beloved animal ambassador who had been with Hongkongers for the past 23 years.

An Ans Adventure to Ocean Park

An An was initially born in the wild in Sichuan, China and later moved to the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center.

Before he came to Hong Kong, An An was honored with the title of Panda Ambassador at Man Lee Zoo in Singapore. He was a guest for six months at the zoo. Since he arrived in Hong Kong, he had been living in the Sichuan Treasures Museum. He came to Hong Kong together with Jia Jia on March 11, 1999, they were gifts from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to Hong Kong on its second anniversary of the handover.

Former Chief Executive Tung Chi-hwa said during his welcome speech that the CCP had gifted Hong Kong two giant pandas and auspicious wishes. The name An An symbolizes stability and prosperity while Jia Jia means all is well.

People come to mourn for An An in Ocean Park. July 21, 2022. (Doris Li/The Epoch Times)

Ocean Park described An An an active and intelligent animal. His favorites were Bamboo leaves, bamboo shoots, vegetables, and high-fiber biscuits. Due to his recent health issues, his caretakers would put his medicine in the biscuits or vegetables he loved to eat. An An loved playing with shredded paper and lying down to enjoy his bamboo.

Since An An carried the rare genes of a giant panda, his sperm could also be used for artificial conception. At the age of 18, An An successfully conceived with Jia Jia, Yun Yun. One of the panda babies, is currently residing in Sichuan.

After bringing six additional pandas to the park, An An became aggressive toward Jia Jia and would often attack her. The park saw it as a sign of hostility, so they separated the two giant pandas. From then on, there were no more panda babies.

As he aged, An An suffered from joint pain, cataract, and high blood pressure.

His medication could only alleviate his anxiety and discomfort but not treat the illness.

CCPs Auspicious Wishes Gone With Hong Kongs Prosperity

Hongkongers were saddened by the news of An Ans death. Some brought up the auspicious meaning of the words An An. An An was a symbolic gift Beijing gave to Hong Kong. It represented the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. Now that An An is gone, it seems to align with the current situation: Stability and prosperity no longer exist here under the national security law.

People come to mourn for An An in Ocean Park. July 21, 2022. (Doris Li/The Epoch Times)

Is An Ans death an omen? Another netizen commented.

To Hongkongers, what was more coincidental was An An died on July 21, a very significant day for Hongkongers. It happens to be the 3rd anniversary of the 721 Yuen Long Attack.

An Ans Death Reminds Citizens of Their Loss of a Safety Net

On July 21, 2019, Hong Kong citizens were attacked by over six hundred triads-for-hire who dressed in white at the Yuen Long MTR Station. Images of people fleeing, crying for help in the station, and getting beaten badly by the triads, caused tremendous trauma to people who witnessed the horror of the event.

That night, The white-clad triads ran inside the station and attacked civilians and families with children. They locked the exit gates before attacking indiscriminately. Men who defended women and children were hurt. A pregnant woman, a journalist, a former Legco councilor, and an elderly person were also victims of the heartless triads.

Many Hongkongers thought that was the day the Hong Kong Police had turned against the people they were supposed to serve. No one could reach the local police, as the police stations were closed, while officers were photographed later talking with the clad-in-white attackers. When people dialed the emergency hotlines, the line was cut by the police on duty.

Hongkongers felt the city lost its safety net on July 21, 2019.

Auspicious Wishes Turned to Hopelessness

With An Ans death, locals seemed to believe that its death also signified the citys loss of liberty, stability, and abundance.

Jia Jias meaning of greatness died before An An at the age of 38 in 2016. She was, at the time, the longest living giant panda, also a Guinness-book record holder.

With greatness, stability, and prosperity being gone, what else is left for Hong Kong? A hopeless netizen asked.

Over the years, An An became part of the family of Ocean Park and Hongkongers. Unfortunately for Ocean Park, it became an enemy of its own families.

Many Hongkongers had sworn to never return to the park after what the park did in 2019, at the height of the Hong Kong Protests.

Ocean Park Turned Against its Families for the Regimes

In its 2019 Halloween show, Ocean Park appointed programme director and lead artist Wong Cham-sum to perform on-stage. However, the pro-government theme park claimed Wong had injected elements of the Hong Kong Protests into the show, which the park also alleged had upset many people. The Park also claimed that Wongs performance incited hate, rebellion, and social unrest and was an echo of the Hong Kong Protests.

Originally the Park planned to switch to a different director, but many Hongkongers organized events to express their support and solidarity with Wong. Because of the publics reaction, Ocean Park decided to stop the Halloween show four days earlier than scheduled.

It shocked Hong Kong society and caused democratic Hongkongers to retaliate and boycott the Park. Ocean Park has suffered several financial crises since 2019 due to the significant drop in visitors.

The Park endured backlash from the public for its support to both CCP and the Hong Kong government and lost local customers due to the protests and later the pandemic. The Park tried to turn to mainlanders for income, which only aggravated the locals further.

Ocean Park used to be A park for Hongkongers. But that ended in 2019.

Some citizens said, Ocean Park and An An have now become Hong Kong history. So will the memories of happy times we had, as the park had betrayed its own family of Hongkongers.
The nationally recognized Midwest Salute to the Arts is back in full swing this year.

Midwest Salute to the Arts kicked off its season of activities with an evening of art, music and delicious appetizers and local cuisine, hosted by Jack Schmitt Auto World June 29 in Fairview Heights. From the attendance, it's clear that artists and patrons are ready to get out and mingle. This year's Jack Schmitt-sponsored kick off event was the first since 2019. About 200 people filled the dealership's showroom and main building.

Midwest Salute to the Arts juried art show will begin with a mixer for sponsors from 6-10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26 in the Rotary Pavilion at Moody Park, 525 S. Ruby Lane, in Fairview Heights. Thai cuisine, Nothing Bundt Cakes, beverages, including adult beverages, and more will be at the mixer. Live music will be performed by jazz artist Anita Jackson (www.iamanitajackson.com).

The Rotary Club of Fairview Heights will sell beverages to the public, including adult beverages, throughout the weekend. The Rotary gets the liquor license and everything else. All the proceeds from the weekend's beverage sales goes to the Rotary for its various outreach projects.

"This is the Rotary's biggest fundraiser of the year. One of our goals to help people in the community," said Midwest Salute to the Arts' Sharon Kassing, executive director.

KMOV Channel 4 also will be live at the art show Friday for its "Great Day St. Louis" segment.

Midwest Salute to the Arts started more than 30 years ago when a former alderman visited Mystic, Connecticut's outdoor art festival and realized that Fairview Heights might be able to present a similar outdoor event. The city council appointed Mrs. Billy McLemore as head of a committee to explore the possibility.

Mystic was revisited, and other art fairs were contacted, including the renowned Festival of the Masters in Orlando, Florida. When the research was finished, it became apparent that Fairview Heights had the resources and the spirit to present such an event.

"We are thrilled to have full show this year," Kassing said. "Midwest Salute to the Arts is ready to take over Moody Park. Artists are thrilled to be selling again, patrons are excited to be buying again, and we're thrilled to bring them together.We have more than double the artists than last year.

"We will have certain precautions, and have new protocols in place to ensure the health and safety of our artists, vendors, volunteers and visitors," she said. "The artists are so ready to see more people, to be out; the patrons are ready to be out and about in the community. And Fairview Heights supports us so much."

Midwest Salute to the Arts was able to showcase 2019 Critics Choice Award winner, sculpture and painter Gonz Jove, at the Jack Schmitt kick off event; this year's Arts Council Choice Award winner, Doug Becker, is represented on the Midwest Salute to the Arts' official poster, yet he was unable to attend the kick off event. There was a live artist demonstration with textile artist Jacque Davis, who had guests make square textile art, which she fashioned into a hanging piece and donated the finished piece back to Midwest Salute to the Arts, which will display the piece at the show.

"Jacque Davis is one of our judges this year," Kassing noted.

The first incarnation of the show, called "Midwest Salute to the Masters," was established with the goal of combining the community involvement of the Mystic show with the ultra-high standards of the Orlando Masters show. After much hard work and untold hours of planning, the first Midwest Salute to the Masters was held in fall 1988 over two days.

"It was received with both critical and popular acclaim," Kassing said.

Today, the show is known as the Midwest Salute to the Arts. The all-volunteer staff continues to work toward the common goal of presenting one of the premier art festivals in the country.

The entire event is free  including parking  and will be set to a backdrop of outdoor fun, live music, food trucks, childrens activities and refreshing beverages.

Presented by the city of Fairview Heights, Midwest Salute to the Arts is excited to reconnect artists who cant wait to show and sell their work with art lovers anxious to find their next favorite piece, as well as the casual and curious looking for a fun weekend event. Midwest Salute to the Arts and the city of Fairview Heights have enjoyed a long, rewarding partnership, one thats helped revitalize the greater St. Louis art scene; brought business to local shops, restaurants and hotels; and attracted visitors and artists from across the country.

Midwest Salute to the Arts is made for art lovers of all types and ages, featuring arts of all mediums. Colorful paintings stretched across large canvases, kinetic, eye-catching sculptures, one-of-a-kind jewelry, museum-quality prints  these are what attendees can expect from this dynamic gathering of artists.

A stroll through the grounds reveals works of clay, glass and mixed media. Every turn is a chance to discover photographers with stunning captures, detailed drawings, fine woodworking and metal working, all while enjoying a cold drink or a delicious bite from the food truck. Midwest Salute to the Arts has something for everyone, which organizers say is the whole mission of the Midwest Salute to the Arts. For 34 years, theyve been providing the region with a successful forum to promote art appreciation for all ages.

For more information visit www.midwestsalute.com. Be prepared to wear a mask if requested in artists' booths.
That release could not be found.
What about shifting mass anger towards so-called leaders and their circles responsible for the systemic failures in Nigeria?

Why are Nigerians not channeling their fury towards leaders sabotaging democracy? What about Nigerians' shifting negative emotions and rage towards corrupt political, institutional, and corporate leadership, causing, and inflaming the nation's rotating problems?

Nigerians in recent times, generally see the country as one of the world's most hopeless, damaged, and insecure environments, and the pervasive and continued failure of governance in Nigeria victimizes the average police officer and his or her safety.

No one denies the fact that many police officers struggle with the spirit, reality, and habits of dishonesty, but it will be a contradiction not to see their long-standing behaviors as a consequence of an endemically diseased and criminal leadership.

The Nigerian media has reported widely on intentional killings of police officers, and here are a few real situations.

Around the time of writing this article, five policemen, among others, were unlawfully and brutally killed in Katsina State by armed men.

A month ago, in Enugu State, two police officers were shot dead when some gunmen attacked a police checkpoint.

In the fifth month of this year in Rivers State, in a night of violence, at least seven police officers were killed after gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint, massacredsome officers, and then drove to two police stations, killed others, and burned patrol cars.

In the fourth month of this year in Kogi State, three policemen were killed after gunmen stormed a police station.

In the third month of this year in Kebbi State, outlawskilled six mobile police officers at a local factory and killed another four in the state.

In the second month of this year in Enugu State, a team of four policemen on duty were shot dead by armed criminals.

In the first month of this year, two police officers were killed by gunmen in north Jigawa state.

In a society known for lacking adequate institutional statistics, the intentional and felonious killings of police officers and other law enforcement officers is certainly large, including unknown numbers that later died from severe gun injuries.

As Nigeria continues to be a security disaster and enters a turbulent election season, more shootings of officers could go up. Currently, armed criminals have reportedly kidnapped ten police officers of the Nasarawa State Command in Kogi while coming backfrom election duty in Osun State, whose status is unknown in terms of being alive or dead.

Violence against police officers is a phenomenon that happens across many countries, but in Nigeria, unprovoked attacks and the killing of police officers are catalysts that are more common in Nigeria.

Day in and day out. Nigerians are under men and women in authority with low confidence and distrust. In such a climate of animosity, some Nigerians have turned their anger into easy targetspolice officers in the line of duty. Wrong.

What about turning mass anger mentally, emotionally, and spiritually toward those responsible for systemic failures in society? In what way is a police officer at work responsible for a system filled with institutional and social failures that continues to expose the average civilian and police officer to harm?

Although it might be tempting to dislike police officers, especially those with poor professional conducts who sometimes behave in hostile and corrupt manners partly due to systemic hardship, hunger, and frustration, the dislike should mainly go to those apparently innately evil creatures who shock the average Nigerian by their insensitivity.

The proclivity of Nigerian leaders to send their children abroad for studies and family safety, to brag on social media about their children graduating from expensive institutions abroad, to travel abroad for medical treatment, to buy judgments in courts, and to surround themselves with force of arms by using the police, army, and other security forces is deeply vexing.

No matter what one thinks about the average police officer when he or she is attacked and killed, remember it is mostly when the officer, in a conscientious, patriotic, and committed way, is on duty.

It will be realistic to feel sorry for that common patrolling and working officer, knowing that he or she is placed in different places watching and protecting those who, in the last 16 or more years, have been swimming in abrasive corruption and engaging in looting that continues to worsen the country.

The world saw how bottled anger led to mass action calling for a complete ban of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which was really a protest aimed at evil generational types of leadership and governance failures.

The same type of wicked leadership sent police and other uniformed officers to use ammunition on peaceful protesters, beating down and killing some young men and women.

There is no doubt there is fear of leadership and government, known for its' no mercy 'ways in Nigeria. In fact, it is the government that should fear and respect the people in a democracy.

Well, in the words of a current freedom fighting governor, the powerful should be ready to kill all of us because there is a different type of fire in the mountain and time is coming when Nigerians will no longer feel like conquered people; and start bypassing common police officers who are not responsible for misgovernance.

Instead, Nigerians, in a fueled manner and with a bold name and an open face, should turn their mass negative emotions or anger towards saboteurs of Nigerian democracy.

The killings of law enforcement officers in the line of duty, I can tell you, will not solve the problems of those in authority who intentionally, with their families and allies, continue to break democracy in Nigeria.Nigerian public turn the bucket of anger now.

John Egbeazien Oshodi, who was born in Uromi, Edo State in Nigeria to a father who served in the Nigeria police for 37 years, is an American based Police/Prison Scientist and Forensic/Clinical/Legal Psychologist. A government consultant on matters of forensic-clinical adult and child psychological services in the USA; Chief Educator and Clinician at the Transatlantic Enrichment and Refresher Institute, an Online Lifelong Center for Personal, Professional, and Career Development. He is a former Interim Associate Dean/Assistant Professor at Broward College, Florida. The Founder of the Dr. John Egbeazien Oshodi Foundation, Center for Psychological Health and Behavioral Change in African Settings In 2011, he introduced State-of-the-Art Forensic Psychology into Nigeria through N.U.C and Nasarawa State University, where he served in the Department of Psychology as an Associate Professor. He is currently a Virtual Behavioral Leadership Professor at ISCOM University, Republic of Benin. Founder of the proposed Transatlantic Egbeazien Open University (TEU) of Values and Ethics, a digital project of Truth, Ethics, and Openness. Over forty academic publications and creations, at least 200 public opinion pieces on African issues, and various books have been written by him. He specializes in psycho-prescriptive writings regarding African institutional and governance issues.

Prof. Oshodi wrote in via [email protected]
There is no denying the fact that virtually all Journalists and other attendees that graced the official presentation of former Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, as the running mate of the presidential flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, watched in hilarity as persons dressed as pastors and bishops showed up at the venue. Their presence at the political event, no doubt, triggered a hilarious atmosphere as onlookers and guests stared hard at them as they walked into the reception of the Musa YarAdua Centre, dressed in their vestments and habits, amid heavy security presence at the venue.

To the consternation of not a few Nigerians that are affiliated to the Christendom, the bishops and pastors were seen at Tinubus unveiling of Shettima as running mate, then anger spreads in the land.

In its reaction, the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) issued a statement disowning the clerics at the event, saying they were fake. The body said they were hired mechanics and artisans by the APC with robes on them to give the impression that they were bishops and pastors.

The Vice President of CAN (19 Northern States and Abuja) and chairman in Kaduna State, Rev. Joseph John Hayab, said Tinubu, was free to hire mechanics and other artisans and sew clerical garments for them.

He said, The people we saw at the unveiling of Shettima paraded as Bishops are people who did not have enough time to learn how to wear Bishops Garments. Take a closer look at their photo and you will see another Nollywood movie.

However, in the bid to douse the literary flame of knocks that have continued to greet the theatrical incident, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubus Campaign Organization has out rightly denied the news report making the rounds that fake bishops were hired to attend the official unveiling of Kashim Shettima as the vice presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.

Reacting to the development, Tinubu Campaign Organization through its Director of Media and Communication, Mr Bayo Onanuga said the bishops were not hired, adding that the clerics are patriotic Nigerians who believe in the unity of the country, stressing that they (bishops) are not big names in Christendom yet but coming up.

He said, We want to say that those clergymen were not fake, not mechanics or yam sellers as the purveyors of hatred have made Nigerians to believe in the social med ia. They are not big names in Christendom yet, they are gradually building up their missions.

They are church leaders who genuinely believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation building.

We, therefore, deplore the hysterical twisting of the presence of these men and women in cassocks and the false accusation against our candidates, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Shettima.

To my view, the leadership of Tinubu Campaign Organization should not blame anyone that says the bishops are fake as there were 10 obvious errors that exposed them, and kept tongues wagging. First and foremost, they all came to the event at the same time, meaning they were coming from the same place, and secondly, they were rushing in a queue at the entrance, and anyone that is saying they are genuinely ordained bishops should know that a truly trained bishop that is called by God will not publicly behave in such a reprehensible and disorderly manner. As if the foregoing errors were not obvious enough, not few Netizens that understand the dress code of bishops took to social media to enlightens other Nigerians that the so called bishops wrongfully wore the cassocks which ought to be ceremonial wears to a political event. They enlightened Nigerians that the Roman Pontiff wears a white cassock, Monsignors, bishops and cardinals have what is known as a "choir cassock" for liturgical occasions but they are not worn for everyday occasion.

They also explained that their dressing were bereft of pectoral cross which ought to be wore on the neck even as the Pallium was said to be wrong which the regalia worn by them well all not ironed. To worsen the matter, it was observed that the Mitre/skull cap were wrongfully adorned.

Again, they all left at the same time and all headed towards one particular direction (as if going to share something) while some of them could not afford a Taxi but used Keke or Okada (motorbike) to return Home.

Suspicious enough, they refused to be interviewed by journalists even as they individually use bags to shield their faces from cameras. Again, those in suit had no bibles or collars as they all appeared stressed and distressed. Worse still, of them, 30 in number were unknown Men of God.

At this juncture, it is expedient to say that whether the bishops are fake, and were hirelings do not remove the fact that Muslim/Muslim ticket is not ominous even as their visit to the venue of a political event smack off an unprecedented level of partisan politics in the political history of Nigeria.

In as much as I am of the view that there is nothing wrong for men of God to be involved in politics as the involvement of more Christians in the political affairs of the nation is arguably the only way righteous leaders can be in authority for the people rejoice, I detest seeing men of God getting involved in partisan politics, and in the process literarily dirtying their cassock in the murky water of politics.

In fact, the reason every man of God should avoid political partisanship is because, quite literally, it is one of Satans most powerful instruments to conform the Church to the world. Jesus was clear in stating that His kingdom was not of this cosmos (John 18:36) and in praying that his followers would be unified in the cosmos, but not of it (John 17:1419). The Greek word  (cosmos) is rightly translated the social order of the world, the very stuff of partisan politics.

This is what Jesus resisted when Satan took him to a high mountain and offered him the kingdoms of the cosmos and their glory if Jesus would submit to him (Matthew 4:811). If the kingdoms of the world were Satans to give, then they are still his purview.

When these cosmetics are worn by the Church, and the social order of the Church looks like that of the world, the Church loses both its moral influence and its freedom to speak truth to worldly power of every stripe. Jesus plainly directed his followers to avoid this social order of the world with all its power plays (Matthew 20:2528).

Again, there are legitimate reasons for men of God to be involved in politics, but partisan politics is not among them. Paul establishes that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and that we are Christs ambassadors imploring the world to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). Every local church is an embassy of the kingdom of God, and every member is an emissary of Heaven with a missionary visa to the world. The redemptive prayer of everyone in the Christendom is that the kingdom of God would be visible on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

In a similar vein, Paul counsels everyone in the Christendom that their true and proper worship is to be transformed by the renewal of their minds, not conformed to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:12). Against the foregoing backdrop, I wonder how this is possible if men of God take the bait of Satan and make our churches partisan temples of political ideology.

At this juncture, it is expedient to say that any man of God, a bishop in this context, should understand that he lives and ministers in the same deep state; the condition of fear and shame. Whenever he begins to believe that he is simply fighting those on whichever side of the aisle, he will forget that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).

In fact, our bishops should be in the church preaching the good news, and also speaking truth to the collective conscience of politicians by urging them to engender good governance, because they cannot avoid real issues as Christs ambassadors in a world they are called to redeem. They should refrain from preaching partisan politics, because nothing would please Satan more than to get his foot in the door of their various churches in his quest to conform it to his will. Therefore, they resort to be preaching Gods infallible word, and it has a way of offending us all, sometimes, as it reminds us again and again that we living in a world that cannot make sense, even as the world is not our permanent home. Against the foregoing backdrop, one cannot be wrong to say that considering the fact that the Bible states that heavenly gates are guarded to prevent evil from entering the city of heaven, and that each of the 12 gates is protected by an angel, that bishops hustling as Christian crusaders and political campaigners may be bounced by heavenly guards.
The United Nations through the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has asked Nigerian Government to immediately release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, unconditionally and pay him adequate compensations for the arbitrary violation of his fundamental human rights.

The UN organ indicted both Nigeria and Kenya Governments for the arrest and extraordinary rendition, torture and continued detention of the Kanu without due process.

This directive was contained in a 16-page report dated July 20, 2022 which was adopted on April 4 by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its 93rd session, held between March 30  April 8, 2022.

UN body also made recommendation that Government officials responsible for the torture meted to the IPOB Leader be investigated and punished, while directing Nigeria Government to report back within six months of the transmission of its opinions on Kanus matter, steps taken to comply with all the recommendations thereof.

The UN Working Group also threatened to take further action to ensure the recommendations are complied with, noting that both Nigeria and Kenya are signatories to the Convention and should comply.

Parts of the report read, Noting the failure of the Government to explain what actions of Mr. Kanu amounted to such criminal acts and how, and observing the lack of any evidence that any of his actions may in fact amount to such crimes, the Working Group concludes that Mr. Kanu is in fact being persecuted for the peaceful exercise of his rights, most notably his freedom of opinion and expression.

In the present case, the Government of Nigeria has presented no exceptions permitted under article 19 (3) of the Covenant nor is there any evidence to suggest that Mr. Kanus exercise of his right to freedom of opinion and expression was anything but peaceful.

In fact, the Government has chosen not to provide any explanation for the arrest, detention and subsequent proceedings against Mr. Kanu. In these circumstances, the Working Group concludes that Mr. Kanus detention is thus arbitrary under category II, UN Working Group said.

The Working Group also said there was no evidence that International laws were observed in the arrest and rendition of Kanu from Kenya.

It further read in part: In the present case, Mr. Kanu was not furnished with an arrest warrant by Nigerian authorities nor was he promptly informed of the grounds for his arrest in Nigeria. Consequently, the Working Group finds that Mr. Kanus continued deprivation of liberty violates his rights under articles 3 and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 9 of the Covenant, and principles 2, 4, and 10 of the Body of Principles and constitutes arbitrary detention under category I.

Turning to the uncontested allegations that following his rendition to Nigeria, Mr. Kanu remained in pre-trial detention with his trial having been scheduled to commence in January 2022, the Working Group recalls that it is a well-established norm of international law that pre-trial detention should be the exception rather than the rule, and should be ordered for the shortest time possible. Put differently, liberty is recognised under article 9 (3) of the Covenant as the core consideration with detention merely as an exception.

Therefore, detention pending trial must be based on an individualised determination that it is reasonable and necessary for such purposes as to prevent flight, interference with evidence or the recurrence of crime. Such determination was not carried out in the present case, in violation of Mr. Kanus rights under article 9 (3) of the Covenant.

Further, in accordance with article 9 (3) of the Covenant, an arrested person is to be brought before a judge within 48 hours. This was not satisfied in the case of Mr. Kanu and the Working Group therefore finds a violation of articles 3 and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 9 (3) of the Covenant and principles 11, 37 and 38 of the Body of Principles.

Furthermore, in order to establish that a detention is indeed legal, anyone detained has the right to challenge the legality of his or her detention before a court, as guaranteed by article 9 (4) of the Covenant. The Working Group wishes to recall that according to the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Remedies and Procedures on the Rights of Anyone Deprived of their Liberty to Bring Proceedings before a Court, the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before a court is a self-standing human right, which is essential to preserve legality in a democratic society.

This right, which is in fact a peremptory norm of international law, applies to all forms of deprivation of liberty, 29 to all situations of deprivation of liberty, including not only to detention for purposes of criminal proceedings but also to situations of detention under administrative and other fields of law, including military detention, security detention, detention under counter-terrorism measures.

Moreover, it also applies irrespective of the place of detention or the legal terminology used in the legislation. Any form of deprivation of liberty on any ground must be subject to effective oversight and control by the judiciary. This was also denied to Mr. Kanu, thus, violating his right under article 9 (4) of the Covenant.

Finally, turning to Mr. Kanus pre-trial detention in Nigeria, the Working Group recalls that according to international human rights law, in particular article 9 (3) of the Covenant, any person detained while awaiting trial is entitled to trial within a reasonable time, or otherwise shall be released. Article 14 (3) (c) of the Covenant also guarantees the right of anyone charged with a criminal offence to be tried without undue delay. In the absence of a substantive response from the Government of Nigeria, the Working Group finds no legitimate grounds for the delays in the trials against Mr. Kanu.

Consequently, the Working Group finds that the Government of Nigeria failed to establish a legal basis for the detention of Mr. Kanu. His detention is thus arbitrary under category I.
I can understand the pain of the DP supporters when they learnt that their president, Norbert Mao, had signed a Memorandum of understanding with Museveni a few days ago. it's pretty galling as a voter to have no direct recourse when something happens politically that undermines your support. It comes down to the particulars of a scenario as to whether working with NRM represents the supporters intentions better than working alone as a party. Personally, I think Mao did this for his own selfish interests because his political career was literally dead.

Museveni, on the other hand, has been using military tactics to subdue an enemy he has been pursuing ever since he took over power in 1986. Just like he has done with other political parties, he tried to divide DP within, which led to several factions: Francis Bwengye Vs Ssemogerere (2000-2002), Michael Mabikes Social Democratic Party(2010 -2013), and Ssebagalas Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)(2010-2016).

Mao missed out on the DP presidency in 2005 when Ssebana Kizito took the mantle from Paul Ssemogerere. Ssebaana would later name him (Mao) his campaign manager for the 2006 election. DP organised a delegates Conference in Mbale after the 2006 elections,where Mao stood again and won against Al Hajji Nasser Sebagala. More internal divisions ensued but Museveni didnt benefit so much from them as he wanted. Therefore, he had to find a way to attack DP and other political parties from outside.

So, guess what? In 2020, he gets out his hidden stick that had been on the shelves for a long time since 2004 and presented it to Bobi Wine via Kibalama as, like, a father telling his son, go and give them hell. I will protect you.

Sun Szu said that surrounding an enemy is a tactical mistake. If the enemy knows there is no escape, they fight with the courage of despair to either break out or die where they stand. Whereas if the attacker gives the defender an avenue of escape their morale will break and they will retreat, saving their lives but losing the battle.

Museveni knew that the likes of Beti Nambooze, Erias Lukwago, Segona and a few others, would never quit DP for anything. So, he had to create an attraction for them outside DP  he, indirectly, gave them an escape route in NUP. Im sure by now, most of them(minus Lukwago who joined FDC), have known that the man they hate most is now actually controlling them from where they run to. It wouldnt surprise me if they cross back to DP at some point in the future.

Well, when you split an army, youve physically destroyed its centre, they rout, and now you are flanking the back and sides of two flanks.

By August 2020, Mao knew what he was in for, and had to make a choice. He chose to work with Museveni, because all other choices meant the end of him as an influential politician. DP had only been left with only 9 MPs in parliament, and one of them, Paulson Lutamaguzi, wasnt even loyal to the party anymore.

I understand that the Museveni-Mao negotiations started immediately after the 2021 elections. Mao understandably thought that Museveni will help save DP, somehow, by supporting his argument that NUP was involved in illegality while changing leadership from Kibalama to Bobi, and that they have a fake constitution at the Electoral Commission(EC), but its a debate Museveni has completely avoided up to now.

Museveni never offered Mao a better choice. If he had, we would not be having this conversation. He simply wanted him to join his government. Museveni could have used courts of law and EC to deregister NUP, or stop Kyagulanyi from standing for presidency, but he didnt.

Ever seen a cornered animal that thinks you're about to kill it? Put Omunanansi in one hand and a gun in its other, and there you have a cabinet position for Mao as minister of Justice and constitutional affairs.

Quite frankly, we've seen it play out in UPC, too. Museveni literally killed UPC over the years and Obotes son, James Akena, had no choice but to give in to the most powerful man in the country. His wife is now serving as a minster in the government.

Its considered cowardly in war to play dead, then shoot the enemy as they walk by. Depending on your enemy, they will either search you, poke you a bit with their bayonets, or even put a bullet in your head to make sure you really are what you pretend to be (i.e. dead). By the way, playing dead is also a war crime. It constitutes perfidy and is expressly banned under the Geneva Conventions

Maos DP career died as soon as Kyagulanyi and later Some DP MPs quit the DP block and joined NUP. He had to find a way to resurrect himself. Mao has got to that age where friends are dying almost every few months; so, he had to think carefully about his future.

Museveni doesnt need to care about Mao. He just has to use him for something. Museveni doesnt allow the weaknesses of others to drag him down.

As for the opposition at the moment, it needs an awakening. The only thing worse than living under a brutal dictatorship which kills and imprisons some of your people, is having an opposition group with dictatorial tendencies, or being used to kill other opposition parties.

No other party is a threat to the opposition in the way that NUP leadership currently is a threat to itself, to Ugandans that want change of leadership in Uganda, and to the people whose lives it controls.

And that's not casting aspersions from afar per se, I feel that the endless fights it has exhibited against other opposition leaders since 2018, has offered Museveni a room to offer these leaders an escape route.

Some leaders are just genuinely bad for a countrys politics, as can be ascertained by the effects NUP has on the domains and people over which they control.
Big cleanup before BIE Expo inspection visit

PHUKET: Local municipalities are conducting major cleanups of key areas across the island as part of the preparations for an inspection visit by representatives of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) next week.



By The Phuket News

Saturday 23 July 2022, 04:37PM

The delegation of BIE representatives will arrive in Phuket on Monday and conduct their inspection from Tuesday through Friday next week (July 26-29) to assess Phuket in its bid to host the World Specialised Expo 2028.

Phuket officially entered its bid, under the theme Future of Life: Living in Harmony, Sharing Prosperity, in Paris late last month. The bid was presented by a delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who also serves as the Minister of Public Health.

Supporting the bid is the Ministry of Public Health and the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB). Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew also joined the delegation.

Governor Narong has since called on all people on the island to prepare for the inspection visit, and presented details of the bid to local consuls on the island as a form of opportunity for investment from abroad.

An estimated 500 government officers and volunteers joined the Big Cleaning Day event in Mai Khao yesterday (July 22).

The focus of the cleanup was the 141 rai site where, if Thailands bid for Phuket to host the World Specialised Expo 2028 is successful, a major convention centre will be built and later used as an international medical centre.

Present to lead the cleanup was Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pinsuwan, joined by Thalang District Chief Bancha Thanu-in.

As part of the cleanup Thepkrasattri Rd along the Sai Kaew beachfront, recently inundated by large storm waves during a king tide, was cleared of any natural debris, while trees and shrubs along the roadside were trimmed to give a neat and tidy appearance.

In Phuket Town yesterday, cleanup efforts organised by Phuket City Municipality focused on the Old Town area.

The mass cleaning efforts were led by Phuket City Deputy Mayor Orapailin Trakulpriphon, joined by other Phuket City councillors as well as local community leaders, local residents and other volunteers.

Today, the big cleaning efforts continued along Soi Rommanee, Thalang Rd and Yaowarat Rd.

Phuket Municipality has organised activities together with others to hold Big Cleaning efforts along the streets of the Old Town, Ms Orapailin said.

Cleanliness and tidiness of the city are important The big cleaning includes scrubbing and cleaning of the footpaths, as well as collecting garbage and discarded unused items from peoples homes to dispose of, she added.

Everyone is invited to welcome the BIE committee as a good host. We welcomed the Phuket Hosting Readiness Assessment Committee to make Phuket the best and only choice, Ms Orapailin said.
Ex-Trump aide Bannon found guilty of contempt of Congress

WASHINGTON DC: A federal jury found Donald Trumps former aide Steve Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress yesterday (July 22) for defying a subpoena to testify before lawmakers investigating the assault on the US Capitol.

politicsviolence

By AFP

Saturday 23 July 2022, 09:35AM

Bannon outside the United States District Court House on July 18. Photo: Stefani Reynolds / AFP

Bannon, who led Trumps 2016 presidential election campaign, was among hundreds of people called by a House of Representatives committee to address the storming of Congress by Trump supporters on Jan 6, 2021.

The 68-year-old Republican strategist did not appear on the summons date or provide requested documents, and was indicted on two charges of contempt of Congress.

The 12-person jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Bannon guilty of both misdemeanor charges.

Bannon, who served as Trumps strategy chief at the White House before being sacked in 2017, faces a minimum of 30 days in jail and a maximum sentence of a year for each count.

Sentencing was set for Oct 21.

We may have lost the battle here today but were not going to lose this war, Bannon said after the verdict. I stand with Trump and the Constitution.

Later, in an interview with Fox News, the former investment banker said there would be a long appeals process ahead.

If I go to jail, so be it, Bannon said.

Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, the chair and vice chair of the House committee, welcomed the verdict, saying no one is above the law.

The conviction of Steve Bannon is a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the Select Committees work, they said in a statement.

Just as there must be accountability for all those responsible for the events of January 6th, anyone who obstructs our investigation into these matters should face consequences.

Presenting the governments case, prosecutor Amanda Vaughn told the jury that Bannon had made a deliberate decision not to obey the subpoena.

A real January 6 Committee

Bannons attorneys did not call any witnesses during the brief trial and he did not testify in his own defense.

Bannons lawyer Evan Corcoran denied his client had ignored the subpoena, saying the date was the subject of ongoing discussions and negotiation and flexible.

The decision to hold Bannon in contempt was politically motivated, Corcoran said.

Vaughn said the House committee had cause to believe Bannon and other Trump advisors may have information on links between the White House and the Capitol rioters.

According to the committee, Bannon spoke to Trump the day before thousands of his supporters stormed Congress in an effort to block the certification of Democrat Joe Bidens election victory.

They had been egged on by Trump in a fiery speech near the White House, during which he repeated his false claims of election fraud.

After refusing to testify for months, Bannon finally agreed to cooperate with the House investigation, a move prosecutors dismissed as a last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability.

In his Fox News appearance, Bannon called for a sweeping victory for Republicans in the upcoming November midterm elections.

He called for a real January 6 committee to be established to look into unsupported conspiracy theories, such as the Capitol assault being instigated by undercover US law enforcement.
Joint Chambers Phuket Sundowners - Business Briefing

Start From: Thursday 11 August 2022, 05:00PM to Thursday 11 August 2022, 06:00PM Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun.

AustCham Thailand, in collaboration with partner Chambers, invite you to attend a business briefing on Moving Forward with Yacht Charters. Join us for a discussion on the current charter status for foreign registered yachts and general business considerations in light of current developments. Free of charge for AustCham members, partner Chambers members, and Australian Alumni Members. For registration code for Australian Alumni members, please contact AustCham team at 02 109 9616 or email to office@austchamthailand.com Please register in advance, as walk-ins are not allowed for this event . Limited spaces, please book early to avoid disappointment
Nigerian monkeypox patient arrested in Cambodia

PHUKET: Osmond Chihazirim Nzerem, 27, the Nigerian man reported as the first person in Thailand to be confirmed infected with monkeypox, and who has been missing from Phuket since Tuesday (July 19), has been arrested in Cambodia.



By Eakkapop Thongtub

Saturday 23 July 2022, 11:58PM

After his arrest, Mr Nzerem was taken to a health centre in Phnom Penh. Photo: Phuket Info Center

After his arrest, Mr Nzerem was taken to a health centre in Phnom Penh. Photo: Phuket Info Center

After his arrest, Mr Nzerem was taken to a health centre in Phnom Penh. Photo: Phuket Info Center

The news came less than 24 hours after Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong responded to reports online saying that Mr Nzere had been found in Sa Kaeo province, on the Cambodian border.

Authorities reported last night that Mr Nzerem arrested by police in Phnom Penh.

After his arrest, he was taken into care by public health officials.

Mr Nzerem is wanted by health officials in Thailand, and by Thai Immigration for overstaying his visa during his stay in Thailand.

Mr Nzerem entered Thailand on a Non-Immigrant Education visa on Oct 21 last year. On entry he was permitted to stay 90 days, which expired on Jan 18.

As such, he faces the maximum fine B20,000 and, ironically, deportation. He also faces being blacklisted from re-entering the country for five years.






Phuket police dodge reports monkeypox patient found in Sa Kaeo

PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong has responded to reports online saying that the Nigerian man wanted for absconding from Phuket while infected with monkeypox has been found in Sa Kaeo province, on the Cambodian border, saying authorities did not yet have the man in custody.

healthimmigration

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Saturday 23 July 2022, 11:20AM

The white sedan Mr Nzere was travelling in was last seen on CCTV heading towards Baan Pasak, Cherng Talay. Image: Supplied

Maj Gen Sermphan told the press that he was aware of the reports, claiming that the man had been found at Khlong Luek, in Aranyaprathet District, Sa Kaeo province.

However, Phuket Provincial Police have not been informed that the reports are identifying the correct man, now named as Osmond Chihazirim Nzere, 27.

And there is no corroborating evidence, Maj Gen Sermphan said.

If the police in that area find that this is the patient being sought, he must be detained and taken into custody by the Phuket Provincial Police, as the Phuket Immigration Superintendent has filed a complaint in the case of overstay, he added.

According to official reports released yesterday, Mr Nzere had entered Thailand on a Non-Immigrant Education visa on Oct 21 last year. On entry he was permitted to stay 90 days, which expired on Jan 18.

Maj Gen Sermphan said that police in Phuket had tracked Mr Nzere leaving a hotel in Patong on Tuesday night. He was seen entering a white sedan, which police had tracked making its way through Kalim, Kamala and into Cherng Talay.

The last time we saw the car on CCTV it was heading to Ban Pasak, Cherng Talay, Maj Gen Sermphan said.

The car passed through the Cherng Talay Lotus intersection and arrived at the junction at Cherng Talay Police Station, then turned left towards Ban Pasak. From there it disappeared, he said.

Mr Nzere is the first confirmed case of monkeypox in Thailand. The search for him began after he failed to appear for a doctors appointment for follow-up treatment as an outpatient.

Health officials have confirmed that Mr Nzere is infected with the mild strain of monkeypox from West Africa, which evokes only light symptoms.

People can contract the disease through contact with secretions or wounds of those infected, or by touching objects contaminated with secretions.

If someone has a fever or a history of fever along with one or more of the symptoms including sore throat, headache, body aches, back pain, enlarged lymph nodes, and a rash, blisters or pustules, they should see a doctor to confirm whether they are infected, said Dr Weerasak Lorthongkham, Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital.

Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong yesterday said people can still travel to Phuket as usual, as the infections are usually not serious.

People usually recover from being infected within two to four weeks all by themselves, he said.
Prayut defends weapons deals

BANGKOK: Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha insisted the government will purchase submarines and F-35 fighter jets as he defended the countrys military spending on the last day of the censure debate on Friday.

politicsmilitarycorruption

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 23 July 2022, 09:28AM

Pheu Thai Party MP Yuttapong Charasathien speaks about the Defence Ministrys plan to procure submarines and fighter jets during the last day of the censure debate against Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday. Photo: Chanat Katanyu / Bangkok Post

Deputy Pheu Thai Party leader Yuttapong Charasathien took aim at military spending as he slammed Gen Prayut, who is also the defence minister, as lacking leadership for failing to put the brakes on unnecessary expenses, reports the Bangkok Post.

Mr Yuttapong said the premier should have ordered the scrapping of the navys submarine deal when it was apparent that China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co, the manufacturer, could not supply German-made MTU396 diesel engines by next months deadline.

"He lacks the leadership required to head the government," said Mr Yuttapong, MP for Maha Sarakham. When the submarine deal ran into a problem, he was afraid to cancel the contract, and this damages the country.

He said the air forces plan to acquire three F-35s from the United States should wait because the countrys public debt has increased to over 60% of GDP and is in need of funds for development and financial relief initiatives.

He said that the air forces procurement process for the jets may take almost two years as the order request must be examined by US lawmakers.

Gen Prayut should order the air force to withdraw its request for allocation of funds for the jets in the 2023 budget so the money can be spent to help people in need, Mr Yuttapong said.

Defending both plans, Gen Prayut said the government will not accept the delivery of the submarines unless they meet the requirements specified in the deals terms of reference (ToR).

He said the navy has stood firm on its demand and the Chinese firm has to honour the agreement.

If the ToR cannot be fulfilled, concerned parties will have to take responsibility as specified in the contract, he said.

As for the jets, he said the scheme will go ahead as the air force submitted the order request to the US last year. He said it is expected to conclude early next year and Thailand will inform the US of its intentions in February.

Mr Yuttapong also attacked the navys plan to purchase UAVs worth B4.1 billion from Israel, saying it is unnecessary spending. He said that without weapons, UAVs can only do reconnaissance missions.

Gen Prayut said military spending schemes are based on defence necessities, noting they are approved by the House. The House has the final say in budget allocations and the military has to cope with parliaments decision should budgets be trimmed or rejected, he said.

GT200 FAKES

A Move Forward Party (MFP) MP slammed the government over fraudulent GT200 bomb detectors, saying the former military leaders who approved the procurement of the devices over a decade ago, and who are now in power, must still be held accountable, Bangkok Post noted in a separate report.

During the censure debate against the government on Thursday, Jirat Thongsuwan, an MP for Chachoengsao, took aim at Prime Minister Prayut, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda.

It is now 13 years since the scandal came to light but one question remains unanswered. Who must be held responsible for the procurement of the devices? the opposition MP said.

The fraudulent devices not only caused the country to lose billions of baht, but they were to blame for blast injuries among soldiers and civilians, Mr Jirat said.

Even though the distributor of the device was ordered by the Central Administrative Court last year to pay B683 million in compensation to the army, we cannot leave it at that. We must bring those who approved the procurement to justice.

He said that on March 28, prosecutors indicted 22 military officers at the Bangkok Military Court. They were accused of malfeasance in connection with the armys purchase of a total of 757 GT200 devices under 12 procurement contracts, worth more than B682mn.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) earlier found grounds for accusations against the 22 officers before forwarding the case to the prosecutors, Mr Jirat said.

However, those involved in approving the procurement were not implicated in the case, he said.

Gen Anupong, who served as army chief at the time, approved the 12 procurement contracts while Gen Prayut, who then served as the armys chief of staff, was ordered to approve one of those contracts on behalf of Gen Anupong, Mr Jirat claimed.

Gen Prawit, who served as defence minister at the time, also approved some procurement contracts, he said, adding the NACC have had these procurement contracts for more than 10 years.

But the NACC did not bring charges against the defence minister or the army chief, who had the authority to approve the procurement at the time. Therefore, there was nothing the prosecutors could do about this, Mr Jirat said.

At least 15 state agencies were believed to have been duped into buying the bogus detectors worth more than B1.13bn.
UN court rejects Myanmar challenge in Rohingya genocide case

THE HAGUE: The UNs highest court ruled on Friday (July 22) that a landmark case accusing military-ruled Myanmar of genocide against minority Rohingya Muslims can go ahead.

Myanmar

By AFP

Sunday 24 July 2022, 12:00AM

Around 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh while another 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmars southwestern Rakhine state. Phoot: AFP

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague threw out all of Myanmars objections to a case filed by the west African nation of The Gambia in 2019.

The decision paves the way for full hearings at the court on allegations over a bloody 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya by majority-Buddhist Myanmar.

The court finds that it has jurisdiction to entertain the application filed by the republic of the Gambia, and that the application is admissible, ICJ president Joan Donoghue said.

Hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya fled the southeast Asian country during the operation five years ago, bringing with them harrowing reports of murder, rape and arson.

Around 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh while another 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmars southwestern Rakhine state.

Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told reporters outside the court he was very pleased that the court has delivered justice.

Several dozen Rohingya activists demonstrated outside the court while the judgment was read out.

GREAT MOMENT FOR JUSTICE

This decision is a great moment for justice for Rohingya, and for all people of Burma, said Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, referring to the country by its former name.

We are pleased that this landmark genocide trial can now finally begin in earnest.

Myanmars representative, attorney general Thida Oo, said her country was now looking forward to finding the best way to protect our people and our country.

Mainly-Muslim The Gambia filed the case in November 2019 alleging that Myanmars treatment of the Rohingya breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

Myanmar was originally represented at the ICJ by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but she was ousted as civilian leader in a coup last year and is now in detention.

Myanmar had argued on several grounds that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter, and should dismiss the case while it is still in its preliminary stages.

But judges unanimously rejected Myanmars argument that Gambia was acting as a proxy of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the case.

Only states, and not organisations, are allowed to file cases at the ICJ, which has ruled on disputes between countries since just after World War II.

BRUTALITY AND CRUELTY

They also unanimously dismissed Myanmars assertions that Gambia could not file the case because it was not a direct party to the alleged genocide, and that Myanmar had opted out of a relevant part of the genocide convention.

Finally they threw out by 15-1 Myanmars claim that there was no formal dispute at the time Gambia filed the case, and that the court therefore had no jurisdiction.

It could however take years for full hearings and a final judgment in the case.

Action will be taken against the military and their brutality and cruelty. And this gives us hope for our suffering, a Rohingya living in northern Rakhine state in Myanmar who requested anonymity told AFP.

A Rohingya woman living in a displaced persons camp near Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, added: This is not only good for us [Rohingya] but also for the rest of Myanmar people who are suffering at the hands of Myanmar military.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in March that the Myanmar militarys violence against the Rohingya amounted to genocide.

The International Criminal Court, a war crimes tribunal based in The Hague, has also launched an investigation into the violence against the Rohingya.
ORESTE P. DARCONTE is a former publisher of The Sun Chronicle. Reach him at opd999@gmail.com .
BLOOMINGTON  Illinois appears well positioned to maintain its recent run as the top soybean producing state in the nation.

While soybean plantings fell more than 2 million acres short of expectations in USDAs June 30 acreage report nationwide, the Ag Department raised soybean plantings by 200,000 acres in Illinois compared to the March estimate.

The current projections place Illinois plantings at 11.2 million acres of soybeans, up 600,000 from last year when it produced 672.6 million bushels  the most of any state in the nation. USDA estimates Illinois farmers planted 10.7 million acres of corn this season, down 300,000 from last year.

If realized, it would be the first time since 1983 that soybean acres would be greater than corn acres in Illinois, said Illinois state statistician Mark Schleusener.

It not only would buck a longtime state trend, but the acreage shift in Illinois was the opposite of the national trend. The U.S. soybean planting estimate declined 2.6 million acres from March to June to just 88.3 million acres. The national corn acreage estimate increased 400,000 acres to 89.9 million last month.

University of Illinois Extension ag economists Scott Irwin and Joe Janzen discussed the shift during a recent webinar hosted by farmdoc.

With soybeans we had some delayed planting and less-than-ideal conditions this spring, Irwin said. When push came to shove, farmers in the U.S. faded toward corn and away from soybeans.

Illinois stood out as increasing soybean acres (from the March intentions to the June planted acreage reports) as did Kentucky.

Overall, the total of U.S. principal crop acreage decreased from 317.4 million in March to 316.3 million in June, which helps explain the soybean acreage decline outside of Illinois.

Its not that the acreage pie shrunk. We moved a bit more than 1 million acres from principal crops into prevented plant, Irwin said. Thats primarily in North Dakota and to a lesser extent South Dakota and Minnesota.

Estimates suggest prevented plant acreage could grow from 4.2 million acres last year to 5.3 million nationwide this season. However, the first official data on prevented plant area wont be available until August.

Meanwhile, after a spring buildup, crop prices continued a downward trend following the June 30 report and the Independence Day holiday.

Weve seen some of the high price action drop off, Janzen said.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Missouri man faces auto theft and drug charges relating to a May 27 incident in Madison County.

Aaron D. Edwards, 34, of Florissant, Missouri, was charged July 21 with offenses relating to motor vehicles, a Class 2 felony; unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony; and resisting a peace officer, a Class A misdemeanor.

The case was presented by the Illinois State Police.

According to court documents, on May 27 Edwards allegedly had a reported stolen 2020 Ford CMX sedan and less than five grams of methamphetamine. He also allegedly resisted a troopers attempts to place him under arrest.

Bail was set at $50,000.

Other felony charges filed July 21 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 David L. Barkley III, 32, of Collinsville; and Matyas K. Williams, 22, of Granite City, were each charged with burglary, a Class 2 felony. The cases were presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to court documents, on July 20 the two allegedly entered a building in Granite City, to commit theft. Bail was set at $25,000 each.

 Aaron M. Waskom, 36, of Granite City, was charged with forgery, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. According to court documents, on April 12 Waskom allegedly tried to pass a bad check for $1,600 at Scott Credit Union Collinsville. Bail was set at $25,000.
LEBANON  The Rising Tide Society, formerly known as Tuesdays Together, has launched a new chapter to help creatives and solopreneurs in the Metro East.

The purpose of the group is based on a slogan from the New England Council, a regional chamber of commerce, that "a rising tide lifts all the boats." Photographer Matthew Kauffmann of Lebanon will lead it.

"Together, we are empowering the independent business economy to pursue their passion with the support of a community," Kauffmann said. "By elevating the voices of small business owners, sharing their stories and building a thriving online and offline community, they support entrepreneurs in their pursuit of a sustainable livelihood."

Kauffmann hopes photography will become his main line of work in the future, but for now, he also works as a full-time paramedic.

"The St. Louis Metro is a very unique area with many opportunities," Kauffmann said. "For better or worse, we are often lost in the shadow of St. Louis. While a metro area has its advantages, we also have different challenges on this side of the river, so this is an opportunity for us to grow out from under the Gateway Arch."

He insists it's not an "us versus them" mentality. He said there are plenty of resources available in the 618 area code without having to resort to crossing the Mississippi or always making St. Louis the default choice.

"We believe that when small businesses are given the opportunity to rise, the world can be changed for the better," he said.

Kauffmann attended a Rising Tide training sponsored by Ben Hartley of Columbus, Ohio who taught that, as a solopreneur, one has to be a businessman first. Hartley also encouraged Kauffman to find a Rising Tide group in his area to join and he found the Metro East one.

Since the group is still in a building phase, according to Kauffmann, no events are planned yet. There will not be any dues to pay and it won't be a formal gathering, he noted. He wants to grow membership first, then he envisions meeting monthly for tea or coffee or lunch to bandy about ideas and plans among creative comrades.

There will not be any dues to pay and it won't be a formal gathering, he noted.

"I do better when I have someone to bounce ideas off of," he said.

The Rising Tide Society hosted its first set of local meetings in 12 cities across the United States in 2015. Coffee shops and wineries filled with small business owners seeking a new mindset in the creative landscape  one built on relationships. Today, they host more than 400 monthly gatherings in cities around the world and serve a community of more than 77,000 independent business owners.

The Rising Tide Society is dedicated to not only supporting one another but also giving back to the wider community. To date, they have donated more than $130,000 to non-profits, including The School Sessions, U.S. Dream Academy, The Birthday Party Project, Thirst Relief and more. They also partnered with Pencils of Promise to build a school in 2018  funded entirely by community donations through their annual RISE Summit.

For more information, or to join this free resource group, visit: http://www.facebook.com/groups/risingtidemetroeast/.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Granite City man faces several weapons-related felonies, including an armed habitual criminal charge.

Donnie A. Sherrell, 29, of Granite City, was charged July 21 as an armed habitual criminal, a Class X felony, and was also charged with two counts of unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, both Class 2 felonies.

The case was presented by the Illinois State Police.

According to court documents, on July 20 Sherrell allegedly had a Mossberg International 715P .22 caliber AR pistol while under supervised release.

He has a 2014 conviction for unlawful possession of weapons by a felon out of Madison County and a felon in possession of a firearm in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois in 2015, making him ineligible to possess weapons.

Bail was set at $250,000.

In an unrelated case, two men were charged with shooting at an occupied building in Alton on two separate occasions.

Tavarious T. White, 19, of Alton and Glenn K. Wolfe, 18, of Lebanon, Illinois, were each charged with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, all Class 1 felonies.

The cases were presented by the Alton Police Department.

According to court documents, on July 8 and July 12 the two allegedly fired guns at an occupied building in the 200 block of Madison Avenue.

Bail was set at $150,000 each.

Other felony charges filed July 21 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Robert L. Overturf, 33, listed as homeless out of Granite City, was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony, and resisting a peace officer, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on July 21 Overturf allegedly struck a Granite City police officer in the throat and kicked them in the leg, resisting the officers attempts to place him under arrest. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Terrance T. Strickland, 20, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Illinois State Police. On May 18 Strickland allegedly had an SCCY CPX-2 9 mm handgun. He has a 2021 conviction for robbery out of Madison County making him ineligible to possess weapons. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Christopher G. Shelton, 48, of the 2600 bloc of E. 24th Street, Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. According to court documents, on July 20 Shelton was found to be in possession of Lorcin L25 .25 caliber handgun. It was noted he has a prior conviction for flagrant non support, a felony, out of Grayson County, Kentucky, in 2018, making him ineligible to possess weapons. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Dawanda S. Green, 41, of the 800 block of Oakwood Estates, Alton, was charged July 6 with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony; and obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Alton Police Department. According to court documents, on July 4 Green concealed evidence by taking a handgun from another person and disposing of it. It was noted she has a prior conviction for threatening a public official out of Madison County in 2017, making her ineligible to possess weapons. Bail was set at $50,000.
Just when this 68-year-old thought that nothing can surprise him, Facebook proved him wrong.

Last Tuesday a meme turned up in my newsfeed that read: "The story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible was an example of someone from an unfriendly culture stepping up to help someone in need. It is about mercy and kindness triumphing over cultural and religious prejudice. But now in the United States of America, a Good Samaritan is  according to the news coverage of the latest mass shooting  someone who kills people who are killing people."

Mass shootings are so frequent in the United States these days that I honestly had no idea which particular massacre the creator of this meme meant. I did a quick search for "mass shooting" and "Good Samaritan." The first article, dated June 18, that came up was from CBS.

"Police on Monday provided more details about the shooting at a mall in Indiana on Sunday that left three victims dead  including the name of the 'Good Samaritan' who is believed to have killed the shooter and stopped the attack," the article stated. "Officials called the actions of the armed civilian 'nothing short of heroic,' noting that the gunman likely would have killed many more people had he not intervened."

The shooting occurred in a Greenwood, Indiana mall. According to police, the shooter entered the mall and went to the food court bathroom. The shooter stayed there for just over an hour before exiting and beginning to fire. He fired 24 rounds within just 15 seconds, killing three people and wounded two.

The shooter, 20-year- old Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, was killed by the Good Samaritan, 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, who was visiting the mall with his girlfriend. A preliminary autopsy report stated that Sapirman was struck with eight rounds from Dickens 9mm-caliber pistol.

The "Good Samaritan" reference evidently originated with Mark Meyers, Greenwood's mayor, who called Dicken a "Greenwood Good Samaritan." Greenwood Police Chief James Ison hailed Dicken as a hero. "Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen who took action within the first two minutes of this shooting." Ison also praised the young man's marksmanship by noting that he had shot Sapirman from "quite a distance."

NBC's account of this incident was more specific about identifying Sapirman's weapons: two "AR-style rifles," a pistol, and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. The rifle he fired was a SIG Sauer M400. I agree that the death toll would have been much higher had Dicken not been armed and used his pistol to kill Sapirman.

For years, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA has said that The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The Greenwood incident would seem to corroborate that assertion. However, lets keep in mind that no less than 376 armed law enforcement officers descended on the elementary school at Uvalde, TX, but 19 children and two teachers were nonetheless murdered by a lone gunman.

Dicken is certainly a hero, but should he be characterized as a Good Samaritan? The only violence in this parable, which can be read in Luke 10:25-37, occurs when a Jewish man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by robbers who beat him, take his clothing and leave him half-dead. A priest and Levite, both fellow Jews. pass by the injured man, who is finally helped by a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans detested each other. Nonetheless, the injured Jew was helped by this Samaritan.

Jesus told this parable to answer a man, identified as an expert in the law, who had asked, Who is my neighbor? After sharing the parable, Jesus asked the man, Which of these three men was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The expert in the law correctly answered, The one who had mercy on him.

Does Dicken deserve the designation Good Samaritan? Well, the Biblical Good Samaritan saved the injured Jews life by tending to his wounds. Dicken saved any number of lives by shooting someone who was intent upon perpetrating a massacre. Mass shootings have become a regular occurrence in the United States. To our shame, weve allowed our nation to become the kind of place where even a Good Samaritan has to be armed and willing to shoot to kill.
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 62F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 62F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
As the first electric Mini Moke models are delivered to customers, the company that makes it has been sold.

Built in Britain, the new electric Moke has a range of about 75 miles, a top speed of 50mph and can be charged in four hours.

It costs from 34,980 (29,150 plus VAT).

Fun-packed: The new electric Moke has a range of about 75 miles, a top speed of 50mph and can be charged in four hours

Moke International brought the original 1964 design back to life in September 2020.

This week, it confirmed it has agreed to sell 65 per cent of its shareholding to EV Technology Group (EVTG), which specialises in electrifying iconic motor brands, for $51.6million (43m).

EVTG's founder and CEO is Dutch entrepreneur Wouter Witvoet.

Only electric Moke beach buggies will now be produced as part of the deal.

Moke International brought the original 1964 design back to life in September 2020

Isobel Dando, CEO of Moke International, said: 'I am proud and excited that Moke International is becoming part of the EV Technology Group. It is the perfect Company to take our rapidly growing business to the next level with the right balance of expertise, investment, and ambition.

'EV Technology Groups in-house expertise, and customer-centric technologies will also be invaluable to us as we continue to develop the Electric Moke and more pioneering products.

'I am also looking forward to working closely with Wouter and the entire EV Technology Group leadership team to further develop Moke International and other exciting brands to come.'

The new Moke is being built in ultramodern factories operated by the Northamptonshire-based Fablink Group.

The petrol-driven original, created by Sir Alec Issigonis, was driven by The Beatles and Brigitte Bardot.

Richard Hammond making festival appearance

Former Top Gear star and The Grand Tour presenter Richard Hammond will be at the 2022 Hagerty Festival Of The Unexceptional with The Smallest Cog team.

Main man: Richard Hammond will be at the 2022 Hagerty Festival Of The Unexceptional with The Smallest Cog team

Mike Brewer of Wheeler Dealers and Paul Cowland host of Salvage Hunters will also appear at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, on Saturday, July 30.

Limited tickets, costing 20 per car, are on sale at eventbrite.co.uk.
An extraordinary battle has broken out between two titans of the airline industry over who is to blame for the travel chaos blighting holidaymakers' summer plans.

While many are stuck in queues or waiting hours for their bags to arrive, former Heathrow chairman Sir Nigel Rudd and ex-BA boss Willie Walsh are this weekend engaged in a verbal punch-up.

City veteran Rudd launched a volley of criticism at Walsh, accusing him of an 'obsession' with slashing costs that left the airline a 'laughing stock'. Rudd, chair at Heathrow from 2007 until 2016, said British Airways 'lost its way during Willie's reign'.

Going head-to-head: 'Slasher' Walsh vs Razor Rudd in bitter battle of the air barons

His comments came in a letter he sent to The Mail on Sunday this weekend after being infuriated by Walsh's comments in this newspaper last week in which the former BA boss branded Heathrow's 100,000-a-day passenger cap 'farcical'.

The controversial decision to limit the number of passengers was made in an effort to alleviate queues. The decision, which has angered airlines, will restrict arrivals and departures until after the October half term.

In his letter, he accuses Walsh of 'constant jibing at Heathrow'. Recalling his own stint in the chair at the airport group, Rudd said he had 'wanted to fight back' but that he was advised against doing so.

'The prevailing view was that we couldn't as he was our largest customer,' Rudd added. 'I wish I had ignored that advice and exposed him for what he was  a person that trashed a great brand and created a company that is a byword for poor service.'

Walsh was chief executive of British Airways and then ran its parent, International Airlines Group, from 2011 until 2021 after the UK flag carrier merged with Spain's Iberia.

He criticised Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye last weekend in the MoS for his failure to cope with a surge in demand over the summer holiday period  claiming the airport 'should have been better prepared' and 'clearly can't cope'. Walsh added: 'If we are in the same position next year, then without question, people should be fired.'

The 60-year-old Irishman even branded Heathrow bosses 'a bunch of idiots'. He also backed calls for investors  the Spanish giant Ferrovial and the Qatar Investment Authority  to stump up cash instead of asking permission from the regulator to charge passengers more to boost its financial performance.

'The shareholders are extremely rich,' Walsh said. 'They have done extremely well out of Heathrow. I think there is a strong case that has been made that, if Heathrow's balance sheet needs to be repaired, the first place it should go now is to its shareholders.'

He now runs the International Air Transport Association which represents hundreds of airlines including his former employer IAG.

He told the MoS: 'I think they [Heathrow] should have been better prepared. It is farcical imposing these restrictions at the last minute on airlines when in many cases they have sold tickets. It is a terrible way of doing business.'

But Rudd, 75, said: 'I was chairman of Heathrow when Willie Walsh was leading British Airways. While I was leading unprecedented investment in critical national infrastructure at the airport, what I witnessed on his watch was a man so obsessed with 'slashing' costs that our country's flag carrier nosedived from one of the best in the world to a laughing stock.

'Complimentary economy meals and free hold baggage ditched, hard-working flight crew sleeping in cars because their pay was so low, thousands of people were fired and rehired on inferior contracts and critical IT systems left to rot, leaving millions stranded when they stopped working.

Today, whenever BA is raised with me in a conversation, the universal view is that it's an airline that entirely lost its way during Willie's reign. I'm relieved to see that the current management team at BA are flushing his approach down the lavatory.'

Walsh  once given the nickname 'Slasher'  was among airline bosses who cut thousands of staff at the beginning of the pandemic  more than 12,000 at International Airlines Group, which he ran until 2021. EasyJet made a similar decision as it slashed 4,500 roles.

Instead of pouring out torrents of invective and bile on one another, these two jumbos of the airline industry should turn their minds to helping customers Ruth Sunderland

Rudd continued: 'Willie got on his soapbox in this paper last week about airports being unprepared for the summer, but the irony is that he appears totally oblivious that this is just his cost-cutting legacy coming home to roost.'

Rudd said the root of the crisis in the industry was a shortage of baggage handlers. He called on Walsh to galvanise his members to invest in them and solve the problem.

Over the past two years more than 50 per cent of Europe's ground handling staff have left the industry, many going to work in higher paid delivery jobs.

'Why would anyone want to be an airline ground handler when you can get more pay and better conditions delivering for Amazon?

'It's high time he stopped blaming everyone else...and admitted that you can't 'slash' your way to a resilient, reliable service.'

But last night Walsh hit back, saying: 'Heathrow's efforts to deflect attention from their abysmal performance are laughable.' He added: 'My criticism seems to have upset them. I will continue to hold them to account and enjoy exposing their failures.'

RUTH SUNDERLAND: Stop fighting... and help the paying public instead

Entertaining though it is to see two corporate titans bashing seven bells out of one another, I imagine I speak for most of the travelling public when I say Sir Nigel Rudd and Willie Walsh could make far better use of their verbal talents.

Instead of pouring out torrents of invective and bile on one another, these two jumbos of the airline industry should turn their minds to helping customers.

Who is right in the row? The terrible thing is that they both are. There are large nuggets of truth in their mutual recriminations, and this is no consolation whatsoever to passengers whose holidays and business trips have been wrecked. Never has the old phrase about the pot and the kettle been so apt.

When Rudd, sounding like a shop-steward on steroids, accuses Walsh of being obsessed with slashing costs, he hits a nerve.

For his part, Walsh is on the money when he lambasts Heathrow's move to cap passenger numbers as 'farcical'. He is also quite right to argue that the airport's rich foreign share holders should put their hands in their pockets to repair its debt-riddled balance sheet.

Neither man comes with a reputation as a corporate saint  in fact, they both have enough baggage to jam a carousel.

When he was head of BA's parent company, Walsh's relations with unions was toxic. To take just one example, early on in the pandemic he was attacked by MPs who suspected him of using Covid as cover to cut 12,000 jobs.

Veteran industrialist Rudd is a serial chairman who has sold a string of British companies to foreign bidders, earning himself the nickname Sir Sell-Off. The most recent of these, defence firm Meggitt, has just been cleared by the Government for sale to a US aerospace company.

Both men have a reputation for being forthright. As former bosses, they are able to dispense with diplomacy in a way the current top brass at Heathrow and BA cannot. Whether the pair have been put up to it by their former employers or are acting on their own initiative, they are proxy generals in an unedifying battle to deny blame.

Rather than this self-indulgent festival of insults, Walsh and Rudd could have used their stature as elder statesmen to co-operate on alleviating the airport chaos.

Fat chance. Each has adopted a pose of bristling, self-righteous indignation, painting their organisation as the injured party. There is more than a touch of absurdity about this, coming from a couple of very rich men representing powerful corporate interests.

Neither seems to care much about the real victims here  the poor old passengers.
Strategy: Lars Seier Christensen only takes risks on half his money

Multi-millionaire Lars Seier Christensen knows the importance of keeping a cool head when it comes to money.

He told Donna Ferguson he only got 'a little bit upset' the day he lost 12million and barely celebrated when he sold his stake in the company he founded, Saxo Bank, for 280million.

The 59-year-old, who drives a 250,000 Bentley, lives in a 750-year-old castle in Switzerland with English wife Yvonne, with whom he has five daughters.

He prefers to invest directly in companies as opposed to the stock market, pensions, property or art.

For the last four years, he has been working on a blockchain project, Concordium.com. Blockchain is a system for storing information to stop hackers stealing digital currency, such as bitcoin.

What did your parents teach you about money?

Not much. I grew up in the countryside in Denmark. My parents divorced when I was ten. I stayed with my father, a school teacher who taught physics and chemistry. He was prudent and made sure we always had what we needed to live comfortably. But we were by no means wealthy.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Yes, when I was 19, my friend and I set up a business in southern Spain running a bar. We did it for four years and had a good time. We made reasonable money in the summer, but sometimes we were pretty skint in the winter.

Still, we had enough to survive. And if we didn't have money, we could always have a drink in our own bar.

Have you ever been paid lots of money?

Yes. While I was in Spain, I got a passion for reading the Financial Times. I found it quite exciting, reading about commodities and foreign exchange. I decided to throw myself into that industry.

So, at the age of 23, I moved to London and got a job with a broker by convincing them they could develop a new market in Denmark and get wealthy Danish customers, such as the smaller Danish banks.

Even though I didn't have any qualifications, I knew as much as many of my colleagues.

Trading is not something you learn at university anyway. It's something you learn the hard way by making mistakes. I went in, showed some ambition, knew roughly what I was talking about, and learnt on the job.

I went from being skint to making 200,000 to 250,000 a year, which was a lot of money in 1988.

What was the best year of your financial life?

It was 2018  when I sold my stake in Saxo Bank. I had set it up 26 years earlier to facilitate investments in various stocks and commodities and foreign exchanges. I made about 280million. That was a good day.

What did you do to celebrate?

I think you have to be careful not to be destabilised by both good and bad events in your life. They come and go, and when you're in the money business, strong emotions are not your friend. You need to keep a cool head and a calm mind. I think I had a good dinner with friends. I don't remember if we had champagne  it's more likely I would have opened a great bottle of red wine.

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

A Bentley Brooklyn. It probably cost me around 250,000. It's black, beautiful and powerful.

What is your biggest money mistake?

Investing in a jewellery company a few years ago. I lost about 12million. I felt a little bit upset. But when I make decisions, I've learned sometimes they go well, sometimes they don't go so well. I don't get overly excited about either.

The best money decision you have made?

Investing 30,000 in Saxo Bank when I started it up with three other people in 1992. It became worth well over a billion pounds.

Do you save into a pension?

No, I invest in companies which I believe in. My main investment area is blockchain-related businesses. That's an area I see as important technology  transformative. I was lucky with Saxo Bank to get involved with the internet very early on. I haven't seen any technology since then that excites me as much as blockchain. I did recently discover that the brokerages I had worked for in London in the 1980s had paid into a pension for me that is now worth 100,000. That was a nice surprise.

High life: Multi-millionaire Lars Seier Christensen's Swiss castle and a Bentley

Do you invest directly in the stock market?

No, I'm not fond of the stock market. My strategy is unusual. I like to keep half of my money safe so I don't end up one day with nothing. And then I take the other half and invest it in risky stuff.

Often, it goes wrong, but occasionally I get a good return. I'd rather invest early in companies that are not on the stock market and have real potential growth. And maybe one day those companies do list and then, if you are lucky, you can make many multiples on your investment.

What is the one luxury you treat yourself to?

I like a night out at a good restaurant. I'll typically spend 1,000 a time eating out, maybe three or four times a week. I also think life is too short for bad wine, so I will spend anything from 50 upwards on a bottle.

Do you own any property?

I own four properties: an old villa north of Copenhagen in Denmark, a traditional summer house by a lake in Sweden, a 13- bedroom house in Italy and a small 750-year-old castle in Switzerland, where I live. It has ten bedrooms and there is a nice park around it, with a river running through it.

If you were Chancellor what would you do?

Give businesses which struggled during the pandemic a tax break where they pay no tax for a year. It would give healthy businesses a chance to survive. Ultimately, these firms are going to be your tax base in five years' time.

Do you donate money to charity?

Yes. During the pandemic, I set up a charitable initiative to provide daily meals to the homeless from one of the restaurants I own in Copenhagen. Every day, 365 days a year, we deliver around 400 meals. The police have told us that in those areas where we operate, call-outs for violent events are down 30 to 40 per cent.

What is your number one financial priority?

To retain sufficient funds so I can keep investing in new companies and be sure that my family will not end up among the homeless.
Chad rebels said on Friday they would renew their participation in peace-building talks with the interim authorities, after breaking off negotiations last week.

The decision revives the possibility of their participation in a national dialogue in August that is meant to be a precursor to long-awaited elections after interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power following his fathers death last year.

In a statement, the rebel groups said they would resume talks, without giving further details. They had earlier accused the interim authorities of creating a bad atmosphere at negotiations in Qatar. read more

Deby declared himself head of a Transitional Military Council in April 2021 after his father, Chads longtime ruler Idriss Deby, was killed while visiting troops fighting the rebel insurgency in the north.

Initially his council had said it would oversee an 18-month transition to democratic rule, but it has shown little sign of organising elections as that deadline nears.

The Chadian authorities have set Aug. 20 as the date for the national dialogue. Deby has presented this as the first step towards planning a vote. It would in theory include the armed groups, but the conditions for their participation have not yet been agreed on.

Pressure has started to grow from opposition groups within Chad and bilateral partners to advance the transition process.

Chad is an ally of France and other Western countries in the fight against Islamist militants in Africas Sahel region.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Three people were killed as 13 Russian missiles hit a military airfield and railway infrastructure in Ukraines central Kirovohrad region on Saturday, the local governor said.

Speaking on television, Governor Andriy Raikovych said two security guards at an electricity substation had been killed. He also said that one Ukrainian soldier had been killed and nine more wounded.

Raikovych said the strikes had disrupted the electricity grid and that one district of the regional capital Kropyvnytskyi had been left without power as a result.

Zelenskiy says no ceasefire without recovering land lost to Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a ceasefire with Russia without reclaiming lost territories would only prolong the war, according to an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

He warned that a ceasefire that allows Russia to keep Ukrainian territories seized since the invasion in February would only encourage an even wider conflict, giving Moscow an opportunity to replenish and rearm for the next round.

Zelenskiy also spoke about U.S.-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), saying, the Western supplies of Himars, while making a material difference, are much lower than what Ukraine needs to turn the tide.

Freezing the conflict with the Russian Federation means a pause that gives the Russian Federation a break for rest, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing comments by Zelenskiy.

He said, Society believes that all the territories must be liberated first, and then we can negotiate about what to do and how we could live in the centuries ahead.

A more pressing need is air-defense systems that could prevent Russia from raining long-range missiles on otherwise peaceful cities hundreds of miles from the front lines, Zelenskiy added.

Referring to the deal signed with Russia to reopen grain exports Zelenskiy said, Diplomatic concessions to Moscow might stabilize the markets somewhat, but would only provide a temporary respite and boomerang in the future.

Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased.

SOURCE. REUTERS
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COLONIE  When I last saw Baram Khan, about a year ago, he was carrying a terrible weight.

President Joe Biden had pulled the military from Afghanistan, leaving chaos and desperation behind. Among the desperate were Khan's parents and siblings, in jeopardy because of the work he had done as a military interpreter. The Taliban, as you've probably heard, are not a forgiving bunch.

Imagine how that must feel, knowing you're the reason your mother and father, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews are under mortal threat. Imagine the worry involved with that, and the sense of betrayal that came with the U.S. government's seeming indifference toward debts owed and promises broken.

But Khan was a different person when I saw him Thursday, for an obvious reason: He was surrounded by family members. His parents, his siblings and their families are safe and sharing Khan's suburban home with his wife and children.

"I am so blessed," said Khan, 33, who came to the United States in 2012. "And I am so grateful for what God and this country have given us."

The story of how Khan's family escaped chaos for the peace of Colonie begins with collapse. One day, they were living in a deeply flawed but relatively stable and safe Afghanistan. Then the United States, giving up after two decades of occupation, all but handed the country to the Taliban, plunging it into darkness.

The moment ended the myth of Biden administration competence. Somehow, the president's withdrawal failed to account for how rapidly the Taliban would take over and hardly bothered to plan for the many thousands, including American citizens, who would need to exit the country.

Biden had promised that the families of people who helped the military would be kept safe. It was a promise broken.

"That was the time that everything was shattered," said Adil Zadran, 29, Khan's younger brother. "Everyone just left us and we asked, 'How can we survive here?'"

What followed were months of hell, as members of Khan's family hid and moved from place to place, dodging Taliban soldiers. All the while, Zadran was in communication with Alison McLean Lane, who was trying to find the family a path out of the country. (That such a task fell to an Albany County legislator tells you everything you need to know about the ineptitude of federal planning.)

Lane eventually managed to put the family's plight on the radar of Operation Recovery, a veterans' group dedicated to rescuing, as its website puts it, "the countless American citizens and Afghan allies (who) were tragically left behind, facing grave danger."

One day in October, Lane received an exhilarating call. If Khan's family members could get on a specific bus at a specific time  she was provided precise coordinates and even a picture of the driver  Operation Recovery might be able to get them out of Afghanistan.

What followed was the stuff of Hollywood.

The group of 10, including children, dressed in dirty clothes and altered their appearances to evade Taliban discovery, then raced to meet the bus. As it passed through Taliban checkpoints on its journey to a runway in the north of the country, the family hunkered down and barely dared to breathe, fearful their crying newborn, Khan's nephew, would attract attention from armed soldiers.

Back in Menands, Lane waited and worried. What if she had put them in danger? What if their journey led to the worst?

A text arrived: The family was on the plane, it said. They were on the plane!

"That was the moment when we knew we could have a good life," Zadran told me. "We were just feeling over the moon."

The plane took the family and hundreds of others to the United Arab Emirates and a temporary home in a refugee camp. Months later, they arrived at the Albany airport, where Khan wrapped his parents in a long, tearful embrace.

They were here, at last. They were really here. Their ordeal was over.

Now, the family is starting anew. One of Khan's brothers, for example, will soon start a job at Walmart. A younger sister, 15, is looking forward to going to Shaker High in the fall for an education now denied to girls in Afghanistan. Family members are excited, they said, to be in a country where opportunity and choice flourish.

"We are not here to be a burden," Zadran told me. "We want to be on our own feet."

Khan, who works at a Menands convenience store, was a military translator from 2008 to 2012, and he and his wife, Zaynab, emigrated shortly afterward. Words of testimony from his military leaders note that Khan's duties often put him in extreme danger. One letter described his work as "nothing short of outstanding."

To talk to Khan and his family is to be reminded of all that we have  the freedom and stability Americans take for granted, the warmth of our people, the pathways to a better life we offer to the world's dispossessed. Khan's patriotism flows, his gratitude abounds.

But it would be wrong to call this a happy story. For one thing, Khan's in-laws remain in Afghanistan and could face Taliban reprisals. Meanwhile, the country is on the brink of widespread famine amid the economic collapse that followed our hasty exit. That doesn't represent a moment of American glory.

But Khan's family sure is happy to be here.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
Calvert prosecution ends

Charges that led to the suspension of a Marianna doctors hospital privileges were heard today. A decision by the Jackson Hospital Board of Trustees on whether to reinstate the privileges of William E. Butch Calvert will probably not be made until Friday, according to Board Chairman Robert Pender.

An overflow crowd of about 50 listened and watched in the hospitals dining room yesterday, as hospital attorney Wayne Grant attempted to document charges against Calvert, including failure to obtain required consultations, incidents of poor medical judgment and treatment, and charging excessive fees.

Calverts attorney, Jack Harnett of Quincy, questioned the validity of charges and suggested that they reflected only differing medical opinions.  Jackson County Floridan, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1974

Coins taken in burglary

Marianna police reported yesterday that a Marianna mans home was broken into and robbed of approximately $28 in pennies and dimes, a silver coin collection valued at approximately $55, and a transistor radio.

Between Aug. 8 and 11, it was reported that someone entered the window of the guest bedroom and took money from a piggy bank and closet. The case is under investigation by Sgt. Gary Sullivan.  Jackson County Floridan, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1974

Ben H. Griffin to visit here in the morning

Ben Hill Griffin, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, will be in Marianna at 7:30 Wednesday morning for a breakfast in his honor at the Holiday Inn.

The rancher/farmer is vying against Gov. Reubin Askew and Lt. Gov. Tom Adams for the Democratic nomination. Griffin, 63, is a past president of the Florida Cattlemens Association, Florida Canners Association and Florida Citrus Showcase.

He and his wife/running mate Eleanor have six children.  Jackson County Floridan, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1974
SAUGERTIES  Developers looking to build a $600 million mixed-use destination venue just west of the state Thruway must go through a thorough review by the Town Board after it determined the project could have adverse impacts on its surroundings.

The venue is planned on the 840-acre Winston Farm parcel in the village of Saugerties and would include a 10,000-seat amphitheater, adventure park, multi-unit housing, technology park, campgrounds and hiking trails, with lots for single-family homes and estates. It is being developed by three local businessmen, John Mullen, Anthony Montano and Randy Richers, who purchased the land in 2020 for $4 million.

The project has attracted local opposition, with residents taking issue with its size, its impact on the natural environment, and its potential impacts on residents' already-strained drinking water supply. Beautiful Saugerties, a citizens group formed to oppose the project, has 350 members, according to co-founder Andy Cowan.

The Saugerties Town Board led the review process and determined the project had the possibility to have adverse environmental impacts, referring to effects the development might have on its natural and man-made surroundings.

Development projects, especially large ones, commonly receive this designation in New York, which sets off a lengthy review process. Saugerties Supervisor Fred Costello earlier said he expected the process to cost the developers millions of dollars as they commission studies and pay for attorneys.

The developers said they anticipated receiving this designation. We remain committed to closely collaborating with our community and town of Saugerties leaders on the projects details, Winston Farm spokesman Josh Sommers said in a statement.

The parcel, which is more than a square mile, was the site of Woodstock '94 but has remained in its natural state since then as various projects from former owners fell through, in part due to community opposition. About a third of the property will remain open space, according to a concept plan filed by the developers in June.

Residents fighting the project said they knew and liked the developers, but that the development would damage the community and environment.

Marjory Greenberg-Vaughn remembers when Woodstock '94 was held at Winston Farm, and attendees pulled down the chain-link fence ringing the concert and ran amok in the village. She feared the amphitheater would attract similar crowds, and the music would be projected through the village by the venue's acoustics.

"It is an invasion of Saugerties for profit," she said.

Water-supply worries

One of the main issues voiced by residents was the potential impact on the community's drinking water.

A reservoir provides water to both the village and the town of Saugerties, but it is barely keeping up with current demand. The developers have offered to construct another wellhead, water treatment facility and distribution network on the Winston Farm property to provide a much-needed secondary source for the village and potable water for the Winston Farm project.

But a study commissioned by Catskill Mountainkeeper and released this month finds there is not as much water in the aquifer as was once thought. Kathleen Nolan, the organizations senior research director, said a potential agreement for the development to provide water for itself and the community is nice, but the numbers don't add up.

The development would use 500,000 gallons of water a day, which amounts to about 42 percent of peak demand for both the town and village, so the well would have to pump nearly half as much water as is brought in from the reservoir through the municipal water system. As well as depleting its own water supply, drawing that much water from the aquifer would impact surrounding residential wells, Nolan said.

Residents also had issues with the impacts the project would have on the environment, both locally and globally. Winston Farm is part of 1,186 acres of connected forestland mapped by the state's Hudson River Estuary Program and supports a multitude of flora and fauna.

Margarita Asian noted that forest development leads to climate change as carbon-sequestering trees are chopped down, and paving over land similarly prevents carbon dioxide from being stored. "We have to think on a global scale and act locally," she said.

The review process the developers must go through can take up to two years.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article mis-stated Mr. Costello's title and first name. He is Saugerties Town Supervisor Fred Costello.
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Saturday's temperature - already at 86 degrees at 11 a.m. - is expected to rise to 96 at the Albany International Airport in Colonie, according to National Weather Service in Albany.

Here's what to expect, the weather service says:

Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96.

Saturday night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 71.

Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 p.m. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97.Chance of precipitation is 40 percent.

Sunday night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms

Monday: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 5 p.m., then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5 p.m. High near 86.

How hot has it been? Here are the highs for the past week:

July 17: 92

July 18: 81

July 19: 92

July 20: 97

July 21: 96

July 22: 93

A number of local spray pads and pools will have extended hours this weekend. Some locations are also opening cooling centers for people seeking relief from the heat.

In Albany, city spray pads will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Spray pads are in the Colonie Street, Hackett, Krank, Lincoln, North Swan Street, Westland Hills and Black Lives Matter parks. The spray pads at Ridgefield, Rosemont and Swinburne parks are currently closed.

In Clifton Park the Senior Community Center will be open from non to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday as a cooling station. The center will be open to any resident looking for relief from the heat.

In Schenectady County, cooling stations are open at several libraries during their weekend operating hours, including Central Library on Clinton Street, Bornt Library on State Street, Mont Pleasant Library on Crane Street, the Glenville Library on Glenride Road, the Rotterdam Library on North Wescott Road, and the Niskayuna Library on Nott Street. An additional cooling station will be at the Bethesda House at 834 State St. from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

In Troy, the city Fire Department will offer mobile sprinklers at multiple locations from 1 to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The sites will be in Lansingburgh at the Intersection of 113th Street and 4thAvenue; in Little Italy at the Little Italy Market Place on 5th Avenue; and in South Troy at 3rd Street and Canal Avenue.

The South Troy pool is also open from 1 to 5:30 p.m., admission is free for Troy residents. City-operated splash pads will be open from sunrise to sunset.

The state also maintains a list of cooling centers that are open throughout the region.
CINCINNATI (AP)  An Ohio jury has deadlocked on a racial discrimination suit filed against the city of Cincinnati and its former police chief by two officers, one white and one Black, over different discipline imposed after use of the same racial slur.

The jury of six women and four men, all white, deliberated for about eight hours before a mistrial was declared Friday evening in the suit filed by officers Donte Hill and Dennis Barnette. A new trial date was set for Aug. 16.
Thinkstock Images/Getty Images

SCHENECTADY- A woman was killed by a train Saturday morning, police said.

She was killed near Edison Avenue, where Amtrak tracks are elevated over the street.
ALBANY  An attempted attack on Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin quickly set in motion the latest round of political combat over the effectiveness of the states bail laws. The recently updated data on bail outcomes, however, went undiscussed.

David G. Jakubonis, 43, was charged with attempted felony assault on the congressman after Jakubonis accosted Zeldin with a sharp self-defense tool before being wrestled to the ground at a campaign stop outside Rochester on Thursday evening. He was released on his own recognizance in a Monroe County town court on Friday.

The charge set by local law enforcement, attempted second-degree assault, was not eligible for bail, which is legally defined as a mechanism to ensure someones return to court. (The county sheriff and district attorney are both vocal opponents of recent changes to the bail system.) The judge appeared unable under the states law to prevent Jakubonis from being released while he is presumed innocent. If Zeldin had actually been assaulted, Jakubonis would have likely faced a felony charge and could have been subject to bail.

The fact that he walked out without bail just blows my mind, New York GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said at a news conference Friday that the party called to rail against the lack of bail set in the case. Its more crystal-clear how absolutely pitifully broken our criminal justice system is.

Langworthy  who is running for Congress  and criminal justice critics in both major parties believe judges should have broader discretion to set bail in order to better protect public safety.

A Times Union analysis of state data released this month, however, shows that when judges do have discretion to set bail, the rate at which defendants are rearrested is very similar to the rate of rearrest in cases where judges do not have the explicit ability to set bail.

At least half the time when someone is accused of a felony while awaiting trial for a separate case, that rearrest occurred in a case in which the judge likely had discretion to set bail, according to a Times Union analysis of the latest release of state data. (Rearrests occur in only a small number of criminal cases, and an even smaller number of violent felonies.)

The numbers, which are required to be released every six months, are intended to inform policy decisions for state lawmakers.

As in much of the debate over bail changes, the data can be interpreted in two ways depending on which end of the ideological field one approaches it from.

The data show pretty conclusively that (judges) cant accurately determine who is dangerous or not, said Scott Levy, chief policy counsel for the Bronx Defenders, a progressive group that supports the Democrat-backed changes to bail.

Those on the other side of the debate argue that judges should be allowed to gauge an individual's potential dangerousness while making bail decisions.

One of the core tenets of Zeldin's campaign is repealing cashless bail and adding that danger standard to the states law. Like Langworthy, he wasted no time in using Jakubonis as an sign of a failed system.

Judges already have discretion to set bail for almost every case involving a violent felony charge, as well as a number of nonviolent felonies. A judge can in most cases set bail when a person who is arrested already has an open violent felony charge facing them. Other, more nuanced circumstances can give a judge the ability to set bail as a condition upon release.

Prosecutors and public defenders note that judges by law also have to consider the least restrictive means to get a person to return to court while setting a reasonable bail. With considering this variable, prosecutors often say they are legally unable to ask a judge to set a bail high enough to effectively hold a person in jail.

Lawmakers are trying to shift blame to the judges for not setting bail in some cases, Albany County District Attorney David Soares said in a statement. That is disingenuous.

Soares said the fault lies with the retooled law, and not with judges failing to use all the tools at their disposal. He specifically blamed the "least restrictive" standard and the inability to set bail in certain cases resulting in a significantly higher number of potentially dangerous people walking the streets.

Advocates of the state's bail laws balk at suggestions that more and not less people should have bail set on them, and then potentially held in jail prior to a trial.

Without bail reform, far too many are treated as guilty until they can prove their innocence, Marvin Mayfield, director of organizing at Center for Community Alternatives, said in a statement. This is not an idle concern.

He pointed to both the 11 deaths at the notorious Rikers Island jail this year, and the roughly half of cases in New York City that are tossed out for lack of evidence. Statewide data show similar trends of high rates of case dismissal.

The changes to bail were passed by the Democratic state Legislature and signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo soon after the party took the majority in the state Senate in the elections of 2018. Since then, it has been the pre-eminent cudgel for Republicans who find themselves shut out of power at the Capitol.

It has often landed on tabloid covers and television screens as the apparent cause for rises in crime that have been charted since 2020, overlapping with the coronavirus pandemic. Advocates for the changes, meanwhile, have noted the longtime inequities  many falling along racial lines, but more broadly economic ones  that the changes were meant to address.

But hard data on the potential impact of the changes have only begun to flow.

Upon the initial release of the first set of data in late December, the Times Union reported that in 2020, around 3 percent of cases led to a person being rearrested on a violent felony. Close to a quarter of cases were people rearrested on any charge.

The latest data now gives a full snapshot of 2021. The numbers show rearrest rates appeared to trend downward from 2020 to 2021: About 2 percent of non-bail-eligible cases led to a violent felony rearrest, and 17 percent of cases led to a rearrest of any kind.

Alexandra Harris contributed reporting for this story.
WFO MEDFORD Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, July 29, 2022

_____

EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Medford OR

438 AM PDT Sat Jul 23 2022

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON

THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures between 100

and 110 possible. Overnight lows will also be much warmer than

normal, mainly 65 to 70.

* WHERE...West Side Valleys in southern Oregon and northern

California. This includes the Rogue, Illinois, Applegate,

Lower Klamath River, and Shasta Valleys.

* WHEN...From Monday afternoon through Friday evening.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the

potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those

working or participating in outdoor activities.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The hottest temperatures are forecast to

occur in the Rogue Valley, Shasta Valley, and Lower Klamath

River Valley near Happy Camp.

* View the hazard area in detail at

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?wfo=mfr

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Monitor the latest forecasts and warnings for updates on this

situation. 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. This is

especially true during warm or hot weather when car interiors can

reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 24, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service New York NY

323 PM EDT Fri Jul 22 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index in the upper 90s to lower 100s.

* WHERE...Portions of northeast New Jersey, southern Connecticut

and southeast New York.

* WHEN...Until 8 PM EDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Heat Advisory is issued when the combination of heat and

humidity is expected to make it feel like it is 95 to 99 degrees

for two or more consecutive days, or 100 to 104 degrees for any

length of time.

Seniors and those with chronic health problems or mental health

conditions are at an increased risk. Homes without air

conditioning can be much hotter than outdoor temperatures.

Use air conditioning to stay cool at home or go to a place that

has air conditioning. Check on vulnerable friends, family members

and neighbors.

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! In cases of heat stroke call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Labour health and disability spokesperson Duncan Smith has said that the Department of Health must emerge from the shadows, take responsibility and pay tens of thousands of frontline health workers still waiting on a pandemic recognition payment.

Deputy Smith said:

"The fact that the Department of Health has not paid the pandemic recognition payment to a single Section 39 worker, contract cleaner, caterer, member of security staff, workers in private nursing homes or even public health workers not employed by the HSE, like Dublin Fire Brigade paramedics is beyond insulting.

"I have been dealing with Public Health Nurses all over the country who are still awaiting payment also.

"The HSE has made it clear to unions from day one that the circular that gives effect to the decision to pay non-HSE staff lies squarely with the Department of Health and the Minister.

"The longer they shirk their responsibilities, the longer these workers will be left high and dry during the worst cost of living crisis in our lifetime. These workers made enormous personal sacrifices. They risked their health to keep us safe.

"They truly went above and beyond the call of duty and this needs to be recognised."

It is beyond time for the Department of Health who are responsible for paying the tens of thousands of Section 39 workers, cleaners, caterers, security staff, workers in private nursing homes or Dublin Fire Brigade, to emerge from the shadows, take responsibility and settling this long standing commitment to recognise their contribution.

"Only 93,000 of the 154,000 existing workforce have been paid so far. After 4 months of stalling there is a very long way to go make this right.
SNEADS, Fla.  A Sneads man was killed after he started shooting at law enforcement officers and drew return fire Saturday morning, according to local law enforcement officials.

An officer with the Sneads Police Department was shot multiple times in the exchange but his injuries were non-life-threatening, said Sneads Police Chief Mike Miller.

He declined to immediately name the officer, and the name of the man killed was also being withheld by the Jackson County Sheriffs Office as of early Saturday afternoon. He was only identified as a 42-year-old.

Officials indicated one JCSO deputy, also unnamed by authorities, and the SPD officer were the two officers involved and did not address whether it had been determined who shot the man.

Officials say he began shooting while officers from SPD and JCSO were talking with a man nearby that had called for assistance in what JCSO described as a disturbance that morning. Officials offered no elaboration on the disturbance call.

The incident took place just off McKeown Mill Road and just west of the Sneads city limits around 8:19 a.m., with Jackson County Sheriffs Office, as the lead agency, sending a deputy and the Sneads officer assisting.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the case, as is the normal procedure in an officer-involved shooting in this state.

The officer injured is on medical leave and all involved in the incident will be on paid leave while the investigation is underway.
Around 150,000 people have marched for LGBTQ rights at Berlins annual Christopher Street Day celebration, celebrating this years parade theme United in Love.

Klaus Lederer, Berlins deputy mayor and a senator for culture and Europe, said in a speech opening the celebrations that Berlin must be a safe haven for LGBTQ individuals facing persecution in their home countries.

For all the countries where being queer is still a punishable offense  Berlin must be a city of freedom, he said.

German political institutions showed their support for the LGBTQ community.



Participants wearing the colours of Ukraine attend the annual pride march in the German capital Berlin

In a historic first, both the German Bundestag and the chancellery flew rainbow flags to mark the occasion.

Saturdays parade was the first time since before the coronavirus pandemic that the annual celebration had proceeded without major restrictions.

Last year, around 65,000 people attended the parade amid social distancing rules and a ban on alcohol.

In 2020, the parade was cancelled entirely due to the pandemic.
34992 


A not-so-fun summer trend . . .

Many are people are getting sick by way of pandemic but nobody REALLY cares.



Check health official news that will be dismissed by Summer concert goers and party people . . .



Last week, Wyandotte and Johnson Counties in Kansas, and Jackson County in Missouri, were all included in the CDCs high category for the first time as a group.This weeks update maintained those counties in the high zone and added Case County and several other outlying counties in both Missouri and Kansas.





Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Right now KCMO continues along a record pace with last year's historic murder count -- We're hoping this is a more peaceful weekend than last and the heat inspires people to chill.

Now . . .

In this quick post we take a peek at overnight police working to keep KC safe and then share some of the top local notes that deserve a bit of attention.



First the standoff aftermath . . .



Shortly after midnight, tactical officers utilized CS gas and less lethal bean bag to assist in removing the male from the vehicle and place him into custody.



The male was transported to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation and he also has outstanding warrants.



The dogs were also secured at the scene.

##############



Accordingly, here's more news gathering on police action, ongoing cases and ALLEGATIONS of misdeeds via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Surveillance camera shows man stealing thousands of dollars of tools from Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City is hoping the community can help them find the man who stole thousands of dollars in tools from a trailer outside of one of their warehouses.Surveillance camera shows the thief breaking the vent off the top of one of their tool trailers, looking inside for nearly half an hour, and then taking off with thousands of dollars in tools.

Roommate: No idea accused NKC officer murderer made ghost guns KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Joshua Rocha, the man accused of killing North Kansas City officer Daniel Vasquez, was renting a room in a Northland house with his mother. According to their roommate, Rocha and his mother had been there for about four to five months.

Man accused of fatally shooting Kansas City motorist with AR-style rifle A 27-year-old man is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a man who was found shot to death inside a crashed SUV in Kansas City's Park Farms neighborhood last week. Charles F. Miller Jr., of Kansas City, was arrested Thursday on the murder charge along with two counts of armed criminal action, unlawful firearm possession and unlawful weapon use.

Man sentenced to prison for his 3rd federal conviction on a firearms charge KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A man will spend seven years in federal prison after his third conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. A federal judge in the Western District of Missouri sentenced Dana McCoy, who was already on federal supervised release, when he shot up a south KCMO nightclub on March 14, 2021.

Shooting at Independence QuikTrip leaves man with life-threatening injuries INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The Independence, Missouri Police Department is investigating a shooting Friday afternoon that left one person critically injured. Officers responded just before 1:15 p.m. to a reported shooting near E. 39th Street and Bolger Road. They initially responded to the QuikTrip for a reported disturbance.

Trial date for accused Indian Creek Trail murderer delayed to January KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Accused Indian Creek Trail killer Fredrick Scott trial's has been delayed despite objections from the state. Scott's trial was originally set for Sep. 6, 2022 , but according to the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney's office, the trial will now be moved to a date that has yet to be determined in January.

KC-area woman shares warning so others don't fall victim to metro home contractor KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City area woman is sharing her warning before someone else becomes one home contractor's next victim. "When you opened this door there was nothing."

Lawsuit: Black students faced constant racial harassment at Kearney schools KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A lawsuit filed in federal court in Kansas City states Black students were constant targets of racial harassment in the Kearney School District. The suit was filed by Tiffaney Whitt, whose children were allegedly victims of racial slurs and threats, according to the lawsuit.

Judge sentences Independence man to 175 years for multiple child sex crimes A Jackson County judge has sentenced a 36-year-old Independence man to 175 years in prison for multiple child sex charges.A jury found Glenn M.

Police: Kansas man pistol-whips father walking home with his children Officers saw the suspect vehicle in the 2800 block of Fleming Street and attempted to stop it, but Salas allegedly refused to pull over and a brief pursuit ensued. Police believed Salas returned to his home in the 400 Block of West Chestnut.

Independence police ask for public's help in find missing man with autism KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Independence Police Department is asking for the public's help in finding a missing man. Drayton Fanning, 23, was reported missing on Friday at about 2 p.m. and is diagnosed with autism. Fanning left a house in the 16000 block of East 37th Terrace and got into a Black car.

Lawrence police move to use more bean bags instead of bullets with new tool The Lawrence Police Department is making a significant change in its choice of weapons.New 'shotguns' are designed to diffuse situations without the risk of death.The sound of the gun is jarring, but these bright orange weapons are not firing bullets.

JoCo Sheriff Hayden says there was 2020 voter fraud - but he was elected that year, so ... OPINION AND COMMENTARY Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden has gone off the rails in search of supposed widespread voter fraud. (July 17, 20A, "Sheriff's partisan election lies poison JoCo's good life") My question: If there was all this voter fraud in the 2020 election, how did he and all the other Republican proponents of this supposed outrage get elected?

Judge cites "illegality" of City of Edgerton annexation - The Sentinel A lawsuit brought by a group of Johnson and Miami County homeowners against annexation of adjoining property by the City of Edgerton was thrown out for lack of standing, but the judge agreed with their premise and suggested they seek remedy from Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Kansas City Police Department uses technique called combat breathing There is a groundbreaking technique for members of law enforcement which has them focus on breathing.It sounds simple. What's known as combat breathing can be an officer's best defense in a crisis.

KCPD Training Lands Sergeant In Helicopter Cockpit He joined KCPD in June of 1999 and though he's now in the department's Helicopter Unit, it took him 20+ years to bond his passion for policing and flying. Hess has worked many assignments over the years which include Patrol, Internal Affairs, Sex Crimes, Crimes Against Children, and Investigations.

Kansas City-area police departments add mental health resources KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The line-of-duty death of North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez on Tuesday has served as a reminder of the importance of mental health as the community mourns his passing. The Lenexa Police Department has a peer support group to help fellow officers out when they need to talk.

Developing . . .
In this post one of our KICK-ASS READERS takes a moment to answer a question and provide context that local media never have time to report.

The upshot . . .

KANSAS CITY TAXPAYERS NEED POLITICAL HELP TO OVERCOME THE NEW OBSTACLES CITY HALL HAS IMPOSED ON THE REFUND PROCESS!!!

Again, we thank one of our AWESOME READERS for making it plain.

For the record . . . This is NOT legal advice and we're not a lawyer . . . In fact, this note seems to advocate for a solution at the ballot box.

Here's the word . . .



E-Tax Chicanery

Your reader who is unsure of how to sustain a protest "made and sustained" pursuant to RSMO 139.031 can be informed that, in my opinion, he will have to:



1) Protest each and every tax payment made to KCMO. These are typically made by the employer on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, depending on the amount of e-tax withheld.



2) Then, file a lawsuit for each and every tax payment made to KCMO. Here is the relevant text of the statute: "Every taxpayer protesting the payment of current taxes under subsection 1 of this section shall, within ninety days after filing his protest, commence an action against the collector by filing a petition for the recovery of the amount protested in the circuit court of the county in which the collector maintains his office." Id. at 2, second sentence.



3) Prosecute said lawsuit for every single tax payment at $250.00 an hour. It takes about $5K to prosecute the most basic lawsuit in Jackson County to bench verdict.



Obviously, this posture is designed to make the process impossible for the normal taxpayer, and really requires the intervention of a taxpayer rights organization (looking at you, Show Me Institute) to challenge the City's interpretation in light of Supreme Court precedent.

###############

Developing . . .


The aftermath of this hot mess shouldn't make anybody feel safe . . .



By now you've seen the determination . . .

But notice how most local media downplay the chaotic scene with bullets flying at unintended targets.

To be fair, the asst. principal thanked the resource officer in the aftermath of the terrifying confrontation . . . Because I guess getting shot with a ghost gun is somehow scarier than taking fire from a normal gun . . .



"The Johnson County District Attorney said Officer Erik Clark was justified in using deadly force against the student, Jaylon Elmore, who a witness said opened fire on Clark first. The officer also likely fired the shots that hit an assistant principal, but the DA is not filing charges."



More deets . . .

The Johnson County District Attorneys Office determined School Resource Officer Erik Clark feared for his life, took reasonable actions during the shooting, and was justified in shooting the student suspect.



Clark was shot four times. One of the bullets hit his body camera, destroying it. The other three bullets caused three gunshot wounds, according to the district attorneys report.



The report states assistant principal Dr. Kaleb Stoppel suffered two gunshot injuries, and was likely hit by bullets fired from Clarks weapon. One bullet hit him in the thigh and the other in his forearm.





Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

'He just started shooting at me': Use of force by Olathe East High School SRO in office shooting justified, officials say The whole exchange happened in seconds. The school resource officer thought he was going to die. That's part of the message behind the investigation into the Olathe East High School shooting earlier this year that left an administrator, school resource officer, and student, wounded.In the release issued Friday, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said an investigation has ruled the use of deadly force by Olathe East Student Resource Officer Erik Clark, against suspect Jaylon Elmore, was justified.

Johnson County DA says Olathe East school officer was justified in shooting student The Johnson County District Attorney said Officer Erik Clark was justified in using deadly force against the student, Jaylon Elmore, who a witness said opened fire on Clark first. The officer also likely fired the shots that hit an assistant principal, but the DA is not filing charges.

Johnson County DA shares findings in Olathe East HS shooting investigation OLATHE, Kan. - The results of an investigation into a shooting inside Olathe East High School reveals what happened March 4. The Johnson County District Attorney's Office determined School Resource Officer Erik Clark feared for his life, took reasonable actions during the shooting, and was justified in shooting the student suspect.

Johnson County DA Steve Howe: Olathe East SRO 'justified' in March shooting KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The school resource officer who shot an Olathe East High School student during an altercation March 4 will not be charged with a crime, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said Friday.

Developing . . .
Dothan school officials got a rude awakening last week when a public hearing was announced to discuss Greater Beulah Baptist Churchs application to the Alabama Charter School Commission to create a charter school, Barnabas School of Leadership.

Rude, one might say, because the news seemed to strike school officials from left field, even though one school board representative is a member of the church.

However, the reasoning behind the initiative is sound. Proponents of the charter school maintain that, for far too long, minority students in the city school system have not shown the proficiency their white counterparts have. A charter school could be structured to better suit those students needs, proponents say.

The only real surprise is that an effort such as this did not materialize sooner. The Alabama Legislature created a charter school law in 2015, and several have been created since. And in Dothan, the public school system has seen a drastic shift in enrollment, as many students whose families have the means have left for private schools. Many others left to be home-schooled. Some even left for county schools, or public schools in surrounding areas, creating a cottage industry of out-of-district tuition.

According to figures presented at the hearing last week, the student body is almost a reverse-mirror of the racial makeup of the citys population; Dothans population is roughly 62% white while the school student population is roughly 64% Black.

Dothan City School Superintendent Dennis Coe took a lot of heat in the meeting. During his limited time at the lectern, he spoke of the dedication of faculty and staff and warned that the creation of a charter school would drain as much as $3 million per year from city school system resources, resulting in the loss of teachers, staff, and possibly another school.

To be fair, Coes time was limited to two minutes, and news of a potential charter school was fresh. Further, his tenure as superintendent has been relatively short, and controversial changes that took place in recent years were not his doing and occurred before he took the helm.

However, hes at the helm now, and the future of the citys public school system  with or without the creation of a charter school at Greater Beulah or elsewhere  rests in his hands and those of members of the local school board.

Regardless how the charter school initiative plays out, Coe and the school board should look beyond accusatory remarks to glean the real concerns of the proponents of a charter school, and find ways to address those concerns. A charter school would pull some 250 students from the public school rolls. The several thousand students who remain deserve the best education the local school system can provide.
Vietnamese laborers attend a meeting in Hanoi where they are prepared for working in South Korea, July 21, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Hong Chieu

Japan and South Korea are among markets hosting most Vietnamese workers, with the highest income of around $1,400 and $1,800 per month.

Currently, more than 600,000 Vietnamese are working on contract in 50 countries and territories, with more than 90 percent in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Japan leads with 250,000, followed by Taiwan with 230,000, and South Korea with 40,000, it was announced at a Friday meeting of the Department of Overseas Labor, a unit of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Vietnam started sending laborers to work in Japan in 1992 and until now, about 350,000 Vietnamese have been employed there, said Nguyen Nhu Tuan, deputy head of the departments propaganda agency.

In most cases, laborers usually work three to five years at an average income of $1,200-1,400 per month.

Migrant workers in South Korea earn $1,400-1,800 per month, with as many as 90 percent chosen from the Employment Permit System (EPS), South Korea's flagship temporary labor migration launched in 2004.

They mainly work as crew members on fishing vessels or in the fields of agriculture and fisheries under cooperation mechanisms between localities in both countries.

In Taiwan, the ministry said in report early this month Vietnamese workers are paid $790 per month at the highest.

"Japan, South Korea and Taiwan now all face an aging population trend, raising their demand for guest workers. In the next few years, those destinations will be the key markets for Vietnamese labor export," said Tuan.

The trend of population aging in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan increases the demand for foreign workers. In the next few years, these will still be key markets for Vietnamese labor exports," he noted.

"The labor export market is very attractive and yet there are also many issues to be handled."

According to the Overseas Labor Department, Vietnamese workers abroad are "vulnerable" and easily face barriers in culture, lifestyle and language.

Therefore, the department and related agencies will issue its "Migrant Workers Health Handbook" next month to provide information about the health system, health insurance and social insurance of host countries, how to deal with occupational accidents, deaths, violence or harassment at work, as well as hotlines and addresses they could access for assistance.

Attending the Friday meeting, Tran Thi Tuyet Luong, representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Vietnam, said Vietnamese migrant workers are usually young people aged 22-26, citing IMO research on laborers working in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Most have language problems while many unmarried women fall pregnant.

Workers also lack knowledge of the host country's health system and find it difficult to properly access services even with health insurance, Luong said.

"In addition to helping migrant workers access health and social services, the handbook is also a channel for businesses, trade unions and NGOs to access timely support," she said.
As a result of the latest series of Russian missile strikes at Kirovohrad region, a military serviceman and two security guards were killed, while nine more servicemen were wounded, preliminary reports say.

The head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration, Andriy Raikovych, broke the news, speaking at the national telethon, Ukrinform reports.

"Servicemen were hit: nine of them were injured, one was killed. According to preliminary reports, two security guards at the transformer substation were killed," the official noted.

Currently, according to Raikovych, a rescue operation is underway at the sites of the strikes; medical assistance is being provided to those affected.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in the early hours of Saturday, Russian troops fired 13 missiles at the Kirovohrad region, targeting, in particular, the Kanatove airfield and one of the Ukrzaliznytsia railway operators facilities.
Since February 24, the UN has received more than 150 reports regarding cases of sexual violence committed by Russian military in Ukraine, and this is only the "extreme tip of the iceberg."

This was stated by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, in a video address to the participants of the Second Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Since February, the United Nations has received over 150 reported allegations of sexual violence, committed against women, girls, men, and boys. These include harrowing personal testimonies of rape at gunpoint and rape in front of family members, as a consequence of the violation of Ukraines territorial integrity by Russian forces," said Patten.

Read also: Sexual violence by Russian forces is genocide against Ukrainian people

She noted that sexual violence is a crime that is "chronically underreported," and that these data only represent the extreme tip of the iceberg."

According to the special envoy of the UN Secretary General, this is one of the most destructive forms of violence, which during military conflicts is committed mostly against women and girls, but also against men and boys.

"It has lasting, harmful effects on victims, their families, communities, and societies. It shatters lives and livelihoods, with consequences that echo across generations," Patten stated.

The official noted that very often the needs of women and girls in situations of military conflict are sidelined and treated as an afterthought.

"We cannot allow this history of silence and inaction to be repeated in the context of Ukraine. The physical and psychological health of survivors, their families, and communities hangs in the balance. Its restoration will require sustained political resolve and resources to empower survivors and help them replace horror with healing and hope," Patten concluded.
Personnel of the Royal Air Force Regiment will train 10,000 Ukrainians with little to no military experience in the United Kingdom.

The RAF Gunners are part of a tri-service training programme which will see up to 10,000 Ukrainians with little to no military experience come to the UK for intensive soldiering courses to help them in the defence of their country against Russian aggression, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook.

As noted, the programme is part of the UKs enduring commitment to support Ukraine in its fight against Russias unprovoked invasion, which so far amounts to more than 2.3 billion in military aid and includes more than 5,000 NLAW anti-tank weapons and M270 multiple launch rocket systems.

Around 1,050 UK service personnel are deploying to run the programme, which will take place at the sites of the British Ministry of Defence. Each course will last several weeks.

The training will give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience the skills to be effective in frontline combat. Based on the UKs basic soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics and the Law of Armed Conflict.

Moreover, the UKs Government rapidly procured AK variant assault rifles for the training programme, meaning Ukrainian soldiers can train on the weapons they will be using on the front line.

The UK has also gifted clothing and equipment to support Ukrainian soldiers in their training and deployment back to Ukraine.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine thanked the people and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invaders and Putins regime.

As reported, the European Union officially approved the allocation of another tranche of EUR 500 million to Ukraine to step up the resilience of the Armed Forces, bringing the total amount of military aid provided to the country up to EUR 2.5 billion since February 24.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the Ukrainian military being trained at a British army base in North Yorkshire this week and personally handled the weapons the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive from their British friends.

A video posted on Johnsons Twitter account shows the politician wearing camouflage gear and tactical headphones testing a range of weapons under the watchful eye of British commanders. Johnson also holds NLAW anti-tank rocket launcher and throws a grenade as he watches Ukrainian soldiers train alongside the British military.

This week I visited Ukrainian troops being trained by British Armed Forces in North Yorkshire.



The UK is committed to doing all we can to help Ukraine continue to repel Russian aggression. pic.twitter.com/HMTClRFST5  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 23, 2022

"This week I visited Ukrainian troops being trained by the British Armed Forces in North Yorkshire. The UK is committed to doing all we can to help Ukraine continue to repel Russian aggression," the politician posted.

He also addressed the Ukrainians: "I just want you to know that the people of the United Kingdom support the people of Ukraine and support you in your fight. And I am absolutely convinced that you can win and that you will win... I know that in the end the Ukrainian people are going to succeed. I know that the Ukrainian forces are going to succeed."

About 400 Ukrainian military personnel are currently being trained in North Yorkshire. Johnson said that Great Britain planned to train about 10,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the next four months.

The visit is made just days after Johnson agreed to resign.

The head of government focused on support for Ukraine in his foreign policy, with his country providing greater security assistance than any other country except the United States. Britain, according to Johnson, has sent to Ukraine, in particular, 6,900 units of anti-tank weapons, 120 armoured vehicles, rocket launch systems, etc. This equipment, he hopes, has already started to push back Putin's attack on Ukraine.

As reported, Johnson visited Kyiv twice after the start of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

Photo: Twitter

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Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Friday requested the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to support Vietnam in building a north-south high speed railway.

Receiving JBIC chairman Maeda Tadashi in Hanoi on Friday, Chinh said development of the rail route can be done in multiple parts and lessons learned throughout the process.

Besides the railway project, Chinh also requested Japan and the JBIC to catalyze new-generation ODA cooperation projects between the two countries and support Vietnam in deploying strategic infrastructure projects, especially in traffic, climate change, digital transformation and increasing medical capabilities.

Chinh further requested Japan and the JBIC to help Vietnam gain access to the $10 billion aid that the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had pledged at the COP26 conference so that the country could achieve its net zero emissions target by 2050.

The PM said he hoped JBIC would encourage Japanese businesses to shift investments and diversify their supply chains to Vietnam, making Japan a top investor in the country.

Tadashi said he highly valued Vietnam's commitment to and actions on environmental issues. He said the JBIC wished to cooperate with Vietnam in multiple fields.

The Ministry of Transport has proposed a 1,559 km north-south high speed railway line with speeds of 320-350 kph. This high speed railway would be used to transport passengers, while the current traditional railway routes would be used to transport goods.

The total investment for the high speed rail is expected to be over $58 billion. The first phase of the project, to be completed before 2030, would see the construction of two segments: Hanoi-Vinh and Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Trang.

At 320 kph, it would only take an hour or so to get from Hanoi to Nghe An's Vinh Town, while air travel would take around three hours, including time for security check. It would take around 4.2 hours to get from Hanoi to Nha Trang, also faster than flying for 4.5 hours. The high speed train would take 5.5 hours to travel from Hanoi to HCMC, while flying would take 4.5 hours.

Ticket prices for the high-speed railway should be roughly 75 percent of an average plane ticket on the same route, officals have said.
Russia did everything to destroy Ukraines export potential, but Ukraine did not allow it.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video address, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The full text of the speech is provided below:

Dear Ukrainian men and women!

Dear all our defenders

Today, our state and the entire civilized world have reached an important agreement  we have an agreement that allows us to unblock Ukrainian ports and restore Ukrainian agricultural exports.

From the first day of the full-scale invasion, Russia did everything to not just close Ukraine's access to the sea, but to destroy the very potential of our exports  port infrastructure, our railways, warehouses and silos. We did not allow it.

And now we can not only restore the operation of our ports on the Black Sea, but also keep them protected. This has been worked out with our military and with our intelligence. The military assured me of one hundred percent control of the approaches to our ports.

For a long time, all the details of the initiative signed today in Istanbul were discussed with our key international partners and the United Nations. Many leaders were involved in helping to restore our exports by sea. And I am grateful to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their efforts.

The text of the document signed today is published, and everyone can read its points. They fully meet the interests of Ukraine.

First. About 20 million tonnes of last year's grain harvest will be exported. And also it will be possible to sell this year's harvest  and it is already being harvested. These are the incomes of farmers, the entire agricultural sector and the state budget. These are jobs. These are funds for next year's sowing season.

We now have approximately $10 billion worth of grain.

Secondly. Finally, there is a chance to reduce the severity of the food crisis provoked by Russia. There is a chance to prevent a global catastrophe  a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us.

And the thirdly. This is another illustration that Ukraine is able to withstand this war. It is important that everything in the territorial waters of Ukraine will be controlled by our state.

And it is clear to everyone that there may be some provocations on the part of Russia, some attempts to discredit Ukrainian and international efforts. But we trust the UN. Now, it is their responsibility and responsibility of international partners to ensure compliance with the agreements.

And I want to thank all our soldiers who cleared Snake Island from the enemy, defend Odesa and Mykolaiv, gradually advance in Kherson region, liberating our territory. I'm thankful to all of you who proves every day: Russia will not win this war.

We are preparing for the start of the second Kyiv Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen tomorrow. This initiative of the First Lady of Ukraine was founded last year and proved that it can turn the soft power of the wives and husbands of the leaders of the states to solving various problems of national and global scale.

This year's summit will be devoted to the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. And it's not just about reconstruction. It is about the return of people, that is, about displaced people who should not become refugees. About all the necessary help and rehabilitation for those who suffered from the war. And about the revival of social life in communities and cities that were destroyed by the occupiers.

In particular, within the framework of the Summit and on the basis of our public charity platform United24, fundraising for specialized ambulances for Ukraine has already begun.

I won't reveal everything prepared by the First Lady of Ukraine and her team, but I feel that it will be a powerful event from a diplomatic point of view.

I spoke today with a great friend of Ukraine, Boris Johnson. First of all, about security and defense cooperation. We are waiting for a new package of military support.

Relations between Ukraine and the UK are built on common values. And no matter what happens in politics, the ties between our countries and societies will only strengthen.

In the evening, I signed another decree on awarding our soldiers. 180 combatants were given state awards, 100 of them posthumously.

Eternal memory to all those who gave their lives for the independence of Ukraine!

Eternal glory to all who fight for our country!

Glory to Ukraine!

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for the fundamental support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

The head of state wrote this on his Twitter account, reports Ukrinform.

Had phone talk with Tokayev. Thanked for fundamental support of Ukraines territorial integrity, nonrecognition of so-called 'LPR,' 'DPR.' We discussed specific economy, energy, digitalization cooperation projects. Exchanged greetings on 30th anniversary of Ukraine-Kazakhstan diplomatic relations! Zelensky wrote.

As reported by Ukrinform, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Kazakhstan does not recognize the independence of the so-called "DPR and "LPR".

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First Lady of the United States Jill Biden noted that the United States would follow a comprehensive approach to providing support for Ukraine, from defensive equipment to food products, from drugs to economic assistance.

The relevant statement was made by First Lady of the United States Jill Biden in her video address to the participants in the Second Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Jill Biden, the United States provides assistance to Ukraine in all areas: military, economic, economic, humanitarian, and human rights.

Jill Biden stressed that the United States would focus on providing assistance to the Ukrainian people. This refers to expanded access to primary and other medical assistance, food products, clear water, as well as aid to the victims of gender-based violence.

A reminder that the Second Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen is taking place in Kyiv on July 23, 2022.

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Traffic jam on Tran Duy Hung Street of Hanoi's Nam Tu Liem District on April 27, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

Vietnam will start imposing restrictions on the manufacture and import of vehicles using fossil fuel from 2040, according to a government program on energy transition.

The program approved Friday sets out targets for reducing carbon and methane emissions by the transport sector, aiming for a zero-emission industry in 2050.

By 2050, all road vehicles, including public transport vehicles, should be electric or use green energy, and a proper charge station system should be set up nationwide, the program holds.

By 2050, all trains will be electric and all aircraft in Vietnam use green or sustainable energy, it said.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had pledged that Vietnam would strive to achieve net-zero emission by 2050 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow last November.
Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai has instructed concerned agencies to take measures to stabilise pork prices.



Live pig prices across Vietnam have sharply increased, surpassing VND75,000 (USD3.36) per kilo in many northern localities, including Nam Dinh, Thai Nguyen, Ha Nam, Thai Binh and Hung Yen.

Pork prices on the rise

Hanois pig prices have reached VND72,000 per kilo.

Since early this month, pig prices in most localities nationwide increased by VND15,000 per kilo to between VND65,000-75,000.

Nguyen Kim Doan, vice chairman of the Dong Nai Livestock Association, said that China is increasing pig imports from Vietnam for the countrys year-end demand, which is among the major reasons for higher pig prices.

Deputy PM Le Minh Khai has asked the ministries of agriculture and rural development, industry and trade, finance and localities to develop solutions to ease pork prices.

Khai requested tighter control over pig exports through border gates and strict punishment on pig price speculation.

Concerned ministries, agencies and localities need to encourage breeders to increase repopulation to ensure supply.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has been ordered to co-operate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to inspect the pork distribution system and pig slaughterhouses to timely prevent violations related to pork prices.

The General Statistics Office is responsible for assessing the impact of pork price rise on the consumer price index this year.
Saigon has brushed off like a bad memory the pandemic blues that were vivid just last summer and begun to regain its pre-pandemic bustle. Foreign tourists are happy.

At 10 a.m. Thursday, French tourist Clementine is strolling around the iconic Ben Thanh Market in District 1 with two her friends.

"Nice market with unique architecture and friendly vendors. Surprisingly, vendors here speak English well and we have bargained with them to buy some favorite items like wallets and handbags," Clementine told VnExpress International.

"There are so many stalls selling clothing, footwear, jewelry and souvenirs and we spent more than an hour exploring it," she said.

"Vietnamese cuisine is nice. We have tried noodle soups and sweet soups."

Clementine (C) and two friends take a group photo inside the Ben Thanh Market in downtown HCMC, July 21, 2022. Photo by Hoang Phong

Clementine arrived in Vietnam two weeks ago with visa-free entry. French tourists are among 24 key tourism markets for which Vietnam has resumed its pre-pandemic visa exemption policy since March 15.

Anna, a British tourist, who also visited Ben Thanh Market last Thursday, said her family returned to Vietnam a week ago and plan to stay here for three weeks.

"This is the first time I've visited the market. Great atmosphere and nice vendors!" Anna said.

"Everyone here is really nice and helpful. I want to buy some souvenirs as gifts for my boyfriend."

Unconfirmed estimates say the number of foreign tourists visiting Ben Thanh Market in recent months has risen four or five-fold compared to March when Vietnam reopened international tourism after a two-year hiatus.

The return of foreign tourists has also seen Saigon's nightlife awakening after a long slumber.

Bui Vien, Vietnam's most famous backpacker area that was chockfull of bars, discotheques and nightclubs, is abuzz again with loud music and flashing lights.

"This is great! I have been in HCMC for over two weeks and am at Bui Vien every night. The atmosphere here is so great and I only go home after 2 a.m.," said Alex, a British tourist, as he drank beer with a group of friends at a Bui Vien stall on Wednesday.

Foreign tourists on Bui Vien Street, the nations most famous backpacker haunt, in downtown HCMC, July 17, 2022. Photo by Tuan Viet

John from the U.S., who will stay on in Vietnam with his girlfriend until the end of the month, said they have rented a hotel room in a small alley off Bui Vien. Every night they stroll around the backpacker hub or sip up a cup of beer, enjoying the bustling ambiance.

"It is extremely fun to be here but I think motorbikes should be banned all days, not just the weekends," John said.

Darkness to light

On April 27 last year, the fourth coronavirus wave hit the country. Not long after, HCMC became the country's biggest pandemic epicenter with month-long lockdown orders. Bars discotheques, spas, hotels and cafes were shut down. The city had turned into a ghost town.

After the pandemic situation in Vietnam's biggest epicenter was gradually under control, the city reopened its economy and tourism activities last October.

But it was only from late March that the tourism industry in HCMC entered real revival mode. This happened after Vietnam reopened its door to foreign tourists with free-quarantine entry and resumed its visa exemption policy for key tourism markets.

The return of foreign tourists and positive signs of tourism recovery have stirred hope among many tourism workers after over two years of grappling with grave financial challenges.

Foreign tourists walk on Nguyen Hue pedestrian street in HCMC downtown, July 21, 2022. Photo by Hoang Phong

Dao Thi Binh, manager of a bar on Bui Vien Street, said her business situation has seen positive signs though the number of foreign customers is only about 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

"It looks like a dream and I believe all the difficulties are in the past. I hope the city's tourism industry will recover quickly and many foreign tourists will come to the city in the near future," Binh said.

In the first six months of 2022, the number of foreign visitors to HCMC was over 478,000, recovering to 9 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to the citys Department of Tourism.

This year, the city targets 3.5 million foreign arrivals, or around 30 percent of its pre-pandemic levels.
Returning to the Outer Hebrides from the city was a long-term dream for the client, whose brief was to regenerate their vacant family croft, located near the south-west coast of South Uist in a harsh, isolated, yet incredibly beautiful landscape Historical consciousness was established in the ruins of a preceding 19th-century croft house.

The footprint of which a new-build house would echo, and the activities of which its new occupants would assume the form of as modern-day crofters. The house takes a contextualist approach and endeavours to recognise the islands changing cultural and societal needs. It explores how a modern croft house might be constructed today.

The result is an economical house that embraces affordable construction and materials, finding a richness instead in the nuances of assembly and composition whilst referencing traditional, low-roofed, thick-walled buildings. The structure governs the form of the house; set out meticulously on the module of its rendered insulated concrete formwork walling. The depth of which provides a protective, elemental quality and offers durability against the Atlantic winds. The concrete core of the walling reveals itself at the eaves, forming a structural ring beam, lintel and rainwater trench to which a sinusoidal steel roof directs rainwater.

A single round concrete column supports the ring beam overhang offering shelter to large sliding windows; a counterpoint to the heavy walls. Pine ply sheathing on structural pine rafters at equal centres is supported by a mild steel ridge beam; all of which are exposed continuing the honest expression of structure to indoors. The rooms inside flow from one to another. Notional circulation is expressed along the edges of the plan on the axis of north/south gable windows. The larger east/west windows track the rising and setting sun. All creating a connection to the ever-changing terrain and machair beyond.
Eugene, United States, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2022 ) :American Michael Norman made up for a disappointing fifth-placed finish at the Tokyo Olympics by winning the world 400m gold in Eugene on Friday.

Norman, who failed to advance from the semi-finals in the Doha worlds in 2019 with a thigh injury, clocked a winning time of 44.29 seconds.

Three-time Olympic medallist and 2011 world champion Kirani James of Grenada claimed silver with 44.68sec, while Briton Matthew Hudson-Smith took bronze (44.66).

"It is an amazing feeling for sure. Just to come out here on a home track and pull out with a gold individual medal," said Norman.

"It is going to be a memorable one. I want to remember what took me here and I am just thankful to everybody who supported me throughout the whole career.

"Without those people, I would not be where I am right now. So I really appreciate all those people. It took a lot of work to get where I was - obviously last year was not a good year for myself so I had to do a lot of hard work just to kind of get back to where I was.

"I just wanted to make sure that I did everything that I could have possibly done to become the new world champion." James said he knew it "was always going to be a battle" with Norman.

"I thought I had a good advantage to beat him to see him in front of me.

But catching him, it is never going to be easy.

"For me, I am just grateful to compete against these guys at this competitions, putting on a show for the fans, that is what the track and field is all about." James added: "If the fans enjoy it, they get excited, the sport grows and I am happy. This medal is special because after every Olympics, you always want to come back and show that you are consistent." World record holder Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa, who set the record of 43.04sec when winning gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016, finished fifth in 44.97sec.

A serious knee injury saw Van Niekerk take a three-year hiatus from the sport in the wake of Rio, his comeback itself tough due to the Covid-19 pandemic and paucity of meets he attended.

"As the world record holder, this is where I belong," the South African said.

"This is what I need to fight for. I need to make sure that I do whatever it takes to patiently get myself back to the place where I belong and that is on the podium.

"Fifth this time around, so I am working definitely towards the goal. Hopefully next time, I am on the podium."Bahamian star Steven Gardiner, the reigning world and Olympic 400m champion, was a notable absentee from Eugene, missing the worlds because of an inflamed tendon.
BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2022 ) :Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) played a vital role in the future economic development of Pakistan, with the Gwadar port as the main component.

"The CPEC is one of the most important flagship project of the five corridors launched under Belt and Road Initiative. Half of its projects have already been executed, he said in an interview with CGTN Radio.

Ambassador Haque said, under the first phase of the CPEC, several major energy project including hydro, wind and solar projects were executed.

"The second component of the CPEC is infrastructure, highways, waterways and bridges which have been built across Pakistan, improving the communication and road infrastructure, he added.

The important part of physical infrastructure was laying the fiber optic link from Chinese border to Pakistan to help the communication network.

Ambassador Haque remarked that the third important component of the first phase was the Gwadar port which is almost complete and functional.

The other infrastructure projects like recently inaugurated East Bay Express was inaugurated and the work was under progress on International Airport and many of the allied infrastructure industry.

About special Economic Zone being set up in Gwadar, he said, a large number of Chinese companies were setting their businesses there.

The country was entering into phase two which was even more important and focused on industrialization, agriculture, social well-being of the people, poverty alleviation and green economy.

"We have also launched recently China-Pakistan healthcare corridor, digital corridor, green corridor," he added.

He said "Under Green Corridor, we are focusing on the agriculture and food security, and in digital corridor, we are benefiting from China's experience and expertise in the IT sector and industry.

"The government is developing special economic zones and encouraging relocation of Chinese industries to Pakistan not only to help the domestic market, but also to the region and exporting to other countries," he added.

Terming the CPEC a broad framework of economic development for Pakistan and also for the region, Ambassador Haque said, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has rightly linked it with the economic future of Pakistan.

This year marks the 71st anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan. Ambassador Haque said the "China-Pakistan relationship is unshakable," adding that the relationship between the two countries remains constant, "no matter which government has been in Pakistan or China, no matter how the international political landscape changes."
Three terrorists, affiliated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, were killed in an intelligence based operation (IBO) carried out by the security forces in North Waziristan on Saturday

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2022 ) :Three terrorists, affiliated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, were killed in an intelligence based operation (IBO) carried out by the security forces in North Waziristan on Saturday.

According to a news release issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), two separate IBOs in different areas of North Waziristan District were conducted.

In the first IBO, a high-value terrorist commander was apprehended in injured condition alongwith his three accomplices.

In the second operation, three terrorists were killed and weapons, ammunition and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were also recovered.

All the terrorists including those killed and apprehended were affiliated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group.

These terrorists remained actively involved in terrorist activities against the security forces, extortion for ransom, and killing of innocent citizens.
(@FahadShabbir)

Sindh Minister for Information Sharjeel Inam Memon and Advisor to Chief Minister on Law Barrister Murtaza Wahab have urged the Supreme Court to take a suo motu notice of climbing over a wall of apex court Lahore's registry by PTI goons

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2022 ) :Sindh Minister for Information Sharjeel Inam Memon and Advisor to Chief Minister on Law Barrister Murtaza Wahab have urged the Supreme Court to take a suo motu notice of climbing over a wall of apex court Lahore's registry by PTI goons.

In a joint press conference at Frere Hall on Saturday, they said that PTI goons tried to climb over the apex court wall Friday night.

"We condemn it", they said, adding that the apex cout should take its notice. They said that the apex court should also listen to the petition of PTI by forming a full court bench and decide it.

According to a communique issued here, Sharjeel Memon and Murtaza Wahab alleged that PTI captain was instilling hatred in the minds of the people across the country and urged the Supreme Court to also notice of it, too.

They alleged that Imran Khan's motive was to keep under pressure the court, establishment and election commission for his gains.

Sharjeel claimed that foreign funding case was very important. It was not possible that there would be a separate law for PTI and another for others, he added.
Ten people were killed and seven injured Saturday after the collapse of a section of a mountain at a coal mine in China, state television channel CCTV reported

Beijing, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2022 ) :Ten people were killed and seven injured Saturday after the collapse of a section of a mountain at a coal mine in China, state television channel CCTV reported.

The accident took place around 11:15 am local time (0315 GMT) in the northwestern province of Gansu, said CCTV, adding that rescue operations are now over.

Personnel were moving around the mining site "when a mountainside collapse occurred".

The collapse "buried these employees as well as vehicles", said CCTV.

According to the final report Saturday evening after the discovery of the last body, "10 people died and seven were slightly injured", it said, quoting local authorities.

"An investigation is underway to determine the causes of the accident."
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) today determined that revoking the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of cold-rolled steel flat products from China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time, and that revoking the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of cold-rolled steel flat products from Brazil would not be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.

As a result of the Commissions affirmative determinations, the existing orders on imports of this product from China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom will remain in place. As a result of the Commissions negative determinations, the existing orders on imports of these products from Brazil will be ended.

For the reviews of imports from China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, Chairman David S. Johanson and Commissioners Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Jason E. Kearns, Randolph J. Stayin, and Amy A. Karpel voted in the affirmative. For the reviews of imports from Brazil, Chairman David S. Johanson and Commissioners Jason E. Kearns and Amy A. Karpel voted in the negative. Commissioners Rhonda K. Schmidtlein and Randolph J. Stayin voted in the affirmative.

Todays action comes under the five-year (sunset) review process required by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. See the attached page for background on these five-year (sunset) reviews.

The Commissions public report Cold-Rolled Steel Flat Products from Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom (Inv. Nos. 701-TA-540-543 and 731-TA-1283-1287 and 1290 (First Review), USITC Publication 5339, August 2022) will contain the views of the Commission and information developed during the reviews.

The report will be available by August 17, 2022; when available, it may be accessed on the USITC website at: https://www.usitc.gov/commission_publications_library.

BACKGROUND

The Uruguay Round Agreements Act requires the Department of Commerce to revoke an antidumping or countervailing duty order, or terminate a suspension agreement, after five years unless the Department of Commerce and the USITC determine that revoking the order or terminating the suspension agreement would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping or subsidies (Commerce) and of material injury (USITC) within a reasonably foreseeable time.

The Commissions institution notice in five-year reviews requests that interested parties file responses with the Commission concerning the likely effects of revoking the order under review as well as other information. Generally within 95 days from institution, the Commission will determine whether the responses it has received reflect an adequate or inadequate level of interest in a full review. If responses to the USITCs notice of institution are adequate, or if other circumstances warrant a full review, the Commission conducts a full review, which includes a public hearing and issuance of questionnaires.

The Commission generally does not hold a hearing or conduct further investigative activities in expedited reviews. Commissioners base their injury determination in expedited reviews on the facts available, including the Commissions prior injury and review determinations, responses received to its notice of institution, data collected by staff in connection with the review, and information provided by the Department of Commerce.

The five-year (sunset) review concerning Cold-Rolled Steel Flat Products from Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom was instituted on June 1, 2021.

On September 7, 2021, the Commission voted to conduct full reviews. Chairman David S. Johanson and Commissioners Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Jason E. Kearns, Randolph J. Stayin, and Amy A. Karpel concluded that for the reviews concerning China, India, and South Korea, the domestic group response was adequate and the respondent group responses were inadequate and voted for full reviews. For the reviews concerning Brazil, Japan, and the United Kingdom, Chairman David S. Johanson and Commissioners Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Jason E. Kearns, Randolph J. Stayin, and Amy A. Karpel concluded that the domestic group response was adequate and the respondent group responses were adequate and voted for full reviews.

A record of the Commissions vote to conduct full reviews is available from the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Requests may be made by telephone by calling 202-205-1802.
BATTLE MOUNTAIN  The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released the draft environmental impact statement on the Gibellini Mine Project 27 miles southeast of Eureka, where Nevada Vanadium plans to mine for the critical mineral.

The mine would be the first primary vanadium operation in the United States, according to the BLM. Vanadium is used in the defense and aerospace industries, in the steel industry and for vanadium-flow batteries.

The BLMs Battle Mountain District reported it is now accepting public comment, and the draft document is available for review. Publication of the notice of availability in the July 22 Federal Register started the public comment period that ends Sept. 6.

The public review and comments received on the draft are critically important to ensuring we are meeting our obligation for the responsible development of public lands, said Jon Sherve, Mount Lewis Field Office manager.

Nevada Vanadium Mining Corp. proposes a surface mine that would produce vanadium products and produce uranium as a byproduct. Earlier announced plans call for production of 10 million pounds of vanadium a year and production of 50,000 pounds a year of yellowcake from Uranium.

The company announced last month that it had selected Hitachi Energy to provide consulting services for development of a renewable energy supply for the operation, and at that time Nevada Vanadiums chief executive officer, Ron Espell, said the company was still targeting start-up in 2024.

He said then, however, that development depended upon the BLMs permitting process.

Plans call for employment of 120 people and a 24-hour, seven-day operation for roughly seven years, according to the BLM. The project area includes 6,456 acres of public land and there would be 806 acres of proposed surface disturbance.

Formal comments can be submitted online via the ePlanning website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2000633/510 via the Participate Now tab or by mailing comments to Scott Distel, BLM project manager, 50 Bastian Rd., Battle Mountain, NV 89820 or by email to sdistel@blm.gov. The fax number is 775-635-4034.

Distel can be reached at 775-635-4093.
Pope Francis offers the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, his best wishes as he marks his 81st birthday on Saturday. The greetings came in a telegram in which the Pope lauded him for his dedication in guiding the country.

By Vatican News staff reporter

Pope Francis expressed his joy and best wishes, but also his prayers and remembrance in his greetings to President Mattarella on Saturday.

In the telegram sent to Italy's Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, who turned 81 on Saturday and has served as President of the Republic since February 2015, the Pope underscored the "high service" he carries out "on behalf of the beloved Italian people."



Authority and dedication at a difficult time



With attention focusing on Italys delicate political situation that has led in recent days to the decision to dissolve parliament and early general elections possibly in September, Pope Francis offered warm words that emphasize the "fundamental and indispensable contribution" that President Mattarella continues to provide with "kind authoritativeness and exemplary dedication", especially at this "particular moment marked by not a few difficulties and crucial choices for the life of the country."

Mutual affection and esteem



The Pope concluded by offering his best wishes, esteem and apostolic blessing to the President's family, collaborators and the entire nation.

The Popes words reflect the bond and good relations between both leaders, often expressed on various occasions.

Last January, following the President Mattarella's re-election, the Pope recalled the Presidents commitment to keep the country united and communicate serenity in the midst of the pandemic.

President Mattarella offered his warm words when addressing Pope Francis on the anniversary of his pontificate on 19 March, when he thanked him for "the constant attentionto never stray from the path of fraternity" and a shared common commitment for peace and dialogue.
Graham Gordon, the Head of Public Policy with CAFOD, applauds a grain deal between Russia and Ukraine, but warns "if there is another blockade or something happens, it's all going to happen again," and calls for deeper reform of the food system.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

While grateful for a deal between Ukraine and Russia to resume exports of grain through the Black Sea, Graham Gordon, head of Public Policy at CAFOD, is calling for reforming food systems, warning that the blockage could happen all over again.

The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) is the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and part of Caritas Internationalis.

In an interview with Vatican News' Lydia O'Kane, he explored what the deal actually means for countries, which at this point really need the grain.

Grain deal, good news

"The deal [on Friday] is good news because it's unlocking 20 million tons of grain that are currently stuck in Ukraine, and countries like South Sudan or Ethiopia or Kenya, which are suffering from a food crisis at the moment - if they can get this grain, it can really help alleviate some of the immediate suffering and malnutrition that we're seeing in those countries."

According to COFAD's website, millions of families around the world are facing a food crisis that many feel has been unprecedented. Forces further fueling the conflict include increases in catastrophes provoked by climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as rising food and fuel costs caused by the conflict in Ukraine.

Even before the pandemic struck, in 2019, close to 750 million people were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity. Now, exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, as many as 811 million people around the world are facing extreme hunger - an increase of roughly 60 million people in just three years. Children suffer the most.

"We've all been affected globally with increase in food prices, which is partly due to the conflict in Ukraine, but some of the countries, like some in East Africa that I mentioned or in Afghanistan, or other places, are really suffering from acute hunger," said Mr. Gordon

He encouraged the World Food Programme's appeal for increased funding from Western governments, and others who are able to buy grain and send it to these countries, which are in many cases over 50% dependent on grain imports for their staple crops.

Need immediate response and long term view

"The immediate response must be to get food to countries where it's most needed," he said, adding "but also longer term."

This is an opportunity to actually think about how our global food system is working and how we need to shorten supply chains and reduce dependency on a few staple crops for feeding much of the global population.

He was asked what the international community and governments need to do to make sure everything goes smoothly.

"Now, obviously, they carry on with the diplomacy, and then they have to be carrying on funding organizations like the World Food Programme to get aid so they can buy the food. But also," he added, "there are other things that global governments can do."



He observed that in this current crisis, speculation on grain markets, whether it's you to reduce supply of grain or other reasons, has actually shot up global food prices.

Need to reform food systems

"So G20 governments, G7 governments can be the ones that can curb speculation in times of crisis," he said.

We need to tackle climate change and make sure that we keep global warming down. We also need to diversify food systems for countries like Kenya or Zambia or others which rely on imports of wheat and maize and have a few staple products.

If those products fail due to low rainfall or droughts, or if they can't get those products imported as they used to, he said, "then the food system fails."



"We need organizations like the World Bank or like G7 countries or like their own countries themselves, [such as] the Kenyan government to invest in more vegetables, in diverse grains which are locally suited in different livestock and in different diverse, nutritious food systems that will resist some of these fluctuations in prices, that will resist failed rains and that will resist some of the impacts of food system over the long supply chains being affected like we see with the current conflicts."

Risk this happens again

Despite the achievement, he confirmed much more needs to be done.



"Releasing 20 million tons of grain that can be used to feed people who need it and use it to alleviate some of the increasing global food prices, is good news, he said, "but it's only going to it's a very short term solution, but absolutely needed."



And if there's another blockade, if something happens, it's all going to happen again.

"That's why we need deeper reform of the food system where countries like in Zambia, during COVID, when it couldn't get its products in from South Africa. It focused its food system much more on local production and local business development and became much more self-reliant."

The European Union, he said, is focusing "on food sovereignty" and "energy sovereignty," how they can become less dependent on imports of energy, or imports of food from other countries.

He said this needs to be the model that we see in some of these countries that are suffering, like in the Horn of Africa, that are suffering malnutrition at the moment.

Mr. Gordan concluded by saying we need the same types of policies as those being promoted in the European Union, to many other countries worldwide.
Turkey said Russia has denied any involvement in missile strikes Saturday on the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa.

"In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail," Defense Minister Hulusai Akar said in a statement. The fact that such an incident took place right after the agreement we made yesterday really worried us.

Public broadcaster Suspilne quoted the Ukrainian military as saying the missiles had not caused significant damage, and a government minister said preparations continued to restart grain exports from the country's Black Sea ports, according to Reuters.

Earlier Saturday, Ukraine said Russia attacked Odesa with Kalibr cruise missiles, just one day after both countries had signed an agreement to allow grain exports to move safely out of Black Sea locations.

Two missiles were shot down by air defense forces; two hit the infrastructure of the port, Ukraines Operational Command South posted on Telegram.



The strikes drew strong condemnation by the U.N., U.S. and Kyiv.



Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement delivered by spokesman Farhan Haq.

These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.

U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink called the strike "outrageous."

The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," she posted on Twitter.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called Russias actions reprehensible.

"Striking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of Istanbul agreements...demonstrates Russia's total disregard for international law and commitments," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian strike on Odesa demonstrates that Moscow will find ways not to implement the grain deal struck with the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine.

"This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it," Zelenskyy said in a video posted on Telegram.



Russia has yet to issue any official comment.



A Russian defense ministry statement on Saturday outlining progress in the war made no mention of any strike in Odesa.



However, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reposted the U.N. condemnation and said: "It is awful that UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres does not 'unequivocally' condemn also the Kyiv regime's killing of children in Donbas."



Ongoing fighting



Elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on an airfield and a railway facility in central Ukraine Saturday killed three people and wounded at least 13, according to local officials.

Britains Defense Ministry said early Saturday that in the last 48 hours, heavy fighting has been taking place as Ukrainian forces have continued their offensive against Russian forces in Kherson Oblast, west of the Dnipro River.



In the statement posted to Twitter, the ministry said, Russia is likely attempting to slow the Ukrainian attack using artillery fire along the natural barrier of the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro. Simultaneously, the supply lines of the Russian force west of the Dnipro are increasingly at risk.



In another development, credit rating firms Fitch and Scope has downgraded Ukraine to just one step above default. The move followed Ukraines request for a debt payment freeze. The rating agencies said that makes a default on the debt more likely.

The U.S. has promised Ukraine a new $270 million security assistance package, which will include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.

Ukraine's military has already deployed at least eight HIMARS to the front lines in its fight against Russia, while another four are either on the ground or on their way.

The latest U.S. pledge will bring the total number of HIMARS to 16. In addition, Ukraine has deployed six medium- to long-range rocket systems from Germany and Britain.
Fighting between rival militias in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which tailed off late Friday, have left a confusing political situation as two rival governments continue to lock horns, and political leaders flex their muscles to control more territory and determine who is more powerful.



Libyan media claimed that a militia loyal to outgoing Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh gained ground in the fighting over a rival militia, which supports the ruling presidential council in Tripoli. It was not immediately clear what ignited the fighting that claimed more than a dozen civilian casualties.



The three-man presidential council ordered a Libyan army unit, the 444 Brigade, to deploy in parts of Tripoli after the fighting subsided. It remains to be seen which political force now has the upper hand. Burned out vehicles could be spotted on several streets and some residential dwellings also appeared damaged.



Fighting erupted just as Libya began to step up oil production following a stoppage earlier this year. The new head of the Libyan National Oil Company indicated at a press conference Friday the country was now producing 650,000 barrels of oil per day. VOA could not independently confirm the figure.



The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called for an investigation into what prompted the clashes in Tripoli and insisted there be justice for victims and their families. U.N. Special envoy Stephanie Williams was shown meeting with Presidential Council leader Khaled al Meshri.



Libya analyst Aya Burweila tells VOA there are moves afoot between the Dbeibeh government and Libya's National Army (LNA)which controls the largest portion of the country"to unify armed groups in the West of the country with the national army."



Burweila went on to say that militias in Tripoli have refused to integrate with the national army since 2012, with the security situation deteriorating markedly in 2014, when "nominally Islamist militias invaded Tripoli from Misrata." The Libyan National Army, she notes, "launched a failed offensive in 2019 to remove the militias that had become ensconced in the capital.



Libya analyst Faraj Zeidan told Arab media that the "main reason for the fighting was differences between the presidential council and outgoing National Unity Prime Minister Dbeibeh."



Dbeibeh, he said, "is trying to weaken the forces supporting the presidential council."



"Fighting," he asserts, "will ultimately get worse, because the militias that control the situation on the ground are more powerful than the logic of the state."



Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported late Saturday that fresh fighting has erupted between rival militias in the coastal city of Misrata. VOA could not independently confirm the report.
Authorities in the Ethiopian region of Somali on Saturday said they had "destroyed" fighters from the Al-Shabab Islamist group, in a rare militant incursion from neighboring Somalia.

Somali's state communication bureau in a statement said an armed Al-Shabab group that crossed into the southeastern region on Tuesday "was surrounded in a sub-locality called Hulhul and completely destroyed.

A three-day operation left more than 100 members of the militant group dead and destroyed 13 vehicles, it added.

The authorities said the armed group was seeking to pass through El-Kere district in the Somali region, more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Somalia-Ethiopian border.

On Thursday, officials and residents of Bakool region, on the border with neighboring Somalia, reported Al-Shabab attacks the previous day against bases hosting a special Ethiopian police unit which helps protect the frontier.

Mohamed Malim, a local official in Somalia's Hudur district, told AFP on Thursday that "this was the heaviest fighting ever" around the towns of Ato and Yeed in the country's west.

"It continued about six hours before the militants had been repelled, there are dead and wounded combatants from both sides, but we don't have the details so far," he said.

An Islamist group linked to al-Qaida, al-Shabab has led an insurrection against Somalia's federal government for 15 years.

An African Union force with soldiers from five countries including neighbors Ethiopia and Kenya has supported the government in its fight against the insurgents.

The movement has been ousted from Somalia's main urban areas, including the capital Mogadishu in 2011, but remains entrenched in vast swathes of the countryside.

Attacks beyond Somalia's borders are rare and have mostly targeted Kenya, notably a bloody assault on Nairobi's Westgate shopping center in 2013 which left 67 people dead.

An attack on Garissa University in 2015 killed 148 people and another incident at a Nairobi hotel complex in 2019 left 21 dead.
The words painted on the staircase at the Silingan coffee shop make it clear that this place is about much more than just serving lattes and fruit smoothies.

"It's not a war on illegal drugs. It's an illegal war on drugs," the message says.

Silingan means neighbor. Most of the workers at this cafe near the capital, Manila, are mothers, daughters, sisters or wives of people killed during former President Rodrigo Duterte's grisly war on drugs.

"They didn't have to be killed like animals," head barista Sharon Angeles said through tears while recounting how her 20-year-old brother Christian was killed in 2016 during Duterte's first year as president. "They killed him like he was an evil person. It's so difficult."

Government data says about 6,200 people were killed in police operations tied to the drug war during Duterte's six-year term, which ended last month. Human rights groups, however, say the real death toll could be as high as 30,000, including executions by vigilantes who, according to activists, often work closely with police.

Duterte repeatedly defended his campaign as a necessary part of combating the national onslaught of drugs, especially in poor communities where police officers were killing in self-defense.

But human rights groups denounce Duterte for inciting vigilante violence against drug users and accuse police of murdering unarmed suspects, as well as falsifying evidence. The high death toll, plus graphic images in the media of corpses on the streets, have led to heavy criticism overseas and accusations of potential crimes against humanity.

While there were also protests in the Philippines against the drug war, Duterte retained popularity at home, leaving office with a 75% approval rating, according to a survey by Publicus Asia.

Silingan customer Patricia Tierra, 21, a local university student, said there's a typical perception in the Philippines about people killed in the drug war.

"It's common to hear them say that they deserve to die because they're doing negative effects to society," she said, adding that the personal stories of the baristas at Silingan put a human face to consequences of the drug war. "Their stories are real, and the effects of the drug war [are] real, and they're not just numbers. They're people."

By sharing personal experiences, head barista Angeles hopes customers gain a sense of the impact the drug war is having on families of the deceased.

"We hope we can change the negative connotations that are out there of people killed in the drug war," she said. "Some people sympathize with us, but some judge us."

Ryan Martinez, 25, who visits Silingan every other week, sipped a dulce latte on a recent night.

"The story they're trying to tell is personal. It tells a different side of the drug war than what many people in this country hear and read about," Martinez said. "At this coffee shop you're hearing it from people who have been directly impacted by it. So, it makes a difference."

In addition to earning income, the baristas bond over their shared grief and provide a support network for one another.

"We're all family and friends of [extra-judicial killings] victims," said Joy Solayao, whose partner, Albert Cubeta, was killed in 2017. "When I tell them my story, they can relate to me because they've had the same experience."

Both Solayao and Angeles say their loved ones were not involved with drugs and were killed because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. But both of them also defend the right of drug users and low-level dealers to live.

"People should know that not everyone who's connected to drugs deserves to be killed," said Angeles.

Both women want Rodrigo Duterte held accountable for the violence but acknowledged that seems unlikely. His daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, is now vice president to recently elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the namesake of the late dictator.

Solayao and Angeles expect the new administration to try to block any genuine efforts to investigate and hold Duterte accountable, including plans by International Criminal Court prosecutors to reopen an investigation into killings and other suspected human rights abuses during the war on drugs.

"I want Duterte to go to jail and regret what he has done to so many families," Solayao said. "But his daughter and Marcos will protect him."

Either way, baristas at Silingan will keep sharing their stories in the hopes that they can at least gain ground in the court of public opinion.
U.S. President Joe Biden appeared virtually at a meeting of his top economic advisers on Friday, a day after testing positive for COVID-19 with what the White House described as "very mild" symptoms.

Biden had a raspy voice and occasional cough when addressing the meeting from his White House residence to discuss efforts to lower gas prices, but said, "I feel much better than I sound."

When reporters asked how Biden was feeling before his remarks began, he gave a thumbs-up.

A statement released earlier in the day from the White House physician, Kevin O'Connor, said Biden's temperature reached 37.4 C (99.4 F) on Thursday but went down on Friday.

"His voice is deeper this morning. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation remain normal, on room air," he said.

O'Connor said Biden's primary symptoms were a runny nose, fatigue and occasional dry cough. He said the president took Tylenol and "responded favorably" to the medicine.

Antiviral treatment

The president also began Thursday a treatment of Paxlovid, the antiviral therapy treatment meant to reduce the severity of COVID-19.

O'Connor said Biden continued Friday to have a good prognosis.

"There has been nothing in the course of his illness thus far which gives me cause to alter that initial expectation," he wrote.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday afternoon that Biden is improving and "has very mild symptoms." She said he is benefiting from being twice vaccinated and twice boosted as well as taking the Paxlovid treatment.

Jean-Pierre said Biden is "still putting in eight-plus hours per day" and received his presidential daily security briefing Friday via video call.

The press secretary said it is not known exactly where Biden contracted the coronavirus but said the White House has contacted 17 people who have been in recent close contact with the president, including senior staff and members of Congress. She said so far none of those people have tested positive for the virus and all are wearing masks per CDC guidelines.

'Very good mood'

White House COVID Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Biden was feeling good when they spoke Friday via video call, reporting that the president slept well and ate his breakfast and lunch. He said Biden was "in a very good mood" and "joked that his one regret was that his appetite had not changed."

He said all of Biden's vital signs have been in the normal range but said the president has used an inhaler a few times since testing positive. Biden had asthma when he was younger and has an albuterol inhaler that he uses as needed," OConnor said.

Jha said that officials should know in the coming days whether Biden contracted the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.5 that is racing through the country.



About 100,000 new coronavirus cases are being reported every day in the United States.

Jha said Biden will remain in isolation in his White House residence instead of working from the Oval Office for at least five days and then will be tested again. Once the president tests negative for the coronavirus, he will return to work.

Jha sought to frame the narrative of the coronavirus as an illness that many Americans will get, but one that does not have to cause too much suffering.

"We have a very contagious variant. People will get infected. Our priority is that when people get infected, they don't have a serious outcome," he said.

'Very contagious virus'

When asked if the president regrets any of his interactions with people in light of his diagnosis, Jha said getting the coronavirus "is not a failure.  It is a very contagious virus. It is widespread. People will get infected."

While Biden at 79 falls into a high-risk category for becoming seriously ill from the coronavirus, health officials say his vaccination and booster status sharply reduces his risk for serious illness.

Jha said that Biden is receiving "world-class treatment" but said all Americans have access to the same treatment, including vaccines and antiretrovirals, and urged all people to be up to date on their shots.

Biden first tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday after receiving an antigen test. The reading was later confirmed by the more exacting Polymerase Chain Reaction test.

Former President Donald Trump also contracted the disease and was hospitalized toward the end of his four-year term. Vaccines were not available when Trump was infected.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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A photo of President Joe Biden's fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom U.S. intelligence says was behind the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, generated a storm of criticism for Biden and his foreign policy. VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
An African American family has been returned the deed for a seaside property taken from them by local officials nearly a century ago. Mike O'Sullivan reports from Los Angeles on what may be the first case of its kind in the United States.
India and Namibia have signed an agreement to bring cheetahs to the forests of the South Asian country, where the large cat became extinct 70 years ago.



According to the agreement signed Wednesday, eight African cheetahs will be transferred from Namibia to India in August for captive breeding at the Kuno National Park (KNP) wildlife sanctuary, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.



Indian officials said that as part of the "ambitious" project, 12 more African cheetahs from South Africa are expected to be brought to the park, though a formal agreement between the two countries has not yet been signed.



The KNP wildlife sanctuary is the new Indian home for African cheetahs, complying with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines, including a specific focus on site quality, abundant prey base and vast swaths of grasslands.



"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," a statement from the Indian Environment Ministry said.



The arrival of the cheetahs is expected to coincide with India's 75th Independence Day celebrations on August 15, 2022.



After signing the agreement in New Delhi with Namibia's Deputy Prime Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted: "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."





In another tweet, he said, "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 IUCN guidelines on conservation translocations."



A statement from the Environment Ministry said the KNP can currently host up to 21 cheetahs, but after the restoration of a wider landscape, its capacity will be increased to about 36.



The cheetah, the fastest land animal, has been rapidly heading toward extinction and is classified as a vulnerable species under the IUCN's red list of threatened species. An estimated 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild and almost all of them are in Africa.



The plummeting number of cheetahs across the world is blamed mostly on the depletion of habitats and poaching. Hunting, loss of habitat and food scarcity led to the animal's extinction in India.

It is believed that more than 10,000 Asiatic cheetahs roamed the wilds of India during the 16th century.



The cheetah population in India dwindled during the 19th century, largely because of bounty hunting by local Indian kings and ruling British officials.



The last three Asiatic cheetahs were hunted down in 1948 by an Indian king in central India. In 1952, the cheetah was declared officially extinct in the country.



Just a dozen or so Asiatic cheetahs are left in the wild right now  all in Iran.



In 2010, India initiated an effort to revive the cheetah population at the KNP wildlife sanctuary by bringing in African cheetahs. But in 2012, an Indian court stalled the project, noting it would come in conflict with a then-ongoing plan to introduce lions in the sanctuary.



In 2020, India's Supreme Court announced African cheetahs could be introduced in a "carefully chosen location" in India on an experimental basis. Since then, India has been making an effort to ship in the African cheetahs.



Indian officials are hopeful that this time, the plan to introduce African cheetahs in India is going to succeed, and the country will be able to revive its cheetah population.
China has issued stark private warnings to the Biden administration about a possible trip to Taiwan in August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

The report cited six people familiar with the Chinese warnings as saying they were significantly stronger than the threats that Beijing has made in the past when it was unhappy with U.S. actions or policy on Taiwan, which is claimed by China. The private rhetoric suggested a possible military response, the Financial Times cited several people familiar with the situation as saying.

China has been stepping up military activity around Taiwan seeking to pressure the democratically-elected government there to accept Chinese sovereignty. Taiwan's government says only the island's 23 million people can decide their future, and while it wants peace will defend itself if attacked.

On July 18, the Financial Times reported that Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan in August.

A day later, China's foreign ministry said that a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi would seriously undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the United States would bear the consequences of its response.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said he plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping by the end of the month.

Biden appeared to cast doubt on the reported Pelosi trip to Taiwan.

"I think that the military thinks it's not a good idea right now, but I don't know what the status of it is," Biden told reporters.
A novel Republican-led effort to protest the Biden administrations handling of record-setting migration across the U.S.-Mexico border has resulted in thousands of asylum-seekers being bused to the nations capital, alarming aid groups and immigrant rights advocates.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched the program in April, chartering buses to send recently arrived migrants from the southern border to Washington.

He announced the initiative after the Biden administration said it would halt Title 42, the pandemic-era immigration policy that allows authorities to turn away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Though the push to lift Title 42 was blocked by federal courts, Texas moved ahead and bused migrants to Washington.

Arizonas Governor Doug Ducey, also a Republican, followed Abbotts lead and in May started busing migrants to the nations capital.

Three months into the program, local officials said more than 3,400 people have reached Washington by bus. Aid groups say they are overwhelmed.

Why is the Texas governor doing this?

According to Abbott, the policy was put into place to help local officials whose border communities are being overrun by asylum-seekers.

We are sending them [undocumented immigrants] to the United States capital, where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border, Abbott said during a news conference on April 6.

The Texas governor's office said the bus trips are voluntary and migrants are allowed to travel only if they have been processed and released by the Department of Homeland Security. Migrants have to show documents received from U.S. immigration officials to prove they have been processed.

Who pays for the buses?

According to Texas state records, it costs more than $1,400 per rider to bus undocumented immigrants to Washington.

KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth first reported that the busing costs totaled more than $1.6 million in April and May. The station obtained the information through an open-records request to the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The documents show that 1,154 passengers were transported during the first two months of the program.

Abbott announced an initiative to raise private funds to pay for the busing, but as of July 15, the state website shows the governor has raised $116,382. The KXAS investigation said Texas taxpayers may wind up paying the rest.

Where are migrants from?

Migrants from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Cuba have been bused to the nation's capital after they cleared their federal immigration inspections at the border, according to the Texas governors office and Washington aid groups.

How many buses have arrived?

Washington city officials estimate 100 buses have come so far. They usually arrive midweek, some in the middle of the night, after a three-day trip from Texas. Local media have reported that Washingtons council members have urged the local government to direct resources to help the migrants. But the continuing arrival of asylum-seekers has overwhelmed aid organizations, which rely on donations and federal grants.

Immigration advocates from the Central American Resource Center in Washington have been meeting migrants as they arrive. Washington is usually not their last stop. Yet, migrants often stay more than a day while waiting for family members or local nonprofits to help them continue to their final destinations, such as New York or Chicago.

Regardless of their final destinations, they are obligated to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office once they arrive to continue the immigration process.

Are migrants benefiting?

"In a way, it's actually perfect," Bilal Askaryar, a spokesman for Welcome With Dignity, told The New York Times. "Unintentionally, Governor Abbott sent them to one of the best places in the nation to welcome people.

Vanessa Cardenas, deputy director of Americas Voice, agreed in a statement.

Fortunately, here in Washington, D.C., a coalition of community organizations demonstrate the American can do' attitude that we should embrace," Cardenas said. "They have welcomed those escaping violence and political persecution and have helped these asylum-seekers continue their journeys to reunite with their families. By putting refugees on buses to D.C., Abbott wanted to show chaos and distrust; instead, he is now seeing a community coming together to help those in need.

What are critics saying?

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the move a "publicity stunt," and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas called the busing politically motivated. Texas State Representative Matt Schaefer, a Republican, called it a "gimmick."

In Texas, Abbot is standing firm, tweeting on Friday, Biden wont come to the border so we continue to take the border to him. DC is seeing only a fraction of the crisis that Texas faces daily.
Grain storage facilities at the Odesa port were not damaged in an attack early Saturday, the Ukrainian militarys Southern Command said.

It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesas port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the U.N. and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Twitter. In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Russian officials had told Ankara that Moscow had "nothing to do" with the strikes on the port, Reuters reported. A Russian defense ministry statement on Saturday outlining progress in the war did not mention a strike on Odesa. The ministry did not reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian strike on Odesa demonstrates that Moscow will find ways not to implement the grain deal struck with the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine.

"This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it," Zelenskyy said in a video posted on Telegram.

The attack came mere hours after the two countries had signed an agreement to resume shipments of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to help ease a global food crisis.

It was not clear how Saturdays airstrikes would affect the agreement, signed by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the U.N. to begin shipping Ukrainian grain through safe corridors from the Black Sea ports of Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook Saturday that "we continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports, Reuters reported. The Kyiv Independent reported that the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture said grain was expected to be exported in the next couple of days.

The U.N. secretary-general strongly condemned the reported strikes.

Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement delivered by spokesman Farhan Haq.

These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative, the statement read.

It was not clear what the U.N. or Turkey would do in response to the strike Saturday.

U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink called the strike "outrageous."

"Russia strikes the port city of Odesa less than 24 hours after signing an agreement to allow shipments of agricultural exports. The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," she said on Twitter.

Russia's defense ministry made no official comment. A Russian defense ministry statement Saturday outlining progress in the war did not mention the Odesa.

But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reposted the U.N. condemnation and said: "It is awful that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres does not 'unequivocally' condemn also the Kyiv regime's killing of children in Donbas."

Grain exports

Ukraine is a leading grain exporter, producing enough to feed 400 million people a year, but about 20 million tons of its grain has been trapped for months in silos and on ships blockaded by Russia in the Black Sea.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Kubrakov took turns at the table Friday signing the deal, known as the Black Sea Initiative. It was also signed by Turkey's defense minister and the U.N. secretary-general, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked on.

"This joint step we are taking today in Istanbul, together with Russia and Ukraine, will be a new turning point that will revive the hopes for peace, this is my sincere hope," Erdogan said Friday, adding that he hoped the "friendly and peaceful atmosphere" built on the Black Sea Initiative could eventually lead to transformative steps to end the war.

The initial agreement was set to last 120 days, but a U.N. official said it would have to continue as long as the war does.

The United Nations had been working for months with Ukrainian and Russian officials on two parallel tracks: one to lift the Russian blockade on Ukraine's southern Black Sea ports, the other to facilitate unimpeded access for Russian food and fertilizer to world markets. Russia is also a leading grain exporter and the top global fertilizer producer. Since the war, the price of fertilizer on the global market has doubled, in turn driving up the cost of crops.

Just before the public signing of the grain deal, the U.N. chief and the Russian defense minister privately signed a memorandum of understanding to address the disruptions to the trade of Russian food and fertilizer.

The deal was hailed as a breakthrough, after nearly five months of punishing fighting since Russia invaded its neighbor, and critical to curbing soaring food prices.

The deal could see Ukrainian ships begin to move again within the next few weeks.

The U.N. says 276 million people were severely food insecure before Russia's February 24 invasion; now officials project the number to be 345 million. It was expected that the deal will bring relief to millions who have been struggling with rising food prices as a result of the war.



VOAs National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Britains Defense Ministry said early Saturday that in the last 48 hours heavy fighting has been taking place as Ukrainian forces have continued their offensive against Russian forces in Kherson Oblast, west of the River Dnipro.

In the statement posted to Twitter the ministry said Russia is likely attempting to slow the Ukrainian attack using artillery fire along the natural barrier of the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro. Simultaneously, the supply lines of the Russian force west of the Dnipro are increasingly at risk."

In another development, the credit rating firms of Fitch and Scope have downgraded Ukraine to just one step above default. The move followed Ukraines request for a debt payment freeze. The rating agencies said that makes a default on the debt more likely.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has promised Ukraine a new $270 million security assistance package, which will include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.

Ukraine's military has already deployed at least eight HIMARS to the front lines in its fight against Russia, while another four are either on the ground or on their way.

The latest U.S. pledge will bring the total number of HIMARS to 16. In addition, Ukraine has deployed six medium- to long-range rocket systems from Germany and Britain.

Ukraine and Russia signed separate deals Friday, opening the way for Ukraine to export millions of tons of grain worldwide.

Ukraine, one of the worlds major breadbaskets, has been unable to export its grain because of the Russian invasion.

About 20 million tons of last year's grain harvest will be exported. And also it will be possible to sell this year's harvest, ... already being harvested, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his daily address Friday. These are the incomes of farmers, the entire agricultural sector and the state budget. These are jobs. These are funds for next year's sowing season.

Zelenskyy estimated that his country currently has approximately $10 billion worth of grain.
To this day, Flo Buffalo doesn't drink milk  not since two nuns force-fed her the sour milk she had refused at the Catholic-run Ermineskin Indian Residential School for Indigenous children that she attended in the 1960s.

Holding out her right hand, she showed how she has never been able to fully straighten it out since a nun severely beat her with a stick.

"The nuns, they were real mean," Buffalo said.

With international attention focusing on the former school in the prairie town of Maskwacis as Pope Francis visits Monday to apologize for abuses in a system designed to sever Native children from their tribal, family and religious bonds, Indigenous Canadians such as Buffalo are voicing a range of skepticism, wariness and hope.

Buffalo, a member of the Samson Cree First Nation in central Alberta, doesn't often talk about her two years at the school. But ahead of the pontiff's visit, she sat down to relate her experiences to Associated Press journalists and a small group of teen girls who are learning about the traumatic legacy of the schools.

Speaking in the council chambers of the Montana First Nation, a neighboring Cree tribe where she now works, Buffalo recalled that the nuns, who were white, beat the girls when they spoke in their native Cree instead of English.

At the same time, Buffalo, 67, said she often defied the nuns. "I scared the hell out of them, because I wouldn't put up with their ... ," she said, completing the sentence with a mischievous chuckle.

'It should be them'

Buffalo still considers herself Catholic. But she's not going to attend Monday's event with Francis  she doesn't want to deal with the crowds, and the ones she holds responsible are the nuns who abused her and never offered an apology while they were alive.

"It shouldn't be him apologizing," Buffalo said. "It should be them."

When Mavis Moberly heard the pope was coming, the news triggered some of the trauma she carries from her years at a residential school in northern Alberta. But after tears, prayers and a traditional smudging ceremony, a purification rite with scented plants, she found herself looking forward to hearing the pope's apology.

"Maybe it's going to help me to heal and to have a little bit more inner peace," she said after last Sunday's Mass at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, a Catholic parish in Edmonton oriented to Indigenous people and culture.

The papal apology is years, if not generations, in the making.

From the 19th century into much of the 20th, Canada's government collaborated with Catholic and Protestant churches to run residential schools in "an education system in name only," designed to weaken tribal identities and Indigenous resistance to land grabs, according to a 2015 report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

It identified 139 schools, the majority Catholic-run, where about 150,000 students were sent. "Children were abused, physically and sexually," the report said, adding that schools were unsanitary and unsafe facilities where thousands of children died of disease, fire and other causes.

Evidence of graves

For decades, various Catholic and Protestant church groups have offered apologies, and Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 expressed his "personal anguish."

But the painful history took on new urgency last year when surveys of former schools with ground-penetrating radar found evidence of hundreds of unmarked graves.

Pope Francis met with a Canadian Indigenous delegation this spring and apologized "for the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church" involved with the schools. He also heeded survivors' calls to make an apology on Canadian soil, leading to Monday's event where thousands of attendees are expected.

Today, the Ermineskin residential school has largely been torn down. In its place stands a newer set of school buildings, run by four Cree nations in and around Maskwacis. A large tipi in front of the secondary school demonstrates how educators are promoting pride in the once-suppressed Indigenous culture.

Rose Pipestem, a member of the Montana First Nation who is also a survivor of the Ermineskin school, said she will try to see the pope. But like Buffalo, she believes the perpetrators should have apologized.

"I'm going to go see him," she said, sitting in the council chambers near a line of photos of past Montana chiefs. "I'm not mad at him."

Pipestem doesn't have conscious memories of abuse at the school, where she lived from age 3 after her mother died. But a classmate told her years later that a nun had beaten her until she bled because she wasn't doing her work on the blackboard fast enough.

"It just shocked me," she said through tears.

It 'made me stronger'

Pipestem did not file a claim for compensation because she can't recall the incident. But she knows there was abuse at the school.

"I'm always grateful I'm still around," she said. "I think it kind of made me stronger." She reached a point where "I didn't believe in the Catholic religion. Why did they allow all these things to happen?"

Other survivors have found spiritual solace in Catholicism.

On Sunday, worshipers crowded into Sacred Heart for the rededication of the sanctuary after a fire. The newly restored space features large wooden beams in the shape of a tipi over the altar and evocative images of Jesus and his followers portrayed with Indigenous features.

Drummers accompanied a procession into the church, followed by a multicultural mix of musical styles and a liturgy in English and Cree.

"This church has been a part of my healing journey," said Moberly, who has been attending for many years.

Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith said the pope's visit sends a message not only with words but with action, since he's coming to Canada even as he has canceled other trips because of health problems.

"This is showing ... how important it is for him to demonstrate personally his personal closeness to the Indigenous peoples," Smith said.
Iran's nuclear program is "galloping ahead" and the International Atomic Energy Agency has very limited visibility into what is happening, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told Spain's El Pais newspaper in an interview published Friday.

In June, Iran began removing essentially all of the agency's monitoring equipment, which had been installed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Grossi said at the time this could deal a "fatal blow" to the chances of reviving the deal following the pullout by the United States in 2018.

"The bottom line is that for almost five weeks I have had very limited visibility, with a nuclear program that is galloping ahead and, therefore, if there is an agreement, it is going to be very difficult for me to reconstruct the puzzle of this whole period of forced blindness," Grossi told El Pais.

"It is not impossible, but it is going to require a very complex task and perhaps some specific agreements," said Grossi, who was visiting Madrid.

In June, Grossi said there was a window of just three to four weeks to restore at least some of the monitoring that was being scrapped before the IAEA lost the ability to understand Iran's most important nuclear activities.

Iran has breached many of the deal's limits on its nuclear activities since then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018. It is enriching uranium to close to weapons-grade.

Western powers warn Iran is getting closer to being able to sprint toward making a nuclear bomb. Iran denies wanting to.

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 deal have been stalled since March.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was quoted on Friday as saying his country and the United States were very close to a deal to revive the 2015 accord, but that Tehran needed U.S. guarantees to avoid being "bitten twice."

"We have a ready text in front of us and we agree on more than 95 to 96 percent of its content, but there's still an important flaw in this text: we need to get the full economic benefits of the agreement. We don't want to be bitten twice," Iranian media quoted Amirabdollahian as saying.

Grossi said he was concerned and worried about the weeks with no visibility.

"The agency needed to reconstruct a database, without which any agreement will rest on a very fragile basis, because if we don't know what's there, how can we determine how much material to export, how many centrifuges to leave unused," he said.

Asked about a Reuters report that Iran was escalating its uranium enrichment further with the use of advanced machines at its underground Fordow plant, Grossi said "the technical progress of the Iranian program is steady."
The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established.

Experts don't agree on the likely path of the disease, with some fearing that it is becoming so widespread that it is on the verge of becoming an entrenched STD  like gonorrhea, herpes and HIV.

But no one's really sure, and some say testing and vaccines can still stop the outbreak from taking root.

So far, more than 2,400 U.S. cases have been reported as part of an international outbreak that emerged two months ago.

Health officials are not sure how fast the virus has spread. They have only limited information about people who have been diagnosed, and they don't know how many infected people might be spreading it unknowingly.

They also don't know how well vaccines and treatments are working. One impediment: Federal health officials do not have the authority to collect and connect data on who has been infected and who has been vaccinated.

With such huge question marks, predictions about how big the U.S. outbreak will get this summer vary widely, from 13,000 to perhaps more than 10 times that number.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the government's response is growing stronger every day and vaccine supplies will soon surge.

"I think we still have an opportunity to contain this," Walensky told The Associated Press.

Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. It does not usually spread easily among people.

But this year more than 15,000 cases have been reported in countries that historically don't see the disease. In the U.S. and Europe, the vast majority of infections have happened in men who have sex with men, though health officials have stressed that anyone can catch the virus.

It spreads mainly through skin-to-skin contact, but it can also be transmitted through linens used by someone with monkeypox. Although it's been moving through the population like a sexually transmitted disease, officials have been watching for other types of spread that could expand the outbreak.

Symptoms include fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and bumps on parts of the body. The illness has been relatively mild in many men, and no one has died in the U.S. But people can be contagious for weeks, and the lesions can be extremely painful.

When monkeypox emerged, there was reason to believe that public health officials could control it.

The tell-tale bumps should have made infections easy to identify. And because the virus spreads through close personal contact, officials thought they could reliably trace its spread by interviewing infected people and asking who they had been intimate with.

It didn't turn out to be that easy.

With monkeypox so rare in the U.S., many infected men  and their doctors  may have attributed their rashes to some other cause.

Contact tracing was often stymied by infected men who said they did not know the names of all the people they had sex with. Some reported having multiple sexual interactions with strangers.

It didn't help that local health departments, already burdened with COVID-19 and scores of other diseases, now had to find the resources to do intensive contact-tracing work on monkeypox, too.

Indeed, some local health officials have given up expecting much from contact tracing.

There was another reason to be optimistic: The U.S. government already had a vaccine. The two-dose regimen called Jynneos was licensed in the U.S. in 2019 and recommended last year as a tool against monkeypox.

When the outbreak was first identified in May, U.S. officials had only about 2,000 doses available. The government distributed them but limited the shots to people who were identified through public health investigations as being recently exposed to the virus.

Late last month, as more doses became available, the CDC began recommending that shots be offered to those who realize on their own that they could have been infected.

Demand has exceeded supply, with clinics in some cities rapidly running out of vaccine doses and health officials across the country saying said they don't have enough.

That's changing, Walensky said. As of this week, the government has distributed more than 191,000 doses, and it has 160,000 more ready to send. As many as 780,000 doses will become available as early as next week.

Once current demand is satisfied, the government will look at expanding vaccination efforts.

The CDC believes that 1.5 million U.S. men are considered at high risk for the infection.

Testing has also expanded. More than 70,000 people can be tested each week, far more than current demand, Walensky said. The government has also embarked on a campaign to educate doctors and gay and bisexual men about the disease, she added.

Donal Bisanzio, a researcher at RTI International, believes U.S. health officials will be able to contain the outbreak before it becomes endemic.

But he also said that won't be the end of it. New bursts of cases will probably emerge as Americans become infected by people in other countries where monkeypox keeps circulating.

Walensky agrees that such a scenario is likely. "If it's not contained all over the world, we are always at risk of having flare-ups" from travelers, she said.

Shawn Kiernan, of the Fairfax County Health Department in Virginia, said there is reason to be tentatively optimistic because so far the outbreak is concentrated in one group of people  men who have sex with men.

Spread of the virus into heterosexual people would be a "tipping point" that may occur before it's widely recognized, said Kiernan, chief of the department's communicable disease section.

Spillover into heterosexuals is just a matter of time, said Dr. Edward Hook III, emeritus professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

If monkeypox becomes an endemic sexually transmitted disease, it will be yet another challenge for health departments and doctors already struggling to keep up with existing STDs.

Such work has long been underfunded and understaffed, and a lot of it was simply put on hold during the pandemic. Kiernan said HIV and syphilis were prioritized, but work on common infections like chlamydia and gonorrhea amounted to "counting cases and that's about it."

For years, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis cases have been rising.

"By and large," Hook said, doctors "do a crummy job of taking sexual histories, of inquiring about and acknowledging their patients are sexual beings."
As a result of shelling on Saturday morning, July 23, at least one person was injured in the center of Kharkiv, city mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

"Several strong attacks in the center area. So far, one victim is known. I hope this figure does not increase. The State Emergency Service is already working," he said on Telegram.
Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week:

Haaland not hindered by leg injury

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, is recovering from an injury she incurred while hiking in Virginias Shenandoah National Park on Sunday.

An Interior Department statement released Monday said she had been treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a broken tibia of her left leg. That didnt stop her from returning to work Monday when she hosted tribal and Native Hawaiian community leaders as part of the administrations Tribal Homelands Initiative.

Through that initiative, announced in November 2021, the Interior and Agriculture departments will partner with Native communities to give them greater say in how federal lands and waters are managed. According to an Interior Department press release, the group also discussed the impact of climate change in Indigenous communities, as well as ways that Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) can inform federal policymaking.

Statement from the Department of Interior 7/18/2022

This image contains sensitive content which some people may find offensive or disturbing. Click to reveal This image contains sensitive content which some people may find offensive or disturbing - Click to reveal Army contractors gathering the bodies of the victims of the Wounded Knee massacre, January 1891.

Tribes fight to have Wounded Knee artifacts returned

The Washington Post reported this week on efforts by descendants of victims and survivors of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre to reclaim artifacts stolen from the graves of their ancestors and held for 130 years by the Barre Museum in Barre, Massachusetts.

The massacre occurred at a time when the government believed Plains tribes were plotting rebellion against their confinement on reservations. After tribal police killed Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull on the Standing Rock Reservation, his ally, Minneconjou Lakota leader Spotted Elk, fled south to the Pine Ridge Reservation with about 350 Lakota men, women and children.

The Army intercepted the travelers, who made camp along Wounded Knee Creek at Pine Ridge. On December 29, as the Army attempted to disarm the Indians, a shot rang out, triggering an Army attack that left as many as 300 Native Americans dead.

Soldiers and civilian contractors buried the dead in a mass grave. Many took souvenirs of clothing, weapons and hair, which made their way into museums and roadshows across the country.

A traveling salesman donated some of the items to the Barre Museum in 1892; the museum has been reluctant to give them up.

In 1993, a Barre Museum curator told The New York Times that museum officials feared repatriating the objects would rip a page out of history and bury it.

Native Americans fight for items looted from bodies at Wounded Knee

CDC reports increase in drug overdoses among Black and Native Americans

A new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2020, Black Americans and American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) died from drug overdoses at a much higher rate than white Americans. In just one year, overdose death rates increased 44% for Black people and 39% for AI/AN people. The drug overdose death rate for white Americans rose 22%.

The report says these deaths are being driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which widened income inequalities and disrupted access to drug abuse prevention and treatment and recovery programs.

Overdose deaths are being driven by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and other illegally manufactured opioids.

Overall, 92,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2020, up 30% from 2019.

The study stressed an urgent need for culturally responsive, community-based prevention and treatment services, as well as medication such as naloxone, and access to harm-reduction services, including fentanyl test strips and syringes.

Vital Signs: Drug Overdose Deaths, by Selected Sociodemographic and Social Determinants of Health Characteristics  25 States and the District of Columbia, 20192020

Freedmen want greater voice in Senate committee hearing

Leaders of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs have invited representatives of the Five Tribes to testify at a July 27 hearing on the status of their Freedmen, the lineal descendants of enslaved African Americans who in the early 1800s accompanied their Native American slaveholders along the Trail of Tears to present-day Oklahoma.

As VOA reported in 2021, the Five Tribes signed treaties in 1866 agreeing to abolish slavery and give the Freedmen all the rights and privileges of native citizens.

But Freedmen descendants in four of the Five Tribes are not permitted to vote or run for office in tribal elections and are denied federal housing, health and education benefits.

Freedmen advocates complain they were the last to know about the hearing.

The Tribes knew about it two or three weeks before we did, according to Eli Grayson, a descendant of Muscogee Creek Black Freedmen.

He told VOA that only one Freedmen spokesperson was invited to testify: Cherokee citizen Marilyn Vann, president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association.

According to the Committees invitation, dated July 20, which Grayson posted on Facebook, Vann will be given five minutes to speak about the plight of Freedmen in all Five Tribes and must submit written testimony by July 25.

It sounds to me like they want to talk to the Tribes and not to Freedmen, said Grayson, who said three tribal leaders have so far accepted invitations to speak.

VOA reached out to a panel spokesman, who said it isnt known who will attend.

When we do know, we will post it on the committee website, he said.

Five Tribes to testify at Freedmen hearing in U.S. Senate

Pope Francis to make penitential pilgrimage to Canada

Addressing crowds gathered in St. Peters Square on July 17, Pope Francis characterized his upcoming trip to Canada as a penitential pilgrimage.

Francis will travel to Canada on July 24, where he is expected to apologize for the abuses against Indigenous peoples in Catholic residential schools.

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 Native communities in various ways, the pope said. For this reason, I recently received some groups in the Vatican, representatives of Indigenous peoples, to whom I expressed my sorrow and solidarity for the harm they have suffered. And now, I am about to embark on a penitential pilgrimage, which I hope, with God's grace, will contribute to the journey of healing and reconciliation already undertaken.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, when Francis arrives in Edmonton, Alberta, he will not be greeted by political leaders but by First Nations elders and survivors of residential schools. From Alberta, he will travel to French-speaking Quebec City and Iqaluit, in the Arctic Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Earlier this year, from March 28 to April 1, Francis met with First Nations, Metis and Inuit delegations at the Vatican, and after hearing their testimony, he expressed pain and shame for the abuses they suffered at the hands of Catholic Church leaders.

The Popes words at the Angelus prayer, 17.07.2022

NDN Collective calls on Washington

Representatives from the South Dakota-based Indigenous-led NDN Collective were in Washington this week for talks with administration officials, lawmakers and federal agency leaders to discuss ways in which Indigenous communities can have a greater say in how public land is managed.

Weve heard commitments and recommitments to support bills  such as the Advancing Tribal Parity on Public Land Act and the Environmental Justice for All Act  that protect our sacred sites and double-down on consent and consultation in issues that will directly affect Tribal people and our communities, a spokesman for the group told VOA via email.

On Wednesday, the group called on President Joe Biden to take bold action on climate by declaring a climate emergency and listening to decades long calls to put an end to the era of fossil fuel extraction on our public lands.

NDN Collective was founded in 2018 in Rapid City, South Dakota, with a stated mission to Defend. Develop. Decolonize. In 2020, the group received $12 million from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezoss Earth Fund. In March, the group filed a lawsuit against a Rapid City hotel owner and called for a citywide boycott of businesses with racist policies and practices.
Pope Francis' trip to Canada to apologize for the horrors of church-run Indigenous residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Church's missionary legacy, spurred on by the first pope from the Americas and the discovery of hundreds of probable graves at the school sites.

Francis has said his weeklong visit, which begins Sunday, is a "penitential pilgrimage" to beg forgiveness on Canadian soil for the "evil" done to Native peoples by Catholic missionaries. It follows his April 1 apology in the Vatican for the generations of trauma Indigenous peoples suffered as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate their culture and assimilate them into Canadian, Christian society.

Francis' tone of personal repentance has signaled a notable shift for the papacy, which has long acknowledged abuses in the residential schools and strongly asserted the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples. But past popes have also hailed the sacrifice and holiness of the European Catholic missionaries who brought Christianity to the Americas  something Francis, too, has done but isn't expected to emphasize during this trip.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit who is a top papal adviser, recalled that early on in his papacy, Francis asserted that no single culture can claim a hold on Christianity, and that the church cannot demand that people on other continents imitate the European way of expressing the faith.

"If this conviction had been accepted by everyone involved in the centuries after the 'discovery' of the Americas, much suffering would have been avoided, great developments would have occurred and the Americas would be all-around better," he told The Associated Press in an email.

The trip won't be easy for the 85-year-old Francis or for residential school survivors and their families. Francis can no longer walk without assistance and will be using a wheelchair and cane because of painful strained knee ligaments. Trauma experts are being deployed at all events to provide mental health assistance for school survivors, given the likelihood of triggering memories.

"It is an understatement to say there are mixed emotions," said Chief Desmond Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe, one of the First Nations that are part of the Maskwacis territory where Francis will deliver his first sweeping apology on Monday near the site of a former residential school.

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded, Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. Some 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes, Native languages and cultures.

The legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.

"For survivors from coast to coast, this is an opportunity  the first and maybe the last  to perhaps find some closure for themselves and their families," said Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin Cree Nation.

"This will be a difficult process but a necessary one," he said.

Unlike most papal trips, diplomatic protocols are taking a back seat to personal encounters with First Nations, Metis and Inuit survivors. Francis doesn't formally meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until midway through, in Quebec City, although Trudeau will greet him on the tarmac upon his arrival Sunday.

Francis is also ending the trip in unusual style, stopping in Iqaluit, Nunavut  the farthest north he's ever traveled  to bring his apology to the Inuit community before flying back to Rome.

As recently as 2018, Francis had refused to personally apologize for residential school abuses, even after Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 documented institutional blame and specifically recommended a papal apology delivered on Canadian soil.

Trudeau traveled to the Vatican in 2017 to appeal to Francis to apologize, but the pontiff felt "he could not personally respond" to the call, Canadian bishops said at the time.

What changed? The first pope from the Americas, who has long defended the rights of Indigenous peoples, had already apologized in Bolivia in 2015 for colonial-era crimes against Native peoples.

In 2019, Francis  an Argentine Jesuit  hosted a big Vatican conference on the Amazon highlighting that injustices Native peoples suffered during colonial times were still continuing, with their lands and resources exploited by corporate interests.

Then in 2021, the remains of around 200 children were found at the site of what was once Canada's largest Indigenous residential school, in Kamloops, British Columbia. More probable graves followed outside other former residential schools.

"It was only when our children were beginning to be found in mass graves, garnering international attention, that light was brought to this painful period in our history," said Bull, the Louis Bull Tribe chief.

After the discovery, Francis finally agreed to meet with Indigenous delegations last spring and promised to come to their lands to apologize in person.

"Obviously, there are wounds that remained open and require a response," Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said, when asked about the evolution of the papal response.

One of those wounds concerns the papal influences in the Doctrine of Discovery, the 19th-century international legal concept that is often understood as legitimizing the European colonial seizure of land and resources from Native peoples.

For decades, Indigenous peoples have demanded the Holy See formally rescind the 15th century papal bulls, or decrees, that gave European kingdoms the religious backing to claim lands that their explorers "discovered" for the sake of spreading the Christian faith.

Church officials have long rejected those concepts, insisted the decrees merely sought to ensure European expansion would be peaceful, and said they had been surpassed by subsequent church teachings strongly affirming the dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples.

But the matter is still raw for Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation Wolf Clan, who was the last person to address the pope when the First Nations delegation met with him on March 31.

Wearing a cradle board on her back to represent the children whose lives were lost in residential schools, she told him the Doctrine of Discovery had "led to the continual taking of our babies."

"It deprived us of our dignity, our freedom, and led to the exploitation of our Mother Earth," she said. She begged Francis to "release the world from its place of enslavement" caused by the decrees.

Asked about the calls, Bruni said there was an articulated "reflection" under way in the Holy See but he didn't think anything would be announced during this trip.
Russian missiles struck infrastructure in Ukraine's port of Odesa Saturday, one day after Russia and Ukraine signed U.N.-backed agreements to reopen Black Sea ports to resume grain exports.

"The enemy attacked the Odesa sea trade port with Kalibr cruise missiles; 2 missiles were shot down by air defense forces; 2 hit the infrastructure of the port," Ukraines Operational Command South wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraines Ministry of Agriculture confirmed there was grain stored at the port at the time of the attack, the Kyiv Independent reported. The grain was expected to be exported in the next couple of days, according to the ministry's comment.



Ukraines Foreign Ministry said that Russia would bear full responsibility for deepening the global food crisis if the deal collapsed.



It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesas port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the UN and Turkiye under the Istanbul agreement," Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Twitter. In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for global food crisis.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian strike on Odesa demonstrates that Moscow will find ways not to implement the grain deal struck with the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine.

"This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it," Zelenskyy said in a video posted on Telegram.

The U.N. Secretary-General strongly condemned the reported strikes.



Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement delivered by spokesman Farhan Haq.



These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative."

U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink called the strike "outrageous."

"Russia strikes the port city of Odesa less than 24 hours after signing an agreement to allow shipments of agricultural exports. The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," she said on Twitter.

Russia's defense ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the attack.



Grain exports

Ukraine is a leading grain exporter, producing enough to feed 400 million people a year, but about 20 million tons of its grain has been trapped for months in silos and on ships blockaded by Russia in the Black Sea.

Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and Ukraine's infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, took turns at the table Friday signing the deal, known as the Black Sea Initiative. It was also signed by Turkey's defense minister and the U.N. secretary-general, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked on.

"This joint step we are taking today in Istanbul, together with Russia and Ukraine, will be a new turning point that will revive the hopes for peace, this is my sincere hope," Erdogan said Friday, adding that he hoped the "friendly and peaceful atmosphere" built on the Black Sea Initiative could eventually lead to transformative steps to end the war.

The initial agreement was set to last 120 days, but a U.N. official said it would have to continue as long as the war does.

The United Nations had been working for months with Ukrainian and Russian officials on two parallel tracks: one to lift the Russian blockade on Ukraine's southern Black Sea ports, the other to facilitate unimpeded access for Russian food and fertilizer to world markets. Russia is also a leading grain exporter and the top global fertilizer producer. Since the war, the price of fertilizer on the global market has doubled, in turn driving up the cost of crops.

Just before the public signing of the grain deal, the U.N. chief and the Russian defense minister privately signed a memorandum of understanding to address the disruptions to the trade of Russian food and fertilizer.

The deal was hailed as a breakthrough, after nearly five months of punishing fighting since Russia invaded its neighbor, and critical to curbing soaring food prices.

The deal could see Ukrainian ships begin to move again within the next few weeks.

The U.N. says 276 million people were severely food insecure before Russia's February 24 invasion; now officials project the number to be 345 million. It was expected that the deal will bring relief to millions who have been struggling with rising food prices as a result of the war.

Terms of the deal

Ukraine will continue as it did before the war to handle the internal logistics of getting its grain from its fields and silos to the ports.

Ukraine has mined its territorial waters, and under the deal, it will help guide commercial cargo ships carrying its grain through "safe corridors," which, a U.N. official said, is a faster solution than the months it could take to de-mine the waters.

The official said cargo ships will be inspected as they enter Ukrainian ports to be sure they are not bringing in any weapons shipments, as well as when they exit, by teams of Ukrainian, Russian and Turkish monitors, who will be part of an Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center.

Turkey plays an important role in the operation, as the ships will pass from the Black Sea out through the Bosphorus.

Both parties have pledged not to attack any ships that have been identified as sailing under the deal through the safe corridors. The U.N. official said if there is an incident, it would fall to the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) to resolve it. The official said the JCC would be the "heartbeat" of the operation.

The package deal helps Russia overcome obstacles for the sale of its fertilizer and food products. While U.S. and European sanctions on Moscow do not include those exports, the private sector has been hesitant to work with the Russians, fearful of running afoul of the sanctions.

The U.N. will now set up a team to follow up and coordinate with countries and the private sector.

"This task team will be focused on addressing the disruptions to the food and fertilizer trade largely due to the de-risking and overcompliance of the private sector, particularly in the sectors of finance, insurance and logistics," U.N. Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. He said this effort is fully coordinated with the grain initiative.

The Americans contend that Moscow is holding back its exports on purpose as part of its disinformation campaign about Western sanctions.

"When in fact there are no sanctions on their agricultural products, there are no sanctions on their fertilizer," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Congress this week. "They can move their agricultural products; they can move their wheat if they wanted to do it. But they would prefer to blame the rest of the world, thinking that that will get them more support from the world, and I think they have failed."

Reaction

"We welcome this deal and hope it will help mitigate the crisis Russia has caused," Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said in tweet Friday. "But we will be watching closely to ensure that Russia actually follows through on its commitments."

The White House was equally cautious.

Success, of course, is going to depend on Russia's compliance with this arrangement and actually implementing its commitments, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters Friday.

Were clear-eyed about it, he said. Weve just sadly come to see in many instances throughout the last five months, as well as even in other places, Russias word is never good enough on its face.

Ukraines foreign minister, Dmytro Kulebo, who welcomed the agreement, said in a tweet Friday that he would "count on the UN to ensure proper implementation."

The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, welcomed the agreement and urged the Kremlin to implement it.

"The UK and our allies have been pushing hard to reach this point. Now this agreement must be implemented, and we will be watching to ensure Russia's actions match its words," Truss said in a statement. "To enable a lasting return to global security and economic stability, Putin must end the war and withdraw from Ukraine."

Aid organizations also welcomed the deal, but said it is only one part of solving the growing global food crisis.

"If respected and enacted in good faith, today's deal to protect Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea will help ease grain shortages, but let's be clear  this will not end or significantly alter the trajectory of the worsening global food crisis," Mercy Corps Chief Executive Tjada D'Oyen McKenna said in a statement.

"A deal that allows grain to leave Black Sea ports is nothing short of life-saving for people across the world who are struggling to feed their families," said International Committee of the Red Cross Director-General Robert Mardini, but he noted that efforts must continue to tame skyrocketing food prices in places like Sudan where they have shot up 187% in the past six months.

VOAs Jeff Seldin and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report from Washington.
Judges at the United Nations' highest court on Friday dismissed preliminary objections by Myanmar to a case alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority.

The decision establishing the International Court of Justice's jurisdiction sets the stage for hearings airing evidence of atrocities against the Rohingya that human rights groups and a U.N. probe say breach the 1948 Genocide Convention. In March, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the violent repression of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma, amounts to genocide.

Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK, welcomed the decision, saying 600,000 Rohingya "are still facing genocide," while "1 million people in Bangladesh camps, they are waiting for a hope for justice."

The African nation of Gambia filed the case in 2019 amid international outrage at the treatment of the Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom fled to neighboring Bangladesh amid a brutal crackdown by Myanmar forces in 2017. It argued that both Gambia and Myanmar were parties to the 1948 convention and that all signatories had a duty to ensure it was enforced.

Judges at the court agreed.

Reading a summary of the decision, the court's president, U.S. Judge Joan E. Donoghue, said: "Any state party to the Genocide Convention may invoke the responsibility of another state party including through the institution of proceedings before the court."

A small group of pro-Rohingya protesters gathered outside the court's headquarters, the Peace Palace, ahead of the decision with a banner reading: "Speed up delivering justice to Rohingya. The genocide survivors can't wait for generations."

One protester stamped on a large photograph of Myanmar's military government leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The court rejected arguments raised at hearings in February by lawyers representing Myanmar that the case should be tossed out because the world court only rules in disputes between states and the Rohingya complaint was brought by Gambia on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The judges also dismissed Myanmar's claim that Gambia could not file the case as it was not directly linked to the events in Myanmar and that a legal dispute did not exist between the two countries before the case was filed.

Myanmar's representative, Ko Ko Hlaing, the military government's minister for international cooperation, said his nation "will try our utmost to defend our country and to protect our national interest."

Gambia's attorney general and justice minister, Dawda Jallow, said, "We are very pleased that justice has been done."

The Netherlands and Canada have backed Gambia, saying in 2020 that the country "took a laudable step towards ending impunity for those committing atrocities in Myanmar and upholding this pledge. Canada and the Netherlands consider it our obligation to support these efforts, which are of concern to all of humanity."

However, the court ruled Friday that it "would not be appropriate" to send the two countries copies of documents and legal arguments filed in the case.

Myanmar's military launched what it called a clearance campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 in the aftermath of an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of Rohingya homes.

In 2019, lawyers representing Gambia at the court outlined their allegations of genocide by showing judges maps, satellite images and graphic photos of the military campaign. That led the court to order Myanmar to do all it can to prevent genocide against the Rohingya. The interim ruling was intended to protect the minority while the case is decided in The Hague, a process likely to take years.

The International Court of Justice rules on disputes between states. It is not linked to the International Criminal Court (ICC), also based in The Hague, which holds individuals accountable for atrocities. Prosecutors at the ICC are investigating crimes committed against the Rohingya who were forced to flee to Bangladesh.
The Department of Justice announced Friday that it was launching an environmental justice investigation into Houston, Texas, concerning illegal dumping, including bodies and medical waste, that officials say is fouling the city's Black and Latino neighborhoods.

The investigation, led by the Civil Rights Division, "will examine whether the City responds to requests for municipal services, including in response to illegal dumping, in a manner that discriminates against Black and Latino Houston residents in violation of federal civil rights laws," the department said in a press release.

At a news conference Friday, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division outlined the severity of illegal dumping: "Illegal dumpsites not only attract rodents, mosquitos and other vermin that pose health risks, but they can also contaminate surface water and impact proper drainage, making areas more susceptible to flooding."

Other items dumped in the neighborhoods include mattresses, appliances, furniture, tires and even vandalized ATMs, Clarke said.

"Illegal dumpsites can raise significant concerns regarding public health and safety, property values, and quality of life," said Jennifer Lowery, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. "We look forward to working with the Civil Rights Division to ensure the city of Houston is in compliance with its federal civil rights obligations."

The Office of Environmental Justice was created in May. Its focus, according to The Associated Press, is "fence-line communities" in cities that have been exposed to pollutants from industrial sites.

"This investigation exemplifies the department's commitment to alleviating disproportionate environmental burdens borne all too often by communities of color, low-income communities and tribal communities," said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department's environment and natural resources division.
The United States will send Ukraine more precision rocket systems along with hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery shells, part of a new security assistance package unveiled Friday aimed at giving Kyiv an upper hand in what Western military officials describe as a grinding war of attrition with Russia.

The highlight of the $270 million U.S. pledge, the 16th since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, is the addition of four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, each with a range of about 70 kilometers, which U.S. officials credit for helping to stymie Russia's advance in the Donbas.

"We're seeing Ukraine employing very precise, very accurate targeting of critical Russian positions," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Friday, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set out by the Pentagon.

"They're [Russia] paying a high price for every inch of territory they try to take or hold."

Ukraine's military has deployed at least eight HIMARS to the front lines in its fight with Russian forces, while another four are either on the ground or on their way.

The latest U.S. pledge will bring the total number of HIMARS to 16. In addition, Ukraine has deployed six medium- to long-range rocket systems from Germany and Britain.

Russia's Defense Ministry earlier Friday said it had destroyed four of the U.S.-made HIMARS in recent fighting. But U.S. and Ukrainian officials quickly rejected the claims as nonsense, though not for a lack of Russian efforts.

"They're probably the most hunted things in all of Ukraine," according to a senior U.S. military official, who, like the U.S. defense official, also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"This speaks to the exceptional abilities of the Ukrainians," the military official added. "The ability for these men and women to shoot, move and stay alive is just exceptional."

U.S. intelligence estimates suggest Ukrainian forces have used the HIMARS to take out more than 100 "high-value" Russian targets, and that nearly a month after the first HIMARS were introduced on the battlefield, Russian forces have struggled to find an answer.

"The Russians are attempting to mitigate those effects through a number of means  camouflage, movement, changing locations, the senior U.S. military official said. "It doesn't seem to be that good."

Contrary to U.S. and other Western assessments, Russia's Ministry of Defense on Friday insisted on its Telegram feed that Ukraine "is suffering considerable losses of armament."

And Russian officials continue to express confidence that Ukraine's forces will eventually succumb.

'Peace  on our terms'

"Russia will achieve all its goals. There will be peace  on our terms," former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now chief of the Kremlin's Security Council, said earlier this week.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov likewise threatened that Russia would expand the scope of its so-called special operation in Ukraine if the West continued to arm Ukraine's forces.

Increasingly, Western officials are downplaying such threats as fanciful thinking.

"I think they're about to run out of steam," Richard Moore, the chief of Britain's MI6 intelligence service, told an audience Thursday at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado.

At the same forum on Friday, Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said Russian troops in Ukraine are facing "significant difficulties" as they attempt to muster the type of force needed to make meaningful gains.

And all indications are that more U.S. security assistance will be coming.

"It is our strategic objective to ensure that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not a strategic success for [President Vladimir] Putin, that it is a strategic failure," Sullivan said. "That means both that he be denied his objectives in Ukraine and that Russia pay a longer-term price in terms of the elements of its national power, so that the lesson that goes forth to would-be aggressors elsewhere is if you try things like this, it comes at a cost that is not worth bearing."

In addition to the HIMARS, the security package announced Friday includes more rockets, 360,000 rounds of artillery and anti-armor systems, all slated for immediate delivery.

A second part of the package, up to 580 Phoenix Ghost drones, will start arriving next month.

U.S. officials said Ukrainian forces had used a previous shipment of more than 100 of the drones to great effect against Russia's armored vehicles, and the goal is now to make sure Ukraine has a "steady supply."

US-made jets

The U.S. is also looking at eventually providing Ukraine with U.S.-made fighter jets, possibly to replace Soviet-era MiGs and Sukhoi jets that Ukraine is currently using.

"This is not something that's going to happen anytime soon," John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters Friday, describing the discussions as "preliminary explorations."

"Integrating and operating any kind of aircraft, especially an advanced fighter aircraft  that's a difficult endeavor," Kirby said.

Despite repeated requests from Kyiv, U.S. officials said they will not provide Ukraine with the Army Tactical Missile Systems, with a 300-kilometer range and the ability to reach deep into Russian territory.

"While a key goal of the United States is to do the needful to support and defend Ukraine, another key goal is to ensure that we do not end up in a circumstance where we're heading down the road towards a third world war," Sullivan said.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Here's a summary of Uyghur-related news around the world:

Xi signals no change to Uyghur policy in Xinjiang

On a visit this week to China's Xinjiang region, President Xi Jinping showed no sign of rolling back policies that the U.S. and many European countries have described as a cultural genocide of predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities. During an official "inspection tour," Xi said that efforts should be renewed to ensure that Islam in China is "Chinese in orientation" and that practitioners of faith are united closely with the Communist Party. Xi also called for educating and guiding members of all ethnic groups to identify with the Chinese nation, culture and Communist Party.

Imprisoned Uyghur intellectuals communicate plight through poems

Some Uyghur intellectuals held in Chinese prisons are writing poetry about the Chinese government's increased repression against Uyghurs.

Kazakh woman struggles to resettle after arbitrary detention in China

A Kazakh businesswoman from Jeminay in the Xinjiang region of China is struggling to resettle in her ancestral homeland of Kazakhstan after having been detained for 18 months in a Xinjiang internment camp. Chinese authorities have been accused of arbitrarily detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic Turks in a network of such facilities.

US allies leaning toward banning products made by Uyghur forced labor

A U.S. official said that allies in Europe and North America are moving to ban Uyghur forced labor products coming from China.

China lobbies against release of UN Uyghur report

In a letter, China is urging U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet not to release a report on human rights violations in Xinjiang. During her visit to China in May, Bachelet was accused of being soft on China regarding its Uyghur policy. She plans to step down from her post at the end of August.

In brief

Xi's visit to Xinjiang and his speeches signal new measures to assimilate local Turkic ethnic groups such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kirghiz into a Han-Chinese-centric identity. According to experts, Xi's second visit to the Uyghur region as president is the start of a new era for cultural and ethnic eradication of local ethnic groups.

Quote of note

Where the words are banned to be said

The flowers are not allowed to blossom

And the birds cannot sing freely

 Gulnisa Imin, a Uyghur-literature teacher and an acclaimed poet who was among the roughly 1 million Uyghurs sent to China's internment camps in 2018. A year later, she was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, according to The Atlantic.
The World Health Organization said Friday it has updated its global COVID-19 vaccine strategy to prioritize reaching those most at risk from the disease.

The World Health Organization has not achieved its goal of vaccinating 70% of each countrys population against COVID-19 by mid-year but has not abandoned the quest. Indeed, it sees protecting the highest-risk populations with the vaccine as being in line with efforts to reach the 70% target.

WHO says the pandemic is far from over, noting the global weekly number of reported cases of COVID-19 has almost doubled in the past six weeks.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says deaths also are increasing, but not as rapidly as cases. However, he warns more cases mean more hospitalizations, and that more deaths can be expected in the coming weeks.

Our current vaccines remain highly effective against severe diseases and death. The focus in every country must be to vaccinate all health workers, all older people, and all people at greatest risk. We will need more vaccines that are better at protecting against infection, said Tedros.

The strategy update calls for vaccinating 100% of health care workers and 100% of the highest-risk populations, such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. It says they should receive both primary vaccines and booster doses.

The U.N. health agency says more effort must be made to reach high-risk populations in poorer countries, too many of whom were missed during the global COVID-19 vaccination rollout. It says more than 12 billion doses have been administered worldwide. Yet, it reports only 28% of older populations and 37% of health care workers in poorer countries have been vaccinated, and most have not received booster shots.

Tedros says the coronavirus keeps evolving and vaccines will have to be developed to keep pace with the new variants. He warns the global recovery from the pandemic will be at risk if poor populations continue to be overlooked.

And if and when we get those vaccines, we cannot afford the same horrific inequity that stained the rollout of vaccines last year, Tedros said.

He says vaccinating all those at the most risk is the single best way to save lives, protect health systems and keep societies and economies open.
As the war in Ukraine approaches the end of its fifth month and Russian attacks on civilian sites are reported on a near-daily basis, pressure is mounting on the Biden administration to officially designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

This week, according to reporting by Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that if he does not exercise the power delegated to him by Congress to make the designation, lawmakers themselves will do so.

Russia is already under crippling sanctions, imposed by the U.S. and a host of other countries, but official designation as a state sponsor of terrorism would up the ante in some significant ways. Where the international components of current sanctions have been carefully coordinated, the state sponsor of terrorism designation could trigger a stricter regime of penalties that could apply to third-country parties doing business with Russian individuals and companies.

In addition, the designation would waive Russias sovereign immunity in the U.S., opening the door for Americans harmed by the war in Ukraine to file civil lawsuits against the Russian government in U.S. courts.

Administration reluctant

Pelosi is the most senior lawmaker to advocate for the administration to take action, but she is not the first. Earlier this month, Senators Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, traveled to Kyiv to highlight legislation they introduced in May that would make the designation official.

A bill with the same aim was introduced in the House by Representatives Joe Wilson, a Republican, and Ted Lieu, a Democrat.

However, the Biden administration has appeared reluctant to take that step. In the past, a State Department spokesperson has said that the existing regimen of sanctions is sufficient to achieve the administrations purposes.

Also, the state sponsor of terrorism designation would trigger secondary sanctions that the U.S. would have to apply to individuals and countries outside the U.S. who do business with Russia. Such a designation could complicate efforts to hold together a broad coalition of countries that are putting pressure on Russia to halt its aggression in Ukraine.

A potential new precedent

John Herbst, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003-06, told VOA that, in his mind, there is little doubt that Russia has met the requirements to be designated a sponsor of terrorism.

I believe that violence directed at civilians for political aims is one of the definitions of terrorism, said Herbst, now the senior director of the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center. If that's right, then clearly the Russian government is pursuing a policy of terrorism.

However, he pointed out that in the past, nations subject to the designation have been no more than regional powers at most.

The U.S. currently considers four countries to be state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria. In the past, the list has included Iraq, Libya, South Yemen and Sudan, but those countries have since been removed from the list.

Adding Russia to the list would be a significant departure from past practice and would set a new precedent.

A blunt instrument

Herbst, who has been a vocal critic of what he calls the Biden administrations slow and timid policy of supplying Ukraine, said that he would support the state sponsor of terrorism designation for Russia but with some reservations.

I support it, but it's not my highest priority, he said. If the administration was completely sound on weapons and sanctions, we wouldn't need it at all. Because they're not, I can see the utility of the designation. But generally speaking, I'm not fond of blunt instruments myself. I'd rather have the flexibility.

Ingrid Brunk Wuerth, the Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law at Vanderbilt Law School, agreed that the sanctions that come with a state sponsor of terrorism designation may be more broad than is necessary to further punish the Kremlin, considering that Russia is under an enormous amount of pressure from U.S. sanctions as it is.

In addition, though, Wuerth said that she is particularly concerned about the effects of opening up Russia to civil lawsuits filed by Americans.

Loss of bargaining chip

In theory, U.S. claimants would be entitled to sue to recover damages against Russia  damages that could be paid out from Russian assets currently frozen in U.S. financial institutions.

In the past, she said, frozen assets have been used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with hostile foreign governments. For example, she pointed to the release of frozen Iranian assets as an element of the Algiers Accords of 1981, which ended a long-running U.S. hostage crisis in Iran.

If we give the money that we have to American claimants, it's not available as a bargaining chip against Russia, Wuerth said. In addition, she said, because the law limits those eligible to file lawsuits to American citizens and employees of the U.S. government, it would mean that damages recovered by Americans would reduce the pool of funds available to compensate the Ukrainian government and its citizens.

Wuerth noted that the U.S. is not the only country holding frozen Russian assets, and that if others followed the United States lead and allowed their citizens to sue for damages, that would further erode the pool of money that might be used to directly aid Ukraine.

Zelenska address

The discussion about further actions to punish Russias aggression against Ukraine took place during the same week that Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, visited Washington and delivered an address to a bipartisan group of U.S. Congress members on Wednesday.

She said that Russias unprovoked invasive terrorist war is destroying our people and recounted the stories of some of the untold number of civilians, many of them children, who have died in the nearly five months since the war began.

I am asking for weapons  weapons 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 told lawmakers. I am asking for air defense systems in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers  and kill entire families.

In her weekly press conference on Thursday, House Speaker Pelosi praised Zelenskas speech, and made a further case that Russias actions in Ukraine have gone beyond waging war, crossing the boundary into war crimes.

Pelosi decried the tragedy of what is happening to children and women and the rest in the course of this war, how the Russians have used rape as a weapon of war, when it is indeed a war crime.

She alleged that rape, in particular, is happening not because of the decisions of individual soldiers, but on the orders of Russian commanders, as a means of demoralizing the Ukrainian people.

Congress will continue to stand with Ukraine in their fight to defend democracy, not only for their own people, but for the world, Pelosi said.
Russian missiles struck infrastructure in Ukraine's port of Odesa Saturday, one day after Russia and Ukraine signed U.N.-backed agreements to reopen Black Sea ports to resume grain exports.

"The enemy attacked the Odesa sea trade port with Kalibr cruise missiles; 2 missiles were shot down by air defense forces; 2 hit the infrastructure of the port," Ukraines Operational Command South wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraines Ministry of Agriculture confirmed there was grain stored at the port at the time of the attack, the Kyiv Independent reported. The grain was expected to be exported in the next couple of days, according to the ministry's comment.



Ukraines Foreign Ministry said that Russia would bear full responsibility for deepening the global food crisis if the deal collapsed.



It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesas port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the UN and Turkiye under the Istanbul agreement," Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Twitter. In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for global food crisis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian strike on Odesa demonstrates that Moscow will find ways not to implement the grain deal struck with the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine.

"This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it," Zelenskyy said in a video posted on Telegram.

The U.N. Secretary-General strongly condemned the reported strikes.



Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement delivered by spokesman Farhan Haq.



These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative."

U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink called the strike "outrageous."

"Russia strikes the port city of Odesa less than 24 hours after signing an agreement to allow shipments of agricultural exports. The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," she said on Twitter.

Russia's defense ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the attack.



Grain exports

Ukraine is a leading grain exporter, producing enough to feed 400 million people a year, but about 20 million tons of its grain has been trapped for months in silos and on ships blockaded by Russia in the Black Sea.

Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and Ukraine's infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, took turns at the table Friday signing the deal, known as the Black Sea Initiative. It was also signed by Turkey's defense minister and the U.N. secretary-general, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked on.

"This joint step we are taking today in Istanbul, together with Russia and Ukraine, will be a new turning point that will revive the hopes for peace, this is my sincere hope," Erdogan said Friday, adding that he hoped the "friendly and peaceful atmosphere" built on the Black Sea Initiative could eventually lead to transformative steps to end the war.

The initial agreement was set to last 120 days, but a U.N. official said it would have to continue as long as the war does.

The United Nations had been working for months with Ukrainian and Russian officials on two parallel tracks: one to lift the Russian blockade on Ukraine's southern Black Sea ports, the other to facilitate unimpeded access for Russian food and fertilizer to world markets. Russia is also a leading grain exporter and the top global fertilizer producer. Since the war, the price of fertilizer on the global market has doubled, in turn driving up the cost of crops.

Just before the public signing of the grain deal, the U.N. chief and the Russian defense minister privately signed a memorandum of understanding to address the disruptions to the trade of Russian food and fertilizer.

The deal was hailed as a breakthrough, after nearly five months of punishing fighting since Russia invaded its neighbor, and critical to curbing soaring food prices.

The deal could see Ukrainian ships begin to move again within the next few weeks.

The U.N. says 276 million people were severely food insecure before Russia's February 24 invasion; now officials project the number to be 345 million. It was expected that the deal will bring relief to millions who have been struggling with rising food prices as a result of the war.

Terms of the deal

Ukraine will continue as it did before the war to handle the internal logistics of getting its grain from its fields and silos to the ports.

Ukraine has mined its territorial waters, and under the deal, it will help guide commercial cargo ships carrying its grain through "safe corridors," which, a U.N. official said, is a faster solution than the months it could take to de-mine the waters.

The official said cargo ships will be inspected as they enter Ukrainian ports to be sure they are not bringing in any weapons shipments, as well as when they exit, by teams of Ukrainian, Russian and Turkish monitors, who will be part of an Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center.

Turkey plays an important role in the operation, as the ships will pass from the Black Sea out through the Bosphorus.

Both parties have pledged not to attack any ships that have been identified as sailing under the deal through the safe corridors. The U.N. official said if there is an incident, it would fall to the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) to resolve it. The official said the JCC would be the "heartbeat" of the operation.

The package deal helps Russia overcome obstacles for the sale of its fertilizer and food products. While U.S. and European sanctions on Moscow do not include those exports, the private sector has been hesitant to work with the Russians, fearful of running afoul of the sanctions.

The U.N. will now set up a team to follow up and coordinate with countries and the private sector.

"This task team will be focused on addressing the disruptions to the food and fertilizer trade largely due to the de-risking and overcompliance of the private sector, particularly in the sectors of finance, insurance and logistics," U.N. Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. He said this effort is fully coordinated with the grain initiative.

The Americans contend that Moscow is holding back its exports on purpose as part of its disinformation campaign about Western sanctions.

"When in fact there are no sanctions on their agricultural products, there are no sanctions on their fertilizer," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Congress this week. "They can move their agricultural products; they can move their wheat if they wanted to do it. But they would prefer to blame the rest of the world, thinking that that will get them more support from the world, and I think they have failed."

Reaction

"We welcome this deal and hope it will help mitigate the crisis Russia has caused," Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said in tweet Friday. "But we will be watching closely to ensure that Russia actually follows through on its commitments."

The White House was equally cautious.

Success, of course, is going to depend on Russia's compliance with this arrangement and actually implementing its commitments, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters Friday.

Were clear-eyed about it, he said. Weve just sadly come to see in many instances throughout the last five months, as well as even in other places, Russias word is never good enough on its face.

Ukraines foreign minister, Dmytro Kulebo, who welcomed the agreement, said in a tweet Friday that he would "count on the UN to ensure proper implementation."

The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, welcomed the agreement and urged the Kremlin to implement it.

"The UK and our allies have been pushing hard to reach this point. Now this agreement must be implemented, and we will be watching to ensure Russia's actions match its words," Truss said in a statement. "To enable a lasting return to global security and economic stability, Putin must end the war and withdraw from Ukraine."

Aid organizations also welcomed the deal, but said it is only one part of solving the growing global food crisis.

"If respected and enacted in good faith, today's deal to protect Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea will help ease grain shortages, but let's be clear  this will not end or significantly alter the trajectory of the worsening global food crisis," Mercy Corps Chief Executive Tjada D'Oyen McKenna said in a statement.

"A deal that allows grain to leave Black Sea ports is nothing short of life-saving for people across the world who are struggling to feed their families," said International Committee of the Red Cross Director-General Robert Mardini, but he noted that efforts must continue to tame skyrocketing food prices in places like Sudan where they have shot up 187% in the past six months.

VOAs Jeff Seldin and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report from Washington.
The United States has announced another $270 million in security assistance to Ukraine, which includes up to $175 million in presidential drawdown of security assistance, as well as $95 million from Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds.

"Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced $270 million in additional security assistance for Ukraine. This includes President Bidens announcement of a Presidential Drawdown of security assistance valued at up to $175 million, as well as $95 million in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds," the report says.

"The Presidential Drawdown is the 16th such drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine that the Biden Administration has authorized since August 2021. Capabilities in this package include additional quantities of weapons systems and equipment that Ukrainians have been using so effectively on the battlefield to defend their country, including four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and additional ammunition for HIMARS; four Command Post Vehicles; 36,000 rounds of 105mm ammunition; additional anti-armor weapons, spare parts, and other equipment," it reads.

"Under USAI, the DoD will also provide Ukraine with up to 580 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems," it says.

"Unlike Presidential Drawdown, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from industry rather than delivering equipment that is drawn down from DoD stocks. This announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional capabilities to Ukraine's Armed Forces," according to the document.
HARARE, ZIMBABWE  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.
Turkey said Russia has denied any involvement in missile strikes Saturday on the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa.

"In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail," Defense Minister Hulusai Akar said in a statement. The fact that such an incident took place right after the agreement we made yesterday really worried us.

Public broadcaster Suspilne quoted the Ukrainian military as saying the missiles had not caused significant damage, and a government minister said preparations continued to restart grain exports from the country's Black Sea ports, according to Reuters.

Earlier Saturday, Ukraine said Russia attacked Odesa with Kalibr cruise missiles, just one day after both countries had signed an agreement to allow grain exports to move safely out of Black Sea locations.

Two missiles were shot down by air defense forces; two hit the infrastructure of the port, Ukraines Operational Command South posted on Telegram.



The strikes drew strong condemnation by the U.N., U.S. and Kyiv.

Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement delivered by spokesman Farhan Haq.

These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.

U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink called the strike "outrageous."

The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," she posted on Twitter.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called Russias actions reprehensible.

"Striking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of Istanbul agreements...demonstrates Russia's total disregard for international law and commitments," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian strike on Odesa demonstrates that Moscow will find ways not to implement the grain deal struck with the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine.

"This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it," Zelenskyy said in a video posted on Telegram.



Russia has yet to issue any official comment.

A Russian defense ministry statement on Saturday outlining progress in the war made no mention of any strike in Odesa.



However, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reposted the U.N. condemnation and said: "It is awful that UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres does not 'unequivocally' condemn also the Kyiv regime's killing of children in Donbas."



Ongoing fighting



Elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on an airfield and a railway facility in central Ukraine Saturday killed three people and wounded at least 13, according to local officials.

Britains Defense Ministry said early Saturday that in the last 48 hours, heavy fighting has been taking place as Ukrainian forces have continued their offensive against Russian forces in Kherson Oblast, west of the Dnipro River.



In the statement posted to Twitter, the ministry said, Russia is likely attempting to slow the Ukrainian attack using artillery fire along the natural barrier of the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro. Simultaneously, the supply lines of the Russian force west of the Dnipro are increasingly at risk.



In another development, credit rating firms Fitch and Scope has downgraded Ukraine to just one step above default. The move followed Ukraines request for a debt payment freeze. The rating agencies said that makes a default on the debt more likely.

The U.S. has promised Ukraine a new $270 million security assistance package, which will include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.

Ukraine's military has already deployed at least eight HIMARS to the front lines in its fight against Russia, while another four are either on the ground or on their way.

The latest U.S. pledge will bring the total number of HIMARS to 16. In addition, Ukraine has deployed six medium- to long-range rocket systems from Germany and Britain.
The village of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region was one of the first ones in Ukraine to be shelled by the Russian military. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more lost their homes. But on this day locals and volunteers are taking a day for self-care. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink called the missile attack on the port of Odesa outrageous, saying that the Kremlin continues to weaponize food.

"Outrageous. Russia strikes the port city of Odesa less than 24 hours after signing an agreement to allow shipments of agricultural exports. The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," she tweeted on Saturday.
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During the 1920s, the city of Manhattan Beach, California, used the power of eminent domain to seize the only seafront resort in Southern California that welcomed Black beachgoers. The owners received a small fraction of the market value, and together with other Black property owners were essentially run out of town. In a ceremony last week, the deed to the land known as Bruces Beach was finally restored to the family. What happened in between is a tale not only of racism and theft, but also of the risks that arise when government can act without scrutiny.

Bruces Beach was established in 1912 in Manhattan Beach; a decade and a half later, the city took the land by claiming they planned to develop it into a park. But the vaguer the limits on government power, the easier it is to wield that power for a malign purpose. And the limits of eminent domain are vague indeed.

That the city had no interest in building a park quickly became clear. Nothing was done with the property until 1927, when the buildings were torn down. Then the land sat until the 1940s, when it was deeded to the state of California, which eventually returned it to Los Angeles County. Last year, the county agreed to return the property to the Bruces heirs, which -- with the dismissal of lawsuits challenging the transfer -- has now been accomplished.

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None of this might have been necessary had the courts more closely scrutinized the condemnation proceedings in the first place. But judges didnt do that back then and they dont do it now. All thats necessary is a public purpose that the court doesnt consider a pretext.

But proving pretext is nearly impossible.

Examples abound of eminent domain takings said to be racially motivated. The historian N.D.B. Connolly tells us how in 1947 the Miami City Commission took all of twelve hours ... to turn a fifty-year-old community of black homeowners into condemned land for a whites only park, school, and fire station. Or consider the case of East Arlington, Virginia, a thriving Black locality founded by fugitive slaves. During World War II the entire neighborhood was taken by eminent domain to build ... well, the Pentagon.

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Im aware that theres considerable debate over whether the data show that eminent domain power is disproportionately exercised to the detriment of racial minorities, and I admit that Ive long been in the camp that prefers to build policy on hard numbers rather than excitement and anecdotes. But in the particular case of eminent domain, the relative laxity of judicial scrutiny creates a space where subterfuge can easily hide.

As happened, for example, in the case of Bruces Beach, where the record is crystal clear.

News accounts insist the history has been recently discovered, but the theft of Bruces Beach has fascinated historians at least since the 1950s. In 1912, not long after Charles and Willa(1) Bruce purchased the land, the Los Angeles Times reported that [t]he establishment of a small summer resort for negroes had created great agitation among the white property owners of adjoining land. Neighbors erected no trespassing signs across a convenient path from the resort to the water. The Times warned ominously: Property owners of the Caucasian race who have property surrounding the new resort deplore the state of affairs, but will try to find a remedy, if the negroes try to stay.

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To which Mrs. Bruce replied: I own this land and I am going to keep it.

Encouraged by her example, other Black families began to buy land in Manhattan Beach and build summer houses. For over a decade, Black vacationers from as far away as Washington, D.C., and Honolulu flocked to the resort. But what the Black community considered a seaside frolic White residents saw as an invasion.

The city began condemnation proceedings on the Bruces property in 1924. The family hired lawyers and vowed to fight. As the litigation unfolded, there were multiple mysterious fires on the property of Black residents of Manhattan Beach. After the 1926 arson of a much fancier Black resort under construction in Huntington Beach, the Bruces surrendered.

Which brings us back to eminent domain. Although judges are free to consider history when deciding whether a condemnation is pretextual, recent cases make clear that tales of longstanding oppression will play at best a minor role in the judicial calculus. In 2013, a federal court in Illinois ruled that evidence of past mistreatment of Black residents was relevant only if those challenging eminent domain could show that what was happening to their community today was motivated by the same discriminatory intent. Just last year a federal court in Texas reached more or less the same conclusion.

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Perhaps such results are inevitable, given the state of eminent domain law. And maybe race played no role in these and many other recent condemnations.

The trouble is that even when race is involved, the relatively low bar that the government must surmount in an eminent domain case makes subterfuge relatively easy. Indeed, even under todays standards, its hard to see how Charles and Willa Bruce could have demonstrated in court that Manhattan Beach acted with anything but the purest of intentions.

Its true that nearby White property owners had sworn to get rid of their resort, but that was a decade earlier. Its true that many of those same White owners allowed White but not Black strangers onto their own beaches, but the city had no racial prohibitions at the time. (Those came later.) Its true, as the Bruces lawyer pointed out, that Manhattan Beach could instead have condemned any number of nearby White-owned parcels, but the law of eminent domain does not require the government to show that there exists no less restrictive alternative.

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The city, for its part, could have pointed to the fact that many other Southern California municipalities that were, around the same time, busily condemning waterfront property to create municipal parks. (Or in a couple of cases, oil terminals.)

Truth be told, under the current law of eminent domain, I doubt that the Bruces would have stood a chance.

And thats a problem. If it takes a century to right so great a racial injustice, theres something wrong with the law. Over the past 15 years, all but a handful of states have restricted the use of eminent domain for economic development. But those reforms wouldnt have helped the Bruces; their land was condemned for a park.

Somehow we have to make taking private property harder. There have been lots of proposals for reform: Necessity. Least-restrictive alternative. I dont know which adjustment would be best. All I can say for sure is that todays hands-off attitude toward eminent domain wouldnt have done a thing to stop the racist theft of Bruces Beach.

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More From Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Bidens Covid Diagnosis Is a Wake-Up Call for America: Tyler Cowen

 Struggling to Stay Cool? So Is the Generator Powering Your Aircon: David Fickling

 The Customer Demand Is There. The Supply Still Isnt.: Brooke Sutherland

(1) Although her name is frequently given today as Willa, contemporaneous reports give Willie.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Yale University, he is author, most recently, of Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down Americas Most Powerful Mobster.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Nearly all of the 20 largest US school districts will offer online schooling options this fall. Over half of them will be offering more full-time virtual school programs than they did before the pandemic. The trend seems likely to continue or accelerate, according to an analysis by Chalkbeat. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Thats a problem. School closings over the last two years have inflicted severe educational and emotional damage on American students. Schools should now be focusing on creative ways to fill classrooms, socialize kids and convey the joy of collaborative learning  not on providing opportunities to stay home.

Historically, various forces have pushed for online education  not all of them focused on improving education. These include: the quest for cheaper, more efficient modes of schooling; the push to limit the influence of teachers unions by concentrating virtual teachers in non-union states; and a variety of medical and social factors that lead some students and families to prefer online learning.

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Since the pandemic, some virtual programs have reasonably stressed medically fragile students. But others are seizing on online education in a rushed effort to shore up public-school enrollments, which plummeted in some cities. The prevalence of these programs in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas and New York is particularly worrying, as they target poor and minority students who are likely to be particularly ill-served by online school options.

A new study shows that while young children, especially, are bouncing back from the pandemic-era academic doldrums, the gap between high-poverty and low-poverty schools remains greater than it was pre-pandemic.

Research, where it exists, shows consistently worse educational outcomes for online schools than for traditional public schools.

Students in cyber schools do their coursework mostly from home and over the internet, with teachers often located in different states and time zones. There is little comprehensive information about the curricula, student-teacher ratios, how much actual teaching occurs, or what if any academic supports are provided by the schools.

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The adverse impact of the pandemic on the emotional well-being and social skills of children  one-third of school leaders reported a surge in disruptive student behavior during the past school year  is a cautionary lesson for online learning.

Graham Browne, the founder of Forte Preparatory Academy, an independent charter school in Queens, New York, said recently that he saw a sharp increase in aggressive or threatening behavior, especially among 6th graders who spent much of the previous two years online.

During a recent multi-day field trip to a camp run by the Fresh Air Fund, Browne said he noticed that during team-building exercises, such as figuring out how to carry a large object over a low bridge, students resorted to screaming at each other. Previously, he said, they would have worked out a strategy for maneuvering the object together.

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Equally concerning, when the school offered an online option during the 2020-2021 school year, Browne found that close to half of his highest achieving 8th graders  those taking algebra rather than pre-algebra  selected the option because it gave them the flexibility to pursue academics at their own pace.

Our school is small, so having such a large portion of high-performing students out of the building has an impact on peer tutoring, student morale, and a culture of team building that we emphasize at school, Browne said.

The most immediate threat, however, comes from the private sector and especially from for-profit virtual charter schools, which are of notoriously poor quality; just 30% met state school-performance standards, compared with 53% for district-run virtual schools before the pandemic. These schools, which spend heavily on advertising, boomed during school lockdowns, when traditional schools were struggling to offer online instruction. At the nations largest for-profit network, enrollment grew 45% to 157,000 students during the past year.

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What kids need most are robust in-person learning opportunities and the chance to experiment. Schools also need to maintain reassuring safety protocols as Covid-19 variants continue to spread.

This is the time for schools to adopt engaging learning approaches, such those of a high-poverty school in the Bronx that uses the Bronx River as a science laboratory, and of the Leander, Texas school district that turned over the development of an anti-bullying strategy to high school students, in the process building young leaders.

Some of these projects could be adapted to a hybrid format by giving students the option to do some work remotely, while also emphasizing in-person collaboration.

What makes no educational sense is the rush to embrace online schooling. Experience has demonstrated its severe disadvantages. State oversight isnt strong enough to mitigate them. Before barreling ahead, research should be financed and conducted by independent scholars to pinpoint the potential benefits. Until that happens, schools should do everything they can to keep kids in classrooms.

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Remote Learning Can Be a Lot Better: The Editors

 Remote Schoolings Perverse Social Divide: Justin Fox

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andrea Gabor, a former editor at Business Week and U.S. News & World Report, is the Bloomberg chair of business journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the author of After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Experts agree that cruising is getting closer to normal than it has been since the industry shut down in March 2020. And as cruise lines drop vaccine and testing rules, companies say they are seeing a "huge spike" in bookings.
The international working group on security guarantees for Ukraine, co-chaired by Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen held its second meeting on July 22.

According to the press service of the President's Office, the participants discussed a draft plan of recommendations on future international security guarantees for Ukraine.

"The group believes that NATO and Article 5 of the Washington Treaty remain the gold standard for security guarantees. In this regard, the course for membership in the Alliance is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. In the interim period, until Ukraine becomes a full member of NATO, the main guarantee will be its ability to deter future aggression and, if necessary, to defend itself and restore its sovereignty, territorial integrity and security," the presidential website says.

"However, to achieve this, according to the group, an interconnected system of multilateral and bilateral duly ratified agreements between Ukraine and the guarantor states will be needed. The documents, in particular, will contribute to the development and strengthening of the defense forces of Ukraine," it says.

"After the war, our country must become guaranteed safe. It is extremely important that all Ukrainian citizens, who were forced to go abroad due to the large-scale expansion of Russian aggression, return. So that investors from all over the world, including, of course, Ukrainian ones, could confidently bring their capital here. We need to drastically increase the level of foreign investments, even compared to the pre-war years," Yermak said.

According to Rasmussen, "stability in the Euro-Atlantic region is intertwined with the stability and security of Ukraine."

"If the war in Ukraine is not ended, the whole region and the world will feel its consequences. That is why it is advisable for the international community  not only morally, but also strategically  to resolutely support the security of Ukraine. We are considering previous models, but the guarantee model for Ukraine will be unique and adapted to the specific needs of the country," he said.
After the banks sold thousands of bank branch freeholds in the 1990s, it comes as a surprise to find there was any property left on their bulging balance sheets.

But in the past month, the Commonwealth Bank has sold two vacant bank branches in busy suburban shopping strips.

The CBA recently sold its Fairfield branch opposite the railway station. Credit:

Last week, the North Balwyn branch in the Village sold under the hammer for $4.05 million.

A private medical specialist with plans to occupy the 410 square metre space beat a host of other bidders, including lawyers, doctors, developers, investors and the neighbouring green grocer Signorellis.
Name one thing that you reckon is better than sex. Flying a helicopter over the Antarctic wilderness. POLITICS In 1983, you assisted former Greens leader Bob Brown with the Franklin River blockade in Tasmania. In 2016, you declared support for One Nations policies and expressed a willingness to advise Pauline Hanson. How do you square those two things? Well, thats too broad. I agreed with Pauline Hansons policy that our immigration should be at the long-term average of about 80,000 per year. I still do. Im very pro-immigration, but at rates that maintain a stable economy. Before the coronavirus, we were growing at such a rate that, if we continued, wed have 100 million people in Australia by the end of this century. Im sure thats not a sensible number for Australia. Loading Yet Hanson is a political figure who has been explicitly racist. Many saw your suggestions to lower immigration levels as xenophobic. How do you respond? Part of my policy, even before I spoke to Pauline Hanson, was that we should double our humanitarian intake from about 10,000 a year to 20,000. That was always part of my policy. And people know that Ive supported the Asylum Seekers Centre and that quite a bit of our philanthropy goes to Afghanistan, Bangladesh and places like that.

Youve said youre not interested in throwing your hat into the political ring, but youre obviously passionate about these issues. Have you really weighed up the pros and cons of running for office? Ive never, ever thought that I would get into politics. Too frustrating. The Australian flag was such a big part of Dick Smith Foods branding. Are you a republican or monarchist? Peter FitzSimons is trying to get me to become a republican, but Im not one really. What Im scared of is this: if we become a republic similar to the United States, we could end up with someone like Donald Trump in charge. To me, there are so many other important things: being a republican or monarchist is way down the list. MONEY Your father was a salesman who worked as a bookstore manager, then started a business that failed when you were in your teens. How did that affect you? It had a big effect on me. Id been talking to all my friends at school about how my dad was starting his own printing business and how wonderful it was. For some reason, he didnt get any work, had a mental breakdown and ended up in debt. It was a terrible shock to me as well. My mum had to get a full-time job and I was as heartbroken as he was. How did an experience like that affect your perception of money and business? It made me very careful with money.

At 24, you founded Dick Smith Car Radios, which became Dick Smith Electronics, with roughly $600. In the early 1980s, you sold the business for $25 million. How did you do that?By asking for advice and copying the success of others. I bought the cheapest air ticket around the world and looked at how they were selling electronic components in the US and in England, then came back to Australia and copied it. Everyone is good at something. I happened to find out that I was good at making money. Loading But by 2016, Dick Smith Electronics had collapsed. In 2018, you had to close Dick Smith Foods after revealing the business would be bankrupt within two years. How do you reflect on those chapters ending? Dick Smith Electronics  the company I sold, which Woolworths ran and turned into a billion-dollar-a-year-turnover company  did very well. But they made one basic mistake: they wanted eternal growth. And with Dick Smith Foods, we simply couldnt compete with companies like Aldi. We were making our peanut butter here, working with Australian farmers, when Aldi started importing peanut butter from Argentina. Define success for me outside of financial terms. Freedom to do what you want. diceytopics@goodweekend.com.au
The nose knows Cathy Wilcox (Letters, July 22) again makes a point that everyone should heed but she misses another reason for mask-wearing. In this miserable winter it keeps my nose warm. Peter Bourke, Rockdale Wilcoxs cartoon on how to get people to wear masks should be compulsory viewing. I sense my partners threat of no pudding would work for me, but the passive-aggressive No, no, no, dont worry about wearing it  Ive had a good life approach would appeal to my compassionate self. Peter Singer, Arrawarra Headland The concert Hall Helen Pitt is right (Blame Askin and ABC, not an unsung hero, July 22). The hero is Peter Hall. After downplaying his significant contribution, a space in the house is singing out for his name. Ian Ferrier, Paddington

What irony the unsung hero of the Opera House should be named Hall. The Peter Hall Playhouse sounds good idea to me. Adrian Connelly, Springwood This little piggy ... I had the same experience with supermarket bacon as your correspondent (Letters, July 22). Then I discovered locally grown and processed bacon at the local farmers market. Worth every cent. Ann Clydsdale, Bathurst Funding of schools should not be a postcode lottery Contributors to the Letters page will often point out, rightly, the inequity of funding between private and government schools, but there are also flaws in the funding that public schools receive (Public schools hit with $10 million shortfall, July 22). Having taught for many years in a south-west Sydney high school, where very few parents paid school fees and the P&C consisted of only three or four parents, I remember what it was like come budget time and the faculty I worked in was given a $1500 budget. To make ends meet, we would ask truck drivers for their used pallets and would strip them down to use the timber in the workshops. When I transferred to a school where most of the parents paid their fees and there was a sizeable and active P&C, the faculty budget was about $30,000. The income schools receive through fees varies greatly and is determined by the postcode of the school. More needs to be done to even out the playing field if all students are to be given equal opportunities at school. Peter Miniutti, Ashbury

Since the first Gonski review in 2011, whatever has happened to the much-trumpeted needs-based model that, reasonably, called for targeted redistribution of resources and support to schools that need it most? Regarding the Gonski reforms to strive to achieve equality of opportunity for students, public schools hit with a $10 million shortfall is an instructive case of those who do not learn history are destined to repeat it. Steve Ngeow, Chatswood When public schools have a $10 million shortfall in funding it is newsworthy. When a private school spends $10 million on a new library, swimming pool or the block of land next door, it is also newsworthy. Am I seeing a problem here? Peter Cooper-Southam, Frenchs Forest Mothers day Credit:Edwina Pickles Bill Shorten has made a commonsense change that will satisfy most people, whether of faith or none (Shorten steps in over Medicare form, July 22). We all know what mothers do, we all have them and we all know they have a special place in our lives. Why diminish their role by changing the language to satisfy a small minority of people in the community who seem to want to throw away everything society has valued for centuries? Vivienne Parsons, Thornleigh

Double distortion The drop in home ownership by young people is a disgrace caused by two problems (Young out in cold on ownership, July 22). First, tax advantages for investors over decades. The corollary claims of lack of supply are disingenuous nonsense by the usual suspects. Get the investors out of the market and their numbers say the supply will increase. The other problem is that politicians with multiple houses are probably against any change. They should be forced to divest all investment properties. John Macintosh, Merewether Rock of aged I wonder if there is something more to these farewell tours (Dont let the funds go down on Elton, July 22) that have become common for music artists than just a money-spinner for them.

There could also be the well-established perception this type of music, since it came to prominence in the 1950s, has been primarily aimed at teenagers, and the artists had to be young as well. Perhaps some of these musicians think their fans will think less of them as artists if they announce just another tour, not realising its not unusual to see people in their 70s and even 80s attending rock concerts. Con Vaitsas, Ashbury

Meat is murder Just imagine that youre born into a world where you will live the rest of your life in a cage, a concrete pen or a field with no water or shelter from the blazing sun or torrential rain, then when fat enough, youre carted off to be killed so you can be sold as a chunk of meat under plastic in a shop. But wait, before youve had much of a life, a disease or virus comes along, and youre killed early to contain the disease, and your lifeless body is chucked in a furnace or in a big ditch (Foot and mouth war plan primed, July 22). Livestock are living, breathing, feeling animals. Im pretty sure the impact of disease on the animals far outweighs the impact on the livestock breeders. Clare Raffan, Campsie Seems to me that this threat affects only the flesh-eaters among us. Tim Schroder, Gordon End male scourge

Thank goodness the NSW government is considering criminalising coercive control as a means of offering prevention against intimate partner violence (Coercive control bill can help prevent violence, July 22). Women who suffer under such diabolical control from their male partners are, in too many cases, condemned to a life of fear and intimidation that can tragically end in death.

But the sole burden for all of this should not be placed upon the courts. Society needs to make a serious moral commitment towards cultural change, whereby the scourge of coercive male entitlement is consigned to the dustbin of our evolutionary history. Vincent Zankin, Rivett (ACT) I find it hard to understand how we can legislate for love and respect in a relationship. If someone does not find love and respect, they have a problem. If a person does not have these qualities, the relationship is doomed. Bill McMahon, Lennox Head Good to go In response to your correspondents digital comment (Letters, July 22), I sincerely hope the Greens do turn the totally inadequate, into the good. Peggy Fisher, Killara Anxiety not is not part of Satans plan

Im also a Sydney Anglican (Letters, July 22) and I had big problems with Scott Morrisons sermon. But it wasnt the issue of trusting or not trusting government that was my main problem, it was the bit about anxiety. The glib way he suggested people could be relieved of anxiety  the oil of God, the ointment of God, comes in this situation and releases you  horrified me. He also said these anxieties are Satans plan. I know of many Christians who deal with anxiety daily, who have not been released. Now some of them will be blaming themselves, that they havent trusted God and his oil and ointment enough, or worse, that they are living under the Devils plans. Jan Syme, Newington Your correspondents defence of the former Prime Ministers words doesnt help us much.

He just quotes from the Bible and assumes that because Morrison said something similar it is all fine. It is not. If Morrison wanted to lecture us from a pulpit about how hopeless humans are, then he entered the wrong profession, and we would all have been better off if he had chosen the pulpit. Tony Sullivan, Adamstown Heights Postscript Credit:Alex Ellinghausen This weeks peak subject was Scott Morrison. Just when you thought the election was over and it was safe to go back into politics, there he was, preaching to the converted in Margaret Courts church, saying that he and his fellow worshippers dont trust in governments.

This brought the expected great rush of emails, mocking and scorning the former prime minister and questioning why he was still in parliament and drawing a salary if he thought so little of the institution. A few people tried to defend him with reference to Psalm 146 (Put not your trust in princes), but they were overwhelmed by those not amused.

The next most popular subject was the environment in various aspects, but especially once the State of the Environment report became public after being delayed for six months by the Coalition. The letter writers were furious about both the news and the perceived cover-up of the paper so it wasnt seen before the election.

The surge back of COVID-19 brought in a daily growing number of letters about how this happened while governments looked the other way and, while writers were on the subject, why is there not a mask mandate? Support is strong for a mandate but also for the government to finally start fining people who refuse to wear masks, especially on public transport.

On the subject of disease, there was also discussion about foot and mouth and ways of keeping it out. Writers remembered days of having shoes removed and disinfected and suggested that maybe it would just be easier for no one to come back from infected areas with their shoes and instead be given slippers to wear on the plane.

Harriet Veitch, Acting letters editor
Now, however, the same little bird is sleek and fit as well as furious, squawking and poking and banging with his surprisingly big feet. Hall puts the box down on the sand and manoeuvres inside it with a blue towel, watched by eight tourist kayakers who have washed up in the brisk afternoon breeze. Herded over by their instructor to see whats going on, they seem completely confused, but thrilled at the prospect of pausing their relentless paddling.

Taronga Zoos Libby Hall with a fairy penguin: He has to show he can swim after prey or he cant be released. I am his personal trainer. Credit:Tim Bauer

I first saw this bird some weeks ago, floating on its tummy in a pool while Hall chivvied it with a pole. Swim, damn you, swim! she had called, adding in an undertone, as if worried the penguin might hear her: Hes so lazy. He has to show he can swim after prey or he cant be released. I am his personal trainer. Prudence rolled slightly to one side and blew bubbles out of his sky-facing nostrils. Look at him! cried Hall. Bubbles! Hes getting so fat.

Todays box contains a little or fairy penguin called Prudence, although Hall generally uses the male pronoun, perhaps because its difficult with juveniles (as with many young animals) to tell males and females apart. Prudence was found at Watsons Bay with a damaged flipper, and delivered to Taronga  as are more than 1000 animals a year  by a member of the public.

On the way, we discuss the animals that Hall, rescue and rehabilitation co-ordinator at Sydneys Taronga Zoo, currently has in her care. The little echidna with the injured foot (eating everything in sight); the baby green turtle the size of a Cartier brooch rescued off Tamarama Beach (still pooing out plastic); the tawny frogmouth which fell off a fence in suburban Greenwich (catching and eating moths). But Janet the gannet (every gannet Hall treats, she names Janet  How could you not?) died last night. She was just too underweight. Shed probably come from New Zealand, just a young bird.

L ibby Hall is standing at the end of Collins Beach Road in the Sydney Harbour National Park. Shes dark-haired and capable-looking, and shes holding a large yellow box, from which issues a tiny thundering noise, as if shes captured a very small, enraged man. Hes jumping around like a loon, she calls as I approach. Watch out, hell bite. He keeps poking his beak out. An inch-long dark beak suddenly pops out of a ventilation hole, accompanied by a furious muttering. Getting a fresh grip on the handle, Hall turns and heads towards the beach.

I first visit Taronga Zoos Sydney veterinary hospital in May. The small brick building, far to the right of the zoo entrance, has a teeming variousness. At 10am one morning, the senior veterinarian, Larry Vogelnest, a big shaven-head man in shorts and surgical scrubs, is inspecting a green sea turtle who has fishing line dangling from her mouth and wrapped around her left front flipper, slicing deep into the flesh. Next door, veterinary resident Jess Whinfield and nurse Liz McConnell anaesthetise a small rat in order to examine its skin condition. Out in the corridor, someone is organising someone else: The potoroo needs to go in, and the duck has to go down.

There used to be 70 breeding pairs, now there are only 23. The dogs get them, and the foxes. Still. She raises her voice and smiles. Its always great when we release one. She wades into the foam at the waters edge. The little penguin goes suddenly still, straining forward. As Hall lets her go she slides into the water, a dark arrow flying through the blue, 20 or 30 metres in less than five seconds. A moment later a tiny, dark head pops from the waves. Getting her bearings, says Hall. The head ducks under. Prudence is gone.

Yes, she is very cute, says Hall, shaking her hand and talking over the wind. Cute and feisty! Penguins need to be released into the water, and they are very faithful to their burrows. This is the last nesting colony on mainland Australia, right around that point. Last one. She points, and everyone nods.

The little penguin goes suddenly still, straining forward. As Hall lets her go she slides into the water, a dark arrow flying through the blue, 20 or 30 metres in less than five seconds.

Hall draws Prudence out of the box, and everyone gasps with surprise, then applauds. The little bird gleams in the sunlight: pale grey and petrol blue, bright eyes shining with rage. Shes 950 grams now, says Hall, suddenly switching genders, and shes quite a small bird; even a big adult would only be around one kilo. She was 650 grams when she arrived; her pantaloons were all baggy. Now the loose skin around her feet is sleek and firm. Prudence whips her head around and bites Hall.

Remember those snails? says Whinfield, as the bag flips and rolls around the exam table like something from a Harry Potter movie. They kept prolapsing their mouth parts. But how do you anaesthetise a snail thats only the size of your pinky fingernail? They just kept racing around their container, producing bigger and bigger bubbles.

Next door, Whinfield and McConnell are talking about snails as they wait for their rat to fall asleep. The rat, which theyve put into a bag to anaesthetise, is part of Tarongas food breeding program, but even those animals destined to be somebodys dinner receive attentive medical care.

This turtle has already lost one back flipper, and the line on her front one is awful to look at, but its the tangle in her gut thats the real worry. If that can be removed, she may yet be saved. They dont do anything fast, these animals, says Vogelnest. They heal slowly, they die slowly. But Ive seen them come back from extraordinary injuries. Theyre incredibly tough. He organises sedation so he can take X-rays.

Lets try to get a blood sample, he says. Turtle bodies, covered not only back but front, too, by an impermeable shell, are notoriously hard to access for treatment. Vogelnest takes blood from behind the animals head: dark brown, like a very old shiraz. Shes in quite good condition, says Male  a promising sign, since turtles with line tangled in their intestines can no longer eat or evacuate, and die slowly over many months of infection and starvation.

How do you anaesthetise a snail thats only the size of your pinky fingernail? They just kept racing around their container, producing bigger and bigger bubbles.

Shes really been in the wars, says Vogelnest, looking at his turtle. She lies quietly on the table, the large dark eye facing me surprisingly focused and aware. Nurse Sarah Male gently covers her head with a towel, and after a moment she rests her chin down into the cloth.

On the third side of the courtyard, other members of the 17-strong veterinary team mill in the tea room. Constructed in the 1970s, its now both outdated and overcrowded. Where did that mug come from? asks Vogelnest, following me in. You mustnt use the mugs that are hanging up. Someone might kill you.

He is supposed to be asleep, Hall says, peering at him through the semi-darkness. The kestrel follows her movement minutely, eyes focused like the Terminator, looking less asleep than any animal in the history of the world.

Australian native animals, perhaps surprisingly, are some of the most sensitive at Taronga  small macropods like wallabies and potoroos, reptiles and birds. Speaking of which: across the courtyard from the treatment rooms, in the dimly lit intensive care unit (basically an old shed filled with plastic tubs and cardboard boxes), Libby Hall is monitoring her Cartier turtle, plus a baby ringtail possum with eyes like polished amber marbles, and a ridiculously elegant kestrel.

These health checks are, in some cases, the only time the vets see zoo animals, because one of the criteria for keeping any species these days is that it must thrive in captivity. Giraffes, for instance, often dont require veterinary services from one year to the next. Theyre just extremely robust, says Vogelnest. And gorillas  we hardly ever have to see a gorilla. Or an elephant.

Theyre incredibly powerful animals, says Vogelnest, and very, very smart. You really dont want one waking up halfway through an exam. Because chimps have such a complex social structure, moreover, getting individuals anaesthetised and out of their enclosure in a way that doesnt freak out all the others is like organising the order of precedence for a state dinner at the Winter Palace.

In another room, someone is discussing the upcoming chimp health checks. Like other animal groups in the zoo, Tarongas entire chimpanzee troop undergoes a regular medical, but this one is being planned like a military operation, and there seems to be a certain anxiety in the air.

The first collection of live animals gathered together out of human interest, as opposed to human appetite, is thought to have been in Upper Egypt around 3500BC, and its safe to say such early menageries did not come equipped with high-tech veterinary facilities. Nor, when the first public zoos opened in the late 19th century, hot on the heels of newly formed zoological societies, did animal welfare feature highly amid the new scientific fervour for faunal knowledge.

Pouring hot water into a permissible mug, I ask Vogelnest, who has worked here since 1990, what will be special about the new Sydney facility. Whats he really looking forward to? Well, thats easy, he says. There are 17 of us, and the new place will have more than one toilet. Itll be amazing.

Enter one of Tarongas largest capital works projects in the zoos 120-year history: the building of two new wildlife veterinary hospitals  one in Sydney and one at Taronga Western Plains zoo in Dubbo. Costing $80 million in total, and funded by private donations matched dollar for dollar by the NSW government, the zoo has so far raised $60 million . The Dubbo hospital is under construction, but the Sydney build is still in the planning phase.

This seems true: vet Gabrielle Tobias and Jess Whinfield performed the worlds first-ever blood transfusion on a platypus not long ago; Vogelnest has been part of important recent work on koala pain management; and Taronga vets are consulted worldwide for their expertise about many species, both native and exotic. And yet, as Boyle puts it, Theres no denying they are not working in world-class buildings.

Suitably demarcated mug storage, however, seems the least of their problems. Our vets are really world-class, explains Nick Boyle, director of welfare, conservation and science at the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, the overarching organisation that runs both Tarongas Sydney and Dubbo zoos.

Animals were poached from the wild to fill zoos; kept in bare cages barely larger than their own bodies; treated appallingly by humans who were convinced that the bounty of the natural world was inexhaustible, and created especially for their own use.

Hall holding an echidna with an injured foot. Credit:Tim Bauer

Sydneys first zoo officially opened in 1884 in inner-city Moore Park (almost three decades after Melbourne Zoo), and moved to its current harbourside home in Mosman in 1916. These days, its regulated by numerous charters and provisions and legislative standards about animal welfare, overall purpose and future vision; it also has its own self-imposed codes of ethics and best-practice goals.

But it still feels like a place with something to prove  and in this, I think, it shares something with all contemporary zoos, all over the world: a constant need to justify its existence. Good zoos today are perpetually straining to both improve the future and find absolution from the past.

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This is not a bad thing. Indeed, the harnessing of human guilt and ingenuity is probably what will save us all, to whatever extent we  and the natural world we are so close to destroying  can be saved. In the past decade alone, Taronga has revolutionised the enclosures of its chimpanzees, Sumatran tigers, regent honeyeaters and African savannah animals, and building is currently underway on a new $16 million habitat for Australian native animals. It is also engaging in increasingly ambitious projects to preserve biodiversity, shore up gene pools, and rescue and rewild endangered animals.

Rewilding is a controversial but thrilling process, by which endangered or extinct-in-nature animals raised in zoos are reintroduced into wild habitats, in the hope that they might re-establish viable populations there. Taronga and Dubbo together have rewilded some 50,000 animals, including the Bellinger River snapping turtle, greater bilby, eastern quoll and corroboree frog, as well as every rescued animal capable of returning to its previous habitat.

In this context, the vision for the new veterinary hospitals is bigger than simply protecting and maintaining the health of the two zoos 5500-odd captive animals. They will also carry the responsibility of being world-first, best-practice centres for Australian native wildlife. They must be not only veterinary hubs, but also research and rehabilitation settings for our most vulnerable species.

Larry Vogelnest (right) and David Clarke, a specialist veterinary dentist, perform a dental check on Satu the Sumatran tiger. Credit:Paul Fahy/Taronga Zoo

Zoos are sometimes described as modern-day Noahs arks, carrying endangered animals through the current deluge of man-made disaster towards, one hopes, a better future. In this metaphor, Tarongas new vet hospitals are being planned as nothing less than high-tech wheelhouses, from which Australian wildlife experts can chart a path away from catastrophe and towards salvation.

And, you know, get some more toilets while theyre at it.

Back in the old zoo building, theres little talk about biblical redemption: everyone is too busy. By the afternoon, I find myself in a hot minivan smelling strongly of turtle, as Vogelnest transports his patient 14 kilometres along the M2 motorway to the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH), where we have been offered the high-powered services of a CT scan, generally used on the pampered domestic animals of Sydney, to properly assess the fishing line in her gut.

Vogelnest has already removed the horrible cutting line from around the turtles flipper, and the relief of this, and seeing the soothing antiseptic cream applied, plus the cheerful news that no major vessels or tendons seem to be damaged, has made me feel optimistic about her chances. Vogelnest is less sanguine. When you have a linear foreign body like fishing line thats fixed at one end, the rest of the intestine sort of concertinas up around it, he says. That can be really bad.

This turtle, with fishing wire in its mouth and around a flipper, needs surgery to save its life. Credit:Amy Russell/Taronga Zoo

We arrive at SASH to find the corridors crowded with vets and staff, full of concern and technical know-how. For all our horrors, I always find it comforting to watch humans care for animals: the only species, bar the odd heroic dog or dolphin, to expend altruistic energy and resources helping another. On the return journey, I ask Vogelnest whether he intends to operate.

Shes been pooing, says nurse Sarah Male, taking up the role of turtle advocate. So that might suggest her bowel is patent [working]. Vogelnest seems less certain. These injuries, he begins, then says nothing for a moment. The thing is that you want so badly to save them. Especially ones like this  suffering as the direct result of human activity. You feel an obligation to do absolutely everything you can.

For those familiar with Taronga, the new vet hospital will be built on the site of the current reptile house. The reptiles and amphibians  including that komodo dragon who lies on his rock assessing you as if you might be a delicious, albeit unusually tall, goat  will move to a new enclosure down by the gorillas, and the site thus freed up for the hospital is stunningly beautiful. From the plans, it looks like the building will be beautiful, too: lots of Opera House curves and glass and textured walls.

A baby ringtail possum. Credit: Tim Bauer

However, the thing really worth looking at might not be the view or the architectural detailing, but a new, real-life animal hospital drama, tentatively entitled Real Vets in Action or Larry Tries to Save a Turtle, or even Jess Sedates a Rat. The day-to-day work of the vets, in other words, is about to be revealed to the public via huge glass viewing windows. There will be some restrictions  the post-mortems of large animals, for instance  but generally, all of the vets will be on show, all of the time.

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We did some market research about what people want to see at zoos, explains Nick Boyle, and at the very top of the list was that they wanted to see what vets do. Consequently, almost all of the ground floor  three new treatment rooms, a clinical pathology lab, a nutrition lab and a dedicated CT scanning room (no more roasting trips in the minivan)  will be viewable to the outside world.

Im sure Taronga CEO Cameron Kerr will watch the zoos rock stars receive their medical care  dental treatment for Satu the Sumatran tiger, heart checks for Samaki the chimp  with real attention. But Im also sure that what he really wants to see is not a puma on the treatment table, but a potoroo. Australian native animals are our animals, he tells me as we stand on the site of the new hospital. Theyre secretive, theyre small  but theyre as extraordinary as anything on earth, and it is uniquely our responsibility to care for them. And yet, as a nation, we have very little understanding of them.

Kerr is a slim, quietly spoken figure. Since taking over as CEO in 2009, he has pushed himself and his team to articulate a vision of wholesale conservation and preservation that occasionally seems to surprise even him. Today, Taronga funds a wildlife crime analyst in Malaysia; maintains the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health (one of only two registries of wildlife disease in the world); and oversees teams working from the Pacific islands to the western Congo to protect animal habitat, care for remnant wild populations, and set up sanctuaries for local species.

Vogelnest tends to a koala, in a type of scene the public will soon be able to witness. Credit:Tim Bauer

When it comes to our own indigenous creatures, Kerr believes we need to radically improve our knowledge, investment and care. We should be ashamed, he says unexpectedly. For so long, weve had no idea whats going on with our own animals. Take the platypus, for instance: an iconic animal in this country, yet we know hardly anything about it. And then, during the horrible drought in NSW, we began getting them delivered to us from dried-up riverbeds. And they kept coming and coming, and we just didnt have enough facilities to care for them. It was like a casualty department with ramping  he looks horrified  and shamefully, we could not take in all the animals that needed our help. We just did not have the capacity to care for them in that crisis. He pauses. I never want to be in that position again.

Then came the koalas. We thought we knew a bit about them; we thought things were fine. And now we realise things are terrible, numbers are crashing, theyre in real danger.

The fires showed us that nobody knew how to help. Not the ordinary people stripping off their blouses to try to save burnt animals, and not the vets either.

As if such individual tragedies arent bad enough, we are now dealing with the aftermath of a universal catastrophe: the 2019-20 bushfires. The fires showed us that nobody knew how to help, says Kerr. Not the ordinary people, stripping off their blouses to try to save burnt animals  and not the vets or the vet nurses, either.

More than three billion animals were killed or displaced in those bushfires, and the thought that some of them might have been saved but werent preoccupies Kerr. We have more than 70 vets in NSW alone whove put their hands up and said, If I was brought wildlife in a crisis, I would be happy to treat it free of charge. But I dont have the skills. So we need centres of excellence  literally teaching hospitals  specialising in wildlife, so we can train up vets and vet nurses around the nation.

Taronga has already begun this process: a free online course about wildlife first aid, developed in 2020 in just a fortnight for frontline fire workers, has been downloaded almost 5000 times and used in Greece, Turkey and California as well as Australia; the vet centre also runs a longer course, with some 400 current students, about the triage, first aid, treatment and care of wild Australian species. I attend one of these courses and talk to vets from Margaret River, Brisbane and Melbourne: several mention that its the only one they could find focused on wildlife. The new hospitals, says Kerr, will allow more training, of more people, more often. Theyre going to change the capacity of this nation.

Vogelnest treats koalas rescued from bushfire zones in Monaro, NSW.

Not only vets need training  and if that means Vogelnest needs to wear a Madonna headset to explain what hes doing for Tarongas two million annual visitors, hes ready. Imagine having that poor turtle on the table with the microphone right there, he says. We can talk about fishing line to people watching outside, and they can see what its done to the animal  people who might be going fishing that same weekend. Thats a powerful thing.

Taronga currently saves some 80 turtles a year, which is a pretty good record  almost two a week. In the new hospital, they expect to save far more.

They did not save this one. After we return from SASH, Vogelnest operates on the turtle with the slashed flipper and quiet eyes for more than two hours. The PR sends me updates: They made an incision by one of the flippers on the underside of the turtle and were able to get access to the intestines  they were able to remove chunks of fishing line but cant find where the top part is stuck  Theyve gone in with an endoscope, too, but cant see anything. The next morning, another message arrives: Im really sorry to say the turtle had to be euthanised last night.

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It was terrible, says Vogelnest when I see him next. We got rid of some of the line, but we could see from the CT the intestine was plicated [crumpled], and as we crept forward, the access got more and more difficult, and we got to the point we realised this was not something we were going to be able to fix.

He sighs. Those animals  what they have to go through to survive a few years. Most of them dont even make it off the beach after hatching, theyre grabbed by seagulls and sharks and god knows what. And then they suffer at every point from human activity: with line, with boat strikes, with plastic bags they think are jellyfish, with loss of habitat and nesting grounds. So for that female to make it that far  nearly to breeding age  and never have the chance to reproduce, its just devastating.

Could he have saved her if the team had already been in the new hospital? I dont think so  although, I shouldnt say that. If we had human-level laparoscopic equipment, maybe we could have removed the piece of damaged intestine and re-sewn it. But as it is, we dont have that kind of equipment or expertise.

Jars filled with plastic waste that killed wild animals. Credit:Tim Bauer

Its clear Vogelnest feels the loss of the turtle deeply; its also clear hes moved on to the next animal needing his care. Later in the day, I visit Libby Hall, who has already collected the fishing line from our turtles fin and intestine, and put it in a small yellow-lidded container, which joins endless other small yellow-lidded containers all over her office. I find it profoundly depressing  each container represents an animal killed by something man has lost, or dropped, or simply thrown away  yet neither she nor Vogelnest seem depressed by it. Or not to the point of inaction  which, after all, is what matters.

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If zoos today are modern-day arks, and their mission is to save both individual animals and entire species, we must have people to steer the ships: people who will not give up, even in the face of overwhelming odds. And we must give them the very best tools: CT scanners and state-of-the-art veterinary hospitals and many, many toilets. But we must also remember that it is the people themselves who do the saving. Were the only species on earth to have caused the mass extinction of other species, as completely as the asteroid ended the age of the dinosaurs. But were also the only species that can save a species.

Before I leave Taronga, the same day I learn of the turtles death, I go over to the ICU, where Hall is now organising food for her patients. Can the new hospital really make a difference, I ask her. Will it be worth it? Itll be great, says Hall. Although, she grins: You have to watch these architects. Theyre forever putting a desk or a pot plant where youre going to be hosing poo away.

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
I recently returned from the Republic of Ireland, a nation with a modern history of referendums  mostly successful  on socially divisive issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. I stepped off the plane in Sydney into an unfolding debate about the level of detail required for a constitutional amendment to enshrine a First Nations Voice, as called for in the Uluru Statement.

The Irish referendum experience can teach us much about how to run a referendum, in particular about the need for detail. Basically, the lesson is to treat voters with the respect they deserve as the ultimate sovereigns of our constitutional order.

How to secure a yes vote in the referendum for the Voice? Credit:Ben Plant

The Irish people are wary of vagueness in referendum proposals; they rightly want to know what they are being asked to do. But there is also an understanding of the role of the people and the role of the legislature, in particular amendments.

For instance, in the abortion referendum the proposed amendment was to remove a prohibition on abortion and return the authority to the Irish parliament to regulate abortion in the country. When the referendum was proposed, the government also published a policy paper that detailed when abortion would be permissible, and how it would guide the subsequent enactment of legislation.
As part of the annual festival of Ukrainian culture Ethno Khutir, which took place in Tel Aviv, a charity event was held in support of Ukraine, which is suffering from Russian aggression, and the representatives of the charity organization Israeli Friends of Ukraine were awarded. This is reported on the Facebook page of the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel.

All visitors had the opportunity to discover the colorful Ukrainian culture and traditions, taste the most delicious Ukrainian dumplings, listen to the most melodious Ukrainian songs, and also buy a lot of Ukrainian souvenirs for themselves and friends. This year's event became particularly significant, as it included a charitable component of aid to Ukraine, which is suffering from Russian aggression, - the message reads.

In addition, the deputy head of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission presented state awards to Anna Zharova and Vyacheslav Feldman, representatives of Israeli Friends of Ukraine.

To note the incredibly important work of volunteers from Israel, who have been helping Ukraine for many years. In the name of these two true friends of Ukraine, we would like to thank all the volunteers in Israel who helped and continue to help save the lives of Ukrainians and provide support in the most difficult times that our Motherland is going through, - the Embassy notes.
And as Australians have returned to the Indonesian getaway in increasing numbers - there were 128,421 arrivals from Australia to Denpasar in June alone  the worry is that a tourist could inadvertently take the disease home on their shoes or other items such as animal products, dealing a potential $80 billion blow to the economy. In Bali, as with the rest of Indonesia, authorities are aiming to stem the tide with a vaccination rollout rather than the mass culling that the United Kingdom undertook in 2001, where 6.5 million cows, sheep and pigs were slaughtered to combat a devastating outbreak there. A livestock truck being sprayed with disinfectant at Lembar port, West Lombok, in the province directly east of Bali. The provincial government reacted to the detection of foot and mouth on the island on July 1 by closing animal markets temporarily and restricting the transportation of cattle and other livestock between local government regencies. No animals or products susceptible to the disease from other provinces were being allowed into Bali either because of its status as this years G20 host, according to Professor Wiku Adisasmito, the spokesman for Indonesias newly formed foot and mouth taskforce. But amid a shortage of vaccines  and personnel to administer them to Indonesias 18 million cattle and other livestock Australias northern neighbour faces a momentous challenge in getting the disease under control.

The Indonesian and Bali government understand the need to revive tourism. They will do their best to try to tackle the outbreak but it wont be easy, said Wilantara, the hobby farmer and hotel owner in Kuta, whose 10 cattle were vaccinated soon after news broke that the virus had made it to Bali. In the culture here, how people in rural Bali keep cows next to their homes, it would be impossible to disinfect or keep their [farming] gear separate from their daily activities. It is simply not practical. For example, with the livestock lockdown and closing of the livestock market, there would be no way the local government can keep an eye on the individual sales, the individual slaughter and transactions between private owners. We dont have big farms with thousands of livestock. Many individuals own just one cow. Beringkit livestock market, the largest in Bali, has been closed during the foot and mouth outbreak. Credit:Amilia Rosa The bid to eradicate the disease in Bali has also been complicated by issues over the compensation being offered to farmers for slaughtering infected animals.

Indonesia is undertaking conditional slaughtering rather than the UK approach because, like most developing countries, it is not in a position to compensate owners for their herds being wiped out. It means that infected animals are destroyed if there are only a few with foot and mouth in a particular location while others receive medication. As of Friday, 4649 have been put down across the country. Indonesia announced that farmers would be paid 10 million rupiah ($962) for each head of cattle slaughtered, but in Bali, farmers have reportedly held off having animals killed until they are sure they will get the money. Northern Bali farmer Kadek Ardika with the infected cow he is trying to have slaughtered. In Gerokgak, in northern Bali, livestock owner Kadek Ardika believed his 10 cattle were the first in his area to become infected, he suspected, from a young cow he bought from Celukan Bawang, where the main port in northern Bali is located. All 10 got sick and they have all recovered but one of them, he said. Its about eight months old now and its neck is not healing, its crooked. It was scheduled to be slaughtered today but when the men came they said it was too young and refused to do it.

Its alive, its eating and drinking, but I am still trying to get it slaughtered, that way I can get some compensation for it. I heard the compensation may be paid in October. Im not sure if its true or not, but they said we will get it this year. In the same village, I Putu Wibawa operates a farming group with 20 members. They sold most of the few dozen cattle they owned to buyers in Jakarta in late June when Bali was still free of foot and mouth. Passengers arriving from Denpasar, in Bali on Thursday. Australia is worried a major outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Indonesia could spread here. Credit:Peter Rae The groups remaining two cows are healthy but with no help from the government, he said. We bought the medicine [to treat foot and mouth] ourselves. We disinfected our cows with our own money, he said. They knew there was an outbreak, they could have anticipated it and helped us with vaccines, medicine and disinfectants. If my cows were sick I would just take them to the slaughterhouse myself and try my luck there.

As farmers seek financial relief, butchers in northern Bali were called in for a meeting with government representatives at a slaughterhouse this week and told to negotiate with cattle owners on prices for the meat from sick animals. Loading Meat from cattle with foot and mouth which is safe for humans to eat - is still permitted to be sold and processed on the island as long as it is cooked at a temperature of at least 70 degrees. The head, feet, internal organs and skin are not to be sold and must be buried or boiled for at least 30 minutes, according to a local government directive. Containers carrying the meat must also be soaked in detergent, bleach or vinegar. The highest price is 8 million rupiah but it is up to us to negotiate the prices according to the cows condition and size, said Haji Amir Mahfud, a butcher from Buleleng who was at the meeting. There is at least one theory as to how foot and mouth made its way into Indonesia.

Local news outlet Kompas reported last week that the illegal purchase of 14 goats from Thailand by a trader in Wonosobo, Central Java, in February was believed to be the source of the virus re-entry. The goats were transferred by boats from Thailand, where foot and mouth is endemic, to the Indonesian province of Aceh and onto Sumatra and Java, according to the report. That has not been confirmed by the government of President Joko Widodo, whose Agriculture Ministry has said it is still investigating the origin of the outbreak. Vaccinated cattle at Made Purba Wilantaras farm at Kubu Anyar village in Kuta. Credit:Amilia Rosa For now, it has its hands very full trying to stamp it out. Leading the task is former military commander, Major General Suharyanto, who heads Indonesias National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and has also been fronting the countrys COVID taskforce.

Now the chief of the foot and mouth response team, he met with Agriculture Minister Murray Watt in Jakarta last week and has assured Australia it should not be worried because Indonesia is seriously handling the disease. Loading He told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Indonesia hoped to reduce infections significantly over the next six months and had introduced biosecurity rules including the spraying of carpet at the entrances of airports with disinfectant and of vehicles travelling in and out of farms. At Denpasars Ngurah Rai Airport, however, there has been no change to protocols, according to general manager Hendy Heryudhitiawan. Until now, we have not or have not received additional protocol requests for preventing the spread of FMD, he said.

Professor Peter Windsor, an expert in foot and mouth control at the University of Sydney who worked closely with the Philippines on its fight against the disease, is just back from Java and says a lack of public awareness in Indonesia is concerning. There are more posters about foot and mouth disease arriving in Sydney, at the airport, than there are in all of Indonesia at the moment, he said. He believes the scale of the problem in Indonesia is immense, and it could go on for years. Resources at the ground level are inadequate because they arent used to dealing with the level of biosecurity thats required to stop the disease spreading, he said. From what Ive gathered from talking to many people, theyre overwhelmed. Theyre not on top of it. Theyre actually a long way from it.
Rio de Janeiro: Public prosecutors have charged three individuals with the June murder of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in the remote western reaches of Brazils Amazon rainforest.

All are local riverine dwellers, and their motive was that Pereira asked Phillips to photograph them when they passed by in a boat, the prosecurtors statement said. The area is a hotspot for illegal fishing and poaching.

Indigenous leader Kamuu Wapichana speaks in front of a banner showing freelance British journalist Dom Phillips, left, and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. Credit:AP

Phillips and Pereira had met with indigenous people near the entrance of the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which borders Peru and Colombia, and were travelling along the Itaquai River back to the city of Atalaia do Norte when they were attacked. Their disappearance generated intense international outcry and pressure for action and, with the help of local indigenous people, authorities located their bodies hidden in the forest.

Prosecutors presented their charges on Thursday (Brazil time), outlining that two of the men  Amarildo da Costa Oliveira and Jefferson da Silva Lima  had confessed to the crime, while witness testimony indicates Oseney da Costa de Oliveira also participated, according to the statement.
RAVI SHANKAR

1920 - 2012

Sitarist

Late Pandit Ravi Shankar was an internationally known Indian sitar maestro. As an exponent of Indian music and incomparable Sitarist, Pandit Ravi Shankar enjoyed great popularity all over the world.

Ravi Shankar received training in sitar from classical music exponent Ustad Allaudin Khan. His musical concerts always had an aesthetic appeal. The first Indian to compose music for foreign films, he made a notable contribution in popularising Indian music abroad. He opened Kiunara school of music in Los Angeles in 1967.

Ravi Shankar has received a number of prestigious awards and honours, both national and international. International Music Vensco Award, Silver Bear and Venice Festival Award, Magsaysay award are some of them. In 1976, he was elected a fellow of the Sangeet Natak Academy and in 1962 and 1980 was the recipient of Presidential Awards. He was also awarded Bharat Ratna (1999). Some universities in India as well as abroad have conferred doctorates on him. The government of India honoured him by nominating to Rajya Sabha in 1986. In 1999, he received the International prize for film and media music in Germany. His autobiography "My Life and My Music " is an extremely revealing document of his musical career.

He wrote and conducted orchestral music for ballet, set to Nehrus's 'Discovery of India' and the 'Festival of India' music with top musicians of Europe and America. During 1949-55 he served as the Director of Music, All India Radio. He also composed music for the welcome song of the IXth Asiad held at Delhi . In the 50's and 60's he toured, gave concerts and taught sitar all over USA and Europe

Even though he enjoyed many privileges in his career, his personal life was not so smooth. He was born on April 7th 1920 in Varanasi to barrister father Shyam Shankar and mother Hemanginee in a Bengali Brahmin family. He forayed into an artistic career in his elder brother Uday Shankar's ballet troupe, and after nine years left the troupe to pursue music under his mentor Baba Allaudin Khan in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh for 7 and half years. He married Annapurna Devi the daughter of his guru Baba Allaudin Khan in 1941. They had a son, Shubendra Shankar but the marriage soon ended in divorce. He got involved with American concert promoter Sue Jones and their union produced one daughter, 'Grammy winner' Norah Jones. Later he married Sukanya Rajan who was his admirer. Ravi Shankar spend his last days in California with his second wife Sukanya Rajan. Their daughter Anoushka Shankar followed her fathers lineage and became a Sitarist, and performed in concerts with her father. Anoushka's last concert with her father was on 4th November 2012 at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California. Ravi Shankar succumbed to heart ailment at the ripe age of 92 on December 11th 2012 in California. Panditji will always be remembered for his innate passion for music, and for his role in popularising Indian Classical music in the world arena.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 7. Azerbaijan-Turkiye relations are unmatched in the world, Head of the Press Service Department of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Leyla Abdullayeva said at the Diplomacy week "Azerbaijan-Turkiye alliance following the Shusha Declaration, new regional realities and role of Turkiye in Karabakh's reconstruction" on the subject of "Peace and creative initiatives of Azerbaijan in the post-second Karabakh war period" conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ADA University on July 7, Trend reports.

She noted that ties between Turkiye and Azerbaijan are developing through a strategic alliances.

"Azerbaijan will make every effort to reach the higher level of these relations. Turkiye is a fraternal state that provides the greatest political support to Azerbaijan. The country also plays a crucial role in the reconstruction activities carried out in Azerbaijan's liberated territories," Abdullayeva said.
Japans Cabinet has formally decided to hold a state funeral for assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September. The plan for a state funeral has sparked national debate. Some people oppose the use of tax money, while others say Japan's ruling party is attempting to glorify Abe and please ultra-conservatives like him. Abe was shot while making a campaign speech earlier this month. The suspect is being held for further investigation. Media reports and other evidence suggest the man was upset with a church to which his mother had given large sums of money and he believed Abe had ties to the organization.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea plans to lift its decadeslong ban on public access to North Korean television, newspapers and other publications as part of its efforts to promote mutual understanding between the rivals, officials said Friday, despite animosities over the North's recent missile tests.

Divided along the worlds most heavily fortified border since 1948, the two Koreas prohibit their citizens from visiting each others territory and exchanging phone calls, emails and letters, and they block access to each others websites and TV stations.

In a policy report to new President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday, South Koreas Unification Ministry said it will gradually open the door for North Korean broadcasts, media and publications to try to boost mutual understanding, restore the Korean national identity and prepare for a future unification.

Ministry officials said South Korea will start by allowing access to North Korean broadcasts to try to encourage North Korea to take similar steps. The ministry refused to provide further details, saying the plans are still being discussed with relevant authorities in South Korea.

Jeon Young-sun, a research professor at Seouls Konkuk University, said North Korea is unlikely to reciprocate because the flow of South Korean cultural and media content would pose a really huge threat to its authoritarian leadership.

Ruled by three generations of the Kim family since its 1948 foundation, North Korea strictly restricts its citizens access to outside information, though many defectors have said they watched smuggled South Korean TV programs while living in the North. In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire when South Korean activists launched balloons carrying USB sticks containing information about the outside world and leaflets critical of the Kim family toward North Korean territory.

Relations between the two Koreas remain strained over North Koreas torrid run of missile tests this year. Yoon, a conservative, has said he would take a tougher stance on North Korean provocations, though he said he has an audacious plan to improve the North's economy if it abandons its nuclear weapons.

Despite the Norths likely reluctance to reciprocate, Jeon said South Korea needs to ease its ban on North Korean media because the restrictions have led to dependence on foreigners and other governments to gather North Korea-related information. Jeon said that has increased the danger of acquiring distorted information on North Korea.

It wasnt clear how anti-North Korea activists in the South would react to the government's move. Jeon said there was little chance the move would promote pro-North Korean sentiments.

South Korea, the worlds 10th-largest economy, is a global cultural powerhouse. Its nominal gross domestic product in 2019 was 54 times bigger than that of North Korea, according to South Korean estimates.

Some observers say the ban must be lifted in a step-by-step process with discussions on what North Korean contents would be allowed first and how the access should be given to the South Korean public.

While South Korean authorities block access to North Korean government websites and other media, they rarely crack down on experts, journalists and others using virtual private networks or proxy servers to access them. A large number of North Korean movies, songs and other contents are also available on YouTube, which is accessible in South Korea.
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, July 23. The International Media Forum in Azerbaijan's Shusha is aimed at discussing and finding solutions to various global issues on the agenda, Former Adviser to the President of Serbia, Director for Policy Research, Analysis, and Publications at the Institute for Development and Diplomacy within ADA University Damjan Krnjevic said, Trend reports.

Krnjevic made the remark on the sidelines of the first International Media Forum on "Global trends and new challenges in mass media", organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency in Shusha city on July 22.

He expressed hope that the cooperation between various media both in Azerbaijan and abroad will benefit from the forum.

According to him, after the 2020 second Karabakh war, it became clear that it wasnt sufficiently covered by the world media.

"The policy of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev contributes to Azerbaijani media outlets reaching the world level. The creation of such organizations as the Media Development Agency indicates that Azerbaijan understands that it still needs to solve the problem seriously and comprehensively, and expand cooperation with international media outlets, the analyst said.

In this sense, the creation of the Media Development Agency testifies to the desire of Baku to globally promote Azerbaijan and its media environment," Krnjevic said.
Thousands of people, but only one wearing a straitjacket.

February 1923. Thirty feet in the air, hoisted up by his ankles. Head facing down. Dangling from a beam. Swaying like a pendulum. Thirty feet above the crowd. One false move, and he would land on his head and crush his skull. One misplaced wriggle, or one errant motion, and he could have plummeted right then and right there to his death. The worlds greatest escape artist, flattened on a Winnipeg sidewalk.

Imagine the copy in the next days newspaper:

HOUDINI DIES: ESCAPE ARTIST FALLS FROM FREE PRESS BUILDING

The escape artist Harry Houdini died in Winnipeg Wednesday afternoon, falling to the ground during an attempted escapist feat here.

Houdini, who achieved world renown for his antics, magical illusions, and Vaudevillian performances, had been in Winnipeg for a series of performances at the Orpheum Theatre, but in a matinee performance, challenged by the Manitoba Free Press to do so, suspended himself upside down from a beam affixed to the Free Press headquarters, located in downtown Winnipeg, on Carlton Street.

Wearing a straitjacket, Houdini attempted to liberate himself from his restraints before tossing them to the ground from 30 feet in the air  

L.B. Foote photo

Escape artist Harry Houdini performs outside the Free Press building in February 1923.

Houdini didnt die. His final exit would come three years later, in Detroit on Halloween, age 52. The day after his feat of derring-do in Winnipeg, there was no feature story in the Manitoba Free Press: journalism was different then. There was mostly news, notices, wire stories and advertisements. But the moment of the great escape was captured in black and white by dozens of flashing bulbs, the most famous of which belonged to L.B. Foote, the citys greatest early pictorial historian.

Wool coats. Wool caps. Fedoras. No bare heads. People climbed on top of automobile roofs. Everyone looking at the hanging man. A cold day in February. Downtown Winnipeg, filled with pedestrians waiting to see a rabbis son from Hungary yet again defy death and gravity. Four or five men pull with all of their strength on Houdinis rope to keep him aloft.

A few windows in the Free Press building are open, with a group of people who might be reporters angling their heads out to get an unparalleled view of Houdinis struggle from nearly his eye-level: were they hoping hed fall?

Ninety-nine years later, every single person in that picture is dead, barring a miracle of genetics. Every man who pulled Houdinis rope. Every police officer who rigged up the escape. Every reporter. Every editor. Every copy boy. Every newspaper hawker. Every subscriber. Every onlooker. Gone.

But the building at 300 Carlton is still there.

And so is the Free Press.

  

It had been around for 51 years before that. It all started in November of 1872, before the city of Winnipeg was called the city of Winnipeg, a decree which would not be made until 1873. The paper is older than the city itself. Do cities make newspapers, or do newspapers make cities?

A teacher named Luxton and a man named Kenny, who had $4,000 to invest, joined forces. They bought a printing press from the mecca of print media  the New York of Joseph Pulitzers World, and of Raymond and Jones nascent rag, the Times  and had it floated up the Red River on a steamboat in October 1872. A Twainian origin story.

A Dickensian addendum: the first publishing house was inside a wooden shack at what is now the corner of Main Street and James Avenue. Both men lived upstairs, Luxton with his family and Kenny alone. They turned the press by hand.

Everything was by hand: the writers wrote their copy by hand. Each letter was set by hand. The pages were laid out by hand. The papers were delivered by hand. It was hard work, easy to make a mitsake. (Imagine the penmanship and skill needed to avoid making a typo like that one every single day, in every other sentence.)

Other newspapers had started and ended, as documented in an article for the Manitoba History Services transactions in 1946, published posthumously under the byline of the famed Free Press leader J.W. Dafoe, who steered the publication from 1901 to his death in 1944, becoming in the interim the most famous journalist in Canada, before or since.

In 1872, Dafoe writes, something bad happened: dominion elections were held, and someone monkeyed with the voters lists; many Canadians were not allowed to vote. They could wreck the newspaper offices, however, and they wrecked them all so thoroughly, with the exception of the Manitoba Liberal, that it took them months to get going again.

During this interregnum the Free Press decided it was an opportune time to be born, he wrote. And though many other papers have come and gone since, it has refused to die.

It started as a weekly. Two years later, it went daily with an evening edition. Competitors cropped up in the coming decade: the NorWester, the Daily Herald, the Daily Tribune, and the Daily Times. The News Letter, the New Nation, the Manitoba Gazette. The Manitoba Telegraph, the New Sun, the Daily Sun, the News. The Daily Times. The Manitoba Daily Herald. The sharply but confusingly named Quiz. The Standard, run by Molyneux St. John. Dafoe on St. John: There is a fine name for an editor!

All of these except the Free Press and Sun lived short lives, early newspaperman and NorWester founder William Coldwell said during an address to the Winnipeg Press Club in 1885. They had passed into the happy land where sheriffs are unknown. They didnt mature into adults. The luckiest of the papers struggled to make it past their 10th birthdays.

Not the Free Press. In November 1872, the first edition was being prepared. News editor Jack Cameron, a printer named Griffin, Kenny and Luxton. They set the type by hand.

November 30, 1872  the first edition.

The one youre holding in your hands, the latest.

  

One hundred and fifty years. Ten decades, and five more.

The morning and evening routine for over 54,000 days, for hundreds of thousands of readers. Stories written at one end of the spectrum in the same language but in different worlds entirely than those at the other.

The Red River Resistance hadnt happened when the presses first churned. John. W. Dafoe was a six-year-old boy. Harry Houdini had yet to be born.

The production of a newspaper is often referred to as a daily miracle, if you believe in that type of thing.

Winnipeg, from a viewpoint west of Main Street and south of (present) Graham Avenue. Old Grace Church (built 1869) in foreground. (Winnipeg Free Press Archives)

Sometimes it arrives late. Sometimes, it gets there early. Sometimes, there are speillng misteaks, but the paper keeps arriving. The letters are still typed by hand, but on electrical keyboards connected to every fact one could dream of accessing. The wooden shack became a downtown building which became an office in a North End industrial park.

A lot has changed, but a lot hasnt: the truth still matters above all else. Holding the powerful to account still matters above all else. The paper never was perfect, and it will never be perfect. It never claimed to be, either. The paper evolves as the world does, and makes sense of that evolution in real time. At its best, it gives amplification to voices that often go unheard. It strives for accuracy and honesty. It gives people the news  the sports, the business, the cartoons, the politics, the arts, the life  every single day, whether on real paper or on a glowing screen, trying to do the best job possible with a deadline ticking ever closer.

Thats not magic. Thats not a miracle.

Thats journalism.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com








[ staying alive ] 07.23.22 Ferals

B efore they got us, when we were on the streets still, no one had even heard of them. The sound of their bus woke me as it pulled up. It was night in the culvert. I slept in the cave it made when it wasnt raining, and when it was raining I set for the underpass. There the psychos would really swarm, and you couldnt get much sleep if you didnt have a partner to take shifts with. Sometimes Id partner with Bad Lou or Michael Joseph Rankin, but even then you had to be careful. I kept a knife in my ankle wraps and one under my belt, nearly everyone did, and when times got really bad I had a .22 pistol with three shells. A bunch of teenagers dumped it after one of them shot Bob Suitcase because he called them pretty. Bob lived because they were terrible shots, and because a .22 is mostly meant for vermin. The bus that pulled up was a Greyhound kind with metal sides, and the guys who got off wore matching tracksuits. Black. I thought it was a band maybe, got turned around trying to get on 95 after a concert at one of the stadiums. Looking back, they mustve done some research. They knew where to look. When I got on, there were already a half-dozen bums dipping out, chattering, sleeping across the seats. The black suit guys sat near the front, gave us bottled water. Michael Joseph Rankin thought it was a shelter when they said the name of it. It didnt sound like anything much. A place in the suburbs maybe. Some new age church and their food kitchen. The bus stopped another couple times. More guys like us got on. Only one had to get off because he started smashing his head against the window and screaming about paint fumes. The bus left the city. The roads got darker. We were warm and blanketed and free. They handed out sandwiches in plastic wrap. We didnt know what to say. They told us we would work for it. We nodded our heads. We wanted jobs we said. Nobody understood us. They nodded back. They understood. Michael Joseph Rankin fell asleep on my shoulder. I hadnt been on a bus in a while. It was quiet, that sound of the wheel wells, the rolling, macadam.

In the pavilion, some of them were weeping. They clung together and bopped to the subwoofers pulse, a beat so heavy our chests buzzed. I was letting one of them pour me another beer from the taps that lined the wooden bar. I hadnt had so much, so quick in a long time, and I was holding the counter so that they couldnt tell. Sweat was pouring down my face from the dancing. I know I mustve been smiling. But I wasnt shaking. And what I saw was truly there, as far as I could tell. There were at least two dozen of us among the hundred or so of them. You couldve seen right away who was who, even if they werent wearing their night-black tracksuits, even if we werent wooly and unshaved. After the music went, and everyone was hugging and cuddling their goodbyes, we went to the bunkhouse. In the morning we showered and some of us got our hair cut. They gave us better clothes to wear. We ate in the big cafeteria. They showed us the community. We mixed with them freely on the lawns and by the streams. These were the gates to keep the locals from snooping. This building was for school, this was for gift shopping, in this compound the leader lived. No one saw him much because he was very old, but his lieutenant made an appearance, a real scarecrow of a guy. White hair, dark beard. This lieutenant came around after our tour and asked if everything was going well so far. Bad Lou asked what we were doing. The lieutenant asked if he meant with our lives. Bad Lou said, Ill hear that too. The lieutenant smiled and waggled his head so his hair would fall behind his shoulders. Youve seen the world out there, he said. You damn right I have, said Bad Lou. The world in here is equal to the world out there, in opposite proportion. The priorities out there are controverted to the priorities in here and vice versa. So whats that mean about what well be doing? Bad Lou asked. The lieutenant nodded his head. Yes, yes, doing, exactly. Youre in the right place, my friends. Do we think the futures going to roll in on a coal barge? Or come dragged by a team of horses? No one could decide if that was what we thought. Out there, its the jungle all over again, the lieutenant crooned. Backwards, backwards, backwards. They dont even know what potential there is to be wasted. Do they? No, Bad Lou said. No! the lieutenant said. He was very pleased. Tomorrow youll get your assignments. After the dance that second night and after returning to our beds, Michael Joseph Rankin woke me climbing down from the top bunk. When I asked where he was going, he giggled, and a higher giggle answered from the window he was moving for. I saw her out there. One of them. Black jacket zipped down, blonde hair blowing. Apparently people just partnered up like this. On the green, in the gazebos, by starlight or the candles in their huts. They were very progressive. I wasnt jealous, even as I watched him go. Mike held up a finger then hiked his leg, let it out the window and was gone. I wish I had gotten a better look at which one he was going with, though it wouldnt have done much good. There were hundreds of them all dressed the same, coming and going, doing jobs, varied shifts. They didnt even use real names. But this was their land, their game, and soon after anyway, I started shaking for the first time since arriving. I held the sheet, I pressed my head, and I shook, shook, shook.

I asked about Mike at breakfast. Who? the street people asked. Mike. Michael Joseph Rankin. That was always how he introduced himself, so its how I asked after him. Bad Lou rapped his knuckles on my arm and said he got picked up for a crew, maybe. We were still trying to understand what we were going to do on our assignments. One guy called Steven, with a V, he always said, like we were going to be pen-pals, Id seen him at Market East Station in the 10th Street stairwell, Steven said the group brought us in because they were excavating into the hills farther up the creek and needed muckers. Normal mining or a doomsday bunker, who cares as long as they keep treating us good. No, another guy named Apple said. Apple slept in the alley behind St. Pauls. No one knew why they called him Apple. Apple said they brought us in to vote one of the group members onto the county commission. Now that their community was officially incorporated, it was the next logical stepto protect their interests against the surly locals. More buses of homeless were arriving every day, so we couldnt deny the possibility. One of the new guys, we couldnt say where he came from, he had a face like the side of the moon, acne scars or junkie scars, not even his ugly beard could grow through, Scarface said they were only keeping us around so they could harvest our organs. All these black tracksuit- wearing freaks were terminally ill, hence the dancing and partying all the time. They bussed us in, so they could cut out a kidney or two, then drop us back in whatever hellhole we came from. So if you believe that, what are you sticking around for? we asked him. Jokes on them, Scarface said. All this is full of cancer. He punched himself in the chest. We watched him, waiting for the next thing. After breakfast most of us went up to the ridge that followed the creek and dug a trench. For drainage, they said. We did it ok. Didnt feel like a chain gain. Some of us had actually done that before. The blacksuits we worked with were gentle. They sang softly while they dug, asked where we were from. No, they said when we muttered the different cities names, Originally. I only shook a little towards midday, but then we ate. Lunch in the shade. Sandwiches in cellophane. Same as the bus. Bottled water. Little packets of mayo, pouches of salt. I asked if all of us were at this one jobsite. A blacksuit with a mustache asked why I wanted to know. I told him I was looking for the guy I came in with. Michael Joseph Rankin. Oh yes, Mustache replied, there are many things to do, thus many separate crews. Youll see him tonight, he said, and put a hand on my shoulder. The heat of it startled me. We worked farther along. The creek was more of a river. From the ridge we could see the roofs of the cabins theyd built, the footpaths. They had already begun assembling a bridge farther downstream. I watched the yellow Cats chug along like kids toys. The little black foremen wore matching black hats. I asked one of the guys next to me if he saw the bridge. And the guy said, Well what am I supposed to see? I thought hed come in from Richmond that morning. He had an accent. When the day was done, the blacksuit with the mustache stopped and played his pickaxe like a guitar. The other blacksuits laughed and clapped. One or two of our guys joined in. A rock song from the 70s. Top 40. At dinner, no Mike. At the dance, the same. I hadnt had the full shakes since the night Mike slipped off, and I didnt want to risk it by getting hammered again. I only drank one beer and left after the first couple numbers. The pavilion still put off light and the sound echoed for miles, but I bumbled about, on and off paths until it was dark. Real dark, not city dark. Machines bucked and rumbled in different pockets of night. But I went past their work lights and tremors. And there, the grass to my knees, wet with cooling, I saw a little fires glow. I waited. It was there still. Normally something like a fire would tentacle and blur and people I knew from my childhood would stem out, distort from their fire bodies, bend with antelope necks. Playmates, cousins, the neighbors dog. The heads yap yap yapping. But this was just a fire. And around it were our guys. Steven, Apple, Bad Lou, some others from Baltimore or DC maybe. Standing before them was Scarface. Thats how, Scarface said, thats how they got it done. How else could they have? The group turned to me and Scarface asked, Found your friend? I said I hadnt and Scarface looked at the others and paused. See? How you been man? Bad Lou asked. I nodded. With all the Mike shit I mean? Bad Lou said, dipping his head. I shook my head. Still havent seen him, I said. You might be right, Bad Lou said to Scarface. About what? I asked. The food. The beer, Bad Lou said. What about it? What about it?! Scarface said. Antipsychotics, antidepressants, tranquilizers, performance enhancers, growth hormones, you name it. In the food? I asked. I looked straight into the fire but no figures were dog-heading out.

I asked about Mike again next day. Who? they said. A guy wearing a big green ski mask was chewing on a ketchup packet. Hed come in the night before. Mike bike trike kike, he said. He was my friend, I said. A guy with a cleft lip stood up and said, What kind of amperage you think these bigass fans pull? He pointed to the turbine-sized fans twirling at the cafeterias ceiling. The man in the ski mask did not reply. The leaders lieutenant called an assembly after breakfast. Buses continued to arrive from the south, the midwest. At least two hundred homeless guys sat around the front of the stage. They sucked on the water bottles theyd been given. The lieutenant stood on the platform and held up his hand. It was the same story as when he told us about our work assignments except this time instead of him stepping down and us going to work, he introduced the leader. Then there he was, this old old guy, the leader, the guy, hobbling like he needed a cane, white beard down to his belly, waving his bony bone-colored hands and smiling. The blacksuits were just screaming. Some of the new guys at the front were jumping up and down, holding their hands to their ears like, I cant hear you. After the leader sat on a big purple chair, and the blacksuits finally shut up, he talked about the futureof this place, the nation, the human race. Of possibility, limitlessness, deterioration and reconstruction, of tigers in cages, and lemon trees, communication and community and communion, of many hands upon the loom, and broken seals and a tower, a great golden tower with the sun come up behind it. They dont understaaand, he said. They dont understaaand! So what! The chariot rolls undaunted! And it is grappledTo. The. Stars! The blacksuits were foaming at the mouth, holding hands, swaying. The new street people thought they had won the lottery, some of them. They got up too and bobbed a bit as the leaders exit music played. It was a catchy melody, nothing we hadnt heard before. We sang along the words. Work that day was different. We climbed into caverns, wore headlamps on black helmets, the plastic unscuffed. We carried in crates, followed a string of light bulbs, set them down, went back for more. I didnt see cave monsters, piles of limbs, shadow squids sending trails of sludge up my leg. The light bulbs didnt become spider abdomens. There were no bats in my hair with the faces of unborn infants. I didnt have the shakes. We were high up, well above the ridge wed worked before. Lunch was the same, the sandwich variety only slightly different. Below we could see that the bridge from the previous day was completed. A jeep drove across every couple minutes. A new patch of buildings had appeared, not slant-roofed like the old cabins but domical, mostly made of glass. They glittered like crystals from where we sat, the mouth of the cave behind us. I didnt ask if anyone saw these buildings. Every time I looked, there they were.

I kept eating the food even though Scarfaces group told us not to. Maybe what was bad for them was good for me? I hadnt been shakeless in so long. I hadnt seen things since that night at the Market Street McDonalds. Buying dollar menu burgers, eating them at the table like a taxpayer. But why would a little satan position itself above the ladys restroom ledge? Why would it slap its bare red asscheeks, flap them really, like wings ready to take off, straight into my face? While I ate? Did it want to see the handcuffs? Did it want to smell the mace? I didnt tell the others I was still eating the cafeteria food, the lunch break sandwiches. I accepted the small roots and berries theyd begun foraging but only out of politeness. I alternated between the dance and the fire. One night, the sonic bump of the speaker against my chest, the next night, the heat of the flames on my face. The crowd at the fire continued to grow. I even saw a blacksuit or two listening at the edges of the light. If Scarface cared about being spied on, he didnt show it. He just talked about how conscription never really went away, and werent we all proof? The coming violence. The little slaves. Someone asked about the construction going up, and he scoffed. Then he just started listing all the things humans couldnt have possibly done: building the pyramids, creating a battery, curing disease by picking apart a cell. Work, progress, advancement, work, progress, advancement, he said. Plugch! There are litters of arrowheads, he said. Litters. Hidden in these hills. Will they snare a skyscraper? You people really still trust the stuff? Work details shifted, buildings grew, like the leader said they would. More men came on buses from San Antonio, Albuquerque, Mesa, Carson City, Anaheim, Bakersfield, St. George. Just as the blacksuits began visiting the fire, some of the homeless began wearing black suits. They never said we had to, but it was happening anyway. Apple took over running one of the shifts I worked, spraying some kind of metal paint on the inside of a hangar. The hangar had long planes in it a couple days later. Then we loaded the planes with big shiny cases, stacked them, folded in their wheels. Apple was a pretty good boss. He told jokes on the breaks. Wouldnt tattle if you smoked some. At night Scarface stood by the fire. More and more blacksuits came. No spies, but converts. Those who flocked to him started shaving their heads. Each night, the followers of Scarface assembled, a patch of bald pates shining. Then youd see them during the day doing their normal thing. Like all the blacksuits baldies who served food or drove busses were inconspicuous with their knowing nods. Like revolution, like counter-revolution was just a pastime. Gatherings at lunch break spent chewing sorrel, burdock, field mustard, chicory. Hunting parties at twilight darting around, descending the hills with pelts, cooking skewers of venison, rabbit haunches. I preferred the sandwiches. The work pushed on. Turbines were lowered into the creek. Tunnels were connected to the hub. We ran cables to the hilltops. We erected the towers. We polished and quarried and schlepped. But for all the street people who began donning the black outfits, just as many blacksuits were creeping towards the fire. Shaved heads in the orange light. Big beards in the track suits. Then Scarface talked about war. War as the only solution. To the mass suicide the blacksuits were surely plotting. Whether with pills or juice, earbuds or screens, tomorrow or twenty years hence, war was salvation from the stuff. He preached redemption from quackery, apathy, the hollow gods of technology, false, false, false. Copper vanished from workshops. Forges winked across the forest. I didnt know about their plans for an attack. They understood I wasnt full-fledged.

On the morning of the assault, the baldies showed up with spears and claw hammers hanging from leather thongs. But an assembly had already been called in the compound. A blacksuit security detail greeted them, assault rifles slung from their shoulders with black pleather shoulder straps. They had known. They were ready. The sides were so mutually enmeshed, the face-off seemed predestined. Some of these guards were men who had vomited on loafers while panhandling, lined their trash bags with newspapers, scrawled messages on cardboard: Godbless, Have blessed day, GBA. I fondled the .22 still tucked within my waist wraps, eyeing both sides. Scarface in war paint laughed at the blacksuits when they pointed their rifles at his faction. Terr-ors! He called them. Terr-ors! Whatre you pro-tect-ing? A blacksuit with a blonde ponytail and an orange beard said, This is private property. Oh prop-erty! I forgot thats all you care about! Backwards! Came a call from within the cluster. More complaint than taunt. What did you say?! The leaders lieutenant emerged then from the mass of blacksuits. His white hair was pulled back in a tight bun. He wore a bandoleer. The eye guard protruding from his helmet was tinted cobalt. A wire ran from his ear to a device clipped to his shoulder pad. Backwards, backwards, backwards, he shouted. If you can resist hurling your own dung for a few moments, the leader has an announcement to make. One of the bald savages swung his sling and loosed a bit of scrap metal. The shiny projectile ponged off the eye guard of the lieutenant and sent him tumbling. The surrounding blacksuits lifted the lieutenant and led him to the medical cloister. Well fuckin gas you motherfucks! One of the blacksuits shouted as they applied re- lubricating drops amidst their retreat. Then the loudspeakers crackled on. The claxons bayed. A voice buzzed through. Hear him. Hear him. Hear him. The blacksuits lowered their guns, murmuring, and set off for the stage. See? See what I mean? Scarface scoffed. The baldies watched the blacksuits go. On the stage, roughly 100 yards away, the leader entered to subdued applause. He looked like he had aged decades and now leaned on a white cane. His voice was papery and his speech short: Defeat. The progress was tremendous but not enough. Funding was depleted. The global communitys efforts could not sustain their great work. The building would need to continue internally. The journey would need to continue separately. They played no song as he tottered to a helicopter and disappeared. Scarfaces bald militia clanked their weapons and ululated, but the chieftain himself had disappeared. For many days after, the baldies wondered if the leaders admission of defeat and his helicopter withdrawal was all a ruse. A distraction to disrupt the truth. What if the blacksuits had managed to gas him? Who then might they gas next? Meanwhile, the blacksuits hugged one another, sang a few sad songs while they packed, then boarded their busses and left. The same busses that brought us here. By sunset the compound was largely abandoned. I took the .22 out of my shirt and threw it into the creek.

I continued living there along with several other street people. The baldies stripped the buildings of metals and glass and swept away into the hills. At nights you could hear a faint hooting and small arms fire. We dozen or so who remained sustained ourselves off the food stores. We could not continue the work as the large equipment had been moved off and sold. We contented ourselves to walk the trails, swim, scatter. I carved Michael Joseph Rankins name on the underside of the bridge built that first day of work. I slept under it occasionally, tracing the letters. Gifts of deer shanks and baskets of morels would appear from time to time, and we would smile. I did what I had done for years before: survive. I havent had the shakes for ages now. I see no demons, no wall-smeared secrets written by disembodied heads with crayons as tongue tips. I sleep and wake freely, eat and drink as needed, though this can be hard in the wild. Tracking is tough, but I can scavenge ok. Im beyond the bounds of the baldies now, seeking abandoned hunting shacks, campsites with coin- operated showers, dumpsters of dive bars cradled in the boonies. I find myself drawn towards the cities. Their leavings are freer, their shelters pre-carved in metal and concrete. It was nice to be taken care of, but I think someday Ill make my way back, now that I know, now that Im clean.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Trend reports.

"Dear Mr. President,

I cordially congratulate you and through you, your entire people on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Arab Republic of Egypt  the Revolution Day.

It is gratifying to see the current level of the ties between our countries that celebrate 30 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. I believe that the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between Azerbaijan and Egypt will continue to evolve and expand through our joint efforts both bilaterally and multilaterally.

On this festive day, I wish you good health, happiness, success in your endeavors, and everlasting peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Egypt," the letter said.
John Preun has been farming east of Selkirk for decades and this years wet, cold spring was a worrisome scenario, even for the self-proclaimed eternal optimist.

This is the 43rd crop Ive put in and it was by far the most challenging, Preun said. Before seeding, I thought, oh boy, this does not look good.

But he ended up planting the largest crop hes grown  8,200 acres  and like many other Prairie farmers hes expecting an average-sized crop. JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Farmer John Preun has ended up planting the largest crop hes grown, at 8,200 acres, despite a poor start to the season.

Even though average does not sound very exciting, compared to the drought-ravaged crop of last year and the fact that Manitoba producers were forced to seed their crops as much as three weeks later than usual, most will be glad to achieve those middling results.

With that type of good fortune being the general sentiment, many producer groups are turning their attention to raising awareness about the challenges in the Canadian grain logistics system, especially in light of the need for the Canadian ag industry to try to help alleviate the compromised global food security caused by the war in Ukraine.

(On Friday morning it was announced that with the help of the UN and Turkey, a deal has been signed to allow grain exports for the next four months from Ukrainian Black Sea ports freeing up more than 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian wheat and other commodities into the world market.) Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press FILES Canadas largest railways say they moved record grain tonnage out of Western Canada in April.

They have launched a campaign called Canadas Ready including a sort of goodwill social media element but also another call for greater transparency from the two Class 1 Canadian railroads, CN and CP.

Kevin Auch, a farmer near Lethbridge, Alta., and the chair of Pulse Canada, said that hopefully allowing grain and fertilizer shipments from Ukrainian and Russian ports will relieve some of the pressure from the global food supply.

But he worries about Canadas ability to help fill the gap that had been created by the war because of spotty service from the rail duopoly in Canada.

Canadian farmers will still try to get as much of our grain to market as we can, hopefully all of it he said. But there has been problems with the railroads the last few years. It has been concerning and now that there is more demand we dont want to miss out on that.

The campaign, that includes Pulse Canada, Cereals Canada, the Canola Council and Western Grain Elevator Association have a few things they want to see the railroads address, including: transparency on how they plan to move grain based on information from the grain sector; forming an industry/government council to track CN and CPs 12 labour agreements that are expired or will expire in 2022; monthly updates on rail capacity; and increasing support for the railroads comprehensive performance measurement programs.

Jeff English, Pulse Canadas vice-president of marketing and communications said, the expectations are that the peas, chickpeas, lentil, beans and fava bean crop will be about 50 per cent larger than it was last year.

Last year we had a poor crop, but we also has some very poor rail service, he said. If we couldnt move what little we had last year are we ready to move what we know were going to have this year which is going to be a lot more?

He said the campaign is an effort to focus attention on the issue.

Meanwhile producers like Preun are just glad to have been able to get a crop in the ground this year.

Dane Froese, an oilseed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and the editor of its weekly Crop Report, said the current estimate is that about 700,000 acres were left unseeded in Manitoba and about 9.45 million that did get into production.

That is the third highest total of unseeded acres in the past decade and a lot less than the nearly three million acres that could not be planted after the flooding of 2011.

In broad strokes we are facing about an average crop, said Froese. There will be certain locales that will go above that and lots that will go way below that if they did not get a crop in the ground.

Colleen Flynn, manager of crop industry development with Manitoba Agriculture, said, The later that crops are in the ground does decrease yields. Some crops are better than others but delayed seeding can have impact on the crop for sure.

With that said, for farmers like Preun and others, this is one of the most important crops in their careers.

There is a lot hanging on us, he said. There are lots of hungry mouths to feed around the world and we know there are supply chain issues between the war in Ukraine and the hangover from COVID. We can grow the crop in Western Canada. Our challenge is to get that crop to where its needed to be to feed the people in the world.

A spokeswoman for CP said its 2022-23 grain service outlook report will be released later this month.

CP is once again well-positioned to meet the transportation needs of our grain customers and the broader Canadian economy during the upcoming 2022-2023 crop year, she said.

CN will be also be releasing its grain plan by the end of the month.

A CN spokesman said, The grain plan will provide details regarding what CN is doing to prepare for the 2022-2023 grain crop.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)  The state of Georgia and local governments are giving $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to Hyundai Motor Group in exchange for the automaker building its first U.S. plant dedicated to electric vehicles near Savannah, according to the signed agreement disclosed Friday.

The deal calls for Hyundai to invest $5.5 billion in its Georgia plant and hire 8,100 workers. Its the largest economic development deal in the states history and comes just months after Georgia closed another major deal with electric vehicle maker Rivian to build a factory in the state.

Not only do these generational projects solidify our spot at the vanguard of the EV transition, but they also ensure that thousands of Georgians across the state will benefit from the jobs of the future, Pat Wilson, the states economic development commissioner, said in a statement. FILE - A banner welcomes Hyundai Motor Group to their future home at the Bryan County mega-site in Ellabell, Ga., Friday, May 20, 2022. Georgia officials are close to finalizing a deal with the automaker to build a $5.5 billion electric car plant near Savannah, Ga. An economic development agency representing four Savannah-area counties approved its portions of the agreement Tuesday, July 19, 2022, including an economic incentives package. (Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News via AP, File)

Hyundai executives and Gov. Brian Kemp announced the deal in May with a champagne toast at the projects sprawling 2,900 acre (1,170 hectare) site in Bryan County, west of Savannah. Hyundai plans to start construction on the plant next year and begin producing up to 300,000 vehicles per year in 2025. The new factory also will produce vehicle batteries.

But officials declined to reveal what incentives the automaker had been promised until after the agreement was signed.

The package disclosed Friday is worth roughly $300 million more than incentives promised to Rivian. It amounts to Georgia and four counties in the Savannah area giving Hyundai about $228,000 per job created. FILE - Georgia Gov. Bran Kemp, left, and Jaehoon "Jay" Chang, Hyundai Motor Company president and CEO, shake hands after signing an agreement to finalize a deal for Hyundai Motor Group to build a manufacturing plant in Ellabell, Ga., Friday, May 20, 2022. Georgia officials are close to finalizing a deal with the automaker to build a $5.5 billion electric car plant near Savannah, Ga. An economic development agency representing four Savannah-area counties approved its portions of the agreement Tuesday, July 19, 2022, including an economic incentives package. (Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News via AP, File)

Georgia officials insist its a worthwhile investment. Wilson said Hyundais payroll at the new plant is expected to reach $4.7 billion over 10 years. Parts suppliers are expected to create thousands of additional jobs in the state.

The $1.8 billion in incentives is easily the largest subsidy package a U.S. state has ever promised for an automotive plant, said Greg LeRoy, executive director Good Jobs First, a group skeptical of subsidies to private companies.

Thats inherently super-risky, LeRoy said, because youre betting a huge amount on one company and one facility.

Local governments are giving Hyundai more than $472 million in property tax breaks, though Hyundai will pay more than $357 million in lieu of taxes over a 26-year period starting in 2023.

The company will also receive more than $212 million in state income tax credits, at $5,250 per job over five years. If Hyundai didnt owe that much state corporate income tax, Georgia would instead give the company personal income taxes collected from Hyundai workers.

The state and local governments spent $86 million to purchase the plant site. And the state will spend $200 million on road construction and improvements, plus $50 million more to help fund construction, machinery and equipment. Sales tax exemptions on construction materials and machinery expenses are estimated to cost $396 million.

Georgia officials say the deal requires Hyundai to pay back a portion of the incentives if the company falls below 80% of promised investment or employment.

Kia, another subsidiary of the Hyundai Motor Group, got more than $450 million in incentives for its plant in West Point, southwest of Atlanta. Georgia has promised SK Innovation $300 million in incentives for a $2.6 billion, 2,600-worker battery plant that the Korean company is building northeast of Atlanta.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  An Oklahoma man claiming to be a film financier has been sentenced in Florida to nearly 22 years in federal prison for participating in a scheme to steal more than $60 million from investors and producers seeking financing for movies and Broadway shows.

Jason Van Eman, 44, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was sentenced Thursday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, according to court records. A jury found him guilty in May of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to court records, Van Eman and co-defendant Benjamin McConley, operating as Weathervane Productions, offered to provide financing to investors and producers seeking funds to produce motion pictures, theater performances and other projects. McConley and Van Eman promised the victims they would match their cash contributions and use the combined funds to secure financing from financial institutions in South Florida and elsewhere, investigators said.

Benjamin Rafael, a former Wells Fargo bank employee recruited by McConley and Van Eman, furthered the scheme by lying to victims about the security of their funds, prosecutors said. Victims lost millions of dollars and their contributions were never matched. Instead of financing projects, the money was transferred to personal and corporate bank accounts and spent on luxury automobiles, personal watercraft, real estate, stocks, jewelry, home furnishings, designer clothes, hotel accommodations and air travel, prosecutors said.

Eman was sentenced on Thursday to 21 years and 10 months in prison. On a previous occasion, McConley was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Rafael previously pleaded guilty to his part in the scheme, as well as another case involving fraudulent applications for COVID-19 relief loans. He was sentenced to 3 1/2 three and a half years in prison.
Rogers Communications Inc. was unable to switch customers to competing carriers during the unprecedented service outage earlier this month despite offers of assistance from Bell and Telus, the company said in a document released late Friday.

The telecom giant was also unable to shut down its radio access network, which would have automatically connected customers to another carrier for 911 calls, Rogers said in a submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The fresh details offer a glimpse into the multiple options considered by Rogers during the blanket outage that knocked out mobile, landline and internet service to millions of customers across Canada on July 8. The House of Commons industry committee will hold two hearings today about the Rogers outage that lasted more than 15 hours and left millions of Canadians in a communications blackout. People use Starbucks' provided WIFI at a store in Toronto amid a nationwide Rogers outage, affecting many of the telecommunication company's services, Friday, July 8, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

It also reveals how the sweeping outage across its network limited its ability to respond with interim solutions while it restored service.

As a result, Rogers was unable to route most 911 calls or deliver four emergency alerts during the service disruption.

Despite competitors offering assistance during the outage, the company said it was unable to switch customers to a rival carrier.

It said doing so would have required access to parts of its system that were down during the outage.

Competing networks, Rogers said in its submissions, would also not have been able to handle the extra sudden volume of wireless customers, which the company pegged at more than 10 million.

The related voice and data traffic surge could have impeded operations on the other carriers networks, it said.

Meanwhile, Rogers considered shutting down its radio access network during the outage, which would have automatically connected customers to another carrier for 911 calls.

But once again, the company said the outage that took down its core system made such a shutdown impossible.

Moreover, turning off the radio access network would have prolonged the outage because restoring it once its network was fixed would have taken several hours, Rogers said.

While considered many times during the day, shutting down the (radio access network) was simply not a solution, Rogers said in its submission to the CRTC.

The best and fastest way to restore 911 was to restore the network itself.

As a result, Rogers said its radio access network remained in service, preventing many customer phones from automatically attempting to connect elsewhere.

Mobile customers always have the option to remove the SIM card from their device and to then place a 911 call. The handset will automatically connect to the strongest signal for emergency calls, Rogers said.

Although the number of failed 911 calls is unknown, the company said it was able to route thousands during its networks intermittent service. Some Rogers customers were able to place emergency calls using the Bell or Telus networks.

Much of the specific information Rogers submitted to the CRTC was redacted from the document for security and competitive purposes.

Rogers also said four emergency alerts, all issued in Saskatchewan, did not reach customers during the outage.

It said one alert from the RCMP was related to a dangerous person while three were tornado warnings issued by Environment Canada.

Rogers, Bell and Telus are currently discussing solutions for potential future outages, which are expected to be included in a report to Ottawa this fall.

Rogers has come under intense scrutiny from both customers and the Canadian government following the ordeal, which also affected businesses and the Interac debit system.

Chief Executive Tony Staffieri has pledged to improve the resiliency of the companys mobile and internet network.

Company representatives are scheduled to appear before the House of Commons industry committee on Monday to further discuss the outage.

The committee held an emergency meeting on July 15 and voted unanimously to open an investigation into the outage.

The committee will seek answers about the cause of the outage, its overall effect, and best practices to avoid similar situations in the future and better communicate with the public during such emergencies.

Following the outage, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne directed Canadas major telecom companies to reach agreements on assisting each other during outages and a communication protocol to better inform Canadians during emergencies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2022.
Dwayne Johnson went a few steps beyond merely teasing his long-awaited Black Adam movie at Comic-Con in San Diego on Saturday.

Ever the showman, Johnson brought a new traile r for the DC Comics superhero film and some flashy technology, lighting up the biggest room at the annual fan convention all while in costume. But he had another big reveal too: Johnson told the 6,000-some people in the audience that they could see Black Adam in IMAX for free with the help of the ticketing service Fandango.

The character Black Adam has the powers of the ancient gods and has been entombed for some 5,000 years before being released into the modern world. In the trailer he says his powers are a curse, not a gift. Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock, participates in the "Black Adam" portion of the Warner Bros. Theatrical panel on day three of Comic-Con International on Saturday, July 23, 2022, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Set for an Oct. 21 theatrical release, Black Adam reunites Johnson with his Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra. It also stars Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, all of whom joined Johnson and Collet-Serra for the panel.

Black Adam was just one part of Warner Bros. return to Comic-Con, where audiences also got a glimpse at a new trailer for  Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Stars Zachary Levi and Lucy Liu were on hand to promote the sequel, which is due to arrive in theaters on Dec. 21 and continues the story of a teenager-turned-superhero who is feeling a bit like a fraud. The film sees the return of Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody and adds Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler of West Side Story to the mix.

The studio stuck to its 2022 superhero releases, forgoing sneak peeks at films due next year. One of those is The Flash, whose star Ezra Miller was arrested in Hawaii twice this year  in a disorderly conduct case and on suspicion of assault.

Miller plays Barry Allen in the Andy Muschietti-directed film, which has wrapped production and is supposed to open in June 2023. They have been credited as the first out LGBT person to play a lead role in a major superhero film.
MONTREAL  Tourists were among those lining up to get monkeypox vaccines in Montreal on Saturday, as the World Health Organization declared the virus a global health emergency.

Brian Maci was one of several New Yorkers who was waiting to get the shot at an outdoor walk-in clinic in the citys Gay Village.

Maci, who was already in Montreal on vacation, said he was prompted to get the vaccine in Canada after trying unsuccessfully to book an appointment back home. Brian Maci, from New York, receives a monkeypox vaccine at an outdoor walk-in clinic in Montreal, Saturday, July 23, 2022. Tourists are among those lining up to get monkeypox vaccines in Montreal, as the World Health Organization declares the virus a global health emergency. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Its like concert tickets, he said of the process in New York.

He said he went online right when appointments opened up at 6 p.m., only to have to constantly refresh a stalled app and eventually be told no appointments were available.

Later, at a drag show, he heard an announcement that vaccines were available in Montreal, including for tourists.

They mentioned that this was here and its the best thing ever because the community is reaching out, and I can get it without having to deal with the U.S, he said.

Another vacationing couple from New York told a similar story about trying to book a vaccine appointment back home.

I was kicked out of the system maybe five or six times and eventually there were no more appointments, and no telling when more appointments would be released, said Brad, a 36-year-old who did not want to give his last name.

We were able to come here and get a walk-in vaccine and its amazing, an incredible service, he said.

Montreal is offering vaccination against the disease to all men who have sex with men, as well as to people who have been exposed to monkeypox.

On Saturday, about a dozen health care workers sat under pink and blue tents on Ste-Catherine street, providing information to people who stopped by to inquire about the vaccine.

Men were asked for their health cards or, in the case of tourists, for a piece of ID, and sat under the tents or perched on a nearby wall waiting for their turn.

McGill University infectious diseases specialist Michael Libman said opening up the vaccine to tourists makes perfect sense and is the right thing to do to stop the disease from spreading.

The big problem is not local spread, but people moving the disease from place to place, he said in a phone interview.

The World Health Organization announced Saturday that monkeypox now qualifies as a global emergency, noting it has spread to more than 70 countries.

A global emergency is the organizations highest level of alert, but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal. Similar declarations were made for the Zika virus in 2016 in Latin America and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision on calling monkeypox a global emergency despite a lack of consensus among experts on the U.N. health agencys emergency committee, saying he acted as a tiebreaker. It was the first time a U.N. health agency chief has unilaterally made such a decision without an expert recommendation.

We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, he said. I know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views.

Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May, when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

There were 681 confirmed cases of monkeypox across five provinces in Canada as of Saturday, including 331 in Quebec, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Case numbers have doubled since July 1, the agency said, noting its also logged the first diagnosis involving a female and the first infections in the province of Saskatchewan during the same time period.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, the Government of Canadas top priority has been protecting the health of all Canadians, read a statement issued after the WHOs declaration. The Government acknowledges the WHOs determination and will continue its work with provinces and territories as it has since the start of the monkeypox outbreak. ***

The Quebec government said Friday in an email that monkeypox in the province is relatively contained despite numbers that continue to creep upward.

The province said it did not keep numbers on how many of the 13,000 vaccines administered so far went to tourists from outside the province.

In general, we recommend that people get vaccinated in their province or region of origin so that the vaccine has time to be effective before their visit to Quebec or Montreal, the Health Department wrote.

Libman said the WHOs declaration of a global emergency constitutes a call to action that countries need to contain it.

He says that for now, the disease is mainly being transmitted among a small segment of the population  men who report intimate contact with men  which makes it controllable as long as health officials act quickly.

But he notes anyone can get monkeypox, which is spread through prolonged close contact via respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or bodily fluids, or through contaminated clothes or bedding.

That means if it isnt brought under control, it will inevitably spread to other groups, including households, he said.

Most of the men lining up in Montreal said they werent overly worried about getting monkeypox, or about the WHO announcement.

For me its more about prevention, but you never know, said Mario Thouin, a resident of Drummondville, Que.

Twenty-three year old Isaiah Hagerman, on the other hand, said hed already been mulling getting vaccinated, but the WHO announcement gave him the push he needed.

If somebody gave me a pamphlet maybe a week ago, I probably would have walked past this, he said.

Maci, for his part, said he felt uplifted by the warm welcome he received in Montreal as well as the community effort to protect people.

(Monkeypox) doesnt scare me because of this, he said, gesturing at the pink and blue tents. New York is stressful.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2022.

 With files from The Associated Press
For Jason Alexander-Moore, experience, opportunity and growth form the pillars of a healthy childhood. Thats why he cant wait to send his children to summer camp.

I loved going to the cabin as a kid, just being outside all the time like we are supposed to be, Alexander-Moore said.

I just want them to have the experience Maybe give them a chance to branch out into different activities they maybe didnt even know they were interested in, SUPPLIED Intervarsity Pioneer Camp

His boys, Liam, 14, and Kaleb, 11, will head to Intervarsity Pioneer Camp on Aug. 7.

They will discover archery, canoeing and the shock of the morning dip, an Intervarsity tradition Alexander-Moore remembers from when he visited the camp in his youth.

You get up, you jump in the lake, and then you go back to your cabin and get ready for breakfast, he said. It was just fun I cant associate camp with anything negative, I mean, maybe I am fortunate, but I had a great time.

The brothers, who have never experienced the excitement of sleepaway camp, are jumping straight into the deep end with a 12-day extended stay at a camp facility on MacKinnon Island. Intervarsity operates the campsite, which is located on Shoal Lake in Ontario.

Sending the boys there would not have been possible without support from the Sunshine Fund, a Manitoba Camping Association program that subsidizes the cost of summer camp for kids, Alexander-Moore said.

For more than four decades, the association and Free Press have collaborated to maintain and promote the fund, which relies heavily on donors. During that time, the joint efforts have sent upwards of 22,000 children to camp.

Its fantastic because I dont think Id be able to do it without it, Alexander-Moore said. If (people) dont have the means, theres no harm in applying if theres an opportunity for you to do something extra for your children, do it.

When Liam and Kaleb return home, Alexander-Moore expects the boys will have grown from the experience. Camp gives children the chance to discover themselves, away from the influence of their school peers and parents, he said.

I think every kid should have the opportunity to go to camp, and being able to access something like the Sunshine Fund gives people that opportunity where they maybe werent able to. If you dont qualify one year, maybe you will the following, so keep trying, Alexander-Moore said.

People who want to apply to a camp can visit the association website to find links to its accredited camps.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Ninety countries, and not a single souvenir. On her world travels, Jean Brown never even took a photograph.

She didnt want any encumbrances, says Browns childhood best friend and travel buddy, Joyce Lamont Hughes.

Over the course of their 90-year friendship and 45 years spent criss-crossing the continents together  aboard an icebreaker in Antarctica, in a hot air balloon over the Serengeti, living in a tent in the mountains of Nepal  Brown never cared much for possessions. She valued loyalty, and was true to herself and her friends.

The friends who remember her now describe themselves as her family. If you were a friend of hers, youre a friend for life, Hughes says.

Brown died July 9 in Winnipeg, at 94, after a 30-year career as a newspaperwoman, and decades spent volunteering in support of Indigenous rights and women involved in the criminal justice system.

Born Jan. 31, 1928, the only child of a dentist, Brown grew up in River Heights and developed a soft spot for the underdog.

Meticulous, dry-witted and proudly anti-technology, Brown had a depth of compassion her straightforward, unsentimental and sometimes stubborn nature couldnt disguise.

She had enormous patience, Hughes remembers, fondly referring to her friend only by her last name  a grade-school signifier of superior friendship that persisted their whole lives. With no siblings or children of her own, Brown wanted to help people who didnt have a break in life, Hughes says.

She started her career at the Winnipeg Free Press in May 1952, after years of teaching figure skating classes to children and adults.

Hughes already worked at the Free Press, and suggested her friend apply. Brown was hired as a society reporter, and her first assignment, she would later tell a frequent visitor to her retirement home, was to cover an event at the Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club, outside Kenora, Ont.

She said, And I knew nothing about it! But I went and I just got tossed into the mess and had to do the best I could  and I think I did, recalls Gillian Robertson, a family friend.

Within a few months at her new job, Browns work started to delve deeper. She penned a feature in September 1952 about the careers and contributions of highly educated immigrant women in Manitoba under the heading, The Old World Enriches the New.

Brown loved the work, took pride in her writing  and spent quite a bit of time being social while putting together the newspapers social pages.

In the early 1960s, a colleague introduced her to his wife and children. From then on, Brown was a part of the family, recalls Susanne Olver, who knew Brown for 60 years. They spent summers at Browns cottage at Falcon Lake, with the small, unreliable motorboat Brown christened the Damn Nuisance.

She became an auntie to my children, and we have been close friends ever since, Olver says.

Brown had a special affection for Olvers daughter, Caroline Fawcett, who referred to her as a second mother. Fawcett takes credit for softening Brown, a staunch non-cat person, into the kind of delighted pet owner who ultimately colour co-ordinated her condo in shades of dark brown, tan and blue to match her beloved Siamese cats.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, dementia set in, friends say. But prior to that Brown kept herself in great physical shape. She chose her retirement home for its proximity to walking trails and completed long bike rides daily well into her 80s.

Her job, excellent memory and constant need to be neat and organized, combined with her curiosity, meant Brown was full of stories. Shed recount attending a luncheon with Queen Elizabeth, watching in amazement as the British monarch reapplied her lipstick right at the table.

She was the most interesting person, Robertson says.

More than once, Brown made friends laugh retelling the story of her sealskin coat.

She wore it every winter, but one day on her way into the office, a Free Press janitor called out, Oh, Miss Brown, I can see what youve been doing a lot of! She looked down at the rear end of her coat, and all the fur had been worn off the butt, Fawcett remembers with a laugh. She thought it was funny.

For many years, Brown worked as a society page editor and womens editor. She retired as TV editor of the Free Press in 1982, just as computers were beginning to change the newspaper business. She wanted no part of that movement, friends say.

In her time off, Brown volunteered with the Elizabeth Fry Society  an accomplishment she was probably most proud of, friends say, and worked as an archival assistant at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Brown served on several boards, including for Mount Carmel Clinic and the Indian and Metis Friendship Society of Winnipeg.

And every year  sometimes twice a year  shed meet up with Hughes in a far-off country, generally up for anything as long as she could stay clean and organized. Their first trip was to China in the early 1980s. After they exhausted Asia, they moved on to European river cruises, Hughes says, describing Brown as an ideal travel companion because they were opposite in every way.

Their cancelled plan for 2020 was a trip to Dubai, with Brown then 92. They never considered themselves too old, Hughes says. You tend to forget that. We never thought about that.

A few years ago, Hughes says she started to doubt they had many more adventures left in them. Brown wouldnt hear it.

I said, Well, I think this is our last trip. And she said, Well, why? So, of course, we just kept on going, says Hughes, who lives in Texas.

It wouldnt matter if wed spent years apart. If I went up there now and Brown was still there, wed be exactly the same.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
Like many Liberals and political commentators in 1919, the Free Press editor, John W. Dafoe, had concerns about the new leader of the Liberal Party, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Despite Kings prior experience as the deputy minister of labour and then as Canadas first labour minister after he was elected a MP in 1908, the 44-year-old somewhat quirky bachelor did not initially, at least evoke a lot of confidence in some quarters.

In the 1921 federal election, the Free Press, a longtime supporter of the Liberal party, had instead favoured the farmers Progressive Party, which won the second-most seats in the House of Commons. For a time, King led a minority government and floated the idea of a Liberal-Progressive coalition.

Prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King

Dafoe did not think that was a good idea. At the Manitoba Club, Dafoe was the unofficial head of the Sanhedrin, an elite group which also included Thomas Crerar, the reluctant leader of the Progressive Party, Bert Hudson, another prospective Progressive MP, Frank Fowler, a wealthy grain executive, Herbert J. Symington, a lawyer and railway executive, and lawyer James B. Coyne. Crerar took the groups advice seriously and they steered him away from a King-led coalition.

At the same time, King, who regarded the Progressives as Liberals in a hurry, rightly concluded that the Progressives, if given the choice, would rather have a Liberal government than a Conservative one. And so Kings government was secure for the time being. Dafoe remained wary of King and privately stated he was the Liberals poorest asset. Dafoe insisted, as he told one acquaintance in 1922, that Kings political amateurishness in view of the position he holds is almost unbelievable.

Prime minister Robert Borden

Within a year, Dafoes view of King improved as he got to know him better. In the fall of 1923, King was preparing for the imperial conference in London where he would make the case for greater autonomy for Canada and other dominions of the British Empire. At the time, this was considered a controversial issue. Wisely, King sought out help from two individuals who thought about Canadas relations with Britain as he did and who opposed a common imperial foreign policy  Oscar Skelton from Queens University and Dafoe.

Skelton was invited to accompany King as an expert adviser and within two years he was Kings undersecretary of state for external affairs. He served in the department for the Liberal and Conservative governments until his death in 1941, shaping the countrys foreign policy more than any other public servant then or possibly since.

King also understood that any attempt by him to assert Canadas autonomy was bound to receive bad press from British and Canadian Conservative newspapers. He urged several Liberal newspapers to send journalists to cover the conference and presumably slant the story in a friendlier and pro-Liberal fashion. He also requested that Sir Clifford Sifton, Free Press owner, send Dafoe to advise him. Despite the criticisms Dafoe had levelled at King, the prime minister knew Dafoe, as well as Sifton, shared his more liberal views on Canadian autonomy within the empire.

Clifford Sifton (Winnipeg Free Press Archives)

Moreover, King was aware that Dafoe had travelled with prime minister Robert Borden to Europe in 1919 to attend the peace conference at the end of the First World War and dispatched favourable reports to Canada. Then, too, Dafoe supported Bordens efforts to push for Canadian autonomy within the British Empire and favoured the countrys independent participation in the League of Nations.

Yet he later conceded that his dual role as both journalist and representative of the Department of Public Information, a position he willingly accepted, often put him in an uncomfortable situation. Borden had no qualms about arranging, as he put it, for Dafoe to write a particular article he wanted disseminated to Canadian newspapers. Borden usually vetted Dafoes articles and dictated changes that were made. In this way, Borden tightly controlled the flow of information from Paris.

These limitations cramped my style as a journalist, Dafoe recalled more than two decades later. There was no room for speculation, for deductions based upon assembled facts, or for racy descriptions of dramatic incidents, such as marked the proceedings at Paris. But what they lack in picturesqueness they gain in solidity  they are an authentic record of what went on in London and Paris to the extent that the principals thought it advisable to make the facts public at that time.

John W. Dafoe (Winnipeg Free Press Archives)

While Dafoe was thus apprehensive about repeating this experience with King, Sifton was more enthusiastic. You could undoubtedly have great influence with King, he wrote to Dafoe, and might conceivably exert a determining influence on vital matters.

Dafoe was not as certain. I have very little confidence in King, he told Sifton. I am afraid his conceit in his ability to take care of himself is equalled only by his ignorance and I should not be surprised if he should find himself trapped. I have no intention of becoming an unofficial member of a board of strategy to assist him while the Conference is on.

Despite these initial reservations, Dafoe agreed to accompany the prime minister, Skelton and the members of the small Canadian delegation. Dafoe might not have wanted to become Kings unofficial adviser, but once they were on the ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, thats exactly what happened. Next to Skelton, there was likely no one else whose advice King valued more. In the end, Kings performance at the conference and his fortitude in sticking to his nationalist principles sufficiently impressed Dafoe.

The 1923 conference was a (very) small step toward Canada achieving autonomy in its foreign affairs. The truth was that in his words and actions in London in 1923 King had hardly disowned the empire or Canadas commitment to the empires welfare. When there was real danger, Canada would be there as it had in 1914 and as it was to be in 1939 with the outbreak of the Second World War.

King returned to Canada confident his personal reputation and political worth had much improved. Even Dafoe had grudgingly conceded that, as for King, my regard for him has perceptibly increased by what I saw of him in London. He is an abler man than I thought; he has more courage that I gave him credit for, Dafoe wrote to a friend. He added, however, what may be one of the great backhanded compliments in Canadian political history: In the right setting and with the right men behind him, King would be a not unacceptable party leader.

As the initial success of the Progressives faded  some of the partys members later joined the new Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the predecessor of the NDP  Dafoe had no choice but to support King against the detested Conservatives led by Arthur Meighen and then R.B. Bennett. In Kings celebrated feud with Gov. Gen. Viscount Byng in 1926  in which Byng rightly refused to grant King a dissolution of Parliament so he could call an election  Dafoe sided with King and railed against Meighen and Byngs actions. But privately, Dafoe believed Kings political career was over. He was wrong.

John W. Dafoe

When an election was held in September 1926, King prevailed, somewhat to Dafoes surprise. Meighen, on the other hand, was furious with Dafoe and never forgave him or the Free Press for the treatment he had received. A few days after the election, Dafoe told John Willison, a prominent Ontario editor, (in words with more meaning than he could have ever imagined given Kings fascination with spiritualism), that, the angels are certainly on the side of Willie King. He has a finer opportunity now than he had in 1921, and I hope he will be equal to it. I am beginning to think that probably he will measure up to his opportunities this time.

Though King lost the next election to Bennett and the Conservatives in 1930, he regained power in 1935 and remained prime minister until he left office in 1948. And Dafoe, until his death in 1944, continued to support King, especially in the first years of the Second World War when King was under tremendous pressure to impose conscription (or the draft).

During a recruiting drive trip out west in the early summer of 1941, King was able to find a few minutes to meet with Dafoe and his associate George Ferguson (who became Free Press editor after Dafoe died).

The Chief had a few minutes with Billy King, Ferguson reported back to Grant Dexter, Free Press correspondent in Ottawa, on July 12. Told him bluntly that if K. were opposed to conscription on principle, the FP would not follow him. K. assured the Chief that this was not so, that if we needed conscription to meet the needs, wed tackle it. The prime minister also raised the possibility of an election or referendum on the issue. Dafoe was not keen on either, but he was not about to abandon the Liberals because in his view the alternative, a Conservative government, was far worse.

Partly adapted from King: William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny.
Opinion

On Sunday morning, in Edmonton, at around 11 a.m., a plane carrying Pope Francis will arrive, marking Canadas fourth papal visit.

The following day, the Pope will travel to former Ermineskin residential school site to meet with residential school survivors. He will spend the remainder of the week in Quebec City and Iqaluit, meeting with Indigenous communities, church leaders and providing a few public addresses.

There will be some events designed to celebrate Catholicism  such as a huge mass at Edmontons Commonwealth Stadium  but this visit is mostly business.

Francis has described this trip as a pilgrimage, following up his apology in April to First Nations, Metis and Inuit representatives for the churchs role in residential schools.

Regretting the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said: I ask for Gods forgiveness, and I want to say to you with all of my heart: I am very sorry.

Anyone in an abusive relationship knows, however, an apology means nothing without evidence of change.

Here are five markers to watch for during next week:

First, how will the Popes words be accepted?

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called on the Pope to come to Canada within one year and apologize for the churchs role in the residential school system. It has now been six long years.

The Catholic Church has a huge footprint in communities throughout Canada (and in particular Indigenous communities) and is at a critical juncture. Many see the church as archaic, conservative, and too inflexible  evidenced by the ongoing refusal to do the right thing and try to rebuild relations with Indigenous peoples.

Canadian Catholic leaders have much riding on this visit. A good response by Indigenous peoples to the Popes words could go a long way to saving Catholicism in many circles in the country.

A bad response would do damage, not just nationally but internationally.

Second, what will the Pope say?

The Pope has already apologized and will undoubtedly do so again during every stop. The question is what will he add.

Over the past 15 months, over 1,000 potential unmarked gravesites have been found at former residential school sites run by the Catholic church. There continues to be rediscovery of perpetrated harms.

It has sparked international condemnation and what many have called a public reckoning against the church.

Will the Pope take responsibility for children who died at the schools? Will he promise to defrock perpetrators of harm? Will he stop blaming members of the church and recognize sexual and physical abuse is a systemic problem in the church itself?

(While Im being optimistic, the Pope has also been called upon to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery  15th century papal decrees saying Europeans could claim all lands inhabited by non-Christians.)

Third, will the Catholic Church finally fulfill its promises?

In 2006, leaders of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed as a part of the legal residential school settlement agreement to create a $25-million healing and reconciliation fund for survivors and their families.

To date, only $4 million has been raised, with the church promising new efforts that have not materialized.

The church has also promised to provide access to all records on residential schools. While some have been provided to the Winnipeg-based Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, there are many in the Vatican and other Catholic archives that have yet to be accessed.

It is clear the only person who possibly could motivate Canadian Catholic leaders to perform the restitution promised to survivors is the Pope.

Fourth, will the Popes visit produce more harm or less?

On Friday, Treaty 6 chiefs reminded Canadians next weeks papal visit will spark many traumas for Indigenous survivors and their communities. They called on more funds then the $30 million promised to support Indigenous communities during the visit.

Speaking of survivors, this past week, many complained money for travel and accommodation was difficult to obtain. Indigenous leaders said they were not considered or consulted on the Popes schedule.

Catholic leaders  who have called on Catholic donors to cover the $15-million price tag for Pope Francis visit  have also used the occasion to create new fundraising opportunities, such as a request to Catholics trying to get tickets for the Popes stadium address to donate and support church activities.

Assembly of First Nations national chief Roseanne Archibald called these efforts inappropriate.

Finally: five, what will happen next?

Indigenous relationships with Canadians, the Catholic Church and the Pope wont end no matter what happens this week.

By the time the Pope flies back to Rome, it will be clear whether this trip helped or hindered reconciliation. The journey starts Saturday.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, July 23. Media cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan has a high development potential, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of JSC Egemen Qazaqstan republican newspaper Vladimir Kuryatov told Trend on the sidelines of the first International Media Forum on "Global trends, new challenges in media" in Shusha, organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency.

According to him, the essential factor in strengthening Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan relations is the exchange of information.

Kuryatov also noted the importance of developing cultural ties between the two fraternal states. In this regard, collaboration as part of the Organization of Turkic States is of particular significance.

"The relevance of the International Media Forum is self-evident, because all media representatives attending the forum are facing the same problems, such as fake news, and the impact of social media on the public consciousness. In my opinion, social media is like nuclear energy having both positive and negative effects on society. In this sense, the society of professional journalists is in unfair competition with bloggers," Kuryatov said.

According to him, authorities should introduce dedicated curricula to improve media literacy, which is already being practiced in Kazakhstan's schools.

Actively consuming fake news is a big problem of the whole society. Introducing laws entails risks, as their non-adoption will cause a public outcry. Raising the level of culture, the ability of turning to various information sources to get a complete picture of what's happening around needs to be worked on both in Kazakhstan and in Azerbaijan," he added.
Canadas early prime ministers, including Conservative John A. Macdonald and Liberal Wilfrid Laurier, spent a great deal of their time not only cultivating positive relations with the press, they also offered financial incentives  often done secretly  to ensure that editors would toe the respective party lines. While there were a handful of truly independent newspapers in the decades after Confederation, partisanship was endemic in most aspects of life into the 1950s. Whether you were a Conservative or a Liberal dictated your personal and business relationships and certainly which newspaper you read.

Politicians understood the value of supportive editorials and slanted headlines and news reports, and did everything in their power to assert their control  going so far as to fully back party stalwarts who established newspapers and, in some cases, to be shareholders in these ventures as well.

Clifford Sifton (Winnipeg Free Press Archives)

One politician who played a key role in advancing Liberal Party interests was Clifford Sifton, who served as the minister of the interior from 1896 to 1905 in Lauriers government. Sifton, who had grown up in Brandon, is best remembered for his open-door immigration policy by which he welcomed mainly western and eastern Europeans  stalwart peasants in sheepskin coats, as he later referred to them  to settle and farm Western Canada. Yet, he was also a skilled and cunning political organizer and manager. In 1896 at the age of 35, he was wealthy, handsome, impeccably dressed and full of himself (the Conservative Calgary Herald usually spelled his name $ifton).

Sifton, who became a lawyer in 1882, was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 1888. He was appointed attorney-general in premier Thomas Greenways cabinet three years later. He used the Brandon Sun, a newspaper in which he held shares, to promote his career. In 1896, he jumped to federal politics after he was acclaimed in a Brandon byelection and joined Lauriers cabinet. Following a dispute with Laurier over religion and schools in the new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, he resigned from cabinet in 1905 but remained an MP until 1911.

As a loyal and devoted Liberal, Sifton believed that suppressing news about the rival Conservatives was both smart and practical. Editorials and articles were churned out and dispatched to Liberal newspapers across the country where they were usually reprinted with few questions asked. In turn, patronage dividends in the form of government advertising were used to keep newspaper publishers happy. It was by any measure a smooth-functioning propaganda machine.

The Manitoba Free Press (as the paper was called until 1931) was Siftons prized jewel, which he had acquired in a shroud of secrecy. The Free Press had been established in 1872 by William F. Luxton, who had immigrated to Upper Canada from Britain with his parents in 1855 and had gained experience as a journalist and newspaper proprietor in several Ontario towns.

He moved to Winnipeg in 1871 (two years before it was incorporated as a city) when he was hired as a teacher, but in his heart, he was a newspaper man. He borrowed $4,000 from John Kenny, a retired farmer from Ontario and began publishing the Free Press as a four-page weekly paper that was loyal to the Liberals from its first issue. As the population of Manitoba increased, the paper prospered and by 1874 became a daily newspaper.

William F. Luxton in 1874 (Archives of Manitoba)

Luxton loathed political corruption and backroom dealings. He opposed the extension of French-language and educational rights and wrote critically about the power of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He wrote scathing editorials about the Conservatives and also eventually turned on the Liberal Greenway government for its alleged kowtowing to railway interests.

Needing capital, Luxton borrowed funds from businessman Donald Smith, long associated with the Hudsons Bay Company and a prominent member of the syndicate to build the CPR. That was a mistake. The CPRs president, William Van Horne, did not appreciate Luxtons critical editorials and with Smiths assistance took control of the Free Press after Luxton missed a payment on his loan. Luxton later operated the Daily NorWester from 1893 to 1896. He worked as a journalist in St. Paul and then took a job with the provincial government as a building inspector. He died likely complications of a stroke in 1907, leaving his wife, Sarah, and their eight children.

Van Horne and Smith controlled the Free Press for five years. In a secret deal negotiated in January 1898, they sold the paper to Sifton for about $75,000 (approximately $2.5 million today). Sifton was motivated to purchase the paper because he did not trust Robert L. Richardson, the owner of the Winnipeg Daily Tribune, which was supposed to be supportive of the Liberals. However, Richardson, who was elected as an MP in 1896, regarded himself as an independent Liberal. He was banished from the Liberal caucus for continually challenging the partys policies and hierarchy. Thereafter, Richardsons Tribune was a bitter opponent of Siftons Free Press.

The first editor-in-chief Sifton hired was Arnott Magurn, who had worked as the Toronto Globes correspondent in Ottawa. But Magurn remained in Winnipeg for only a few years. In 1901, Sifton offered the job to the 35-year-old John W. Dafoe, who was to become one of the most significant and influential newspaper editors in Canadian history.

John W. Dafoe

Dafoes long career in journalism started in 1883 with a job at the Montreal Star. Within a short time, he was working in the Ottawa press gallery covering federal politics for the Star. He also met Laurier, who immediately impressed him  as did the Liberal Partys policies on social issues and national development. Asked once why he was so dedicated to the Liberals, Dafoe replied: I think of all the sons of bitches in the Tory Party, then I think of all the sons of bitches in the Liberal Party, and I cant help coming to the conclusion that there are more sons of bitches in the Tory Party.

During the late 1880s, Dafoe worked at other papers in Ottawa and Montreal and did a six-year stint with the Free Press as a member of the editorial board before returning to Montreal. Dafoe admired both Sifton and Laurier, and was eager to become editor of the Free Press. At least for the first decade, Sifton called the shots. Dafoe wrote what he was told, journalist Pierre Berton wrote. In those early years, he was as much a party hack as an editor.

Nevertheless, under Siftons guidance, Dafoe and Edward Macklin, the newspapers business manager, built a successful enterprise. The Free Press truly was the leading voice of western Liberalism in Canada  though admittedly one that was partisan.

Over time, Sifton granted Dafoe a greater degree of independence. When they differed, for instance, in 1911 over the issue of reciprocity (a form of free trade) with the United States  which Dafoe supported, but Sifton did not  Sifton allowed Dafoe to back Laurier. However, this may have been purely a business decision on Siftons part, who wanted the Free Press to remain consistent in its editorial views.

The Canadian Press / National Archives of Canada

Prime minister Wilfred Laurier on his last trip of Western Canada.

After Laurier was defeated in the 1911 federal election and Sifton was no longer an MP, having opted not to run (during the campaign, he helped the Conservatives in Ontario), Dafoe gained even more editorial independence. The partnership between the two men worked. In any event, Dafoe remained loyal to Laurier until he broke with the Liberal leader over Lauriers refusal to join a union government headed by Conservative prime minister Robert Borden during the First World War.

Sifton, who had backed Dafoes stand on the necessity of the union government, cautioned his editor about pledging allegiance to Borden. The possibilities of the future, Sifton wrote to Dafoe in October 1917, hardly include the idea that the Free Press can support a party dominated by the Conservatives for any length of time and it might be awkward for you to feel that you had discussed matters too fully with the enemy.

Dafoe heeded Siftons advice. But during the bitterly fought election campaign, the Free Press was unwavering in its support for Borden, conscription and the war. Shall Quebec, which will neither fight nor pay, rule? a Free Press editorial asked a week before the vote. From Dafoes perspective, the global crisis demanded a new political response. On the other hand, Laurier was so upset that Dafoe had for the first time campaigned against him that he contemplated starting his own morning newspaper in Winnipeg, though nothing came of that idea.

Some time after Lauriers death in 1919, Dafoe wrote a series of feature articles in the Free Press (a long commentary on Oscar D. Skeltons recently published two volume biography of Laurier) that was turned into his 1922 book, Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics. At the end of the book, Dafoe recalled how he and others had tried to convince Laurier to change his mind about the Union government and extend the life of Parliament for the duration of the war. But Laurier, who feared losing Quebec to nationalists who were opposed to conscription, would not budge. It was a frustrating experience. Dafoe recalled spending an hour in fruitless discussion with Laurier and coming out with the feeling that there was no choice between unquestioning acceptance of Lauriers policy or breaking away from allegiance to him.

Still, Dafoes overall assessment of Lauriers leadership and influence on Canada was positive; he was merely honest about Lauriers attributes and flaws. Laurier was, as Dafoe wrote, a man who had affinities with Machiavelli as well as with Sir Galahad.

Historian and writer Allan Levines most recent book is, Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Cafe Society Murder.
Natella Roskoshna spent much of the winter preparing to take on a teaching gig at her alma mater, Karazin Kharkiv National University  until one morning in late February, when she was jolted awake at 5 a.m. to a huge vibration and a very loud sound.

Bombings and related commotion became the soundtrack of her life, as Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine. When her universitys law faculty building turned to rubble, Roskoshna and academic and husband Illia Roskoshnyi began panicked job searches.

We didnt know what to do, and we realized we needed to continue our life. You never know when the rocket will hit next, she said.

The couple arrived in Manitoba at the end of May, making them the first of a group of 20 Ukrainian scholars who will resume research at the University of Manitoba while Russias war on their home country rages on.

We didnt know what to do, and we realized we needed to continue our life. You never know when the rocket will hit next.  Natella Roskoshna

Roskoshnas expertise is in mediation and restorative justice; she defended her masters dissertation on alternative dispute resolution in December 2021. Her husband, whom she met as a fellow law student in Kharkiv, is interested in constitutional and legal principles of human-state interaction in information societies.

U of M joined the Scholars at Risk network in the spring, several months after Russian President Vladimir Putins forces launched an attack on Ukraine, citing the neighbouring countrys modern, Western-leaning status as a threat.

The collective, representing post-secondary institutions committed to promoting academic freedom amid global conflict, arranges for temporary research positions at member schools. The networks aim is to ensure professors in harms way can continue working at a host campus until conditions improve in their home country.

Scholars at Risk represents upwards of 500 institutions located everywhere from Australia to Nigeria. There are 30 Canadian members, including the University of Winnipeg and U of M.

Simple things was very scary. We didnt go for groceries for around a month-and-a-half. We tried to survive with things that we had.  Natella Roskoshna

Manitobas largest university has earmarked a total of $1.75 million to support Ukrainian academics and students who have been affected by war-related disruptions.

U of M is supporting 20 scholars with up to $50,000 each to continue research and instruction on Winnipeg soil. The bills of the year-long academic stipends are being covered with equal contribution from central administration and a university faculty, school or college, although the latter parties may offer additional compensation to recipients.

The ongoing war in Ukraine prompted the university to officially join the network, although many professors have long been involved in the international community, said Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) at the U of M.

Jayas said university leaders felt a moral obligation to help and providing research internships is a fitting response.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Natella Roskoshna and her husband arrived in Manitoba at the end of May,

For Roskoshna and Roskoshnyi, the prospect of moving to Manitoba was appealing due to the provinces sizable Ukrainian population and the fact English  their second language  is the primary vernacular.

The duo moved across the world, each with a single suitcase in hand, without knowing a single resident aside from their U of M contacts. They remain deeply concerned about their friends and family who have chosen to stay in Ukraine, Roskoshna said.

Given they have been unable to do much work since the war began, she expressed relief they have a shared office at Robson Hall.

I was scared even to go to the shower because  it doesnt make any sense, but in my imagination, it was like I will be more vulnerable if I go to the shower. Simple things was very scary. We didnt go for groceries for around a month-and-a-half. We tried to survive with things that we had, Roskoshna said.

Its hard to think about our future because I dont know what it will be.  Natella Roskoshna

International researchers who seek temporary refuge in Winnipeg will culturally enhance campus, Jayas said, noting they will also expose community members to how war affects individuals on a personal level. Scholars will enhance, not only (Manitobans understanding of) issues around the world, but also broaden the research expertise in their unit or department.

The recipients who have been approved to date will work in arts, education, law, social work, science and business faculties. It is possible the U of M may hire some of the scholars on a permanent basis after their contract is complete, Jayas said.

Its hard to think about our future because I dont know what it will be, Roskoshna said, adding she is grateful to everyone who has supported their move and would be keen to stay in Winnipeg if an opportunity arises.

But now, Im appreciating this part of stability in our life because we have got something that allowed us to feel more stability, more safer in this situation of uncertainty.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
An alleged gunpoint abduction near a Winnipeg hotel has sparked fears wildfire evacuees are being targeted in the city.

A trio of displaced members of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation reported Friday they were threatened with a gun when they tried to intervene in the abduction of an unidentified young woman, vice-chief and councillor Shirley Castel said during a news conference with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee.

The three men in their 20s were walking outside a hotel on the 1400 block of Notre Dame Avenue around 5 a.m., when they encountered two men in a white Dodge Journey. The suspects knocked the woman unconscious and took her away in the vehicle, Castel said RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kaitlynn Brightnose talks to the media about a girl that was abducted at 5 am Friday morning from the area near 1400 Notre Dame Ave. In the Weston area.

One suspect, described as bearded, with white hair and 50-60 years old, allegedly threatened the group with a gun; a younger, tattooed man was also in the vehicle.

Settee said he spoke directly to Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth about the incident.

WPS confirmed police are investigating a well-being check that occurred in the area around 5:30 a.m. Friday. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS One of the residents managed to get this photo of the girl inside the vehicle before the abductors drove away with her. They say she was knocked out when being forced into the vehicle and claim that the girls name is Ashley.

This is an ongoing investigation and, as such, we are unable to provide additional information, spokesman Const. Claude Chancy stated in an email.

Castel said the three witnesses did not know the woman, only her name was Ashley. One was able to take a photo of the woman in the suspect vehicle, and reported the licence plate number to police.

Castel said it had not yet been determined if the woman is a member of the First Nation or a wildfire evacuee.

Were asking the general public out there to see if you can identify this young woman that was abducted, because our concern (is with) missing and murdered women in First Nations, the band councillor said, asking any potential information be directed to police. We need your help.

Castel and Settee said the incident highlights safety concerns about the process of lodging displaced First Nations residents in city hotels.

Members of the community may be at risk because theyre used to being in an isolated, welcoming, small community, she said.

Right now, its very stressful for us, due to the evacuation to have our community members scattered within multiple locations, including Winnipeg. We knew that there would be safety concerns, and I want to encourage our citizens that we need to watch out for one another, Castel said.

The womans bag was left behind but it didnt contain any identification, said Kaitlynn Brightnose, who works with Mathias Colombs emergency measures team.

She said community members have told her random vehicles have been pulling up to hotels, claiming to be taxis and offering displaced young people rides: I feel like theyre being targeted because theyre very vulnerable.

A spokesman for the Red Cross in Manitoba said it cant comment on any criminal allegations, but did say hotels are full and the relief organization has opened up an additional shelter for wildfire evacuees.

The Canadian Red Cross understands that the evacuated community members from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation have been through a traumatic experience. Being hundreds of kilometres from their homes and not knowing when they will return home is incredibly stressful. Our team wants to provide the best possible support to the community members while they are out of their homes, spokesman Jason Small stated.

Currently, there are about 2,000 community members evacuated from Mathias Colomb, in addition to more than 1,500 community members from Peguis First Nation who have been evacuated since May, due to flooding.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

I once watched a colleague stand up in a newsroom on his last day of work and address his soon-to-be-former co-workers.

He imparted his decades of wisdom and told them how they should do their jobs and what principles they should uphold while he was enjoying retirement. Listening to him I made a solemn vow: never tell people what to do if theyre staying and youre going.

So, I wont. I am leaving my post as publisher. Rather than preaching, Ill leave you with a story  the core of all good journalism.

Actually, I have two stories. Both are about coming to the Winnipeg Free Press, once as a reporter and once as a senior manager. Both stories start with me asleep.

In December of 1983 I was taking a late afternoon nap before going to cover an evening meeting of the local town council in Cobourg, Ont., for the Cobourg Star.

The phone rang  and rang. Eventually I picked up the receiver. Hello, I mumbled.

A guy on the other end of the line started talking right away: Im Dave Lee, city editor of the Winnipeg Free Press. Id like to offer you a job.

Huh? I replied. I thought it was a practical joke and almost hung up. Id never heard of the guy. Id never applied for the job. Howd he even get my number?

Its a good thing I wanted to find out who was playing the joke. I kept talking. Turns out it really was Dave Lee and the job offer was real. I arrived on Jan. 19, 1984. It was -29C. I spent four years as a young reporter for the Free Press, having the time of my life learning to be a good journalist.

The second time I came to the Free Press really was the result of a practical joke.

The phone rang at my Toronto home early one Saturday morning in January 2005. I was fast asleep, having been up past midnight helping to put out the Saturday edition of the Globe and Mail.

My wife called me to the phone. Hello, I mumbled.

Im calling from FP Canadian Newspapers, a man said. Wed like you to apply to be editor of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Huh? I replied. As I mumbled and grunted, the fog in my brain started to clear. I remembered that I had heard that editor Nick Hirst was no longer at the paper. I decided that I had better pay attention.

Then, as the caller continued talking, I woke up even more. Why would anyone call me at home on a Saturday morning about a job? How did anyone at FP Newspapers even know me? Where would they get my home phone number?

I started to ask questions. After a bit, loud laughter erupted from the other end of the line.

My friends Tony and Kathi had been reading the Free Press at their kitchen table in Charleswood, had seen an ad for the editors job, and had decided to pull a prank on me.

They had me fooled, thats for certain.

But I got the last laugh.

A couple of months later I called them. Can I stay at your place? I asked Tony. Ummm, why? he replied hesitantly, probably thinking I was trying to get him back.

Well, you know that job you fake offered me? I applied for it and got it

Since then, I have spent 17 more years at the paper, first as editor and later as publisher.

I have woken up twice to Winnipeg and the opportunities here. They turned out to be the best jobs I have ever had.

I owe thanks to many people  including the late Dave Lee, all of the people I have worked with here since that time and current majority owners Ron Stern and Bob Silver, who had confidence in me to lead this organization.

Mostly, I want to thank all of you, Free Press readers, whose support makes the Winnipeg Free Press one of Canadas best newspapers.

Bob Cox is the publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press.
Opinion

Not all issues have yet been resolved, but the fact that there is movement is already good, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Tehran last Tuesday.

We feel that incrementally, theres been a little bit more progress made, but theres nothing to announce at this stage, countered Farhan Haq, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

It would be good news, although unfortunately not news of a ceasefire in Ukraine. Both men were talking about a deal to let ships take out the 25 million tonnes of grain that is trapped in Ukrainian ports by the Russian blockade  a deal that was formally announced Friday morning in Istanbul. Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images/TNS Farmers harvest wheat in the Ukrainian Kharkiv region on July 19. An agreement signed Friday will create a corridor for safe shipment of wheat from Ukraines Black Sea ports. Farmers harvest a wheat field in the Ukrainian Kharkiv region on July 19, 2022, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)

There wont be dancing in the streets in Kyiv about this, but there could be some dancing in the several dozen countries in the Middle East and Africa that have been facing the threat of mass hunger  in some cases even famine.

Egypt, for example, is the worlds biggest wheat importer. It grows less than half the food it eats, and about 80 per cent of the grain it imports to cover the shortfall comes from Ukraine and Russia. However, none of the Ukrainian grain has been getting out for five months, and the price of bread in Egypt has been climbing fast.

Its also a serious political problem: high food prices 12 years ago triggered the anti-regime riots that led to the Arab Spring, the overthrow of the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt, and various second-order effects such as the Syrian civil war. But the biggest impact of closing the Black Sea to Ukrainian grain exports has been humanitarian.

Normally, Ukraines Black Sea ports export five to six million tonnes of grain a month, but most are now under Russian occupation and the biggest, Odesa, has been blockaded by the Russian navy for five months.

Before the war, more than 90 per cent of Ukrainian agrifood export was done by sea,said Mariia Didukh, director of the Ukrainian National Agrarian Forum. Ukraine tried to get some of the grain out by rail and road, but by railway or trucks it is very expensive, it is longer, and very, very small capacities.

In fact, Ukraine has been only getting one-fifth of the normal monthly amount out. It cant expand the rail route because the countrys rail system uses a slightly wider gauge than its western neighbours, Romania and Poland. It would take 9,000 trucks a day to do the job, and the grain they delivered would be very, very expensive.

So reopening the Black Sea to ships carrying Ukrainian grain is not just a local issue; it is an international priority. On the reasonable assumption the war is not going to stop any time soon, it was essential to find a way to open up a safe corridor across the Black Sea from the Ukrainian coast to the Turkish Straits and the open Mediterranean.

It will take around 500 big-bulk cargo vessels to deliver that blocked 25 million tonnes of grain to its destinations. The remaining Ukrainian-controlled ports  Odesa, Yuzhne and Chornomorsk  could just about handle it, but it will take at least a month to bring those ships into the Black Sea and set the operation in motion.

It will also take at least that long to clear the mines that have closed Ukraines ports and to set up protected corridors across the Black Sea. (The Turkish navy will presumably provide the protection, but the Russians will want to have incoming ships checked for clandestine weapons deliveries).

There will also have to be special war insurance for those 500 ships  and it will need to be a continuous high-volume operation, because the next Ukrainian grain harvest starts late next month and the grain elevators are still full with last years harvest.

This years harvest is down by 35 per cent (the eastern part of Ukraines wheat belt is within range of Russian artillery and rocket fire), but if the silos are not emptied soon, a substantial part of it will just rot in the fields and millions in food-insecure parts of the world will move closer to starvation.

It really is that serious. Arif Husain, chief economist at the UN World Food Programme, says the war has more than doubled the number of people in food crisis to 345 million, of whom 50 million are one step away from famine.

Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea, Guterres said Friday. A beacon of hope possibility and relief in a world that needs it more than ever.

Gwynne Dyers new book is The Shortest History of War.
Opinion

It is very hard to change the way people do things. Human beings are, in many ways, resistant to change, and some will go to extreme lengths to disrupt or even derail new ideas.

Thats why its necessary to consult with the people most affected before any major change is set in motion. This is a core principle of change management Manitobas Progressive Conservative government has yet to fully embrace.

Recently, the Free Press reported the province had issued a request for proposals for a consultant to create a new system to monitor how curriculum is delivered in English, French, French immersion and senior years technology programs. The $250,000 contract would lead to the development of metrics  to be collected by all teachers, principals and division offices  to monitor curriculum delivery.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Education Minister Wayne Ewasko has apparently unleashed a potentially impactful initiative without any advance discussion, setting the stage for a future conflict between government and teachers.

Education Minister Wayne Ewasko said little about why this initiative is needed, other than to strengthen curriculum implementation. Does that mean new curriculum, or new rules for teaching? The minister would not say.

Of course, a failure to properly explain this initiative is not the ministers principal failing. The main mistake Mr. Ewasko is making  one other ministers in his government have already made  is to forge ahead with this plan without any advance consultation with teachers.

Shockingly, the Manitoba Teachers Society, the principal representative for 16,000 teachers, only found out about the RFP when contacted by a Free Press reporter. Given that teachers are the primary mechanism for curriculum implementation, it would seem this exercise has the potential to impact their professional lives profoundly. Given that, advance notice and consultation should have been part of the ministers work on this file.

Instead, Mr. Ewasko has apparently unleashed a vague but potentially impactful initiative without any advance discussion, setting the stage for a future conflict between government and teachers. That is simply not a productive way to approach an important issue.

If this were the first instance of government plodding ahead with a major initiative without consulting the people most affected, it would still be a bad idea. What makes it worse is this is not the first time this government has failed in its obligation to consult.

In 2017, former premier Brian Pallister launched an ambitious reconfiguration of Winnipeg hospitals that triggered the closure of smaller ERs to consolidate emergency medicine in three larger hospitals. Mr. Pallisters plan had merit; there was some evidence Winnipeg had too many smaller and inadequately equipped ERs. However, those merits were undone when the plan was launched without input from doctors and nurses.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILESEwasko said little about why the new initiative is needed.

Nurses in particular rebelled against the new configuration, which required many of them to leave community hospitals near where they live and take up posts in the new ERs, two of which are in the core of the city. Faced with such abrupt change on which they were not consulted, nurses resisted and the citys ERs were left desperately understaffed.

This should have served as a valuable lesson for the Tories: although government can make any change it wants to public services, it cannot ignore the people delivering those services when changes are made.

Mr. Ewasko should be meeting with teachers on a regular basis and discussing new ideas such as a curriculum-monitoring protocol. There should be, to any extent possible, a common vision achieved between government and teachers before major changes are implemented.

Given that the process is still at the RFP stage, Mr. Ewasko has time to take a step back and meet with teachers on curriculum monitoring. The fate of his ambitious initiative may well rest on his willingness to do so.
The death of a loved one can be devastating. The feelings of sadness, loss and anger are deep and painful. These are all normal grief responses. Many have found that confidentially sharing experiences and feelings with others who have experienced similar losses is the first step in overcoming the heavy grief burden.

The La Crescent Community Bereavement Program is a place to learn how to manage your feelings and discover how to avoid unnecessary pain. This program begins on Aug. 11 and goes through Oct. 13, meeting on Thursdays, 1:30 to 3 p.m., at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in La Crescent. The group will be facilitated by registered nurses and a counselor, and is free of charge and open to anyone.

For more information or to register, call Jane Welch at 608-797-4554 by Aug. 1. The program is sponsored by Church of the Crucifixion, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, La Crescent United Methodist Church, and Mayo Health System La Crosse.
COLUMBUS  The Columbus City Council is looking to ask the voters in November about their views on the use of city streets by ATVs and UTVs.

The city began looking at allowing ATV and UTV use on city streets in November after Alderperson Shelly Albright brought up the idea of having routes go through the city. Nearby cities Fall River and Waterloo have ATV and UTV routes.

Alderperson Sarah Motiff suggested going to an advisory referendum during the July 5 committee of the whole meeting for the council. A majority of the council members decided to go forward with the question on the November ballot.

The Columbus City Council discussed the wording of the question during its meetings on Tuesdays. This followed concerns brought by four people about whether or not the referendum was necessary and wanting all the streets opened for use of the vehicles.

Molly Finkler said she did not believe the referendum was a good idea and that the council should go forward with the ordinance but make some changes to it.

I really disagree with the options of allowing all the city streets open or just developing a route through the city, Finkler said. As a taxpayer and resident, I feel it really limits me and my ability to benefit from the ATV and UTV route.

Finkler said she is not an ATV/UTV owner but would possibly get one if it was approved.

Jacob Boness agreed with Finkler, and he has a lot of vehicles, including an ATV.

When I jump on that I know I am going to have fun, Boness said. Im going to spend money. I do that in other places all through the state, and I think we should give that opportunity to other people coming to our city.

The word "route" needs to stay in the question because the definition of a path of access is a route, city attorney Paul Johnson said.

The council settled on bringing up the question brought up by alderperson Trina Reid: Should the city of Columbus allow all city streets be recreation ATV and UTV routes?

Council president Ian Gray said that he would like the question moved to their next regular meeting on Aug. 1 in order to vote on going to referendum in November. The city council will have to officially vote on the question that is added to the November ballot.
Squad cars with lights flashing lined up Thursday in front of the Beaver Dam Walmart to take on a special duty  back-to-school shopping.

The Dodge County Shop with Cops program hosted its first summer edition event. Law enforcement personnel from the Dodge County Sheriffs Office, along with officers from the Beaver Dam, Horicon, Juneau, Lomira, Mayville and Theresa Police Departments, were on hand to help children select notebooks, folders, pens and more.

Judy Bauer of the Mayville Police Department is president of the nonprofit organization, which is designed to develop a positive relationship between children and law enforcement. She said Shop with Cops hosts its traditional holiday shopping and breakfast with Santa event each December.

But this year Rachel Davison (of the DCSO) had the idea to start a new event so we can buy needed school supplies and an outfit for children to get ready for the school year, she said.

Davison said there was an awesome response from officers who wished to volunteer for the new summer program. Youth are referred to the organization and selected to participate after filling out an application.

Approximately 20 elementary-aged children with their school supply lists in hand walked the aisles of the retailer searching for items with public safety officers. Trulawna McCloud of Beaver Dam proudly sported a new pink ball cap as she scanned her purchases and stated she was having fun.

The fun spilled into the parking lot as the public was invited to check out police equipment and climb into law enforcement vehicles  the most popular attraction being the DCSOs MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle).

Victoria Martin of Juneau eagerly climbed its stairs and poked her head out of the top hatch to wave to her mom below. Edletzke Rosek of Waupun had lots of questions for Sheriffs Deputy Derik Tritt as he tried to swing a battering ram and hold a shield, the main one being, Why is this stuff so heavy?

The DCSO also offered parents the opportunity to have a free Kids ID made for their childrens safety.

The Shop with Cops program doesnt have a corporate donor and is supported by area businesses and individual donors. In addition to the summer school shopping and holiday shopping events, the Shop with Cops organization runs a Cops n Bobbers fishing event each June.

Donations for future events may be sent to 124 West St., Juneau, WI 53039. For more information, contact dodgecountyshopwithcops@gmail.com.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. The first stage of resettlement of residents to Aghali village of Azerbaijani Zangilan district continues, State Committee for Affairs of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of the Republic of Azerbaijan told Trend.

According to the committee, another group of the residents (10 families of 45 people) was resettled from Zangilan Refugee settlement, located in Masazir village of Absheron district, to their native village on July 23.

The send-off ceremony was attended by the Head of the State Committee's Board Eldar Zeynalov, the Director of the Repatriation Department Natig Huseynov, the Head of the Zangilan District Executive Power Ramiz Hasanov and other officials.

The former IDPs who lived in difficult conditions in temporary settlements went to Aghali village on vehicles allotted by the committee.

Up until now, 30 families (151 people) have been resettled to the village, provided with modern infrastructure. The resettlement process will continue in the coming days, added the committee.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua)  Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message on Friday to Ranil Wickremesinghe on his election as president of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

In his message, Xi pointed out that China and Sri Lanka are each other's traditional friendly neighbors. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 65 years ago, the two countries have always promoted the development of bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and set an example of friendly interactions and mutually beneficial cooperation between large and small countries, he said.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Sri Lanka have stood together and helped each other, with their traditional friendship further enhanced, Xi said.

Xi stressed that he believes, under the leadership of President Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka will surely overcome temporary difficulties and push forward the process of economic and social recovery.

Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Sri Lanka relations and would like to provide support and assistance as his capacity allows to President Wickremesinghe and the Sri Lankan people.

The Chinese president said that he hopes the two sides will carry forward their traditional friendship, consolidate political mutual trust and continuously push forward the strategic cooperative partnership featuring sincere mutual assistance and enduring friendship.

(Source: Xinhua)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. A decision on establishing a unified headquarters for transit freight management was made at the meeting of Azerbaijan's Coordinating Council on Transit Freight, chaired by Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev, the Ministry told Trend.

The primary objective of the headquarters is to simplify and digitalize border crossing procedures, improve the synchronized planning and management of transit operations through a single dispatch. The headquarters is to monitor operations and regularly submit reports to the secretariat of the Coordinating Council. The headquarters will also provide a call center service for the prompt solution of the cargo issues.

Meanwhile, "Procedural rules for managing transit freight operations" carried out at the Baku International Sea Port have been signed. The document regulates the cargo handling processes, operation sequencing, and the timing. The meeting decided to sign similar procedural rules for other border checkpoints.

In addition, a 'Transit road map' was drawn up following studies by local and foreign experts. The map sets short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives for the full disclosure of the country's transit potential.

Furthermore, the meeting noted that transit cargo traffic in the East-West and North-West directions (excluding the pipeline) increased by 325,000 tons (15 percent) and 873,000 tons (by 205 percent), respectively, from January through June 2022 compared to the same period of 2021. The total freight volume through the mentioned directions reached 2.5 million tons and 1.3 million tons.

In the reporting period, the transportation of Turkmen oil through the BakuTbilisiCeyhan (BTC) pipeline grew by 746,000 tons (155 percent) compared to the same period of 2021 and totaled 1.2 million tons. The rail transport of oil products (particularly, of Kazakh origin) in the Yalama-Boyuk Kesik direction increased by 772,000 tons (growth of 707 percent against the same period of 2021), reaching 900,000 tons in the first half of 2022.

The meeting participants exchanged views on dynamic tariffs of rail transport to ensure the cargo flow through Azerbaijan.
Bushkill Falls, known as the "Niagara of Pennsylvania," is one of the most well-known natural landmarks in the Keystone State. A great network of hiking routes and bridges providing stunning views of the falls and the surrounding forest makes it possible to visit this one-of-a-kind series of eight waterfalls hidden deep within the forested Pocono Mountains.

Location Of The Bushkill Falls

The Bushkill Falls.

In northeastern Pennsylvania's Pike County, the Bushkill Falls is situated on the edge of the Delaware Gap National Recreation Area in the Pocono Mountains region. The Pocono Mountains' dense forest surrounds the falls, which are only reachable by a network of hiking routes and bridges that provide breathtaking views of both the falls and the forest. Other neighboring waterfalls, such as Bridal Veil Falls, Bridesmaid Falls, Laurel Glen Falls, Pennell Falls, and others, may be seen throughout these hiking routes. With eight waterfalls, and over two miles of trails, bridges, and walkways, Bushkill Falls spans roughly 300 acres. The Main Falls descend around a hundred feet. About 300 feet separate the top of the first falls from the bottom of the Lower Gorge.

Source Of The Falls

In the Pocono Mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania, high in the uplands, crystal-clear water streams burst up through rifts in prehistoric rocks. These are the Bushkill Creek headwaters, a vast wetland resounding with the sound of wild birds. The waters surge toward Bushkill Falls as they start their drop down the Delaware River deep below, flowing through Pennell Falls, then through the Upper Canyon and Laurel Glen between granite cliffs. The stream abruptly plunges over the edge of the magnificent Main Falls, a 100-foot precipice. The creek now descends another 70 feet through a lengthy and breathtaking valley that is dotted with enormous stones, starting from the deep pool at the bottom that is surrounded by ferns, mosses, and wildflowers. The region is covered in trails and bridges, which provide beautiful views.

History

Charles E. Peters, who founded Bushkill Falls, believed that if the picturesque glens, ravines, and falls were made simple to reach, many people would eventually come to enjoy the area. Peters cherished the region, which the last major glacier had so beautifully sculpted, and he wanted to show off its beauty to others.

A driveway was cut through the woods from the nearest road to the high ground above the main falls to realize his dream of turning the 300 acres, which had almost prophetically been purchased by his father, uncle, and grandmother, into something that everyone could see. He cut down the trees to build a bridge.

He named his attraction "The Niagara of Pennsylvania." With only a single trail and a swinging bridge above the main falls, Charles E. Peters opened Bushkill Falls to the public in 1904. Charles added to the area's development throughout time by constructing pathways and bridges to increase visitors' access to the falls.

About 30,000 people visited Bushkill Falls in the final summer before the US entered World War I. More than 200,000 people come today. The Estate of Charles E. Peters continues to be the owner of Bushkill Falls. The management has remained committed to Peters' efforts to safeguard and conserve the environment. The streams that feed the falls are classified as having Exceptional Value. They are among Pennsylvania's cleanest and most exceptional bodies of water and provide remarkable variety and populations of aquatic species.

Visiting The Bushkill Falls

A man hiking through the forest towards the Bushkill Falls.

All levels of hikers have access to the falls thanks to a selection of four color-coded, varyingly challenging pathways. The Main Falls, which fall in a 100-foot plunge, may be seen from a picturesque viewpoint on the Green Trail, which is the quickest and easiest to reach. One can spend around 45 minutes exploring the vistas of the Main Falls, Lower Gorge Falls, Laurel Glen Falls, and Upper Canyon by following the yellow markers. Pennell Falls may be reached after about 75 minutes of trekking on the Blue Trail, while Bridal Veil Falls can be reached after about 2.5 hours (and 2 miles) of hiking on the Red Trail. There are places to stop and rest throughout the routes. The trails may be accessed through a wildlife display indoors that features native creatures in dioramas.

This waterfall, among the highest and the strongest in the area, is breathtaking to witness. In addition to its beautiful natural beauty, Bushkill Falls is home to many activities, immaculate parks, and exhilarating adventure courses that will bring you back for more. There are so many things to do in the area of Bushkill Falls, whether it's an afternoon excursion or a well-planned day vacation.
Help with childcare costs for working parents of 3 to 4 year olds in Wrexham

Help with childcare costs is available for working parents of 3 to 4 year olds in Wrexham.

Under the Childcare Offer for Wales, many parents could claim 30 hours of early education and childcare in Wales a week for up to 48 weeks of the year.

It aims to make life a little bit easier for parents by offering help with childcare costs.

The offer has already helped parents from all over Wales to return to work, increase their hours or work more flexibly.

Applications for the Childcare Offer For Wales are open right now across Wales.

If you are a childcare provider, you can find information and guidance on the Welsh Government website.

Whats included in the offer?

The Welsh Government Childcare Offer for Wales means that most working parents of 3 to 4 year olds can now claim funds towards the cost of childcare.

This means 30 hours of early education and childcare in Wales for eligible parents.

The 30 hours is made up of a minimum of 10 hours early education a week and a maximum of 20 hours a week of childcare.

It is available for 48 weeks of the year, meaning that the offer can help with childcare cover for some of the school holidays.

Find out more about the Childcare Offer for Wales and apply here.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. The last stage before commercial operation of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) includes the implementation of a number of administrative procedures under the jurisdiction of multiple Bulgarian and Greek institutions, the executive director of ICGB AD project company from Bulgaria Teodora Georgieva told Trend.

"Weve already begun coordinating with all involved parties to make sure were aiding them in the faster completion of all administrative requirements. Since the second half of June, the interconnector has been filled with test quantities of natural gas. The route and its above-ground infrastructure have already been successfully tested including with transfer of natural gas in the direction of Stara Zagora - Komotini, and since the beginning of July the Komotini station has also been filled up with gas," she said.

Georgieva noted that the most important task right now is the integration of the system for automated control and overall management of the gas pipeline (the so-called SCADA system) as well as the preliminary works ensuring a safe functioning of the pipe.

"The process is ongoing, and its being implemented by the EPC contractor  were counting that they recognize the importance of this activity and that they will push to complete the process as soon as possible. The SCADA is responsible for transmitting the information and all data necessary for the safe operation of the gas pipeline through the communication network and will provide the capability to the dispatchers to monitor & control the entire facility from a remote centralized control center. IGB will be the first fully automated gas pipeline in Bulgaria and its crucial that the system is fully integrated and tested before we go into commercial operations. Now that ICGB has been certified as an independent transmission system operator  a very significant milestone for us  we have a month to introduce a new management system to the company. This is an internal task, but its no less important," the executive director added.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Young people are facing an unprecedented jobs crisis in China, amid a sharp economic contraction driven by the global slump and COVID crisis.

People wearing masks, walk in a subway station, in Hong Kong [Credit: AP Photo/Kin Cheung]

Last week the government reported that the worlds second largest economy grew by only 0.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter. In fact, on a quarter-by-quarter basis, the economy contracted by 2.6 percent in the three months to the end of June.

According to the statistics, in June, the unemployment rate of urban youth aged 16 to 24 was as high as 19.3 percent.

Fu Linghui, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, attributed this to the young people entering the labour market for the first time, generally facing the predicament of frictional unemployment, and under the influence of the pandemic, the ability of enterprises to create jobs has declined.

This explanation angered many young people who are deeply affected by their predicament. The bureaus statement did not respond to their concerns at all.

According to the statistics, the urban youth unemployment is mainly affecting high school, vocational high school, college and undergraduate graduates. The situation may be worse than officially acknowledged because the bureaus jobless estimate only measures those who have sought employment in a short period of time.

Since 2018, when the bureau began regularly announcing the youth unemployment rate, it has generally shown an upward trend year-by-year. It has now nearly doubled from the 10 percent recorded just four years ago.

The peak rate generally occurs in July and August with the arrival of the graduation season. But this year the rate jumped to 18.2 percent in April and is still rising.

According to the Ministry of Education, there will be 10.76 million university graduates this year, 1.67 million more than in 2021, and a record high in both scale and growth. This will undoubtedly make the unemployment situation even more severe.

Under the heading of graduates breaking 10 million for the first time, a mocking Weibo post received thousands of likes and comments. Employment is always better last year, unemployment is always worse next year, it said. People are becoming more and more Involutionised.

The word involution is mentioned in many other posts and comments. The term has become a buzzword among Chinese youth over the past few years to describe increasingly fierce competition and meagre returns that are disproportionate to the level of competition.

According to a report published by the Chinese recruitment website Qiancheng Wuyou, more than half of undergraduate graduates intend to pursue a masters degree, and of those who are pursuing a masters degree, about 30 percent are considering a doctorate. Such a choice is on the one hand a desire to temporarily escape the pressure of entering the labour market, and on the other hand a response to increasingly fierce competition.

Due to the deteriorating employment environment, more and more young people want to enter more stable large companies and civil service institutions, which leads to higher qualification requirements and discrimination. In May, a piece of news became a hot topic. It reported that a doctor of nuclear physics who graduated from Peking University successfully obtained a position in a grassroots administrative unit. This at once caused discussion about involution on social media.

In this deteriorating economic environment, young employees above a certain age are also more likely to be laid off. Under the topic Autumn Recruitment, a Weibo user asked for help. Unfortunate things happened. I originally received an offer from a company, but the company HR notified me some time ago that my job offer was temporarily dismissed. Now I only receive a small amount of damages.

In the comments below the post, many young people shared similar experiences. One wrote: The company terminated the contract a month ago. The most annoying thing is that the company even refused compensation on the grounds that I didnt officially join. I cant get rid of my depression now. Trying to contact the tutor to find a way to postpone my graduation.

At the same time, widespread distrust of manufacturing industries is affecting the employment situation. Despite much official propaganda urging youth to enter industrial jobs, the chronic and pervasive lack of labour rights protection is driving them away.

One comment voiced the distrust of the propaganda machine and the lack of workers rights. If manufacturing jobs are so attractive, ask the children of economic experts to work in factories first, it suggested.

According to reports, in the past few years, the service industry has been the main source of youth employment, adding to a large flexible employment population. By the end of 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, this flexible workforce will reach a staggering 200 million people. This data includes de-organised, part-time jobs such as courier riders, dispatching/outsourcing workers and self-employed drivers.

This growth was interpreted by state media as the active choice of young people and a brand new employment situation. Such reports have been met with widespread outrage, that are depicted as singing at funerals and intended to glorify grim unemployment and insecure jobs.

While official spokesmen are still trying to paint a brighter picture, the high unemployment, especially among youth, shows the impact of the global crisis on Chinas economy. Previously, the government pinned hopes of economic and employment recovery on a rebound of consumption after the pandemic was contained.

Before COVID-19, the growth of Chinas tertiary industry was inseparable from the contribution of private consumption to GDP. However, household consumption has not shown the expected rebound.

In addition to the impact of the ongoing pandemic, higher unemployment is reducing overall spending power. Wang Jingwen, a macro researcher at China Minsheng Bank, warned: If the youth unemployment rate rises further, it may lead to an increase in household precautionary savings, which will put pressure on the entire social consumption and the real estate market. This may lead to social stability problems.

Dissatisfaction about the economy and jobs is sparking discussions on social media and more broadly at breakneck speed.
Last week, a childrens summer camp of the youth association Roter Baum near Dresden was cancelled after a counselor and several children infected with the coronavirus were hospitalized. The case is symbolic of the federal and state governments policy of mass infection and their propagation of living with the virus.

The summer camp in Karl May Village near Dresden, in which around 50 children from Berlin took partmost of them from socially poorer backgroundswas originally scheduled to last 10 days. However, as early as Monday, July 11, a counselor had to be hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms.

Child with COVID-19 in hospital bed (Medical University of South Carolina)

The following day, July 12, a child likewise had to be hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms and three other children tested positive for the virus. The health department was informed about the outbreak and paid a visit to the camp the same day. Despite this visit, it decided to let the camp continue and only ordered a few basic hygienic regulations, such as regular testing and a mask requirement for camp counselors.

After yet another child had to be hospitalized the following day, July 13, the health department paid a second visit and again decided to let the camp continue. This time, too, only a few additional hygienic requirements were issued, the implementation of which was to be monitored in a timely manner.

It was not until the night of July 13-14 that a doctor acting on behalf of the health department called the camp director, telling him to close the camp. As of Friday afternoon the camp director had not received a written order, according to media reports.

Reports about the case have mainly focused on the question of the culpability of the camp management and the health department. Their complicity is indisputable: While the health department did not shut down the camp even after learning of the outbreak, the camp management is trying to downplay the situation.

For example, the managing director of the youth association, Tilo Kieling, a member of parliament for the Left Party in the Dresden City Council, spoke after the fact of only four or five positive cases, whereas counselors spoke of as many as 20 infected. Two counselors told the Sachsische Zeitung that the organizers initially refused to close the camp and only intervened after an emergency medical doctor advised to do so: It is clear that the situation here is to be swept under the rug.

This outbreak casts a spotlight on the criminal coronavirus policies of the federal and state governments, which are deliberately designed to allow the population to be infected. Living with the virus is the mantra in politics and the media, which is now being implemented with all its consequences so as not to diminish the profits of banks and large corporations.

When the Infection Protection Act expired in mid-March, the German government decided that in the future only basic protection would be required, essentially limited to wearing a mask in public transport, in clinics and old peoples homes. At the time, this was hailed by leading politicians as an important step towards normality.

In the following months, all parties in the Bundestag (federal government) and the state parliaments worked to abolish even the last measures. In April, for example, mandatory vaccination was rejected in the Bundestag; in May, quarantine was reduced to five days; and at the end of June, free testing for the coronavirus was ended.

The federal government is doing nothing about the rising summer wave of infections, which is already putting clinics under pressure with increasing infection and death rates. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democrats, SPD) only called for a recommendation to wear masks indoors and a fourth vaccination. Faced with a harsher wave in the fall, the federal governments current plans do not include any measures beyond mandatory masks, social distancing recommendations and contact restrictions for those infected.

The fact that 50 children can come together in a camp for 10 days without having been tested even once beforehand is an expression of the new reality of living with the virus. The outbreak in the summer camp and its consequences are not only an indictment of the capitalist policy of mass infection, they also disprove the myth that the Omicron variant is mild, especially for children.

In reality, new infectious vaccine-resistant and deadly variants will continue to emerge if the virus is given free rein and is not eliminated. Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, recently stated, Omicron subvariant BA.5 is the worst version of the virus yet. The already pronounced immune escape has increased even more.

In Germany, BA.5 is now dominant, with increasingly dramatic consequences. Every week, around 10,000 people are hospitalized, including an increasing number of young people. About 6 percent of those hospitalized are under 14 years old, and another 9 percent are between 15 and 34 years old. Deaths from coronavirus are likewise on the rise, most recently reaching more than 600 deaths per week. Every week at least one of them was still shy of adulthood.
Speaking at the Universities Australia 2022 Gala Dinner, on July 6, Education Minister Jason Clare underscored the Labor governments intent to further transform universities to service the needs of big business and national security.

Jason Clare (Image: Twitter)

Clare confirmed Labors commitment to setting up an Australian Universities Accord, to be drafted by a small group of eminent Australians. Its purpose is to bring the education trade unions into a closer partnership with corporate chiefs, university managements and government representatives to build a long-term plan for our universities.

Significantly, addressing a gathering organised by the university employers peak body, Clare said not a word of criticism of their record. He said nothing about the way the managements have already exploited the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years to destroy tens of thousands of jobs, further casualise the workforce and ramp up class sizes and workloads, at the expense of staff and students.

On the contrary, he lauded University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott, a highly-paid and leading proponent of pro-business restructuring, for talking about universities being in the solutions business for government. Clare declared: I think Mark is bang on. There is so much good we can do, working together.

Clare offered no suggestion of reversing the devastating cuts of 2020 and 2021, implemented under the previous Liberal-National Coalition government.

Instead, his entire thrust was on working together to integrate universities more closely, both in teaching and research, with business. We want you to work with industry, Clare emphasised.

Throughout his remarks, Clare spoke of universities in purely profit-generating, job training and nationalist terms. They were an incredible national asset that had to do more to turn Australian ideas and discoveries into Australian jobs.

Clare also stressed the need to restore the $40 billion in revenues that universities generated for Australian capitalism before the pandemic by charging exorbitant fees for international students.

Ever since the Hawke Labor government imposed fees on international students in 1986, successive governments, both Labor and Coalition, have increasingly starved universities of funding, forcing them to become heavily reliant on milking these students as cash cows.

Clare went further. He said universities could do more to train international students to satisfy employers needs too. They should get the students we teach and train to stay after their studies end and help us fill some of the chronic skills gaps in our economy.

Under conditions where Prime Minister Anthony Albaneses government has aligned itself totally behind Washingtons war agenda against China, Clare called for the universities to play a greater role on that front as well. He highlighted our shared interest in strengthening our nations security and resilience.

As an example of the fields in which university skills and talents could be harnessed, Clare nominated nuclear subs. That was a clear reference to the AUKUS pact signed with the US and UK last year to provide Australia with access to nuclear-powered submarines and other hi-tech weaponry for use against China.

Far from criticising the previous Liberal-National government, which brutally cut and redirected funding to tie it to churning out job ready graduates and meeting the research requirements of the corporate elite, Clare praised the Coalition for doing some good things to encourage translation [of research] and boost commercialisation.

In fact, Clare signalled closer collaboration with the Coalition. He insisted that the Accord had to be a bipartisan effort in order to come up with reforms that last longer than the inevitable political cycle.

Clares mission statement confirms the analysis made by the WSWS last August, when Labors Accord was first outlined by Tanya Plibersek, his predecessor as Labors education spokesperson. As we warned, she echoed the demands of the corporate elite, highlighted by a recent blueprint issued by the EY global consulting giant, for the pandemic disaster to be exploited, in order to radically reshape higher education and to satisfy the vocational training and research requirements of big business.

In the Conversation Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast on July 6, Clare reiterated that the government wants universities and researchers to collaborate with business, with industry. He proposed the Bradley report on tertiary education commissioned in 2008 by the last Labor government of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard as a template and blueprint to be updated.

That report laid down the framework of Labors education revolution, which accelerated the corporatisation of the nominally public universities by stripping away their previous block funding and compelling them to compete with each other for enrolments, both domestic and international.

The main trade union covering university workers, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has rushed to embrace Labors agenda. On July 12, NTEU national president Alison Barnes welcomed the governments proposed September 12 jobs and skills summit; which is, like the Accord, a corporatist venture to cement ties between the unions and business.

Barnes committed the NTEU to partnering with the university managements to implement Labors plans. As Universities Australia has noted, universities have a fundamental role in solving labour shortages and building the workforce of tomorrow, she stated.

Barnes said: That can only happen if we invest in universities workforces now and repair the damage caused by a decade of corrosive Coalition policy and chronic underfunding of public higher education.

This is a sham. It was Labors education revolutioncontinued by the Coalitionthat ramped-up the destructive profit-driven assault on university staff and students.

Moreover, Labor voted for this years federal budget, handed down by the Coalition government in April, which cut government funding, per university student, by 5.4 percent in real terms for 202223 and 3.6 percent for the following two years. According to the NTEU itself, that means $3 billion sliced off universities from 201718 to 202526.

This ongoing offensive has been facilitated by the NTEU, which has opposed any unified mobilisation against it. When the pandemic first hit in 2020, the NTEU volunteered wage cuts of up to 15 percent and up to 18,000 job cuts, including by forced redundancies. That triggered widespread disgust and opposition among university workers, and a precipitous loss of its membership.

Now, in an attempt to stifle and divert opposition to the Labor governments plans, the NTEU has appealed to its members to join a delegation to Canberra for the governments first parliamentary sitting next week.

The NTEUs June 24 email to members even offered to provide travel to and from Canberra as well as meals and accommodation to selected representatives for the two-day visit.

The supposed purpose is to place university workers demands for secure jobs, the email said, firmly on the new governments agenda from the get go. It implored: [W]e are committed to sharing your important stories with Education Minister Jason Clare and will be presenting these statements to the Minister and other politicians.

This highly stage-managed and orchestrated mission has nothing to do with fighting for the interests of staff and students. It is part and parcel of the NTEUs bid for a central place in the Labor governments university reform.

Year after year, the NTEU has organised similar lobbies of governments and the parliamentary establishmentnone of which succeed in gaining workers real demandsas a means of channeling the mounting discontent back into the corridors of power.

These developments underline the reality. The NTEU and other unions function as pro-Labor and pro-employer industrial police forces.

To fight back against the onslaught on higher education, staff and students need to form independent rank-and-file committees and link up with the struggles of educators and students internationally against the corporate offensive on jobs and conditions. For discussion contact the Committee for Public Education (CFPE).

Email: cfpe.aus@gmail.com

Facebook: facebook.com/commforpubliceducation

Twitter: @CFPE_Australia
The escalating political crisis in Sri Lanka which, amid a catastrophic economic crisis has seen forced resignations of the president and prime minister, is generating growing concern among ruling classes around the world about the dangers of the emerging global class struggle.

A mass movement of the Sri Lankan working class and rural poor has erupted against the social and economic breakdown devastating living conditions of the masses. The explosion of popular anger over the past three months saw more than a million people descend on the capital, Colombo, on July 9 in defiance of government emergency orders and threats of mass repression.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta on Q+A [Image: Screen shot NZTV Q+A]

In response to the crisis, New Zealands foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta in a recent television interview sounded the alarm, amid sharpening geopolitical tensions, about high debt levels and potential unrest in the Pacific.

The interview aired on TVNZs Q+A program on July 17, shortly after Mahuta had returned from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Fiji. At the forum, US vice president Kamala Harris announced an escalation of US involvement across the region, aimed at ramping up the strategic, economic and military encirclement of China.

Mahutas concerns about the way Pacific development has been funded singled out China for criticism. Id say there's a level of indebtedness that sits across the whole of the Pacific to financial institutions, including the way in which China has funded into certain countries, she said. The minister described Pacific debt as a key area of vulnerability that should be addressed.

Asked about the lessons from Sri Lanka, Mahuta declared that the point at which Sri Lanka has reached its political unrest because of economic vulnerability is something we should be concerned about and is something that can be considered in relation to the level of economic vulnerability across the Pacific.

Mahuta said the New Zealand government was hopeful of a peaceful way of resolving the [Sri Lankan] situation, via elections for a new president and prime minister, and that the constitutional arrangements will provide some guidance for that.

The 1978 constitution, however, is fundamentally anti-democratic, giving the president vast autocratic powers. Parliament has now installed the widely despised Ranil Wickremesinghe in order to ruthlessly impose the austerity dictates of the International Monetary Fund and strangle the popular uprising.

Mahuta emphasised that New Zealands military stand ready and willing to respond very quickly to natural disasters [and] civil unrest should it erupt in the Pacific as it has in Sri Lanka. She pointed to the way in which New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) responded with a level of urgency to last years deadly anti-government riots in the Solomon Islands.

New Zealands Labour-Green government ordered police and troops to join an Australian-led intervention in the Solomons. Days of rioting in November claimed three lives and left much of Honiara, the capital, in ruins. These events were not a genuine mass uprising but were pre-planned by US-backed opposition forces and aimed at removing the government of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and reversing its diplomatic recognition of China.

New Zealand troops joined a force of over 200 led by Australia, purportedly to maintain peace and security. After Sogovare subsequently invited a contingent of Chinese police to train the local force, Canberra and Wellington maintained their own military presence in Honiara. The NZ government announced it will extend its deployment there until next May.

For many years, New Zealands military has been openly training for interventions to restore order in Pacific countries, including in its biennial multi-national Southern Katipo exercise.

In her interview Mahuta talked up the defence and security relationships New Zealand currently has with Pacific countries, suggesting that military capabilities could be increased. In terms of maritime surveillance, theres a lot of conversation [about] how more could be done, and an integrated approach towards maritime surveillance because of illegal, unreported fishing activities, she said.

Mahuta also added, It could mean drones. It could also mean extra maritime support, as well as aviation support as well. So-called illegal fishing invariably refers to Chinas fishing fleet.

Defence Minister Peeni Henare said last week that with whats happening in the Pacific, investment in military hardware had to continue, plus support for exercises such as the current US-led Rimpac exercise off Hawaii. Labour has dramatically increased defence spending from 1.15 to 1.59 percent of GDP and committed an additional $20 billion over the next decade.

Mahuta pointed to the Biketawa Declaration as a purported example of regional co-operation. Signed in 2000 following pressure from Australia and New Zealand, the document jettisoned a long-standing principle of non-interference in the affairs of PIF member nations. It established that in time of crisis, including when countries face threats to their security, broadly defined, this can trigger diplomatic, economic and military intervention anywhere in the region, at the behest of the major powers.

Mahutas comments further expose the fraud that New Zealand represents a kinder and more independent foreign policy approach in the Pacific, compared with Australia and the US. Speaking to the Lowy Institute this month Prime Minister Ardern hypocritically declared that her government was opposed to the militarisation of the region, declaring diplomacy must become the strongest tool and de-escalation the loudest call.

New Zealand has been a colonial power in the region for over a century. While pursuing its own interests, it has always relied on one of the major imperialist powersfirst Britain, and later the USto maintain its strategic position. Involvement in wars, including support for the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, are the quid pro quo for support for NZ operations in its own back yard.

Mahuta, who is Maori, has been promoted on the basis of racial identity politics, so that the Labour government can posture as family to indigenous Pacific peoples. In a speech to a Maori and Pacific audience earlier this month, Mahuta cited values unique to us, which, she claimed, reflect a Maori perspective that is relevant beyond our shores. The list included such virtues as kindness, care, reciprocity and common humanity i.e. human rights buzzwords that the US exploits to justify its wars and regime-change operations around the world.

Mahutas allegations of debt trap diplomacy, are parroting Washingtons propaganda amid its anti-China diplomatic offensive. At a Pacific leaders conference in Hawaii in June 2021, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken angrily declared that China was breaching international standards and using economic coercion in its provision of aid and concessional loans.

The allegations are bogus. In 2019, 67 percent of Chinese aid to the Pacific was given in the form of loans, mainly for infrastructure projects, up from 41 percent the year before. Pacific leaders, however, often prefer Chinas funding over that from Australia and New Zealand, saying it comes with fewer strings attached.

Seven low-income Pacific Island countriesKiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, PNG, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvaluare classified by the IMF and World Bank as at high risk of debt distress. However, according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) report on July 10, based on World Bank data, most of the Pacific's external debt is with multilateral agencies as opposed to bilateral creditors.

The Asian Development Bank is the major creditor for Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu, holding about 38 percent of all external debt, followed by China (22 percent), the World Bank (13 percent), and Australia and Japan (6 percent). Chinese loans account for less than half the total in the regions two largest countries, PNG and Fiji.

The ABC report warns that trade deficits and high debt levels may lead Pacific governments, without vastly increased financial assistance, to adopt deeper austerity measures likely to worsen poverty and inequality in the region and undermine economic recovery. Far from addressing the looming social disaster, the local imperialist powers, Australia and New Zealand, are preparing to intervene and suppress the inevitable popular discontent.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) condemns the brutal police-military attack on the unarmed anti-government protesters in Galle Face Green in Colombo in the early hours of Friday. Galle Face Green has been occupied by anti-government protesters demanding the resignation of Gotabhaya Rajapakse as president, and now his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Ranil Wickremesinghe [Source: United National Party Facebook]

Wickremesinghe clearly instigated the crackdown, which came less than 24 hours after he had been sworn in as executive president. In his short time as acting president, he had declared a state of emergency, given the security forces free rein, and branded anti-government protesters as fascists. He issued a decree on Thursday ordering the military to maintain public order throughout the island.

The operation was well-planned. It was launched at around 1:30 a.m. Friday to catch protesters unawares and avoid public attention. All roads to Galle Face Green were barricaded. Around 1,000 police and soldiers, their faces covered, descended on the protest site from all directions, physically attacked protesters and journalists and tore down their tents and makeshift structures. Fourteen people were admitted to the National Hospital and nine were taken into custody and later bailed.

Wickremesinghe authorised the brutal attack despite the fact that protest organisers had already announced that they would vacate the Presidential Secretariat near Galle Face Green by 2 p.m. on Friday. It was clearly aimed not only at clearing Galle Face Green, but at sending a menacing message to the millions who have joined protests and strikes over the past three months.

The SEP warns working people that the Wickremesinghe government is preparing to ruthlessly implement the savage austerity demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is acutely conscious that its actions will provoke even greater popular opposition from working people who are already confronting desperate shortages and skyrocketing prices. The ruling class has only one answermass repressionand has installed Wickremesinghe to carry it out.

The attack exposes the real face of parliamentary democracy as just a facade for the dictatorship of the capitalist class. Wickremesinghes claim to be defending the constitution and democracy is nothing but the defence of bourgeois rule. The constitution gives Wickremesinghe the sweeping powers of a dictatorto unilaterally install and dismiss governments, rule by decree, declare emergencies and order the use of lethal force by the military and police against working people.

All the parties and politicians of the ruling classincluding the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the pseudo-left hangers-on of the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), so-called civil society organisations, trade unions and Galle Face Green protest leadersproclaim the sanctity of the constitution and parliament. All of them promoted the illusion that Wednesdays vote in parliament for a new president offered hope to the masses.

The SEP alone denounced Wednesdays charade in parliament as a fraud and a conspiracy against the working class, youth and rural poor. Wickremesinghe is being backed to the hilt by big business, US imperialism, the IMF and international investors to heap the burden of the economic crisis onto working people and to suppress any opposition.

Wickremesinghe has a long record as a ruthless defender of capitalist rule. He was a minister in United National Party governments in the 1980s that broke a general strike against pro-market policies, sacked tens of thousands of workers, and, in 1983, orchestrated the notorious anti-Tamil pogroms that initiated the islands devastating communal war. He was publicly accused of overseeing the Batalanda torture/killing chambers during the UNP governments bloody crackdown on unrest among rural youth in 1988-90, during which 60,000 were slaughtered by military-organised death squads.

Clearly concerned that Fridays police-state operation will trigger widespread protests, US ambassador in Colombo Julie Chung tweeted her deep concerns over the violent attack on protesters and urged restraint by authorities and immediate access to medical attention for those injured. What hypocrisy! The US only raises human rights to further its own predatory interests, and it will issue nothing more than perfunctory expressions of concern to future abuses by the Wickremesinghe government.

Masses in front of the Presidential Secretariat on Monday, July 11, 2022 [Photo: WSWS]

The trade unions and opposition parties have paved the way for Wickremesinghe to be installed and are promoting the fatal illusion that his government can be pressured to grant concessions. By blocking the development of an independent movement of working people, they are giving Wickremesinghe a free hand to order the security forces to crack down on any opposition.

Ravi Kumudesh, co-convener of the Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), a major union front, wrote an open letter to Wickremesinghe pleading with him to give his honest support for meeting the expectations of the anti-government protests, at least until the next elections.

On Thursday, the National Movement of Non-party Agitators, a group involved in the anti-government protest movement, held a media conference in front of the prime ministers official residence after dismantling their protest. They said they were giving Wickremesinghe a month or two and if not satisfied would restart their protests.

Wickremesinghe has given his answer. The opposition of working people to the intolerable living conditions they confront will be answered with military violence.

At a press conference on Friday, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva condemned the attack on anti-government protesters but sought to cover up the underlying source of the military violence. He accused Wickremesinghe of protecting the Rajapakses, adding that he had been contracted by them to take revenge against the protesters who forced them from office.

Wickremesinghe, however, is not acting on behalf of the Rajapakses, but the ruling class as a whole, which is terrified by the mass popular uprising that has erupted. He is a class conscious representative of the bourgeoisie who understands that the capitalist economy is bankrupt, that no concessions can be made to working people and any opposition has to be savagely suppressed.

The JVP and the opposition parties that have been pushing for an all-party interim government would be driven to do exactly the same.

The military/police violence used against Galle Face protesters is a warning of what is to come if the parties of the capitalist class are left in power. It adds to the urgency of workers and rural toilers taking up the political initiative outlined by the SEP in its July 20 statement entitled For a Democratic and Socialist Congress of Workers and Rural Masses! It explained the necessity of convening such a congress as a revolutionary political alternative to the reactionary capitalist interim government being set up by the discredited parliamentary cronies of Gotabhaya Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremesinghe.

To establish the foundations for convening the congress, the SEP calls on workers and rural toilers to build their own rank-and-file action committees in every workplace, factory, plantation, neighborhood and rural area to fight for their class interests. As the political establishment, the state apparatus and the military prepare further violence, workers should respond through their action committees with the intransigent defence of the democratic rights of the masses. The defence of democratic rights is indissolubly connected to the fight for socialist demands and the seizure of power from the corrupt and venal ruling elites that are determined to defend their wealth and privileges through every available means.

As the SEP statement declared, the call for a Democratic and Socialist Congress of Workers and Rural Masses provides a political strategy for the working class to consolidate its forces, win the active support of the rural masses and lay the basis for its own rule through a workers and peasants government committed to restructuring society on socialist lines. This struggle is part of the broader political fight for socialism in South Asia and internationally.
On July 16, peasants from Palagoda in Tangalle, southern Sri Lanka, formed an independent action committee to fight the ongoing social attacks by successive Sri Lankan governments on their livelihoods.

The initiative marks an important milestone in the developing anti-government mass movement of the Sri Lankan working class and rural toilers. The decision expresses the aspirations of millions of peasants who have been hard hit by the economic and political attacks of former President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government, and are determined to win their basic social and democratic rights.

Ratnasiri Malalagama speaking with farmers. G. B. Padmasiri is on his right

The establishment of the Tangalle Agrarian Action Committee is significant for two main reasons: It was established under the political guidance of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), as part of the campaign for an International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees initiated last year by the International Committee of the Fourth International. Secondly, it was formed in opposition to the treacherous trade unions, peasant organisations and other bourgeois outfits, all of which consistently work to prevent all mass struggles of peasants and workers challenging the capitalist profit system.

Sixteen peasants working as sharecroppers in Palagoda village, about 3 kilometres from Tangalle town in the Hambantota agricultural district, participated in the inaugural meeting. Most of those present are involved in cultivating crops as well as working day-to-day as odd job laborers to make ends meet.

The peasants not only have to pay all cultivation expenses but hand over a fourth of their harvest to the landlords. They face the loss of their crops to flooding during the rainy seasons, the lack of chemical fertilisers, and shortages of diesel for their agricultural machinery. Rural youth also confront high unemployment levels.

Opening the action committees inaugural meeting, the convener, G. B. Padmasiri, said the old, previously dominant farmers organisations had demonstrated their political bankruptcy and explained why new independent organisations, as proposed by the SEP, were necessary.

As comrades know very well, we have experienced how [government agricultural] officers come here when convened by official peasant organisations and how we engage in debates after presenting our problems before them. After these meetings end, however, none of the solutions materialise.

Through this experience we understand why peasants need a new form of organisation and a program to find solutions to our problems, Padmasiri said.

Padmasiri learned about the SEP by reading the World Socialist Web Site and some books published by the party. He was attracted to the idea of action committees and understood why they were necessary to establish the foundations for a workers and peasants government committed to socialist policies. This, he realised, was the only viable solution to the pressing social needs of working people and the rural poor.

After his brief introduction, Padmasiri invited SEP Political Committee member Ratnasiri Malalagama to address the audience. He began by explaining the catastrophic situation confronting the peasants within the context of the escalating economic crisis.

While peasants, who do not have any other livelihood, cannot abandon farming, their ability to cultivate their crops has been drastically undermined, he said, referring in particular to the Rajapakse governments import bans on chemical fertilisers, insecticides and herbicides.

Notwithstanding Rajapakse government claims that it was concerned about preventing kidney diseases, the drastic import bans were due to lack of foreign exchange, Malalagama said.

You know how this debt crisis impacts on your lives, he continued, but the solution sought by capitalist rulers is the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF wants the government to repay its loans by cutting public expenditure. The increasing cost of fuel and all food items, and the destruction of hospital services and education now being carried out, is in line with that, he said.

The speaker explained that the popular uprising that forced out Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who initially came to power with 6.9 million votes, has shown the mass opposition to austerity and social destruction. He warned, however, that all the capitalist and pseudo-left parties were working together to divert this movement behind another bourgeois government, an interim all-party government.

All the opposition parties, Malalagama continued, support going to the IMF and implementing its demands. Organisers of the Galle Face Green protests, including the Frontline Socialist Party and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, he said, are also diverting the protests into this trap, which is to buy time for the ruling elite to brutally suppress the popular uprising.

The speaker explained that the social catastrophe is not limited to Sri Lanka and cited the struggle by millions of peasants in India who had demonstrated in New Delhi for about a year against the Modi governments pro-corporate agricultural reforms. Sri Lankan health workers, plantation workers and teachers had formed action committees during the mass protest against the Rajapakse government, Malalagama said and outlined the SEPs basic policies.

* For workers democratic control over the production and distribution of all essential items and other resources critical for the lives of people! Nationalise the banks, big corporations, plantations and other major economic nerve centres!

* Repudiate all foreign debts! No to the austerity demands of the IMF and World Bank that represent the international bankers and financial institutions!

* Seize the colossal wealth of the billionaires and corporations!

* Cancel all debts of poor and marginal farmers and small business holders! Reinstate all subsidies, including fertiliser subsidies for farmers! Abolish the feudal share-cropper system! Give the lands to share-croppers who cultivate them!

* Guarantee jobs for all with decent and safe working conditions! Index wages to the cost of living!

Malalagama quoted from the April 7 SEP statement: The fight for this program provides a way forward and will imbue the working class with confidence in its capacities, draw the rural masses to its side and, through the development of a network of Action Committees, provide the organisational foundations for the working class to take power and establish a workers and peasants government to begin the socialist reorganisation of society.

Following Malalagamas report, there were questions and answers about the program of action. There was also discussion on fuel shortages which are stopping paddy fields cultivation in the Tangalle area. Peasants said they were not even able to cultivate rice for their own consumption.

Audience members said that even though Grama Niladhari [a village officer] and assistant agricultural officers had provided letters certifying farmers fuel requirements, they had done nothing to supply fuel. The peasants said every officer and institution had abandoned their responsibilities. They also said it was impossble in the current circumstances to comply with government directives telling them to immediately begin cultivation to overcome food scarcities.

Meeting participants agreed that it was necessary to form a network of action committees in order to develop united action over the issues confronting the peasants. Accordingly, the audience decided that the meeting should make an appeal for the establishment of similar action committees in the other provinces at the initiative and guidance of the Tangalle Agrarian Action Committee.

Intervening in the discussion, SEP representatives explained the need for building action committee alliances between the working class and the peasantry in fighting for solutions for problems they confronted.

The following resolution was presented, discussed and unanimously adopted.

The living conditions of millions of people have deteriorated drastically due to deepening economic crisis of the country. Peasants have been hard hit by brutal attacks unleashed on behalf of international capital, including the IMF.

Based on a proper program, the Tangalle Agrarian Action Committee will fight to resolve the innumerable problems, including lack of fuel and fertilisers and reasonable prices for their harvest. To this end, we invite the peasants in other provinces and the workers at various fields and the toiling masses to form a network of such action committees.

This Agrarian Action Committee does not have any relationship with any of the capitalist parties that have subjected the masses to immense hardships for decades. At the same time, we warn that the so-called all-party government to be formed with the participation of all the capitalist parties will continue the attacks unleashed by the previous governments. We are opposed to such a government.

We express our complete support for the building of a democratic and socialist congress of workers and rural masses to fight for the bringing of a socialist government of workers and peasants to power, which alone has the ability to provide real solutions for the problems confronting the masses.
More than two days since it was first imposed, a lock on the Twitter account of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) remains in place, effectively disabling it. The protracted character of the measure, and the absence of any credible explanation from the social media company, brands its actions as political censorship.

Posts demanding the full reinstatement of the SEP account and an explanation from Twitters page have been shared hundreds of times and have reached thousands of users. Many have drawn a connection between the lock on the SEP account, and a broader campaign to silence those critical of official policies, including militarism, war and the herd immunity COVID policies.

As the WSWS reported previously, the lock was first imposed on Thursday, Australian (AEST) time no later than 10:50am.

Only a couple of minutes earlier, the SEP account had published a video.

It defended Dr David Berger, a well-known general practitioner, under sanction from Australias medical authorities for his consistent opposition to the let it rip COVID policies and advocacy of an elimination strategy aimed at ending the pandemic. The video drew attention to the parallel between the attacks on Berger and other fighters for social and democratic rights, including WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

The video can be viewed below.

The video that Twitter has censored, which is still available on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube

When the lock was imposed, that video was removed by Twitter and replaced with a label claiming that it had violated unspecified rules.

The initial lock was to be for 12 hours, gave no information about the supposed infractions of the page, could not be reviewed and provided no means of communication or redress. After the 12 hours had elapsed, the SEP received notification that its account remained locked.

The video supposedly had Violat[ed] our rules against posting or sharing privately produced/distributed intimate media of someone without their express consent. The lock would remain in place until and unless the video was deleted entirely.

On Friday morning, at roughly 9:30am (AEST), the SEP filed an appeal. It noted that the stated grounds for the censorship of the video were bogus. It contained no intimate content. All the images were in the public domain or had been provided to the WSWS by those depicted.

Three hours later, at 12:30pm (AEST), the SEP received confirmation that its appeal had been received. More than 24 hours since then, Twitter has not answered the appeal in any way.

The timeline raises concerning questions:

Was the initial unexplained lock of 12 hours merely to provide administrators with time to concoct a pretext for the censorship?

Why was the SEP account disabled entirely, rather than given some sort of warning? It is associated with a well-known and longstanding political organisation, has more than 2,000 followers and has operated on Twitter since 2010 without any accusations of rule infringements.

Have any human evaluators been involved in the censorship of the SEP account? If so, how could they possibly be under the misapprehension that the video contains intimate images, when it clearly does not? If they were so mistaken, why didnt they contact the SEP to clarify the issue?

If Twitters actions to this point are purely the result of algorithms and automated processes, why did it take three hours for receipt of the SEPs appeal to be acknowledged? This clearly indicates the involvement of human moderators.

If the SEP video was the subject of a false complaint in the few minutes that it was visible, why has this malicious report been taken at face value and acted upon so drastically? Anyone who has been on Twitter for some time knows that such false reports are a common occurrence. Generally they are investigated before any action is taken.

Why has the report, if one were made, seemingly been treated by Twitter as an unchallengeable and semi-official edict?

This raises the obvious question: If there was a false report in relation to the SEP video, did it come from a prominent political figure or any individual associated with government and state agencies?

In regard to the last question, it is notable that Bergers personal Twitter account has repeatedly been subjected to comments from right-wing trolls, defending the government policies of mass infection and death.

There is also an ecosystem of anti-Assange accounts, which feed off and promote the decade-long campaign of the intelligence apparatuses to destroy the courageous journalist. One of the most persistent of those accounts has repeatedly gloated about the SEP Twitter lock.

Twitters silence is all the more striking, given the substantial support that has been voiced for the full reinstatement of the SEP account.

On Thursday afternoon, SEP National Secretary Cheryl Crisp posted a Tweet reporting the lock. As of this writing, Crisps post has been retweeted, or shared, more than 240 times and liked by almost 500. It has received over 35,000 impressions, a measure of how many times the post appeared in Twitter feeds of unique individual users.

Many others have posted strong comments. Chris Turnbull, an independent journalist, retweeted Crisps post, with the comment: The attack on Dr Berger continues: now extended to those who defend him: Twitter suspending groups who are not in violation of their own rules.

Another user wrote: It is unconscionable but unsurprising to find Twitter solidarizing itself with the state in suppressing a major physician-journalist like Dr David Berger from telling the truth about the pandemic.

A longstanding supporter of Assange wrote: . @TwitterSupport unlock the @SEP_Australia acct - reinstate it fully! @Twitter users need reliable accts! SEP reports on & defends workers around the world! For yrs they have defended #JulianAssange bringing light to a blacked-out story. 7 articles on #AssangeCase in July alone!

One user cut to the heart of the issue, posting: Irony? Someone tweets about the free speech of *others* on *various* topics. Twitter responds by removing their tweet and locking their account?! The tweet was maliciously reported as [containing intimate] content @TwitterSupport

The SEP will continue to demand the complete reinstatement of its account and a full explanation of how and why the censorship was imposed. This is critical to defeating a precedent for further attacks on anti-war, left-wing and socialist posts on the platform.

We urge all other Twitter users committed to democratic rights to aid this campaign. Tweet your opposition to the lock, direct it to @TwitterSupport and include the hashtag #OpposeSEPTwitterLock.
The 1974 book All the Presidents Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein detailed the role of dozens of Nixon aides and state officials in orchestrating and covering up the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex.

Twenty-two Nixon aides and government officials were indicted, convicted and jailed for their roles in the Watergate conspiracy.

That dirty tricks operation, for all its criminal and anti-democratic implications, was nowhere near the magnitude of the full-scale, violent and nearly successful coup led by Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.

Yet despite an ever expanding mountain of evidence incriminating Trump, the Republican Party and substantial sections of the military, the police and the intelligence agencies in the bid to overturn the 2020 election and install Trump as dictator-president, neither Trump nor any of his major co-conspirators, with the exception of Steve Bannon, has been indicted, let alone imprisoned, and Bannon faces a mere misdemeanor charge.

Based on Thursday nights prime time nationally televised hearing of the House Select January 6 Committee, the Democratic Partys book on Trumps insurrection would be titled A One-Man Coup: How the Evil President Defied His Good Advisers.

The Democrats management of the hearings is based on a massive contradiction. The hearings have revealed damning evidence that a powerful network within all branches of government almost abolished the Constitution and established a dictatorship, and figures have testified that Trump and his allies are actively engaged in planning their next attempt. But at the same time, the Democrats use the hearings to promote the Republican Party, including figures like Liz Cheney, and to insulate Trumps conspirators from criminal prosecution. Their aim is to save the political institution of the two-party system, upon which the stability of capitalist rule depends.

This is what played out on Thursday. Over the course of nearly three hours, the Democratic-controlled committee presented a narrative of Trumps actions on January 6 that argued, absurdly, that the fascist siege of the Capitol was allowed to drag on because Trump rejected multiple pleas to call it off from White House staffers, family members, congressional leaders and other loyalists who had supported Trumps baseless claims of a stolen election, but heroically came to the defense of the Constitution.

One chilling clip showed then-Vice President Mike Pence and his staff and Secret Service detail fleeing for their lives from the mob, which had come within a few feet of where Pence was hiding in the Capitol. There was audio describing Secret Service agents making what they feared were their final calls to wives and family members.

That the coup eventually fizzled out was not due to anything Biden or the Democrats did. The president-elect stood by silently for hours and only emerged to plead with Trump to go on television and call off his own coup. Democratic lawmakers cowered under their desks in the Capitol. They made no call for the population to rise up and stop the coup.

The hearing, the last in the current series of eight televised hearings, marked a further step in the attempt to focus all attention on Trump and a handful of croniesBannon, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastmanand insulate the far broader sections of the ruling class and the state apparatus that were involved in the coup.

What Trump did and did not do during the 187 minutes between the time he ended his speech at the Ellipse by calling on his supporters to march on the Capitol and his 4:17 p.m. statement telling his special people and patriots to leave the Capitol and go home could not have come as a surprise to anyone seriously following the political crisis surrounding the election. In his debate with Joe Biden at the end of September, Trump had refused to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power and ordered the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by in the event he was declared the loser.

The World Socialist Web Site had outlined with remarkable prescience how Trump would proceed in the run-up to the election and its aftermath, warning the working class of the danger of a coup.

The Democrats have sought to politically frame the opposition to Trumps coup in the most conservative and patriotic manner. They have allowed war-hawk Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the panel, to dominate the proceedings. In her concluding remarks she praised Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and said the insurrectionists on January 6 had acted out of misplaced love for country.

The Committee chose two military veterans, Elaine Luria of Virginia, a long-time Navy commander, and Republican Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, an Air Force pilot in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, to lead the questioning. Lurias closing remarks epitomized the political line of the hearing. She said: President Trump sat in his dining room and watched the attack on television, while his senior-most staff, closest advisers and family members begged him to do what was expected of any American president.

As in the previous hearings, the in-person witnesses were former Trump aides: Matthew Pottinger, a Marine veteran who fought in the Middle East wars and became deputy national security adviser, where he helped formulate Trumps bellicose policy against China, and Sarah Matthews, deputy White House press secretary under Trump.

In support of the principle of the peaceful transfer of power, Pottinger praised Al Gores capitulation to the theft of the 2000 election by the Supreme Court.

There was no mention of the scandal engulfing the Secret Service, which earlier on Thursday was informed by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security that his office had launched a criminal probe of the agencys mass deletion of text messages sent and received by agents around the time of the January 6 coup. The Secret Service deleted the messages after being instructed by Congress to preserve all records from January 6, and the January 6 Committee had subpoenaed the agency to turn over the texts.

On January 6 itself, Pences Secret Service detail had attempted to remove him from the Capitol, which would have made impossible the official counting of Electoral votes and opened the way for Trump to declare an emergency and hijack the election.

There has been no attempt in any of the hearings to explain why the Capitol was left so poorly protected on January 6. Or why the FBI failed to issue a threat assessment in advance of the official certification of Bidens victory. Or why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to declare the January 6 joint session of Congress a National Special Security Event (NSSE), despite the magnitude of threats tracked by the FBI, DHS and other state agencies against Pence and the lawmakers.

The committee focused on the 187 minutes between Trumps speech at the Ellipse and his 4:17 p.m. call for his mob to vacate the Capitol. It has, however, said nothing about the 199 minutes between the request by then-D.C. National Guard commander William Walker for authorization to deploy his troops to secure the Capitol, made at 1:49 p.m., and Trumps acting Defense Secretary Christopher Millers approval at 5:08 p.m. During that period, Trumps hand-picked leadership of the Pentagon, along with the uniformed brass, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, were watching the bloody assault on Congress while doing nothing to stop it.

This massive cover-up, led by the Democratic Party and the Biden administration, who continue to appeal for unity with their Republican colleagues, is aimed at politically disarming the working class. Meanwhile, Trump, the Republican Party and their allies in the state apparatus and financial oligarchy are emboldened and given a free hand to intensify their plans to overturn the next election and impose a dictatorship.

It is critical that the working class intervene into the terminal crisis of American democracy on the basis of its own independent, socialist program. Democracy cannot exist within the capitalist system, which breeds staggering levels of social inequality and war. The development of the class struggle must be accompanied by a break with the Democrats and the entire capitalist two-party system, and the fight for workers power.
In what may be the most provocative escalation of the US-NATO war against Russia to date, the White House has confirmed that the US is planning to send NATO-made fighter jets to Ukraine.

John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, confirmed that the Pentagon is discussing providing fighter aircraft to the Ukrainians.

Kirbys statement marks a rejection of the Biden administrations previous refusal to send fighter aircraft to Ukraine because, in Bidens words, such a move would lead to World War III.

Fridays announcement confirms the earlier statement by Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., that discussions are ongoing to send US-NATO fighters to Ukraine.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Conference, Brown was asked, [i]s it possible the U.S could sell or provide Ukraine more U.S fighter platforms? To this, Brown replied, [i]t'll be something non-Russian, I could probably tell you that.

In May, the Pentagon rejected an earlier proposal by Poland to send Soviet-made MiG fighters to Ukraine, calling it high risk.

At the time, Biden declared that the move could start World War III, saying, The idea that were going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews  just understand, dont kid yourself, no matter what yall say, thats called World War III.

In announcing the Pentagon plan, Kirby said the Pentagon is looking to solve logistical issues including training, maintenance, and spare parts.

The Wall Street Journal reported: A former Pentagon official said F-15 and F-16 fighter jets have been discussed as options for Ukraine, though both aircraft require significant training and maintenance. The former official, now in private industry, says a separate contingent is pushing to get Ukraine A-10s.

Also on Friday, the White House announced a further $270 million in weapons deliveries to Ukraine, in the 16th weapons package since the start of the war. The new package includes four additional HIMARS missile weapons systems, as well as hundreds of phoenix ghost kamikaze drones.

A clear strategy of the US in the proxy war against Russia is emerging. Washington apparently believes that by abandoning all restraints on the type of weapons systems being deployed to Ukraine, Kiev will be enabled to regain territories lost since the start of the war and achieve their aim, first stated in March 2021 as the official military doctrine, of retaking the entire Donbass (East Ukraine) and the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea.

Our assistance is making a real difference on the ground, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said this week. Russia thinks that it can outlast Ukraine  and outlast us. But thats just the latest in Russias string of miscalculations.

Under these conditions, Ukraine officials have categorically rejected peace talks. All the territories must be liberated first, and then we can negotiate about what to do and how we could live in the centuries ahead, Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. Our people are convinced we can do it. And the faster we do it, the fewer will die.

In the process of building a fighting force they hope will be able to defeat the Russian military, the United States is supplying Ukraine with the exact same weapons systems used by the US military, and training Ukrainian forces to operate them just like the US military does.

To date, the United States has given Ukraine sixteen of its most advanced ground-based guided missile systems, the HIMARS, as well as its standard anti-ship missile, the Harpoon, and the anti-aircraft system used to guard the White House, the NASAMS, as well as over 100 top-of-the-line long-range artillery pieces, as well as hundreds of armored personnel carriers, and over a thousand lethal aerial drones.

In addition, the United States has provided hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition, and millions of rounds of small-arms ammunition.

Since the start of the war, the US has committed $7.6 billions in military aid to Ukraine. The flow of US weapons to Ukraine has been so enormous that military officials have expressed whether this would deplete the United States own military stockpiles.

US President Joe Biden has repeatedly placed limits on the level of US involvement in the war, only to then overstep those limits.

After claiming the US would not provide Ukraine with weapons capable of striking within Russian territory, Biden announced that the US would provide long-range missiles to Ukraine. Now, the White House is moving rapidly to send fighter jets in a massive escalation of the conflict.

Even as the US is recklessly escalating the war with Russia, US officials told the media that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would travel to Taiwan, prompting Chinese officials to demand a military response. After Biden said Thursday that the trip is not a good idea right now, broad sections of the Republican party demanded that the trip go forward.

In its second editorial on the proposed trip this week, the Wall Street Journal demanded to know whether The Pentagon fears China might shoot down a U.S. aircraft carrying the person third (sic) line to the Presidency, and declares, If China can stop a senior U.S. official from visiting Taiwan, how resolute is America going to be in a shooting war?

Under these super-charged conditions, Foreign Affairs ran an article this week entitled, What If the War in Ukraine Spins Out of Control, declaring, a nuclear attack is still in the realm of possibility.
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Join the fight against the UAW sellout! Join the Ventra Workers Rank-and-File Committe! For more information, text 231-335-7049, email ventrarfc@gmail.com or fill at the form at the bottom of this page.

Ventra Evart [Photo by Ventra Evart Products Facebook page]

On Wednesday, United Auto Workers Local 2270 announced a second tentative agreement with parts maker Ventra at its Evart, Michigan plant. Workers rejected the first TA overwhelmingly by 95 percent last month. The contract covers more than 1000 workers who make headlamp assemblies, plastic injection moldings and other parts for multiple Jeep models, Ford, General Motors and Tesla.

Two weeks ago, the rank-and-file voted to authorize strike action by a 98 percent margin. Since then, however, the UAW has stalled for time, refusing to call a strike. Flouting the strike vote, it continued to meet behind closed doors with Ventra negotiators. These tactics have only frustrated and enraged the workforce, which continues to labor in sweatshop conditions on forced overtime and for poverty wages. Many workers have to carpool and share babysitters because they can't afford the gas to get to work and the money to take care of their kids.

A severe outbreak of COVID-19 is racing through the shop, infecting many workers and idling multiple production lines, while the union has refused to take any action that would alleviate the spread and protect the workers.

Temperatures in the plant regularly rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) and the company refuses to grant even contractually stipulated heat breaks, which the union passively accepts. Members of the Ventra Workers Rank-and-File Committee, founded after the first contract rejection to oppose union collusion with the company, report to the WSWS that on a daily basis workers have been taken out of the plant on stretchers, having collapsed from heat stroke or kidney failure because of the extreme heat.

Details of the new contract have not been released as of this writing. But given the conditions in which it was negotiated, there can be no doubt that the new TA will offer no basic improvements over the last one. The tersely-worded announcement of the new deal does not acknowledge the landslide rejection of the first deal: Sisters and Brothers, on behalf of your Bargaining Committee we would like to announce that we have come to a second Tentative Agreement  as we work on finalizing details, please see below the outlined dates and times of events.

The union clearly anticipates an explosion of opposition to the new deal. The announcement states that the contract information meeting Sunday will be for questions regarding the new tentative agreement  Everyone will be expected to conduct themselves in a respective(sic) manner. Workers will be forced to vote on the deal Wednesday, before they have had adequate time to study the agreement.

One Ventra worker and supporter of the Rank-and-File Committee told the World Socialist Web Site, I'm not even optimistic. I just want to see what the hell they are trying to put out there. I don't think its anything other than the same contract with a little bit of lipstick, a little fluff to it. We deserve a living wage. $2.50 over 5 years is not a raise. In real terms it's a pay cut. And they are taking that out of our medical coverage.'

Another supporter of the committee said: A lot of people want to know why, if the union has a tentative agreement, they don't give it to us now. They are just stalling us until Sunday [when an informational meeting has been called]. We say, You need to give us the information RIGHT NOW! the copy of the Proposed Contract right now and let us deal with the fluff and either we strike, or we vote.

The supporter continued, We just want it out now. We are tired of screwing around. Now the union wants us to wait til Sunday to get the information and then until Wednesday for a vote. People are catching on to these stalling tactics. They are having a fit because they have to wait until Sunday and then everyone has got to go on Sunday, their day off, just to get the information.

They should have brought that s*** and hand delivered it to everybody in that facility the day that they came up with it. They say they want to have a meeting on it. OK, fine and dandy! ANSWER QUESTIONS LATER! Give us the information! We are all competent enough to read. We've got nothing. We've got no job stability. We've got no control over our jobs. We can't even do our jobs the way that we need to do them in the first place. You can't even take any pride in your work.

A Rank and File Committee member described the current spread of Covid in the plant. This is the third major outbreak. All of my co-workers are out on COVID now. There are people on administrative leave in every department. On Thursday night, the Tesla line was not even running. There are probably 12 people on that line and they had that line shut down. The whole plant has been infected and the union has done nothing about it. They don't care. We're just numbers.

He went on to explain his recent trip to the hospital which revealed the increasing severity of the disease. They were asking all kinds of questions, like if I was having abnormal bleeding  The risk of blood clots is tremendous. There's a lady at my shop who is still having problems with blood clots after having caught COVID at the plant in October.

My brain is still not functioning. It's like I'm thinking through a cloud. I wouldn't doubt it's brain damage because my memory just goes. I'm talking about something then I stop and I can't remember the next word that was coming out of my mouth.

Workers should organize to vote down the second TA. But the critical question is what comes after. In a July 13 statement, the Ventra Rank and File Committee said:

If were to win, we must prepare and approach what lies ahead with open eyes. Above all, we have to have a strategy to expand our fight and the resources to sustain it. We believe the following is needed for our struggle to succeed:

Form rank-and-file strike committees to reach out to workers at Flex-N-Gate and the Big Three  [and] our Ventra and Flex-N-Gate brothers and sisters in Ionia, Detroit, Sandusky and other locations (including at Tenneco) to join our struggle. Workers at the nearby Tenneco plant in Greenville voted down two similar tentative agreements at poverty pay, and they are still working without a contract while the union is blocking strike action. An appeal should also be made to workers at GM, Ford and Stellantis/Chrysler not to handle any scab parts in the event of a strike.

The statement concluded, Demand a deadline for a walkout be set immediately following the strike authorization  Workers oversight of all contract talks and balloting  Full income for strikers from the $800 million UAW strike fund. We have paid dues to the UAW every paycheck for years. The strike fund was built up with our money, and must be used to support our fight and those of other workers, not as a slush fund for the UAW apparatus.

If workers are to break from the grip of the UAW, they must join the movement to build rank and file committees at every factory and take control of our own conditions, negotiations and strike actions. That is the aim of the campaign of Will Lehman for UAW International President. On Monday, Lehman issued a statement in support of the Ventra struggle:

Ventra workers have every right to take action to end these terrible sweatshop conditions and protect their lives, he said. Our brothers and sisters at Ventra are being worked to death to fill the companys orders to automakers and maintain Ventras profits.

The infection of workers from COVID-19 is totally unacceptable! This disease has already killed more than 1 million people in the US and thousands of workers because the companies and union bureaucrats think profit is more important than our lives.

I fully support the call by the Ventra Workers Rank-and-File Committee for the setting of an immediate strike date.
Former St. Paul, Minnesota, police officer Thomas Lane was sentenced this week for his role in the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Lane is one of three officers convicted in February of violating Floyds civil rights by failing to administer medical aid after officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Kiernan Lane, Tou Thao (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

Judge Paul Magnuson sided with the defense and issued a 2.5 year sentence, arguing that Lane had played a minimal role in the incident and citing 145 letters of support for Lane that he had received. Its not unusual to receive letters, said Magnuson. But I have never received so many letters.

Federal prosecutors and Floyds family had pushed for the maximum sentence of 5.5 to 6.5 years in prison while the defense called for a sentence of 2.25 years.

Lane will also have to pay an undetermined amount in restitution to Floyds family and will be placed on supervised release for two years after his sentence is served. The judge further recommended that Lane be held in the federal prison in Duluth, Minnesota, so that he may be closer to his family.

In addition to this weeks sentencing, Lane pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting second degree manslaughter in May. Both rulings follow the sentencing of Derek Chauvin to 22 years in federal prison on charges of both manslaughter and second degree murder.

Lane had pleaded guilty to those charges as part of plea deal with the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. The deal resulted in a recommendation that the court sentence Lane to three years in prison on state charges to be served concurrently with his federal sentence. He is expected to be sentenced on these charges in September.

While both the prosecution and the defense have agreed to recommend the three year sentence, it will be up to the court to decide how long he will actually serve. Given the shorter sentence issued this week and standard rules for probation it is possible that Lane may be released after just two years on good behavior.

The lenient sentence for Lane sparked outrage from Floyds family. Floyds nephew, Brandon Williams, called the sentencing a slap in the face and said that Lane also made the decision to kill my uncle. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do and he chose not to do it. Thats not an accident. That is a choice.

Philonise Floyd, George Floyds brother, said that The fact that this judge had a chance to deliver a maximum amount of time and he chose not towhat did that tell other people around the world? What does that tell people of color? The fact that they went below the [recommended] sentence, thats terrible, because you give other people, for other crimes, way more time than that.

Floyds comments reflect a bitter reality for working class people. A federal mandatory minimum sentence for selling marijuana is five years, twice the amount of time that Lane will serve for a civil rights violation that led to a Floyds death, as well as an admission to manslaughter. Hundreds of thousands of people have been incarcerated for relatively minor, nonviolent drug-related offenses who have seen far longer time behind bars than Lane will.

It is a stark demonstration of the role of the police and the courts in capitalist society. Both fundamentally exist to uphold the law of capitalist property relations and enforce the will of the ruling class. As long as the capitalist system remains, the police will continue to have the near complete impunity to harass, injure and kill workers. The only reason that Chauvin and his accomplices have faced any consequences for their actions is due to the mass outrage that Floyds murder caused and the ruling classes sensitivity to controlling such protests.

Like the Democrats at the January 6 hearings, Judge Magnuson aims to reduce the murder of Floyd to the actions of a single person, placing all blame on Chauvin and exonerating Lane and his fellow officers, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, of their collective responsibility for Floyds death.

The judges sympathy for the three other police officers involved was shown by his comment that Chauvin had not only killed Floyd but absolutely destroyed the lives of three other young officers by taking charge at this scene.

The officers had made similar arguments during their defense. Lane argued that Chauvin had dismissed his suggestions that they roll Floyd onto his side, and both Thao and Kueng claimed that they trusted Chauvin as their senior officer.

Thao and Kueng have also been convicted of civil rights abuses, but have refused plea deals offered by prosecutors on charges of aiding and abetting second degree murder and manslaughter. They will face trial on these charges in state court on October 24.
On Friday, a Washington D.C. jury found former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, 68, guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to supply documents or appear for a deposition before the January 6 House Select Committee charged with investigating the January 6 insurrection. Federal Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump appointee and a member of the right-wing Federalist Society, will sentence Bannon on October 21.

Bannon, a leading ideologue of the fascist right, was a ringleader in the conspiracy by former President Donald Trump to overthrow the US government that culminated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection.



For refusing to communicate with the committee in any fashion following the issuing of the subpoena last year, the 12-person jury found Bannon guilty on both counts of contempt, each of which carries a minimum 30-day jail sentence and up to a maximum yearlong sentence. Each misdemeanor charge also carries a possible fine of up to $100,000. Prosecutors will make their sentencing recommendations to Judge Nichols on October 14, but no matter what Nichols decides, there is no question Bannon will appeal.



After being subpoenaed by the select committee last September, Bannon refused to communicate with the committee, citing alleged executive privilege claims made by former President Donald Trump. Trump never actually invoked executive privilege, and the committee made clear it wished to question Bannon on conversations that did not necessarily include Trump and were held after he no longer worked at the White House.



Nevertheless, Bannon continued to defy, in his words, the unselect committee. Following his indictment last year, Bannon continued to publicly attack the committee, the Biden regime, and Trumps political enemies on a near-daily basis on his War Roompodcast.



Leading up to the coup, through his podcast and in-person rallies, Bannon spread Trumps lies that the election was fraudulent and that the only way to save the Republic was to come to Washington D.C. on January 6 to stop the steal.



On a January 5 episode of the War Room podcast, Bannon told his audience after an 11-minute phone call with Trump that All hell is going to break loose tomorrow, and that Its all converging, and now were on, as they say, the point of attack.



Following the verdict on Friday, Bannon continued to attack the Select Committee outside the courtroom. He said that his one disappointment was that the gutless members of that show trial committee, the J6 Committee, didnt have the guts to come down here and testify in open court.



The longtime Republican operative and Trump co-conspirator added, We may have lost the battle here today, but were not going to lose the war. Bannon also reiterated his support for Trump and the Constitution, adding, I will never back off that ever.



Bannons lawyer, David Schoen, claimed his client had a bullet proof appeal and that [y]ou will see this case reversed on appeal.



In a statement released by Department of Justice following the verdict, attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves said, Mr. Bannon had an obligation to appear before the House Select Committee to give testimony and provide documents. His refusal to do so was deliberate, and now a jury has found that he must pay the consequences. Graves said the subpoena was not an invitation that could be rejected or ignored.



Despite being found guilty, Bannon will not go to jail immediately and will instead continue to build up and cultivate a fascistic movement within the Republican Party through his podcast.



A recent analysis by CNN found that at least 10 Republican candidates who have appeared on Bannons podcast participated in the January 6 siege of the Capitol or in a Stop the Steal rally leading up to the coup. This includes Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and Arizona Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, neither of whom have been charged for participating in the coup.



The same CNN analysis found that over 100 Republicans seeking office in 2022, all of whom have claimed that the 2020 election was corrupt and that the Biden administration is illegitimate, have appeared on Bannons podcast in the last year. Bannons top three fascistic Republican guests have been former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and the aforementioned Finchem.



Following the verdict, January 6 House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (Democrat-Mississippi) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (Republican-Wyoming) released a joint statement hailing the conviction of Bannon as a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the Select Committees work.



The statement continued: As the prosecutor stated, Steve Bannon chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law. Just as there must be accountability by all those responsible for the events of January 6th, anyone who obstructs our investigation into these matters should face consequences. No one is above the law.

Of course, as the Department of Justice has already shown, at least two of Trumps high-level co-conspirators are above the law, namely former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino. Attorney General Merrick Garland has refused to prosecute either despite receiving contempt referrals from Congress after they defied subpoenas from the House Select Committee.



The other high-level Trump co-conspirator to be indicted for contempt of Congress is former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro. On July 15, Navarro rejected a plea deal from the Department of Justice (DoJ) that would have eliminated one of the two contempt counts against him if he pled guilty to the other one and agreed to a potential 30-day jail sentence.



The fact remains that neither Trump nor any of his high-level accomplices--including Bannon, Navarro and his coup lawyers such as Rudolph Giuliani and John Eastman--have been charged with trying to overthrow the government. Trump and his coup accomplices, far from being held accountable by the Select Committee or the DoJ, continue to cultivate a fascist movement within the Republican Party hell-bent on overturning the remnants of democratic forms of government in the United States.
Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan Musa Dzhamanbaev and Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan Ilhom Mahkamov discussed the development of transport communications between the two countries, the press service of the Uzbek Transport Ministry said, Trend reports citing Kabar.

The sides discussed issues related to the development of transport communications between the countries.

Particular attention was paid to the organization of rail and bus communication on the new routes connecting settlements of the two republics.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. Khujand - the second-largest city of Tajikistan increased industrial production from January through June 2022, Trend reports via press service of the region's authorities.

The total value of production of industrial products in Khujand amounted to 647.3 million somoni ($62.2 million), which is an increase of 12.9 percent compared to the same period of 2021 (573.4 million somoni or $55.1 million)

In the first half of this year, Khujand exported goods worth 191.8 million somoni ($18.4 million), which is an increase of 26 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Meanwhile, 8 new small and medium-sized manufacturing plants with modern equipment were established during the reporting period, and the total number of industrial enterprises of the city reached 177 units.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 5. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov met with the Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Zhang Xiangchen, who arrived in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) on a working visit, Trend reports citing the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Turkmenistan.

During the meeting, Meredov informed Xiangchen about the preparatory work being carried out in Turkmenistan for joining the WTO, which includes improving the national legislative framework, foreign trade procedures and rules.

Furthermore, he stressed that the growing trends of economic globalization in the modern world, especially after the pandemic, have set Turkmenistan the task of more intensive integration into the system of international trade and economic relations.

The sides noted that relations between Turkmenistan and the WTO have noticeably intensified in recent years.

During the meeting of the WTO General Council in February this year, the Turkmen side officially applied for membership in the organization in accordance with Article XII of the Marrakesh Agreement.

Following the review, the participating countries of the WTO General Council unanimously approved Turkmenistan's application and decided to grant it the status of an "acceding country".
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. Representatives of the Turkmenbashi International Seaport (Turkmenistan) and Uzbek Uztemiryulcontainer JSC signed a memorandum of understanding in the field of transport, Trend reports via Uzbekiston Temir Yullari (Uzbekistan Railways).

The document was signed at the conference "International Transport and Transit Corridors: interconnection and development" in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.

The memorandum is aimed at developing mutual cooperation to increase the transit potential of both countries and increase cargo flows using international multimodal transport routes.

Furthermore, the purpose of this transport conference is to discuss topical issues of post-pandemic recovery and adaptation of international transportation to new realities.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

Diane Derzis is no stranger to fringe anti-abortion activists attacking her work. But even by her standards, its been a hell of a year.

As the owner of Jackson Womens Health Organization, the clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade last month, Derzis had a front-row seat to the dismantling of the constitutional protection for the right to abortion.

With her Mississippi clinic forced to close in a state where abortion is now effectively impossible to access, like many providers, Derzis pivoted to a new project: providing safe abortions elsewhere. Early on, at least, laying the groundwork for her next facility in Las Cruces, New Mexicoa town bordering several anti-abortion stateswas a dream, with the welcoming community bringing tears to [her] eyes.

Then she found out about her new neighbors: anti-abortion activists determined to operate what critics describe as a crisis pregnancy center, part of a long tradition of pointing women toward everything except a terminated pregnancy.

These people intend to follow us to the ends of the Earth, Derzis told The Daily Beast on Friday, adding, They are trolls.

While an anti-abortion facility opening its doors near an abortion provider is straight out of the so-called pro-life playbook, Derzis experience is fresh evidence that anti-choice activists are just getting started.

After all, in New Mexico, the right to abortion is secure after lawmakers last year repealed a dormant 1969 law that would have outlawed the procedure.

But on Tuesday, just days before Derzis said she was set to begin taking patients at her new clinic, the Southwest Coalition for Life announced it was working to open what amounts to a crisis pregnancy center in Las Cruces. During a rally protesting the opening of the Las Cruces Women's Health Organization, Southwest Coalition for Life CEO Mark Cavaliere expressed his fear about the city turning into an abortion destinationand the need to stand up to providers.

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This has become the epicenter of post-Roe America, Cavaliere added. People are going to feel like they have no option except to alter, suppress, and destroy a normal, healthy function of their natural body.

To do so, Cavaliere announced that a branch of the Guiding Star Project clinic will open up right next to Derzis.

Healthy Pregnant Women Beg Docs in Anti-Abortion States: Dont Let Me Die

Leah Jacobson, the CEO of the Guiding Star Project, told The Daily Beast on Friday that her organization has actually never opened a location next to an abortion clinic before and said the decision to do so was a unique, first-time experience for us. After a bit of persuasion, Jacobson said, she agreed to open a Guiding Star center in Las Cruces to provide an alternative view of health care for women in the area.

Cavaliere said Tuesday that the clinic would, as crisis pregnancy centers do, dangle multiple servicesjust not abortions for women who need them. According to Las Cruces Sun News, he also said some employees would likely be posted outside the Guiding Star clinic to offer support and information to would-be patients at Derzis clinic.

In a press release announcing the protest, Southwest Coalition for Life made its intentions clear, expressing hope that it would directly impact the new abortion providers business potential.

In an interview, Carly Thomsen, an assistant professor of gender, sexuality, and feminist studies at Middlebury College, explained that facilities like these are part of a well-funded, well-coordinated industry that is central to the anti-abortion movement.

They have been using this geographic manipulation for a long time, she told The Daily Beast.

Thomsen explained that anti-abortion centers setting up near abortion facilities is a way of confusing people who are trying to get an abortion. Once inside the center, she said, pregnant people are often given false information about reproductive services.

These centers dont provide much, except for shame and deception and false medical information, she added.

Jacobson pushed back on the crisis pregnancy center moniker Friday, insisting that she has very little interest in promoting a pregnancy center movement.

Its been a term that is sometimes fairly used in places that set themselves up to be something they are not, she said, rejecting that label for her project.

People Fleeing Abortion-Ban States Are Desperate for Our Help

Addressing Derzis troll characterization, Jacobson said that Guiding Star was focused on womens health care surrounding fertility, childbirth, and breastfeeding outcomes.

Innocuous though those goals may sound, Guiding Star Projects website is rife with extremist talking points.

The group is openly opposed to abortion and contraception, claiming both interrupt natural, healthy biological processes for women. Southwest Coalition for Life has a similar stance, noting on their website that their mission is to see God end abortion. (Southwest Coalition for Life did not respond to a request for comment.)

Since the repeal of Roe, the number of crisis pregnancy centers has ballooned in abortion-protected states as anti-abortion activists try to stop residents from crossing state lines to seek reproductive services. According to the Crisis Pregnancy Center map, there are 24 crisis pregnancy centers in New Mexico. Once Las Cruces Womens Health Organization begins seeing patients next week, the state will have seven bona fide abortion providers.

Thomsen noted that since New Mexico was already seeing a surge in crisis pregnancy centers, pregnant people in abortion-banned states like Texas, Arizona, and Oklahoma seeking refuge may fall victim to anti-abortion tactics.

Local officials were already sounding the alarm.

Three Las Cruces City Councilors told The Daily Beast on Friday that they were concerned about the chilling effect of having an anti-abortion clinic open up next door to Derzis facility.

Las Cruces is going to be a battleground for reproductive rights, City Councilor Kasandra Gandara said.

Acknowledging that New Mexicos legal stance on abortion would ensure that both providers and crisis pregnancy centers will be seeking a new home here, City Councilor Johana Bencomo was pulling for something other than total chaos.

My hope is that the Southwest Coalition of Life is not bringing outside agitators that will make people seeking health care feel unsafe, Bencomo told The Daily Beast.

Derzis on Friday emphasized her own desire to live harmoniously with the new shop next doorif that is possible.

Noting that the welcoming vibe from the general public in New Mexico was so totally the opposite of everything we have ever known in Mississippi, she told The Daily Beast she suspected residents were angry about the idea of anti-abortion activists bothering patients.

Listen, if we have a woman that comes in and describes she wants to continue her pregnancy, we will refer her to that other clinic, Derzis said. But let us be honest about what each of us is. Dont lie to people or harass them because you might have different views.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Blue Harbor Coffee was four months old when COVID-19 first arrived in New Hampshire, and business was strong.

It was about to get stronger. As Gov. Chris Sununu issued an executive order closing down indoor dining and officials urged residents to stay at home, many restaurants found themselves challenged by dwindling customers and departing employees. Blue Harbor Coffee, in Hampton, took a different tack. They shifted the business model to grab-and-go coffees from the street, and embraced a new role as wholesale supplier to other cafes, hotels, and restaurants.

We couldnt keep up with what we were roasting for the cafe, said co-owner Stephanie Bergeron. I mean we could keep up with it, if you wanted to roast 12 hours a day and not do anything else.

Bergeron admits: It was a great problem to have, obviously. But it didnt stop the accompanying stress. Bergeron and her husband, Coskun Josh Yazgan, carried out their work with a six-pound roaster. The small capacity kept Yazgan returning to the restaurant deep into the night, Bergeron said.

Roast master Coskun Yazgan opened Blue Harbor Coffee, with his wife, Stephanie Bergeron, the co-owner, in downtown Hampton in 2020.

In Portsmouth: Hotel, restaurant developer requests under 3 feet extra height. Board says no.

Two years on, Blue Harbor has a new tool in the fight: a 25-pound coffee roaster to accompany its original one. And a new state and federal assistance program helped get it.

Less than $200,000 of $3 million awarded

Blue Harbor Coffee is one of a handful of early recipients of the Local Restaurant Infrastructure Investment Program, an initiative that uses a portion of the states share of the American Rescue Plan funding to reimburse restaurants that have purchased equipment, infrastructure, or technology to respond to COVID-19 public health concerns.

The program awards up to $15,000 per restaurant and imposes limits on which restaurants can apply; chain restaurants operating in three or more states are barred, as are take-out only restaurants and any restaurant making more than $20 million a year.

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Corner Pub: Michael Landgarten sells his last Kittery business

So far, only a handful of restaurants have been awarded funds. The Executive Council approved nine of them July 12 after an early round of applications, including Blue Harbor Coffees for $15,000.

As of July 12, the state has spent just $153,357 of the $3 million set aside, but officials in the Governors Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery say that they expect to award more reimbursements to restaurants in the coming weeks. The official deadline for applications was July 13, but the office is still processing applications received on time.

The state has made an effort to advertise the new funding, according to Chase Hagaman, deputy director of GOFERR, and is considering opening new rounds of funding in the future.

Blue Harbor Coffee has expanded its operation.

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We are doing our darndest to try and keep that word out there and get applications coming in, Hagerman told the council. As the program has progressed, more and more applications have in fact come in. They just havent been fully reviewed yet.

The reimbursements that have been approved have varied.

Airfield Cafee in North Hampton takes advantage of funds

The Airfield Cafe in North Hampton successfully applied for $13,189 in funding to get reimbursement for new payment terminals along the serving bar, new tablets to better facilitate call-ahead orders, and more outdoor seating. Owner Scott Aversano says the purchases have helped spread out customers and handle an uptick in demand for to-go food.

Realistically, probably if it wasnt for COVID I wouldnt have been doing this stuff, Aversano said.

Young NH teachers leaving profession: The 'heartbreaking, infuriating' reasons why.

Business at the Airfield Cafe has also been booming. It took a hit in spring and summer of 2020, but by fall of that year things started ramping up, Aversano said. Sales dipped in winter 2020 but came roaring back in 2021. Its now at full tilt speed  gangbusters, Aversano said.

For Aversano, the challenges now have less to do with the virus, and more with food prices and supply. A case of eggs used to cost $15, Aversano said. Last week, he paid $57. The price for a case of chicken has risen from $38 to $133.

The increase in customer demand is helping him plug the dam.

Youre definitely not making what you used to make because of food costs. Labor cost is way up, he said. So you gotta (serve) more people now to make the numbers work.

NH restaurants still face big challenges

Mike Somers, president and chief executive officer of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, says that crunch is being felt by restaurants across the state this summer. Demand is high while food and labor has proven challenging. The environment may explain why relatively few restaurants have applied for the new funds so far.

It goes back to: Were in the busy season and folks were all short staffed and they were literally working 10-hour shifts and things, he said. So Im sure time is a bit of a factor.

Seacoast news: Download the Seacoastonline mobile app and the Fosters.com mobile app to stay connected.

The program requires restaurants to pay for costs and then seek reimbursement from the state. Some businesses may not have the money on hand to fund a major expansion or upgrade, Somers said. Some may have already used federal relief dollars to pay for those purchases. Some may be worried about finding contractors to even install the upgrades, or carving out time to train employees.

I think that there is some hesitancy to take on something new if, right now, things are actually working, he said. But I do think that the industry is going to have to as a whole start to adopt newer technologies to find those efficiencies in order to remain competitive.

But for other business owners, he said, the extra state assistance could provide a critical boost. At a time of low labor availability, technology can help, he said. Restaurants could install more computers to handle orders, scheduling apps to more easily swap shifts in and out, or kiosks to help customers be served faster.

Those kinds of technologies are the things that I think were going to start to see more and more of, Somers said.

Blue Harbor finds successful formula

At Blue Harbor Coffee, which added equipment not technology, the new roaster looks like a functional art piece. Made to order in Nevada, the machine features a deep cyan, round exterior, complete with a funnel,damper, drum to hold and rotate the beans, and a hot air fan.

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For Bergeron and her husband, the extra capacity has dramatically improved their operations. With staff hard to come by outside of the summer months  when high school and college students are most free  the workload has fallen on the two of them for years. The bigger roaster allows them to maintain the same output of beans and reduce their hours.

Now, the couple says it has the flexibility to expand into the wholesale market, a long term goal of theirs. Its a fitting cap to what Bergeron has felt like a two-year act of survival, buoyed by community support.

Were knocking wood left and right, for sure, Bergeron said.

This story was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Why is much of NH's $3M in restaurant pandemic aid still unspent?
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

With two weeks to go until a primary election he was fated to lose, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) was already underwater. His campaign held more than twice as much debt as it had cash on hand, the donor well was dry, and he and his staff were months into a madcap spending streak that one campaign source called baffling.

And now, after indeed losing that primary, theres no money to pay the piper.

Specifically, theres no money to repay the supporters who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance to Cawthorns election efforts beyond the primaryto the general election he now wont be competing in.

Madison Cawthorn Is Accused of Yet Another Conflict-of-Interest Violation

Cawthorn is required by law to refund those donations. Instead, according to a campaign source, the campaign already spent the money.

The public doesnt know any of this yet, however, because the Cawthorn campaign is now a week late in submitting the quarterly Federal Election Commission report that would disclose the collapse. That delay will already trigger an automatic fine.

The breach of fiduciary obligations follows a string of personal and professional embarrassments that hounded the one-term congressman across the weeks and months leading up to his primary defeataccusations of insider trading, multiple alleged ethics violations, unforced public gaffes, and photo and video leaks designed to humiliate him.

But the campaigns financial washout is more than another embarrassment; its against the law.

Nobody ever did the math, which baffled me because the spending was so outrageous, the campaign source told The Daily Beast.

This person pointed to a spree of frivolous charges over the last year that all accelerated into 2022, such as $1,500 in egregiously frequent trips to Chick-Fil-A, almost $3,000 at a place called Papas Beer, three separate charges at a high-end cigar shop, $21,000 for lodging in Florida andthe biggest drainhundreds of thousands of dollars in sky-high consulting and fundraising fees, including for Cawthorns friend and campaign manager, Blake Harp, who was drawing a salary beyond federal limits.

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RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel Has No Idea What Cawthorns Dark MAGA Is

Cawthorn couldnt raise money to offset this burn rate, which was so high that, by May 5, the campaign had just 2 percent of the $3.7 million it had raised since January 2021. In truth, the source said, the campaign had been forced to tap its general election account months ago.

Federal election laws allow candidates to raise money for the primary and the general election at the same time. But candidates cant spend the general election funds unless they win the primary, first. If you dont win, you have to repay those donors.

Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Daily Beat that theres not much wiggle room, and Cawthorn will likely face consequences.

There are few more ironclad rules in campaign finance than you cant spend general election funds in a primary, Libowitz said. There are strict limits on how much may be given and spent in each. If Cawthorn spent funds raised for the general during the primary and made no attempt to refund the general donations, hell likely be in a lot of trouble with the FEC.

According to available data, Cawthorns jilted donors include friends and neighbors in western North Carolina, nearly three dozen retirees from Bakersfield to Boca Raton, a former Army major, billionaire GOP megadonors Bernie Marcus, Steve Wynn, John Childs, and H. Ross Perot Jr, and powerful Republican colleagues, including political committees tied to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA).

Cawthorn owes them $220,080.85. As of May 5, the most recent snapshot available, his campaign had a little more than $137,000 on hand, and owed $325,000 in debt.

The campaign also failed to pay several vendors on time, according to two people with direct knowledge of the agreements.

Brendan Fischer, deputy director at good government watchdog Documented, agreed that the law is clear-cut.

House Ethics Committee Probing Cawthorns Improper Relationship With Staffer

Candidates cant use general election funds in the primary, and if the candidate loses their primary, they must return general election funds to maxed-out contributors within 60 days, Fischer told The Daily Beast. The law around this is clear-cut so the FEC will take violations pretty seriously.

In Cawthorns case, the 60-day clock ran out last Saturday, the day after the report was due.

There was just no money, the campaign source said. It was dollar-in, dollar-out. So if he loses its a really bad thing, and the only way to cover it is getting money straight from the candidate or treasurer.

The treasurer, however, could also be on the hook for legal penalties. Cawthorns hired treasurer quit last Fridaythe day the campaign report was duewith the freshman congressman personally taking his place.

But Cawthornwho won a $3 million insurance settlement, and other payouts, for damages sustained in the 2014 wreck that paralyzed his legswould also appear to have access to cash, and he has loaned his campaign money before. (Last week he dropped a $30 million lawsuit against his former best friend, who had been driving the car.)

Beth Rotman, director of ethics at watchdog Common Cause, told The Daily Beast theres a third option.

In practice, many people may start spending this money in the primary and pay it back; its a risk, but it may not be uncommon, Rotman said, pointing out that the Cawthorn campaign can raise money to pay down its debts. He needs to make this right by fundraising, and a lot of rules require that he do that staying within contribution limits.

They Took Down Madison Cawthornand Lauren Boeberts Next

In essence, Cawthorn would be asking donors to pay his other donors for him. And the pool of enthusiastic Cawthorn supporters would appear limited, especially considering his top contributors are the people on the payback list.

Another option: Start a new campaign and forward the money.

The campaign source told The Daily Beast that this idea had been discussed internally, but Cawthorn balked.

He didnt want to run, the person said.

On May 17, Cawthorn conceded the primary to state senator Chuck Edwards before all the votes were in. Two days later, he posted cryptically on Instagram, calling for for Dark MAGA to truly take command and including a list of right-wing figures he admired.

This list includes the lion share [sic] of figures that came to my defense when it was not politically profitable, Cawthorn wrote.

Among them was GOP strategist Alexander Bruesewitz. Cawthorn owes him $2,100.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A Seattle-area man who authorities say made racist threats at stores across several states was charged after threatening to kill Black people shopping at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, two months after a store in the city was the site of a racist attack that killed 10, the Justice Department said Friday.

On Thursday the FBI arrested Joey David George, of Lynnwood, Washington  about 15 miles north of Seattle  on two counts of interstate threats.

Federal authorities say George, 37, called a different Tops supermarket in Buffalo on Tuesday, asking an employee how many Black people were in the store then threatening to kill them.

George told the employee if there wasn't anyone at the store, he'd travel to the Tops location that was attacked May 14. Authorities said the gunman in that attack traveled to the store specifically to target Black shoppers.

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George told the employee he was a "really good shot" and could "pick off people" from the parking lot, the federal complaint states. He also claimed to have assault weapons, authorities say.

The suspect called again on Wednesday and ranted about a "race war" and New York being a liberal state.

Federal authorities tracked the call back to George.

In the federal criminal complaint, authorities say George also called a restaurant in San Bruno, Calif. and threatened to shoot any Black or Hispanic person in the restaurant, which is just south of San Francisco, if it didn't close within 20 minutes.

The suspect said he wanted to "strike fear into the Bay Area's Black community."

Authorities say they tied George to similar calls to businesses and restaurants in states including Maryland, Connecticut and Washington. In those calls, he threatened to shoot and kill Black people or bomb those locations if they didn't shutter, the charging documents show.

George was arrested Thursday and is being held at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, Washington.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Man threatened to kill Black shoppers at Buffalo Tops after shooting: FBI
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walks away from what state media report is a "new type" of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this photo released by by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on March 24, 2022 KCNA via Reuters

The US and South Korea are preparing for expanded joint military drills, which will include live field exercises.

North Korea has warned the two countries may face "an undesirable consequence."

South Korea's president told reporters on Friday that the North could conduct a nuclear test at any moment.

As the US and South Korea prepare for expanded summertime joint military exercises, North Korea is warning that the two allies will face "unprecedented" security challenges and "undesirable" consequences if they do not stop their "military confrontation."

Choe Jin, the deputy director of North Korea's Institute of Disarmament and Peace, a state-run organization operated by the North Korean foreign ministry, told the Associated Press this week that the US-South Korean military drills are "driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war."

"Should the US and its allies opt for military confrontation with us, they would be faced with unprecedented instability security-wise," Jin said, adding that "the US should keep in mind that it will be treated on a footing of equality when it threatens us with nukes."

Jin also said that the US should stop its "suicidal policy of hostility" with North Korea if it does not wish to face "an undesirable consequence."

Joint military drills between the US and South Korea, long-time allies, are regular events. Exercises have been smaller in recent years, but this year, the two countries will resume joint field exercises for the first time since 2018, the South Korean defense ministry has said. The North Korean reaction has so far been consistent with responses to past drills, which it regards as a precursor to an invasion.

The summertime military exercises have been scaled down due to COVID-19, attempts to curb tensions with the North, and, during the Trump administration, presidential complaints about the cost of the drills.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol, whose first term began in May, has said though these joint drills should be normalized as a deterrence against North Korea that is again engaging in provocative behavior.

Story continues

A missile is fired during a joint US-South Korean exercise on South Korea's East Coast, June 6, 2022. South Korean Defense Ministry/Dong-A Daily via Getty Images

"The US and South Korea are clearly demonstrating how close their alliance is," Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation told Insider. "One has to wonder if Kim Jong-Un isn't realizing that this is his fault. If he hadn't done multiple missile tests this year, we would not be out showing the strength of our alliance."

North Korea has conducted 31 missile tests in 2022, including one it claims was its first successful ICBM launch since 2017. On June 6, just 24-hours after North Korea launched eight short-range missiles, the US and South Korea carried out a joint-missile test that the latter's Joint Chiefs of Staff said "demonstrated the capability and posture to launch immediate precision strikes on the origins of provocations, even if North Korea launches missiles from various locations."

People watch a TV broadcast about a North Korean missile launch at the Seoul Railway Station, June 5, 2022. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

But South Korea says more provocative testing from the North may be soon to come, including its first nuclear test since September 2017. President Yoon said North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear test at any moment.

"We believe that not only at the end of this month, but ever since my inauguration, it's fully ready and able to do it whenever it decides," Yoon told reporters on Friday. In May, CNN reported that the US had assessed that North Korea could be ready to conduct another nuclear test by the end of the month.

Bennett said it would be no surprise if North Korea turned to a nuclear test as their "next major provocation."

"The fact that the US is participating in this training is going to be causing Kim all kinds of concerns," Bennett told Insider. "He doesn't want to strengthen our alliance, but he's been doing a really good job of that this year."

Read the original article on Business Insider
The New York Posts editorial board said in an editorial published on Friday that former President Trump has proven himself unworthy to serve as the countrys president again based on his hours-long refusal to attempt to quell the mob of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The editorial is a stepped-up criticism of Trump from a piece the board published last month, which said its time for Republicans to move on from the former president. The board endorsed Trump for president in 2020.

The editorial from Friday said that the debate over whether Trumps speech at the Ellipse before the insurrection incited the mob is somewhat of a red herring from what it said was a more noteworthy point, that Trump didnt lift a finger to stop the violent riot for three hours and seven minutes.

Its up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this countrys chief executive again, the board said.

The piece followed the latest public hearing from the House select committee investigating the insurrection. At its hearing on Thursday, the committee outlined how Trump did not take action to disperse rioters for hours as the attack unfolded despite some of his top advisers pressuring him to do so.

His only focus was to find any means  damn the consequences  to block the peaceful transfer of power, the editorial states. There is no other explanation, just as there is no defense, for his refusal to stop the violence.

The committee also noted that Trump was aware of the violence as he slammed then-Vice President Mike Pence for not rejecting the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Sarah Matthews, who served as White House deputy press secretary under Trump and resigned hours after the attack, testified that Trumps tweet saying Pence did not have the courage to reject the results gave a green light to the rioters.

Story continues

The Posts editorial states that Trump thought the violence would make Pence fold or delay the counting of the votes and he further fanned the flames with his tweet.

And he was the only person who could stop what was happening, it states. He was the only one the crowd was listening to. It was incitement by silence.

The Posts editorial from last month pointed to other possible 2024 Republican presidential candidates including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump has been hinting at another run for president for months and told New York Magazine earlier this month that he has already decided whether he will run again. He said the question is when he will announce his decision.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A man has been arrested after his seven dogs mauled a 71-year-old man to death while he was walking to a local neighbourhood store.

The incident occurred on July 18 in Fresno, Texas, when 71-year-old Fresno-native Freddy Garcia was walking to a store in his neighborhood at approximately 1:30 p.m. when the Fort Bend County Sheriffs Office received a call from a witness reporting that the man was being mauled by seven dogs, authorities say.

MORE: Dog rescued by authorities and good Samaritan after being thrown off bridge into river

Authorities responded to the scene and found Garcia who was immediately transported via Life Flight to Memorial Hermann -- a hospital in the downtown Houston area -- and was later pronounced deceased from wounds suffered during the attack.

According to a statement from the Fort Bend County Sheriffs office, four of the dogs were captured shortly after the mauling but three were on the loose for an undisclosed period of time before being captured. All seven of the dogs were a pit bull mix, according to authorities, but no owner of the animal was identified at the time.

PHOTO: Samuel Cartwright, 47, is in custody at the Fort Bend County Jail in Texas and has been charged with Attack by Dog resulting in Death -- a second degree felony -- and police confirmed that his bond was set at $100,000 on July 22, 2022. (Fort Bend Sheriff's Office / Facebook)

However, following an investigation conducted by the Sheriffs Office along with Fort Bend Animal Control and the Fort Bend County District Attorneys Office, authorities on Friday were able to identify and arrest 47-year-old Samuel Cartwright in connection to the mauling death of Garcia.

Cartwright currently remains in custody at the Fort Bend County Jail and has been charged with Attack by Dog resulting in Death -- a second degree felony -- and police have confirmed that his bond has been set at $100,000.

Meanwhile, Fort Bend Sheriff Eric Fagan says he is thankful that the dogs have been removed from the streets and another potential attack has been prevented.

MORE: Dog's recovery moves millions, man arrested in animal cruelty case

This devastating tragedy didnt have to happen. I extend my deepest condolences to the Garcia family and his neighbors as they adjust to the loss of Mr. Garcia, Sheriff Fagan said. Special thanks go out to our deputies, Fort Bend Animal Services Director Rene Vasquez, and Fort Bend District Attorney Brian Middleton for the collaborative work of capturing the dogs and making an arrest.

The investigation into the mauling death is ongoing.

71-year-old man mauled to death by 7 dogs while walking to store originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Mariposa County as hundreds of firefighters are battling a fast-moving fire burning near Yosemite National Park that remained out of control on Sunday.

The Oak Fire ignited Friday afternoon and has exploded to 15,603 acres as of Sunday night, according to state fire officials. The fire is currently 0% contained.

PHOTO: A firefighter works to mitigate the flames as the Oak Fire burns near Mariposa, Calif., July 22, 2022. (Tracy Barbutes/Reuters)

"The fire remained active through the night moving toward the communities of Jerseydale, Darrah, and Bootjack," Cal Fire said in its incident report Sunday.

The low humidity, which is between 5% and 10%, is expected to "hamper firefighting efforts," according to Cal Fire.

The agency said fire activity remains "extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching." Cal Fire said emergency personnel are working to evacuate people, while at the same time protecting structures. As of Sunday night, 10 structures had been destroyed and 5 damaged, Cal Fire said.

PHOTO: Flames consume a home on Triangle Rd. as the Oak Fire burns in Mariposa County, Calif., July 23, 2022. (Noah Berger/AP)

Fueled by winds and 100-degree temperatures, the fire "grew significantly" between Saturday night and Sunday morning as flames crept further into the Sierra National Forest just south of Yosemite, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie took ABC News on a tour of the edge of the blaze and noted large patches of dried out vegetation that had not yet burned to illustrate the type of terrain on fire and producing high-intensity heat, saying, "this is what we're dealing with throughout this whole incident."

"It really is a challenge because the amount of heat that's in this fuel. It makes it challenging to our firefighters to fight these fires," Heggie said.

The fire started around 2 p.m. Friday near the Mariposa County town of Midpines, Cal Fire said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Newsom's office said Saturday that the state has secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help provide resources as it responds to the "rapidly-moving fire."

Story continues

PHOTO: Firefighters look on as the Oak Fire burns in Darrah, in Mariposa County, Calif., July 22, 2022. (David Swanson/Reuters)

More than 90% of Mariposa County has exceptional drought conditions, which can provide ample dry brush to fuel the fire. Hot, dry weather has also helped drive the blaze.

PHOTO: Firefighter Joanna Jimenez holds a dog she found wandering in a fire evacuation zone as the Oak Fire burns in Mariposa County, Calif., July 23, 2022. (Noah Berger/AP)

This is the third wildfire to burn in the county over the past two weeks.

The Washburn Fire, which started on July 7 near the southern entrance of Yosemite National Park, is 79% contained after burning over 4,800 acres.

The containment of the fire, which at one point was inching dangerously close to the park's large sequoia grove Mariposa Grove, allowed the southern entrance of the park to open Saturday morning.

MORE: How climate change is now threatening the survival of fire-adaptive sequoia trees

The smaller Agua Fire, which started on July 18, is now fully contained after burning some 420 acres. The fire was caused by a car, officials said.

Fast-moving Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park burns more than 15,600 acres originally appeared on abcnews.go.com








[ sweet home ] 07.23.22 The Culture Shock of Dancing Atoms



(from Dream Pop Origami)

1. Only travel, love, reading, and art have made me truly vulnerable to beauty and its multiform psychic violence. After all, familiarity on some basic level is immunity. When were familiar with a specific space, we stopped being affected by it, and this is the only reason why I stop trying to understand what places mean (to the world, to me, to its people) until Im lost again, until Ive become exiled by unfamiliarity, until Ive been thrown out of my predictable life by the bouncers of modernism redux. When LB and I returned to Chicago after living in South America for a year and traveling through Europe in youth hostels, I got a taste of the vulnerability and the unfamiliarity Id craved since my first year of college and it fucking scared me.

2. Id always loved the idea of not recognizing where I lived or seeing my native land as foreigners did for the simple reason that Ive always sought defamiliarization since I was a hapa boy trapped in a beautiful hamlet in Northern Michigan where racial and cultural differences were erased, ignored, or indicted, but where the human spirit was also nourished by clean air, quiet streets, fresh lakes, sakura groves, and Ansel Adams forest snapshots. Walking down Michigan Avenue with fresh and untrained eyes as an adult meant that I could fall in love with my city all over again, it meant I could recreate Chicago into a fresh, subjective, and linear experience of joy and self-discovery again as it once was for me as a seventeen-year-old teenage boy with California tan lines and a briefcase of debate evidence. Seeing Chicago with fresh eyes meant I could recreate its segregated majesty in my soul again, one pothole-filled street, one brick apartment, one half-dead courtyard, and one back-breaking skyscraper at a time like the narrator in Borgess Circular Ruins.

3. Sometimes during naps and extended daydreams, it felt like LB and I had been transported back to the melodic din of loquacious, smoked-filled cafes in Paris, the soft blur of Amsterdam bike lanes and its whispering canals, the chilly majesty of the frosting-covered mountains in Genevas confectionary cityscape, and the opioid sunshine of Sitges where I suggestively licked a popsicle in front of a group of gay Spaniards by accident, LB in complete hysterics. I could see our dusty bed in our two-star hotel in Sol where LB and I made love in the dust-filled darkness after eating photogenic paella at a famous restaurant wed talked our way into in Spanish and dozing off before being woken up by drunk Madrilenos singing 80s rock songs and Magic Flute arias in the streets and hyperactive French teenagers racing down the hallways and knocking on the doors of guests. Fous le camp, Id grumbled. I could see us stuck inside a creaking, scorching old train that threatened to bake us alive as we traveled through the Sahara desert, the dust invading through the open window before we arrived in Marrakech and almost got mugged by Moroccan teenagers in the medina who yanked the map from my hands and tried to charge me 20 for taking us to our ryad against our will before I got into a shouting match in French, LB standing there confused and on the brink of tears, their leader threatening to beat me up for not paying their unsolicited fee, my patience turning into unstable anger before I finally handed him a pocketful of small coins.

4. Traveling is always simultaneously time-traveling. Youre learning about that countrys history at the same time that youre exploring its urban spaces, constructing a new historical framework (for you) at the same time youre reconstructing its culture in every street, landmark, and alleyway as you reverse engineering time itself. Its only because each countrys history is new to you as the cultural tourist that the present and the past always collapse into each other, but thats part of the magical blur of travel. Your long-winded strolls through each new city are just a kinetic ethnography, so you walk until the soles of your feet are blistered with historical footnotes.

5. After returning to Chicago, Zoe seemed worried about our ephemerality, like LB and I were flickering between parallel worlds in Buenos Aires, Paris, Madrid, Geneva, Barcelona, Casa, Marrakech, and Amsterdam like fickle atoms dancing under the scientific gaze of electron microscopes. Sometimes, she curled up on our suitcases in protest. Take me with you, her naps said. Dont leave me alone, her naps shouted. Sometimes, there wasnt enough room in Chicago for all our memories of Buenos Aires. Sometimes, there wasnt enough time in Chicago to rescue every memory kidnapped by the shifting historical frames of the present. My Latin professor in college once said that the present changes the past, not the other way around, an argument I would have embraced if it hadnt come from someone whose scholarship was entrenched in antiquity. But later in life, I realized he was right and I should have studied my declensions more.

6. In Chicago, the morning sunlight streamed into the bedroom like aerated bourbon. Inside my head, I saw visions of human pyramids climbing into the Barcelona sky, their faces embellished with gold dust, a tiny child clambering to the top to blow a gold bugle like an LDS herald of the apocalypse. I forgot where I was when I woke up one afternoon, but Id woken up in a cold sweat, afraid Id slipped into a wormhole straight to Marrakech, counting the seconds until the night blotted out the natural light like a slumlord nailing the windows of a condemned building. Sometimes, traveling felt like a collective hallucination that I stumbled into like walking onto someone elses movie set. Other times, traveling felt like the gradual annihilation of my once-familiar life in Argentina, one sumptuous meal, one Instagrammable stroll, one bucolic train ride, and one exhausted flight back again to an old life that hadnt changed nearly as much as you had.

7. Though I eventually stopped calling our Palermo Viejo apartment home, it was the last place LB and I were a cohesive design. We had spent the last year living on the other side of the equator where toilets flushed counterclockwise, futbol and protests were national religions, and empanadas, asado, and mate were lighthouses for the shipwrecked and the disoriented. In Cap Fed, cafes became small operas, sometimes introspective, sometimes unbearably bright, but always contrapuntal: a social melody with baroque rules of simultaneity. In this mythical and faded city, mate gourds froze timelines, ambient laughter was viral, echoing in almost every street, bluntness slashed etiquette, the sticky winter sky weaved tales of thunder out of unraveled rain clouds and every conversation in the street became dialogue in someone elses short story or bar anecdote. Time in Cap Fed was an emotional force of nature crashing down recklessly on the sad exaltation of every missed sunset. I still think about the used bookstores there all the time with smoke filling my heart.

8. For the first month back in Chicago, I thought I was back in South America every time I woke up in Lakeview. My mind was sluggish, tortured by nostalgia, and confused by differential sunlight. Chicago was my complex dream catcher, capturing the grainy sedimentation of my unconscious mind, amassing the sensory details of all the places Id traveled to and passed through that summer. My mind was a mixed-up photo album of confusing experiences that I began doubting, moving closer each day toward the Chicago stockyard again like an almost-broken freight train gaining strength through momentum.

9. At every stage in my life, I always returned to this working-class city where I became an adult, began college, learned to smoke, became a writer first and then a writer second, and daydreamed obsessively about the globe beyond the simulacrum ocean. I spent most of my 20s dreaming about the rest of the world, but now culture-shocked and jetlagged, Chicago became my cradle of infancy again. I loved her as an adult for all the reasons Id despised her as a college student obsessed with literature, language, and philosophy: the El was filthy, the sunshine broke out into thunder showers without warning, the air was sticky and sultry at night, the Loop resisted transformation, the sidewalks reeked of stale beer, the vegetarian restaurants were ten years behind California, strolls across the Chicago River routinely broke my heart, and there was a feeling of solidity when I walked through neighborhoods made of brick and mortar. Every time I returned, I was forced to create a new relationship with her streets, always starting from a harsh discontinuity, always continuing with a blurry and fierce disfiguration of time, always skimming the instructions of exile, always stoking my intransigent and conflicting fire for sanity, adventure, stability, novelty, belonging, and alienation. There could never be a detente.
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, July 23. The VI International Congress "Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan as the foundation of a new Renaissance" started in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, Trend reports.

The congress is attended by over 250 people, including representatives of the Uzbek government, as well as international experts and scientists from Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Turkmenistan, Russia, the EU countries, China, and other states.

The congress will last two days, and upon its completion, the Samarkand city tour will be organized for all participants.
Blake Lemoine, an engineer who's spent the last seven years with Google, has been fired, reports Alex Kantrowitz of the Big Technology newsletter. The news was allegedly broken by Lemoine himself during a taping of the podcast of the same name, though the episode is not yet public. Google confirmed the firing to Engadget.

Lemoine, who most recently was part of Googles Responsible AI project, went to the Washington Post last month with claims that one of company's AI projects had allegedly gained sentience. The AI in question, LaMDA  short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications  was publicly unveiled by Google last year as a means for computers to better mimic open-ended conversation. Lemoine seems not only to have believed LaMDA attained sentience, but was openly questioning whether it possessed a soul. And in case there's any doubt words his views are being expressed without hyperbole, he went on to tell Wired, "I legitimately believe that LaMDA is a person."

After making these statements to the press, seemingly without authorization from his employer, Lemoine was put on paid administrative leave. Google, both in statements to the Washington Post then and since, has steadfastly asserted its AI is in no way sentient.

Several members of the AI research community spoke up against Lemoine's claims as well. Margaret Mitchell, who was fired from Google after calling out the lack of diversity within the organization, wrote on Twitter that systems like LaMDA don't develop intent, they instead are "modeling how people express communicative intent in the form of text strings." Less tactfully, Gary Marcus referred to Lemoine's assertions as "nonsense on stilts."

Reached for comment, Google shared the following statement with Engadget:
A Google engineer believed he found an AI bot that was sentient. It cost him his job.

Blake Lemoine, an engineer who claimed an AI bot was sentient, was fired from Google.

"We wish Blake well," a spokesperson for Google told the Washington Post.

Experts told Insider it is very unlikely the chatbot is sentient.

The engineer who claimed a chatbot gained sentience was fired from Google on Friday, both he and the tech giant confirmed.

Blake Lemoine sparked controversy after publishing a paper about his conversations with the Google artificial intelligence chatbot LaMDA, which led him to believe the bot had a mind of its own.

LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is an AI chatbot trained to generate human-like speech.

Google suspended Lemoine in June after Google said he violated the company's employee confidentiality policy, Lemoine told The New York Times.

Experts told Insider the chatbot is most likely not sentient, but Lemoine continued to believe it was. Claiming the chatbot asked him to get a lawyer for itself, he compared it to a human child and a "very intelligent person."

In a statement to the Washington Post, Google spokesperson Brian Gabriel said the company found Lemoine's claims about LaMDA were "wholly unfounded" and that he violated company guidelines, which led to his termination.

"It's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information," Gabriel said. "We will continue our careful development of language models, and we wish Blake well."

Lemoine confirmed his departure to the newsletter Big Technology and told the Post that Google sent him a termination email Friday and he is speaking with his lawyers about what to do in light of the news.

Lemoine and Google did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
President Joe Biden denounced the attack on Republican Representative Lee Zeldin after a man attempted to stab the GOP nominee for governor of New York.

Mr Biden, who is currently in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19, condemned the incident in a statement on Friday.

Ive said before, violence has absolutely no place in our society or our politics, he said. I am especially grateful for the courage of those who immediately intervened, and that he is unharmed and was able to continue his speech. I also want to thank the law enforcement officers who quickly took action and are investigating this attack that defies our fundamental democratic values.

An apparently armed man attempted to stab the Republican congressmen at a campaign in Fairport, New York, on Thursday.

Someone tried to stab me on stage during this evenings rally, but fortunately, I was able to grab his wrist and stop him for a few moments until others tackled him, he tweeted that day.

The Republican congressman was addressing a crowd when an audience member interrupted him and said OK, youre done, according to a video of the incident.

The man was later identified as David Jakubonis, a 43-year-old Iraq War veteran who lives in Fairport. Supporters of Mr Zeldin detained him until police arrested the man. Authorities found a pair of plastic brass knuckles with two blades and a cats face on it.

The Monroe County Sheriffs department arrested the would-be assailant and Mr Zeldin was able to finish his speech.

All members of Team Zeldin are safe following tonights attack. Far more must be done to make New York safe again. This is very much getting out of hand in this state, a campaign statement said. Unfortunately, Congressman Zeldin is just the latest New Yorker whose life has been affected by the out of control crime and violence in New York. This needs to stop!
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  A pair of gunmen opened machinegun fire on Saturday in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan, killing the brother of the owner of a tower that collapsed there earlier this year, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The May 23 collapse at the Metropol Building, some 660 kilometers (410 miles) from the capital of Tehran, killed 41 people and dredged up painful memories of past national disasters in Iran. It also triggered street protests in Abadan over the collapse, demonstrations that saw police club protesters and fire tear gas.

The fate of the building's owner, Hossein Abdolbaghi, has been the subject of much speculation  from initial reports that he had been arrested to rumors that left the country. Official media in Iran said he died in the collapse.

IRNA's report said Abdolbaghi's brother Majid was gunned down on Saturday in an assassination" and died of severe injuries from multiple gunshots.

A video on social media shows Majid's killing. He is seen at the parking lot outside his home in Abadan when a white car stops by the gate. A gunman gets out and opens fire from his machinegun. A second gunman shoots from inside the car.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday's slaying.

After the Metropol collapse, authorities arrested 11 suspects in a widening probe, including the citys mayor. Over the weeks that followed, videos on social media showed protest gatherings in Abadan, with protesters often blaming the owner for the collapse.

The deadly collapse raised questions about the safety of similar buildings in the country and underscored an ongoing crisis in Iranian construction projects that has seen other disasters amid allegations of government negligence and deeply rooted corruption.
Photographs taken at a parade in Kajang, Malaysia, show an older man hugging and holding up his nephew, who had fainted after feeling unwell.

The photographs, uploaded to Facebook by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi, went viral as many online users hearts were melted by the uncles compassion and love for his nephew.

Nik Mohamad Aadhar Nik Ismadi, a police officer in Sabah, Malaysia, was standing in formation during an enforcer parade at the Maktab Penjara Kajang in Malaysia.

In the first few photographs, 22-year-old Ismadi is seen lying on the ground after fainting. His uncle, Abdul Aziz, can be seen sprinting towards Ismadi wearing a pink Baju Melayu, a traditional Malay attire. Aziz helps Ismadi and hugs him from behind until he gains consciousness and is able to stand again.

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Ismadi explained that he had been feeling ill earlier in the day and ended up fainting during the parade. The first time he fainted, he was able to stand back up with whispers of encouragement from his surrounding officers. The second time, however, he was too weak to get back up.

I remember Abah came to my aid. He hugged me and told me to get back up and told me to keep my spirits high while crying, Ismadi told Mstar per Malay Mail. He supported me until I could stand properly again.

Ismadi described Aziz and his wife Rosmawait Ismail as parental figures, as they had been raising him since he became an orphan at 3 months old. Aziz, who works as a cab driver in Pengkalan Kubor, Kelantan, said he attended the parade after visiting one of his sons in Puchong. After seeing Ismadi faint, Aziz did not hesitate to help his nephew.

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As soon as I saw him fainting, I immediately ran from under the tent straight to Nik. I didnt care about my slippers falling off. I helped him get back on his feet even before the medic team arrived, Aziz told Mstar per Malay Mail.

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Aziz described his nephew as somebody who is very close to him and is not afraid to express his love.

Even when at home, Nik is very close with me. He would often come to hug and kiss me on the cheeks. Its kind of rare for a son to do that. But Nik is not afraid to express his love towards me, Aziz said.

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Feature Image via Facebook

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WASHINGTON  Buffeted by investigations and hints of Republican opposition, Donald Trump is serving notice that he will campaign as a political victim while attacking the investigators.

"If I stayed home, took it easy  if I announced I was not going to run any longer for political office  the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop," Trump told supporters during a rally late Friday in Arizona.

"But that's not what I do," Trump said. "I can't do that."

Trump stumped for Republican candidates in Arizona a day after the special congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack wrapped up a first phase of hearings, and announced plans for more hearings in the fall.

Prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., are also reviewing Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden, the inspiration for the assault.

Trump, who plans to campaign for Republican candidates across the country before the November elections and is considering another presidential run in 2024, visited Arizona just hours after a potential GOP primary opponent: His former vice president, Mike Pence.

The hearings: Pressure campaigns, predictable violence: What we learned from all eight Jan. 6 hearings

More hearings: Jan. 6 committee promises more hearings this fall. What we know (and don't) about what happens next

Speaking for another gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, Pence urged Republicans to focus on the future and move past the GOP complaints about the 2020 election  a main topic of Trump's remarks just hours later.

During his rally in Prescott Valley, Ariz., Trump claimed at one point that a friend told him "I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country."

He later told backers: "They want to damage me in any form, so I can no longer represent you."

Investigating Trump

Presenting testimony and documents over the course of eight hearings, Jan. 6 committee members said Trump's lies about election fraud in 2020 encouraged supporters to storm the Capitol in a failed effort to stop the counting of electoral votes.

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Some witnesses, mostly Republicans, testified that Trump did nothing to try and stop the riot and promoted his claims of election fraud despite aides telling him he'd lost the election.

At its most recent hearing in prime time Thursday, the Jan. 6 committee announced it would hold more hearings in September.

In the meantime, a grand jury in Atlanta is investigating Trump's pressure campaign on Georgia election officials to change the election results in the state.

Former President Donald Trump embraces Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake at a "Save America" rally in support of Arizona GOP candidates on Friday in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Arizona's primary election will take place Aug. 2.

The Department of Justice is also investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. That probe could touch on Trump and his actions surrounding the riot as spotlighted by the congressional committee.

The mob was accomplishing President Trumps purpose, so of course he did not intervene," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., one of two Republicans on the congressional panel.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel's other Republican member, has urged Republicans and other Americans to move past Trump: "Can a President who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?"

Cheney, who faces a tough GOP primary next month against a Trump-backed candidate, has not ruled out a presidential bid of her own in 2024, either as a Republican or an independent.

Secret Service and Jan. 6: Criminal probe of Secret Service texts a 'big deal' as agency draws Jan. 6 committee scrutiny

Trump vs. Pence

Another possible 2024 Republican candidate, Pence, campaigned in Arizona by urging Republicans to move past the protests of 2020.

"If the Republican Party allows itself to become consumed by yesterdays grievances, we will lose," Pence tweeted during his trip to Arizona. "But if we come together, keep our eye on the ball & focus on the future, we wont just win the next election, we will change the course of American history for generations!"

Pence spoke at events for Republican gubernatorial candidate, Karrin Taylor Robson. Trump is backing another candidate in the Aug. 2 GOP primary, Kari Lake.

On Friday, Trump spoke on behalf of several Republicans, including Lake, Senate candidate Blake Masters, and other congressional and statewide candidates.

Trump also attacked Arizona Republicans who went against him on his election protest. That group included outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey and state House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified at one of the Jan. 6 congressional hearings.

The Justice Department:Merrick Garland: Nothing to prevent investigating Trump or anyone else for Jan. 6 attack

Trump '24?:Trump weighs announcing 2024 run as early as this summer amid Jan. 6 revelations, allies say

Arizona is a rerun of a Trump-Pence proxy fight in Georgia back in May.

Pence backed incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp. Trump, angry at Kemp because he refused to back his election protest, recruited a primary challenger, former Sen. David Perdue.

Kemp won the primary easily.

Trump and Pence will again be in close proximity next week in Washington, D.C.

The former president is scheduled to speak Tuesday at an "America First Agenda Summit." The event is sponsored by the America First Policy Institute, an organization that includes many former Trump administration officials.

The last hearing: Miss Day 8 of the Jan. 6 hearings? Trump's inaction during the Capitol riot comes into focus

Trump during the insurrection:This time, it wasn't what he did. It was what he wouldn't do as a mob attacked the Capitol

Pence speaks Monday at the D.C.-based Heritage Foundation.

Many Trump Republicans continue to criticize Pence for refusing Trump's demands that he throw out electoral votes during a congressional counting ceremony that also took place on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pence, echoing the views of most legal analysts, said he lacked the authority to interfere in the counting of electoral votes. But many of the rioters threatened Pence as they breached the U.S. Capitol, another major topic during the Jan. 6 committee hearings.

'They've hurt him a lot'

Many early polls show Trump leading the 2024 Republican primary field, but several GOP analysts said the hearing and investigations have taken a toll on his popularity. The only question, they said, is how much impact they will have on the Republican voters who will ultimately decide the nomination.

Republican strategist Liz Mair said an increasing number of Republican political consultants, donors, and voters believe that Trump is "tainted goods," and are looking at alternatives like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the wake of the hearings.

"They've hurt him a lot," she said.

Republican strategist Scott Jennings said Trump probably remains the favorite for the nomination, but he is "not invincible."

"Theres a growing group of Republicans who voted for him twice, gave him money, knocked on doors, and defended him at every turn who are concluding that he might well lose to Joe Biden (or someone worse) again," Jennings said.

Republicans "dont want to re-litigate 2020," Jennings said, they just want to defeat Biden and the Democrats.

Jack Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, said Trump can still win the GOP nomination, but the general election could be a different matter, especially if Trump is formally charged with crimes.

"Most Republicans aren't paying attention to the hearings," Pitney said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump campaigns in Arizona as Jan 6 committee investigation heats up
As New Jersey does the work of establishing its adult-use recreational cannabis industry, among the many challenges it is facing is the disparity between an electorate that legalized cannabis by voter referendum with nearly 70% support but is significantly less enthusiastic about the industry setting up shop in their own communities.

As of the August 2021 deadline by which municipalities were required to adopt their local cannabis ordinances, roughly 400 towns had enacted outright bans. Even in communities such as Princeton, Hoboken and Morristown  where voters support for legalization far exceeded the statewide vote--the industry is facing stiff resistance from residents and local officials. This is why, despite the aggressive lobbying of the cannabis industry and Gov. Phil Murphys support for legalization, once the referendum campaign succeeded, local governments were delegated almost complete control over how  or if  the industry would operate inside their municipalities.

It is not surprising that in an overtaxed state like New Jersey, voters were seduced by the promise of millions of dollars in untold tax revenues, nor is it unusual for New Jerseyans to block businesses they otherwise support from operating in the towns in which they live. New Jersey voters also saw cannabis legalization as an opportunity to reverse the social justice atrocities of drug policies that had needlessly devastated communities and ruined lives. Had legislators done a better job at addressing these issues, its possible voters would not have felt their only recourse was to legalize recreational marijuana. What is very clear is that New Jerseyans do have reservations about the impact of recreational cannabis on their communities.

These concerns are valid. In 2021, eight years after passing broad-based legislation legalizing recreational cannabis, Colorado was confronted with mounting data on the role of marijuana in traffic accidents, medical emergencies, and unnatural deaths, and enacted more restrictive measures to tighten up their laws and clean up what should have been foreseeable consequences. A major force behind the new legislation was a grassroots organization of parents concerned about the availability of high-potency marijuana products to teenagers, and how marijuana impairs brain development in adolescents.

As we move forward with the implementation phase of adult-recreational use, there is much more our state legislators can be doing and should be doing to ensure New Jersey avoids the fate of states like Colorado that are now scrambling to put the genie back in the bottle.

April 21, 2022; Rochelle Park, NJ, USA; Ascend Cannabis Dispensary is open to sell legal marijuana in Rochelle Park. The interior or the shop is shown on Thursday. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com via USA TODAY NETWORK

Cannabis is an abused substance

For those of us on the frontlines of addiction treatment, our primary concern is that legalization will encourage use by those who would never have considered using an illegal substance or who would otherwise have abstained. We know that cannabis today is much more potent than it was in the past, that it is addictive for some, that it can be abused and lead to the abuse of other substances, and that it impairs driving, judgment, and cognitive function.

This is of particular concern for adolescents. Data shows that adolescents and young people are the primary users of marijuana; extensive research also shows that marijuana exerts severe impacts on the cognitive and psychological process of the still-developing adolescent brain.

According to the findings of three recently published studies, young people who regularly use marijuana exhibit higher rates of cognitive impairments, which might include damage to memory and executive functions such as the ability to plan. Young marijuana smokers also exhibited a higher tendency toward risky behaviors. The studies also found that smoking pot during adolescence increases the risk of developing psychotic experiences and schizophrenia.

Make no mistake. As a Paterson-based non-profit addiction treatment center founded in 1975 to treat those who otherwise could not afford or access substance abuse treatment, Turning Point, NJ has been on the front lines of the war on drugs for a generation. We see every day the devastation wrought by policies that address the disease of addiction, mental illness and trauma with mass incarceration. We shared the sense of urgency for criminal justice reform. However, we also know that the legalization of cannabis will expand the population using the drug and for whom the drug will become a problem.

The addiction treatment community generally supports medicinal marijuana as prescribed by a doctor for the treatment of specific conditions. Like all medications, its therapeutic benefits do not immunize it from being abused; any medication used for purposes other than for which it was prescribed is an abused and dangerous substance. Conflating medicinal and recreational marijuana to market cannabis under the banner of holistic health or wellness, as if it is some kind of vitamin or supplement that is good for you, is grossly irresponsible.

Public health and safety impacts

In Colorado, where cannabis was legalized in 2012, the 2021 report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area  a federally funded law enforcement group that issues a report on the impacts of cannabis each yearfound that since recreational marijuana was legalized in 2013, traffic deaths where drivers tested positive for marijuana increased 138% while all Colorado traffic deaths increased 29%; traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana more than doubled from 55 in 2013 to 131 people killed in 2020, and that the percentage of all Colorado traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana increased from 11% in 2013 to 20% in 2020. Marijuana only exposures, in which marijuana was the only substance reported to the Rocky Mountain Drug and Poison Center, increased 185% from 2013, and the percent of suicide incidents in which toxicology results were positive for marijuana has increased from 14% in 2013 to 29% in 2020.

In 2021, New Jersey endured a record number of drug overdose deaths as well as one of the worst years on record for automobile accidents and fatalities  tracking with national statistics that also saw a record number of overdose deaths, an alarming increase in alcohol and substance abuse, and the first increase in driving under the influence incidents after decades of plummeting DUI rates. New Jersey must prepare for the likelihood thatlegalization of cannabis will result in higher rates of impaired driving and traffic accidents and how that will impact the cost of our public safety and health care systems.

Colorados corrections

Supported by an overwhelming majority of state legislators, Colorados sweeping new legislation took on public safety and public health concerns. The new law provides state funding for the Colorado School of Public Health to conduct scientific reviews of high-potency marijuana products and their effects on still-developing brains and to create an education program to share its findings with the public, and imposes new restrictions, limits, and oversight procedures on the prescribing of medical cannabis to those ages 18-20.

The law also requires the state Department of Public Health and Environment to compile data on hospital and emergency room visits tied to marijuana use, requires coroners to report whether marijuana was found in the blood systems of those, under the age of 25, who died from unnatural causes, such as suicide, overdose or accidental death, and mandates doctors to conduct a mental health assessment of patients prior to prescribing medical marijuana. The law also reduced the purchase limits on concentrates for both medical and recreational cannabis from 40 grams to 8 grams per day. For medical users between ages 18-20, the limit was lowered to two grams per day.

Gambling on pot revenue

It wasnt all that long ago that New Jersey taxpayers were promised that legalized gaming and casinos would be the solution to their tax burden. Gaming generates nearly $1.2 billion a year in New Jersey, yet that revenue has not translated into relief for taxpayers. In Colorado, marijuana taxes earmarked for education represent less than one percent of the states education budget.

New Jerseys legislators must do their job to make sure this new cannabis industry is appropriately regulated to ensure the health and safety of our residents and communities, and that New Jersey taxpayers are not the victims of yet another bait and switch tax relief scheme.

Robert Detore is the CEO of Turning Point, Inc., which operates non-profit, residential addiction treatment centers at locations across New Jersey and is based in Paterson.

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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ legal weed: Lawmakers need to be ready to react
Jul. 22Education officials and state lawmakers are calling for an overhaul of how programs that build extra classroom time into the school year operate, following revelations of low participation rates and hundreds of millions in state dollars left on the table.

Since the 2021 fiscal year, schools have foregone $400 million in K-5 Plus funding, which districts could have used to add 25 extra days to the year for elementary schools. Education advocates have said extra days are connected to improved academic performance and increased attendance.

"It's not acceptable to you, it's not acceptable to me and it's not acceptable to our school leaders," Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said of the squandered funds, which will revert to the Public Education Reform Fund, during a Thursday meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee at Western New Mexico University in Silver City.

Schools are projected to skip out on $130 million more in K-5 Plus funds during the 2023 fiscal year, given current participation rates, according to a report from Legislative Finance Committee analysts. Just over 4,300 students will see the benefits of the K-5 Plus program funding in the coming school year as compared to 14,887 during the 2019-20 school year.

Participation rates are higher for the state's Extended Learning Time program, which allows any school to add 10 extra days to its school year. The program is expected to reach 125,870 students in the 2022-23 school year.

Several local districts, including Santa Fe Public Schools, opted out of both programs for the coming school year. Superintendent Hilario "Larry" Chavez decided to use pandemic relief funds for optional summer enrichment programs instead.

Steinhaus, who appeared virtually at Thursday's meeting weeks after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office announced he'd be reducing his workload and changing his job duties at the New Mexico Public Education Department, said lawmakers and the education department must consider how to give more flexibility to districts reluctant to take part in extending the school year.

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"Better is more when we talk about time in the classroom," he said.

New Legislative Education Study Committee Director Gwen Perea Warniment urged a suite of changes for lawmakers to consider, including carving more nonteaching professional working time for educators into the extended learning time programs, switching from increased days to increased hours, increasing incentives for districts, and offering different requirements for high-performing schools.

After education officials presented, some members of the Legislative Finance Committee shifted attention away from extended learning time discussion, commenting instead on math proficiency, teacher preparation and housing for teachers to move the dial for students.

"We're all so concerned about the lack of participation across the state," Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, the committee's co-chairwoman, said of extended learning time programs. "I had asked previously: Is all we're ever talking about extending the school year?"

Others asked if lawmakers should make extra learning time mandatory, not optional as it has been in the past.

"We cannot do the same thing over and over and expect different results," said committee co-Chairman Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup. "Does this need to be in statute? For the fairness of every student receiving what they're entitled to receive."

Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, cautioned against mandating more school days for students, particularly as some rural school districts with students from farming families still operate around agricultural cycles.

"Mandating, think we've got to be seriously intentional about what impact that would have on rural communities," Dow said.

The state first funded a K-3 Plus program to extend instructional hours for early elementary school students in 2007, and it later became K-5 Plus. The number of state-funded extended learning time programs available to districts has bloomed since then, particularly following late Judge Sarah Singleton's ruling of the landmark 2018 Yazzie/Martinez v. state of New Mexico lawsuit, which deemed New Mexico's public education unconstitutionally inadequate for the majority of students in the state and listed more extended learning time as one of the possible solutions.

During the 2022 legislative session, lawmakers appropriated $279 million in recurring state funds for both K-5 Plus and Extended Learning Time, including additional salary boosts for participating teachers and money for transportation. Lawmakers also appropriated more than $40 million more toward a K-12 Plus pilot program for the 2022-23, which will allow for the expansion of K-5 Plus to schools with any grade levels and allow for greater flexibility for districts.

In New Mexico, elementary schools are required to clock 990 hours during the year and secondary schools must record 1,080, according to the Legislative Finance Committee report.

Estimates from the report for the coming school year place statewide school year hour averages at 1,098 for elementary instruction and 1,172 for secondary instruction. The estimate included schools who are participating in some form of extended learning time.

Even still, policy analysts noted in a recent brief that few districts provide a usual 180-day school calendar.

Santa Fe Public Schools, for instance, counts 174 days in its calendar, according to data from the Legislative Finance Committee report. But the district offers more than the minimum number of instructional hours to its students, at 1,088 for elementary schools and 1,180 for secondary schools.

"By increasing the minimum number of school-directed program hours, the Legislature can ensure that every student has a greater opportunity while also allowing for some of the flexibility that might be requested by those superintendents and local school districts and charter school leaders," Warniment said.

Correction: This story has been amended to reflect the following correction. A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus attended the Legislative Finance Committee meeting in person. He attended the meeting virtually.
Jeremy Gay said his past as an attorney in the Marine Corps, local business owner and active member of the community in Gallup where he resides made him uniquely qualified to become New Mexico's highest ranking law enforcement official.

He's the Republican Party's nominee for Attorney General for the state's general election in November, hoping to defeat Raul Torrez, who previously served as Bernalillo County district attorney for a post not held by a Republican since Harold Stratton left the office in 1990.

Gay said Democrats have politicized the office while in control, and he wants to return it to its main purpose: enforcing the law.

The Carlsbad Current-Argus sat down with Gay to discuss his goals if elected and how he plan to execute them.

More:'Real frustration': Mark Ronchetti aims to take New Mexico governor post from Lujan Grisham

What are is your main priority for the office if you're elected in November?

"Im running to execute the mission of the office. It has oftentimes been used as a political office to politically grandstand, whether it be the Green New Deal or some other progressive talking point. Its oftentimes completely divorced and separated from the needs of New Mexico.

"Some communities are better than others, but across the state theres been an uptick (in crime), especially in Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe, the population centers, its devolving into really desperate circumstances."

More:Carlsbad Police Department joins NM Attorney General's Office to fight retail crimes

Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez speaks to a panel of New Mexico lawmakers during a meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., Sept. 27, 2017. Torrez is running against State Auditor Brian Colon for the Democratic endorsement to succeed termed-out Democratic Attorney General Hector Balderas.

What do you see as the role of New Mexico's rural communities compare with its big cities?

"The rural communities, through big oil and gas, through agriculture, fill the coffers of the state, and the state spends that in Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe. So, its like youve got this more conservative group around the state, very hard-working, big business industries that are single-handedly accounting for large portions of the states tax revenue and those monies often times dont go back to those communities. More and more these population centers are wildly misusing those funds on straight-up inappropriate spending or well-intentioned programs that dont work."

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More:State attorney general joins bipartisan investigation into TikTok

How would you plan to work with southeast New Mexicos industries like oil and gas?

"Unfortunately, big oil and gas are constantly under fire because its just politically expedient right now for progressive leftists who attack, really mindlessly attack, big oil and gas. Now, there are issues of waste, fraud and abuse and overwhelming environmental damage, but theres a saying that a Marine on duty has no friends.

"And the mindset with that is that my policy is that I want to keep an open dialogue with any industry, any lawmaker, but if youre breaking the law, if you are breaking environmental standards that are on the books, I will enforce the law.

"I would say that I have a friendliness and an appreciation for big oil and gas, and its not lost on me that its a massive asset for our state. Its one of the greatest resources in our state, and we see the tax revenue and everything else.

"Were seeing nationwide what happens when politics gets in the way of the economy for virtue signaling. You cant mess with the market. Thats not the states role. The states role in my mind is to preserve an environment where businesses and private individuals, in a safe manner, can pursue their lives."

More:Lack of funds from Census minority undercount worries New Mexico's Attorney General

In this Feb. 26, 2019, file photo, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas talks during a news conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Whats your plan to work across party lines should you serve under a Democrat administration?

"I see merit, so when theres fraud waste or abuse wherever, Im going to call it out whether youre Republican or Democrat. When theres good policies, good ideas, I dont care if youre Republican or Democrat. Im going to give credit where credit is due.

"As far as working with Michelle Lujan Grisham, if she wins and she is governor for another four years, I dont see that my role or duty is to be antagonistic. I believe she has executive orders, I think theres been some clear government overreach, and Im going to enforce the states constitution and be loyal to the federal constitution."

More:Get 2022 New Mexico primary election results. Find key state races here.

What are your impressions of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the States administration so far?

"It very much looks like shes auditioning for a higher role in the party, whether that be with the Biden administration. If you look at her COVID restrictions, it wasnt driven by science. It wasnt data driven.

"Its near and dear to my heart because Im in Gallup, New Mexico and it was startling to see how COVID was implemented there. The Navajo Nation was devastated by COVID for a myriad of reasons.

"Access to town was denied to those who did not have a proof that they were residents of Gallup, New Mexico. Seventy-five percent of the homes in the U.S. that are lacking running water or electricity reside on the Navajo Nation.

More:Oil and gas leases in New Mexico could be reversed after federal court ruling

"So, you had people coming into town with their trucks, with their water jugs to fill up like they always do, and theyre being told you cant come here.

"The issue is Im watching my clients, my friends, my neighbors not being able to enter town. This is America. There was no freedom of travel. Theyre being told you cant enter this community even though youve lived here your entire lives.

"It was this big eye-opening experience. This isnt just some inefficiencies. This isnt just a differing of opinion. This is someone who has our lives are in her hands and shes not taking this job very seriously with these policies."

More:Most Eddy County candidates received free passes in Tuesday's Primary Election

Thoughts on the outgoing attorney general Democrat Hector Balderas?

"I think he has a nice haircut. Ive been driving all over this state, and Hector has done some good things. Hes been reasonable and prudent in some examples. But the further along he got, he seemed to just tow the line, to turn a blind eye to things. Especially for the AGs office that is disconcerting.

"I dont like the fact that the AGs office, and Hectors hands arent clean of this, that its been used for just extreme political rhetoric instead of enforcing the law.

"If youre going to have a watchdog, the watchdog needs to be neutral."

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Republican Jeremy Gay seeks election as New Mexico attorney general
The Oxford Police Department is investigating the disappearance of Murrah High School graduate Jimmie "Jay" Lee of Jackson.

A Grenada man faces a murder charge in connection to the case of Jimmie Jay Lee who went missing two weeks ago, the Oxford Police and University of Mississippi Police announced via social media Friday.

Shelton Timothy Herrington Jr., 22, from Grenada, MS, has been charged with murder, the social media post from the Oxford Police Department states. A bond has not been set at this time.

The press release states the officials are working to locate Lees body.

AG, FBI join search: Attorney General and FBI join search for missing Ole Miss student

Family holds out hope: Jackson woman holds out hope her missing brother, Jimmie 'Jay' Lee, will be found safe

This is still an ongoing investigation and updates will be given at a later date, according to the press release.

Lee, a 20-year-old from Jackson was last seen leaving the Campus Walk Apartments on July 8, wearing a gold cap, silver robe and gray slippers. He drove away in his 2014 black Ford Fusion with a custom "JAYLEE1" license plate, and has not been heard from since, according to a press release from the university.

Since then family members, friends and University of Mississippi students and Oxford residents have been searching for Lee. CrimeStoppers and family members had offered monetary rewards for information in the case. The FBI and the Mississippi Attorney General's Office recently joined Oxford Police and University of Mississippi Police for additional resources and assistance in the case.

People with tips in the case are asked to contact OPD at 662-232-2400, UPD at 662-915-7234, CrimeStoppers at 662-234-8477 or direct message the agencies on the organizations social media accounts. Facebook: @OxfordMSPolice or @OleMissPolice or Twitter: @OxfordPolice or @OleMissPolice.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Grenada man faces murder charge in missing Ole Miss student case
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. The Central Bank of Uzbekistan signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with Mastercard Europe SA,Trend reports via the bank.

The document is aimed at expanding bilateral relations in the field of activity of the two organizations.

This memorandum will serve to increase the knowledge and experience of employees in the field of payment systems, cybersecurity, as well as financial literacy through joint technical consultations, trainings, seminars and expert visits.
About 400 motorcycles rumbled slowly through the streets of Thibodaux on Saturday to give a final send-off to Ezekiel Harry, a 2-year-old boy from Houma whose body was found in a trash can earlier this month.

Several hundred people packed Moses Baptist Church on Canal Boulevard for Ezekiel's funeral to show their support and offer condolences to his family.

"Y'all are seeing the community come together as a whole and embrace the family and really give them the strength to endure this all throughout," said Michael Willis, a longtime friend of the family. "We've got plenty of tragedies going on in New Orleans, Thibodaux and throughout the United States of America, and this family is showing that they can come out, hold their head up and we're trying to tell the world, 'Hey, hold your head up.' "

A funeral procession for 2-year-old Ezekiel Harry that included an estimated 400 motorcycles rolls down Canal Boulevard in Thibodaux on Saturday, July 23, 2022.

The Houma boy's body was found July 12 in a trash bin on Daspit Street, a short distance from the Houma Police Departments headquarters. The childs mother, Maya Jones, 28, and her boyfriend, Jermaine Robinson, 37, were booked on first-degree murder and other charges.

'That house is going to be haunted': Neighbors shocked over the loss of Ezekiel Harry

Locals say his life was short-lived, but what happened to Ezekiel will weigh on the hearts and souls of the community for years to come. The trash can where Ezekiel's body was found quickly became a memorial as people placed mementos for the boy, including stuffed animals and balloons. A vigil held in Houma's Courthouse Square three days after the boy's death attracted hundreds as elected officials, police and religious leaders tried to console the wider public.

Organizers of Saturday's procession said bikers came from throughout the area and as far as Texas to pay their respects to a boy whose tragic plight sent shockwaves through the community and beyond. They included local motorcycle clubs as well as units from area police agencies.

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Asked why the funeral and procession drew so many, Cedric Henry, founder of the Insane Hunters of New Orleans, said it was because of the ending.

Ezekiel Harry.

"It's gut-wrenching to see a kid tossed away in a trash can like that," Henry, 56, said.

"Not only was this child taken away from us, and the way he was taken from us was incorrigible," said Michael Fitch, 54, a member of the Houma-based Zydeco H.O.G. chapter. "I want the family to know we care for him and he was not a piece of garbage."

Could more have been done? Police criticized on Facebook, other social media after arrest in Ezekiel Harrys death

It took about 10 minutes for the entire funeral procession to wind a few blocks away to Sanders Street, where Ezekiel was laid to rest at Moses Cemetery No. 2.

A casket carrying 2-year-old Ezekiel Harry is carried out of Moses Baptist Church in Thibodaux on Saturday, July 23, 2022.

Inside the church, the family of Trey Harry, Ezekiel's father, was seated in the pews on one side, Jones' family on the other.

Elaine Simoneaux-Mickens, a longtime friend of Jones' mother, Jacqueline Jones, said it is important to support both sides of Ezekiel's family. She hopes the tragedy will also raise awareness that child abuse is real.

"And to a baby, two years of his life, he didn't have a chance to do anything, you know, not even throw his first football," she said. "It's just a hard pill to swallow."

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Hundreds of bikers escort Ezekiel Harry to his final resting place
A Texas man has been charged with murder after a fatal shooting during an attempted robbery of an Oklahoma dispensary.

NORMAN  Evidence in a murder case against a couple includes their Facebook messages about how the victim was haunting them, a police detective reported.

Octavio Juan Sanchez, 35, and his wife, Desiree Sanchez, 27, were charged Thursday with first-degree murder and unlawful removal of a dead body.

They are accused of killing Margarita Juanita "Maggie" Sandoval in 2018, hiding her body for years and spending her monthly Social Security disability payments on themselves.

Police found the decomposing body in a wrapped plastic container in the basement of a Norman residence on May 13, 2021, after getting a tip.

The homeowner, Miguel Munoz, confessed he helped the couple put the body in his basement in June 2019, the Norman police detective wrote in a court affidavit.

"Munoz informed investigators ... that Octavio stated he and his wife, Desiree, killed a child molester. Munoz quoted Octavio as saying, 'Desiree started it and I had to finish it,'" the detective wrote.

The victim was the sister of Octavio Sanchez and had the cognitive abilities of a child, the investigation found. She had lived in a group home in California and later with a sister in Oklahoma. She began living with her brother at a Norman apartment in January 2019.

Investigators believe woman was murdered years ago and body was kept in a container

Police believe she was murdered sometime between Feb. 17 and April 18, 2018. She would have been 18 or 19 at the time of her death. Police believe the couple kept the wrapped body at their apartment and then at their house in Norman before it was moved to their friend's basement.

Police reported the husband and wife gave multiple conflicting stories about what happened to Sandoval. The wife told an investigator for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services in 2018 that Sandoval had gone to take out the trash and never came back.

Investigators used a search warrant to obtain Octavio Sanchez's Facebook messages.

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"They found multiple conversations between Octavio and Desiree in regards to wrapping up the body with plastic and moving the body around the house due to the smell," according to the affidavit.

"Investigators also found messages of where Octavio thought the police were at the apartment complex because of the body smelling. Octavio began messaging Desiree telling her to tell the police that he did everything."

However, in one message, the husband wrote to his wife "I will kill you too" if she tells on him, according to the affidavit.

"Also in the Facebook messages, investigators learned that Desiree and Octavio believe that Margarita is haunting them.

"In one conversation Octavio tells Desiree that Margarita was not letting him get to his phone to contact her. Desiree replied ... that Margarita is only messing with him because she was not there. Desiree confirmed with Octavio that Margarita was haunting her too. Desiree told Octavio that Margarita knows what she did and that is why she is haunting them."

Cause of death listed as 'undetermined means'

Prosecutors filed the murder charges after the state pathologist completed an autopsy report this month and listed the manner of death as homicide. The medical examiner reported Sandoval "died as a result of undetermined means."

Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn on Friday praised Norman police detectives for their hard work to find enough evidence to get the charges filed.

Police arrested Desiree Sanchez Thursday evening. Octavio Sanchez already was in custody, awaiting sentencing in Oklahoma City federal court for illegally possessing a firearm. Norman police found a pistol hidden in a trash can in the garage of his home on May 14, 2021.

Police searched the home as part of the investigation into Sandoval's death. Octavio Sanchez was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of a felony conviction in Arkansas.

The couple also face a federal charge accusing them of converting Sandoval's Social Security disability payments and pandemic "stimulus checks" to their own use after they were no longer providing care for her.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma murder suspects believed victim was haunting them, police say
(Bloomberg) --

Most Read from Bloomberg

Russia attacked Odesas sea port with cruise missiles hours after signing a deal to unblock Ukrainian grain exports from three Black Sea ports, including Odesa, that was hailed as a vital step toward alleviating a global food crisis.

Ukrainian officials indicated theyre still moving ahead with the landmark agreement reached Friday to release millions of tons of grain that have been piling up since the invasion, even as the attacks appeared to violate Russias commitments as part of the deal.

The loss of exports from one of the biggest wheat, corn and vegetable-oil suppliers has rippled across the world, driving prices to records and leading to warnings of an unprecedented global food crisis.

The deal to facilitate safe shipment corridors was signed after months of talks, in a ceremony presided over by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Yet many analysts and Western officials were skeptical even as the agreement was reached that it could be successfully implemented.

Two Kalibr missiles launched from the Crimea area hit the ports infrastructure and two were shot down by Ukraines air defense, Serhiy Bratchuk, adviser to the head of the Odesa regional military administration, said on Telegram. A large plume of smoke was visible across the city after the strikes.

The attacks drew quick condemnation from the US, European Union and UN and a spokesman for Ukraines Foreign Ministry said that Russia had breached its promises with the attack. However, Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka indicated Fridays deal remains in place and Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that Ukraine is continuing with technical preparations to restart exports.

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It doesnt mean that all agreements are crossed out, because everyone understood that any agreement has high risks, Kachka said. Todays shelling clearly illustrated all those risks that existed did not disappear -- they still exist.

There were nine ships at Odesa sea port, including four vessels loaded with corn worth $45.6 million, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. The ships with grain were under the flags of Malta, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Panama, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

Ukraine is under huge pressure to restart grain exports to support its economy, which has been devastated by the war.

The parties committed not to undertake attacks against merchant vessels or port infrastructure engaged in the initiative, according to a copy of the agreement signed by Ukraine posted on Facebook by Andriy Sybiha, deputy chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian militarys southern command, said on TV the missiles didnt hit grain storage at the port.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, one of the export deals signatories, told the state-run Anadolu news agency that Russian officials told him that they are absolutely unrelated to this attack and that they are investigating the matter closely and thoroughly.

Moscow broke its silence on Sunday, when Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Telegram that Kalibr cruise missiles had destroyed a Ukrainian military infrastructure facility in Odesa.

On Friday night, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who signed the Istanbul agreement, said in a speech on state-owned TV that Moscow assumed the obligations which are quite clearly spelled out in this document.

Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, said on Twitter that Russia must be held to account. Guterres unequivocally condemns the reported strikes, a spokesman said.

Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, said in a statement. Full implementation by the Russian federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.

Yesterday Ukraine grain export by sea was agreed, and today the Russians are hitting Odesa port, said Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukraines president. Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, said the missile strike was Vladimir Putins spit into the face of Guterres and Erdogan, who put enormous efforts into reaching the accord.

He called on Turkey and the UN to ensure that Russia sticks to its commitment within the framework of safe grain corridor functioning.

The missile strike reinforces concerns about difficultly of chartering and insuring vessels to ship grain in the middle of a war, regardless of the assurances provided.

(Updates with Russian foreign ministry comment in 13th paragraph.)

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KYIV  Two Americans, a Canadian and a Swedish citizen were killed this week when a Russian tank opened fire on them during an hourslong battle at the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region, their commander confirmed exclusively to POLITICO.

Ruslan Miroshnichenko, the foreign fighters commander, said Saturday that the Americans killed were Luke Skywalker Lucyszyn and Bryan Young. He said they were killed alongside Emile-Antoine Roy-Sirois of Canada and Edvard Selander Patrignani of Sweden on July 18.

The men were part of a special operations force within the Territorial Defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Miroshnichenko said. Their unit has been based near Siversk, a town in eastern Donetsk oblast that has been the target of Russias invasion force.

In an attempt to slow Russias advance, the foreign fighters were deployed to the village of Hryhorivka, two miles northeast of Siversk. There, Miroshnichenko said, the guys were tasked to take their firing positions and clear a ravine where Russian forces were working to cross a river.

They did it successfully. But at the end of the mission they were ambushed by Russian tanks, Miroshnichenko said. The first shell injured Luke. Three guys, Edward, Emile, and Bryan, they immediately attempted to help Luke, to do first aid, and evacuate him from this spot. Then the second shell killed them all.

The State Department spokesperson confirmed the deaths of the two Americans on Friday but did not name them. We are in touch with the families and providing all possible consular assistance. Out of respect to the families during this difficult time, we have nothing further to add, the spokesperson told POLITICO.

The Canadian and Swedish governments could not immediately be reached for comment.

Russian troops have used airpower, tanks, and heavy artillery to destroy entire cities and towns in their pursuit of capturing all of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, often referred to collectively as the Donbas. Siversk sits 20 miles north of the city of Bakhmut and along a highway that is key to moving troops and materiel to the front. Capturing those two places would give Russias army a significant foothold and control of roughly 80 percent of the Donetsk region.

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The foreign fighters were dispatched to the area to reinforce Ukrainian troops and were tapped specifically because of their skills and experience, according to a situation report obtained by POLITICO that described the attack in more detail.

We began preparations for clearing the ravine on the eastern outskirts of the Grigorovka village, read the report, authored by a commander. The preparation was carried out on the basis of the following information: At night, the enemy force crossed the river and entrenched themselves in a ravine, possibly digging in. There was a clear danger of creating a bridgehead and grouping a force to strike at the flank and rear of the grouping of our troops.

A group of professionals with relevant experience in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was created to carry out the task. Two scouts were checking the territory, they were supported by a machine gun and grenade launcher group in case of a combat encounter and the need to cover the departure of the reconnaissance group, as well as for the purpose of inflicting fire damage on the enemy.

As the group pressed forward, the report said, the cover group came under heavy mortar fire from enemy artillery of caliber 120 mm or more and cluster munitions.

Luke was wounded during the shelling. The rest of the group  provided appropriate first aid.

Taking advantage of the break between shelling, a decision was made to evacuate to the nearest shelter. During transportation, as a result of the direct impact of a tank shell, Brian, Edward, Emile, Luke received injuries incompatible with life.

Another soldier named Finn, the report notes, was injured in his left arm and leg. Another soldier named Oskar received numerous injuries [and] both moved to the evacuation point independently.

Russian forces continued to bombard the group with heavy artillery corrected by drones for more than two hours, according to the report. Only several hours later did it ease up enough for a team to move in and recover the bodies of the foreign fighters.

The report said that at least six Russian tanks were supported by 4 armored personnel carriers with up to 70 infantrymen.

They were met by Ukrainian machine gunners and troops on armored vehicles who halted the Russian forces advance.

As a result of two hours of intense fighting, the enemy retreated with heavy losses, the report concluded.

In a post memorializing the four men, Miroshnichenko wrote: Foreign volunteers are knowingly fighting this war against Mordor  a term from the Tolkien books to describe Saurons evil realm that has been adopted in Ukraine to refer to Russia  and I am honored to be their commander.

It hurts so much to lose the boys. Emotions are overwhelming and I can't find the words right now for the post they deserve, he continued. I just want to say, they werent hiding, but they looked for every opportunity to be helpful, they all fully volunteered and did their combat duty on the front line till the end. Calmly and with honor. No pathos, like real soldiers.

Miroshnichenko spoke to POLITICO from the city of Dnipro, where he said the mens bodies had been taken. I have to make sure the bodies of all my boys are repatriated, he said.

Lucyszyn, an American of Ukrainian descent born in 1991, had worked as a police officer in the U.S., according to Miroshnichenko. He had difficulty pronouncing his surname Lucyszyn, he quipped, but very much insisted on his Ukrainian roots: his grandmother had emigrated from Ukraine to the United States after World War II.

Speaking about Lucyszyn's call sign, Skywalker, Miroshnichenko said, like in Star Wars, he challenged the Evil Empire itself on the side of the weaker but free.

Miroshnichenko described Young, born in 1971, as an American military man who had been injured and moved to reserves. When the Russian invasion began, he decided to come to Ukraine because he took an oath to protect the Free World.

Sirois, Miroshnichenko said, was a paramedic with experience in the French Foreign Legion. Born in 1991, he recalled him always smiling.

Patrignani, born in 1994, had been a reserve lieutenant, economist and philosopher in Sweden who wanted to form a platoon of Swedes, according to Miroshnichenko.

POLITICO could not immediately reach the mens families for comment.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened the doors for foreigners to come and fight for Ukraine in March when he announced the creation of an International Legion. Legion representatives told POLITICO Saturday that thousands of foreigners including hundreds of Americans streamed into Ukraine to join its fight against Russian invaders.

The Biden administration has repeatedly warned U.S. citizens about traveling to Ukraine and encouraged any of them in the country to leave immediately.

At least three other Americans have died since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Two were killed in action. Two other U.S. citizens, Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, were captured by Russian forces while fighting in the eastern Kharkiv region and are currently in the custody of Russia-led forces in the occupied city of Donetsk.

Paul McLeary contributed reporting from Washington.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Former sports superstar Bo Jackson helped pay for the funerals of the 19 children and two teachers killed in the Uvalde school massacre in May, revealing himself as one of the previously anonymous donors who covered costs for families after one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history.

Jackson, whose rare success in both the NFL and Major League Baseball made him one of the greatest and most marketable athletes of the 1980s and 1990s, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he felt compelled to support the victims families after the loss of so many children.

I dont know if its because Im getting old, said Jackson, a father of three and a grandfather as he nears 60. Its just not right for parents to bury their kids. Its just not right.

I know every family there probably works their butts off just to do what they do.  The last thing they needed was to shell out thousands of dollars for something that never should have happened.

Jackson said he felt a personal connection to the city hes driven through many times. Uvalde has been a regular stop for a bite to eat or groceries before a long drive farther west to visit a friends ranch on hunting trips.

It was his familiarity with the feel of Uvaldes Main Street, leafy town square and the people hed met on those stops that touched his heart when the news broke on May 24th of the shooting at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement has been heavily criticized for taking more than an hour to enter the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack, and a Texas House investigative report laid blame on the school district, saying a lax safety culture, spotty alert system and unlocked doors also contributed.

Three days later, Jackson and a close friend flew to Uvalde, briefly met with Gov. Greg Abbott and presented a check for $170,000 with an offer to pay for all funeral expenses.

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Abbott announced it as an anonymous donation during a May 27 news conference about aid the state was giving victims.

We didnt want media, he said. No one knew we were there.

And though Jackson suggested he hasnt kept it a secret, he hadnt spoken publicly about what moved him to make the trip to Uvalde and the donation until this week.

Uvalde is a town that sticks in your mind. Just the name, Jackson said. I dont know a soul there. It just touched me.

Jackson declined to name the friend who went with him and also contributed to the donation.

Other fundraising efforts have since raised millions to assist families, and local funeral homes said they wouldnt charge families for services. But Jacksons donation was an early point of light for the grieving families.

Abbotts office said Jacksons money was quickly directed to cover funeral costs through OneStar, a nonprofit created to further volunteerism and community service in Texas, including Uvalde relief efforts.

The true spirit of our nation is Americans lifting up one another in times of need and hardship, Abbott said. In a truly selfless act, Bo covered all funeral expenses for the victims families so they would have one less thing to worry about as they grieved.

Jackson said he followed news coverage of the funerals, but he declined to say if he has been in direct contact with any of the families.

The day of the shooting, Jackson tweeted, America  lets please stop all the nonsense. Please pray for all victims. If you hear something, say something. We arent supposed to bury our children. Im praying for all of the families around the country who have lost loved ones to senseless shootings. This cannot continue.

When asked to elaborate on the This cannot continue, though, Jackson declined, saying only that he wrote what he meant.

I dont want to turn this into anything (but) what it is. I was just trying (with the donation) to put a little sunshine in someones cloud, a very dark cloud, Jackson said.

But he also noted the regularity of mass shootings in the country.

The last thing you want to hear is theres an active shooter in your childs school, he said. Its happening everywhere now.

Uvalde wasnt Jacksons first large-scale act of philanthropy. He hosts an annual bike ride in his home state of Alabama to raise money for disaster relief funds, an effort started after tornadoes killed nearly 250 people. The Uvalde donation was his first in response to a mass shooting.

Its the children.  Its the children.  Its the children, Jackson said, pausing before each repetition to gather himself. If it doesnt bother you, somethings wrong with you.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
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Jasper Kenzo Sundeens reporting for the Yakima Herald-Republic is possible with support from Report for America and community members through the Yakima Valley Community Fund . For information on republishing, email news@yakimaherald.com.
Chinese Ambassador to Iran Chang Hua said that his country supports the membership of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Trend reports citing IRNA.

Speaking in the meeting on the development of trade exchanges between Iran and China in Bandar Anzali, Hua said that China is ready to strengthen cooperation with developing countries.

Emphasizing the need to develop relations between the two countries of Iran and China, he added that Iran has had a special place in the Silk Road since ancient times and today it plays an important role in the One Belt One Road project.

Pointing out that the Iranian government attaches great importance to economic development, the Chinese envoy said that his country supports the membership of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Recently, the Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali in an interview with TASS News Agency said that Tehran is preparing the necessary documents to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

"The process of obtaining full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization consists of numerous stages that a candidate country needs to implement within the established time frame," he said.

"According to the schedule, Iran is preparing documents, passing through these stages and notifying the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on a regular basis," the envoy added.

Tehran's admission was accepted at the Dushanbe summit last year when Tajikistan was the Shanghai Pact's rotating chair. However, finalizing that process could take two years.
WA Supreme Court rules that state can log public lands, but doesn't have to
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Tomorrow

Sunshine and some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 105F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
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The cover likens Tusk to Adolf Hitler. The former head of the EU Council is depicted extending his right hand in a gesture much like the fascist salute. Tusk's nose casts a shadow on his upper lip bringing to mind Hitler's characteristic mustache. And the Prussian slogan "Gott mit uns" ("God with us") was worn by German soldiers on their belt buckles during World War II.

State propaganda wants people to believe that Tusk is Germanys lapdog

The Nazi comparison is only the latest example of Sakiewiczs sustained propaganda campaign against Donald Tusk. Pro-government media persistently portray the leader of Polands largest opposition party as a traitor who puts the German interest over the Polish raison d'etat. In a recent interview for "Polska the Times" (taken over by the state-owned Orlen), Jarosaw Kaczynski, the leader of the Law and Justice party, said of the former Prime Minister and head of the European Council that he is Germanys man in Poland "all the way up to the top of his head".

TVP- the PiS-controlled national broadcaster, incessantly airs Tusks speech to CDU activists from last January, hammering out one sound bite in particular: "Fur Deutschland". Donald Tusk used to be the head of the European Peoples Party of which the CDU is a member. The National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) reprimands TVP on the matter to no avail, as TVP president Jacek Kurski claims it is simply a "correct and truthful depiction of Tusk".

The Civic Platform has already announced two lawsuits against Sakiewicz's weekly. "There is no agreement that public debate in Poland should fall down to the level of the gutter. Sakiewicz and his Gazeta Polska will bear responsibility in court for today's scandalous material" - Party spokesman Jan Grabiec announced on Twitter.

- We will take legal action against the editor-in-chief of "Gazeta Polska," but also against the author of the cover- Mr. Grabiec explained in an interview with Wirtualne Media. - This kind of publication is a violation of the norms of social life, to put it mildly, and a lowering of the standards of political debate. Of course, this publication is in line with what TVP does on a daily basis, where graphic manipulation is very common, designed to dishonor Donald Tusk. This cover is so brazen that it cannot be left unaddressed, for the sake of public life in Poland.

REKLAMA

In March, the leader of the Civic Platform already sued Mr. Sakiewicz for saying on public television that Tusk had allowed Putin to kill Lech Kaczynski. "President Donald Tusk filed a lawsuit against Tomasz Sakiewicz for violation of personal rights. The brazen lies must be met with a firm response" - Grabiec wrote on Twitter.

President Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash in Smolensk on April 10, 2010. Among the 96 victims were top government officials, their relatives, and military officers.

Generous funding for pro-government media

It is not the first such lawsuit against Gazeta Polska. In January 2021, Professor Marek Safjan, a judge at the EU Court of Justice, filed a lawsuit for infringement of personal rights against the magazines publisher, as well as its editor-in-chief Tomasz Sakiewicz and journalist Piotr Lisiewicz.

REKLAMA

In the first quarter of this year, the average total sales of "Gazeta Polska" amounted to 19,831 copies, including 18,253 in print and 1,578 online (data from the Polish Readership Survey). Despite such low circulation, Sakiewicz's weekly gets several million zlotys in advertising from state companies and state institutions.

***

Every day, 400 journalists at Gazeta Wyborcza write verified, fact-checked stories about Polish politics and society, keeping a critical eye on the ruling camps persistent assault on democratic values and the rule of law; the growing cultural tension between religious fundamentalism and human rights; and the ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine. Our journalists are on the front lines in 32 Polish cities, reporting from the streets, hospitals, and courtrooms about issues that move public opinion.

REKLAMA

We decided to make our service available to everyone free of charge in order to provide access to high quality journalism for expats and English speakers interested in Polish affairs.

The access to information should be equal for all.
Indian airlines have been going through a turbulent phase as aircraft have reported several glitches in the recent past. There have been as many as nine mid-air incidents between July 5 and July 21 which has raised concerns. IANS lists the incidents which have raised concerns among the fliers about the safety of air travel:

July 21: In an incident of technical malfunctioning, an Air India Dubai-Cochin flight was diverted to Mumbai where it landed safely after the captain reported pressurisation loss. The incident was reported on the Boeing 787 flight No. AI- 934. The DGCA intervened and the flight was grounded and the flight crew was off the roster.

July 20: A Go First flight heading from Delhi to Guwahati was diverted to Jaipur after the A320neo plane`s windshield cracked mid-air. It was the third incident of a technical glitch on a Go First aircraft in two days.

Also read: Air travel to become expensive? Airline ticket prices to soar as fuel costs increase

July 19: In two separate cases, Go First flights were diverted to Delhi and Srinagar due to technical glitches in the engines. Go First A320 aircraft VT-WGA flight No. G8-386 from Mumbai to Leh was diverted to Delhi, while its A320 aircraft VT-WJG flight No. G8-6202 from Srinagar to Delhi was turned back to Srinagar due to EGT over-limit in the engine. The first plane was diverted to Delhi due to an EIU (Engine Interface Unit) fault in engine No. 2.

July 17: An IndiGo flight from Sharjah to Hyderabad was diverted to Karachi after a technical snag was detected in the aircraft. The IndiGo flight No. 6E-1406, operating from Sharjah to Hyderabad, was diverted to Karachi after the pilot observed a technical defect. Necessary procedures were followed and as a precaution, the aircraft was diverted to Karachi.

July 16: An Air India Express aircraft from Calicut to Dubai was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was observed from one of the vents in the forward galley of the flight. A senior DGCA official confirmed that the Air India Express B737-800 aircraft VT-AXX operating flight IX-355 (Calicut-Dubai) was diverted to Muscat, as during the cruise, a burning smell came from one of the vents in the forward galley.

Also read: Indian Railways: IRCTC launches tour package to Tirupati, price starts at Rs 36,330

July 15: A bird was found in the cockpit of the Air India Express Bahrain-Kochi flight. The bird was found in the glove compartment on the co-pilot`s side when the plane was at an altitude of 37,000 feet. The plane landed safely in Kochi. Officials said that prima facie, it looked like there was a ground handling lapse at a foreign station.

July 14: IndiGos Delhi-Vadodara flight was diverted to Jaipur out of precaution as vibrations were observed in the engines of the aircraft.

July 5: A SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Dubai was diverted to Karachi after an indicator light of the airplane malfunctioned. The Boeing 737 Max aircraft that was heading from Delhi to Dubai started showing unusual fuel quantity reduction from its left tank when it was mid-air. Following this, the plane was diverted to Karachi.

(With inputs from IANS)

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Air travel is preferred as it is one of the fastest means of transportation you can use for your journeys across the globe. However, even this fast transportation can, at times, feel like it is taking forever to go from one place to another. Yes! We are talking about the longest non-stop flights. If you feel that even the longest journeys are not enough for you, then you are travelling in the wrong plane. Here we have a list of the longest non-stop flights you can take to challenge yourself. However, be warned the journeys on these flights are from one end to the other and can be significantly exhausting without any breaks.

Longest non-flights across the globe:

Singapore to New York

From Asia to North America, a journey across continents is what you get when you are sitting on Singapore Airlines Flight SQ24. The flight takes travellers on a journey from Singapore to New Yorks John F. Kennedy International airport on an Airbus A350-900. This flight is one of the longest on earth and has a span of 15,000 kilometres. The journey between the two places takes around 18 hrs and 40 minutes.

Singapore to Newark

Another one of the longest flights in the world starts from Singapore and is operated by Singapore Airlines. The fight ends in Newark in New Jersey, America, with a scheduled time of 18 hours and 25 minutes. The flight SQ22 is performed by Airbus A350-900s operated by the aforementioned airline to cover this massive route.

Also read: Kylie Jenner, Travis Scott share private jet pic, Netizen calls them 'Climate Criminal'

Darwin to London

Darwin in Australia is connected with London in the UK via Qantas flight QF9. This magnanimous flight is entrusted to the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which cover a distance of around 14,000 kilometres to complete the whole journey in 17 hours and 55 minutes. It is to be noted that this flight was originally operated between Perth and London but was shifted to Darwin due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Los Angeles to Singapore

The Los Angeles to Singapore is a slightly shortened non-stop flight compared to Darwin to London flight. However, it is still a long enough flight covering a distance of 14,000 kilometres in more than 17 hours. Again the flight is performed by Singapore Airlines flight SQ35.

New York to Hong Kong

In March, Cathay Pacific said that it intended to change its New York-Hong Kong route, which would result in a lengthier trip than Singapore Airlines Flight SQ24 to JFK. According to the airline, the flight path will travel "slightly under 9,000 nautical miles" (10,357 miles) or 16,668 kilometres in 16 to 17 hours.
NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt, on Saturday, dropped a string of new 'mysterious' posters from her upcoming dark comedy film 'Darlings'. Taking to Instagram, the 'Raazi' actor shared the posts, which she captioned, "Abhi ke liye ye photos dekho. Monday ko battings dikhaungi. #DarlingsOnNetflix".

In the first poster, the 'Highway' actor can be seen giving a strange look to her on-screen mother Shefali Shah. Both the actors donned an Indian salwar-kameez and could be seen sitting inside a car. In another poster, Alia can be seen giving another strange look to her on-screen husband Vijay Varma as he holds her hand.

In the third poster, the 'Super 30' actor could be seen having a conversation with actor Roshan Mathew as he got his hand tied up with a rope.

(Photo: Instagram)

In the fourth poster, the on-screen mother-daughter duo Alia and Shefali give a mysterious look to Vijay as he could be seen tied up with a rope and a piece of cloth in his mouth.

Makers of the film are all set to unveil the trailer of their dark comedy film on July 25, 2022.

Helmed by Jasmeet K Reen, 'Darlings' is touted as a "dark comedy-drama which explores the lives of a mother-daughter duo trying to find their place in Mumbai, seeking courage and love in exceptional circumstances while fighting against all odds."

Produced by Gauri Khan, Alia Bhatt and Gaurav Verma, 'Darlings' will be out on Netflix on August 5, 2022.

Excited about the film`s digital release, Alia said, "Darlings holds a very special place in my heart, it's my first film as a producer that too with Red Chillies. We are very proud and happy how the film has shaped up and we hope it will entertain and engage audiences the world over."

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NEW DELHI: Nawazuddin Siddiqui has become a household name now with his back-to-back brilliant performances, showcasing his versatility in the movies, across all genres. While marking the wide journey of his film journey, the actor is currently shooting in Rajasthan for his upcoming film 'Afwaah' where he shot for his short film 'Bypass'.

A source close to the actor has revealed "Nawazuddin Siddiqui is already in Rajasthan after a long time for the shoot of his upcoming movie Afwaah'.

The actor is really excited to revisit the beautiful place as previously he visited there for his short film 'Bypass'. So it seems like it will be a good time for the actor to be in the city after so many years".

The 'Bypass' was filmed on a stranded road somewhere in Rajasthan, India. The versatile actor recalls the beautiful days while shooting the movie Bypass, He revisits the same location shooting for his current movie Afwaah. 'Afwaah' is a 2022 Bollywood drama, helmed by Sudhir Mishra. Afwaah stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead roles.

The short film 'Bypass' starring Bollywood actors Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Irrfan Khan is considered a short silent Bollywood film. The film was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Aubagne Film Festival.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Nawazuddin boasts of an interesting lineup of films which includes Tiku Weds Sheru, Noorani Chehra, and Adbhut, No Land's Man and Laxman Lopez amongst others.
New Delhi: ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 50 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 6,905 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal aided by a decline in bad loans. The second biggest private sector bank had posted a net profit of Rs 4,616 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year. Total income during the April-June quarter of 2022-23 improved to Rs 28,336.74 crore, from Rs 24,379.27 crore in the same quarter in FY22, ICICI Bank said in a regulatory filing.

On a consolidated basis, ICICI Bank reported a 55 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 7,385 crore for the reporting quarter as against Rs 4,616 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. (ALSO READ: Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's Indian-origin founder, steps down from online grocery delivery company)

Interest income of the bank during the quarter increased to Rs 23,671.54 crore from Rs 20,383.41 crore in the year-ago period. (ALSO READ: Taste candy and earn Rs 62 lakh! Too good to be true job offer has social medias attention)

On the asset quality front, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declined to 3.41 per cent of the gross advances as of June 30, 2022, from 5.15 per cent on June 30, 2021. Net NPAs or bad loans too slipped to 0.70 per cent from 1.16 per cent.

As a result, provisions for bad loans and contingencies more than halved to Rs 1,143.82 crore in the quarter, as against Rs 2,851 .69 crore put earmarked in the year-ago quarter.

During the quarter, there were net additions of Rs 382 crore to gross NPAs compared to net additions of Rs 3,604 crore in Q1-2022. Recoveries and upgrades of NPAs, excluding write-offs and sale, were Rs 5,443 crore in the first quarter.

Provisioning coverage ratio on non-performing assets was 79.6 per cent at June 30, 2022. Total capital adequacy ratio was 18.74 per cent and Tier-1 capital adequacy ratio was 17.95 per cent, on a standalone basis, at June 30, 2022.

The net interest margin rose to 4.01 per cent as compared to 3.89 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.

Total advances increased by 21 per cent year-on-year to Rs 8,95,625 crore while period-end term deposits increased by 11 per cent to Rs 5,58,235 crore at June 30.
New Delhi: An American candy retailer is offering CAD 100,000 annually (approximately Rs 62 lakh or a little bit over $77,430) to fill a unique position: Chief Candy Officer (CCO). The largest online candy retailer in North America, Candy Funhouse, is allowing anyone who is five years of age or older to apply for the unique position. The CCO's duties will include tasting candies.

Being the company's head taste-tester, the lucky individual will lead a team of "Candyologists". The hiree will also have to run candy board meetings, according to the job posting. But most importantly, he or she has to have a genuine passion for candy. (ALSO READ: Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's Indian-origin founder, steps down from online grocery delivery company)

Explaining why the company is allowing anyone aged five or above for the position, CEO of Candy Funhouse, Jamal Hejazi, told Entrepreneur that the love for candy is bound by no age." (ALSO READ: Woman claims she was fired for not letting man talk over her; Twitterati showers support)

"We are looking for a leader that can contribute to our wildest candy imaginations. Two key attributes that we are looking for are creativity and being bold," Hejazi told the media publication.

Although unconventional, the role relates to the brand's overall ethos, which is dedicated to generating and carrying out the most imaginative ideas imaginable, Hejazi reportedly said.

How to Apply for Chief Candy Officer Job?

Anyone from North America interested in the job role is encouraged to submit an application on the company website by August 31. The official companys job wesbite is https://candyfunhouse.ca/pages/careers. A parent can also apply on behalf of their child.

The role is potentially totally remote, with the option of working at one of Candy Funhouse's headquarters in either Toronto or Newark, New Jersey.

Hiring: CHIEF CANDY OFFICER! Are you passionate about CANDY, POP CULTURE and FUN? Get paid 6 figures to lead our Candyologists! Job is open to ages 5+, you can even apply on behalf of your kid!, the company said in its job advertisement on Instagram.
New Delhi: Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) issued notices to Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohiya) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar stating that they are free to leave the alliance, ANI reported. A letter sent to Pragatisheel Samajwadi party read, Respected Shivpal Yadav ji, if you feel you will get more respect elsewhere then you are free to go. While addressing the SBSP president, the letter said the Samajwadi Party is fighting against the BJP. You have a partnership with the BJP and you are working constantly to strengthen them. If you feel you will be respected elsewhere, then you are free to go.

The development comes in the wake of rift between the SP and the two allies. Earlier, the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government had accorded 'Y' category security to SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar, an influential OBC leader. During the recently-held Presidential elections, SBSP had defied the Opposition unity by voting for NDA's candidate Droupadi Murmu, who has defeated opposition pick Yashwant Sinha.

Samajwadi Party issues letters to Pragatisheel Samajwadi party chief Shivpal Singh Yadav and SBSP chief OP Rajbhar stating "...You are free to go anywhere you feel you are getting more respect." pic.twitter.com/BR5Igvfp6N July 23, 2022

Notably, Rajbhar and Shivpal Singh Yadav had also attended a dinner hosted at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's residence in honour of Droupadi Murmu.

Rajbhar has been attacking SP over several issues in the recent months pointing towards growing discontent between the allies. On July 8, the SBSP chief had said that he was waiting for "talaq" (divorce) from the Akhilesh Yadav side, adding that he will not initiate breaking the alliance. "I will not initiate any step to end alliance with the SP. I will wait to be divorced by Akhilesh Yadav," Rajbhar had told PTI.

He said he was "still with the Samajwadi Party, but will not remain together forcefully if Akhilesh Yadav doesn't want it."

On SP supremo not inviting him for a meeting in Lucknow in support of the opposition Presidential candidate earlier, the SPSP chief had said, "Akhilesh Yadav might have forgotten about me, so he didn't call me.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel reached the national capital on Saturday and is likely to raise with the Congress leadership the issue of his differences with state minister T S Singh Deo, sources said. They said Singh Deo is also likely to be in the national capital as he is the observer for Gujarat assembly polls along with chief observer Ashok Gehlot.

Baghel is in Delhi to participate in the Congress' strategy meet ahead of Himachal Pradesh assembly elections. He is the chief observer for the assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh slated later this year where the Congress is seeking to replace the BJP from power.

Sources said Baghel will meet the Congress leadership and raise the issue of his differences with Deo, who he alleges has given the BJP a handle to attack the party.

Deo had tendered his resignation as Panchayat Minister saying no funds were made available to his department and hence no work could be undertaken on PM Awas Yojna to provide houses to the poor. This has once again brought the rift within Chhattisgarh Congress out in the open.
Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday hit out at Trinamool Congress, saying the party is "the mountain of corruption" as West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested in connection with the school jobs scam in the state.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also detained Chatterjee's close aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose premises cash amounting to Rs 21 crore was seized.

"Trinamool Congress -- TMC -- stands for The Mountain of Corruption," Thakur said in a statement. He accused West Bengal Chief Minister of remaining a "silent spectator" to scams unravelling under her rule in the state.

Referring to the allegations of kickbacks in the changes to the Delhi government excise policy, Thakur said it appeared that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Banerjee were in a race to break records of corruption. West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED on Saturday in connection with its investigation into the alleged school jobs scam.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested State Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee on Saturday (July 23, 2022) morning after continuous questioning and questioning. Around 10:30 am on Friday, a team of ED went to Naktala's house for questioning. The investigators interrogated the minister throughout the day and night. He was arrested around 9:30 am on Saturday.

He is being taken to the CGO complex and will be taken to the court today itself, where ED will demand the custody of the minister. On Saturday, the witnesses signed the arrest memo before the arrest. After that, ED investigators took him out of the house. Outside the house, Partha's lawyer told the media that the state councilor and industry minister has been arrested.

#WATCH | Enforcement Directorate (ED) team arrests former West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee from his residence in Kolkata. The team had been here since yesterday in connection with the SSC recruitment scam. pic.twitter.com/iGkfQNlF0X ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2022

On Saturday, former Education Minister (now Industries Minister) Partha Chatterjee appeared at Naktala's door. In the morning, he was woken up and interrogated in stages. ED officials stayed at the minister's house throughout the night. The minister's house was surrounded by central forces. According to sources, Parth fell ill during continuous interrogation. Doctors reached his home twice. But even that did not stop the question-period.

At the same time, the ED claimed that around 21 crore in cash was found from the house of Arpita Mukherjee, a 'closer' of Partha in South Kolkata. The two stacks were filled with bundles of 2000 and 500 rupee notes. ED claimed that 20 mobile phones were also found in that house. The recovered cash is still being counted with the help of bank staff. ED sources believe that the money is part of the bribe taken for illegal recruitment in the school.

ED claims, in the report of the committee headed by former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh and in the face of CBI interrogation, Education Secretary Manish Jain, said that all the appointments were made on the orders of the former Education Minister. He was the main controller in recruitment.

According to ED sources, it is verified by collecting and interrogating documents initially. The investigators woke up the minister at 7.30 am on Friday without any summons notice and started questioning him. After reaching Naktala's house, the investigators ordered the minister's security guards and bodyguards to switch off their mobile phones.

ED sources claimed that the same order was given to the minister as well. Parth sent two lawyers to the house in the afternoon. However, according to sources, the investigators did not allow them to be present during the interrogation. According to ED sources, at noon, Partha's family doctor accompanied the police and conducted a physical examination in front of the investigators. Later, three specialist doctors from SSKM also visited the minister. After that, the interrogation continued.
CBSE Result 2022: Social media platforms flooded with posts after the Central Education Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced the class 10th and 12th results on Friday (July 22). While many posted memes around the sudden announcement of CBSE results 2022, several students took on Twitter to express their rage against CBSE for opting for the 30:70 weightage criteria. Students and student activists have now started an online protest against CBSEs weightage criteria for Class 10th & 12th results.

#cbseresults2022 CBSE has choosen a weightage system that has done injustice with students.

This is not at all acceptable.



Request all the parents, teachers & students to unite & raise voice against this injustice with students.#CBSEstudentsWantJustice pic.twitter.com/OvTdFYhfyv  Himanshu Borah (@UrHimanshuBorah) July 22, 2022

CBSE Result 2022: What is the 30:70 weightage criteria

CBSE conducted the board exams in two terms in the academic session 2021-22 viz. Term 1 and Term 2. CBSE released the Term 1 exam results earlier in January and released the final result on Friday (July 22) giving 30% weightage to Term 1 marks and 70 % to Term 2, however, the board did not reveal the Term 2 marks obtained by the students separately.

Why students are outraged after CBSE Results 2022

Several students are expressing their disagreement and disappointment with CBSE results as they consider the 30:70 weightage criteria unjustified for the students who scored good marks in Term 1 examination but their final result 'ruined' because of the weightage criteria.

Students claim that the CBSE was denying the 30:70 weightage criteria for preparing the final results for class 10th and 12th board exams all along but opted for the same to make the CBSE Results 2022.

#CBSEstudentsWantJustice

Good Job @cbseindia29

Student friendly board? Is it?

Not even 50:50 after doing 2 years online classes lol pic.twitter.com/VRCeMcYrN9 July 22, 2022

Students demanded 'best of either term subject-wise' for CBSE Result 2022

Earlier, students were stirring online campaigning demanding the CBSE to take the best marks of either term to prepare the class 10th & 12th results. Students were also demanding clarification on the weightage criteria ahead of their results. ALSO READ- CBSE 12th Result 2022: Girls outshine boys, toppers' list and more HERE

Batch 2020-21 students got 80+%

Without giving any exams and 2021-22 batch give 2 board exam still they don't get justice,still cbse cannot give a small relief that was #BestofEitherTermSubjectWise And that was the 100% genuine demand. #ShameOncbse@cbseindia29 @AIJNSA_official  Atharva Singh (@Atharvsingh25) July 22, 2022

Furious students claim that the 2020-21 batch got good marks even after not having board exams while the 2021-22 batch just demanded the best of either term which was not considered by the CBSE. The CBSE Class 12th results were declared on Friday (July 2022) at around 10 am and the CBSE Class10th results were announced at 2 PM on Friday. 94.40% of students passed class 10th board exams while 96.29% of students were declared passed in CBSE 12th result.

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New Delhi: Amid alleged violation of rules and procedural lapses in the Arvind Kejriwal-led governments Excise Policy 2021-22, Congress on Saturday (July 23) staged a protest outside the AAP office in the city, demanding the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is the head of the excise department. Accusing Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of being "knee-deep in corruption", Delhi Congress leaders and workers gathered near the AAP office in DDU Marg and raised slogans against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Sisodia, PTI reported.

The protest comes in the wake of Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommending a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. The CBI inquiry was recommended on Delhi Chief Secretary's report filed earlier this month, showing prima facie violations of GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009 and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials were cited by PTI. The report also shows prima facie violations, including "deliberate and gross procedural lapses", to provide post-tender "undue benefits to liquor licensees", officials added.

As per Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary, seeking a probe into the corruption they had given a written complaint to Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana in June, but no action was taken. "Truth cannot be hidden and the truth is that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi is knee-deep in corruption," the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) resident was quoted as saying by PTI.

"Implementation of the revised liquor policy has violated all norms and regulations," he alleged.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur also hit out at the Delhi government on Saturday saying corrupt ministers should resign. "AAP government has set new records of corruption. You`ve sheltered the corrupt and the way in which you lied on TV yesterday and couldn`t respond to any of the BJP`s allegations shows that LG`s recommendation to MHA holds ground. Corrupt ministers should resign. A corrupt man like you has no right to be in power," Anurag Thakur told ANI.

A day earlier, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had come out in the defence of his deputy saying he is a hardcore honest man. The AAP convenor also claimed that Manish Sisodia will be framed in a made-up case and arrested in a few days. "I came to know that a case has been sent to the CBI against Manish Sisodia and they are going to arrest him in a few days. It is a completely fake case. There is not even an iota of truth in this case, Kejriwal had said in an online briefing. "This case will not hold in court. Manish is a hardcore honest man and he will walk free," he added.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: AAP government's new excise policy 2021-22 that came into force on November 17 last year has drawn severe criticism from the opposition and the industry experts in the national capital for multiple reasons. Under the new policy, the retail licences were given to private bidders for 849 vends across the city divided into 32 zones. Opposing the policy, the opposition has lodged complaint with the L-G as well as central agencies seeking a probe into it.

AAP's excise policy: The allegations against the party

Delhi LG Vinai Kumar Saxena has recommended a CBI probe based on the Delhi Chief Secretary`s July 8 report which has flagged "deliberate and gross procedural lapses to provide post tender undue benefits to liquor licensees for the year 2021-2022".

Also Read: Manish Sisodia will be arrested soon: Arvind Kejriwals BIG claim after LG Saxena calls for CBI probe into Delhi Excise Policy

The Chief Secretary report has also pointed out prima facie violations of GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009 and Delhi Excise Rules-2010.

As the Excise Department is headed by Manish Sisodia, he faces allegations of financial quid pro quo in executing major decisions around the excise policy which reportedly huge financial implications.

He also extended undue financial favours to the liquor licensees much after the tenders had been awarded and thus caused huge losses to the ex-chequer.

The Excise Department reportedly gave a waiver of Rs 144.36 crore to the licencees on the tendered licence fee citing pandemic as an excuse. The excise department under Sisodia revised the formula of calculation of rates of foreign liquor and removed the levy of import pass fee of Rs 50 per case on beer on in its November 8, 2021 order.

The AAP government is also accused of attempting to legalise "these illegal decisions" by getting the nod of cabinet as recently July 14 which is said to be in violation of laid down rules and procedures.

Excise policy: Aam Admi Party's defence

In a press briefing shortly after LG recommended a CBI probe, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed the case "false" and said that BJP is afraid of AAP's expansion.

"The whole case is fabricated. I have known Sisodia for the past 22 years. He is honest. When he became a minister the Delhi government schools were in a poor condition. He worked day and night to bring them to the level where a judge`s child and a rickshaw driver`s child sit together to study," said CM Kejriwal.

Policy that led to liquor crisis

Delhi residents are facing the shortage of liquor of their choice as the capital city is witnessing shortage across various categories at many outlets in the city. Even some premium category whiskies are not available in below one litre quantity at various outlets.

On being asked about the reason behind such shortage, the outlet keepers have one word to say "supply chain problem". Among many other reasons, one important factor causing shortage is the new policy which has led to the sharp decline in the number of wine shops being operated currently in the market.

"Only around 464 shops are in operation currently in the market whereas the city like Delhi must have around 850 outlets to serve the residents", said an industry expert on condition of anonymity.

What an industry expert says

The industry expert says that policy was good, however on ground level, the implementation was not good. "I believe that the Excise policy was and is fundamentally good. It takes a different and progressive look at alcohol sale and consumption befitting a modern metropolis that Delhi is. However, I think that implementation on ground fell short. It was too slow, in patches and unable to break away from historical bureaucratic apathy towards trade. In its concept, the size of zones is too big", Vinod Giri, Director General of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) told IANS.

Giri said that the industry has repeatedly raised the matter of keeping zone sizes small to reduce financial stakes of licensees, improve loss bearing capacity if any, and prevent monopolies. "We also have suggested more simplicity and flexibility in operational issues such as license ownership changes. I am of view that with some tweaking the policy can deliver what it was meant to - positive dividend for all stakeholders", Giri told IANS.

What are Opposition's claims?

Union minister and New Delhi BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Friday alleged the violations by Delhi government in the Delhi liquor policy.

Addressing a press conference, Lekhi showed documents saying that they "exposed" discrepancies by the government in giving waivers to liquor firms.

Lekhi claimed, "firms were given a waiver of Rs 144.36 crore on 14 July 2022 without the Cabinet`s nod."

She further claimed that in another instance, a company was returned its Rs 30 crore earnest deposit money without following the due procedure.

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The agenda of bilateral and multilateral cooperation involving Georgia and Bulgaria, and prospects of further deepening the traditionally friendly relations between the states were discussed on Saturday in an introductory meeting between the Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili and Vesselin Valkanov, the Bulgarian Ambassador to the country, Trend reports citing Agenda.

The officials discussed existing trade and economic relations and highlighted Bulgarias steady presence among Georgias top 10 trade partner countries over the recent years, Georgias Foreign Ministry said.

The role of the Black Sea region in security and for cooperation in the fields of transport, communications and energy was also noted by the officials.

The sides stressed the importance of the support of Georgias partners to the countrys Euro-Atlantic aspirations, against the background of the changed security environment in the region and the challenges in the international agenda in the wake of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The officials also welcomed the European Council's decision on granting the European perspective to Georgia, and highlighted the countrys irreversible progress on its Euro-Atlantic integration path.

Darchiashvili congratulated the Bulgarian diplomat on his appointment and wished him success in his work in Georgia, while Valkanov reaffirmed Bulgarias unwavering support for Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as its European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
New Delhi: Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on Saturday paid tributes to freedom fighters, Lokmanya Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad on their birth anniversary. He also shared an excerpt of Mann Ki Baat in which he had spoken about Lokmanya Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad a few years ago. In a series of tweets, the Prime Minister said, "I bow to two greats sons of Maa Bharti, Lokmanya Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad on their birth anniversary. These two stalwarts epitomise courage and patriotism. Sharing what I had spoken about them during #MannKiBaat a few years ago."

I bow to two greats sons of Maa Bharti, Lokmanya Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad on their birth anniversary. These two stalwarts epitomise courage and patriotism. Sharing what I had spoken about them during #MannKiBaat a few years ago. pic.twitter.com/GuhXVxWZfa  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 23, 2022

In the video shared by PM Modi, he can be heard saying that many great persons have dedicated their lives to the nation....one such personality was Lokmanya Tilak who left indelible marks in the hearts of Indians. He also shared snapshots of his Mumbai visits, where he visited the Lokmanya Seva Sangh, which has a close association with Lokmanya Tilak.

One of the everlasting legacies of Lokmanya Tilak is the large scale Ganesh Utsavs, which ignited a spirit of cultural consciousness among the people. During one of my Mumbai visits, I visited the Lokmanya Seva Sangh, which has a close association with Lokmanya Tilak. pic.twitter.com/AwtYpkpc1E  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 23, 2022

"One of the everlasting legacies of Lokmanya Tilak is the large-scale Ganesh Utsav, which ignited a spirit of cultural consciousness among the people. During one of my Mumbai visits, I visited the Lokmanya Seva Sangh, which has a close association with Lokmanya Tilak."

Also Read: Chandra Shekhar Azad birth anniversary: Powerful quotes by the freedom fighter that will change your life!

Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born on in 1856 and Chandra Shekhar Azad in 1906. Tilak is well known for promoting Swaraj, meaning self-rule across the nation during the British regime. He also fearlessly took over the Britishers with his pen and started two weeklies `Kesari` and `Mahratta`. Chandrashekhar Azad was inspired to fight for the country from a very young age and was just 15 when he participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement. He's famous for his slogan, "We will face the bullets of enemies. We were free and we will remain free."

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Karnataka KCET Result 2022: Following the announcement of CBSE Result 2022, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) has issued a notification for the students who have applied for the Karnataka UGCET 2022 and asked them to upload their CBSE 12th Result 2022 on KEA's official website - cetonline.karnataka.gov.in. The last date to apply to upload the CBSE Class 12 result on the KEA official site is July 25, 2022.

The Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2022 results are likely to be released soon at the official website kea.kar.nic.in, or cetonline.karnataka.gov.in. The KEA will announce the KCET result 2022 only online, with no physical copies being sent to candidates who took the exams. ALSO READ: CBSE 12th Result 2022: Girls outshine boys, toppers' list and more HERE

Here's how to check KCET Result 2022

Once released, students can check their Karnataka CET 2022 result following the simple steps given below-

Go to the official website of the Karnataka Examination Authority, at kea.kar.nic.in Click on 'KCET Result 2022' on the homepage To log in, enter all the required credentials and submit Your KCET results will now display on the screen Download the same and take a printout of the same for future references

Every year, the KCET is held for candidates seeking admission to Karnataka state colleges for engineering, pharmacy, agriculture, veterinary, and other technical courses. The Karnataka exam authority held the KCET exam this year from June 16 to 18. It should be noted that the KCET 2022 results will not be released until the CBSE Class 12 Term 2 and ICSE Board Results have been released.

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CBSE 12th Result 2022: Girls outshine boys, toppers' list and more HERE
Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal's Bihar unit chief Jagadanand Singh on Saturday triggered another raging controversy after he drew a comparison between BJPs ideological wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the extremist group Popular Front of India (PFI) saying that their (PFI) organisation is like RSS as they both want to serve their respective communities. In what is being seen as a highly contentious remark, Singh, while talking to ANI, said, Their (PFI) organisation is like RSS. They also want to serve their community but why do you call them anti-nationals?... Whenever dangerous persons were arrested by the security forces as Pakistani agents, all of them were related to RSS and Hindu community.

Watch the RJD leader!

#WATCH | Their (PFI) organisation is like RSS.They also want to serve their community but why do you call them anti-nationals?...Whenever dangerous persons were arrested by the security forces as Pakistani agents, all of them were related to RSS & Hindu community: Bihar RJD chief pic.twitter.com/SWOlMf439T  ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2022

The conversations around the banned outfit began recently after Bihar police filed a complaint against PFI for allegedly planning to create disturbance during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rallies in the state, has been arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Uttar Pradesh Police. It was also alleged that the members of the outfit were being trained by the anti-nation terror organisations.

NIA takes over PFI case

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the investigation of Bihar`s Phulwari Sharif case having links with extremist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI). The NIA is in the process of taking over the case after it received MHA`s order to probe the "terror module" case recently unearthed by Bihar Police with the arrest of three people for "their links with" PFI and their plans to indulge in "anti-India" activities.

In the raids carried out by the Bihar police in Phulwari Sharif, many objectionable documents were recovered. One such document titled `Vision 2047 India` documented ways to launch an armed attack on the Indian State by Indian Muslims aided by Islamic nations like Turkey.
Maharashtra Politics: Delhi wants to destroy Shiv Sena, Its shocking for the people of Maharashtra, said party chief Uddhav Thackerays close aide and former state minister Sanjay Raut in a searing criticism to the Election Commission of India. Rauts statements came as the poll body asked both the factions of Shiv Sena- Eknath Shinde camp and Uddhav Thackeray camp- to prove the majority in order to assume control of the party. Slamming the central bodys ask, Raut told ANI, Balasaheb Thackeray formed the party 56 years ago to promote Hindutva and EC is now raising questions on his organisation. Delhi wants to destroy our party. Uddhav Thackeray is the only leader of Shiv Sena today.

The Election Commission of India asks both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to submit documentary evidence to prove that they have the majority members in the Shiv Sena.



(File photos) pic.twitter.com/HT4geWExXP  ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2022

Earlier today, the Election Commission of India asked both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to submit documentary evidence to prove that they have the majority members in the Shiv Sena to assume control over the election symbol of the political outfit.

This comes as Eknath Shinde, who won the Maharashtra assembly floor test approved by the Supreme Court with the majority, approached EC to claim control of the Shiv Sena symbol bow and arrow. The Shinde camp says that they have a clear majority in the legislative wing.

The ECI also sent to the Thackeray camp the letter written to them (EC) by the Shinde faction and the Thackeray camp`s letter to the Shinde faction and sought replies from both the camps by August 8.

Maharashtra politics: What are the documents asked by EC

Sources in ECI informed that the two sides have been asked to submit documents, including letters of support from the legislative and organisational wings of the party and the written statements of the rival factions. They said the requirement was made in line with Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

Meanwhile, Elections are due in several civic bodies in Maharashtra, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which would indicate which Sena faction gets the popular support.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: After NDA's Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu secured a comfortable win over Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, to become India's first tribal person to be the President, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress' decision to abstain from voting in Vice President poll has created a stir in the Opposition camp.

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said the Congress should view the Mamata Banerjee-led party as "equal partners" as he objected to the way the joint Opposition candidate for the vice presidential poll was chosen. O'Brien was quoted by PTI, "We have the highest regard for Margaret Alva and we respect her legacy. However, we have opposed the manner and method in which the candidate was decided."

The Trinamool Congress (TMC), which skipped the Opposition meeting to choose their vice-presidential election candidate, has alleged that they were informed of the choice barely 20 minutes before the press conference to announce the name was to be held. O'Brien, the leader of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in the Rajya Sabha said the TMC had announced on July 16 that it will take a decision on the vice-president candidate in its meeting on July 21. The meeting of the Opposition parties to choose their joint candidate for the vice-presidential polls was convened by Congress. It was during the meeting that attempts were made to contact Banerjee and other TMC MPs, including O'Brien, Opposition leaders said.

Margaret Alva, the Opposition candidate for the Vice Presidential poll scheduled on August 6, on Friday termed the Trinamool Congress' decision to abstain from voting as disappointing, adding that this is not the time for 'whataboutery'. "TMC's decision to abstain from voting in the VP election is disappointing. This isn't the time for 'whataboutery', ego or anger. This is the time for courage, leadership & unity. I believe, @MamataOfficial, who is the epitome of courage, will stand with the opposition," Alva tweeted.

The Trinamool Congress has that its MPs in both the Houses of the Parliament will abstain from voting in the poll to elect the next Vice President of India. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, which was attended by 33 out of the 35 Trinamool MPs.

"Each member was given the opportunity to present his/her views in front of the Chief Minister. Thereafter, 85 per cent of the MPs present at the meeting voiced their view in favour of abstaining from voting in the Vice Presidential poll," Trinamool's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee told mediapersons after the meeting.

He said while the question of supporting NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar does not arise, Trinamool has strong objections to the opposition parties announcing the candidature of Margaret Alva as their candidate without consulting the Trinamool leadership or Mamata Banerjee.

Leaders of Opposition parties, however, contended that they were in touch with Mamata Banerjee on the issue. "Even during the meeting (of opposition parties) Sharad Pawar called up Mamata Banerjee and was told that she is in an official meeting online. Then Congress leader Jairam Ramesh spoke to some MPs, including Derek O'Brien, and they all sought two to three days to get back with a decision. We were given to understand that they will support joint Opposition candidate Margaret Alva. Their reason for abstaining is not true," CPI leader D Raja said.

Also Read: 'I don't have the power to convince Mamata Banerjee' - Why Amit Shah said THIS

He wondered why the TMC abstained from the vice-presidential election when the NDA candidate was Jagadeep Dhankhar who, a West Bengal governor, was in constant battle with the Mamata Banerjee-led party. "Was the fight of the TMC with the then Governor only a shadow fight? It is Mamata Banerjee who has to justify the message that she is giving out by abstaining. She has to justify her political plank of moving away from the Opposition parties. She is the reason that the cracks in opposition unity are showing. She has to answer many questions," Raja said.

(With inputs from A
Ranchi: Agenda-driven debates and kangaroo courts being run by the media are detrimental to the health of the democracy, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said on Saturday. Delivering the inaugural lecture instituted in the memory of Justice Satya Brata Sinha here, CJI Ramana said media trials affect the fair functioning and independence of the judiciary and criticised "concerted campaigns" in media, particularly on social media, against judges. He asked the media not to overstep and invite interference, either from the government or from the courts.

Reacting to the remarks, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, speaking separately, called for introspection by media houses of their functioning.

At the National Broadcasting Day function at All India Radio in Delhi, Thakur said Ramana's remarks raised questions about the credibility of the media. "We need to introspect whether we have crossed the 'Lakshman Rekha' while delivering news," Thakur said.

The CJI also raised the issue of judges not being provided with security cover after they retire, unlike politicians and other public representatives.

ALSO READ: Space for opposition diminishing, laws being passed without detailed deliberation, scrutiny: CJI NV Ramana

"Media trials cannot be a guiding factor in deciding cases. Of late, we see the media running kangaroo courts at times on issues even experienced judges find difficult to decide. Ill-informed and agenda-driven debates on issues involving justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy," he said.

"Biased views being propagated by media are affecting the people, weakening democracy, and harming the system. In this process, justice delivery gets adversely affected. By overstepping and breaching your responsibility, you are taking our democracy two steps backward," he added.

Print media still has a certain degree of accountability, he said, adding that electronic media has zero accountability as what it shows vanishes into thin air.

At times, there are concerted campaigns in media, particularly on social media, against judges, he said.

Owing to the frequent transgressions and consequent social unrest, there is a growing demand for stricter media regulations and accountability, CJI Ramana said.

"In fact, looking at recent trends, it is best for the media to self-regulate and measure their words. You should not overstep and invite interference, either from the government or from the courts. Judges may not react immediately.

"Please don't mistake it to be a weakness or helplessness. When liberties are exercised responsibly, within their domains, there will be no necessity of placing reasonable or proportionate external restrictions," he said.

Asking media, particularly electronic and social media, to behave responsibly, CJI Ramana said the power should be used to educate the people and energise the nation in a collective endeavor to build a progressive, prosperous and peaceful India.

He also emphasised the need to strengthen the judiciary, saying an increasing number of physical attacks on judges are being witnessed.

"Can you imagine, a judge who has served on the bench for decades, putting hardened criminals behind the bar, once he retires, loses all the protection that came with the tenure."

"Judges have to live in the same society as the people that they have convicted, without any security or assurance of safety," he noted.

"Politicians, bureaucrats, police officers and other public representatives are often provided with security even after their retirement owing to the sensitiveness of their jobs. Ironically, judges are not extended similar protection," he said.

CJI Ramana said judges spend sleepless nights rethinking their decisions.

"There exists a misconception in the minds of the people that judges stay in ultimate comfort, work only from 10 am to 4 pm and enjoy their holidays. Such a narrative is untrue... When false narratives are created about the supposed easy life led by judges, it is difficult to swallow," he said.

A judge in a modern democracy cannot be defined as one who merely states the law, he said, maintaining that a judge bridges the gap between social reality and law, besides protecting the spirit and the values of Constitution.

"It is courts and judges who balance formal democracy with substantive democracy...With legal jurisprudence growing leaps and bounds, the role of a judge has undergone sea-change in all respects," he said.

CJI Ramana said one of the biggest challenges before the judiciary at present is prioritising the matters for adjudication as judges cannot turn a blind eye to social realities.

"I shall not fail to place on record my worries about the future of judiciary in this country... The burden on an already fragile judicial infrastructure is increasing by the day.

"There have been a few knee-jerk reactions in augmenting infrastructure... However, I haven't heard of any concrete plan to equip the judiciary to meet the challenges of the foreseeable future, leave alone a long-term vision for the century and ahead," he said. "...It is only with the coordinated efforts by the judiciary and the executive that this alarming issue of infrastructure can be addressed," he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested former West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board recruitment scam. The arrest comes following the raids by the central probe agency where it seized crores in cash from the premises of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.

While the ED's search operation continued throughout Friday, the biggest surprise came in the evening. After the recovery of Rs 21 crore from Arpita Mukherjee's house, a series of questions started emerging. With the naming of Arpita Mukherjee - who has also been a model and an actress - the masses' interest was further piqued. And now, a new name is coming to the surface - that of a Monalisa Das. So who is she, let's find out.

Partha Chatterjee arrest: Who is Monalisa Das?

According to various sources, Monalisa is also known to be close to Partha Chatterjee. ED has traced at least 10 flats in Monalisa's name. She joined Kazi Nazrul University in Asansol in 2014. She is currently heading the Bengali department at that university.

According to sources, questions were raised about the appointment of Monalisa as a professor. She allegedly got the job through influence and many suspected Partha Chatterjee had a special role behind that appointment. Currently, if you check the website of Kazi Nazrul University, you will see that the name Monalisa Das appears as the head of the Bengali department. Monalisa Das, who is also under ED scanner, has a house in Santiniketan. While it is not yet clear how her relationship with Partha Chatterjee is right now, questions are being raised as to how a professor has so many flats in her name.

Meanwhile, cash worth Rs 21 crore was recovered from Arpita Mukherjee's Haridebpur flat. That picture of stacks of cash has already been released by ED. According to the sources, Arpita is close to Partha Chatterjee. Apart from cash, 20 mobile phones were also recovered from her house. Now, the ED is trying to find out how Arpita or Monalisa amassed such huge wealth and properties, and how and if Partha Chatterjee is behind all this.
Kolkata:

Senior Bengal cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee, who was arrested by the ED in the SSC corruption case, is undergoing treatment at the ICCU of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata. He was examined by expert doctors of nephrology, cardiology, and endocrinology in cabin number 18 of intensive coronary care unit. According to sources, Partha is being admitted to the cabin of the cardiology department and is being treated. A team of six doctors has been formed to treat Partha.

Mamata Banerjee's minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from Naktala's house. It was 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. Partha Chatterjee was brought to SSKM Hospital today. It was half past seven at night. He got out of the car on the hospital premises and was taken to the emergency department in a wheelchair. Partha Chatterjee was taken to the Cardio Emergency Department there. After that, he was admitted to that department.

The arrested minister was taken to Joka ESI Hospital on Saturday morning. After the medical examination, the ED took Partha to the CGO complex. Later in the afternoon, the minister was produced before the Bankshal court. Court orders Partha to ED custody for two days. During the hearing, Partha's lawyer raised the issue of his client's physical ailment. A request was made to admit Partha to the hospital. When Partha's lawyer pleaded in the court to take his client to SSKM citing his physical ailments, the ED's counsel countered with a request to take him to Alipore Command Hospital or Joka ESI Hospital. After hearing the arguments of both parties, the judge directed Partha to be taken to SSKM Hospital. After this, Partha was taken to SSKM hospital from the court.

ED officials raided Naktala's house of Partha around 7:30 am on Friday. After that, as time progressed, the mercury of the drama increased. After interrogating the minister for 27 hours continuously, ED arrested Partha at 10 am on Saturday and took him in the car. The ED officials then diverted the vehicle to Joka ESI Hospital on the way and took Partha Salt Lake to the CGO complex (where the ED office is located). The minister's health was examined there as he felt ill. It is to be noted that during the interrogation for 27 hours, it was known through the sources that Parth fell ill a couple of times. Doctors from SSKM Hospital were seen entering Parthar's house on Friday afternoon.
New Delhi: Following the demise of the seer who self-immolated to mark the protest over illegal stone mining in Rajasthan, Congress MLA Bharat Singh Kundanpur has urged Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot "to sack the state`s Mining Minister Pramod Bhaya if the mining mafia in the state is to be brought under control".

"There is a saying of Hadoli, "Kankh mein Chhora village mein dhindora". The big mining mafia is the mineral minister himself. A record of illegal mining has been created by him. In 12 other districts, the minister`s been appointing officials so as to carry out illegal activities of forests, lands, rivers and drains. Many people have lost their lives due to the minister`s operation," Bharat Singh wrote in his letter addressed to the Chief Minister of his own party.

Another Congress MLA Wajib Ali also expressed his concern over the Bharatpur incident and said, "The state should have taken a note on the situation earlier. The sadhu had warned already and then attempted self-immolation."

Wajib Ali said that self-immolation by the Sadhu shows "negligence on part of the administration, especially when he had already been given a warning. He should have been pacified, spoken to , but I agree that whatever happened was really wrong."

The seers had been protesting over stone mining "Sadhu Vijay Das passed away as he`d been sitting on dharna for over 500 days but there was no hearing on issue of illegal mining. In Congress rule, the administration became silent. CM is supporting mining mafia to save his seat," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bharatpur, Ranjeeta Kohli said.

The sadhu, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital, said the officials on Saturday.

"Sadhu Vijay Das died at around 2.30 am in the hospital where he was undergoing treatment after his self-immolation attempt. The post-mortem has been scheduled for 9 am," informed Sub Divisional Officer, Sanjay Goyal.

Earlier on July 21, his condition was said to be stable. The incident was reported in Deeg on July 20 when Sadhu Vijay Das attempted self-immolation amid protests over illegal mining in the area.

The city officials had rushed to the spot to put out the fire and rescue Das. The locals and sadhus had been demanding a ban on the mines for a long time.

The administration also assured the sadhus that mines will be shifted from the area and informed them about the state government`s plans to transform the vicinity into a religious tourist spot.

"These mines will be shifted and about 2,500 people who will be unemployed as a result, will be employed somewhere else...The state govt intends to make it (stone mining area) into a religious tourism spot," Ranjan added.

On Tuesday a sadhu climbed atop a mobile tower in the district`s Deeg on Tuesday morning to protest stone mining in the area. The man was persuaded to come down eventually.
New Delhi: West Bengal minister and senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim said the Mamata Banerjee-led party is watching the situation on the arrest of state Industry and Commerce Minister Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday (July 23) in connection with alleged school jobs scam. Hakim said TMC will await the courts decision on the SSC recruitment scam and take action accordingly. We're watching the situation and have faith in judiciary. TMC will not tolerate any discrepancy or malpractice in party or in govt. TMC will act after the judiciary comes out with its verdict, the TMC leader was quoted as saying by ANI.

Further, accusing ED of being politically influenced by the BJP, Hakim said, In today's situation, it seems like ED is being run by BJP. If Suvendu Adhikari is saying that a lot of things are going to be found in the future even before ED is giving any statement. It means that ED is politically influenced by BJP.

We're watching the situation & have faith in judiciary. TMC will not tolerate any discrepancy or malpractice in party or in govt. TMC will act after the judiciary comes out with its verdict: TMC leader Firhad Hakim on the arrest of Partha Chatterjee by ED in SSC recruitment scam pic.twitter.com/3GqI8XMReJ July 23, 2022

TMC leader Partha Chatterjee, who was the state education minister from 2014 to 2021 when the alleged irregularities took place, was arrested after around 26 hours of questioning at his residence. His close aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose property Rs 21 crore in cash was seized during a raid on Friday, was also arrested by ED.

Chatterjee was produced before a judge in Bankshall court in Kolkata and sent to ED custody for two days. When asked if he tried to contact West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he told reporters, "I tried, but could not connect (to her)."

Chatterjee's counsel told mediapersons that he will be produced before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Monday.

BJP has upped its attack on the ruling TMC dispensation in Bengal, calling it a "government of corrupts". Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged, "The TMC government has crossed all limits of misgovernance and corruption. The level of corruption in the state is just shocking and unprecedented. The TMC government is no longer a government for the people, it is rather the government of corrupts. The entire government is knee-deep in corruption."

(With agency inputs)
Italian outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi outlined a series of directives for members of his government to follow in the wake of his resignation, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

Draghi resigned after 17 months as prime minister on Thursday, though he will continue to be Italy's head of government until Sept. 25, when a new parliamentary election is held.

Until then, Draghi instructed his government to remain engaged in dealing with current affairs of state, including the "implementation of laws and decisions already taken by parliament and the adoption of urgent acts" related to unforeseen national emergencies.

He said that the Council of Ministers will continue to meet periodically and legislators will continue to carry out technical duties, such as converting bills into laws, as they did before Draghi's resignation.

Draghi also said that Italy's participation in multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Council of Europe, the Group of Seven, and the Group of 20, will continue as before, though any binding agreements will be subject to Draghi's approval.

However, Draghi said that no new laws or legislative proposals will be considered until a new parliament is elected, unless required by European Union law.

Appointments of new officials to government vacancies will be limited to those that are "strictly necessary" and cannot be postponed until the end of the caretaker government's mandate, he added.
New Delhi: Kashmiri Separatist leader Yasin Malik, who is currently lodged at cell No. 7 of the Tihar Jail, has gone on a hunger strike, officials said on Saturday. "Malik has been on hunger strike since Friday morning," a senior jail official confirmed to IANS. Malik was convicted in connection with a 2017 terror funding case and sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25 by an NIA special court. When asked the reason behind his hunger strike, the official refrained from divulging any details further. However, prison sources said that Malik is protesting against the agencies that are investigating his cases.



"Malik is alleging that his case is not being investigated properly, hence gone on an indefinite hunger strike," the sources said. Notably, Malik is not just separated from the outside world, he is even kept alone inside the prison, away from nearly 13,000 inmates there.



Jail No. 7, where Malik is lodged, has been always in the limelight as it has housed several high-profile prisoners, including former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, former Union Minister A. Raja, Sahara head Subrata Roy, Christian Michel, among several others. The Court in its order had awarded two life sentences and five punishments of 10 years of 'Rigorous Imprisonment' each to the convict. Rigorous imprisonment means the confinement of the offender in a manner that increases the hardship of the jail term based upon the nature of the offence by subjecting the offender to special arrangements in the jail.

Also read: BIG trouble for Mamata Banerjee, ED arrests Partha Chatterjee after 27 hours of interrogation

Despite Court orders, Malik was not given any work inside the prison. "He won't be assigned work at all due to security reasons," a top prison official told IANS, adding the work is assigned subject to security concerns and the decision is taken as per jail rules.



Pertinently, a few months back, another high-profile prisoner, Sukesh Chandrashekhar, protested against the prison authorities to meet his wife more than two times a month and subsequently twice went on hunger strike for 10 days and then again for nine days in the month of May. The top prison official informed that Sukesh was demanding to arrange a meeting with his wife Leena Maria Paul who is currently lodged in cell no. 6 of Tihar Jail. For this misconduct, a jail punishment was also made against Sukesh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday (July 23, 2022) demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack Union Minister Smriti Irani, alleging that an "illegal bar" was being run in Goa by her daughter, a charge rejected by her.

In a statement, the lawyer of Irani's daughter, Kirat Nagra, said his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa and has not received any show cause notice from any Authority whatsoever as alleged.

Nagra said various "erroneous, frivolous , malicious and defamatory social media posts being made by various vested quarters trying to settle political scores with our client's mother, the renowned politician Smriti Irani each of which are predicated on blatant falsities".

Terming the charges "baseless", the lawyer said, "It is unfortunate that they have resorted to spreading a false propaganda only to sensationalize a non issue without ascertaining true facts and with a predetermined objective of defaming Our Client for solely being the daughter of a political leader."

Noting that it is a "very serious issue", the Congress also shared a copy of the show cause notice given to the bar, and said the excise official who gave the notice is reportedly being transferred after pressure from authorities.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters that there are serious charges of corruption against Irani's family and her daughter is allegedly running a restaurant in Goa, in which a bar is functioning on a "fake licence".

"The licence by Smriti Irani's daughter is in the name of a person who died in May 2021, and the licence was taken in June 2022 in Goa. But the person in whose name the licence is, had died 13 months ago. This is illegal," he told reporters.

He said according to Goa rules, a restaurant can get only one bar licence but this restaurant has got two bar licences.

"We demand from the prime minister that Smriti Irani should be immediately sacked as a minister from the Union cabinet. You owe it to this country, to the youth of this country," he said.

To a question on Irani attacking Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader said "There cannot be any comparison between something as noble as running a newspaper and something like running an illegal bar in Goa".

"Is this being done without her knowledge and was the licence given without her influence," he asked.

He also alleged that bouncers of private security have been deployed around the restaurant in Goa, to keep the media out of bounds.

"We want to know from you under whose influence is this being done. Who is behind this illegal work," he asked.
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda has constituted a high-level committee to investigate the death of Sadhu Vijay Das, who committed self-immolation in protest against illegal mining in Bharatpur. This committee will visit the incident site in Bharatpur on Sunday to collect information. The report containing the findings will be soon handed over to Nadda.

The party`s National General Secretary and state in-charge Arun Singh, MP Swami Sumedhanand Saraswati, former Union Minister and MP Satyapal Singh, former Director General of Police of Uttar Pradesh and MP Brijlal Yadav have been included in the investigation committee.

The seer, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital.

The incident was reported in Deeg on July 20 when Sadhu Vijay Das attempted self-immolation amid protests over illegal mining in the area.

The city officials had rushed to the spot to put out the fire and rescue Das. The locals and sadhus had been demanding a ban on the mines for a long time.

The administration also assured the sadhus that mines will be shifted from the area and informed them about the state government`s plans to transform the vicinity into a religious tourist spot.
New Delhi: In the Tamil Nadu student suicide case, the body of the deceased class 12th girl was handed over to her family. It was then taken to her native village in Cuddalore district for last rites. Earlier on July 23 morning, Tamil Nadu police had been stationed outside Kallakurichi Government Medical College and Hospital. The tragic death of the student had caused anger and resentment at the school leading to vandalism and violence on July 17.

According to reports, the girl had purportedly jumped to her death from the terrace of her hostel at a private school after alleged torture by teachers.Violence broke out in parts of Tamil Nadu after the Class 12 student jumped off her hostel building on July 13. She was allegedly tortured by a teacher, as stated in the girl`s suicide note. Meanwhile, a notice has been issued to all private nursery, matriculation and CBSE schools that remained closed on Monday following violent protests over the death of the schoolgirl. Relatives of the girl and people belonging to her village in the Cuddalore district have been protesting outside the school.

Also Read: Violence in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi over student's suicide, details here

Earlier, protesters clashed with the police and set several buses on fire. Her family alleges that two teachers had mentally harassed and humiliated her. Chief minister MK Stalin, addressed the media on the incident and called the violence `worrying` and urged the protesters to maintain peace. Promising justice for the Class 12th student, Stalin said, "I have asked the DGP and the home secretary to travel to Kallakurichi. Accused will be punished when the police probe over the school girl`s death ends."

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 had moved to the Supreme Court, seeking an amendment of the Madras High Court order on the second autopsy.

(With ANI inputs)

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Kolkata: On Saturday, former Education Minister of Bengal, Partha Chatterjee, was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) after more than 26-hour of interrogation. Not just Partha, model and actress, Arpita Mukherjee, who is known to be close to him, has also been arrested. ED officers came to Partha's Naktala house at 7.30 am yesterday (Friday, July 22) morning and today at 10 am, the ED officers led Partha out.

Earlier, it was being said that Partha Chatterjee will be taken to the ED office at the CGO complex. But it appears now that Partha is not being taken to the ED office and is likely to be taken directly to court after medical tests.

Partha Chatterjee has been arrested in connection with an investigation into the teacher recruitment scam, an official of the agency said.

Chatterjee, who was the state education minister when the scam took place, was arrested after around 26 hours of grilling in connection with the probe. "He was not cooperating with our officers who were questioning him since Friday morning. He will be produced before a court during the day," the ED official told PTI. ED has also detained Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee, after Rs 21 crore in cash was seized from her property, he added.

Who is Arpita Mukherjee?

Arpita Mukherjee has been a close aide of Partha Mukehrjee. She is an actress and model too. Arpita has acted Odisha film industry. She has also worked in many Tamil films. She has acted as a co-star in Bengali films including Mama-Bhange, Partner. According to sources, she has been promoting Naktala Puja for many years. She was also seen campaigning with Partha Chatterjee at Behala West Centre. She has been living in a luxury flat in South Kolkata for the past few years, as per reports.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Six persons died after a truck ran over a group of kanwar devotees from Madhya Pradesh in Uttar Pradeshs Hathras on Saturday (July 23, 2022) morning. Rajeev Krishna, Additional Director General of Police, Agra Zone informed that the incident took place at around 2.15 am and that the devotees from Gwalior were en route to their home disrict from Haridwar when a truck ran over them.

5 dead, 1 seriously injured after seven Kanwar devotees were moved down by a truck around 2.15 am today, at Sadabad PS in Hathras. They were en route to Gwalior from Haridwar with their Kanwars, said Rajeev Krishna. Later one person who was injured died during treatment, which pushed the death toll of the incident to 6.

Hathras, UP | 5 dead, 1 seriously injured after seven Kanwar devotees were moved down by a truck around 2.15 am today, at Sadabad PS in Hathras. They were en route to Gwalior from Haridwar with their Kanwars: Rajeev Krishna, ADG, Agra Zone pic.twitter.com/k42iRneLrR July 23, 2022

The official said that the probe into the incident in underway and they have received information about the truck driver.

Meanwhile, the educational institutions in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, including all the schools and other institutions will be shut down on July 2022 and July 26, 2022, on account of the Kanwar Yatra taking place in Sawan (Shrawan). The officials have said that on both days, that is July 25 and 26, the educational institutions will not be open as pilgrims will be out on the streets to go to the temple to offer prayers and to avoid traffic jams schools are to be closed.

Even schools in Haridwar and Meerut have also been closed due to the Kanwar Yatra. The Haridwar Schools will remain closed till July 26, 2022 and Meerut schools will be closed till July 27, 2022.
New Delhi: The Opposition's vice presidential candidate Margaret Alva Saturday described the prevailing differences in the non-BJP camp as a "family quarrel", and asserted they are making efforts to unite for the 2024 challenge. The Opposition was clear it does not want a one-party rule and that the Constitution has to be defended and democratic institutions protected, said 80-year-old Alva, who faces an uphill task in the August 6 vice presidential poll in which she is up against ruling NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar.

In an interview to PTI, the former governor said the "tragedy" of today's democratic system is that the mandate of people does not prevail and muscle-power, money power, and threats change the composition of the elected framework.

ALSO READ: Respect Margaret Alvas legacy but: TMCs Derek O'Brien on Opposition Vice Presidential nominee

Responding to frequent disruptions in Parliament, the multi-term parliamentarian said it is happening because the Chair is "unable" to work out compromises whereby the Opposition's point of view is considered.

ALSO READ: On TMCs decision to abstain from VP polls, Opposition pick Margaret Alva says not the 'time for ego'

She wondered how a democracy could function when the government's slogan seemingly is 'my way or no way'.

On dynastic politics, Alva said there is nothing wrong in children of politicians coming in but they have to win elections and the confidence of people.

Alva also said she is "aghast" at the Trinamool Congress' decision to abstain from the vice presidential poll as the party's chief, Mamata Banerjee, has been leading the movement to unite the Opposition. There is no way she can help the BJP win, Alva said. "There's enough time for Mamata Banerjee to change her mind."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Joint opposition candidate for vice presidential election Margaret Alva on Saturday met with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and sought his support for her candidature. They exchanged pleasantries during the meeting and discussed the current political atmosphere of the nation as well, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said in a statement after the meeting.

The meeting between Alva and Kejriwal concluded "with both leaders expressing mutual respect and acknowledgement", the party added.

"Margaret Alva had come to meet the AAP national convenor to seek the party's support in the forthcoming election for the vice president," it said.

Delhi | Opposition's Vice-Presidential candidate Margaret Alva meets AAP convener & Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pic.twitter.com/INDmKhYp9H  ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2022

Kejriwal did not attend the meeting of 17 opposition parties held at Sharad Pawar's residence last Sunday which decided on Alva's candidature. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave it a miss as well.

ALSO READ: 'Enough time for Mamata Banerjee to change her mind: Opposition Vice Presidential nominee Margaret Alva

A former governor and Congress veteran, Alva has sought support of both Banerjee and Kejriwal.

The AAP had supported joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential election. "The AAP's political affairs committee will soon meet under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal to decide the party's stand on the vice presidential election," the party statement added.
New Delhi: West Bengal Commerce and Industries Department minister and TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday morning. The West Bengal minister was arrested by ED after being questioned for over 27 hours in connection with an alleged recruitment scam in state-run schools. Earlier, on Friday, the agency had detained his close aide Arpita Mukherjee after Rs 21 crore have been recovered from her house during the raid.

ED is currently probing the recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) and West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).

Partha Chatterjee, who is currently holding the position of states Commerce and Industries Department minister, is also the West Bengal General Secretary of the All India Trinamool Congress and holds the portfolio of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

Earlier, Chatterjee has served the state as the Education Minister in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet from 2014 till 2021.

Chatterjee was elected as an MLA from Behala Paschim on a Trinamool Congress ticket and has been holding the South Kolkata seat since 2001.

He was also the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from 2006 to 2011, before Mamata Banerjee's party formed the government in 2011.

In 2016, Chatterjee became the Minister-in-Charge of Higher Education and School Education Department, West Bengal Government and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Public Enterprises, Information Technology and Electronics, during Mamatas governments second term.

Additionally, Chatterjee is the chairman of Naktala Udayan Durga Puja Committee in Kolkata, which is famous for its themed pandals and draws lakhs of pandal hoppers in Puja.

On the education front, Chatterjee completed his MBA from Calcutta University.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday (July 23, 2022) asked the rival factions of the Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, to submit documents in support of their claims on the election symbol of the political outfit by proving that they have the majority members in the Shiv Sena. The ECI also sent to the Thackeray camp the letter written to them (EC) by the Shinde faction and Thackeray camp`s letter to the Shinde faction and sought replies from both the camps by August 8.

Sources in ECI informed that the two sides have been asked to submit documents, including letters of support from the legislative and organisational wings of the party and the written statements of the rival factions. They said the requirement were made in line with the Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

Earlier this week, the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena had written to the Commission seeking allocation of the party's 'bow and arrow' election symbol to it, citing the recognition granted to them in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly.

The Shiv Sena split last month when more than two-thirds of the party's MLAs withdrew their support from the Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray, throwing their lot with Shinde.

Shinde was sworn in as Maharashtra Chief Minister on June 30 with support of the BJP.

On Tuesday last, at least 12 of the 18 Shiv Sena members in the Lok Sabha expressed no confidence' in floor leader Vinayak Raut and declared Rahul Shewale as their floor leader.

Lok Sabha Speaker recognised Shewale as the leader the same day.

To ensure that neither faction is deprived of information, the poll panel has also directed exchange of documents submitted by the two groups over the past two days.

This is the initial step, hearing may come much later, explained a former EC official.

The claim over the symbol assumes significance as the Supreme Court had on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission to notify elections to local bodies within two weeks.

Elections are due in several civic bodies in Maharashtra, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which would indicate which Sena faction gets the popular support.

Earlier, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena had written to the EC, requesting it to hear its views before making any decision on representations for claims over the party name and its poll symbol.

(With PTI inputs)
Citing the advice of the country's National Authority for Health (HAS), the French government refused on Friday to allow health workers not vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to the workplace, Health Minister Francois Braun said, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

In a press release, issued earlier on Friday, the HAS said it supported the maintenance of the vaccine mandate and recommended that the government deny reinstatement to such health workers.

Compliance with the vaccine mandate guarantees "better protection of people treated or accompanied," the HAS said. In its recommendation, the authority cited the alarming spread of Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 and the efficacy of the vaccines.

"We will follow the opinion of scientists," Minister Braun said.

Since last year, medical workers in France have had to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to be allowed to work in health establishments. A few thousand of them have been suspended for failing to obey this rule.
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank has imposed restrictions, including on withdrawals, on four cooperative banks in view of their deteriorating financial positions. The restrictions have been imposed on Saibaba Janata Sahakari Bank, The Suri Friends' Union Co-operative Bank Ltd, Suri (West Bengal) and National Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd, Bahraich. A depositor of Saibaba Janata Sahakari Bank cannot withdraw more than Rs 20,000 from the bank while this for The Suri Friends' Union Co-operative Bank is Rs 50,000.

Similarly, in the case of National Urban Co-operative Bank, the limit of withdrawal has been capped at Rs 10,000 per customer. (ALSO READ: Another jolt to Nirav Modi! ED attaches Hong Kong-based assets worth Rs 253 crore)

The RBI has also imposed several restrictions on United India Co-operative Bank Limited, Bijnor, including a ban on withdrawals of funds by customers. (ALSO READ: Gold price today, July 23: Gold makes recovery, rates up by Rs 400; check latest rates)

The directions issued by the RBI to the four cooperative banks under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, will remain in force for six months.

The Reserve Bank has issued separate statements announcing the restrictions on the cooperative banks.

In another statement, the RBI said it has imposed a Rs 57.75 lakh penalty on Suryoday Small Finance Bank for violation of certain norms related to 'frauds classification and reporting by commercial banks and select FIs'.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has qualified in the 'pre-qualification stage' for the 'Invitation to Bid' stage to provide consultancy to Tel Aviv Metro project in Israel. The metro network to be developed in Tel Aviv will have 109 stations and three corridors with a stretch of 145 kilometers in the city. The partnership that includes Delhi Metro will submit a bid for the project's design. Along with DMRC, the partnership also consists of Hasson Yerushalmi Consultant (1997) Ltd., RITES Ltd., and Poran Shrem Engineering and Appraisal Ltd.

DMRC provided the information via a tweet through their official Twitter handle saying. "As part of a consortium of reputed international firms, DMRC has crossed the pre-qualification stage to qualify for the Invitation to Bid stage for providing consultancy to Tel Aviv Metro project in Israel. "

Delhi Metro is now all set to go global!!



As part of a consortium of reputed international firms, DMRC has crossed the pre-qualification stage to qualify for the Invitation to Bid stage for providing consultancy to Tel Aviv Metro project in Israel. #DMRCGoesGlobal July 21, 2022

It is to be noted that currently, DMRC has been playing the role of consultant for the three corridors of the Dhaka Metro project in the neighboring nation of Bangladesh. The organisation has been giving consultations in multiple sectors like design, construction, procurement support, supervision, tender assistance, and training.

Also read: Train in Boston catches fire atop bridge, passengers jump into river to save life: Watch

Other than that, DMRC has also been involved in the consultancy of the Jakarta Metro Projection. The organisation is not new to providing consultancy in the matters of construction of metro they have been providing consultancy for the upcoming metro projects in India as well.

For the first 18 months, the Tel Aviv metro project will be developed by Egis and local partner Gadish Group will assist the project owner, NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. - the state company in charge of the scheme - in developing the project's overall execution strategy, the scope of work, and procurement.

As per NTA, "The Objective is to establish a mass transit system that links commuter towns to the center of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area and its major business centers, quickly and conveniently, and connecting residential neighborhoods with workplaces via light rail, heavy rail, and other public transport."
New Delhi: Leading cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com has laid off 25 per cent of its workforce, nearly 150 employees, amid the global economic meltdown. The digital assets trading firm said it will shut its Argentina-based offices and halt its expansion plans globally, reports CoinDesk. Severance benefits ranging from four weeks to 12 weeks will be offered to those who are laid off, said the crypto platform.

The company, which recently disclosed a $270 million shortfall from lending from now-bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, said the decision to cut the workforce is taken amid "harsh bear market conditions and the need to absorb financial losses". (ALSO READ: Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's Indian-origin founder, steps down from online grocery delivery company)

Nearly 44 per cent of the sacked employees are in Argentina, 26 per cent in the US, 16 per cent in the UK and the rest in other countries. (ALSO READ: 4 cooperative banks face RBI restrictions! Withdrawal limit introduced for depositors)

Blockchain.com is also downsizing its institutional lending business, halting all mergers and acquisitions and placing a pause on efforts to expand gaming and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace.

Several crypto exchanges and lending platforms have downsized their workforce in recent months.

After terminating nearly 10 per cent of staff some time back owing to "turbulent market conditions`", crypto exchange Gemini earlier this week laid off more employees in the second round of layoffs.

Gemini is likely to lay off more employees in the next rounds.

Last week, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea`s co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer announced that the platform is laying off about 20 per cent of its total employees.

Cryptocurrency lending company Celsius Network, that recently laid off 150 employees, has filed for bankruptcy in the US amid extreme market conditions.

The bankruptcy came as popular crypto tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum nosedived by nearly 70 per cent from their record highs amid the economic meltdown.

Last month, cryptocurrency exchange Vauld, which has frozen all activities on its platform, decided to reduce its headcount by about 30 per cent.
New Delhi: Alphabet Inc`s Google said on Friday it has dismissed a senior software engineer who claimed the company`s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot LaMDA was a self-aware person. Google, which placed software engineer Blake Lemoine on leave last month, said he had violated company policies and that it found his claims on LaMDA to be "wholly unfounded."

"It`s regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information," a Google spokesperson said in an email to Reuters. (ALSO READ: Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's Indian-origin founder, steps down from online grocery delivery company)

Last year, Google said that LaMDA - Language Model for Dialogue Applications - was built on the company`s research showing Transformer-based language models trained on dialogue could learn to talk about essentially anything. (ALSO READ: 4 cooperative banks face RBI restrictions! Withdrawal limit introduced for depositors)

Google and many leading scientists were quick to dismiss Lemoine`s views as misguided, saying LaMDA is simply a complex algorithm designed to generate convincing human language. Lemoine`s dismissal was first reported by Big Technology, a tech and society newsletter.
NEW DELHI: South actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu is yet to make her debut in the Hindi film industry, however, she has already found a strong fan base across the country, much thanks to her fabulous portrayal of Tamil rebel fighter - Rajji in hit web-series 'The Family Man Season 2'. The actress recently appeared as a celebrity guest on Karan Johar's chat show 'Koffee With Karan 7' and needless to say, she nailed it with her sharp-witted answer.

She handled the questions from the host Karan Johar with grace, right from her separation with Naga Chaitanya to speaking on rumours around her Rs 200 crore alimony. The actress was seen not only comfortably addresssing the topics but also hitting the bull's eye every time with her quick-witted response, thus winning audience's hearts.

At one point of time, Karan was seen telling Samantha that he won't be encroaching on her personal life by asking her details about her divorce from her ex-husband Naga Chaitanya. To thi, Samantha decided to not take it silently and reply it with her sass. She said that the host had already asked her those (divorce) question off camera, and asked if he meant that he just wouldn't be asking her those questions on camera.

Moreover, the 'Family Man 2' star was also seen poking fun at Karan Johar and playfully blamed him for the reason behind unhappy marriages. The actress, who appeared on the show with Akshay Kumar, said that "Karan Johar portrayed life to be K3G when the reality is KGF", leaving the host evidently embarrased once again.

karan speaking about samantha's divorce and then going to akshay asking about secret of successful marriage?? karan stop stooping low manh pic.twitter.com/cAgpmv3Y6C  adi (@aaditeaa) July 21, 2022

- love samantha for this,he tried to look sophisticated but queen ended him up __

| #SamanthaRuthPrabhu | #KoffeewithKaranSeason7 |pic.twitter.com/n5BPMM7JEX July 21, 2022

karan just shut up dude don't mess with the south ___ pic.twitter.com/AgDeVv8TE7  adi (@aaditeaa) July 21, 2022

Karan Johar thinks it's a big deal for #Samantha to beat #AliaBhatt!



Like seriously?



The 5 sec silence from Samantha, says it all. She should've said was how dare you. Who the fk is Alia Bhatt in front of legends like her & #Nayanthara! #KoffeeWithKaran7pic.twitter.com/dXcpsG8u3S  Master Bay Son (@MasterBaySon) July 21, 2022

Meanwhile, netizens felt that Karan Johar got too intrusive and to some extent forced Samantha to answer questions regarding her separation as he mostly asked her questions around her divorce. On the other hand, he was seen asking Akshay Kumar about the secret to his successful marriage.

For the unversed, Samantha and Chaitanya parted ways last October. They had issued a joint statement regarding their separation. Samantha deleted all pictures of Chaitanya on her Instagram profile and even unfollowed him on the platform. Chaitanya is currently rumoured to be dating Sobhita Dhulipala, however there is no confirmation to it.

Live TV
The suspected assassin of Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will undergo psychiatric evaluation until later this year, Japanese media reported on Saturday, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, has been identified by police as the suspect who approached Abe at a campaign speech on a street corner on July 8 and opened fire with a handmade gun.

A court in Nara in western Japan, where the suspect lived and the shooting occurred, granted prosecutors' request that Yamagami be held for psychiatric examination, the Nikkei and other media reported.

Nara prosecutors could not be reached for comment outside business hours.

The evaluation will last until Nov. 29, the Nikkei said, and will determine whether or not Yamagami will be indicted for shooting.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. Turkiye will continue diplomatic efforts up to securing peace between Russia and Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, Trend reports.

The head of state drew attention to the significance of the agreement on the grain corridor, signed the day before in Istanbul.

Erdogan noted that thanks to the sea transportation of Ukrainian grain, which will begin in the coming days, Turkiye will make an important contribution to eliminating the global food crisis.

The President further drew attention to the situation in the domestic economy, emphasizing that export supplies from the country are actively growing.

"According to the results of the first half of the year, Turkiye's export volume exceeded $126 billion, and we forecast to end the year at the level of $300 billion," Turkish president said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 23. Charge d'Affaires of the Swedish Embassy in Ankara was summoned to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Ministry said, Trend reports citing Turkish media.

According to the information, Charge d'Affaires of the Swedish Embassy in Ankara was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the propaganda of terrorism in Gothenburg. Expectations were underlined that the perpetrators would be identified, the necessary legal action would be taken, as well as concrete steps taken in the light of the commitments set out in the "Triple Memorandum".
Egypt's Foreign Minister and President-Designate of the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27) Sameh Shoukry asserted on Tuesday the importance of providing climate finance to developing countries, including island countries, to enable them to fulfil their commitments toward the climate.
A fire erupted Tuesday at a church in Upper Egypt's governorate of Minya due to an electrical short circuit, with no causalities reported, according to the Ministry of Interior.
The final results of a controversial referendum granting unchecked powers to the office of Tunisia's President Kais Saied showed 94.6 percent of votes in favour, the electoral authority said Tuesday.
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.
The UN Climate High Level Champion for COP27 Mahmoud Mohieldin stressed the urgency of mobilising non-state actors (NSAs), alongside governments, to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Mohieldin made his remarks during the High-Level Champions (HLC) session held on the sidelines of 56th session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB56) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held on Tuesday in Bonn, Germany.

The HLC session named Actions After Impacts and Resilience tackled the recent activities meant to build resilience to the impacts of climate change. It also highlighted the outcomes of Champions Team workshops held in May that focused on enhancing action by NSAs from civil society organisations (CSOs), the private sector and regional governments on climate losses and damages.

Mohieldin elaborated how those workshops were held with the key aim of holding an open discussion on how to accelerate actions by NSAs by sharing relevant best practices from 110 participants across 25 countries.

He cited the positive examples in East Africa where NSAs from CSOs, the private sector (power of fintech for example) and regional governments have had central roles. These actions by NSAs  if scaled  can provide practical examples of the actions and investments that are needed and help build momentum and drive an ambition loop with states, he added.

Mohieldin emphasised that this work is no substitute for action by states, saying it is complementary, and positively supportive to the actions states should [undertake to] address loss and damage.

He stressed the importance of not ignoring non-economic losses and identifying existing community capabilities when rebuilding.

He also referenced the importance of creating agriculture and food systems that can withstand the potential damages from slow onset changes like sea level rise and salinisation, and impacts of prolonged drought and changes in precipitation, highlighting the importance of insurance, data, AI, research and development.

On Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Patricia Espinosa officially signed on the sidelines of the SB56 the Host Country Agreement for the 27th UN Climate Change Conference, which will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh from 6-18 November.

Taking place in Bonn, Germany from 6 to 16 June, the SB56 aims to lay the groundwork for success at COP27 where governments will focus on work in the key areas of mitigation, adaptation, and supporting developing countries, particularly financially.

Egypt has reiterated the need to maintain current momentum in climate action to keep global temperature increases under 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach, with COP27 set to primarily focus on urging countries to abide by the Paris Agreement.

In May, Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly launched the National Strategy for Climate Change 2050, which is based on five main pillars to preserve the environment and aims to enhance Egypts climate change leadership internationally

Madbouly said that Egypt will spare no effort through its presidency of COP27 to relentlessly seek to move from the stage of commitments and pledges declared by the states to the stage of actual implementation of quick and tangible measures.

Egypt also launched in late May the official website of COP27, and revealed its official logo that is uniquely designed to represent the cultural identity of Egypt and Africa, according to the Egyptian foreign ministry.

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King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has reiterated Bahrains full support to the Egyptian water security as an integral part of Arab water security, a joint Egyptian-Bahraini statement read after President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis meeting with the king on Wednesday.

The king has urged Ethiopia to give up its unilateral policy and abide by relevant international law rules with regards to filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the statement said.

King Hamad also underlined the importance of holding negotiations with Egypt and Sudan to reach a binding agreement in this regard in implementation of the presidential statement issued by the Security Council in September 2021.

The Bahraini king expressed full support of all measures taken by Egypt to protect national security.

The statement affirmed that the two countries share close views towards regional and international issues in a way that better serves Arab interests and preserves regional security.

Palestinian cause

The two countries underlined the importance of stepping up efforts to reach a just and comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

They called for creating real prospects to guarantee resumption of serious and effective negotiations that will bring about peace in accordance with the principle of the two-state solution, international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

This should ensure the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the June 1967 borders, the statement said.

The two leaders expressed support of international efforts aiming at reaching a comprehensive political solution to the Yemeni crisis in accordance with relevant international terms of reference and the Saudi initiative.

Bringing stability across Yemen



They also expressed support of the presidential leadership council in Yemen in its efforts to bring about security, stability and development across Yemen.



The Bahraini side lauded Egypt's response to a request by Yemen and the UN to operate direct flights between Cairo and Sanaa to alleviate sufferings of Yemeni people.

Supporting Libya

The statement underlined the importance of supporting legitimate Libyan institutions to carry out their hoped-for role. It lauded the honest decisions issued by the Libyan parliament as the only elected body responsible for materialising the aspirations of the brotherly Libyan people.



They called for getting all foreign troops and mercenaries immediately out of Libya without any delay in implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 2570 and 2571, Paris summit outcomes and resolutions adopted by the Arab League, the African Union and Libya's neighboring countries mechanism.

Iranian interference

The two countries agreed on backing Arab efforts aiming at getting Iran abide by international principles as regards non-interference in the internal affairs of countries to spare the region any activity aiming at jeopardizing its stability, including backing armed militia and threatening maritime navigation and international shipping routes.

They also expressed support of international efforts aiming at banning Iran from possessing nuclear weapons.

GCC+3 Summit

The statement also welcomed the summit to be hosted by Saudi Arabia that will bring together leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and the US, known as (GCC+3) Summit.

The statement expressed hope that the summit would come up with fruitful results that will enhance the strategic partnership between the participating countries and the US.

Ukraine crisis

The two sides reviewed the latest developments in Ukraine, underlining the importance of ceasing fire and resorting to dialogue to settle the conflict by peaceful means.

They also expressed support of international efforts aiming at settling the conflict by peaceful means and providing protection to civilians to preserve security and stability across Europe.

June revolution, COP27

The Bahraini side greeted the Egyptian government and people on the anniversary of June 30 Revolution that marks a turning point in the history of Egypt, saying this revolution enriched the values of citizenship and moderation.

The Bahraini king also congratulated Egypt for its hosting of the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) to take place in November in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

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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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Russian shelling pounded a densely populated area in Ukraine's second-largest city Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring at least 23 others with a barrage that struck a mosque, a medical facility and a shopping area, according to officials and witnesses.

Police in the northeast city of Kharkiv said cluster bombs hit Barabashovo Market, where Associated Press journalists saw a woman crying over her dead husband's body. Local officials said the shelling also struck a bus stop, a gym and a residential building.

The bombardment came after Russia reiterated its plans to seize territories beyond eastern Ukraine, where the Russian military has spent months trying to conquer Ukraine's Donbas region, which is south of Kharkiv. The Russian declaration Wednesday came after Ukrainian officials aired plans to try to recapture Russian-occupied areas near the country's southern Black Sea coast.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attacks early Thursday targeted one of the most crowded areas of the city, which had a prewar population of about 1.4 million.

"The Russian army is randomly shelling Kharkiv, peaceful residential areas, civilians are being killed,'' Terekhov said.

At the market, desperate screams of Sabina Pogorelets pierced the air as she begged Ukrainian police to let her embrace her husband, Adam, whose body was lying partly covered with cloth next to a small stall. A bloody wound could be seen on his head as policemen gently pulled his wife away so medical workers could take away his body.

"Please! I need to hold his hand!'' Pogorelets cried.

Nearby, a man hugged his small daughter as he and other visitors stood in shock. Emergency teams treated at least two of the wounded in nearby ambulances.

"People started working little by little, they came out to sell things, and residents came here to buy things,'' said Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of the National Police in the Kharkiv region. "And exactly this place was hit by "Uragan'' rockets with cluster bombs to maximize the damage to people.''

The cluster bombs claim could not be independently confirmed. AP journalists at the scene saw burned-out cars and a bus pierced by shrapnel.

The Kharkiv regionial governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said four people were in grave condition and a child was among those wounded in the shelling. Russian forces also shelled wheat fields, setting them on fire, he said.

Elsewhere, Russian forces shelled the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight as well as the eastern cities of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, where two schools were destroyed, Ukrainian officials said. A man's body was recovered from the rubble of the school in Kramatorsk and emergency workers say two more people are feared trapped under the ruins.

The scattered attacks illustrate broader war aims beyond Russia's previously declared focus on the Donbas region's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency Wednesday that Russia plans to retain control over more territory, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine. Moscow's current strategy also envisions making gains elsewhere, Lavrov said.

Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, said the current Russian offensive in Donetsk may result in the capture of the cities of Sloviansk and Bakhmut. But they noted that "Russian troops are now struggling to move across relatively sparsely-settled and open terrain. They will encounter terrain much more conducive to the Ukrainian defenders."

Ukraine's military reported Thursday that Russian forces attempted to storm the Vuhlehirska power station in the Donetsk region, but said "Ukrainian defenders made the enemy resort to fleeing.'' Ukraine forces on Wednesday struck a key bridge on the Dnieper River for the second time in as many days, apparently trying to loosen Russia's grip on the southern Kherson region.

"Russia is prioritizing the capture of critical national infrastructure, such as power plants," the British Defense Ministry said Thursday. "However, it is probably also attempting to break through at Vuhlehirska, as part of its efforts to regain momentum on the southern pincer of its advance towards the key cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.''

Fighting also persists in the Luhansk region, next to Donetsk, governor Serhiy Haidai said.

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Ukrainian emergency workers recovered three bodies from a school hit by a Russian strike in the east of the country, officials said Friday, as attacks continued in several parts of the nation.

The reported casualties follow a barrage Thursday on a densely populated area of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, that killed at least three people and wounded 23 others.

In a rare sign of light, the signing was expected Friday of an accord that would allow Ukraine to resume its shipments of grain across the Black Sea and Russia to export grain and fertilizers.

Beyond that, however, there was no indication of relief from the grinding war. Russia this week has reiterated its plans to seize territories beyond eastern Ukraine, where the Russian military has spent months trying to conquer the Donbas region.

The Ukrainian president's office said that in Kramatorsk, in Donetsk province, Russian shelling destroyed a school and damaged 85 residential buildings.

Ukraine's state emergencies agency said it has completed work at the school, which was hit on Thursday, and found three bodies.

``Russian strikes on schools and hospitals are very painful and reflect its true goal of reducing peaceful cities to ruins,'' Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in televised remarks, repeating his call on residents to evacuate.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, however, said that the Russian strike had killed over 300 Ukrainian troops who used the building of School No. 23 in Kramatorsk as their base. He said another strike destroyed a munitions depot in the industrial zone of the southern city of Mykolaiv.

Konashenkov also said that Russian forces destroyed four HIMARS multiple rocket launchers supplied by the U.S. between July 5 and 20. The U.S. said it has supplied 12 HIMARS systems and will deliver four more.

The claims could not be independently verified. A senior U.S. defense official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity in line with department rules, said Thursday that Russia hasn't yet taken out a single HIMARS system but it is likely it will ``get lucky'' and do so at some point.

The Ukrainian military has used HIMARS, which have a higher range and better precision compared with similar Soviet-era systems in the Russian and Ukrainian inventory, to strike Russian munitions depots and other key targets.

In the Dnipro region of central Ukraine, three schools were destroyed in the latest Russian strikes, Ukrainian authorities said. Seven Russian missiles hit the small town of Apostolove in the Dnipro region, wounding 18 residents.

Regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko decried the ``senseless'' attack, saying that ``there are no military goals behind it and this shelling could only be explained by their desire to keep people on edge and sow panic and fear.''

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The European Union imposed more sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine on Thursday after the bloc's 27 members backed measures that include a ban on gold imports, further restrictions on the country's biggest bank and tighter export controls on some high-technology goods.

European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the ``reinforced, prolonged EU sanctions against the Kremlin'' send ``a strong signal to Moscow: we will keep the pressure high for as long as it takes.''

The EU has described the new round of sanctions as minor adjustments and intended to align its actions with commitments from global partners. Any ban on Russian gas imports, which are still a lifeline to many of the EU's juggernaut industries, is not under consideration.

EU officials worked all week to tighten the bloc's extensive package of sanctions on Russia and looked at ways to add a ban on gold exports, hoping the measures might start to have a decisive impact on the war in Ukraine.

On Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was able to say, ``We are effectively banning Russia's most significant export after energy - Russian gold.''

The Group of Seven leading industrial nations committed to a gold ban last month, arguing that Russia has used its gold to back up its currency and circumvent the impact of earlier sanctions nations around the world imposed after the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The EU also took further action against Sberbank, which was already kicked off the SWIFT international banking messaging service. The bank will be added to the EU's sanctions list and have its assets frozen, making all transactions next to impossible.

The EU also tightened the noose on sanctioned individuals, often oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

They now have to officially declare where they have assets in the EU so the holdings can be frozen. The EU said refusing to do so could lead to criminal charges and confiscation of the assets.

On Monday, the EU decided to boost military aid to Ukraine by 500 million euros.

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The magazine quoted him under his pseudonym John Doe as saying he had evidence of financial wrongdoing by top Russian officials and their allies which helped fund the war in Ukraine.

Asked by Spiegel whether he feared for his life, he said, "It's a risk that I live with, given that the Russian government has expressed the fact that it wants me dead."

When Spiegel asked John Doe about tax havens used by "strongmen in autocratic regimes", he spoke of the alleged role they play in Russia, whose leaders deny breaking the law.

Russian President Vladimir "Putin is more of a threat to the United States than Hitler ever was, and shell companies are his best friend," he said.

"Shell companies funding the Russian military are what kill innocent civilians in Ukraine as Putin's missiles target shopping centres."

He said anonymous firms "make these horrors and more possible by removing accountability from society. But without accountability, society cannot function."

He said Russian state-funded channel RT had aired a two-part Panama Papers docudrama featuring a "John Doe" character "who suffered a torture-induced head injury during the opening credits".

"However bizarre and tacky, it was not subtle," he said.

"We have seen others with connections to offshore accounts and tax justice resort to murder, as with the tragedies involving Daphne Caruana Galizia and Jan Kuciak," referring to investigative reporters killed in Malta and Slovakia.

In what was billed as his first interview since the release of the Panama Papers in 2016, John Doe said he had no plans to come out from the cover of anonymity.

"The Panama Papers involve so many different transnational criminal organisations, some of them with links to governments, that it's difficult to imagine how it could ever be safe to identify myself," he said.

The Panama Papers were one of several leaks of financial documents by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Their revelations triggered the resignation of the prime minister of Iceland and paved the way for the leader of Pakistan to be ousted.
The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Saturday that it will file a complaint with the UN Security Council, requesting to hold an emergency session on what it described as the Turkish aggression, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter of complaint to the Security Council and requested it to hold an emergency session to discuss the Turkish aggression," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Al-Sahaf told the INA.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an urgent investigation into the artillery shelling of Dohuk.

Farhan Haq the spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, stated that "the Secretary-General condemns the bloody artillery shelling that took place in the Zakho area in Dohuk Governorate, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which reportedly resulted in the death of nine civilians and the injury of 23 others."

The Secretary-General called for "a prompt and thorough investigation into the incident to determine the circumstances surrounding the attack and ensure accountability," expressing his "sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishing a speedy recovery to the wounded."

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Egyptian band Massar Egbari will perform a concert at Alexandrias Roman Amphitheater on Wednesday 10 August as part of the upcoming summer festival.





Massar Egbari will be performing from their fourth album, which they are releasing this summer, as well as a selection from earlier albums; 2018s El Album (The Album), 2015s Tokaa We Tkoom (You Fall and Rise) and 2013s Eera El-Khabar (Read the News).

Most known for introducing social and romantic topics in oriental indie rock flavours, Massar Egbari has recently toured in several cities in Europe amid the fourth album launch concerts.

Founded in 2005, Massar Egbari is one of the leading independent bands in Egypt with their line-up of musicians: Hani El-Dakkak (guitar and lead vocal), Ahmed Hafez (bass guitar), Tamer Attallah (drums), Ayman Massoud (keyboards) and Mahmoud Siam (guitar).

The band is known for many hits like Sabahek (Your Morning), Nehayat El-Hakawy (Ends of Stories) and Cherophobia, which featured famous actress Salma Abu-Deif in its music video.

The concert will conclude the summer festival, taking place at the open-air arena between 5 and 10 August, which returns after three years of absence.

The summer festival performances also include; Medhat Saleh (Friday 5), Nai Barghouti (Saturday 6), Mohamed Mohsen (Sunday 7), Dina El-Wedidi (Monday 8) and Tarek El-Arabi Tarkan (Tuesday 9).

Programme:

Wednesday 10 August, 8pm

Roman Amphitheater, Kom El-Dekka, Alexandria

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Ten people were killed and seven injured Saturday after the collapse of a section of a mountain at a coal mine in China, state television channel CCTV reported.

The accident took place around 11:15 am local time (0315 GMT) in the northwestern province of Gansu, said CCTV, adding that rescue operations are now over.

Personnel were moving around the mining site in Baiyin city "when a mountainside collapse occurred" which "buried these employees as well as vehicles," said CCTV. A total of 17 people were trapped.

According to the final report Saturday evening after the discovery of the last body, "10 people died and seven were slightly injured", it said, quoting local authorities.

"An investigation is underway to determine the causes of the accident," CCTV said.

While little information was provided about the mining site Baiyin city -- which boasts terrain that is part mountain and part desert -- was originally established as a national copper mining base in the 1950s.

Mining accidents occur frequently in China, where the industry has a bad safety record and regulations are often poorly enforced.

Safety has improved in recent decades, however, as has the media coverage of major incidents, many of which were once overlooked.

But the sector remains dangerous and safety instructions are often lax, especially on the most rudimentary sites.

Last September, 19 miners stranded underground after the collapse of a coal mine in Qinghai province in the country's northwest were found dead after a long search.

Three months later in northern Shanxi province, hundreds of rescuers were dispatched to a flooded coal mine that left miners trapped. Twenty workers were rescued, and two bodies were recovered after a dramatic two-day operation.

Authorities in response have vowed to crack down on illegal digging operations which had spiked in the wake of price surges for the fossil fuel.

And earlier last year, 11 miners from a group of 22 were rescued from a collapsed mine in eastern Shandong province, after spending two weeks stranded hundreds of meters underground.

China relies on coal for around 60 percent of its electricity, and has asked domestic miners to increase capacity by 300 million tons this year.

The State Council, China's cabinet, in May announced 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) of investment in coal power generation, as producers were pressured to ramp up output before 2025, after which President Xi Jinping has vowed to phase down its use.

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Egypt's Climate Change Champion for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) Mahmoud Mohieldin stressed the important role non-state actors play in activating the global stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement.

The GST is a process for taking stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement with the aim of assessing the worlds collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the agreement and its long-term goals.

During his participation in the proceedings of the Latin America and the Caribbean Climate Week 2022 (LACCW 2022), held from 18-22 July in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Mohieldin said non-state actors could play an active role in narrowing divergent views on climate action and unifying efforts aimed at implementing the Paris Agreement.

"They also could provide viable methodical solutions that meet the needs of each sector contributing to climate action, taking into account the regional and national aspects of climate projects, especially in developing nations," he said.

He noted that there is an ideal opportunity to utilise the GST process to support the implementation of climate projects, following a holistic approach that takes developing nations' needs into account.

Mohieldin also emphasised the need to translate the outcomes of the GST process into clear messages that help relevant ministries and decision-making bodies come up with the best solutions for executing climate projects.

On that score, climate pioneers are committed to holding a successful technical dialogue (TD) as part of the upcoming global climate summit (COP27) set for November in the iconic Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, Mohieldin said.

As for climate finance, Mohieldin said only $35 billion of the $632 billion global climate finance flows in 2019/2020 was dedicated to Latin America and the Caribbean, noting that more effort is still needed to mobilise private climate funds.

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Any harm to Egypts water interest will lead to international and regional tensions, Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in comments to Egyptian television on Saturday.

In statements to Sada El-Balad TV channels My Responsibility news night talkshow via telephone, Shoukry stated that there has been wide understanding among the countries that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has been visiting over the past week concerning the importance of Egyptian water security, particularly as it relates to the need for Ethiopia to show flexibility to reach for a legally binding agreement for the filling and operation of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

El-Sisi has been on a foreign tour since last Friday that started with Saudi Arabia followed by Germany then Serbia then France, where he discussed the latest developments regarding the GERD.

Egypt and Sudan, the two downstream countries, have been involved in decade-long talks with Addis Ababa over the GERD, which most recently have been stalled since April 2021.

Egypt is concerned that the filling and operation of the GERD will reduce its historic share of the Nile water.

Meanwhile, Sudan is worried about the impact of the GERD on regulating flows to its own dams.

Egypt and Sudan, who do not oppose the GERD outright, have sought to reach a binding deal with Ethiopia on the filling and operation of the dam while Ethiopia has rejected all such attempts.

In the absence of a legally binding deal, Ethiopia unilaterally completed the first and second filling of the dam, and started earlier this year operating the first turbine of the GERD to generate power.

It also seeks to start the third filling in August and September, according to a recent announcement by the GERD project manager.

Some 85 percent of the Niles waters in Egypt flow from the Ethiopian highlands through the Blue Nile  one of the Niles two main tributaries, along with the White Nile

Shoukry also commented about Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs visit to Cairo on Sunday as part of a regional African tour, stating that Egypt has balanced relations with all international partners in accordance with international law and Declaration by the United Nations.

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Egypts Ministry of Interior announced on Saturday the release of 727 prisoners as per a presidential pardon on the 70th anniversary of the July 1952 Revolution.

The ministry said its social protection department has studied the files of inmates in rehabilitation and correctional centres nationwide to determine those eligible for presidential pardon.

Earlier this month, the Interior Ministry announced the release of 1,270 prisoners as per a presidential pardon on the occasion of Eid El-Adha.

Egypt has released thousands of inmates as per presidential pardon decisions over the recent years on different national and religious occasions.

The 23 July 1952 Revolution, which was led by a group of officers dubbed the Free Officers Movement, secured Egypts independence from British colonial rule and ended the monarchy of King Farouk.

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US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa (SEHOA) Mike Hammer will kick off a regional tour addressing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) from 24 July to 1 August, starting in Cairo before heading to the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia, the US Department of State announced.

According to the US state department, Hammers visit aims to provide US support toward forging a diplomatic resolution to issues caused by the GERD in order to achieve the interests of all parties and contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous region.

In Addis Ababa, the US special envoy will also consult with the African Union, under whose auspices GERD talks had been taking place, the state department added.

In an interview with Egypts official news agency MENA last week, Regional Spokesperson for the US State Department Geraldine Gassam Griffith said that the US supports all efforts exerted by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to hammer out a permanent solution to the GERD issue.

She said that the US has had discussions with the three countries and is ready to provide any technical assistance should the three parties request it.

Being an observer in the African Union-led GERD talks, Washington seeks to facilitate a fruitful dialogue and a constructive approach to negotiations by all parties to the dispute, Griffith said.

UAEs Abu Dhabi hosted two rounds of technical talks in the past months between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in an attempt to revive the talks, but without any progress.

The African Union has sponsored the talks between the three countries in the past few years in an attempt to reach a solution.

Egypt and Sudan, the two downstream countries, have been involved in decade-long talks with Addis Ababa over the dam.

Egypt is concerned that the filling and operation of the GERD will harm its historic share of the Nile water.

Meanwhile, Sudan is worried about the impact of the GERD on regulating flows to its own dams.

Egypt and Sudan, who do not oppose the GERD outright, have sought to reach a binding deal with Ethiopia on the filling and operation of the dam while Ethiopia has rejected all such attempts.

In the absence of a legally binding deal, Ethiopia unilaterally completed the first and second filling of the dam, and started earlier this year operating the first turbine of the GERD to generate power.

It also seeks to start the third filling in August and September, according to a recent announcement by the GERD project manager.

Some 85 percent of the Niles waters in Egypt flow from the Ethiopian highlands through the Blue Nile  one of the Niles two main tributaries, along with the White Nile.

During his visit to Ethiopia, Special Envoy Hammer will also review developments in the Tigray war, including progress on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and accountability for human rights violations and abuses as well as efforts to advance peace talks between the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan authorities.

The statement of US Department of State added that the US remained committed to advancing diplomatic efforts in support of an inclusive political process towards lasting peace, security and prosperity for all people in Ethiopia.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi congratulated the Egyptian people on Saturday on the 70th anniversary of the 23 July 1952 Revolution, hailing the revolution as a culmination of peoples long struggle.

The 23 July 1952 Revolution, which was led by a group of officers dubbed the Free Officers Movement, secured Egypts independence from British colonial rule and ended the monarchy of King Farouk.

The glorious 23 July was a culmination of a long struggle led by the Egyptian people in defence of their right in a homeland whose head is held high, El-Sisi said in a recorded speech on TV.

He added that the revolution managed to establish Egypts first republic and radically change life in the country as well as in the region.

The revolution had inspiring contributions to the global movement of decolonisation and consolidating the right of peoples to self-determination, the president said.

He affirmed that the flags of freedom and independence rose above most Arab and African countries following the revolution.

Let our celebration today with the glorious anniversary of the July Revolution serve as a renewed impetus to work and ensure the advancement of our dear country and the realisation of the aspirations of its honourable people in a bright present and future shaded by security and stability and in which development flourishes, El-Sisi said.

Marching towards a new republic

During the speech, El-Sisi said he is confident of the Egyptian resolve in moving toward the new republic of development, construction, and a change of reality.

He added that this new republic will establish a comprehensive intellectual, social and humanitarian system and will build a developed society dominated by noble human values.

Despite the growing adverse circumstances caused by multiple unfavourable international incidents and developments, we are capable  God willing and with the determination of the people of this great nation  of overcoming them, the president stated.

Owing to its geographical location and regional and international role, Egypt cannot isolate itself from the challenges and changes that are sweeping the world and whose implications have affected everyone, El-Sisi said.

He stressed that there is no way to overcome these challenges except through serious and continuous work, as Egypt has faced diverse challenges with economic, social, political, and security dimensions over the past years.

We are determined  with a firm and unrelenting will  to achieve the major goals that we have set in mind and the higher goals that we shoulder to advance our dear country and change its reality for the better, El-Sisi said.

El-Sisi highlighted the successive achievements in Egypt over recent years, especially in the areas of infrastructure, new urban communities, energy, and industry localisation.

He affirmed that these achievements have become a testament to the strength of the Egyptian will to [achieve] progress, build a better future, and form a strong and solid national economy.

Had it not been for the states efforts in the field of economic reform and the giant development projects throughout the country, it would never have been possible to withstand these severe crises that have swept the world for three years, the president stressed.

Salute to Revolutions heroes

On this occasion, the president saluted those heroes who came forward to lead the revolution and took their life into their hands to create a new dawn for their homeland, El-Sisi said.

Late presidents Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat, and Mohamed Naguib are at the top of those heroes, the president affirmed.

The history of your armed forces, as you have always known, will stay full of national heroism and achievements including the glorious July Revolution, whose banner was carried by the armed forces, El-Sisi said.

The president affirmed that the revolution has restored the homeland's pride and citizens dignity and served as a model for the relationship between the people and its army that has been characterised over long decades by cohesion and deep mutual trust.

This is a unique relationship between the great and proud Egyptian people and an army constituting a model of the national institution that is aware of its mission, performs it to the fullest, and does not deviate from it, El-Sisi affirmed.

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An Al-Qaeda affiliate claimed a deadly suicide attack in a strategic garrison town near the Malian capital, according to jihadist monitor SITE which authenticated a statement from the group.

The Malian army previously blamed jihadists of the Katiba Macina group for the Friday attack with two vehicle-borne bombs that killed at least one soldier in Kati, the heart of the Malian military establishment.

The target was also near the residence of the head of the ruling junta Assimi Goita and the powerful defence minister.

On Friday, "a brigade of mujahideen conducted a blessed operation against the Malian army, the unjust killer of innocents, at the most notorious place in the capital Bamako, near the headquarters of the president and the defence ministry".

The group claims to have deployed two suicide bombers and "commando fighters".

"If you have the right to hire mercenaries to kill defenceless innocents, then we have the right to destroy and target you," the statement continued, referring to paramilitaries linked to Russian private security group Wagner.

The group has been present in Mali since early 2021, according to Western diplomats.

The Malian army has intensified its anti-jihadist operations in recent months, relying on what it describes as Russian instructors.

Despite a deteriorating security situation, the junta turned its back on France and its international partners, instead leaning on Russia to stem the threat posed by jihadists to Mali, as well as Burkina Faso and Niger.

The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) is the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel and is linked to Al-Qaeda.

The GSIM, whose influence on the ground continues to expand, comprises a myriad of groups including the Katiba Macina and operates mainly in Mali and Burkina Faso.

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While Muslims of any nationality and background can enter Mecca, non-Muslims are not permitted because a very specific code of conduct and behavior is required of all people within its boundaries, including certain forms of modesty, ritual cleansing and prayers.

The public backlash over television reporter Gil Tamary's visit was immediate on social media, with Muslims and Saudis expressing their anger over his deception and apparent disregard for the sanctity of the site.

It comes as Saudi-Israeli ties have been quietly growing amid shared concerns over arch-enemy Iran. This incident is unlikely to dampen the relationship. Publicly, the kingdom insists its policy is that full ties can only happen when Palestinian statehood and rights are guaranteed.

The outcry appears to have prompted Saudi police late Friday to announce the arrest of the Saudi man who they say facilitated the entry of the journalist into Mecca in explicit violation of regulations prohibiting the entry of non-Muslims. The Saudi male national, whose identity was not revealed, was referred to prosecution and remains under arrest.

The veteran reporter for Channel 13 in Israel filmed himself in Mecca for a roughly 10-minute-long segment that aired on Monday in which he visited a key site on the hajj pilgrimage route where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon some 1,400 years ago.

He made clear he knowingly had slipped into Mecca with a driver, saying he is speaking in Hebrew quietly so no one can hear him. He claimed to be the first Israeli Jew ever to enter the city. He did not identify himself as Israeli or Jewish to the driver during the recordings.

In the clip that aired, Tamary and his Saudi driver pass a highway turnoff that says non-Muslims cannot pass, and then pass under a huge Quran replica that is the main gateway to the city. ``The dream came true,'' he says as they pass through Mecca and make their way to Mount Arafat.

After he climbs the mount, he says religious police are starting to ask questions and want to make sure he is a Muslim. They decide to leave.

Mecca is home to Islam's holiest shrine, the cube-shaped Kaaba, the metaphorical house of God located in the city's Grand Mosque. The shrine marks the point toward which observant Muslims worldwide pray five times a day. It is also the ultimate destination for the Muslim hajj and smaller umrah pilgrimage.

The reporter and Channel 13 responded on Twitter after the report aired. The news channel, in both Hebrew and Arabic, said Tamary's report was driven by ``journalistic curiosity'' and a desire to witness and see things firsthand. The popular Israeli channel apologized for any anger stoked by his visit, which occurred during President Joe Biden's trip to the nearby city of Jeddah. The Times of Israel quoted an unnamed source familiar with the matter saying Israeli government officials were satisfied with the statements issued by the channel and its reporter.

Police in Mecca said they also referred the journalist's actions to public prosecutors, though the Israeli national is no longer in the kingdom.

The Saudi statement did not identify the journalist, saying only he was non-Muslim and had U.S. citizenship, implying he'd entered the country using his American passport since the kingdom has no formal ties with Israel.

Police called on visitors to respect the country's laws, particularly when it comes to Mecca and Islam's holiest sites in the kingdom.
Tourists and residents were evacuated on Saturday from a popular resort on the Greek island of Lesbos as a wildfire destroyed homes in the beachside village of Vatera.

Firefighters deployed seven planes and a helicopter to fight the surging blaze, with reinforcements expected to arrive from northern Greece.

The fire broke out at 10:00 local time (0700 GMT) on Saturday and is blazing on two fronts, heading towards the Vrisa village and another inside Vatera.

West Lesbos mayor Taxiarchis Verros ordered the evacuation of the busy beach resort as a precautionary measure, acting on the advice of the fire brigade, Athens News Agency reported.

He did not provide figures on how many were evacuated but there were several buses and small boats to take people away.

At least two houses were ravaged by the fire, state TV ERT said.

On Saturday, firefighters were also battling for a third day a wildfire raging in the Dadia National Park, the country's largest Natura 2000 site known for its black vulture colony, in the northeastern region of Evros.

The fire brigade said the thick smoke from the blaze prevented firefighting planes from operating.

A wildfire in mountains near Athens on Wednesday damaged homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate after gale-force winds earlier this week.

The country's worst wildfire disaster was in 2018 in the coastal suburb of Mati, claiming 102 lives, just a few kilometres (miles) from the area affected by Wednesday's blaze.

On Saturday, a memorial service was held at the seaside town to commemorate the victims.

A heatwave and wildfires last year destroyed 103,000 hectares (255,000 acres) and claimed three lives in Greece.

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Tens of millions of Americans already baking in a scorching heat wave braced Saturday for record-setting temperatures to climb, while a major fire ravaged part of California.

The country's central and northeast regions face the brunt of the extreme temperatures, which are not expected to peak until Sunday at the earliest and have sent public health officials scrambling.

More than a dozen states are under a heat advisory, with central US metropolitan areas such as Dallas and Oklahoma City expected to reach highs of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (above 38 degrees Celsius) for at least the next five days.

A heat emergency is meanwhile in effect for cities up and down the northeast coast, from Boston to Philadelphia to Washington.

Not even the usually cool Pacific Northwest will escape the far-reaching heat, with the region expected to face several days in the 90s next week.

The high temperatures, which demonstrate the threat of global warming, have already caused an uptick in emergency calls for heat-related illness.

Cities have meanwhile been forced to open cooling stations and increase outreach to at-risk communities such as the homeless and those without access to air conditioning.

"This is really one of the things that we recognize in Oklahoma -- heat is the number one weather-related killer across the United States. It far surpasses any other" nature-related cause of death, Joseph Kralicek, director of the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency, told CNN.

Residents of the central US city were expecting temperatures to reach 103 degrees Fahrenheit Saturday and up to 106 degrees on Sunday and Monday.

The nation's capital was predicted to reach temperatures at or near 100 degrees Fahrenheit Saturday, with New York not far behind.

Fire conditions increased

"Look for daytime max temps to eclipse the century mark in the Central Plains and record breaking high temps from the Central Plains to the Northeast today," the National Weather Service said in a forecast.

"Sunday grows even hotter in the northeast," it said.

The sweltering heat has increased the risk of blazes, such as the major Oak Fire, which broke out Friday in California near Yosemite National Park where giant sequoias have already been threatened by fire in recent days.

Spread over more than 6,555 acres (2,650 hectares), the Oak Fire has already destroyed ten properties and damaged five others. As of midday Saturday, it was 0 percent contained, according to California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

In recent years, California and other parts of the western United States have been ravaged by huge, hot and fast-moving wildfires, driven by years of drought and a warming climate.

Severe thunderstorms are meanwhile expected in the Midwest Saturday, with the potential for damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes, the NWS said.

Various regions of the globe have been hit by extreme heat waves in recent months, such as Western Europe in July and India in March to April, incidents that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of climate change.

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Russian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in central Ukraine on Saturday left at least three people dead, including a Ukrainian serviceman, a regional governor said.

"Nine Ukrainian servicemen were injured and one serviceman is dead. First, two guards of an electrical substation were killed," Andriy Raikovych, the head of the Kirovograd region told Ukrainian media.

Russian strikes on central Ukraine are picking up after a lull that came while fighting focused on the eastern Donbas region, which is now mostly under Moscow's control.

The announced toll from Saturday's strikes was an unusual admission of precise military casualties from Ukraine, in a conflict in which military deaths have been closely guarded by both sides.

Raikovych said earlier in a statement on social media that a barrage of 13 sea-launched Russian cruise missiles had struck outside the administrative centre of his Kirovograd region.

"Infrastructural facilities outside the regional centre were targeted, in particular, the military airfield Kanatove and a facility linked to Ukrainian Railways," Raikovych said.

The city, Kropyvnytskyi, has an estimated population of 220,000 people and lies some 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

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Moscow has denied carrying out any attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa, the Turkish defence minister said Saturday, a day after Moscow and Kyiv penned a deal to resume grain exports.

"The Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and they were looking into the issue very closely," Hulusi Akar said, but Russia has yet to officially comment.

Russia and Ukraine signed agreements in Istanbul on Friday brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN chief Antonio Guterres.

But Akar also said the incident "really makes us concerned" in comments to state news agency Anadolu.

"We will continue to fulfil our responsibilities under the agreement we reached yesterday," he added.

Up to 25 million tonnes of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

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Russian missiles hit Ukraine's port of Odessa Saturday, in what Kyiv called a "spit in the face" of a day-old deal between the warring sides to resume cereal exports blocked by the conflict.

The Ukrainian military said its air defences had shot down two cruise missiles but two more hit the port, threatening the landmark agreement hammered out over months of negotiations aimed at relieving a global food crisis.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman said the strike was "a spit in the face" by Russian leader Vladimir Putin against the deal brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the strikes on Odessa showed Moscow could not keep its promises.

"This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it," he said during a meeting with US lawmakers, according to a statement from the presidency.

Odessa is one of three export hubs designated in the agreement and Ukrainian officials said grain was being stored in the port at the time of the strike although the food stocks did not appear to have been hit.

Guterres -- who presided over the signing ceremony on Friday -- "unequivocally" condemned the attack, his deputy spokesman said, and urged all sides stick to the deal.

"These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe," he said.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell directly blamed Russia for the strikes.

"Striking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of (the) Istanbul agreements is particularly reprehensible and again demonstrates Russia's total disregard for international law and commitments," he said.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the attack was "absolutely appalling" and "completely unwarranted".

There was no official comment from Moscow but Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said Russia had denied carrying out the attack.

"The Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and they were looking into the issue very closely," Akar said in comments to state news agency Anadolu.

"We will continue to fulfil our responsibilities under the agreement we reached yesterday," he added.

Regional governor Maksym Marchenko said the strikes left people injured and damaged port infrastructure in Odessa, without specifying the number or severity of the injuries.

- 20 million tonnes of wheat -

The first major accord between the countries since the February invasion of Ukraine aims to ease the "acute hunger" that the United Nations says faces an additional 47 million people because of the war.

Hostility between Moscow and Kyiv spilled over into Friday's signing ceremony in Istanbul -- delayed briefly by disputes about the display of flags around the table and Ukraine's refusal to put its name on the same document as the Russians.

Ukraine had entered the ceremony by bluntly warning it would conduct "an immediate military response" should Russia violate the accord and attack its ships or stage an incursion around its ports.

The two sides eventually inked separate but identical agreements in the presence of Guterres and Erdogan at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace.

Guterres then hailed the agreement as "a beacon of hope".

Zelensky said just after the deal was signed that responsibility for enforcing it fell to the United Nations, which along with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.

The deal includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe corridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.

Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and the mines Kyiv laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.

Zelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year's harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement, estimating the value of Ukraine's grain stocks at around $10 billion.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media he expected the deal to start working "in the next few days" although diplomats expect grain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.

Strikes on central Ukraine

The ornate halls of Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace felt far removed from east Ukraine's Donbas war zone, where Saturday was another day of relentless shelling across the front.

Russia is trying to fight deeper into the eastern Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk.

The US State Department on Saturday said that two Americans had died in the area, without saying whether the pair were in the country for combat purposes.

Russian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in the central area of Kirovograd on Saturday also killed at least three people and wounded 16 more, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.

At least one of the dead was a serviceman, he said earlier, in a rare admission of a military casualty in a conflict in which military deaths have been closely guarded by both sides.

Russia also pursued an artillery campaign over Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, with attacks wounding one woman, the presidency said.

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Sabry, 29, was chosen along with five others to fly to space on New Shepards third flight this year, including entrepreneur Mario Ferreira, who will be the first person from Portugal to fly to space.

Other members of the crew are British-American mountaineer Vanessa OBrien, American technology leader Clint Kelly III, telecommunications executive Steve Young, and Coby Cotton, cofounder of the YouTube channel Dude Perfect.

The date of the mission will be announced soon, the company said.

I am honored to be representing Egypt in space for the first time. My ancestors have always dreamt big and achieved the impossible, and I hope to bring that back. This is just the beginning, PR Newswire quoted Sabry as saying after the NS-22 crew announcement.

I believe that sharing my experience with the world will motivate the younger generation of Egyptians to pursue education and help change the perception of women, showing the world what we are truly capable of, she added.

New Shepard is a reusable suborbital rocket system operated by Blue Origin, a space tourism company owned by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Since 2015, the space vehicle has flown astronauts to space on board 21 successful tourist flights.

Sabry, the founder of the nonprofit Deep Space Initiative, which aims to increase space research accessibility, became Egypts first female analog astronaut after completing a two-week analog Moon mission last year.

Sabry earned her bachelors degree in mechanical engineering at the American University in Cairo and her masters degree in biomedical engineering at Italys Polytechnic University of Milan.

She is also currently preparing for her PhD in aerospace sciences with a focus on space suit design, according to Blue Origin.

Sabrys seat in NS-22 is sponsored by the Colorado-based nonprofit Space for Humanity (S4H), which is concerned with increasing access to space for all of humanity.

Sabry will be the organisations second astronaut to fly onboard the NS-22 after astronaut Katya Echazarreta last month.

We are proud to announce Space for Humanity's Citizen Astronaut-2: Sara Sabry  When Sara, a mechanical and biomedical engineer, travels to space with BLUE ORIGIN NS-22 she will become the FIRST Egyptian woman to do so. @blueorigin @clubforfuture #egyptinspace pic.twitter.com/ZfooAAG93R  Space for Humanity (@SpaceHumanity) July 22, 2022

When we dare to dream big, we achieve things deemed impossible, we break boundaries, write history, and set new challenges for the future, Sabry said.

Many Egyptians have lost hope in our future and my hope is that by going to space, I can contribute to changing that; to bring hope to people, and to make them proud of where they come from, added Sabry.

The Egyptian Space Agency (EGSA) congratulated and voiced support to Sabry on Saturday on her planned trip onboard the NS-22.

Executive Director of Space for Humanity Rachel Lyons congratulated Sabry on being chosen for this life-changing adventure.

We know she will be an incredible ambassador for our mission and look forward to seeing how she uses this opportunity to change the world, Lyons added.

*Read Al-Ahram Hebdos interview with Sara Sabry*
Egypt will host the first meeting of the higher committee of the integrated industrial partnership that comprises Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates on Monday.

The trade and industry ministers of the three countries will head the higher committee meeting, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Executive committee meetings will take place in Cairo between the delegations of the three countries on Saturday and Sunday to prepare a report for the higher committee.

Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE launched their industrial partnership initiative late in May during a visit by a delegation from the Egyptian government headed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi.

As part of the initiative, the UAEs government announced that it is allocating an investment fund of $10 billion for joint projects with Egypt and Jordan.

The fund will be run by Abu Dhabi Development Holding (ADQ) to support and accelerate the projects arising from the initiative.

In this regard, Egypts Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea said the meetings this week will tackle agreements on a number of projects in many production sectors.

This includes agriculture, food, fertilisers, and pharmaceutical industries as well as promoting trade and economic ties between the three countries, she said.

The past period witnessed intensive meetings at the level of the executive committee to outline a mechanism for implementing the integrated partnership between the three countries, Gamea noted.

The partnership's first phase includes a number of projects in the fields of grain production, animal production, food processing, fertilisers, packaging, and the production of alternative medicines, she said.

This is in addition to the production of textiles, silica, and aluminium smelting using renewable energy, she added.

In a meeting with the premier in June, El-Sisi underlined the importance of the three-way cooperation with Jordan and the UAE, saying the partnership initiative manifests the hoped-for goal of achieving Arab economic integration.

Gamea held a virtual meeting last month with Emirati Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber and Jordanian Minister of Industry Trade and Supply Yousef Al-Shamali to follow up on the recent agreement.

During their meeting, they agreed on forming an executive committee to start its meetings with the business community next week to discuss the mechanism for involving the private sector in the three countries in the partnership initiative and to identify a list of eligible companies.

In a statement following the meeting, Gamea said the three countries are keen to put the initiative into practice and start implementing the desired projects.

Egypt, the UAE and Jordan are committed to providing all necessary support for the private sectors in the three countries so as to execute the proposed ventures, Gamea added, stressing that the countries will roll out measures to remove any bumps in the way of the capital flow and intra-trade movement.

The newly-launched initiative focuses on several strategic sectors, most importantly pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food, petrochemicals, metals, minerals, and textiles with the aim of achieving sustainable economic development and supporting industrial integration between the three Arab nations.

The partnership aims to achieve self-sufficiency in the three countries and ensure food and health security and is also expected to provide industrial opportunities with added economic value estimated at billions of dollars in the near future.

The combined GDP of Egypt, the UAE, and Jordan is approximately $800 billion, Emirati Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber said in May.

The three countries are rich in different resources that can be promoted through this new partnership, he added.

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Engineer Sara Sabry will join New Shepards 22nd space flight (NS-22) operated by the American private aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin as the first Egyptian to travel to space, the company announced on Friday.

Sabry, 29, was chosen along with five others to fly to space on New Shepards third flight this year, including entrepreneur Mario Ferreira, who will be the first person from Portugal to fly to space.

Other members of the crew are British-American mountaineer Vanessa OBrien, American technology leader Clint Kelly III, telecommunications executive Steve Young, and Coby Cotton, cofounder of the YouTube channel Dude Perfect.

The date of the mission will be announced soon, the company said.

I am honored to be representing Egypt in space for the first time. My ancestors have always dreamt big and achieved the impossible, and I hope to bring that back. This is just the beginning, PR Newswire quoted Sabry as saying after the NS-22 crew announcement.

I believe that sharing my experience with the world will motivate the younger generation of Egyptians to pursue education and help change the perception of women, showing the world what we are truly capable of, she added.

New Shepard is a reusable suborbital rocket system operated by Blue Origin, a space tourism company owned by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Since 2015, the space vehicle has flown astronauts to space on board 21 successful tourist flights.

Sabry, the founder of the nonprofit Deep Space Initiative, which aims to increase space research accessibility, became Egypts first female analog astronaut after completing a two-week analog Moon mission last year.

Sabry earned her bachelors degree in mechanical engineering at the American University in Cairo and her masters degree in biomedical engineering at Italys Polytechnic University of Milan.

She is also currently preparing for her PhD in aerospace sciences with a focus on space suit design, according to Blue Origin.

Sabrys seat in NS-22 is sponsored by the Colorado-based nonprofit Space for Humanity (S4H), which is concerned with increasing access to space for all of humanity.

Sabry will be the organisations second astronaut to fly onboard the NS-22 after astronaut Katya Echazarreta last month.

We are proud to announce Space for Humanity's Citizen Astronaut-2: Sara Sabry  When Sara, a mechanical and biomedical engineer, travels to space with BLUE ORIGIN NS-22 she will become the FIRST Egyptian woman to do so. @blueorigin @clubforfuture #egyptinspace pic.twitter.com/ZfooAAG93R  Space for Humanity (@SpaceHumanity) July 22, 2022

When we dare to dream big, we achieve things deemed impossible, we break boundaries, write history, and set new challenges for the future, Sabry said.

Many Egyptians have lost hope in our future and my hope is that by going to space, I can contribute to changing that; to bring hope to people, and to make them proud of where they come from, added Sabry.

The Egyptian Space Agency (EGSA) congratulated and voiced support to Sabry on Saturday on her planned trip onboard the NS-22.

Executive Director of Space for Humanity Rachel Lyons congratulated Sabry on being chosen for this life-changing adventure.

We know she will be an incredible ambassador for our mission and look forward to seeing how she uses this opportunity to change the world, Lyons added.

*Read Al-Ahram Hebdos interview with Sara Sabry*

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Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and Ukraine's infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, took turns at the table signing the deal, known as the Black Sea Initiative. It was also signed by Turkey's defense minister and the UN secretary-general, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked on.

Ukraine is a leading grain exporter, producing enough to feed 400 million people a year, but about 20 million tons of its grain has been trapped for months in silos and on ships blockaded by Russia in the Black Sea.

"Promoting the welfare of humanity has been the driving force of these talks," he said. "The question has not been what is good for one side or the other," Guterres said. "The focus has been on what matters most for the people of our world. And let there be no doubt -- this is an agreement for the world."

"You have overcome obstacles and put aside differences to pave the way for an initiative that will serve the common interests of all," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the signing, acknowledging that "this agreement did not come easy."

In a major breakthrough, Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement in Istanbul Friday that aims to get millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to world markets and ease a growing food crisis for millions in the developing world.

"This joint step we are taking today in Istanbul, together with Russia and Ukraine, will be a new turning point that will revive the hopes for peace, this is my sincere hope," Erdogan said. He said he hoped the "friendly and peaceful atmosphere" built on the Black Sea Initiative could eventually lead to transformative steps to end the war.

The initial agreement is for 120 days, but a UN official said it would have to continue as long as the war does. The United Nations has been working for months with Ukrainian and Russian officials on two parallel tracks: one to lift the Russian blockade on Ukraine's southern Black Sea ports, the other to facilitate unimpeded access for Russian food and fertilizer to world markets. Russia is also a leading grain exporter and the top global fertilizer producer. Since the war, the price of fertilizer on the global market has doubled, in turn driving up the cost of crops.

Just before the public signing of the grain deal, the UN chief and the Russian defense minister privately signed a memorandum of understanding to address the disruptions to the trade of Russian food and fertilizer. The framework agreed to in Istanbul could see Ukrainian ships begin to move again within the next few weeks as the ports of Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny come online and a joint coordination center is rapidly set up in Istanbul to monitor the operation.

The UN says 276 million people were severely food insecure before Russia's February 24 invasion; now officials project the number to be 345 million. It is expected that the deal will bring relief to millions who have been struggling with rising food prices as a result of the war.

 How It Will Work

Ukraine will continue as it did before the war to handle the internal logistics of getting its grain from its fields and silos to the ports. Ukraine has mined its territorial waters, and under the deal, it will help guide commercial cargo ships carrying its grain through "safe corridors," which, a UN official said, is a faster solution than the months it could take to de-mine the waters.

The official said cargo ships will be inspected as they enter Ukrainian ports to be sure they are not bringing in any weapons shipments, as well as when they exit, by teams of Ukrainian, Russian and Turkish monitors, who will be part of an Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center. Turkey plays an important role in the operation, as the ships will pass from the Black Sea out through the Bosphorus.

Both parties have pledged not to attack any ships that have been identified as sailing under the deal through the safe corridors. The UN official said if there is an incident, it would fall to the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) to resolve it. The official said the JCC would be the "heartbeat" of the operation.

The package deal helps Russia overcome obstacles for the sale of its fertilizer and food products. While U.S. and European sanctions on Moscow do not include those exports, the private sector has been hesitant to work with the Russians, fearful of running afoul of the sanctions.

The UN will now set up a team to follow up and coordinate with countries and the private sector. "This task team will be focused on addressing the disruptions to the food and fertilizer trade largely due to the de-risking and overcompliance of the private sector, particularly in the sectors of finance, insurance and logistics," UN Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. He said this effort is fully coordinated with the grain initiative.

The Americans contend that Moscow is holding back its exports on purpose as part of its disinformation campaign about Western sanctions. "When in fact there are no sanctions on their agricultural products, there are no sanctions on their fertilizer," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Congress this week. "They can move their agricultural products; they can move their wheat if they wanted to do it. But they would prefer to blame the rest of the world, thinking that that will get them more support from the world, and I think they have failed."

 Reaction

"We welcome this deal and hope it will help mitigate the crisis Russia has caused," Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said in tweet Friday. "But we will be watching closely to ensure that Russia actually follows through on its commitments."

Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kulebo, also welcomed the agreement and said in a tweet Friday that he would "count on the UN to ensure proper implementation."

The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, welcomed the agreement and urged the Kremlin to implement it. "The U.K. and our allies have been pushing hard to reach this point. Now this agreement must be implemented, and we will be watching to ensure Russia's actions match its words," Truss said in a statement. "To enable a lasting return to global security and economic stability, Putin must end the war and withdraw from Ukraine."

Aid organizations also welcomed the deal, but said it is only one part of solving the growing global food crisis. "If respected and enacted in good faith, today's deal to protect Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea will help ease grain shortages, but let's be clear -- this will not end or significantly alter the trajectory of the worsening global food crisis," Mercy Corps Chief Executive Tjada D'Oyen McKenna said in a statement.

"A deal that allows grain to leave Black Sea ports is nothing short of life-saving for people across the world who are struggling to feed their families," said International Committee of the Red Cross Director-General Robert Mardini, but he noted that efforts must continue to tame skyrocketing food prices in places like Sudan where they have shot up 187 percent in the past six months.
It is no longer a surprise to see Korean dramas become hugely popular on global streaming platforms, but "Remarriage & Desires" sets itself apart in that it is an unashamed soap. It deals with infidelity, revenge, illicit relationships and illegitimate children in depicting women on a matchmaking site for the super-rich who are desperate to tie the knot with a billionaire.

Netflix's new Korean drama series "Remarriage & Desires" has already shot to No. 8 on the streaming service since becoming available last week.

Kim Hee-sun shines as a woman who joins the site and seeks revenge on a rival who had an affair with her ex-husband and was responsible for his death.

This is Kim's first time in a drama on a streaming service. "It's a story about greed and desires that anyone can have," she told the Chosun Ilbo. "I think these are the raw emotion of humans anywhere in the world, and that's what attracted me to the script."

"Remarriage & Desires" is No. 2 on Netflix in Korea and Japan and ranks among the top 10 in 30 countries, mostly in Asia. "Every morning, I find my Instagram followers increasing by 10,000," Kim said, still surprised at the show's popularity. As of Monday, she had 812,000 followers. "I think I'll have over a million soon," she said.

At the age of 45, Kim says the only way to stay on the business is to try new things all the time. "In the past, an actress my age would have only played working moms, but now we can play leading characters. I'm just thankful to be alive in the age of streaming media that offers the opportunity to act in different genres and play a variety of characters."
KYODO NEWS - Jul 23, 2022 - 12:15 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Medical staff and elderly care workers in Tokyo began to receive their fourth COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday after the government expanded its eligibility criteria in response to Japan's seventh wave of infections.

Last week's decision to begin the vaccinations was aimed at ensuring enough medical and care workers are available when Japan is seeing record numbers of new cases driven by the spread of the BA.5 Omicron subvariant.

Some medical institutions in the capital have been forced to limit the number of emergency patients they accept and scale back surgical procedures they conduct due to staff shortages caused by a spate of COVID infections.

Previously, the fourth dose was only available to people aged 60 and over and those between 18 and 59 with pre-existing conditions who are considered at higher risk of developing severe symptoms when infected with the virus.

A study shows the fourth inoculation has relative efficacy for elderly people but may only provide marginal protection for younger people.

The fourth vaccination is available at three mass vaccination sites, including the Tokyo metropolitan government building, for residents of the capital or people who commute into the city.

The nationwide daily case count exceeded 190,000 on Friday, marking a new record for the third consecutive day.

A panel of health experts working under the health ministry said Friday fourth shots are effective to some extent in preventing the spread of the subvariant, citing clinical data.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 23, 2022 - 10:13 | All, World

The United States continues to maintain "strategic ambiguity" over its response to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday, even though President Joe Biden has vowed military intervention.

Noting that every U.S. administration's Taiwan policy has contained "many different sentences" that have made people wonder how they would all fit together, Sullivan said, "Somehow that ambiguity -- that creative tension within the policy -- has allowed us to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait for multiple decades across multiple administrations."

"Our policy has not changed. And we maintain a policy of strategic ambiguity," he said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, organized by a Washington-based think tank.

Biden caused consternation with comments he made on Taiwan in May when he was asked if the United States is willing to get involved militarily if China were to advance on the territory.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, the U.S. president said, "Yes. That's the commitment we made."

While Biden himself has denied any change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan, his remarks raised questions about whether Washington was shifting to "strategic clarity" and were met with firm opposition from China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Taiwan and mainland China have been separately governed since they split due to a civil war in 1949. Beijing has since endeavored to bring the island back into its fold.

The United States changed its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has maintained unofficial relations with Taiwan and supplies the island with arms and spare parts to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities.

The strategic ambiguity policy is intended not only to deter China from using force against Taiwan but also to dissuade Taiwan from seeking independence, as neither Beijing nor Taipei can feel certain the United States would intervene to defend the island should a conflict arise, according to experts.

Some lawmakers in the United States have called for "strategic clarity" to deter Beijing, as the Asian country increases its military activity in the region and pressure on Taiwan.

Related coverage:

U.S. OKs $108 mil. sale of tank parts, other aid to Taiwan
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar (R), the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (L, center), and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L) sign a deal in Istanbul, Turkiye, on July 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)

ISTANBUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Ukraine separately signed a deal in Istanbul Friday with Turkiye and the United Nations to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea.

The deal was first signed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and later by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov with the other two sides.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended the ceremony.

Speaking at the ceremony, Guterres said, "Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea. A beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever."

The secretary-general pointed out that the shipment of grain and food stocks into world markets will help bridge the global food supply gap and reduce pressure on high prices.

"This initiative must be fully implemented because the world so desperately needs it to tackle the global food crisis," he added.

Guterres also announced the establishment of a joint coordination center in Istanbul to monitor the implementation of the Black Sea initiative.

Erdogan, for his part, said that the export traffic will be initiated in the coming days, which will open a "pathway for taking fresh air to many countries."

"From departing of all those ships to their safe transportation, every detail was discussed so far and a consensus was reached," Erdogan said.

According to the state-run Anadolu agency, the deal will allow approximately 20 million tons of grain waiting at the ports in Ukraine to be shipped to the world via the Black Sea. 

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar (R), the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (L, center), and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov (L) sign a deal in Istanbul, Turkiye, on July 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)
Russia and Ukraine separately signed a deal in Istanbul Friday with Turkiye and the United Nations to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Video: A pair of former White House officials appeared in front of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol at a prime-time hearing on the night of July 21, 2022. (Xinhua)

The committee has held eight public hearings in June and July. Democratic chairman of the congressional committee Bennie Thompson said there are more hearings to come in September.

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A pair of former White House officials appeared in front of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol at a prime-time hearing Thursday night.

Former U.S. deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews provided testimony as investigators on the panel detailed what then President Donald Trump did throughout the violent event.

"I thought that Jan. 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation's history and President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion," Matthews said. She and Pottinger were among a series of Trump administration officials who resigned that day in response to the Republican's actions.

The committee has held eight public hearings in June and July. Democratic chairman of the congressional committee Bennie Thompson said there are more hearings to come in September.

Trump's allies and supporters have denounced the inquiry as a political "witch hunt" designed to undermine him and the Republican Party.

On Jan. 6 last year, thousands of individuals, mostly Trump's supporters, stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C. and disrupted a joint session of Congress in the process of affirming the 2020 presidential election results.

Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted in the Capitol attack, including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department. Authorities have linked at least five deaths to the mayhem.

The worst attack on Congress in more than 200 years, the siege led to Trump's second impeachment by the House shortly before his term officially ended. 
Firefighters battle a wildfire in Cebreros, Castilla y Leon, Spain, on July 21, 2022. (Junta de Castilla y Leon/Handout via Xinhua)

"We don't know exactly what will happen, there are always doubts, and climate models are sometimes wrong, but everything suggests that we're moving towards a situation of higher temperatures, heat waves, more irregular precipitation less in quantity but very intense at times," he said. "This is a new scenario we'll have to adapt to."

BARCELONA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Firefighters in Spain have successfully contained wildfires in Catalonia, Segovia, Zaragoza and Avila this week, but elsewhere in the country dozens of blazes continued.

Extreme wildfires are here to stay, Narcis Prat, emeritus professor in ecology at the University of Barcelona, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"We don't know exactly what will happen, there are always doubts, and climate models are sometimes wrong, but everything suggests that we're moving towards a situation of higher temperatures, heat waves, more irregular precipitation less in quantity but very intense at times," he said. "This is a new scenario we'll have to adapt to."

Helicopters gather water from a reservoir to battle a wildfire in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, on July 21, 2022. (Ministerio de Defensa/Handout via Xinhua)

This year alone, 193,247 hectares of forest areas burned in Spain, the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) said on Wednesday. This is a new record, surpassing the 189,367 hectares recorded in 2012.

"In large part this is due to a lack of woodland management," Prat said."For many years, woodlands have been neglected because doing anything with them was very expensive, they were difficult to access, and all this wasn't profitable."

"The main lesson is that we need to manage woodlands differently. We must avoid large masses of trees. Instead, trees should be mixed with undergrowth, meadows and agricultural fields to make what is called a forest mosaic. This would make it very difficult for wildfires to spread."

A man holds an umbrella during a heatwave in Madrid, Spain, on July 20, 2022. (Xinhua/Meng Dingbo)

However, since climate change mainly means rising temperatures, Prat warned that unless authorities around the world reduce carbon emissions radically in a short period of time, the situation is likely to get worse.

"What we've seen here this year with so many heat waves is something that scientists believed wasn't going to happen for another five to ten years. Things have accelerated and scientists are worried that the forecasts they made for 2030 or 2050 are arriving more quickly," Prat said.

On Friday morning, firefighters were still trying to control three wildfires that together covered some 31,000 hectares in Galicia, while two new fires started on the island of Tenerife and in Guadalix de la Sierra in the region of Madrid.

A man drinks water in Barcelona, Spain, July 15, 2022. (Photo by Ismael Peracaula/Xinhua)
Army forces gather in Tripoli, Libya, July 22, 2022. The Presidency Council of Libya on Friday ordered that the armed groups should immediately stop the clashes in the capital Tripoli and return to their camps. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Presidency Council of Libya on Friday ordered that the armed groups should immediately stop the clashes in the capital Tripoli and return to their camps.

"All the parties to the clashes are requested to immediately cease fire and return to their camps. The Attorney General and the Military Public Prosecutor must start an investigation immediately into the reasons for the clashes," the council said.

"The Ministers of Defense and Interior of the Government of National Unity must take the necessary procedures to secure the capital," the council added.

According to local media, clashes erupted on Thursday between rival armed groups in central Tripoli, killing at least 10 people and injuring 30 others.

The Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli has suspended all flights due to the clashes.

Libya has been suffering violence and unrest ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. 

Army forces gather in Tripoli, Libya, July 22, 2022. The Presidency Council of Libya on Friday ordered that the armed groups should immediately stop the clashes in the capital Tripoli and return to their camps. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)
BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The World Youth Development Forum had discussions about youth employment and entrepreneurship in Beijing Friday, with over 10 guests from China and abroad and nearly 300 youth representatives attending online or offline, according to the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China.

Guests from international organizations, enterprises, colleges and universities delivered keynote speeches about concrete measures to support youth employment and entrepreneurship in different regions and fields.

Yu Jiadong, vice minister of human resources and social security, called for global cooperation in tackling problems of youth employment and encouraged all parties to solve the problems.

The forum was held online and offline from July 21 to 23, with nearly 2,000 youth representatives from over 100 countries attending the conference, according to the event organizer.

Initiated by the All-China Youth Federation, the forum has seen attendees discussing topics such as employment and entrepreneurship, climate change and green development, digital economy, and high-quality education. 
BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a congratulatory message to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Egypt's 70th national day.

In the message, Xi said that in recent years, Egypt has steadfastly followed to the path of independence, made vigorous progress in national development, and played an important role in regional and global affairs.

Noting that he and Sisi both attended the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development held recently, Xi said they have pushed for fruitful results of the event, and sent a strong message of the times for common development and prosperity. 
Fruit picking is such a fun summer activity for all ages, but did you know that it can help underdeveloped communities alleviate poverty and improve living conditions? Join us as we head to an orchard in central China to understand how fruit is cultivating sweet success!

Produced by Xinhua Global Service 


BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The World Youth Development Forum had discussions about the power of the youth in achieving green development Friday, with hundreds of experts and youth representatives from China and abroad attending the event.

The youth should be guided to form a sense of contributing to the building of a community of the Chinese nation, a community with a shared future for humanity, and a community of life for humans and nature, said Wang Xiqin, president of Tsinghua University.

The forum was held online and offline from July 21 to 23, with nearly 2,000 youth representatives from over 100 countries attending the conference, according to the event organizer.

Initiated by the All-China Youth Federation, the forum has seen attendees discussing topics such as employment and entrepreneurship, climate change and green development, the digital economy, and high-quality education. 
HONG KONG, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Saturday that it will distribute around 210,000 sets of COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits as part of a follow-up on the recent detection of the COVID-19 virus in sewage samples.

The test kits will be distributed to residents, cleaning workers and property management staff working in the areas with positive sewage testing results showing relatively high viral loads in order to help identify infected persons.

The HKSAR government also urged RAT kit users to report any positive results for COVID-19 via the government's online platform.

On Saturday, Hong Kong registered 4,034 confirmed locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 and 231 imported cases.

Meanwhile, since the start of a mass inoculation program in February last year, over 6.76 million people, or 92.9 percent of the eligible population in Hong Kong, have taken at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines, while over 6.5 million, or 89.3 percent of the eligible population, have taken two doses.

As of Saturday, 66.4 percent of the eligible people in Hong Kong have taken their booster doses, while a total of 191,554 people have taken the fourth dose, official data showed.

A spokesperson for the Center for Health Protection (CHP) stressed that as the local situation of COVID-19 infection is still severe, the CHP strongly appealed to the community to continue to comply with social distancing measures, avoid going out, and refrain from participating in unnecessary or crowded activities or gatherings.

The spokesperson said that COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in preventing severe cases and deaths, urging people who have yet to take vaccines, especially senior citizens, chronic patients, and immunocompromised persons who face a higher chance of death after COVID-19 infection to get vaccinated as early as possible. 
BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a congratulatory message to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Egypt's 70th national day.

In the message, Xi said that in recent years, Egypt has steadfastly followed the path of independence, made vigorous progress in national development, and played an important role in regional and global affairs.

Noting that he and Sisi both attended the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development held recently, Xi said they have pushed for fruitful results of the event, and sent a strong message of the times for common development and prosperity.

Stressing that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Egypt relations, Xi said that he is ready to work with Sisi to firmly support each other, advance the joint construction of the Belt and Road, conduct cooperation on the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and firmly march towards the goal of building the China-Egypt community with a shared future in the new era, so as to bring benefits to the two countries and their people. 
Photo taken on July 21, 2022 shows the National Data Center in Blantyre, Malawi. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

The Malawian government and Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) company Huawei have commissioned Malawi's first-ever National Data Center.



BLANTYRE, Malawi, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The Malawian government and Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) company Huawei have commissioned Malawi's first-ever National Data Center.

The completion of the data center is part of Malawi's efforts to embrace technology as a tool to accelerate development and make it accessible to all at every level.

Speaking during the handover ceremony held Thursday in the country's second-largest city of Blantyre, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said the data center will give Malawi a stake in the 4th Industrial Revolution of big data, artificial intelligence, digital financial services and the internet of things (IoT), among others.

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera (C) attends the handover ceremony of the National Data Center in Blantyre, Malawi, July 21, 2022. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

The president commended Huawei's contribution to promoting digitization and bridging the digital gap in Malawi.

"Through this National Data Center, we can guarantee security information to those we invite to invest in our manufacturing, financial, retail and service sectors, thus making Malawi a location of choice for investors," Chakwera said. "This data center is a critical building block in the digital future Malawi is building, and will enable the government to cut down costs by enhancing coordination between different projects, and better manage and secure data that is critical for decision making and targeting in the implementation of many programs."

Minister of Information and Digitalization Gospel Kazako said the National Data Center will enable Malawi to move into a paperless economy both in the government and private sector, noting that the infrastructure will secure the country's data and information as opposed to storing it in paper form which is prone to damage and loss.

He added that the data center will help Malawi meet new market and customer demand by up-scaling access to ICTs in line with the National ICT Master Plan and thereby fertilizing the development of Malawi.

At the ceremony, Leo Chen, president of Huawei Southern Africa, announced that Huawei will provide free ICT training to 100 outstanding Malawian students this year through its "Seeds for the Future" training program.

Last year, 50 students from universities and colleges across Malawi received training under the program. 
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The agreement to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea is "a beacon of hope" for the world, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

The agreement signed Friday by Ukraine, Russia and Turkiye under UN auspices "opens a path for commercial food exports from Ukraine in the Black Sea," Guterres said in a tweet.

"It is a beacon of hope, possibility and relief," the UN chief tweeted, noting that the deal will help avoid a food shortage catastrophe for millions worldwide.

Guterres attended the signing ceremony of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, Turkiye.

In remarks at the ceremony issued by his press office at the UN headquarters in New York, Guterres thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government for facilitating the talks that led to the deal, and commended the Russian and Ukrainian representatives for putting aside their differences in the common interests of humanity.

"The question has not been what is good for one side or the other," he said. "The focus has been on what matters most for the people of our world. And let there be no doubt -- this is an agreement for the world."

The secretary-general pointed out that the shipment of grain and food stocks into world markets will help bridge the global food supply gap and reduce pressure on high prices.

"This initiative must be fully implemented because the world so desperately needs it to tackle the global food crisis," he added.

Guterres also announced the establishment of a joint coordination center in Istanbul to monitor the implementation of the Black Sea initiative.

He acknowledged "the long road" and immense efforts and commitment by all sides as well as weeks of around-the-clock negotiations leading up to the agreement.

On the UN side, Guterres said that in April, after talks with Erdogan, he also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to propose a plan for solutions, and "we have been working every day since."

Two UN task forces worked in parallel on the talks -- one focused on the shipment of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, which was led by UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths, and the other on facilitating access of Russian food and fertilizers, headed by Rebecca Grynspan, secretary-general of the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD.

"For months, the secretary-general has been underlining the importance of facilitating full access to world markets for Ukraine's food stocks and Russian food and fertilizers," Guterres' press office said Friday in a note to correspondents.

Ukraine and Russia are breadbaskets of the world, producing almost one-third of the world's wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil. Russia is also a top global exporter of fertilizers and the raw materials for its production, according to the note.

The parties of the initiative recognized the role of the UN secretary-general in securing the discussions. They went on to request his further assistance in its implementation, in the furtherance of the humanitarian mission of the United Nations, subject to its authorities and mandates, the note said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Guterres pledged the UN's full commitment to the agreement, and urged all sides to do the same.

"We will remain closely involved in working for the agreement's success," he said. "I urge all sides to spare no effort to implement their commitments. We must also spare no effort for peace."

In a tweet Friday, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, welcomed the signing of the Black Sea agreement, described it as a very meaningful step, and echoed Guterres' appeal for peace.

"Hope the parties concerned will maintain the momentum of dialogue and foster conditions for the early restoration of peace," Zhang tweeted. 
Russia and Ukraine are signing an agreement with Turkey and the United Nations on shipping Ukrainian grain, foodstuff, and fertilizer to international markets via the Black Sea in Istanbul, on July 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)

BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Ukraine separately signed a deal in Istanbul on Friday with Turkiye and the UN to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea.

The deal, officially called "the Black Sea Grain Initiative," was first signed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu with his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and later by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov with the other two sides.

It would allow significant volumes of commercial food and fertilizer exports from three key ports in the Black Sea -- Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, the UN said in a statement on its website.

A copy of the deal released by Andrii Sybiha, deputy head of the Ukrainian President's Office, showed that the deal will be effective for 120 days and can be renewed for the same duration unless one of the signing parties terminates.

Following the signing of the deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for efforts to effectively implement the agreements on transporting Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports and on promoting Russian exports of food and fertilizers.

Given the significant share of Russian and Ukrainian agricultural products in international markets, ensuring uninterrupted shipping meets the pressing objectives of maintaining food security, especially for the developing and least developed countries, Lavrov said.

"The UN assistance that is provided in good faith and the constructive approach of the international community, including the Western countries, will be instrumental in this (implementing the agreements)," he said.

Also on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the deal fully meets Ukraine's interests and will enable Ukraine to export 20 million tons of last year's grain harvest and part of this year's harvest.

The long-awaited deal was welcome news for the international community as a food crisis has already been plaguing countries heavily dependent on grain imports from Ukraine and Russia. Officials worldwide have voiced hope for an early and full implementation of the deal to ease the global grain shortage.

Ukraine and Russia are breadbaskets of the world, producing almost one-third of its wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil. Russia is also a top global exporter of fertilizers and the raw materials for its production, Guterres' press office said in a note to correspondents.

UN reports revealed that more than 800 million people around the world directly face the possibility of hunger at the moment, and the number could rise.

Following the deal, the price of wheat for delivery in September dropped 5.9 percent to 7.59 U.S. dollars per bushel on Friday in Chicago. Prices in Europe tumbled by a similar amount, media reports showed.

"This apparent agreement is not an indication of a normalization in Ukrainian export flows but certainly a step in the right direction for global food supplies," The Wall Street Journal quoted a recent note by analysts at J. P. Morgan to clients as saying in its article published Friday.

Calling the deal "a beacon of hope," Guterres said the shipment of grain and food stocks into world markets will help bridge the global food supply gap and reduce pressure on high prices.

"This initiative must be fully implemented because the world so desperately needs it to tackle the global food crisis," he said.

Guterres also announced the establishment of a joint coordination center in Istanbul to monitor the implementation of the deal.

Present at the signing ceremony, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the export traffic will be initiated in the coming days, which will open a "pathway for taking fresh air to many countries."

"We are talking about 25 million tonnes of grain," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters after the ceremony, reckoning as urgent the need for a safe transport corridor to transfer these products by sea.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell described the deal as "a critical step in overcoming the global food insecurity."

Borrell tweeted that the EU "remains committed" to helping with the implementation of the deal.

Meanwhile, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the United States fully expects the implementation of the deal "to commence swiftly to prevent the world's most vulnerable people from sliding deeper into food insecurity and malnutrition, as well as extreme hunger." 
TOKYO, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Japan's nuclear regulator on Friday authorized a controversial plan to discharge radioactive wastewater from a crippled nuclear plant in northeast Japan into the Pacific Ocean, prompting protests from the public.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on Friday held an extraordinary meeting and gave the final approval to the controversial plan submitted by the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO), in line with a government decision.

The government and TEPCO plan to release the radioactive wastewater from the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant next spring, roughly 1 km off the Pacific coast in Fukushima Prefecture.

Under the plan, wastewater containing radioactive tritium and some other isotopes, generated from water used to cool down melted nuclear fuel at the disaster-stricken plant, will be discharged through an underwater tunnel into the Pacific Ocean after being treated.

The plant had its key cooling functions knocked out following a massive earthquake-triggered tsunami just over a decade ago, which resulted in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

The wastewater being stored in tanks at the plant is estimated at about 1.2 million tons and the lengthy discharge process is projected to take decades.

According to the agreement TEPCO has signed with the prefecture and the host towns of Okuma and Futaba, the operator must gain their consent before building or adding facilities that could cause their area to be impacted by radioactive materials.

NRA Chair Toyoshi Fuketa said at an agency meeting on Friday that TEPCO should try to reduce the amount of water contaminated with radioactive materials and streamline work toward the discharge because more time is needed to measure the tritium concentration of treated water before it can be released.

After the NRA approved TEPCO's draft plan in May, many Japanese citizens and civic groups as well as some global environmental bodies urged the NRA to give clear explanation about the safety of the discharge plan and consider alternative options such as "making storage tanks bigger and expanding the land space."

The officials discussed the public opinions and concluded that what TEPCO has done so far with the radioactive wastewater and its plan are "reasonable," Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported.

Japan's fisheries, however, have maintained an ardent opposition to the plan, as it will almost certainly cause further damage to the industry's reputation in the region.

In addition, several countries and regions continue to impose restrictions on Japanese agricultural and fishery products due to the initial Fukushima crisis amid continued concerns over the safety of the produce.

Meanwhile, some of Japan's neighbors have voiced their concerns and objections over the discharge.

China expressed its firm opposition to the regulator's move on Friday. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference that it is extremely irresponsible for Japan to ignore the concerns and strong opposition from all parties.

"The disposal of nuclear-contaminated water in Fukushima could affect the global marine environment and the public health of Pacific-rim countries. It is by no means a private matter for Japan. The Chinese side once again urges the Japanese side to earnestly fulfill its due international obligations, dispose of the nuclear-contaminated water in a science-based, open, transparent and safe manner, and stop pushing through the plan to discharge the water into ocean," he said.

"If Japan insists on putting its own interests above the public interest of the international community and insists on taking the dangerous step, it will surely pay the price for its irresponsible behavior and leave a stain in history," he said.

Responding to the regulator's official approval of the plan, the South Korean government convened a special meeting and stated that it would take "best responsive measures internally and externally" under the principle that people's health and security are of utmost importance.

People in Tokyo took to the streets to protest the approval despite scorching heat. Some protestors used megaphones to express their discontent, while others held banners warning about radioactivity at the plant.

The Fukushima power plant was damaged by the 2011 massive earthquake and tsunami, which caused core meltdowns at multiple nuclear reactors.

Water that has become contaminated after being pumped in to keep the melted fuel cool has been accumulating at the complex, also mixing with rainwater and groundwater at the site. 
DAMASCUS, July 22 (Xinhua)-- The presence of the U.S. forces in northeastern Syria and its plundering of the Syrian oil aim to obstruct the political solution and the return of stability and security to Syria, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The U.S. practices and the unlimited support to the terrorist groups show the "hypocrisy of the U.S. in the region," which is "no longer acceptable neither morally nor politically," the ministry said.

It slammed the U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria, saying that the U.S. unilateral sanctions and measures are "threatening the lives of the Syrian people and are detrimental to the present and future" of Syria.

The U.S. forces entered Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting the Islamic State (IS). The Syrian government has repeatedly called for the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Syria, describing the U.S. forces as forces of occupation. 
CHONGQING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- As a new channel for foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce has been injecting endless vitality into Chongqing Municipality, a southwest inland city with massive import and export potential.

At the 4th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade (WCIFIT), held from Thursday to Sunday in Chongqing, researchers, e-commerce platform representatives, and foreign trade enterprises gathered, opting to tap more potential in Chongqing's cross-border e-commerce.

Chongqing Foreseen Optics Instrument Co., Ltd. has already seen the tangible benefits brought by cross-border e-commerce. Their optical products gained 14 million yuan (about 2.1 million U.S. dollars) on the e-commerce platform last year, with a yearly increase of over 30 percent on the e-commerce platform for three years.

"Cross-border e-commerce has not only helped us go through the COVID-19 epidemic but also provides an innovative way to invigorate traditional manufacturing enterprises," said Yang Lin, manager of the company.

Another exhibitor, Chongqing Ujoin Import and Export Trade Co., Ltd., a company specializing in auto component export, has become a leading company in Chongqing's cross-border e-commerce, with its foreign trade volume via e-commerce increased by more than 70 times that of 2016.

From January to May, Chongqing's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports grew by 88.9 percent year on year to 19.79 billion yuan. In 2021, Chongqing's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 32.21 billion yuan, up 63.3 percent year on year.

"Although Chongqing is an inland city, it will yield a more impactful value in cross-border e-commerce. It is because Chongqing is a base for manufacturing and a key point connecting the Yangtze River Economic Belt and regions along the Belt and Road," said Jian Jie, a professor at Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

Jian added that Chongqing's foreign trade registered 800 billion yuan last year, which indicates a strong foundation and promising future for Chongqing's cross-border e-commerce.

Alibaba.com, an online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace for global wholesalers under the Alibaba Group, set up an office in Chongqing in 2008 and views Chongqing's industry of auto, motorcycle, and spare components as a crucial sector to cultivate.

The export trade value of the sector accounted for 30 percent of the total exports on the platform last year, and the number increased by 119 percent year on year on the platform in the first half of this year.

In early 2021, Amazon Global Selling also set up its regional office in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan Province, aiming to open a new market in western China with Chengdu and Chongqing as the key points.

Richful Deyong, a Hong Kong-based provider of integrated corporate and business services, will set up an office in Chongqing next week, hoping to help more enterprises participate in cross-border e-commerce more reasonably and legitimately.

The Chongqing government released a plan earlier this year to push forward the foreign trade development and its new modes. It aims to increase the volume of cross-border e-commerce in Chongqing to over 70 billion yuan and establish ten cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in the city in 2025. 
Russia and Ukraine separately signed a deal in Istanbul Friday with Turkiye and the United Nations to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea.

Following the signing of the deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for efforts to effectively implement the agreements on transporting Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports and on promoting Russian exports of food and fertilizers.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Hamza Shahbaz from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday won the election in the provincial assembly to retain his position as the chief minister of Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, the deputy speaker of the assembly announced.

Shahbaz, son of Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, secured 179 votes against 176 votes received by Pervaiz Elahi, a joint candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of former prime minister Imran Khan and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), said deputy speaker Dost Mazari.

Elahi had received 186 votes, including 176 from PTI and 10 from the PML, but the deputy speaker excluded the 10 votes of the PML after its chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain wrote a letter to his party members not to vote for Elahi.

The election was held on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan after the PTI filed a petition in the apex court saying that Shahbaz has lost the majority in the house.

Earlier on April 16, Shahbaz was elected as the new chief minister of Punjab with 197 votes, including 25 dissidents of the PTI.

On May 20, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-seated 25 dissident members of the provincial assembly of the PTI for voting Shahbaz in the election against the orders of the party leadership.

Later the ECP allocated five reserved seats to the PTI and announced by-elections on the remaining 20 seats on July 17. The PTI won 15 seats while PML-N got four seats and an independent candidate also won the election.

Member of the PML Basharat Raja objected to the deputy speaker's decision to exclude votes, saying that it is against the constitution of the country because only a leader in the assembly can pass such orders to its members while Hussain is not the party leader in the house.

The PTI and PML both announced that they will go to the Supreme Court of the country to challenge the verdict made by the deputy speaker. 
A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China is welcomed in Vientiane, Laos, on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

VIENTIANE, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China and the Lao People's Army carried out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills in Laos.

A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China carries out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills with the Lao People's Army in Phon Hong train station, Laos, on July 22, 2022.(Photo credit: Zeng Li)

A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China carries out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills with the Lao People's Army in Phon Hong train station, Laos, on July 22, 2022.(Photo credit: Zeng Li)

The medical train of the People's Liberation Army of China arrives in the border town of Boten in Laos on July 22, 2022. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China carries out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills with the Lao People's Army in Phon Hong train station, Laos, on July 22, 2022.(Photo credit: Zeng Li)

A medical team of the People's Liberation Army of China carries out the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue and services drills with the Lao People's Army in Phon Hong train station, Laos, on July 22, 2022.(Photo credit: Zeng Li) 
Around 1,000 electric vehicles made by China's largest automaker SAIC Motor are being shipped to Europe.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service




BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- China's photovoltaic (PV) sector posted robust growth in the first half of this year with major links of the industrial chain registering year-on-year growth rates of over 45 percent.

The half-year output of polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules expanded 53.4 percent, 45.5 percent, 46.6 percent and 54.1 percent year on year respectively, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Strong overseas market demands drove up the export volume and value of China's PV products. The country's PV exports totaled roughly 25.9 billion U.S. dollars during the Jan.-June period, surging 113.1 percent over one year ago, according to the ministry. 
A visitor tries an intelligent health service at a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

Visitors check out makeup effects on digital devices at a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

Photo taken on July 22, 2022 shows a view outside the exhibition venue of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

A visitor tours a digital museum via a VR device at a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

A visitor learns about a digital simulation and decision-making for highway networks at a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

People visit a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

A staff member introduces the achievements of Sanfangqixiang (Three Lanes and Seven Alleys), an ancient block in downtown Fuzhou, in the protection of ancient buildings using digitalized methods at a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

A visitor tries a car racing simulator at a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

A young visitor plays Go (Weiqi) with an AI robot during a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 22, 2022. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

Photo taken on July 22, 2022 shows a view of the venue for a special exhibition of the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province. A special exhibition was held here on Friday as part of the 5th Digital China Summit, displaying the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)
RAMALLAH, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official on Saturday announced that the financial crisis of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) made the agency no longer able to meet the growing needs of the Palestinian refugees.

Ahmad Abu Holi, head of the Refugees' Department in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a press statement that UNRWA is suffering a financial deficit estimated at about 100 million U.S. dollars in the budget of programs related to health, education, and relief for Palestinian refugees.

The financial crisis prompted the UN agency to borrow from other international institutions to pay the salaries of its employees for May, according to officials in the agency.

"The high rates of poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity among the Palestinian refugees require the international community to act to support it and provide sufficient and sustainable funding," Abu Holi said.

"The Arab's support for UNRWA will be the focus of discussion in the 108th session of the Conference of Supervisors of Palestinian Affairs, which will be held on Sunday at the Arab League (AL) in Cairo," he added.

Delegations of Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugees, including Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon, in addition to Egypt, the Arab Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will join the conference.

The Islamic World Organization for Education, Science, and Culture, as well as the Palestine sector and the occupied Arab territories in the AL, are scheduled to attend.

UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 and was mandated to provide assistance and protection services including education, health care, relief, social services, camp infrastructure, improvement, protection and microfinance to some 5.7 million Palestine refugees. 
TRIPOLI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Friday expressed concern about clashes that took place between two armed groups in the capital Tripoli.

"UNSMIL has received reports of civilian casualties as a result of clashes between two armed groups in Tripoli on Thursday night," UNSMIL said in a statement.

"UNSMIL is deeply concerned about these developments and calls for an investigation into the incident and justice for the victims and their families. Any action that endangers the lives of civilians is unacceptable," the statement added.

The UN mission called on all Libyans to do everything possible to preserve the country's "fragile stability at this sensitive time."

"All actors must exercise maximum restraint, address their disputes through dialogue and abide by their obligations under national and international law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure," the statement said.

According to local media reports, clashes erupted on Thursday between rival armed groups in central Tripoli, killing at least 10 people and injuring 30 others.

The Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli has suspended all flights due to the clashes.

Libya has been suffering violence and unrest ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. 
ADDIS ABABA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- As Ethiopia braces itself for achieving the aspiration of building a green economy, a government-led massive tree planting initiative has gained momentum across the east African country.

The Green Legacy campaign, a personal initiative of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as part of his ambition to recover Ethiopia's lost forests, was launched some four years ago, with an overarching goal of planting 20 billion seedlings in four consecutive years.

As the initiative gets traction among Ethiopians from all walks of life, this year's edition of the campaign, which marks the end of the ambitious initiative, started last month under the theme "Our Legacy for Our Generation."

One of the ardent participants of the tree planting initiative is Getachew Birhanu, a civil engineer in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Birhanu said he has already planted close to 35 seedlings over the past few weeks alone, together with his wife and two young children.

During the course of the recently-started Ethiopian rainy season alone, the ambitious Green Legacy initiative will see the plantation of some six billion tree seedlings throughout the East African country in the coming months.

"As a father of two toddlers, I believe we are truly leaving behind our legacy for our country and the generations to come. This is something we should really be proud of," Birhanu told Xinhua one day in early July after he planted seedlings on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, accompanied by his wife and children.

Birhanu, who had been actively participating in all the previous tree planting campaigns, said he would continue planting trees even after the end of the four-year national campaign as it would propel Ethiopia's green development efforts.

Over the past three years, the East African country has planted more than 18 billion seedlings, according to figures from the Ethiopian government.

Experts blame the growing rate of deforestation for the rise in the adverse effects of climate change in Ethiopia as Africa's second most populous nation lost its abundant forest coverage, with worsening trends over the past few decades.

According to the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority (EEPA), Ethiopia only contributes to an estimated 0.04 percent of the global greenhouse gas emission, but is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, mainly due to its high dependence on rain-fed agriculture and natural resources, as well as its relatively low adaptive capacity.

Speaking to Xinhua recently, EEPA director-general Getahun Garedew said the East African country is now facing the brunt of climate change and needs to urgently build climate resilience capability.

"Ethiopia is contributing very little toward climate change but being affected very hugely," he said. "Biodiversity loss is another challenge, which is also a worldwide problem."

According to Garedew, as the adverse effects of climate change persist, heavy rains, flooding and soil erosion are putting both urban and rural infrastructure at risk, particularly for the vulnerable segment of the population.

According to EEPA figures, there has been considerable evidence of climate change impacts in Ethiopia over the last 50 years.

At the national level, temperatures have increased by an average of around 1 degree Celsius since the 1960s. Rainfall is subject to high inter-annual and intra-annual variability, in which yearly variation around the mean rainfall level is 25 percent and can increase to 50 percent in some parts of the country.

Extreme weather events like droughts and floods have also become more frequent in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian PM, in his message on the launch of this year's campaign, said Ethiopia is gravely affected by climate change-induced challenges and is considered a climate vulnerable country.

"Our immediate and practical approach to addressing climate change is the Green Legacy Initiative," Ahmed said, as he called on Ethiopians to make this year's edition of the tree planting initiative a success.

According to the Ethiopian government figures, with an annually improving survival rate of around 80 percent of the newly planted seedlings, the initiative is ultimately contributing to the creation of new forest areas across Ethiopia.

Of this year's seedlings prepared for planting, agroforestry trees make up about 52 percent and forestry trees account for 47 percent, while the remaining are ornamental trees, according to figures from the Ethiopian government.

Billene Seyoum, a press secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, told journalists recently that one of the key successes of the green legacy initiative has been its instrumental role in mobilizing millions and creating public awareness, eventually leading to a significant decline in the rate of deforestation over the past couple of years.

Seyoum also emphasized that the proliferation of more than 120,000 nursery sites throughout the country has enabled job creation for various sections of society. 
By Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree about amendments to Decree of the President of Azerbaijan No. 1527 dated December 23, 2021 "On the budget of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2022", Trend reports.

According to the decree, the amendments are aimed to clarify revenues and expenditures of the State Oil Fund (SOFAZ).

The amendments envision to:

- replace the "10589701.9" and "12789674.6" numbers (part 1) by the "15789147.9" and "11597136.5" numbers, respectively;

- replace the "8578995.4" number (item 2.1, part 2) by the "14993401.2" number;

- replace the "23290.0" number (item 2.3, part 2) by the "21760.0" number;

- delete the "1216792.9" number from item 2.4;

- replace the "765340.0" number (item 2.5) by the "768703.1" number;

- replace the "10589701.9" number (the "Total" line of the "Amount of revenues" column) by the "15789147.9" number;

- "12710000.0" number (item 3.1) by the "11517500.0" number;

- replace the "27836.0" number (item 3.2) by the "27797.9" number.

According to the amendments, its also envisioned to replace the "State program provided for by the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated September 30, 2021 No. 2931 on expanding the opportunities for Azerbaijani youth to study in prestigious foreign higher educational institutions" words (item 3.3) by the words "State program for the education of young people in prestigious higher educational institutions of foreign countries in 2022-2026" approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated February 28, 2022 No. 3163.

In the "Total" line of the "Amount of expenses" column, according to the amendments, the number "12789674.6" shall be replaced with "11597136.5".

Besides, within the decree, SOFAZ was instructed to resolve issues arising from it.
KUNMING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Two Chinese law-enforcement vessels returned to a port in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Friday, concluding the 119th joint Mekong River patrol by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

Four vessels from the four countries, with 84 law-enforcement officers on board, sailed over 580 km for four days and three nights with missions to ensure the safety and stability of the river basin.

At around 2 p.m. on July 20, the joint patrol team received a call saying that a civilian vessel full of cargo had hit rocks and was in danger of sinking.

A law enforcement speedboat carrying 12 members of the joint patrol team arrived at the scene at 3 p.m. when the ship had been temporarily out of danger with the help of nearby cargo ships. The team then carried out drainage work for the damaged cabin and conducted a comprehensive check on each cabin to ensure the safety of the ship.

The Mekong River, known as the Lancang River in China, is a vital waterway for cross-border shipping. China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have been conducting joint patrols on the river since December 2011.

Since the joint patrols, law enforcement authorities of the four countries have helped more than 130 vessels out of danger, saving direct economic losses worth nearly 200 million yuan (about 30 million U.S. dollars).

During the past three years, 29 law enforcement operations have been carried out, with 8,341 cross-border criminal cases cracked, over 47 tonnes of various drugs seized, and 4,432 suspects arrested. 
ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Breaking all the previous records amid economic challenges, the Pakistani rupee fell to a new low of above 228 rupees on Friday against the U.S. dollar in the interbank market, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The rupee closed at 228.37, depreciating 0.68 percent against the greenback, said the SBP figures.

The downward trend continued from Monday after the exchange rate rose to a record high of 215.20 rupees, peaked at 221.99 rupees on Tuesday, surpassed 224.92 rupees on Wednesday and reached 226.81 rupees on Thursday.

Earlier on Thursday, a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif discussed the recent fall in the rupee value in the interbank market.

The meeting was informed by the officials that all necessary steps were being taken to appreciate the value of the rupee, hoping that the Pakistani currency would be stabilized against the U.S. dollar next month. 
ISLAMABAD, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces killed three terrorists and arrested four others in military operations in the country's northwest tribal district of North Waziristan, said a military statement on Saturday.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan army, said that security forces conducted two intelligence-based operations in North Waziristan district, a region bordering Afghanistan.

In the first operation, a high-value terrorist commander was apprehended in an injured condition along with three other terrorists, the ISPR said in the statement.

The ISPR said that three terrorists were killed in the second operation, adding that weapons, ammunition and improvised explosive devices were seized during the operations.

According to the military media wing, the terrorists had been actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces. 
BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis:

Russia and Ukraine separately signed a deal in Istanbul Friday with Turkiye and the United Nations to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea.

Following the signing of the deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for efforts to effectively implement the agreements on transporting Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports and on promoting Russian exports of food and fertilizers.

Given the significant share of Russian and Ukrainian agricultural products in international markets, ensuring uninterrupted shipping meets the pressing objectives of maintaining food security, especially for the developing and least developed countries, he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that the deal fully meets Ukraine's interests.

"The text of the document signed today is published, and everyone can read its points. They fully meet the interests of Ukraine," Zelensky said in an address to the nation.

The deal is "a beacon of hope" for the world, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday in a tweet.

- - - -

A senior UN official revealed on Friday the details of the grain export deal, saying "the ships will go across the Black Sea in and out through the Bosphorus Strait for the grain export to the world, according to an agreed corridor."

The source, who asked to be quoted as "a senior UN official" hours ahead of the signing ceremony, said the process will be monitored by a joint coordination center which will be established immediately in Istanbul and will include representatives of Russia, Ukraine and Turkiye.

"Ships will be inspected to make sure that there will be no weapons going into Ukraine," said the official, adding that "both parties also agreed that there should be no attacks on any of the vessels going from those ports out of the territorial waters by any party."

- - - -

From July 5 to 20, Russian forces, using high-precision ground- and air-based armament, eliminated four launching ramps and one reloading vehicle for the U.S.-manufactured HIMARS MRLS delivered to Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Since the start of the special military operation, Russian forces have destroyed 260 airplanes and 144 helicopters, 1,589 unmanned aerial vehicles, 357 air defense missile systems, 4,141 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 762 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 3,176 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 4,453 units of special military equipment, it added. 
KABUL: The Taliban-led administration announced the formation of a joint commission to facilitate visas for Pakistan, which will comprise representatives from the Afghan Foreign Ministry and the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul.

According to media reports, Nooruddin Azizi, the acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, the two countries would work together to address people's difficulties in obtaining visas. "They will hold meetings and talks to develop an easier and better procedure for issuing visas to Afghans," he said.

Except for Iran and Pakistan, most nations have stopped giving visas to Afghan people since the Taliban seized control Kabul in August of last year. Some Kabul residents claimed that despite waiting weeks for a Pakistani visa, their applications were denied.

"We beg the government to make the visa application procedure easier because certain patients' health situations are critical," Laiq Ahmad, a Kabul resident, the report read. "If we apply now, it will take over two months to be issued; sometimes the visa comes, sometimes it is rejected," said Sohrabi, another Afghan capital resident.

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India's five-time world champion Dortmund is looking to win the No Kesling World Masters chess title for the second year in a row in chess. In this format of chess, the special trick of securing the king is not allowed to do fortification. Anand had won the title for the first time last year by defeating former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in an individual series, while this time the competition is being played on a double round-robin basis between 4 players.

So far, Anand is leading the first three rounds with a draw with Germany's Dmitrij Kollars and England's Michael Adams, defeating Germany's Daniel Friedman on 2 points and now he is still left to play another match from all these players. Apart from Anand, Dmitrij and Adams are going to play with 1.5 points, while Daniels is going to play by scoring 1 point at the moment. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik had to withdraw at the last minute due to health reasons.

A few days ago, there were reports that Boris Gelfand of Israel has become the winner by defeating India's five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand in the final of the 35th Lyon Chess Festival Rapid Tournament. There has been a lot of struggle between the two in the rapid matches and in the 4 matches played, Anand and Gelfand were tied by winning 2-2 matches, but after which Boris Gelfand has become the winner by winning both the matches in the blitz tiebreak. Anand became the World Champion for the 5th time by defeating Gelfand in the rapid tiebreak in 2012 and just after 10 years of that, Boris won the Lyon Masters title by defeating Anand in the tiebreak!

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Ind vs WI: Shikhar Dhawan seen in 'Gabbar Avatar' ahead of 1st ODI
Angelina Jolie has won the legal battle against Brad Pitt in a highly sentimental battle over the Chateau Miraval winery, according to Page Six. The now divorced couple got married in the Chateau and moved into it soon after, which sits on its Provencal vineyard. The couple took over the renowned rose company back in 2008 when they moved into the Chateau.

Brad Pitt had been tolling over the breathtaking buildings and grounds, ever since their turbulent split, however, Jolie sold her stake to the liquor giant Stoli, leading to a series of lawsuits between the two, their businesses, and many business partners in the US, France, and Luxembourg.

Angelina's panel of lawyers had subpoenaed documents from Brad, his business manager and Mondo Bongo, his company. Pitt's team tried every way to have Jolie's request for the papers and correspondence denied in court. However, on July 22, a judge in LA stated that Brad and his partners must pass on the papers and correspondence to the opposing lawyers and that they can't hold off until they appeal the decision.

According to sources close to Angelinas business operation, it's being claimed that Brad is letting his anger over his vicious split with Angelina come in the way of common business sense: "Any rational human being would be happy for Stoli to be a partner in their business. They have top-notch marketing and distribution. He just can not see past his hatred towards Jolie.

While they argue that Stoli offers huge opportunities to grow the business, a source close to Brad alleges that the Stoli deal is not a no-brainer and that Brad has turned down an offer to sell it to the business firm even when he was still married to Angelina. This was, reportedly, because the idea of selling a chunk of the business for better distribution countered Pitt's long-held plan for the project, which was to plough profits back into the company: "The best way to retain value for [their kids] is for the parents to retain full ownership of this increasingly valuable and expanding asset."

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BRUSSELS: The European Union has initiated four new infringement procedures against the United Kingdom for not implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol.

"Despite repeated appeals from the European Parliament, the 27 European Union Member States, and the European Commission (EC) to implement the Protocol," the EC stated in a statement.

The first infringement procedure concerns the United Kingdom's failure to comply with statutory customs rules, which increases the risk of smuggling via Northern Ireland, according to reports.

The second concerns the UK's "failure" to notice the transposition of EU law establishing general EU excise duty rules, which was due by December 31, 2021. According to the European Commission, this poses a budgetary risk to the EU "in relation to movements of products subject to excise charges to/from Northern Ireland."

The third procedure addresses the UK's "failure" to notice the transposition of EU laws on excise charges on alcoholic beverages, which was also due by December 31, 2021. The final one is about the United Kingdom's "failure to apply EU laws on value-added tax (VAT) for e-commerce."

The first step in the infringement procedure is to submit letters to the British authorities, which was done on Friday, requesting "rapid corrective efforts to restore conformity with the requirements of the protocol." The Northern Ireland Protocol, which is included in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, is intended to prevent a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. As a result, the boundary has been relocated to the Irish Sea.

Russia resumes essential gas delivery to Europe

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NAIROBI: Kenyan police have pledged increased security in advance of the August 9 national elections. According to media reports, Inspector-General of Police Hilary Mutyambai said that a total of 150,000 policemen selected from partner security agencies will be deployed during the elections to create a safe atmosphere for everybody to vote.

"Formed police units have also been deployed across the country to provide tactical support to general duty officers prior to, during, and after the general elections," Mutyambai explained. He also indicated that there is a provision for the deployment of aircraft in crucial places to provide logistical and air support if needed throughout the election campaign.

The election will be fought out between two major political alliances: Kenya Kwanza, led by Deputy President William Ruto, and Azimio la Umoja, led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is in his final term, has chosen to endorse Odinga, a past competitor for the presidency who is running for the fifth time, rather than his own deputy.

Mutyambai stated that as part of the election preparations, elaborate measures and strategies have been put in place to ensure that security is guaranteed throughout the electoral cycle, allowing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to conduct free, credible, and fair elections.

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MOSCOW : Russia has expanded its list of "unfriendly countries" to include Greece, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia.

When their embassies, consulates, and government organisations in Russia want to hire local personnel, the banned nations are subject to a quota or perhaps a complete prohibition, as per reports by Xinhua.

The Russian government said in a statement on Friday that Slovenia and Croatia will not be permitted to hire staff for their diplomatic missions and consular offices. Currently, Greece has a maximum of 34 persons, Denmark 20, Slovakia 16, and Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be able to do so.

The number of contacts (with Russia) naturally declines when a country is added to a list of hostile nations, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who was responding to the government's decision during a daily briefing.

The move comes a day after Russia barred 39 Australian people from entering the country in response to Canberra's sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine. Officials from the security and defence industries are among the Australian residents barred from entering Russia.

In reaction to limitations imposed by these countries, Russia sanctioned officials from Western countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Personal sanctions have already been placed by Moscow on senior US and Canadian officials, including US Vice President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On February 24, this year, Russia invaded Ukraine.

S.Korea condemns Japan in defense white paper

Turkish bombing in Kurdistan's Dohuk province kills 8 tourists

China holds international travel fair after one year pause
Xi congratulates Wickremesinghe on election as Sri Lankan president

Xinhua) 08:58, July 23, 2022

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message on Friday to Ranil Wickremesinghe on his election as president of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

In his message, Xi pointed out that China and Sri Lanka are each other's traditional friendly neighbors. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 65 years ago, the two countries have always promoted the development of bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and set an example of friendly interactions and mutually beneficial cooperation between large and small countries, he said.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Sri Lanka have stood together and helped each other, with their traditional friendship further enhanced, Xi said.

Xi stressed that he believes, under the leadership of President Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka will surely overcome temporary difficulties and push forward the process of economic and social recovery.

Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Sri Lanka relations and would like to provide support and assistance as his capacity allows to President Wickremesinghe and the Sri Lankan people.

The Chinese president said that he hopes the two sides will carry forward their traditional friendship, consolidate political mutual trust and continuously push forward the strategic cooperative partnership featuring sincere mutual assistance and enduring friendship.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Baku has hosted a presentation of 3D projection mapped on the Fantasia bathhouse to mark the 30th anniversary of the Azerbaijani-Germany ties, Azernews reports.

At the presentation, Deputy German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Heiko Schwartz noted that the German embassy in Baku in partnership with QGallery, QGallery Berlin, Qala Sigorta OJSC, and Qala Hayat announced the "Revived Architecture" digital art competition in July 2021.

The competition held within the project "Preservation of cultural heritage and urbanization", brought together both local and foreign experts in the field of multimedia as well as students, talented artists, and designers.

The concept of "Revived Architecture" embraced remarkable structures, amazing buildings, and hidden urban "treasures" of a special history.

The main focus of the project was on building lighting  3D mapping, a special audiovisual art technology with limitless artistic potential.

The presentation aroused great interest among figures of culture and the public, and representatives of diplomatic missions.

The review of the project applications ended in mid-November 2021. During an open vote, two winners were selected among 30 finalists, who presented their work with particular creativity.

They were graduates of the State Academy of Arts Yagut Kalbaliyeva with the project "Bath "Fantasy" and Sevinj Guliyeva with the project "Museum of Stone Chronicles".

The technical implementation of the project "Bathhouse" Fantasia "was carried out with the participation of OkeyTube (Digital Bohemia).

Bath "Fantasy" (Fantaziya hamam?) was built in 1886 according to the project of the famous Baku engineer and architect of German origin Von der Nonne Avgustovich Nikolai.

The bath was opened for visitors on January 13, 1887, becoming one of the first Baku baths of the European type.

The building has a good internal layout, a waiting room with a luxurious plafond, walls decorated with ceramic plates with colored art scenes, and excellent interior decoration.

The semicircular corners of the facade with pediments are made in the classical forms of the order system.

The main facade of the building has a symmetrical axial structure with side projections.

The general volumetric plasticity of the building is lined with limestone at a high level.

Since August 2001, the Fantasia bath has been taken under state protection as an architectural monument of history and culture of local importance.

"In my work, I wanted to reflect on how life went on in the territory where this building is located, from the day it was built to the present day, what the time, people, and atmosphere were like, and how technical progress took place, the world changed. It was a kind of excursion into history, "lived" by the building," Yagut Kalbaliyeva told Trend Life.

The presentation evoked a standing ovation from the guests of the evening.

The implementation of the project "Museum of Stone Chronicles" by Sevinj Guliyeva will take place in October this year.

The building that houses the museum was built in 1901 by the German brothers Siemens. The first oil-fired power plant in Baku functioned in the building.

Furthermore, the building was overhauled and turned into the Stone Chronicle Museum. The opening ceremony took place in June 2015.
Home  Society  ASCOL, Nepals first science college, is in shambles. Will it ever change for the better?

Amrit Science College (ASCOL) is the first science college in Nepal. Established as Public Science Campus by Amrit Prasad Pradhan in 1956, it was initially located on the premises of Tri-Chandra College, Ghantaghar. It shifted to its current location in 1961. After Pradhan died in a plane crash on January 24, 1996, Public Science College was renamed as Amrit Science College (ASCOL).

One of the oldest higher education institutions in Nepals capital, ASCOL has a glorious history as, over the years, it has produced key science scholars in the country. However, it is in shambles currently, and it is not certain if it will change for the better.

A paralysed institution

Practical lab of ASCOL.

There were times when ASCOL used to be the best college in the country. The college has produced quality human resources in the sectors of technology and politics. But, now, the ASCOL students are looked upon the opposite way. For the last few years, the college with a proud history has been witnessing frequent padlocks, political disputes and students attacks on teachers.

Moreover, the infrastructure built in 1961 is in the worst condition following the 2015 earthquake. These days, rainwater seeps into the buildings and classrooms are also not sufficient for the students.

The fate of ASCOL is similar to that of the majority of government educational institutions. Wild vegetation and bushes are growing around the classrooms. There are insufficient materials for practical exercises; there are hardly 10 computers in the CSIT and BIT lab. On top of that, most of the computers have only monitors and not CPUs, making them useless for the students.

The concerned people say due to political power-sharing, all the constituent colleges of Tribhuvan University are losing their goodwill.

According to them, the office bearers appointed during the Panchayat period could work for complete tenure as there was stability. After the restoration of democracy, not only did the government change rapidly but colleges were also influenced by political power games. With the change of the government, people close to the ruling parties started getting appointments at universities and colleges.

With the onset of republicanism in Nepal in 2008, political power-sharing at constituent colleges of TU became normal. Since then, professors close to Nepali Congress are getting appointments at Tri-Chandra College and Padma Kanya College. The ones close to the CPN-UML are leading Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus, Mahendra Ratna Campus and Patan Multiple Campus and the people of the CPN-Maoist Centre are given the jobs at ASCOL and Sano Thimi.

But, the colleges led by the people close to the Maoist party are known as the strongholds of the CPN-UMLs student union. Hence, the conflict between these two parties has badly affected the colleges regulation.

Students associated with the UMLs student wing padlocked the college every time when somebody close to the Maoist party is appointed as an office bearer of the college, says Ramesh Shrestha, a former student. Such activities are affecting the prestige of the college.

He adds that student unions are supposed to work on behalf of students and implement a policy that would benefit the students, but such a thing never happens.

The students of ANNFSU (the UML student wing) have lifted the padlock at the office of the CSIT department head but have threatened to close it again, says a student asking for anonymity.

The main problem of the college is political power-sharing, says Lok Bahadur Baral, the college head. One party protests when the other partys office bearer gets an appointment. They disrupt almost all the administrative work of the college, hindering the smooth administration.

Assistant campus chief Rabindra Singh also dubs Baral. The political power-sharing in the education sector has affected many things here, he says.

Likewise, the former secretary of the Nepal Student Union (Nepali Congress student wing) ASCOL College committee, Amrit Basnet, says all the constituent colleges of TU have a similar problem. Political power-sharing has ruined the academic sector, says Basnet.

Students involvement in financial affairs

Dhurba Sharma, an employee, blames office bearers, professors, employees and student unions for the current situation of the first science college.

Student leaders involvement in financial matters of the college has also been another problem here.

The student unions are more interested in financial matters than in education, says one of the professors anonymously. Rather than focusing on the improvement of the educational level and infrastructure of the college, they are interested in the money allocated for it.

He questions, What could be worse than this?

It is sad that student politics has created hurdles in the education sector, says Laxman Dhami, a student at ASCOL. Everyone has seen the role of student leaders. There is no need for such unions that neglect the educational issues and padlock the college, he adds.

Another student Binita Lama demands suspending those unions that publicly attack teachers.

Due to the pressure of the student unions, the number of available seats for the CSIT programme was increased more than its capacity, says Rabindra Singh, the assistant college chief. Due to this, there are insufficient classes for the students.

Dhurba Sharma, an employee, blames office bearers, professors, employees and student unions for the current situation of the first science college.

However, an assistant campus of the college, Singh, claims that the education quality of the college is still good regardless of padlocks and other issues. It costs only Rs 200,000 to study CSIT at our college whereas it takes over Rs 1 million at a private college. For this reason, the revival of ASCOL is necessary.

According to him, there are good programmes at ASCOL for the masters level also. The lab was also well-managed earlier. The process to build the library has already started, so there will also be a quality library very soon.

Rahul Adhikari, a student, says the quality of education at his college is satisfactory. He says, The teachers are also good, but we only lack a proper studying environment and infrastructure.

According to him, one needs to reach the classroom by clearing bushes and one has to stand to study in the class. At the same time, the librarian says that they are compelled to work risking their life.

The water seeps in if it rains even for some moments. We are compelled to work in such a dilapidated building, says Shiva Niraula, an assistant librarian at ASCOL.

Similarly, another assistant librarian Ramesh Niraula blames the college leadership for the worst condition of the college.

Hostel as the key issue

Meanwhile, there are over a hundred students accommodated in the ASCOLs hostel although it is meant for only 70 students. Those students staying there even after their graduation is also creating a problem. They also tend to use excessive electricity.

Former college chief Pushpa Lal Humagain tells Onlinekhabar that he once paid an electricity bill of Rs 5.6 million. The hostel is also another major problem of the college, he says.

The assistant campus chief Singh says that it is very difficult to manage the hostel. Around 90 per cent of the problems will be solved if the hostel is changed into a classroom.

This story was translated from the original Nepali version and edited for clarity and length.
Description

There's Always a Story represents a new chapter for Midnight North. Ten stories told through song on their most polished album to date.

Elliott Peck on stageReflecting on the time since their origin, Midnight North is ready to tell the world its story. A group of multi-instrumentalists with songwriting roots in Folk and Americana, Midnight North is a mainstay on the stages of the national touring circuit. Rolling Stone hailed Midnight North as the Best New Act in its review of 2018s Peach Music Festival saying the band takes the best parts of roots music and weaves them into a tapestry of rock and Americana.

Midnight North at The BarnGrahame Lesh, Elliott Peck, & Connor OSullivan began playing together in San Francisco. In early 2012 they played their first show as Grahame Lesh & Friends. Grahame & Elliott both brought a repertoire of original music to this new project that was a perfect marriage once the band began performing in earnest. In late 2012 the band went into the studio for the first time, tracking the entirety of their debut album End of the Night in just 2 days. End of the Night (mixed & produced by Connor) was released in June 2013 as they officially debuted the name Midnight North.

Midnight North live at The BarnThe band began touring in June 2015, with the release of their second album Scarlet Skies. That began a five year run as a touring band, playing in 36 states in front of thousands of people across the country. They released Under the Lights, their most successful studio album to date, in summer 2017. Across all of the tracks, when you think you have the band pegged for a style or a genre, all of a sudden a chorus, or a new solo or new instrument altogether, diverts the music boldly but smartly to a new sound and feel, said The Poke Around in their review of Under the Lights. They also released two live albums including 2018s Selections From the Great American Music Hall which featured Bob Weir & Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead plus members of Twiddle as special guests.

Nathan Graham on the drumsA pivotal moment for the band came when Grahame met drummer Nathan Graham at a benefit show in Philadelphia in 2016. A month later Nathan sat in with the band for a show, eventually joining the band for their longest tour to date in the Spring of 2017. Bringing on the well seasoned drummer as a full-time member of the band (and learning about his banjo playing, singing, and song-writing skills) represented the next step forward as plans were made to record their fourth studio album.

Connor O'Sullivan on the bassIn January 2020, the band went into a California studio with producer David Simon-Baker to craft their fourth studio album, There's Always a Story, released in 2021 on Americana Vibes. As the world shut down in March and the band quarantined separately around the country, the album was finished remotely in California and Pennsylvania. As the months ticked by they let the rest of the newly written & recorded songs sink into their consciousness so that when work resumed on the album in June the entire album became even better than they could have hoped.

Midnight North Live 2021 and beyond is a new beginning, and while Midnight North longingly looks ahead, hand-in-hand with the rest of the world, Theres Always a Story will serve as a collective and reflective narrative.



Grab your tickets to the upcoming show here!
zimmytws / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Social Security is an essential safety net for many Americans. Even if you haven't saved enough for retirement, you can still count on Social Security benefits in retirement.

Read More: 5 Best Southern Cities To Retire on a Budget of $1,500 a Month

Related: 15 Worst States To Live on Just a Social Security Check

However, with an average monthly benefit of just over $1,600, America's most expensive cities are far out of reach without another source of income. If you do have to rely on your Social Security benefits alone -- and still want to make the most of your golden years -- you'll need to live somewhere affordable that won't compromise your quality of life.

That's why GOBankingRates compiled a list of the 20 best cities to live off of just Social Security. The study factored in the cost of living, livability and median rent and -- after comparing the 177 largest cities in the U.S. -- combined the scores to determine where you really can get by on just your Social Security benefit. Read on to find out which cities made the list.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

20. Evansville, Indiana

Cost of Living Score: 78.5

Livability Score: 58

Average Rent: $786.75

Evansville is one of three Indiana cities identified in the study as a good place to live just on Social Security. Its relatively low livability score and rent of more than $780 per month prevented it from moving up on the list.

Poll: Do You Think You Will Be Able To Retire at Age 65?

DenisTangneyJr / iStock.com

19. Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Cost of Living Score: 82.7

Livability Score: 62

Average Rent: $798.25

Hattiesburg's cost of living indicates that you can expect to spend almost 18% less on your basic expenses than you would in the rest of the country, on average.

Sean Pavone / Getty Images/iStockphoto

18. Wichita, Kansas

Cost of Living Score: 82.1

Livability Score: 60

Average Rent: $719

If you're younger and looking to avoid living off your Social Security check alone when you reach retirement, one of the best ways is to start saving early. However, even if it's too late to build the sort of nest egg you would like, a city like Wichita -- which combines modest rent with a low cost of living -- should help you make the most of your Social Security benefits.

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ReDunnLev / Getty Images/iStockphoto

17. South Bend, Indiana

Cost of Living Score: 68.4

Livability Score: 57

Average Rent: $754.50

In South Bend, you'll pay nearly 30% less in your cost of living expenses than the rest of the United States, which means your Social Security check can go a lot further here.

Jacob Boomsma / Shutterstock.com

16. Beaumont, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 78.3

Livability Score: 63

Average Rent: $786.25

Beaumont's livability score is higher than many other cities on this list, which might account for its slightly higher rent, too. However, you're still paying more than 20% less in cost of living than other cities in the U.S.

CRobertson / Getty Images

15. Greenville, North Carolina

Cost of Living Score: 84.1

Livability Score: 75

Average Rent: $792

The average rent cost in Roanoke is the fourth-highest on the list, but its lower cost of living and high livability rates make it desirable for retirees. If you wanted supplement your Social Security earnings, Roanoke is a good place to do it. Another GOBankingRates study showed it's one of the top 20 cities for remote workers.

peeterv / Getty Images

14. Topeka, Kansas

Cost of Living Score: 79

Livability Score: 61

Average Rent: $708

With an affordable rent, a decent livability score, and a cost of living score that means you'll pay less than the national average, this midwestern city is positioned to be a great place to live on only a Social Security check.

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13. Williston, North Dakota

Cost of Living Score: 97.8

Livability Score: 72

Average Rent: $749.50

Williston is one of three cities on this list in North Dakota. At $749.50, rent in Williston is on the higher side of cities on this list, but it's still less expensive to live here than elsewhere.

SeanPavonePhoto / Getty Images

12. Shreveport, Louisiana

Cost of Living Score: 77.5

Livability Score: 65

Average Rent: $772

The Southern city of Shreveport, Louisiana is one of two cities based on the state. While this one is a little high on the rent, keeping it lower on the list, you're paying about 22% less in cost of living here, making your check stretch.

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11. Fayetteville, Arkansas

Cost of Living Score: 92.9

Livability Score: 72

Average Rent: $770

Fayetteville is another solid Southern city to call home if you're living on a fixed income. With a high livability score, and moderate rent, anyone on Social Security should be able to make a good life here.

Ron_Thomas / iStock.com

10. Toledo, Ohio

Cost of Living Score: 72.7

Livability Score: 62

Average Rent: $710.50

Toledo's cost of living indicates that you can expect to spend more than 25% less on your basic expenses than you would in the rest of the country, on average. What's more, Toledo is one of the cities where your money stretches the furthest, according to a separate GOBankingRates study.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

9. Lubbock, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 79.9

Livability Score: 68

Average Rent: $746.50

Lubbock is one of four Texas cities identified in the study as a good place to live just on Social Security. With a decent livability score and cost of living score, even rent of more than $740 per month can't keep this from being a great place to live on a fixed income.

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8. Davenport, Iowa

Cost of Living Score: 81.7

Livability Score: 69

Average Rent: $731.25

It costs about 19% less to live in Davenport than the average American city. Its relatively high (for this list) average rent of $731.25 per month and its livability score of just 69, pull it down from the top spot on the list.

Sean Pavone / Getty Images/iStockphoto

7. Akron, Ohio

Cost of Living Score: 69.5

Livability Score: 62

Average Rent: $679.50

The city of Akron has a lot to offer, not only in a low cost of living, that is more than 30% less than the rest of the country, a decent rent under $700 per month, but lots of natural and cultural attractions.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

6. Odessa, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 88

Livability Score: 63

Average Rent: $510.50

The primary appeal of Odessa to retirees is the low cost of rent. At $510.50 per month, it's the cheapest in the study - and by a wide margin. A low cost of living makes up for it's relatively low livability score, as well.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

5. Fargo, North Dakota

Cost of Living Score: 91.9

Livability Score: 76

Average Rent: $782

Despite one of the higher average monthly rents on this list, Fargo is one of the best cities to live in on a fixed income, according to another GOBankingRates study. That should appeal to those relying on Social Security.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

4. Grand Forks, North Dakota

Cost of Living Score: 88.2

Livability Score: 74

Average Rent: $682

Grand Forks is the northernmost city on the list, and one of three in North Dakota. At $682, rent in Grand Forks is at the midpoint, but it's still 11% less expensive to live here than elsewhere.

ChrisBoswell / Getty Images/iStockphoto

3. Fort Wayne, Indiana

Cost of Living Score: 78.9

Livability Score: 75

Average Rent: $792.75

Fort Wayne is a little pricier than many of the other cities on this list, but it still is among one of the best cities in the nation to retire on a Social Security check, found a separate GOBankingRates study.

travelview / Shutterstock.com

2. Lake Charles, Louisiana

Cost of Living Score: 83.4

Livability Score: 70

Average Rent: $608

For retirees interested in living near the water, with all of the recreational opportunities that brings - think fishing! - there's good news: Lake Charles has the third-lowest rent cost of the cities considered in this study.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

1. McAllen, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 78.6

Livability Score: 81

Average Rent: $592.75

McAllen Texas holds the number one spot on this list for retiring on a Social Security check because it has a high livability score, the second lowest rent on this list and a cost of living score that's still nearly 12% lower than the rest of the U.S.

More From GOBankingRates

Jordan Rosenfeld and Joel Anderson contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: GOBankingRates determined the best places to live on only a Social Security check based on the (1) average monthly benefit for retired workers, $1,619.67, sourced from Social Security Administration; (2) the overall cost of living in each city, sourced from Sperling's Best Places; (3) average 2022 rent for a one bedroom apartment as sourced from ApartmentList; and (4) livability scores sourced from Areavibes. Factors (2) through (4) were scored and combined with the lowest score being best. Factor (4) was weighted double in final calculations. All data was collected and is up to date as of May 23, 2022.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 20 Best Places To Live on Only a Social Security Check
Enel Green Power, a renewable energy plant developer and operator, announced in a Wednesday news release the completion of its first large-scale hybrid wind project, Azure Sky Wind + Storage, in Throckmorton County.

The project consists of a 350 megawatt wind facility paired with a battery storage facility capable of storing 205 megawatt hours of energy, the release said. The facility is expected to generate about 1.3 terawatts of energy each year.

The company also announced the addition of new battery storage capacity at its Roadrunner and High Lonesome facilities in Upton and Crockett counties, for a total of 376 MWh of additional storage across all its Texas facilities.

"Enel Green Powers projects provide more generation, more resource diversity, and more dispatchable storage  three key elements of Texass goal to reform its power grid, Paolo Romanacci, head of Enel Green Power in the U.S. and Canada, said in the release.

Lisa Perini receives state association honors

Lisa Perini, co-owner of the Perini Ranch Steakhouse in Buffalo Gap, was recently inducted into the Texas Restaurant Association's Hall of Honor, the association said via social media.

To be eligible for the award, which recognizes significant contribution to the Texas restaurant industry, nominees must have at least 15 years of TRA membership and exemplify superior business ethics, the association said.

The award was presented on July 10 at the Texas Restaurant Awards Lone Star Bash.

Tige Boats names new sales director

Tige Boats, based in Abilene, recently announced the promotion of Toby Boese as the company's new director of sales.

Boese, who joined the company in March 2019, was previously a regional sales manager.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Business notebook: Wind power project completed in Throckmorton County
China has started shipping emergency food aid to countries in the drought-hit Horn of Africa, days after Washington and Beijing traded accusations over the global food crisis.

Wu Peng, director general of the Chinese foreign ministry's African affairs department, on Wednesday said Beijing was speeding up efforts to provide emergency aid to help Horn of Africa countries deal with the severe drought.

The region has not had good rains for four consecutive seasons and it has left 18.4 million people facing severe hunger, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). It said farmers would continue to face widespread livestock deaths. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also worsened the food crisis since most countries in the region were heavily dependent on wheat from the two nations.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised emergency food aid to Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti early this year. On Wednesday, Wu said the first shipments were on the way. "Glad to know that the first batch of food aid to Ethiopia and Djibouti has been shipped out and those to Somalia and Eritrea are ready for shipment," he tweeted.

People collect water from a tank in a compound of abandoned buildings where internally displaced people are sheltered near the town of Dubti in northern Ethiopia in June. Photo: AFP alt=People collect water from a tank in a compound of abandoned buildings where internally displaced people are sheltered near the town of Dubti in northern Ethiopia in June. Photo: AFP>

Nazanine Moshiri, International Crisis Group's senior analyst for climate and security in Africa, said the situation in the Horn of Africa was dire.

"More than 18 million people are suffering extreme hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. In Somalia, more than 200,000 people are facing famine. At least a thousand children have died - those are the cases we know about - millions more are severely malnourished," Moshiri said.

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She said a two-year dry spell, or four consecutive failed rainy seasons - the most prolonged drought in at least 40 years - had decimated livelihoods, killed about 7 million livestock and degraded soil and land.

"Herders and farmers in Kenya told me during a recent research trip, they haven't seen decent rains in more than two years. There is no relief in sight from the immense pressure," she said.

Conflicts in parts of Ethiopia and Somalia have also prevented humanitarian access. At the same time, Moshiri said food insecurity was worsening, compounded by rising global food and fertiliser costs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the US and China are blaming each other for worsening the global food crisis.

Speaking at an event organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Monday, Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development, said even before the war in Ukraine began, Beijing's trade restrictions on fertiliser and grain hoarding were inflating prices.

Power said Beijing offered little transparency on its stocks and production, which might have soothed markets. "Removing export restrictions in its fertiliser exports and releasing some of its grain reserves - either to the global market or to humanitarian entities like the World Food Programme - would significantly relieve pressure on food and fertiliser prices," Power said.

She said that in 2017, the last time the Horn of Africa faced a severe drought, China had donated US$34 million to the WFP's response. "Thus far in 2022, they've contributed US$3 million to WFP and that's for global response. The United States has provided US$3.9 billion so far this fiscal year," Power said.

She said the US would provide a further US$1.2 billion to meet the immediate needs of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia - countries facing their worst drought in four decades and a lack of grains, which were previously sourced from Russia and Ukraine. "This is on top of the more than US$507 million we've already given to the Horn response."

The US aid chief has since travelled to Kenya, one of the countries hit hard by the global food crisis, to assess the situation.

Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development, addresses a news conference in Nairobi on Friday on the drought situation in Kenya and the Horn of Africa. Photo: Reuters alt=Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development, addresses a news conference in Nairobi on Friday on the drought situation in Kenya and the Horn of Africa. Photo: Reuters>

China's foreign ministry hit back at the US claims on Tuesday, saying Washington was partly to blame for the global food crisis. Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the US had "also admitted that the sanctioning of Russia has taken a toll on many countries and made food shortages a reality".

"We hope that the US will seriously reflect on its disreputable role in the global food crisis and stop smearing and making groundless accusations against China."

Zhao said that as a developing country, China had no obligation to provide official development assistance. However, he said China "has been actively participating in international development cooperation, providing development resources to UN development agencies, including food and agriculture agencies, and making positive contributions to global food security".

"China has provided more funding, sent more experts and undertaken more projects under the framework of the Food and Agriculture Organization's South-South Cooperation Programme than any other developing country," Zhao added.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China had been "making positive contributions to global food security". Photo: Kyodo alt=Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China had been "making positive contributions to global food security". Photo: Kyodo>

At the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Bali early this month, Wang proposed that countries should stop imposing export restrictions on humanitarian food purchases by the WFP and that they should facilitate the entry of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian agricultural products and inputs into the international market. "Major food-producing and net food-exporting countries should release their own export potential, reduce trade and technical barriers, and control making fuel out of crops, so as to ease the tight food supply in the market," the Chinese foreign minister said.

But Moshiri said the international response to the crisis had been too slow for the hundreds of thousands of children now at risk of starvation.

"Even before Ukraine happened, early warning systems sent alerts about the risk of food insecurity after failed rains. The Somali and Kenyan governments declared an emergency last year," Moshiri said.

"Since the war in Ukraine started the focus of donors of course has been elsewhere. The budgets of humanitarian agencies have also been strained by the same commodity shocks. But I think the support is finally beginning to pick up some momentum."

Guled Ahmed, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, said neither the US nor China was responding better to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa.

"Instead of President Joe Biden's administration aiding African countries by increasing gas production and investing in water infrastructure to mitigate climate change and food security challenges in Africa, his administration is preoccupied with blaming Russia for Africa's humanitarian crisis," Ahmed said.

Meanwhile, he said China had failed to step up investment in Africa's poor water infrastructure, such as that in Somalia. He said the Chinese government could have helped build small dams, solar wells and mini-hydropower facilities to address water shortages and food security instead of planning to deliver emergency aid at the eleventh hour.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Stockton City Council received an update July 12 on the city's Economic Development Strategic Action Plan, a roadmap for the future of Stockton.

Stocktons Economic Development Strategic Action Plan was passed by city council in January 2022, a roadmap for the largest city in America to declare  and successfully emerge from  bankruptcy to meet the moment and become an example for the nation on post-pandemic life, as Mayor Kevin Lincoln expressed at this year's State of the City at Rough and Ready Island.

Stockton is in a position today that it hasnt been in before because we have a very specific plan, Lincoln told The Record in May.

Where is the city at with that roadmap today? Stockton City Council received an update July 12 to find out.

The city-developed plan in partnership with Deloitte Consulting details initiatives, outcomes, metrics and resources for increasing economic activity, building resident wealth, fostering entrepreneurs, transforming downtown into a thriving, connected city center, investing in infrastructure and public spaces and unifying the community to change the brand of Stockton.

Stocktons roadmap is currently in the mobilization phase, gathering funding and building out various programs that have yet to be implemented, with some exceptions. Much of the plan acts on the $78 million in American Rescue Plan Act relief funds Stockton was allotted by President Joe Biden.

Rosie Reza, left, and Tony Carranza, both of Discovery Bay, eat corn on the cob at the Stockton Flavor Fest May 14 at Weber Point Events Center in downtown Stockton.

Rebrand and rebuild

The city plans to launch a marketing campaign to help rebrand Stockton in the fall, but theyve already begun by holding several events this year aimed at unifying the community. The city debuted Flavor Fest with Visit Stockton in May at Weber Point and the free summer Travelling Concerts in the Park series, a spin on the summer tradition at Victory Park.

Councilmember Sol Jobrack gave kudos to city staff for putting in the long hours and weekends to put on events like Flavor Fest and Concerts in the Park.

An older lady whos lived in the city 30 years came up to me and said thats the first time anybodys done that in (Dentoni) Park, Jobrack said. Its being seen, its recognized and I know people are grateful and appreciate it. Thank you for (the plan,) I think its making a difference.

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Stocktons rebranding efforts have gone hand in hand with the plan to activate the citys green spaces. Earlier this month the city opened a new playground at Dentoni Park.

Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln speaks at a dedication for new playground equipment and a basketball court mural at Dentoni Park in north Stockton. Stockton City Councilmember Sol Jobrack worked with State Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua to get funding for the improvements to the park.

Jordan Peterson, program manager with the citys economic development department, said $5.25 million was recently awarded by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control to clean up the South Pointe waterfront site in historic downtown Stockton. He said the city is in ongoing negotiations to build over 400 units, green space and educational space on the brownfield site pending cleanup.

Business and COVID recovery

Another investment area is to strengthen the local business climate. The city has launched an updated American Rescue Plan Act-funded entrepreneurship program and solicited applications through the end of June to distribute $400,000 to local organizations, entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses.

At the upcoming July 26 Stockton City Council meeting, council will vote to approve $727,000 to United Way of San Joaquin County to provide capacity building for Stocktons nonprofit community.

Peterson said the city has developed several American Rescue Plan Act-funded programs, including a downtown facade improvement program, chamber of commerce and community district support and business attraction and expansion incentives. An innovation hub is also in the works, and the city hopes to develop deeper connections with the wine industry, Peterson said. Still in development, these programs have yet to go live.

Harry Black, left, city manager, shakes hands with Dr. Charles Moses, right, and Dr. Mary Wardell, center, during the San Joaquin County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's 50th Anniversary Gala on June 25 at the Lindley House at the Port of Stockton.

Councilmember Kim Warmsley urged city staff to look at the data  data driven decisions is a pillar of the citys plan  when prioritizing COVID economic recovery efforts.

We know the areas in this city who have suffered the most, who have been impacted the most, which are communities of color, businesses south of Harding Way. Period, point blank. The data is there, Warmsley said.

Warmsley said she wants to see the city invest in grocery stores, basic needs of life in south Stockton.

This is very heartbreaking and heartfelt to me. Food insecurities, food deserts  how are we incorporating that into our local businesses and how are we attracting grocery stores to open in these communities that are destitute? When theres despair, when theres no hope, how can we celebrate anything? Warmsley said. I hope that as were having these conversations about strengthening businesses we are not forgetting these communities that have suffered the hardest.

Earlier in the meeting, the council approved a resolution declaring racism and inequity a human rights and public health crisis. The city will create a committee to conduct an internal evaluation of the citys charter, policies and procedures to prioritize equity and will seek funding to help reverse and repair harm to disadvantaged communities.

As the most diverse city in the nation, we should be leading not only this county, this state, but we should be leading the nation when it comes to matters of diversity, equity and inclusion, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln said.

Stocktons youth

A youth workforce development program has received funding but has yet to get off the ground. When asked for a timeline by Lincoln, City Manager Harry Black said the city is working on putting together all the partners and a third-party administrator for the program and expects an update on details of the program in the next 30 days.

Vice Mayor Christina Fugazi, who is an educator at Edison High School, expressed her support for the youth workforce development program.

In our budget hearings, hearing out vacancy after vacancy, and knowing our small businesses are struggling to find employees  we want to say listen, we will pay their hourly wage you just give them the opportunity, Fugazi said. What well do is create youth who are more respectful and understanding of all of the blood, sweat and tears that it takes to operate a small business  we should be able to get anyone a job who wants one in this city.

To view the full strategic economic development action plan, go to http://www.stocktonca.gov/files/COS_EDSAP_January_2022.pdf

Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and San Joaquin County government. He can be reached at birwin@recordnet.com or on Twitter @B1rwin. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Council update highlights Stockton's economic plan to rebrand, build
France will face Germany in the Euro 2022 semi-finals after Eve Perissets penalty in extra time secured a 1-0 victory over holders the Netherlands.

Defender Perisset, who last month joined Chelsea from Bordeaux, converted a spot-kick awarded via VAR in the 102nd minute in Rotherham as Corinne Diacres side finally managed to find a way past Dutch goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar.

Les Bleues created numerous chances during normal time but had been left frustrated by some fine saves by Van Domselaar, great goal-line clearances by defender Stefanie van der Gragt and near misses that included Delphine Cascarino hitting the post.

France were finally able to celebrate (Tim Goode/PA)

Perissets strike from 12 yards sent them through to a meeting with eight-time winners Germany in Milton Keynes on Wednesday, their first ever Euros semi-final, after making quarter-final exits at each of the last three editions as well as the last two World Cups and the 2016 Olympics.

The Netherlands  winners in 2017 on home soil and 2019 World Cup runners-up under current England boss Sarina Wiegman, now with Englishman Mark Parsons in charge  saw their title defence come to an end.

They struggled to make much of an impact in attack, despite having record scorer Vivianne Miedema back in action after two games out following a positive coronavirus test.

As France took the early initiative, captain Wendie Renard headed wide and Kadidiatou Diani surged into the area and had a shot saved by Van Domselaar, who then did well to dive and push away a sliced attempted clearance by her team-mate Dominique Janssen.

Daphne van Domselaar was in inspired form once again for the Netherlands (Tim Goode/PA)

Further efforts from France included strikes from Charlotte Bilbault and Cascarino being dealt with by Van Domselaar, Sandie Toletti blazing into the stand from a good position and Melvine Malard striking wide.

They subsequently went the closest yet to making their pressure count as Cascarinos 27th-minute drive came back off the inside of the post with Van Domselaar beaten, before being thwarted by a remarkable pair of goal-line blocks from Van der Gragt a few minutes apart, Malard and Grace Geyoro the players denied.

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Having shown hardly any attacking threat in the first half, the Netherlands had more joy early in the second, with Miedema getting on the end of one corner but unable to direct her effort on target, and Van der Gragt meeting another with a header that was gathered by Pauline Peyraud-Magnin.

Van der Gragt was then on hand once again at the other end to clear a Renard header, and moments later the French skipper saw another headed effort kept out by a fine Van Domselaar save.

The closing stages of normal time saw France push for a winner but Geyoro headed wide at the far post and Van Domselaar then produced further heroics to keep out a Cascarino shot and another Renard header.

French substitute Selma Bacha sent a shot over early in extra time before Diani went down in the box under a challenge from Janssen.

The incident went to a VAR check, with Croatian referee Ivana Martincic watching it back on the pitchside monitor before pointing to the spot and  after the Dutch voiced their unhappiness  Perisset stepped up to slam the ball past Van Domselaar and France, finally, into the lead.

Another substitute, Ouleymata Sarr, subsequently fired two efforts wide in quick succession as Diacres side threatened to add another in the second half of extra time.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global logistics service provider J&T Express celebrates its fourth anniversary in Vietnam today, marking four years of extensive expansion of its domestic network. At present, J&T Express provides nationwide coverage through network partners at more than 1,900 courier depots.

J&T Express Celebrates Its Fourth Anniversary in Vietnam

Since its launch in Vietnam in July 2018, J&T Express has continuously sought to adapt its offerings to cater to the needs of the local market. From the provision of regular services such as J&T Standard Express and J&T Fast to address postage and courier needs, J&T has since expanded its services to broader offerings such as J&T Super (expedite delivery), J&T Fresh (fresh produce delivery), and J&T International (international logistics services).

Against the backdrop of the COVID pandemic, J&T Express Vietnam responded with contactless delivery to ensure minimal disruptions in Vietnam and attaching "Safety Parcel Card" to the parcels to indicate the health status of the courier. Last August, J&T Express launched J&T Fresh in Vietnam to provide logistical support for the consumption of agricultural products across Vietnam over the harvest season. This included supporting harvesting, transporting produce, guiding farmers in packing, and teaching them how to upload their agricultural products on e-commerce sites. This is a great example of how J&T Express leverages its global expertise to cater to each market's local needs.

Technology remains at the core of J&T Express' service offerings. Earlier this year, J&T Express inaugurated the Cu Chi Sorting Center in Vietnam  a facility of about 60,000sqm fitted with smart logistics systems across processing, storage, and delivery. The Center is equipped with the automated cross-belt sorter, which enables automated barcode scanning and package sorting based on destination. It is also equipped with the advanced DWS system and the integrated swivel wheel intelligent sorting system, which help to sort packages automatically. With the new center and the company's upgraded technology, J&T Express Vietnam's daily processing capacity in the first half of the year has increased by about 4 times year-over-year with over 99% sorting accuracy.

Story continues

Charles Hou, Group Vice President of J&T Express, said, "Vietnam was the second market J&T Express entered following our establishment in Indonesia. I am very proud of what we have achieved in Vietnam in such a short time. This is a strong testament to the success of our highly replicable business model and our commitment to continuously cultivating each market and benefiting the local communities we operate in. Today, J&T Express has grown into a network covering 13 countries across Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America, but our mission to be a customer-oriented and efficiency-based express service provider has never changed."

Phan Binh, Brand Director of J&T Express Vietnam said, "As we look back at the journey of J&T Express Vietnam over the past four years, I am both grateful and humbled at how far J&T Express has come. Looking ahead, I am equally excited for future opportunities to continue bringing the best technology-enabled solutions to customers and businesses tapping into our expanding global network. We remain hopeful and optimistic about the logistics and e-commerce growth of Vietnam and look forward to contributing as a key player."

About J&T Express

J&T Express is a global logistics service provider with leading express delivery businesses in Southeast Asia and China, the largest and fastest-growing market in the world. Founded in 2015, J&T Express' network spans thirteen countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Mexico, Brazil and Egypt. Adhering to its "customer-oriented and efficiency-based" mission, J&T Express is committed to providing customers with integrated logistics solutions through intelligent infrastructure and digital logistics network, as part of its global strategy to connect the world with greater efficiency and bring logistical benefits to all.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jt-express-celebrates-its-fourth-anniversary-in-vietnam-301591730.html

SOURCE J&T Express
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry arrived in New York City earlier this week to celebrate Nelson Mandela Day at the United Nations headquarters, where Harry gave a keynote speech. The couple arrived to the event hand-in-hand, and kept the PDA going upon taking their seatsintertwining their fingers, clasping arms, and being otherwise in love. Here's a sweet clip captured by fan account @harry_meghan_updates.



During his speech, Harry spoke about his love for Africa, saying it's where he feels closest to his mother, Princess Diana, and where he realized Meghan was his soulmate.

"Since I first visited Africa at 13 years old, I've always found hope on the continent. In fact, for most of my life, it has been my lifeline, a place where I found peace and healing time and time again," Harry said. "It's where I felt closest to my mother and sought solace after she died, and where I knew I had found a soulmate in my wife. And it's why so much of my work is based there. Because, despite continued hardship, there are people across Africa who embody Mandela's spirit and idealsbuilding on the progress he helped make possible."

Harry is presumably referencing a trip he and Meghan took to Botswana during the early months of their relationship with that "soulmate" comment. He previously spoke about how much the trip meant to him during their post-engagement interview.

"I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana," he said. "We camped out with each other under the stars. She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic. So then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to know each other."



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Forever First Lady, Michelle Obama, is a welcome season of bright energy as she prepares for the release of her new book, THE LIGHT WE CARRY: Overcoming in Uncertain Times. Slated to arrive on November 15, the book is a follow-up to her New York Times #1 bestseller, Becoming.

THE LIGHT WE CARRY will provide readers with new stories and reflective insight on change, power, deeper truths, and the illuminated richness and potential of the world around us. Pulling from her experience as a mother, daughter, wife, and First Lady, she will discuss her personal habits and practices shes adapted like starting kind, going high, and assembling a kitchen table as she continues to become.

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In a statement via Instagram, First Lady Obama shared, Like so many of you, Ive spent a lot of time these past few years thinking about how to keep myself centered in a world filled with so much uncertainty. That process of reflection actually led me to start writing again [] This book is a collection of stories and practices that have helped me sort through all the challenges and questions that keep us up at night: How do I know Im good enough? How do I bring my whole self to the table? How can I overcome my fears?

Recently, First Lady Obama made an appearance on Good Morning America to tout the new project. Check the inspiring interview below.

THE LIGHT WE CARRY: Overcoming in Uncertain Times is currently available for pre-order.

Click here to read the full article.
By Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a Decree amending the Presidential Decree No. 1673 dated December 5, 2019 on measures for implementing renewable energy pilot projects, Trend reports.

According to the decree, the following changes have been made:

- in the title the words "measures for implementing pilot projects" were replaced by the words "additional measures related to the project implementation";

Part 1

- the word "pilot" was deleted from the first paragraph;

- the composition of the Commission established in accordance with this part is set out as follows:

Chairman of the commission

Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan

Commission members

Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan

Deputy Minister of Finance of Azerbaijan

Deputy Minister of Justice of Azerbaijan

Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan

Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan

Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Azerbaijan

Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan

Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan

Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan

Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency

President of Azerenergy Open Joint Stock Company

Chairman of "Azerishig" Open Joint Stock Company;

- In subparagraph 1.2.1 after the word "spheres" the words "and water bodies" are added and the words "within a month" are excluded from this subparagraph;

- In subparagraph 1.2.2, the words "within a month" are excluded;

- Subclause 1.2.3 is set out as follows:

"1.2.3. With the involvement of international consulting companies, ensure the preparation of an agreement on the sale and purchase of electricity, an agreement on connecting power plants to the power grid, an investment agreement and other necessary agreements";

2.6. In subparagraph 1.2.5, the words "within a month" are deleted, at the end of this subparagraph, the dot is replaced by a semicolon, and then an addition follows - subparagraph 1.2.6 of the following content:

"1.2.6. submit proposals to the President of Azerbaijan on expanding incentive mechanisms for investors";

3. Part 2 is set out as follows:

"2. The Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan is tasked with resolving issues stemming from the order."
Observers hope Fridays Ukraine-Russia grain deal will bring down global food prices. Well also look at the challenge of passing affordable housing legislation, one Senate Democrats push to investigate Amazons newest acquisition, and more.

But first, check out the top takeaways from each of the Jan. 6 hearings.

Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, were Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Subscribe here.





Food shipments to resume out of Black Sea

Russia and Ukraine agreed to a deal Friday to open Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, releasing stalled grain shipments into world markets to help alleviate an ongoing food crisis and bring down global prices.

The deal between the two countries was mediated through Turkey, which helped to broker the agreement under the auspices of the United Nations. The ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia has led to a de facto blockade of Black Sea ports that have been unable to export key agricultural goods like fertilizer and grain.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking at a signing ceremony in Istanbul, hailed the deal as a beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan said at the ceremony the agreement would help to ease pressure on sky-high food prices.



Global food prices are up more than 23 percent since last year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.



White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that the United States welcomes the development but said officials would be watching it closely, noting that Russia will need to actually comply with the agreement in order for it to be effective.

Tobias Burns has more here.





LEADING THE DAY

Lawmakers want to expand affordable housing. Communities say, Not in my back yard

Lawmakers are scrambling to pass affordable housing legislation after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threw a wrench into yet another social spending package last week.

Story continues

Manchin also rejected the Biden administrations Build Back Better Act last year, which would have allotted more than $150 billion for housing geared toward the middle class and lower-income Americans.

To get those housing units built, lawmakers from both parties want to boost tax credits that incentivize builders to construct cheaper homes for low-income people in order to offset the often drastically higher profit margins that builders can make putting up homes for the wealthy.



But even with those credits in place, builders are coming up against resistance on the local and state level because low-income housing can depress property values and drag down municipal tax revenues that determine things like the quality of local school districts.



This phenomenon is known as NIMBY-ism, or not in my backyard. It means that even though voters and taxpayers may support government efforts to build more low- and middle-income housing, theyd prefer to have it done somewhere that doesnt affect them personally.

Tobias has more on this here.





NOT SO FAST

Klobuchar asks FTC to investigate Amazons $3.9B move to buy One Medical

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a fierce critic of Amazons market power, is urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the e-commerce giants proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of primary health care provider One Medical.

The Minnesota Democrat, chair of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, asked the FTC in a letter Thursday to investigate the deal over concerns she said it raises about anti-competitive behavior in the pharmaceutical industry and sensitive data it would allow the company to accumulate.

The American Economic Liberties Project has pushed for regulators to block Amazons One Medical Acquisition, calling it dangerous. Krista Brown, a senior policy analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project, said the deal would entrench Amazons growing presence in the healthcare industry in a way that undermines competition and poses serious risks to patients sensitive data.



Klobuchar has been an outspoken critic of the market power of Amazon and other tech giants. Shes the lead sponsor on a bipartisan antitrust reform bill, the American Innovation and Online Choice Act, that aims to keep industry giants, including Amazon, from preferencing their own products over their rivals.

Theres more here from The Hills Rebecca Klar.





New $270 million weapons package

The Biden administration on Friday rolled out a $270 million security assistance package for Ukraine that includes four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and hundreds of tactical drones.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the package includes $175 million in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to send weapons from its own stockpiles.

The remaining $95 million will go toward contracting up to 580 Phoenix Ghost unmanned aerial systems under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

The Pentagon first sent the drones in April, when it included 121 of as part of an $800 million weapons package. The drones are similar to the Switchblade drone, which is a small, rapidly deployable system that can fly short distances and is difficult to detect.



In a statement released later Friday, the Pentagon said that the drawdown package will also contain four command post vehicles and 36,000 rounds of 105mm ammunition, as well as additional anti-armor weapons, spare parts and other equipment.

The Hills Jordan Williams has the rundown here.





Good to Know

Workers in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming are resigning at the highest rate in the country, according to new data from WalletHub.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began and then ebbed, a wave of workers have chosen to leave their jobs as Americans priorities and living situations shifted.

That trend shows no signs of slowing down, with a recent report from McKinsey finding that 40 percent of workers are still planning on leaving their current place of employment.

These are the 10 states with the highest resignation rates.

Heres what else we have our eye on:

The convenience store company 7-Eleven has cut about 880 associate positions as it completes its restructuring after acquiring Speedway, a convenience store and gas station chain, last year.



Jay Carney, a former White House press secretary under former President Obama, is leaving his role as head of Amazons global affairs for a top policy job at Airbnb.



The Department of Justice announced an environmental justice investigation into reports of illegal dumping by the city of Houston in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods.





Thats it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hills Finance page for the latest news and coverage. Well see you next week.





VIEW THE FULL EDITION HERE

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
In this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday, June 13, 2022, a view of the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal plant, in Mariupol, on the territory which is under the Government of the Donetsk People's Republic control, eastern Ukraine. The plant was almost completely destroyed during the siege of Mariupol. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Two Americans recently died in Ukraines eastern Donbas region, the U.S. State Department said Friday.

It was not known whether they had been fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the region, which has been the focus of intense Russian assault and continuing Ukrainian resistance in recent weeks. The State Department provided no further information about their identities or the circumstances of their deaths, citing respect for their families.

U.S. officials are in touch with the families and are providing consular assistance, according to a State Department spokesperson.

At least two Americans are believed to have died while fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers. Willy Joseph Cancel Jr., 22, of Kentucky, a former Marine infantryman, died in late April, according to his family. Stephen Zabielski, 52, of Florida, was killed in mid-May, according to a family obituary.

The two Americans were not a part of the Ukrainian armys International Legion, said a spokesperson from the legion, which has signed up volunteer fighters from around the world since the start of Russias invasion. Earlier this month, the legion released the names of three foreign nationals who had died in combat, two from Brazil and one from France, but said there had also been other casualties.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have taken control of one of the Donbas two provinces, Luhansk, and have continued their push for the other, Donetsk. This week, a top Russian official indicated in an interview with RIA Novosti that Moscow could broaden its territorial ambitions beyond the Donbas to a swath of Ukraines south.

 2022 The New York Times Company
Fundsmith Equity, an investment management firm, published its second-quarter 2022 investor letter  a copy of which can be downloaded here. The Fund underperformed what is perhaps the most obvious comparator  the MSCI World Index ( net), which itself fell by 11.3%  by 6.5 percentage points during the first half of 2022. Go over the funds top 5 positions to have a glimpse of its finest picks for 2022.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Fundsmith Equity Fund mentioned Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1847, Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) is a New York, New York-based multinational tobacco company with a $145.0 billion market capitalization. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) delivered a -1.48% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -3.75%. The stock closed at $93.59 per share on July 21, 2022.

Here is what Fundsmith Equity Fund has to say about Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

"Philip Morris International meanwhile benefited from its low rating, the perceived defensive nature of tobacco and latterly an attractive looking agreement to purchase Swedish Match (NASDAQ:MTCH) to create the undoubted leader in smokeless tobacco products and nicotine pouches. Despite this outperformance, Philip Morris International still ended the quarter as our second most lowly-rated stock."

Cheapest Cigarette Brands in 2018

MeskPhotography/Shutterstock.com

Our calculations show that Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) fell short and didnt make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) was in 55 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2022, compared to 47 funds in the previous quarter. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) delivered a -10.92% return in the past 3 months.

In August 2021, we also shared another hedge funds views on Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
jetcityimage / Getty Images

Formerly known as food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the most important anti-hunger initiative in America. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), SNAP provided food security to about 41.5 million people in 2021, with an average benefit of $218.14 per person.

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Recipients use Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards to receive funds and make purchases, and they can use those cards to buy a whole lot more than just standard groceries. Here's a look at some of the more unusual things that SNAP will pay for.

Twin Design / Shutterstock.com

Energy Drinks -- Some, at Least

You can use SNAP funds to buy energy drinks, but only if they meet the USDA's strict standards. If the energy drink has a "nutritional facts" label, it makes the cut, according to New York SNAP EBT. If it has a "supplemental facts" label, it's considered a supplement and cannot be purchased with EBT. That means Red Bull, Rockstar and Starbucks Double Shot make the grade, but 5 Hour Energy, Bang Shot and Tweaker do not.

Feyyaz Alacam / Shutterstock.com

Coffee and Tea -- the Kind You Make Yourself

You can use SNAP to buy packaged coffee -- not to mention creamer -- and that includes Keurig-style K-cups. You cannot, however, buy coffee that's ready to drink. If you're thinking that you'll make your own coffee at home and just switch to tea when you're out, that won't work either. Tea, too, is limited to packaged and unbrewed because the USDA doesn't allow SNAP funds to be used to buy any hot beverages.

CSNafzger / Shutterstock.com

Hunting and Fishing Gear -- But You Have to Live Way, Way Out There

Even if you live in a rural area and kill what you eat, you can't just swipe your EBT card to pick up a new fiberglass rod at Bass Pro Shops -- but hunting and fishing gear is SNAP-eligible for a very specific and very tiny population. According to the USDA, some residents in the most remote parts of Alaska rely almost exclusively on hunting and fishing to feed their households because of the extreme difficulty involved with buying food at stores.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services gives qualifying households special identification cards. They can't buy guns and ammo, but they can buy things such as nets, rods, harpoons, lines and knives.

hapabapa / iStock.com

Restaurant Meals -- for Certain People in Certain Places

You can't use SNAP to pay for dine-in restaurant meals -- unless you qualify for the SNAP Restaurant Meals Program (RMP) and live in a state that participates in it. RMP serves vulnerable populations like the elderly, people experiencing homelessness and the disabled.

Participating restaurants must offer meals at "concessional prices" to qualifying diners.

While it's not as limited as Alaska's subsistence hunting program, very few states participate in RMP. It's available all over California, Arizona, Michigan, Maryland and Virginia, as well as in select counties in Rhode Island.

Good Question: Does KFC Accept SNAP EBT Cards?

Kyselova Inna / Shutterstock.com

Seeds and Plants

The USDA allows SNAP recipients to buy edible plants like basil or food-producing plants like tomato plants with their EBT cards, as well as seeds for growing their own food. The USDA says you can grow $25 worth of produce for every dollar spent on seeds and fertilizer, yet Modern Farmer says this important inclusion is one of the least known parts of the whole SNAP program.

You can use your EBT card to get seeds and plants at any SNAP-approved retailer, including farmer's markets.

Walmart.com

Gift Baskets -- Depending on What's Inside

The USDA allows you to spend SNAP funds on gift baskets and similar purchases as long as at least half of what's inside is edible. Even if they contain eligible edibles, nonfood items such as toys, stockings and tins don't count if "the value of the non-food part of the item clearly accounts for more than 50% of the purchase price," according to the USDA. The agency gives the example of a stuffed holiday bear that comes with a small package of chocolate: That won't count. A gift basket containing mostly meat and cheese, however, would be acceptable.

Stephanie Botkin / Shutterstock.com

Live Lobsters

Like tobacco, alcohol, vitamins and medicine, live animals are on the USDA's list of items that you can't buy with SNAP benefits. There are, however, a few rare exceptions, including shellfish, "fish removed from the water" and "animals slaughtered prior to pick-up from the store."

That means that, while you can't use your EBT card to buy a puppy from a pet store, you can use SNAP to buy a lobster to bring home to meet its unfortunate fate on your kitchen stovetop.

dontree_m / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Snacks of All Kinds

Most people probably know that SNAP recipients can use their EBT cards to buy household grocery staples such as meat, milk, eggs, vegetables and bread, but what's not as well known is the long list of snacks that are on the USDA's approved list. It includes everything from marshmallows and marzipan to pudding and popsicles.

Cakes, pies, doughnuts, muffins, pastries and all sorts of other things cakey and flaky make the list, as do chips, crisps, popcorn and finger food of all stripes. Ice cream, candy, chocolate, custard, scones, churros and much, much more all get a pass from the USDA -- in fact, if a kid can dream of it, chances are good SNAP will pay for it.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Surprising Things You Can Buy With Food Stamps
KYIV, July 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine has called on the United Nations and Turkey to ensure that Russia fulfills its commitments under the agreement for a safe corridor for grain exports from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Russian missiles hit infrastructure in Ukraine's port of Odesa on Saturday, a day after Russia and Ukraine, with mediation by the United Nations and Turkey, signed a deal to reopen Black Sea ports to resume such exports.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
A US-initiated chip alliance with Asian economies, especially South Korea, is facing criticism from China, which is concerned about losing critical supplies as it seeks to build greater self-sufficiency in semiconductors, according to analysts and media reports.

The so-called Chip 4 Alliance, a partnership envisioned by the US to include South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, is seen by Beijing as Washington's plot to exclude China from semiconductor value chains, with both China's foreign ministry and commerce ministry expressing opposition to the idea.

China is particularly sensitive about the position of South Korea as the country is key to Beijing's semiconductor self-sufficiency drive. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both have plants in China, helping the country to integrate into cross-border value chains.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Amid Washington's efforts to publicly press Seoul into joining the chip coalition, China has stepped up its rhetoric against such a move.

"South Korea should not blindly follow the US and the West in making its China policy", according to an editorial published this week by nationalist tabloid Global Times. It added that China should not be blamed if it takes "countermeasures against South Korea" if the country chooses to side with Washington.

The article echoed comments by China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that China opposes the idea of "weaponising" the chip supply issue, as he urged South Korea to consider its long-term interests.

China is South Korea's biggest trade partner and of South Korea's US$69 billion memory chip exports in 2021, exports to China accounted for 48 per cent, data from the Korea International Trade Association shows.

Story continues

"Decoupling from such a large market is akin to commercial suicide," according to the Global Times editorial.

Beijing's strong reaction to the notion of Seoul joining Chip 4 stems from strategic concerns about its semiconductor self-sufficiency drive, said Kim Yang-paeng, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.

"From China's point of view, Korea is not only a semiconductor supplier, but also a country where semiconductor manufacturing technology can be transferred in the long term," Kim said.

If South Korea sides with the US, cooperation in semiconductor technology between Korea and China is set to become more difficult, Kim said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Un immense embouteillage et la colere des touristes. Le port de Douvres accuse la police aux frontieres francaise de ruiner les vacances des britanniques.

Un manque de personnel de la police francaise au port de Douvres, au sud-est de l'Angleterre et aux origines disputees a entraine vendredi des embouteillages monstres et la colere de Londres, jugeant "inacceptable" ce debut de vacances gache pour de nombreux Britanniques.

Avec le debut des vacances scolaires au Royaume-Uni, il s'agit d'une des periodes les plus chargees pour le port, d'ou partent les ferries vers la France. Avant de traverser la Manche, les passagers doivent faire controler leur passeport par les autorites francaises.

Mais "l'insuffisance de personnel a la frontiere francaise ruine le debut des vacances", a accuse vendredi matin le port dans un communique, deplorant des files des voitures a l'arret et des passagers excedes.

"Dans un nouveau monde de controles post-Brexit et Covid, nous avons travaille pour augmenter de 50% les cabines de controle a la frontiere", indique le port de Douvres mais "le personnel (francais) est insuffisant et loin de ce qui est necessaire pour assurer un premier week-end d'ete fluide".

Une situation "horrible", qui "aurait du etre entierement evitable et est inacceptable", a peste la ministre des Affaires etrangeres Liz Truss dans un communique.

"Il faut que la France prenne des mesures pour augmenter la capacite a la frontiere et limiter de nouvelles perturbations pour les touristes britanniques et eviter cette situation epouvantable a l'avenir", a ajoute la cheffe de la diplomatie britannique, actuellement en campagne pour succeder au Premier ministre Boris Johnson.

Cote francais, le prefet de region Georges-Francois Leclerc a assure que "l'augmentation du trafic ce week-end avait bien evidemment ete anticipee et un dispositif adapte avait ete prepare".

Lire la suite

Mais "un incident technique imprevisible au tunnel sous la Manche a conduit la police aux frontieres" francaise a "decaler d'une heure la pleine capacite operationnelle souhaitee", poursuit le communique, sans plus de precisions. Le dispositif complet n'etait operationnel qu'a 9h45 heure francaise.

50 metres a l'heure

Ce lien de cause a effet a ete conteste par Eurotunnel, qui fait valoir qu'il n'est "pas responsable" de la situation a Douvres. Eurotunnel souligne que les dispositifs de gestion des embouteillages ont ete declenches des le milieu de la nuit, tandis que le probleme de signalisation "mineur" qui a affecte le tunnel sous la Manche est survenu a 7h30.

Des images publiees sur les reseaux sociaux montrent des touristes abandonnant leur vehicule et se rendant a pied au port, valises en main.

John Till, originaire du sud-ouest de l'Angleterre, devait se rendre au port de Douvres vendredi avec sa mere de 87 ans, mais a finalement abandonne l'idee.

"J'emmene ma mere agee voir des amis en Allemagne, donc j'ai un tres long trajet a faire de l'autre cote quand nous arrivons", a-t-il explique. "Je ne pouvais pas courir le risque d'etre coince dans une file d'attente pendant quatre heures sans toilettes".

"Du personnel des douanes francaises est arrive et le trafic reprend doucement", a indique le port en debut d'apres-midi. "Mais il va falloir du temps avant de mettre fin a l'embouteillage."

Certains ont reagi sur les reseaux sociaux, arguant que c'etait l'une des consequences du Brexit.

VIDEO - Depenser moins au quotidien - Vacances : les assurances voyage sont-elles indispensables ?
Ive never been truly hungry or in a position where I wasnt sure where my next meal was coming fromand for that I am grateful.

But I have spent 30 years with someone who knows what thats like, and my companion, Lou, regularly reminds me that once youve been hungry, you never forget it. Every time he says that, I have a vision of Scarlett OHara from Gone With The Wind, clutching a handful of dirt and vowing shell never be hungry again.

Lou spent much of his childhood in New York City orphanages, and when he aged out as an older teen, he lived alone and supported himself on the mean streets of Brooklyn before joining the Marine Corps. There were times he only had a few coins in his pocket and scrimped together enough to buy potato salad. Hes kept a sentimental attachment to the dish all these years and could live off it, provided there were some chicken legs and green beans on the side.

Or any other main dish, for that matter. Hes definitely a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy and theres not an entree that he wouldnt pair with potato salad. We recently got some amazing spiced shrimp, which I ate with slices of homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers with ranch dressing. You can guess what was on Lous plate.

As weve both gotten older, Ive certainly appreciated his perspective as well as his penchant for not wasting. Many times, Ive been ready to toss out a scrap of something in the refrigerator and he claims it. He must have a cast iron stomach, because hes eaten things that looked well past their use-by date to me.

Lou also mixes together items that have no business co-mingling, like half a cup of homemade vegetable soup with remnants of a chicken-spinach-pasta casserole. In the past, I all but lost my lunch at the mere mention of his combinations because, as a child, I wouldnt even let the juice from one food seep onto another on my plate.

But over the years, my culinary tastes have changed while my own sense of frugality has ramped up a few notches, especially as grocery prices have soared. Weve had eat-all-the-leftovers meals that tossed together an assortment of proteins, carbs and vegetables into one plate or bowland as reluctant as I am to admit it, some tasted pretty good.

During nightly phone calls with my mother, I tell her what we had for dinner when were on a quest to clean out the fridge and even shea child of the Great Depressionis somewhat taken aback.

Ive worked with people who turn up their noses at leftovers or wouldnt consider bringing home a restaurant to-go box. A few years ago, we were at a nice restaurant at the Outer Banks in North Carolina and a large group was across the table from us. An older woman ordered the pricey crab cake dinner but ate only one of the two cakes on her plate.

When the waitress asked if she wanted to take the other one with her, she said, no, she didnt have room for it.

I assumed that meant she was staying in a hotel that either didnt have a fridge or one that too small for a box that size. Thats a dilemma, for sure. But Ill be darned if I would have eaten mashed potatoes and the vegetable of the day and let a crab cake go to waste.

But then, were fortunate enough to be able to rent a house while at the beach. Were sure to stock its fridge with any and all leftovers from takeout meals we get while there. Whatever remains at the end of the stay either will be eaten on our last night thereor packed up in the cooler and brought home.

Especially potato salad.
Continued efforts on Capitol Hill by U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger could mean important infrastructure improvements in Spotsylvania County will be made, if the legislation clears the Senate later this year.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 220207 to pass the so-called minibus, a $400 billion spending package for the coming fiscal year. The package includes Spanbergers request for just over $6.4 million in upgrades at Spotsylvanias Motts Run Water Treatment Plant, as well as funds to design and replace the aging water tower on U.S. 1 about one mile south of Cosners Corner at Ondura Drive.

The proposal must now clear the Senate.

Connor Joseph, who serves as communications director for Spanberger, said he expects the appropriations package will get to the Senate by this fall.

It made it through House committees, so its cleared a couple hurdles, Joseph said. Our office is optimistic it will pass through the Senate.

Of the $6,452,972 approved by the House earlier this week, $3,452,972 will go toward the second phase of the water plants expansion project. County officials say its work that needs to be done to help meet the demands of the growing number of residents and businesses who have moved to the region since the plant first opened in 1999.

Ben Loveday, assistant county administrator, said the additional funding for the project will eventually result in a doubling of the Spotsylvania plants current capacity of 12 million gallons-per-day. Loveday said that boost will also help meet the countys growing water demands for residents and businesses in both Spotsylvania County and Fredericksburg through 2045.

The county has experienced a rise in water consumption averaging just over 2% in annual increases for the past 10 years, Loveday said. The Motts (Run) Water Treatment Plant expansion project will provide water service stability and reliability for the region as this growth continues into the future.

The remaining $3 million approved by the House on Wednesday is targeted to design and construct a new 1 million-gallon water tower that will replace the aging 250,000 gallon tank just south of Cosners Corner.

County officials said the bigger new tank will be constructed near Massaponax High School and will provide better service to residents, businesses and even emergency response crews.

The larger tank size also reinforces our fire service operations by providing additional flow duration in the event that it is needed during firefighting efforts, Loveday said.

Four months ago, Spanberger also helped the region by securing $1.84 million for the expansion of the Motts Run plant after President Joe Biden endorsed her legislation.
For the first time since mid-March, the number of people being treated for COVID-19 in Fredericksburg-area hospitals has climbed to more than 30 patients.

But health officials say its too early to determine if this is another surge or a blip on our radar, said Mary Chamberlin, former public information officer for the Rappahannock Area Health District.

She commented on the numbers last week before her contract ended. Chamberlin is among more than 50 health-district workers, hired in 2020 to work on COVID issues, who got two weeks notice that their contracts were ending. Another 19 people initially were affected but their contracts were restored.

Mary Washington Hospital has treated the bulk of virus patients since the pandemic began and the recent uptick has had minimal impact on the intensive care unit, said Dr. M. Stephen Mandell Jr., senior medical director of Mary Washington Healthcare. He said its become rare for a COVID patient to require ICU treatment.

Often, patients are hospitalized for other medical conditions, then discover they have the virus after routine testing.

However, Mandell said those who develop serious illnesses tend to have underlying health conditions or suppressed immune systems due to certain medical conditions or because theyre undergoing treatment for diseases like cancer. They face higher risk from BA.5, the latest and seemingly more contagious subvariant to make its way across the globe.

This is significant, particularly with those more vulnerable in our population, he said. It is important to take this seriously, particularly if one has underlying risk factors. As with any infection, COVID can bring serious consequences to that population.

Hospitalizations tend to be the best indicator of significant COVID-19 disease impact at this point in the pandemic, said Brenden Rivenbark, chief operating officer of the Three Rivers Health District, which includes Westmoreland County and other localities in the Northern Neck. Theyre also a lagging indicator and typically occur one or two weeks after cases go up as a persons condition worsens.

From mid-March to mid-July, COVID-19 hospitalizations at Mary Washington, Stafford Hospital and Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center ranged from the teens to high 20s, according to the local health district. Then, on Monday, July 18, the health district reported 30 patients and on Friday, 32 people hospitalized.

Cases and hospitalizations have been climbing across the area, state and nation in wake of BA.5, an omicron subvariant thats highly transmissible, even among those whove had past immunity due to vaccines or previous infections.

A stuffy nose and sore throat seem to be the predominant symptoms of the variant, Rivenbark said.

Mandell maintains that the unvaccinated still face higher risks from this variant, and that being vaccinatedand boostedremains a persons best defense against a serious case of COVID.

However, only half of local residents who have been fully vaccinated have had a booster shot, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

In the Rappahannock Area Health District, which includes Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford, 217,405 people have been fully vaccinated. Thats 60% of the population, ages 5 and older.

Only 30% of the same age group has had a booster shot or additional dose, according to state data.

Other factors beyond a highly contagious subvariant may be causing cases, and hospitalizations, to rise again, said Dr. Ekta Gupta, who works with infectious diseases at Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center. She believes its because people are not wearing masks as oftenif at alland because theyve resumed travel and other activities.

There seems to be an attitude of we will always have to live with COVID so lets get back to the way we used to conduct business or live our lives, Gupta said. We also have less travel restrictions, less mask mandates and we are not keeping up with vaccine recommendations.

The doctor believes advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has proven to help us get to this point, and I hope there is more progress to come.

However, other recommendations have changed in Virginia recently, just weeks before students are expected to head back to school. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced on July 14 that those exposed to someone with COVID-19 at child care, schools or camp settings no longer have to undergo mandatory quarantine.

He said the pandemic is disrupting workplaces and family life when entire child care facilities, camps and classrooms shutter in response to as few as two cases. Youngkin said he opted for the optional quarantine after exposure as the severity of the disease decreases.

Health district representatives will meet with school officials this week to discuss the new quarantine guidance and offer any clarification they can, Chamberlin said.

It is important to note that isolation guidance for those infected with COVID has not changed, she said. The best recommendation for all of us to follow is that if were sick, we need to stay home.

She also said testing continues to be an important tool.

As of Friday, the positivity rate, which measures the rate of positive tests among all those taken, was 26%. However, that doesnt includes at-home tests, and some health officials estimate the number of casesand there were 892 new ones in the RAHD last weekactually may be six to 10 times higher than whats being reported.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Azernews reports.

Dear Mr. President,

I cordially congratulate you and through you, your entire people on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Arab Republic of Egypt  the Revolution Day.

It is gratifying to see the current level of the ties between our countries that celebrate 30 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. I believe that the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between Azerbaijan and Egypt will continue to evolve and expand through our joint efforts both bilaterally and multilaterally.

On this festive day, I wish you good health, happiness, success in your endeavors, and everlasting peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Egypt.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan
Extreme heat forced the National Park Service to delay Saturday night's History at Sunset program on the Chancellorsville battlefield.

With a heat index in the high 90s forecast into the evening, the public, ranger-led program at the Fairview historic site was postponed to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, David Byers, the national park's acting branch manager for interpretation, said in a statement Saturday.

Due to this adjustment, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park shuffled its summer programs. For updates, see the new schedule at nps.gov/frsp or on the park's Facebook page.

The program, "Present for Duty 300: Walking with the 27th Indiana at Chancellorsville," will trace the footsteps of a hard-fighting volunteer regiment and glimpse the experience of its soldiers during the May 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. Meet at Fairview (Tour Stop #10 on the Battle of Chancellorsville Driving Tour).

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the History at Sunset program series led by park rangers is back at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

The series focuses on lesser-known stories and historical perspectives connected with sites throughout the park.

It started July 9 with stories of resistance and self-emancipation among enslaved people at Chatham Manor in southern Stafford County across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg.

Programs are free, take place every other Saturday starting at 6:30 p.m., and last about 90 minutes. Most include walking, with distances ranging from about a half to one mile. Participants are recommended to bring bug spray and water, and to wear sturdy and comfortable walking shoes.

To learn more about these and other park offerings, including the Junior Ranger program, special events, living history presentations and guided walking tours, stop by the park's visitor centers and historic sites, call 540-693-3200 or visit nps.gov/frsp.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Parkthe park's full, official nameencompasses the sites of four major battles spanning 18 crucial months of the American Civil War.

The four battles caused more than 100,000 casualties, making the area the most blood-soaked ground in the United States.

The constant presence of the warring armies left Fredericksburg and its surrounding farmland and forests devastated, but ended bondage for thousands of enslaved people in the region.
In just the second week back after its long pandemic darkening, the Library of Congress' Packard Campus Theater in Culpeper will again close due to COVID-19 and the recent rise in local cases.

That means Elvis fans will have to wait to see him in "Viva Las Vegas," the film that had been scheduled to be shown Saturday afternoon.

At the Packard Campus, National Audio Visual Conservation Center Moving Image Curator Rob Stone made the announcement before noon Friday, reporting that the federal Centers for Disease Control's COVID-19 Community Spread Level for Culpeper County is now "high."

Out of an abundance of caution and to safeguard the health of the public and Packard Campus employees, the public screenings for this weekend at the Packard Campus theater are canceled, Stone said in a statement. We will continue to monitor the CDC status and will provide updates for future screenings on a week-by-week basis.

According to CDC data, nearly 71 percent of Culpeper County residents are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Data for July 22 also places Culpeper near the top of the list of Virginia localities contributing to the state's COVID cases.
A disturbing level of disbelief greeted recent reports of a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim who had to cross state lines into Indiana for an abortion.

The tragic situation first came to light in a July 1 Indianapolis Star story. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, told the newspaper that shed been contacted by a colleague in Ohio about a young patient. The child could not get an abortion in her home state after Ohios ban on abortions after six weeks took effect following the U.S. Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade in late June.

The story went viral and was met with broad skepticism. A Wall Street Journal editorial called it an abortion story too good to confirm. A Washington Posts fact-checker downplayed the Stars report as a one-source story. Charges against a 27-year-old Ohio man, who police said admitted to raping the young girl, eventually confirmed the story.

This tragic illustration of why broad and unbending abortion bans are wrong shouldnt have strained credulity, particularly in Minnesota. The state Health Department provides an annual report on induced abortions. Even a cursory read clarifies that the young Ohio rape victims plight is unusual but heartbreakingly plausible. While theres not enough granularity to confirm that the same situation has happened in Minnesota, there is enough to say that it could happen thereand likely already has.

In 2021, a total of 10,136 abortions were reported in Minnesota. Unlike annual reports from many neighboring states, this one explains why patients sought this medical procedure. Rape or incest are uncommon reasons but still happen in numbers that cannotand should notbe dismissed.

In 2021, 44 of those who obtained an abortion in Minnesota said the pregnancy resulted from rape, while 11 cited incest. In 2020, these figures were 49 and 7, respectively.

While Minnesota doesnt provide the age of those who reported these reasons for an abortion, it does provide more detail than many other states about the age of those seeking abortions.

In 2021, 20 abortion patients in the state were younger than 15. In 2020, 28 patients fell into this age group. Minnesotas age of consent for sexual activity: 16.

Its not a stretch to believe that some of these young patients became pregnant due to rape or incest. Its also essential to understand the pregnancy risk in this age group. Children, quite simply, arent ready to bear children.

While access to abortion is unlikely to change in Minnesota due to a state Supreme Court ruling protecting abortion rights, the issue is likely to be high profile heading into the fall elections there and elsewhere. The availability of the states annual report on abortions, which can be found online, and the detail it provides should inform political debate here.

Those who propose stricter access to abortion in Minnesota or elsewhere should understand who will be affected by any changes, particularly when it involves young children. The disbelief that greeted the 10-year-old Ohio rape victims plight reflects a debate on this critical health issue that remains callous and regrettably ill-informed.

Star Tribune
The leaders of the nations military have been telling us for years that climate change and its far-reaching effects are a threat to our security. Now they are actively and wisely trying to include considerations about climate change in how they carry out their mission.

In the foreword to the Department of Defense Climate Risk Analysis report submitted to the National Security Council in October, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called climate change an existential threat. The DCRA was created in response to one of President Joe Bidens first executive orders, one that officially made climate change considerations an essential element of United States foreign policy and national security.

In reality, military leaders have for some time been sounding the alarm and doing what they could to deal with the problems driven by climate change and to prepare for whatever the future might hold. That hasnt been easy when some people in key positions were still trying to deny the reality of climate change.

Now that its official national policy to make climate change considerations an integral part of all defense planning, strategy, and preparation, it should be easier for the military to take the strong actions that will be needed to deal with this challenge.

Residents of Hampton Roads know first-hand some of the problems climate change poses for the U.S. Navy. Sea level rise and flooding threaten Naval Station Norfolk, the largest navy base in the world. The regions other military installations, including Navy bases, Langley Air Force Base, and other facilities along the water, are also already battling flooding. The water also complicates life for military families and the communities they are a part of. Urgent and extensive efforts are needed to increase resilience, reduce flooding, and control erosion.

The problems the Navyand all our militaryface from climate change reach far beyond those obvious threats to strategic bases.

The ice that has largely kept the Arctic region closed is melting and breaking up. That means ships will be able to navigate there much of the year, and other nationsmost notably Russiawill be competing with us and our NATO allies for control of shipping lanes and access to untapped natural resources.

The more frequent and severe droughts, sea-level rise, flooding, fires, and storms caused by climate change will likely contribute to global instability, with food shortages, increased migrations, and fierce competition for resources including food supplies and fresh water. Countries such as China may try to take advantage of the changing conditions.

Climate-related massive storms and other disasters could further disrupt the global supply chains that are now struggling because of COVID. Calls for humanitarian aid after disasters could stretch the ability of our military to guard U.S. security while helping those in need.

Our defense leaders are right to try to understand these and other potential security threats. We need to protect our bases from floods and rising seas. We must prepare and train for more Arctic action. Climate-change considerations should help shape our decisions about such things as what ships, planes, and equipment are needed, where our troops should be deployed and how best to deal with disasters and instability.

The military, of course, also is a major contributor to climate change and related problems. The Navy and other services should redouble efforts to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, as well as to minimize erosion and stormwater runoff that contribute to flooding.

Climate change is real and already having devastating effects. We cant separate dealing with climate change from dealing with national security. We cant separate protecting the environment from protecting our country and way of life. They are inextricably linked.

Defense leaders are right to factor climate change considerations into all their planning and strategy. Climate change is bringing profound changes to the local, national, and global landscape. Understanding that is essential to protecting our security and our future.

VirginianPilot
Great Plains Communications (GPC), a Midwestern digital infrastructure provider with a growing, privately-owned 16,500+ mile fiber network reaching 13 states, recently announced Joseph Pellegrini has been appointed as GPCs vice president of new market development. Pellegrini will report directly to the CEO of Great Plains Communications, Todd Foje.

In his new role, Pellegrini will lead the development and implementation of the companys fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) strategic growth initiative to residential customers in new markets, as well as aggressive expansion in current Midwestern markets. GPCs FTTH service offerings include gigabit speed symmetrical fiber internet, GPC Managed Wi-Fi, GPC iTV streaming video, and voice.

With more than 20 years of demonstrated leadership experience within operations, telecommunications, wireless deployment, and construction management, Pellegrini has implemented effective growth and leadership strategies to successfully expand businesses. Previously, Pellegrini served as chief operating officer and executive vice president of Everstream Solutions. He also served in executive and senior management roles at Crown Castle, formerly Lightower, and Fibertech Networks.

Great Plains Communications is one of the largest privately-owned digital infrastructure providers in the Midwest and is headquartered in Blair. It has over a century of experience providing business and residential customers in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Southeastern Indiana communities with forward-thinking, fiber-based technology services including high-speed internet, Ethernet, video, hosted and traditional voice solutions.
Art sought for exhibition

The Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs (NDVA), in conjunction with New Century Art Guild and Uniting Us, announces a call for women veteran artists of Nebraska to submit artwork to the Celebrating Their Service traveling women veteran artist exhibition.

All mediums are welcome, with three submissions allowed per veteran. Submissions are due by Aug. 30, 2022.

The number of women veterans is growing rapidly, as is their use of the VA for healthcare, said NDVA Women Veterans Coordinator Erin Colson. Stories of their military service deserve greater attention, and many women veterans tell these stories through art which can be a very therapeutic process, helping veterans cope with many issues, both physical and mental.

The art exhibitions starting point will be at the Nebraska Women Veterans Symposium at the Holiday Inn in Kearney on Sept. 24-25, after which it will travel the state (future locations to be announced). A submission form and additional details are available at veterans.nebraska.gov/womenveterans.

For questions about the exhibition or submitting artwork, contact Erin Colson at Erin.Colson@va.gov or Troy Muller at TMuller@newcenturyartguild.org.
At its recent commencement ceremony on May 7, Peru State College and its President, Dr. Michael Evans, granted masters degrees to 82 individuals.

Peru State College offers two graduate programs  a Master of Science in Education  Curriculum and Instruction and a Master of Science in Organizational Management.

The following area students were awarded masters degrees:

Fremont: Sadie Marie Jaline Brown, Master of Science in Education  Curriculum and Instruction; Samuel W. McCormick, Master of Science in Education  Curriculum and Instruction; Anna White, Master of Science in Education  Curriculum and Instruction;

Wahoo: Jessie Krien Belford, Master of Science in Organizational Management; Jacob Scheef, Master of Science in Education  Curriculum and Instruction;

Waterloo: Anna Claire Engelbert, Master of Science in Education  Curriculum and Instruction.

West Point: Paige Emma Faeth, Master of Science in Education  Curriculum and Instruction.
UN representatives for Afghanistan have visited the countrys southeast to discuss the speedy delivery of humanitarian assistance to the region where hundreds of people were killed in a powerful earthquake last month.

Markus Potzel and Ramiz Alakbarov, deputy special representatives of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister of the Taliban-led government and local leaders in Khost Province on July 22, Afghan media reported.

In a gathering that was also attended by earthquake-affected families, UN officials pledged to accelerate the delivery of aid for the victims, the reports said.

Tolonews quoted Potzel as saying that the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will construct shelters for nearly 2,000 families who have lost their homes.

UNAMA said on Twitter that a UN team is on the ground delivering much-needed essentials, including food, water, medical care, and temporary shelters, to affected communities and families.

UN plans to work with experts to conduct seismological studies on the broader region, it added.

The 5.9-magnitude quake struck villages in mountainous regions of Paktika and Khost provinces near the countrys border with Pakistan on June 22, flattening homes and triggering landslides. At least 1,150 people were killed in the quake, and hundreds more were injured. Tens of thousands were left homeless.

The UN humanitarian coordination organization, OCHA, launched an appeal for $110 million to urgently help 362,000 people for the next 90 days in the hardest-hit areas.

The disaster has posed a challenge for the Taliban-led government, which is not recognized by any country and is already battling a severe humanitarian disaster.

Taliban rulers have pledged that they would not interfere with international efforts to distribute aid to those affected by the earthquake.

Based on reporting by Tolo News and Bakhtar News
Pakistan has reported its 13th case of the wild polio virus this year, as the country looks to contain a disease mostly eradicated elsewhere in the world.

The latest case was recorded in the Lakki Marwat area in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 22 and involved an 18-month-old undernourished boy, health officials said.

The previous 12 cases were reported in the same provinces North Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, near the Afghan border.

This is the first polio case reported from outside of the North Waziristan district where vaccinators were still facing serious challenges in reaching out to children due to resistance from local religious leaders and unwilling parents, provincial health officials told Reuters.

The latest outbreak prompted Pakistan to launch a new, nationwide anti-polio vaccination drive on June 27 to inoculate 12.6 million children under the age of five.

Militant groups often attack polio vaccination teams and police officers assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. More than 100 health workers and their security guards have been killed in Pakistan since 2012.

Pakistan regularly launches anti-polio campaigns in an effort to eradicate the highly infectious disease that paralyses children.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Dawn.com
By Trend

Panel discussions on "Shusha city's trace in Azerbaijani press" have been held within the first International Media Forum on "Global trends and new challenges in mass media" in Shusha, organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency, Trend reports.

The discussions, moderated by Azerbaijani MP, Chief Editor of Azernews newspaper Sevil Mikayilova, were held with participation of the Director of the Center for Strategic Studies of Iraq Mats Mukhi Abdulhamid Obada, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting CJSC Rovshan Mammadov, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Journalists Union Elchin Shikhli and Chief Editor of Azad Shusha website Karim Karimli.

The participants of the panel session discussed the role of Shusha and its historical significance in the development of Azerbaijani journalism, as well as its ideological orientation in the post-conflict period [following the 2020 second Karabakh war].
A measure to legalize psychedelic mushrooms and create a system of healing centers across Colorado has made it onto the November ballot.

The Natural Medicine Health Act, otherwise known as Initiative 58, has qualified for the general election ballot, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.

The office said in a news release that projections predicted the number of valid petition signatures at 138,760, which is 14,128 or 110% more than required.

If the measure is passed on Nov. 8, the Centennial State would become the second state to legalize psychedelic mushrooms; Oregon voters approved a similar measure in 2020.

Denver was the first city in the country to decriminalize the substance in 2019.

The initiative would essentially create a legal, regulated market across the state for psilocybin and psilocin, the hallucinogenic compound found in certain strains of mushrooms.

However, Coloradans under 21 could not purchase the substances and the mushrooms would only be available at healing centers that receive a license from the state.

Those in favor of the initiative point to research on the possible positive impacts psychoactive mushrooms can have. Some of these studies have revealed psilocybin can alleviate symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

If the ballot measure is passed, the Department of Regulatory Agencies must adopt rules on the requirements to become a facilitator by Jan. 1, 2024, and would begin accepting license applications by Sept. 30 of that year.

The initiative would also establish a 15-member advisory board that would advise DORA on the implementation of the natural medicine program.

It would also decriminalize possession and use of psilocybin across the state.
Law enforcement agencies in Colorado Springs and El Paso County are experiencing a shortage of emergency dispatchers.

Colorado Springs City Council President Tom Strand says Police Chief Adrian Vasquez has 20% fewer dispatchers than are required, and Councilman Bill Murray says there is a shortage of 33 dispatchers.

According to Murray, the shortage of 911 operators has caused sluggish response times and people calling 911 have even been put on hold. To him, this is the "epitome of failure."

Murray highlighted the natural risks  such as wildfires that are ever-present in the Colorado Springs area  and warned that a major issue would need a "sizable response." The city currently could not deliver that sizable response because of staffing, he said.

"We bet nothing bad will happen, and so we shortchange ourselves on police, fire and dispatch," he said. "There'll be a payback and, unfortunately, the city is not the one who will pay for it."

So far, Murray says, no one has taken him up on his offer to get resources needed to address the shortage.

Hiring a 911 dispatcher is not as simple as submitting an application. Dispatchers require specific training to deal with sometimes traumatizing 911 calls.

Training can take several weeks to months. According to Ben Bills, the 911 authority public information officer, his training to become a dispatcher at the El Paso County Sheriff's Office took six months.

The 911 authority serves as a liaison among all law enforcement departments. But they do not hire the dispatchers; hiring falls to each department. The 911 authority does offer training for new dispatchers, but it's limited to the most basic level.

"Training at the 911 authority is the initial protocol training," he said. "After that, each agency has their own specifics."

And according to Strand, not everyone is cut out for that kind of work.

"It's a pretty stressful job. I spoke with retirees from 911 operations, and they said compensation is not the big issue  it's finding the right personalities to help someone in a 911 situation."

Murray said he will support anything the agencies need to shore up their staffing levels.

While police in Colorado Springs were not able to immediately provide comment, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office offered some insight into the hiring process. According to Deborah Mynatt, the Sheriff's Office's public information officer, they are currently nine dispatchers short from a full staff of 60.

The county also is training 11 individuals who will become either dispatchers or call takers.

Mynatt says EPSO has been running a "robust recruiting effort," which has started to bear fruit.

"This has been working as we are receiving more interest and applicants," Mynatt said in an email. "Both positions (dispatchers and call takers) are continuously open to allow for a larger pool of quality candidates."

Mynatt said the department is offering a slew of benefits. These include wellness programs, leadership training opportunities and health insurance, among others.

The Colorado Springs Police Department offers similar benefits to those who become dispatchers.

Strand expressed optimism for the future, saying "We can definitely tackle it."

He said his priority right now is to work with Chief Vasquez and human resources to get 911 fully staffed.

Strand also said the shortage affects police officers, who are about 100-150 people short.

Addressing this, Strand referred to a new police academy program to bring those numbers up.

Those interested in becoming a police officer or working in the communications center should look to the Colorado Springs government website. There you can see a list of benefits, requirements and skills needed for each position.

The link to the communications center jobs is here: https://bit.ly/3PJaWzg. The link to become a sworn in police officer is here: https://bit.ly/2uMfPAF. Additional hiring steps will be required for those interested in becoming a police officer.
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.
Petula McShiras is a senior immigration attorney with Shaftel Law in Colorado Springs and president of the Colorado chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
By Trend

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov received Special Representative of Russia's Foreign Ministry Igor Khovaev for the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations on July 22, Trend reports.

The sides exchanged views on the current regional situation, including the steps taken as part of the normalization talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The meeting stressed the importance of implementing the trilateral statements signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian, and Armenian leaders, as well as noted the significance of mobilizing efforts to advance the normalization process and achieve concrete results.

Other regional issues of mutual interest were also addressed at the meeting.
In case you missed it  summer's most popular meteor shower is set to peak tonight above Colorado, with the celestial event remaining active through September 1.
MAQUOKETA  Three people from Cedar Falls died Friday morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation identified the dead as Tyler Schmidt, 42, Sarah Schmidt, 42, and Lula Schmidt, 6.

Their deaths are being investigated as homicides, according to a news release from the Iowa DCI. A fourth person was found deceased of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green issued a statement late Friday on Facebook saying the family was camping at the state park. The Schmidts' 9-year-old son, Arlo, was also there. He "survived the attack, and is safe," said Green.

Green identified the family as his neighbors and said Sarah Schmidt was a Cedar Falls Public Library employee.

"Like many of you just hearing the news, I'm devastated," he wrote in the Facebook post. "I knew Sarah well, and she & her family were regular walkers here in the Sartori Park neighborhood." He had spent some time working with her during the past week on a presentation.

"Details will be forthcoming about services and other memorials, and I will ensure the community knows about this," Green wrote. "Please offer some extra grace to the Schmidts' many friends, neighbors, and coworkers as we try to process this horrible tragedy." The Cedar Falls Library was closed Saturday "for the sake of the staff who loved and worked with Sarah," he added.

Found at campsite

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office and DCI were called about 6:23 a.m. for a report of a shooting at the park campground, Mike Krapfl, a special agent in charge with DCI, said during a news conference late Friday morning.

"When officers arrived, they located three deceased bodies at a campsite," Krapfl said. He did not have information as of late Friday morning on how the Schmidts were killed.

As officers searched the campground, they learned one other camper was missing.

"He was later identified as 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin and we had information that he was armed at the time," Krapfl said.

Sherwin was found dead about 11 a.m. west of the park. He had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Krapfl said he believed Sherwin was from Nebraska, but could not say if a firearm had been recovered.

Investigators were still trying to figure out what relationship, if any, there was between the Schmidts and Sherwin, Krapfl said.

The park will be closed until further notice because of the investigation.

Crowded park

Other people were in the park at the time and at least some of them were evacuated.

"The campground was relatively full," Krapfl said, though he did not have the exact number of people who were in the park when police arrived.

"Officers made contact with all the campers, tried to get as many out as they could," Krapfl said.

There was believed to be no further threat to the public.

One employee at Maquoketa Caves said that, at about 8 a.m., she was given the option to go home after police arrived and the park was locked down in response to the report of a shooting.

Parents with children attending the nearby Camp Shalom were notified Friday morning that it also was locked down.

"We were just notified that there is an active shooter at Maquoketa Caves," according to a Friday morning message to campers' parents. "Our top priority is camper safety, and we are following the protocols."

Fridays are usually pick-up days for campers at the Christian-focused camp. It is about a mile and a half away from the Maquoketa Caves, said executive assistant Beth Sallak.

But plans changed at 9:11 a.m., when local law enforcement sent a notification to the directors that there was an active shooter situation at the state park, and told them to evacuate immediately.

So, Sallak said, staff shifted gears.

We told the campers, Were going to do a surprise visit to Little Bear Park in Maquoketa. They all cheered, and we loaded everyone on the bus. They had no idea there was an active shooter a mile and a half down the road.

She complimented the staff for staying calm and quickly changing plans, as theyve trained to do in emergencies. Campers this week ranged in ages from second graders to seniors in high school.

Nobody expects for this to happen. The Maquoketa caves? Come on," Sallak said. "Its one of the safest places you can be. I take my kids there, I hike there with my friends. That doesnt mean you cant in the back of your mind be prepared.

Camp Shalom will continue to host campers until the end of the summer, which will be two more weeks.

Well continue to keep campers safe, happy, and hydrated, slept and well-fed. Were just going to move forward as we normally we do, Sallak said.

Officials respond

State officials issued statements about Fridays incident.

Im horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said. As we grieve this unimaginable tragedy, Kevin and I pray for the victims family members and the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene. We ask Iowans to do the same.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said on Twitter he was "closely monitoring" the situation in Maquoketa Caves State Park.

"Praying for the lives lost & their loved ones Im grateful for Iowa law enforcement who responded +camp staff for ensuring safety of other campers Violence cant be tolerated Killing innocent ppl is sickening," Grassley tweeted.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, likewise, wrote on Twitter: "I am heartbroken to hear of the tragedy in Maquoketa Caves State Park and am praying for the victims and their families. My staff and I are following the situation. Thankful for all of the responding law enforcement."

Kayla Lyon, Iowa Department of Natural Resources director, said she and the DNR staff were also devastated by the incident.

Our long standing tradition of enjoying Iowas natural wonders was shaken today, but the legacy for the millions of families that recreate at Iowa state parks will continue, Lyon said.

Courier staff and Quad-City Times reporters Brooklyn Draisey and Sarah Watson contributed to this story.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Lula Schmidt's name.
The debut tour of a simulated clinical learning vehicle made its way through Mason City on Wednesday to teach Mason City Fire Department and Ambulance Service how to handle different scenarios they may encounter next week during RAGBRAI.

Simulation in Motion-Iowa (SIM-IA) is a new program through the University of Iowa, funded by an $8 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. This program funds three SIM-IA trucks in the state for three years. The first is making its way through the RAGBRAI route to debut its services.

Simulation in Motion has been funded in five Midwest states to bring free clinical training to rural areas.

"Unfortunately the first things to go during budget cuts is usually training," program Director Al Fear said during training in Mason City. "SIM-IA works to provide free education to rural areas in Iowa."

For areas like Mason City, that have a response time of up to 30 minutes in rural areas, clinical training in different scenarios is important. SIM-IA helps to prepare first responders for scenarios both common and uncommon.

"We collaborate with community members on what they specifically need to train on. Usually with clinical training there are a lot of limitations based on location and availability. SIM-IA allows a wide range of training opportunities throughout the state of Iowa," SIM-IA Senior Advisor Jacinda Bunch said as she showed off the truck.

Inside the truck are two simulated spaces: an ER in the front and an ambulance in the back. A family of mannequins reside in the truck, with an adult female with birthing capabilities, a baby with a heart beat and lung sounds, a young male and adult male with the ability to talk. Needle decompression and intubation stations are also available.

Two simulation computers sit between the ER and ambulance. The doors shut to leave the trainees alone in their simulation, with teachers on each computer speaking through the patient and watching through cameras inside the rooms. The mannequins are wireless and can be moved into ambulances and hospitals in rural areas for training in their spaces.

"(SIM-IA) gives EMTs, first responders and rural hospitals the opportunity to work some real simulations rather than just talking about it" said Bunch.

Mason City Fire Department and Ambulance Service worked on four stations from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday. Groups worked on a female showing signs of heat exhaustion, a young male hit by a vehicle, a baby that had fallen from a bike seat and an adult male in a bicycle crash.

"I don't like getting these calls," a first responder said when working on the young male hit by a vehicle. "It makes everything more stressful." A SIM-IA staff member responded that training like this helps prepare responders for moments like these, which may not be common but require calm, quick action.

Groups interacted with each situation, talking with the mannequins to assess injuries and provide treatment. Each station had a speaker for the mannequin to provide a more realistic patient situation, as well as vitals and tools to treat on scene, in an ambulance and in the emergency room. The training left Mason City Fire Department and Ambulance Service more prepared for RAGBRAI.
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Back in the days when traveling across the country was like going to the moon, Doris Jones found a lifelong pen pal.

Jones, 88, hadnt been 100 miles from her Danville home when she got an American Girl magazine and wrote three of the girls whose pictures and apparently addresses were listed.

I thought it would be neat to write someone, so I wrote a girl from Albuquerque, New Mexico, one from Hilo, Hawaii, and one from Yugoslavia, Jones recalled. I got a picture back from the girl in Hawaii, but Ive been pen pals with Nancy Cooper Faw since about 1945.

Faw, who is two years younger than Jones, grew up, got married and moved to Alameda, California, as Jones went to Averett University and, in her words, got married much too young. She eventually started volunteering for what is now the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History and wound up working there for about 20 years.

While there she was in charge of the volunteers, catering and marketing. She also raised two daughters, Susan and Katharine, and one son, Bill, who now live out of town. All three children email or call her every day to check on her.

Nancy was a sweet little girl and stayed that way her whole life, Jones said. We write back and forth two or three times a year and especially at Christmastime.

The two women have shared many experiences through the years. Some of them were poignant things, such as both losing a child.

Faw remembers writing to American Girl, even though she doesnt know what I said or why.

I was shyer and quieter and writing was more appropriate for me, she said. As the years go by we write less and less, though. Its about down to a Christmas card now.

Both had an interest in theater. Faw, her husband and children were active in a theater group in their lives, and Doris enjoyed traveling up to New York for Broadway shows.

Shes been to see eight Broadway plays and calls herself starstruck. On her trips she was able to see Leonard Bernstein, Rod Taylor, Vivian Leigh, George Scott and Jack Lemon.

The only time I ever called her was when her husband died, said Jones. I invited her and her children to come here.

They almost met in 1974 when Jones and her husband, Bill, took a trip out West.

Bill didnt like to make plans, but I told Nancy we were going to visit her, John said. We went through Albuquerque and then to California. But Nancy and her family were visiting family back in New Mexico. Going to see her was one of the things in life I had hoped to do.

Faw has also been to the East Coast, especially visiting her son who lived in Brooklyn for years. She thinks she might have driven through Virginia once, but isnt sure of that.

Years ago when we were growing up, we shared a lot of experiences that young girls do, said Faw. Then we both got married and shared news and pictures about our families. Then we got busy but we have maintained a connection.

Jones said she felt like the two were best friends at George Washington High where Jones graduated in 1952. She was Doris Ann Thompson then and was active on the Chatterbox school newspaper, always having an interest in journalism.

Faw remembers Jones calling her when her husband died about 10 years ago.

I was surprised she called, Faw said. I remember I had never heard her voice and was surprised when she had a Southern accent.

Jones called her a decent, all-American girl.

Shes been so kind, said Jones. It was just a chance in a lifetime to just pick out of a magazine. I dont know why its so special, but its been a long time to write someone.
The North Carolina Association of Educators is opposing a proposal to switch from paying teachers based on their years of experience to basing it on their performance.

A state commission is working on a new licensure and compensation model that would pay teachers based on their ratings on student test scores or evaluations and whether theyre willing to take on additional duties.

In a statement Thursday, NCAE charged that the new model would create an enigmatic evaluation method for teachers and threatens to withhold raises or revoke a teachers license if they fail to meet these benchmarks.

NCAE said more than 1,000 teachers voiced their displeasure with the proposal at a town hall last week.

For the sake of our children and the teaching profession, we need to fund what we know works adequately, NCAE said in its statement. We dont need to reinvent the wheel on licensure and compensation with a pipeline plan designed to leak.

The Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission hopes to present a final model in September to the State Board of Education for its approval later this year. It would be up to state lawmakers whether to fund the plan.

The NCAE opposition comes as the plan has received the backing of members of the business community. The Charlotte-based Belk Foundation provided a grant to fund a public relations campaign to get the plan approved, WFAE (90.7FM) reported.

North Carolina has an opportunity to design a system that invites diverse and capable educators into the profession, provides the support they deserve, and then offers options for them to grow in their career, the Belk Foundation said in a statement released July 12. We believe the current process of review and recommendation by the PEPSC commission and then review and approval by the NC State Board of Education is allowing for the engagement of key stakeholders.

We believe there are many opportunities to strengthen the teaching profession and look forward to the work of PEPSC and the State Board of Education.

Basing pay on effectiveness

Currently, North Carolina teachers start at a state base salary of $37,000. They get annual state raises for their first 15 years, then less frequent raises after that. The scale tops out at $54,000, but school districts and the state often supplement the base pay.

Teachers can get state bonuses based on their students test scores, but its not built into their base salary.

But under the new model, there would be seven levels ranging from $30,000 for aspiring teachers who havent yet received a bachelors degree up to the highest level, where the proposed minimum salary is $73,000.

Instead of advancing up with each year of experience, teachers would move up based on whether theyre considered to be effective. Teachers can meet these standards based on student growth on state tests or reviews by their principal, a higher-level teacher and student surveys.

The highest-paid positions would go to effective teachers who take on additional leadership roles in their schools.

Marketing the new model

Justin Parmenter, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle school teacher and NCAE board member, has detailed on his Notes From the Chalkboard blog the behind-the-scenes effort to get the new model approved. He obtained hundreds of emails as part of a public records request to the state Department of Public Instruction.

The emails show that the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board and the North Carolina Human Capital Roundtable helped develop the new model. Other emails show that SREB, the Roundtable and the public relations firm of Eckel & Vaughn plan to create a group called UpliftEd to promote the new model.

The emails show that former North Carolina governors Jim Hunt and Jim Martin agreed to be UpliftEds honorary co-chairmen before Hunt opted to back out this month.

Other emails discuss avoiding talking about the complexity of the plan, developing a proactive media strategy and working to gain greater control of the narrative.

One email includes notes from a March conversation by State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, State Board of Education member Jill Camntiz and PEPSC chairman Patrick Miller about trying to stop EdNC, an education news site, from surveying teachers about the proposal.

How should NC pay teachers?

Amid the criticism, the Belk Foundation argues the work the Roundtable and SREB has done is needed to address significant challenges such as fewer people wanting to be teachers.

The licensure process remains complicated with effective teachers unable to become licensed, Belk said in its statement. Furthermore, compensation is a significant issue, especially in the early years, and for teachers taking on additional work without appropriate compensation or promotion.

In its position statement, NCAE argues that the state should not gamble on an untested proposal rejected by other states. NCAE contends that the new model is more complex and could lead to teachers not getting annual salary increases and having the extra pay from advanced licenses stripped at any time for any reason.

North Carolina needs a teacher licensure program that respects teachers expertise, rewards their time in the profession, and offers support throughout the duration of their career, Tamika Walker Kelly, president of NCAE, said in the statement.
The UNC Board of Governors has unanimously approved a $451,200 one-time payment for UNC System President Peter Hans. This incentive payment comes on top of his annual base salary of $400,000.

When Hans was hired in 2020, he accepted a salary below his predecessors, but with the opportunity to get an incentive payment of up to $600,000 based on his performance, The News & Observer reported at the time.

Hanss performance was measured through a compensation program based on specific quantitative and qualitative performance goals set by the Board of Governors, board Chairman Randy Ramsey said at a meeting Wednesday. In early June, the boards presidential assessment committee conducted an annual assessment and unanimously agreed the president continued to do an exceptional job, Ramsey said. Hans had a 70% effectiveness rate based on these metrics, Ramsey said.

The vote on the payment was then brought to the board and approved Wednesday based on the committees recommendation. The Board will undertake the next assessment of the president next summer, Josh Ellis, UNC System spokesperson, wrote in an email to The N&O.

Praise for Hans

Ramsey did not return a phone message from The N&O, but at the meeting, he highlighted some of Hanss achievements. They include having the system offer in-person campus instruction during the entire academic year despite COVID-19, and advocating in the General Assembly, which passed some of the most successful back-to-back state budgets weve ever seen for the UNC System, Ramsey said.

Ramsey also highlighted Hanss initiatives such as Project Kitty Hawk, which looks to expand access to higher education for adult learners, and implementing a budget process that brought increased transparency to both the campus and system office budgets. Called an all-funds budget process, it is supposed to account for all revenue sources and set a plan for revenue and spending.

Ellis shared summary reports of the major accomplishments of Hanss first and second year in office, which the presidential assessment committee reviewed. The reports highlight his leadership in the office and in the system, his implementation of safety preparedness measures, fiscal controls and oversight, as well as efforts to increase enrollment and retention, affordability and student health and mental health.

Our goals around reducing student debt, improving on-time graduation, and keeping costs under control are all purposefully ambitious, and the University has made major progress in meeting them. Linking leadership pay to measurable performance helps ensure our continued progress on behalf of students and the state, he wrote.

Critics of UNC System

For Michael Behrent, president of the North Carolina conference of the American Association of University Professors, the payment is clearly excessive and unwarranted. Particularly at a time when faculty and staff morale is so low in the UNC system and in which there is such great concern about faculty salaries not keeping up with national standards.

The AAUP is a nonprofit organization with chapters and members in colleges and universities across the country.

I do not think that the UNC system is going in the right direction, said Behrent, who pointed out findings from an AAUP report released in April. The report described political interference undermining shared governance and academic freedom, as well as institutional racism.

I am not interested in holding Peter as personally responsible for any of that, Behrent said. I would just note that this is happening under his watch. So I dont think that he has directed the university in the right way.

Model for other universities?

For Deb Aikat, a professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Hanss hefty, performance-based bonus is an appropriate reward for his success in fulfilling the incentive-based contract and in line with his meeting 70% of performance metrics.

In many ways, such performance-based bonus can, arguably, emerge as a model for other universities nationwide, Aikat wrote in an email to The N&O.

Still, Aikat added in an interview, Hans hasnt made many major decisions, with the exception of a controversial change to how chancellors are chosen. Under that policy, the president can nominate chancellors for each of the UNC Systems universities for appointment by the Board of Governors.

At this time, it is too early to say, in my humble opinion, Aikat said. For heavens sake, he hasnt completed his two years. Too early to judge, and I think he deserves credit for fulfilling the contract.

Former President Margaret Spellings had a base salary of $775,000 but was granted a $90,000 incentive bonus in 2017 and another $95,000 bonus in 2018, before she quit later that same year and received a $500,000 separation package, as reported earlier by the N&O.

Hanss immediate predecessor, interim system president Bill Roper, was paid a base salary of $775,000 and was eligible for a $77,500 annual retirement contribution, the possibility of up to $125,000 in an annual performance bonus, and a one-year research leave while paid $837,720, as reported earlier by the N&O.

Other public university systems also grant high salaries and incentives to high-ranking members. University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel in 2021 earned a base salary of $927,000. He received about a $1 million payout after being fired, The Center Square reported. Incoming University of Colorado President Todd Saliman was approved for a salary of $750,000, The Daily Camera reported. Incoming University of California System President Michael Drake was approved for an $890,000 base salary, CalMatters reported.

Previously, Hans served as the ninth president of the North Carolina Community College System, as well as a board member and later the chair of the UNC BOG. He also served as senior policy adviser to three members of the U.S. Senate.
By Trend

Armenians destroyed the editorial office building of the 'Shusha' newspaper, Editor-in-Chief of the Azad Shusha (Liberated Shusha) website Karim Karimli said at the first International Media Forum on "Global trends, new challenges in media" in Shusha, organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency, on July 22, Trend reports.

Karim Karimli, who previously worked in the 'Shusha' newspaper, recalled that despite the shelling and bombardment in 1992, the newspaper was still being published and everyone was working.

He also said that later the editorial office was temporarily housed in the "Azerbaijan" publishing house until 2002.

"Afterward, we've succeeded in independently printing the newspaper, which continues to this day," Karimli noted.

The dream of every Azerbaijani citizen to return to liberated Karabakh has finally come true, he said.

He also expressed hope for the soonest operation of the newspaper's editorial office in Shusha.
GREENSBORO  A New-York based company has been awarded a more than $177 million contract to provide consulting and assistance at a transitional housing and school site for unaccompanied immigrant children.

Online documents show the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the contract to Deployed Resources LLC to provide the services at a 100-acre Greensboro campus.

The federal agency has paid the company $37.7 million for a years worth of services through May 2023, but the contract is anticipated to extend through May 2027  hence the $177 million.

Called the Greensboro Piedmont Academy Influx Care Facility for UC (unaccompanied minors), the site is expected to begin receiving children by Jan. 1, according to local leaders who attended a private information session.

HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement is legally required to provide care for unaccompanied children referred by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies until they are placed with a vetted sponsor or family member.

A separate HHS funded contract worth over $165 million with Deployed Resources indicates it is for Greensboro direct care and supervision services. However, the News & Record could not determine if that contract is related to the Greensboro Piedmont Academy site.

The News & Record sent an email to HHS asking exactly what services would be provided by Deployed Resources.

In its response, HHS said, through a contractor, ORR anticipates that some 1,500 people will staff the facility, across two to three shifts, in a variety of roles including case managers, mental health clinicians, medical clinicians, administration, logistics, food service, and other areas.

An email to Deployed Resources seeking information was not answered on Friday.

HHS has signed a five-year lease with the nonprofit American Hebrew Academy for the site off Hobbs Road for nearly $50 million. The facility will house up to 800 children, though the number could fluctuate depending on demand. The nonprofit also will be contracted to provide onsite education for the children.

HHS indicated it will notify the Greensboro community prior to the arrival of the children, but it did not specify how that communication would occur.

Local officials said theyve been told the facility will accept boys and girls ages 13 to 17 and that they will be separated by gender.

While in ORR care, children have access to medical treatment, legal services, translation services, education, and mental and behavioral health counselors and are able to connect with family at least twice a week, HHS said. Children also meet with a case manager at least weekly.

In the email Friday, HHS said these services would be provided onsite and that the children will remain under staff supervision at all times, and the impact of these shelters on the local community is minimal.

ORR works in close coordination with local officials, the agency said in the email.

However, some local elected officials have complained that HHS has left it up to them to answer questions from the public about the facility.

One of the things that we asked for was that they have better communication, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said earlier this week. You know, this is their project, they need to be the face of it.
Note: District 6 includes Guilford County and part of Forsyth County; District 10 includes all of Yadkin, Surry, Stokes, Rockingham, Lincoln, most of Catawba and Iredell and part of Forsyth counties; District 13 includes all of Davie, Davidson, Rowan, Randolph, Alamance, Caswell, Person and parts of Chatham and Lee and a small section of Iredell counties. These boundaries will change with the new Congress after the 2022 election.

WASHINGTON  Heres a look at how area members of Congress voted recently.

Along with the weeks roll call votes, the Senate also passed the Formula Act to suspend, temporarily, rates of duty on imports of certain infant formula products.

U.S. House

Abortion restrictions: The House has passed the Womens Health Protection Act to bar state and local governments from restricting a range of abortion-related services, including abortion, the provision of telemedicine abortion consultations, and prescribing of abortifacient drugs. The vote on July 15 was 219-210.

Nays: U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Denver, 10th District; U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, R-Advance, 13th District

Yeas: U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, D-Greensboro, 6th District

Abortion and state laws: The House has passed the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act to bar a states government from penalizing individuals in other states for providing abortion services to women who live in that state, so long as those services are legal in the other states. The vote on July 15 was 223-205.

Nays: McHenry, Budd

Yeas: Manning

Infant formula imports: The House has passed the Formula Act to temporarily suspend, for the remainder of 2022, duties on imports of infant formula food. The vote on July 15 was 421-2.

Yeas: Manning, McHenry, Budd

New NATO members: The House has passed a resolution supporting the possibility of Finland and Sweden soon joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The vote on Monday, July 18, was 394-18.

Yeas: Manning, McHenry, Budd

State marriage laws: The House has passed the Respect for Marriage Act to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and instead federally recognize any marriage authorized under a states marriage laws, and require states to similarly recognize marriages in other states. The vote on Tuesday, July 19, was 267-157.

Nays: McHenry, Budd

Yeas: Manning

Passing five bills: The House has passed a motion to pass an array of five bills en bloc. The bills dealt with management of historical sites in Maryland and the South, long-distance bike trails, and lighting the Gateway Arch in St. Louis in blue and yellow to show solidarity with Ukraine. The vote on Tuesday, July 19, was 365-57.

Yeas: McHenry, Manning

Nays: Budd

Funding foreign security forces: The House has passed the Advancing Human Rights-Centered International Conservation Act to require the Fish and Wildlife Service to work to avoid providing money, through its conservation grants, to foreign security forces believed to have violated human rights. The vote on Tuesday, July 19, was 379-43.

Yeas: McHenry, Manning

Nays: Budd

National parks: The House has passed the National Park Foundation Reauthorization Act to reauthorize the National Park Foundation through fiscal 2030 and increase its annual funding from $5 million to $15 million. The vote on Tuesday, July 19, was 397-22.

Yeas: Manning, McHenry, Budd

Housing, transportation spending: The House has passed the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act to provide $90.9 billion of fiscal 2023 funding for the various agencies at the Transportation Department and Housing and Urban Development. The vote on Wednesday, July 20, was 220-207.

Nays: McHenry, Budd

Yeas: Manning

Contraceptives: The House has passed the Right to Contraception Act to bar state and local governments from restricting the ability of individuals and health care entities to provide and consume contraceptives, and take contraceptive actions. The vote on Thursday, July 21, was 228-195.

Nays: McHenry, Budd

Yeas: Manning

U.S. Senate

Colorado judge: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Nina Nin-Yuen Wang to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for Colorado. Wang, a U.S. magistrate judge since 2015, was previously an assistant U.S. attorney for Colorado. The vote on Tuesday, July 19, was 58-36.

Yeas: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, both R-N.C.

Illinois judge: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Nancy Maldonado to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Maldonado has been a private practice lawyer in Chicago since 2002. The vote on Tuesday, July 19, was 53-45.

Nays: Burr

Yeas: Tillis

Appeals Court judge: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Julianna Michelle Childs to be a judge on the U.S. Appeals Court for the Washington, D.C., circuit. Since 2010, Childs has been a judge on the U.S. District Court for South Carolina. The vote on Tuesday, July 19, was 64-34.

Yeas: Burr, Tillis

Delaware judge: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Gregory Brian Williams to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for Delaware. Williams has been a private practice lawyer in Wilmington since 1995, focusing on intellectual property and commercial litigation. The vote on Wednesday, July 20, was 52-43.

Nays: Burr, Tillis

Chile ambassador: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Bernadette Meehan to be the U.S. ambassador to Chile. Meehan had been an executive at the Obama Foundation; previously, she was in the State Departments Foreign Service for more than a decade, including a posting at the U.S. embassy in Colombia. The vote on Wednesday, July 20, was 51-44.

Nays: Burr, Tillis

South Africa ambassador: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Reuben Brigety to be the U.S. ambassador to South Africa. Brigety has been a State Department official in the Obama administration, a mayor in Tennessee, president of the University of the South; and, currently, is an official at the Council on Foreign Relations. The vote on Thursday, July 21, was 55-40.

Nays: Burr, Tillis

Veterans health: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Shereef Elnahal to be the Department of Veterans Affairs undersecretary for health. For three years, Elnahal has been the CEO of University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey; previously, he was that states health commissioner and, from 2016 to 2018, a Veterans Health Administration official. The vote on Thursday, July 21, was 66-23.

Yeas: Burr

Not voting: Tillis
A tree tied in a knot is growing in eastern North Carolina  and the forest supervisor says its like something out of an enchanted forest.

Its accessible only by foot in Bladen Lakes State Forest, about 45 miles southeast of Fort Bragg, and a photo shared on Facebook by the N.C. Forest Service shows its whimsical curves.

Bladen Lakes State Forest Supervisor Hans Rohr says its a very strange longleaf pine.

It has been in this position for about as long as I can remember, just shy of 20 years, he says. Its about 25 feet tall, but if you straightened it out, it would be about 50 to 60 feet tall.

Social media reactions to the Facebook photo have included comparisons to a huge snake. Some have also suggested the state collect the seeds to see what may grow from them.

But seeing it in person is disconcerting, Rohr says.

You just dont expect that, he says. Ive spent a lot of time in the woods and I have never seen a tree shaped like that. It is a little eerie looking.

There are other trees in the same area that are similarly off-putting, he says, including one that appears to have a head and two arms raised in the air.

As for the knotted tree, Rohr has some theories.

One theory could be that an older tree or something maybe fell on it, but didnt break it. It just bent it in this manner and the tree was able to make this 360 (degree) ring around it. Another theory is there was some kind of damage, maybe insect damage, which made the top branch die and a side branch took over.

Theory No. 1 unravels when considering there are no signs of an older tree that fell nearby, he says.

Longleaf pine can reach 110 feet in height and have been known to live more than 450 years, according to the Longleaf Alliance.

They are widespread in Bladen Lakes State Forest, a 33,500-acre working forest that funds itself with sales of timber, pine straw and charcoal, the state says.

The knotted tree is behind a gate in an area known as the Addie Barnes red-cockaded woodpecker area, home to the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
If you've spotted hordes of young people running around downtown Helena in orange shirts over the last two weeks, you're not alone.

Grandstreet Summer Theater School ran from July 11-22 for grades three through 12. Students arrived each day around 9 a.m. and finished around 5 p.m.

This year, around 200 students attended the third through 12th grade program, 60 attended the kindergarten through second grade program, and 10 attended a special program that was by audition only. All of these students were accompanied by around 55 instructors and staff members.

The program was scattered around downtown, taking place at Hill Park, St. Peters Episcopal Church, Park Tower, two spaces on Fuller Avenue, and of course, Grandstreet Theater.

They bring in directors from everywhere and (students) get to talk with actors who have been all over the U.S., said Ashlyn Gasmick, a first year student at Capital High School who has been attending Grandstreets summer school since sixth grade. You make a lot of friends here. One of my friends is from New York, and comes here just for Grandstreets summer program.

After COVID-19 closures, the summer theater school switched to a hybrid style of learning both outside and inside. Marianne Adams, Grandstreets director of education who has been with the theater for 35 years, noticed is a rise in empathy among the theater students as they are exposed to and interact more with people outside.

I dont want this to be the main focus, but these students see homeless people or people struggling with mental illness downtown, and theyre more empathetic than anything, said Adams. Their first thought isnt Im afraid of this person. Its this person needs love and help'.

On Wednesdays, the summer program hosted a special elective day to give the kids a break from the classroom and help them learn about more niche subjects. Some of the special electives on July 20 were a poetry slam, superhero boot camp, meditation, juggling, the 11th annual Hunger Games, and more.

At pool noodle jousting, there were around 25 children running and hitting each other with pink, purple, yellow and turquoise pool noodles in Hill Park.

The jousting matches rose in intensity, and at one point fifth grade student Robin Hollow shouted, When you die, Ill fight in your honor! to the instructor who was taking a pool noodle beating.

Mid swing, Zie Drume, a fourth grader attending for the first time, stopped.

Can I say something? asked Drume. Hi.

A student of few words. She ran back off into the crowd and started hitting her duel partner with her purple pool noodle.

Can I say something too? asked Olivia Hellerman, a fifth grader also attending for the first time. Grandstreet is the best thing ever!

Hellerman proceeded to duel Drume, neither admitting defeat.

Another special elective was pie throwing 101 hosted by acting instructor and frequent Grandstreet performer Mary Linn Crouse. Crouse had created a poster to show the students the eight possible ways to throw a pie and another poster about pie throwing safety.

Safety tips included "Close eyes and mouth when getting pie'd in or near your face or head."

The students then broke off into small groups to come up with skits where they would throw pies (paper plates full of whip cream) at each other. Unsurprisingly, some of the students chose to not clean off the whipped cream in the kiddie pool nearby but to leave it on their face as a snack for later.

On Wednesdays in the past, Ive usually done human art installations with the students where they pose interacting with structures downtown. They have to hold it as long as they can like statues. Its really fun, said Crouse.

The two-week summer school culminated on Friday, when it was time for the groups to perform their showcases theyve been rehearsing.

Toward the start of the program, students are put in groups of about 15-17. Sometimes they pick something to perform, and other times they create their own performance. The cherry on top, it all ends with a dance at Hill Park.

The goal (of the summer theater school) is to raise really great people, not to make them all fantastic actors, said Adams. Its to teach resilience, get rid of the fear of failure, show them how to look someone in the eye. Even something as simple as walking on the right side of the sidewalk.
SMALLEY, Lillian M., age 96, of Helena, MT, passed away on Tuesday, July 12, 2022. Cremation has taken place. She will be laid to rest in her 
If you follow the news as closely as I do, you will be keenly aware that the wall that separates Church and State is slowly and methodically being chipped away.

Whether we are talking about abortion rights, LGBTQI rights, concern for the refugee or even issues that effect the Earth and our environment ( climate change), far too often we see that a vocal, fear-driven minority is striving to make the laws of the land fit their personal religious beliefs.

Today I would like to share just a sampling of Jewish texts and thoughts on issues that are front and center in today's news.

Since we are still in the midst of celebrating PRIDE week here in Helena, I would like to offer a Blessing from an Ally found at RitualWell, an online Jewish resource filled with thoughtful, empowering prayers and teachings:

Blessed are you, Adonai our G-d, who made us in your image (btselem Elohim). Who knows no race nor gender nor sexual identity or orientation. Blessed is the word PRIDE which is the consciousness of one's own dignity. To see oneself as completely whole in living as they were created to be.

Blessed is joy and pleasure in the physical, spiritual and emotional connections we feel in relationship to one another. Blessed is knowing and being and celebrating. Blessed is allyship; Truly seeing someone just as they are and how they've told you they want to be seen. Blessed is the ability to transform, to allow for movement and possibility; To create and recreate who and what feels most authentic today and tomorrow and into the future, knowing that possibilities are endless.

Blessed are you, Adonai, who made me in your image, which knows no form. Blessed is limitlessness.

As Jews, we bear responsibility for pursuing justice and equality for all citizens of the world ( Talmud:Shevuot 39a) It is both a mitzvah ( good deed) and an obligation to give tzedakah ( charity) as well as our personal time to help make the world a better place ( tikkun olam). We make the world a better place when we work for justice from a place of humility and love. Jewish ritual and prayer infuse that work with a sense of holiness.

Did you know that ancient Jewish texts reflect a non-binary approach to gender? The Talmud, a large and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, in fact, contains no less than eight gender designations: Zachar~ male; Nekevah~female; Androgynos~having both male and female characteristics; Tumtum~lacking sexual characteristics; Aylonit hamah~identified female at birth but later naturally developing male characteristics; Aylonit adam~ identified female at birth but later developing male characteristics through human intervention; Saris hamah~ identified male at birth but later naturally developing female characteristics and Saris adam~ identified male at birth and later developing female characteristics through human intervention.

Not only did the rabbis of old recognize at least six genders that were neither female nor male, they had the understanding that the first human being was both. Multiple versions of this midrash ( explanation or story about the Torah) are found throughout rabbinic literature, including in the Talmud. Things are seldom as they seem and are much more fluid, complex and nuanced than at first glance. That is why Judaism welcomes debate and discussion over dogma and a strict adherence to the written word. Indeed, there are multiple ways to read or interpret the Torah/Bible/Five Books of Moses. A simple reading, pshat, is but the most basic one.

As for abortion, as people of the Jewish faith, we believe in compassion, justice and dignity for all. Those who support restricting and/or eliminating access to abortion often cite religious beliefs as their motivation. They seek to force their religious point of view on others. Laws and regulations limiting access to abortion are at odds with our nations founding principle of religious liberty and trample individual moral agency.

Word count limits me from saying much more, but I will add that Judaism traditionally teaches that the fetus only attains the status of personhood at the onset of labor and childbirth ( Mishnah Ohalot 7:6). The Talmud ( Yevamot 69a) asserts that the fetus is mere fluid before forty days of gestation. Following this period, the fetus is considered a physical part of the pregnant individuals body (Gittin 23b), not yet having life of its own or independent rights. Jewish law not only permits abortion but requires it when the life of the pregnant individual is at risk.

Judaism values life and affirms that protecting existing life is paramount at all stages of pregnancy.

No one religion should be enshrined in law or dictate public policy on any issue, including abortion, LGBTQI rights, caring for our precious and stressed environment and how to treat the stranger in our midst. We must strive to keep greed and fear out of politics, our bedrooms and our personal lives. Happy PRIDE to one and all!
DECATUR  The Macon County History Museum will host a program on two Central Illinois topics at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7. The event is free and will last about an hour.

Tom Emery, a historical researcher from Carlinville, will spend part of the hour discussing his 2020 work, "Abraham Lincoln and the Heritage of Illinois State University." He will use the rest of the time to talk about Enoch Gastman, a figure in the early educational history of Decatur.

Gastman, the first student in the history of Illinois State University, spent 47 years as a teacher and principal in Decatur and was revered locally and across the state and nation, Emery explained in a news release. He will cover many aspects of Gastmans professional and personal life, highlighting the challenges Gastman had to overcome.

Next, Emery's 288-page book details how Lincoln served as attorney to the state Board of Education, which oversaw ISU in its earliest days, and how he wrote the guaranty to secure funding for the university. In doing so, Lincoln ensured the university would be located in Bloomington-Normal.

Many of the early financial backers of ISU were Lincolns allies and friends in Bloomington-Normal, the news release continued. Lincoln was close to some of the early ISU faculty as well as several members of the early boards of education.

Emery collaborated with Carl Kasten, a 1966 ISU graduate and former chair of the universitys board of trustees, who conceived the project. Kasten is expected to be in attendance with Emery at the discussion.

The Macon County History Museum is at 5580 N. Fork Road in Decatur. For more information, call 217-422-4919 or email info@mchsdecatur.org.
By Trend

We can now witness the trails of Armenian vandalism left in liberated Karabakh, Director of the Iraqi Republican Center for Strategic Studies Dr. Moataz Abdel Hamid said at the first International Media Forum on "Global trends, new challenges in media" in Shusha, organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency, on July 22, Trend reports.

"My statement today is dedicated to the media coverage of the 44-day second Karabakh war, particularly by the Arab media. The international media was proliferating false information paid for by the Armenian diaspora. Moreover, misleading materials were published by Armenia many times," he said.

The director noted that the Armenian side has repeatedly accused Azerbaijan of "destroying the Christian heritage", which is nothing but lies.

"We have seen with our own eyes the destroyed religious monuments subjected to the Armenian aggression in Karabakh. The Iraqis have also suffered from this kind of vandalism. The Armenian media spread fake news about the participation of Iraqi mercenaries in the second Karabakh war. Thus, we should unite in the fight against fake news and strengthen media cooperation," he added.
He was working at the Original Maxwell Street hot dog stand on the West Side when he was shot in the face about 3:10 a.m., police said.

It was the second shooting at the restaurant in five months. Two Chicago police officers were shot March 4 by a gunman who dropped a handgun while waiting in line, picked it up and opened fire around 3:30 a.m. Both officers have since recovered.
DECATUR  Two conditional dispensary licenses were issued on Friday within Decatur's "BLS" region, which consists of Macon County.

The licenses were among 149 issued by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. This marks the first issuance of conditional adult use dispensing organization licenses since Illinois legalized adult use cannabis in 2019, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office.

Businesses were selected from a series of lotteries conducted last year.

One license in Macon County was awarded to Illinois Health and Wellness, a limited liability company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The company was also awarded licenses in McLean County and the Chicago region.

The other license was awarded to Clean Slate Opco, an LLC based in suburban Western Springs.

Entities that have been awarded these conditional licenses will have 180 days to select a physical storefront location and receive a full Adult Use Dispensing Organization License. The conditional licenses awarded to applicants on Friday do not entitle the licensee to buy or sell cannabis.

A 180-day extension may be granted to those business unable to find a physical location by the deadline.

The dispensaries would be the first to open in Macon County, which has largely been off the map for legal cannabis sales to this point.

There were no medicinal marijuana dispensaries within the county, which meant it missed out on the initial rollout of the state's adult-use program, which permitted medicinal dispensaries to sell to adult-use cannabis at their existing facilities and to open "secondary" sites.

But even now, the licensees will largely be restricted in where they can open. The only three municipalities that permit dispensaries are Argenta, Harristown and Maroa.

Decatur city leaders have balked at allowing cannabis sales within city limits  even though the prospect of a dispensary locating just outside city limits is considerable.

Earlier this month, Decatur City Councilman David Horn sought to have city staff prepare an ordinance authorizing a dispensary within city borders. But like a similar effort last year, it fell short in a 4-3 vote.

In addition, two licenses were awarded in the "east central Illinois non-metropolitan" region of the state, a 14-county area that includes Coles County.

They went to Elk Grove Village-based Allgreens Dispensary, LLC. and Chicago-based Lighthouse Dispensing Company, LLC.

Each business that was awarded a license also qualified as a Social Equity applicant under Illinois cannabis law.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity administers the Social Equity Cannabis Loan Program, which offers low-interest loans to qualified applicants. The first round of these applicants are expected to finalized loan agreements in the next few weeks, according to the governor's office.

Brenden Moore contributed to this story.
FILE PHOTO: An empty bed in the intensive care unit at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa on Monday, July 13, 2020. MIKALA COMPTON | Herald-Zeitung
New Braunfels police seize more than 400 grams of meth during traffic stop
BRISTOL, Va.  The life and legacy of longtime Bristol, Virginia pastor Rev. Dr. Willis Alexander W.A. Johnson were celebrated Friday at Virginia High School.

Pastors from around the region joined Johnsons family, city leaders and community members to remember the man who served as pastor of Lee Street Baptist Church, and to some much more, for more than 60 years after he arrived in Bristol in 1961.

Bristol, Virginia Police Chief John Austin said Johnson was the only pastor he ever had, calling him a counselor and a friend who married he and his wife and baptized his kids.

Dr. Johnson has been an icon, not only in the city of Bristol, but across the state and across the nation, Austin said. He was a man that stood on his beliefs and his principles, but most importantly he stood on the word of God.

Bristol Virginia City Manager Randy Eads called Johnson a leader, a teacher, a mentor and a friend to everyone who knew him in Bristol.

Dr. Johnson would always stand for what was right, Eads said. Doing whats right is tough. Its not easy. But he did it anyway, no matter what the consequences were.

In his address, Bristol, Virginia Mayor Anthony Farnum hit on one of the focal points of the two-hour funeral service, which served more as a celebration of life and faith than a ceremony of solemn farewells and tears, although those were inevitable.

We are sad, and its OK to be sad in death, but we know that in death there is new life, and for that we celebrate and we are happy and we rejoice, Farnum said. This is a man that we will remember forever.

Rev. Dr. Harold A. Middlebrook, past president of the Tennessee Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention, called Johnson a fighter for rights, for justice and for human dignity. In his remarks, Middlebrook made sure to emphasize to the audience that his friend is undoubtedly in Heaven.

You havent lost anything, Middlebrook said. You cant lose something if you know where it is.

Johnson died on July 6 at 90 years old. He attained multiple degrees from Virginia Union University, the University of Chicago and the Tennessee Baptist School of Religions. He also traveled to 20 countries spreading his love of Christ, among many other accomplishments.
A pencil. A crayon. A glue stick. A spiral notebook.

For many families, these are items that fill a backpack headed to a classroom and another day at school.

For a single mother of four, these are the tools that help build equity for her children, help ensure a positive future.

But by November, for that mom, those school supplies might be running low.

That is where the Catawba County United Way School Supply Drive can help. The thousands of items donated through the month of July can be stockpiled by all three local public school districts  Catawba County, Hickory Public and Newton-Conover.

It can be difficult for teachers, when they see how hard a parent is working to keep their household together, to then ask that parent to purchase more supplies for their child, St. Stephens Elementary School Assistant Principal Beth Embree said.

How nice is it, as a school, to say we have extra items and be able to meet the family in the middle. They gave their child the supplies at the beginning of the school year and now we can help cushion that usage and support them throughout the rest of the year.

The 2022 United Way School Supply Drive runs through Aug. 1, and donations can be dropped off at the Catawba County United Way office  2760 Tate Blvd. SE in Hickory. The items will be distributed to the school districts prior to the start of the school year, and parents can access these supplies through their childs school guidance office.

Last year, the United Way drive collected more than 6,000 individual items to help meet the need for school supplies.

The percent of economically disadvantaged students in 2021 was 41.3% in Catawba County Schools, 53% in Hickory Public Schools and 50.5% in Newton-Conover City Schools, according to the NC Department of Public Instruction.

With the pandemic, weve had families that had to work odd hours and theyre having to really collaborate with extended family or friends to try and do child care, get work hours in and get kids to school, Embree said.

As a former guidance counselor, she remembers working with a student who along with her siblings went to their grandmothers home after school. It was the young students job to make sure everyone got their homework done, but they didnt always have the tools they needed. One time, they were missing crayons for a coloring assignment.

I told her this was not a problem, and I was able to prepare a goody bag with supplies for each of the three kids that she could take and leave at her grandmothers house, so she didnt have to take them back and forth, Embree said.

What was a point of stress for the student became an easy fix for Embree because of extra school supplies.

For North Newton Elementary Assistant Principal Jill Hager, the power of donations was illustrated last year with bookbags.

The school had run through its stockpile but there was still a need. Fortunately, a donation of brand new bookbags came in from a chain store.

The only thing was they already had names stitched to them. Names that werent necessarily our kids, Hager said.

That didnt matter, the assistant principal added. The students lit up in smiles when they saw the new bags.

To know we were able to take that donation and give it back to the kids, and that they were so thrilled, it was just a tremendous moment, Hager said. It didnt matter where it came from. It didnt matter if it had another kids name on it. They loved it.

For more information about how you can support the Catawba County United Way School Supply Drive, call 828-327-6851 or email jbailey@ccunitedway.com.

Current collection partners include: A Womans View, Ascension Youth Center and Book Store, Authentic Church, Catawba County Department of Social Services, Catawba County Government Center, Catawba County Library, Catawba Valley Healthcare, Century Furniture  case goods, Cloninger Ford Hickory, CommScope, City of Newton, Eastern Catawba Cooperative Christian Ministry, Hickory Community Yoga and Wellness, Hickory Chair, Hickory Crawdads, Maiden Chapel Baptist Church, Pace at Home, Partnership for Children, Paramount Automotive, Peoples Bank, Pepsi, St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Truist Bank, West Rock, and ZF Chassis Components.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  A West Virginia man charged with trying to kill his sister, who recently awakened from a two-year coma and identified him as her attacker, has died less than a week after his arrest, authorities said Friday.

Daniel J. Palmer III of Cottageville was pronounced dead Thursday at a Charleston hospital, a day after he was taken there following an evaluation by jail medical staff, the state Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Division of Corrections, said in a news release.

The statement didn't indicate a cause of death, and a spokeswoman for Department of Health and Human Resources, which oversees the state medical examiner's office, said state law only allows the agency to release autopsy information to relatives and law enforcement.

Palmer, 55, was uncooperative while in custody and during booking procedures at the South Central Regional Jail, where he was taken July 15 after being charged with the attempted murder and malicious wounding of his sister, the statement said.

His death likely brings a close to a highly unusual case in which the investigation was stalled for two years by a lack of evidence.

His sister, Wanda Palmer, was in a coma in a nursing home for two years. She was found unconscious with serious head injuries at her home in Jackson County on June 10, 2020.

Daniel Palmer had been identified as a suspect, but up until the time she emerged from the coma, investigators did not have enough evidence to file charges, court documents said.

"Due to a previous violent history between Wanda Palmer and her brother Daniel Palmer, investigators initially considered Daniel a suspect in the assault," according to a criminal complaint filed in Jackson County Magistrate Court.

Investigators interviewed Daniel, who denied involvement in the attack, saying he had not been to his sister's home in days. Later, a witness told investigators he saw Daniel in the front doorway at Wanda Palmer's trailer on the night she was assaulted.

On June 27, more than two years after the attack, a deputy received a call from a protective services worker who said she had started to speak single words and seemed to respond when questioned.

On July 12, deputies drove to Genesis Healthcare in New Martinsville to speak with Wanda Palmer. Deputy Julia Bowen "entered Wanda's room alone and began speaking with her," the complaint said. "Wanda indicated (that) she recalled living in her trailer near her mother's place. She indicated that she recalled being hurt there. She made mention of her head."

Wanda Palmer said the person who injured her was her brother and she identified him as Daniel. When asked during the interview the reason behind the assault, "Wanda stated that he was mean," according to the complaint.

Wanda Palmer "appeared oriented to her situation. Her answers to questions were coherent and relevant. She asked for prayer."

Daniel Palmer had been held on a $500,000 bond. He was so combative when he was arrested that it took hours to get him to cooperate with authorities for an arraignment, which required a magistrate to leave a courthouse and come to the Jackson County sheriff's office, WCHS-TV reported.

Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger was out of his office and unavailable for comment Friday.
CHICAGO - Chicago health officials have decided to prioritize the first doses of the monkeypox vaccine, and delay scheduling the second shots, to give as many people as possible their first dose of protection against the spreading virus, the citys top doctor said Monday.

The biggest increase in protection comes from the first dose, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said at a news conference at City Hall on Friday that focused on the virus. The city will make exceptions and more quickly give second doses to immunocompromised people, as well as those who have had contact with someone known to have monkeypox, she said.

This is the right approach, Arwady said. Weve looked at all the data and feel that that is the best way to control this outbreak.

The citys strategy follows other cities, such as San Francisco and New York City, that have chosen to use their limited vaccine supply to inject as many people as possible with first doses to offer the broadest measure of protection.

Chicago health officials are targeting the most at-risk people for vaccines, including men who have sex with men at venues, with multiple or anonymous partners, or for money, Arwady said. Second doses will be scheduled when more vaccines become available, she said.

The city has grappled with vaccine shortages experienced nationwide as it reacts to the viral outbreak. As of Friday, there were 202 cases of monkeypox in Chicago, with 230 reported in the state overall, putting Illinois among the top five states in the country, the citys health department said.

But Arwady acknowledged at the news conference that the number of reported cases doesnt tell the full story.

International, national and local level, this is definitely an undercount, she said.

The citys health department reported that Chicago has distributed 5,400 doses to vaccinators and will soon receive an additional 18,000 doses. Chicago will receive 15,440 doses from the federal government as soon as Saturday and anticipates another 2,600 coming from the state, Arwady said.

But the city will need even more, she added  and health officials working on the front lines agree.

We simply do not have enough vaccines for all those who need it, said David Ernesto Munar, president of LGBTQ-focused Howard Brown Health Center.

For that reason, its going to be so important for us to continue to expand community education and awareness so that people understand the steps that they can take to evaluate themselves and their partners for any signs or symptoms of monkeypox, he added.

Those signs include fever, swollen lymph nodes and unusual rashes throughout the body, including on the hands, trunk, genital area and orifices, Munar said.

Howard Brown has targeted Black and other minority gay men for outreach and vaccination, Munar said, citing the more severe impact that dangerous illnesses often have on people of color. The medical center hosted a vaccination clinic at the Silver Room Sound System Block Party last weekend.

Quickly filling vaccination appointments at Howard Brown are currently being scheduled three weeks out, Chief Operating Officer Steven Glass said during a Thursday night monkeypox town hall. The medical center, inundated with concern over the virus, had 1,300 unanswered calls this week, he added.

The city can respond to the outbreak by blasting information out as the federal government gets more vaccines to epicenters like Chicago, said Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, who also spoke at the town hall.

The education is so important. We have centralized resources, whether its putting together promotional pieces on the CTA, reaching out to families in CPS, Hadden said.

Hadden said shes worried that it is unclear to most people that monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection and can spread to anyone through physical contact.

The virus is generally passed on through close physical contact with a scab or bodily fluids of someone who has monkeypox, as well as contact with objects theyve touched. Spread could occur through acts like sharing a towel or having intimate sexual contact.

The current outbreak has spread mostly among men who have sex with men. Health officials have repeatedly said that the disease could infect anyone and is currently spreading among men who have sex with men because that is a tight-knit group.

At Fridays news conference, Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, called on men who have sex with men to be responsible while having sex by using common sense and limiting partners.

The LGBTQ-geared Northalsted Market Days street music festival will bring hundreds of thousands of people to the city on Aug. 6 and 7. The city will continue to have a concerted effort to make sure the massive party is safe and is not considering canceling events or closing venues at this time, Arwady said.

Were going to have a lot of visitors coming in over the next month, Tunney said.

The smallpox-related monkeypox virus was first detected in humans in 1970 and is endemic to parts of west and central Africa. The illness often begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes before progressing to distinct, large rashes throughout the body that look like pimples or blisters. Monkeypox can last up to four weeks.

Most Chicago cases have been identified on the North Side, but cases have also been detected in the South and West sides, Arwady said.

Anyone who is having possible symptoms of monkeypox, no matter who you are, no matter where you live, get tested, she said. The citys testing capacity can meet demand, she added.

A hard-to-secure, Food and Drug Administration-approved antiviral treatment called TPOXX is being used to treat the most severe cases, Arwady said. Around 5% of Chicago monkeypox patients have been hospitalized, and no one has died from the disease, she added.

When asked about the potential for monkeypox transmission through casual contact, such as brushing up on someone in a crowded space, Arwady said the city hasnt seen any monkeypox cases among the health care workers who have worked with infected patients.

Some of the more casual contact, its possible. But its not  based on everything we know now  that high risk, she said.

We will obviously continue to monitor as this grows, and I do expect it will continue to grow, Arwady said.
British American Tobacco Plc has unveiled its latest attempt at closing a substantial market share and innovation gap in the heat-not-burn traditional cigarette category.

BAT, the parent company of Reynolds American Inc., introduced this week the hyper X2 version of its glo brand in Tokyo. It is not available in the U.S.

The products go on sale in convenience stores in August, as well as on the glo and Velo website Monday. How glo hyper X2 performs will be critical for BAT considering that Japan is the top global market, representing about 85% of heat-not-burn traditional cigarette sales. The hyper X2 version offers advanced induction heating technology in a smaller, lighter weight device ... with a separate boost function for faster heating, the company said.

Kingsley Wheaton, BATs chief marketing officer, said hyper X2 marks another key milestone in our transformation as we build the brands of our future.

Since launching our first glo product in Japan in 2016, we have built glo into a billion-dollar global brand through our deep consumer insights, science and innovation.

There are plans for hyper X2 to be rolled out in the other 24 global markets in which glo products are sold.

BAT said in June it had reached 19.4 million consumers of next-generation products worldwide, up from 18.3 million on Dec. 31.

For fiscal 2021, new-category revenue, which has a heavy Reynolds influence, was at $2.79 billion, up 51.8% over fiscal 2020.

New category products are led by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.s Vuse  which recently returned as the top-selling U.S. electronic cigarette, along with glo and modern oral products led by top-selling Camel Snus and Velo.

Vuse is the top-selling global e-cigarette with a 34.4% market share as of April. BAT debuted its Vuse Go disposable style in the U.K. in May with further market rollouts planned for the second half of 2022.

BAT chief executive Jack Bowles expressed confidence in June that BAT will meet its goal of at least $6.79 billion in annual new-category revenue by 2025.

The manufacturer said it has spent about $1.25 billion on next-generation product development during the first half of 2022.

Game changer

Another reason glo sales in Japan are pivotal is that the countrys smokers illustrate how the tobacco market can rapidly transform away from the lethal inhalation of (traditional cigarette) smoke, said David Sweanor, an adjunct law professor at the University of Ottawa and the author of several e-cigarette and health studies.

A recent study Sweanor co-authored found that heat-not-burn traditional cigarettes in Japan have led to an astounding 47.5% decline in use of traditional cigarettes in just six years.

Philip Morris International introduced its iQOS devices  now marketed as Marlboro HeatSticks  in 2016. Japan Tobaccos Ploom heat-not-burn product is the only other primary competitor to glo.

In Japan, unlike the U.S., regulatory agencies and nicotine abstinence-only campaigners are not slowing that transition, Sweanor said. BAT must innovate to stay relevant in the Japanese market, and to prepare as other markets replicate the Japanese success.

Sweanor has advocated for the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate its review of potential heat-not-burn traditional cigarettes in the U.S.

In September, BAT received a pivotal legal victory involving its patent-infringement lawsuit against rival PMI.

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a final determination of a violation of the Tariff Act of 1930 by Philip Morris USA Inc. and Altria Client Services LLC as it related to two BAT product patents.

The complaint, filed in April 2020, focuses on three heat-not-burn technology patents held by BAT. The patents were issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office between November 2012 and December 2019.

As a result, PM USA has been barred from importing PMIs IQOS 2.4, IQOS 3, IQOS 3 Duo heat-not-burn traditional cigarette products, as well as ordered to halt future sales of those products  marketed as Marlboro HeatSticks  already in the U.S.

The international version of IQOS gained Food and Drug Administration authorization for sale in April 2019  with the caveat that it does not mean these products are safe or FDA approved.

The IQOS products debuted in test markets in Atlanta in October 2019 and Richmond, Va., in November 2019.

During the second quarter of 2021, PM USA expanded retail distribution of Marlboro HeatSticks into the Triad and other metro areas of North Carolina, as well as northern Virginia and Georgia.

Piper Sandler analyst Michael Lavery said in September that because IQOS/Marlboro HeatSticks have a small U.S. presence, the near-term implications of the unfavorable ITC ruling will likely not be material.

However, we had high hopes for what iQOS could do in the U.S., and believe its early progress could have positioned iQOS for sustainable long-term growth, so we consider this unfavorable ruling to be negative. Sweanor said that heated tobacco products are recognized by the FDA as less hazardous.

If such products and information on relative risks are made available to consumers, (U.S.) cigarette sales could plummet.

The technology is improving rapidly, and BAT has the choice of either offering low-risk products or seeing other companies grab its market share.

BAT trailing globally

Ross Hindle, a tobacco industry analyst with Third Bridge, said in June that BAT still remains behind Philip Morris International in terms of global buildout of its next-generation products.

Barclays analyst Jain Gaurav said in June that BATs heat-not-burn volumes are still only 22% of Philip Morris Internationals volumes.

BAT hasnt launched a new glo device in now almost 2 years vs. Philip Morris International launching a new device about every 18 months.

Hindle said the $6.79 billion in next-generation product revenue by 2025 is definitely achievable.

However, given the rate of growth by the market and PMI, our experts do not see BAT closing the gap to PMI within that time frame, and more consequently, falling further behind.

PMIs NGP division has already reached a state of profitability, with the group further ahead in terms of regional roll-out and a more sound route-to-market strategy.

Hindle said that BATs glo Hyper is still seen as inferior to PMIs IQOS in terms of flavors, sensory, taste and electronics.

BAT is in need of the next generation of glo to better compete with PMI, but long research and development cycles mean it wont happen overnight.

BAT further needs to focus on penetrating the e-cigarette market in the US, where potential for growth remains high and Vuse remains the market leader.
By Trend

Azerbaijan also achieved a media war victory during the second Karabakh war, First Deputy Director of the Agency of Information and Mass Communications under Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan Dilshod Saidjanov said at the first International Media Forum on "Global trends, new challenges in media" in Shusha, organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency, on July 22, Trend reports.

"During the war, the Uzbek public followed the Karabakh events particularly through the speeches of President Ilham Aliyev and rejoiced together with the Azerbaijani community," he said.

Saidjanov noted that the Azerbaijani media should make every effort to inform the world community about the reconstruction activities in liberated Karabakh and the regional development.

Azerbaijan is of particular importance for Uzbekistan, so it's necessary to strengthen media cooperation between the two countries, he said.
After a three-year hiatus, the National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF) is back with more than 130 theatrical productions and a star-studded lineup of artists.

In addition to Black classics performed by national and professional Black theatre companies, the festival will offer a number of new works in multiple venues in Winston-Salem.

This is like the biggest reunion and celebration, said Jackie Alexander, executive producer of the NBTF and artistic director of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company. The festival has that amazing energy.

People are so hungry just to commune with each other. Thats what the festival is. Its people just connecting. Everybody is in a good mood. Everybody wants to talk to everybody. Thats what people are longing for after being locked away for so long.

Learning curve

The biennial festival, produced by the N.C. Black Repertory Company, was last held in 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Alexander has found the 2022 festival to be unusual and challenging because of factors such as the remaining pandemic precautions, the surging cost of living and the recent death of Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin.

Sprinkle-Hamlin led the N.C. Black Repertory Company as both its board chairwoman and executive producer of the NBTF. She took on producing the festival in 2007 after the death of her husband, Larry Leon Hamlin, who founded the company and produced its first festival in 1989.

There are a lot of challenges because everybodys been struggling for a couple of years, Alexander said.

He said the company and festival staff has had to do remote work and learn how to produce virtually.

We actually produced quite a bit of content (virtually) pretty quickly, he said. I think we started producing in April of 2020. We did interviews. We did performances from artists around the country. Weve been busy producing virtually, but that was all free. All those productions werent really creating any revenue.

In February 2021 for Black History Month, the N.C. Black Repertory Company did a world premiere of Freedom Summer, which will be live at the festival this year.

During those early pandemic times, the company also helped launch artarie.com, a streaming service in Winston-Salem, with Freedom Summer.

Its been a huge learning curve, Alexander said. The biggest challenge is just learning how to stay in contact with your audience when you cant invite them to the theater.

The company welcomed audiences back with an outside event in fall 2020 at Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, then offered an outdoor, weeklong series of events in August 2021 that included a concert, movie screenings and a childrens production.

Alexander said people were excited about those outdoor events and are ready to come back to the 2022 NBTF.

People connected with the festival love it, Alexander said. The community loves it. Our volunteers are here every day working all day to make sure we get it done.

He is excited about two awards coming back from the 2019 festival. They are the Mabel P. Robinson Emerging Artist Award and the Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin Rolling World Premier Award aimed at getting the next generation involved and excited about the festival.

More than 60,000 people are expected to attend the NBTF, along with celebrities from stage, screen and television.

Arrindell and Byrd

This years celebrity co-chairmen for the festival are Lisa Arrindell and Petri Hawkins Byrd.

Arrindell has starred in 12 Angry Men and ... Women on Apple TV, BETs Favorite Son and the Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Her film credits include Madeas Family Reunion and Livin Large.

Byrd is best known as a bailiff on Judge Judy. As an actor, his most recent work includes a guest starring role as Pastor Jerry on The Bold and the Beautiful, as Judge Byrd on The Proud Family: Louder & Prouder, as well as Judge Hawkins in the film Amys F**k It List.

Gala night and productions

On Aug. 1, the Opening Night Gala will be at Benton Convention Center with a parade of African drummers and dancers from the Otesha Creative Arts Ensemble, followed by a procession of more than 25 celebrities and an awards presentation.

The second part of the evening will feature The Eve of Jackie (The Last Time), starring Broadway performer and recording artist Chester Gregory, at University of North Carolina School of the Arts  Stevens Center.

A festival favorite over the years, this production, presented by Lucid Life LLC of Los Angeles marks the 20th anniversary and final performance of Chester Gregory as the legendary Jackie Wilson.

Other performances at the NBTF include 2 The Left  A Tribute to the Life of Lisa Left Eye Lopes, Becoming Othello: A Black Girls Journey, Blood Done Sign My Name, Frederick Douglass: No Turning Back, Greenwood, I Wanna Be Evil: The Eartha Kitt Story, Let My People Go!, Ma Raineys Black Bottom, Michael Colyars Momma, Natural Woman: An Aretha Story, Pooled: A Gospel Musical Drama, Savior Samuel, The House of George and You Cant Fake the Funk (A Journey Through Funk Music).

The NBTF will provide American Sign Language interpreters at three performances:

2 p.m. Aug. 6: Freedom Summer at Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts/Reynolds Place Theatre in downtown Winston-Salem. Tickets $45.

6 p.m. Aug. 5-6: The Golden Tales of Hip-Hop at Bailey Park in Innovation Quarter at 445 Patterson Ave. in Winston-Salem. Free.

Special events

A portrait of Hamlin and Sprinkle-Hamlin, known as Mr. and Mrs. Marvtastic, will be unveiled at the festival. Hattiloo Theatre in Memphis, Tenn., commissioned the portrait of the couple, which will be part of the Black Theatre Royalty: Portraits from the Hattiloo Theatre Collection exhibit from Aug. 1 to 27 in the Main Gallery at the Arts Councils Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts. The exhibit, a collaboration with the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, is on loan from Hattiloo.

Hamlin coined the hybrid word Marvtastic. It means there is nothing greater or better.

Other special events, most of which are free, include African American Heritage Collective Tours, An Artist Career Networking Showcase (2022-virtual), the Garland Thompson Sr. Readers Theatre of New Works, International Vendors Market, Larry Hamlin Solo Performance Series, Midnight Poetry Jam, National Youth Talent Showcase, NBTF Film Fest, workshops and seminars and Youth Celebrity Project.

Weve got a LGBTQIA+ celebration called Out on Holy Ground, which is three days of events of readings and workshops, and movie screenings, Alexander said.

Also, the festival has a new program called Therapeutic Power of Theatre, led by Dr. Derek H. Suite.

Its going to deal with how people have dealt with the stress of the past three years and how theater acts as a way to deal with the stress and anxiety thats been placed on people, Alexander said.

Spotlight on Winston-Salem

Anticipation is already building among local arts, downtown, economic development and tourism organizations.

Arts Council is a proud sponsor of the 2022 National Black Theatre Festival, and we are fully committed to the Festivals mission of uplifting professional Black Theatre in Winston-Salem and nationally, said Chase Law, president and chief executive of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

In 2019, our city welcomed more than 60,000 festival attendees who were eager to enjoy live theatre as well as share their art with the community. And now it is back, and we look forward to seeing the city come to life with all the festival brings to our area.

Jason Thiel, president of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership, also welcomes back the festival.

We are very excited about having this wonderful event come back to downtown, and our businesses are eager to provide hospitality, Thiel said. We welcome this after the hiatus last year due to COVID.

Richard Geiger, president of Visit Winston-Salem, said the event is Winston-Salems largest festival and a premier cultural asset that shines a bright, national spotlight on Winston-Salem.

This years event is on pace to again attract a healthy influx of out-of-town visitors who stay overnight in our area hotels, dine in our incredible restaurants, shop at our stores and tour our museums and attractions, Geiger said. Many of the performances, events and hotel patrons are in the downtown area, but the caliber of positive national attention and economic boost generated by NBTF benefits us all.

Mark Owens, president and chief executive of Greater Winston-Salem Inc., called the festival one of Winston-Salems most important and impactful events, both culturally and economically.

It encompasses the entire community with events at venues all around town, so visitors really get to know the city, Owens said. That, in turn, raises the citys profile on a national stage in a prominent way. The NBTF is a big part of Winston-Salems identity.
Dear Dr. Fox: Our 14-year-old, 50-pound Lab, Bo, does not like me adding a tablespoon of turmeric and ginger to his food, as you have recommended in the past. Any simple ideas to get him to like the taste? D.D., Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Dear D.D.: I should always advise, when suggesting dogs be given these and other beneficial supplements for various conditions, to put in a small pinch to begin with, mixed in with wet food. Sprinkling a little Parmesan cheese on top may also entice many dogs. Then slowly add more and more to the daily amount suggested. If there is diarrhea or any signs of discomfort, reduce the quantity. Most supplements are best given with food to facilitate digestive uptake and minimize any possible stomach-lining irritation/inflammation.

If you dog still avoids food with a small amount of ginger and turmeric, put the powders into 250 mg capsules your pharmacy may provide, and give two such capsules of each before feeding your dog.

Dear Dr. Fox: I want to say how much your book Dog Body, Dog Mind helped me with my rescued border collie, Millie, when the time came to have her euthanized in-home. That was the best decision after her vet determined that her kidneys were failing. She was 14 years old.

I am still mourning her loss, even though I was prepared for it. I was not prepared to grieve so much for her. I know it will pass, but any more advice from you would be appreciated. Our family will have a burial ceremony at a local pet cemetery, and I am putting together a photo album and slideshow about her life, which is keeping me busy. J.H., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dear J.H.: Yes, there is much in my book that will help you in the grieving process, thanks to the many dogs who educated me. Perhaps there is some solace in knowing that the greater the grief one feels following the death of an animal companion, the greater the love experienced and shared.

Let go of all guilt for feeling you did not do enough, or for feeling relief from the burden; the spirit of your beloved is now free. As I detail in my writings, that spirit may return to visit you in your dreams  and sometimes when you are awake. But let it go. Let it all go, and accept the love you remember, which will be a part of your soul forever.

When we face the death of a beloved animal companion, we face our own mortality. We reflect on how our own virtues of trust, loyalty and devotion measure up to those the animal embodied.
Q: Recently on social media there was a picture from the Ardmore area, I think, of a dog-like animal. Did anyone find out what it was?

D.L.

Answer: Yes, SAM saw the picture on the Ardmore Neighborhood page as well, and contacted Debbie Fuchs, the public relations and communications officer for the N.C. Zoo.

Fuchs reached out to Jennifer Ireland, the curator of mammals for the zoo. According to Ireland, the animal is a fox.

The Humane Society says on its website, www.humanesociety.org/resources/what-do-about-foxes, that seeing foxes out and about during the day is becoming more common. They are usually scavenging for food.

Foxes are afraid of people and will usually run away when they detect your presence, but they may visit your backyard or neighborhood, it said.

Unless the fox has rabies, which is rare, they are not dangerous and wont attack people.

They may, however, become aggressive if they are caught and handled.

Even then, a foxs natural tendency is to flee rather than fight, the society said.

Q: Im going to Tennessee soon. Is the construction on Interstate 40 near the Tennessee state line completed? Last time I went through it took over an hour to get through there.

T.L.

Answer: SAM has good news.

All lanes of I-40 are open in the gorge, said David Uchiyama, a spokesman for the N.C Department of Transportation in Western North Carolina. They opened before Memorial Day.

Q: Back in 2015-16, Shady Grove Church Road in East Bend was on the N.C. Department of Transportation calendar to be repaved in 2021. There were issues with the DOT budget and some projects were put on hold or scrapped. One of the projects was the repaving of Shady Grove Church Road, which is in such bad shape the lines in the center and on the shoulders are no longer visible and the road surface itself is cracked, pitted and sinking. Who do we residents need to contact to get this project fast-tracked for resurfacing?

D.F.

Answer: Charles Reinhardt, the maintenance engineer for the N.C. Department of Transportation Division 11, said Shady Grove Church Road is scheduled to be repaved in 2027. Division 11 covers Yadkin County.

Reinhard said he would ask the engineer in Yadkin County to review the road for possible patching or pavement marking.

Paved roads are normally rated by consultants every 2 years to create a Pavement Condition data base that is used by our County Maintenance Engineers to develop a 5 year plan for Contract Resurfacing (Asphalt) and Pavement Preservation activities based on a projected annual budget for both of these programs, Reinhardt said.

Your reader stated that in 2016 this road was in the plan for treatment in 2021, which would have been the final year of the 5-year plan. As you can imagine the last year of the plan would be the most likely to change based on changing budgets and relative conditions of other roads within the county.

With that being said, this road was treated under Pavement Preservation funding with AST (Asphalt Surface Treatment) or more commonly known as Tar and Gravel in August of 2015. It is on our current 5 year plan to receive plant mix asphalt in Fiscal Year 2027. Of course this is a plan that is subject to change depending on future funding and relative conditions of other roads in Yadkin County.

Your reader can report maintenance needs to Yadkin County Maintenance at 336-679-2242 so they can be investigated.
Winston-Salem police are seeking the public's help in finding a missing, endangered man, authorities said Friday night.

Edward Buie, 22, was last seen at 7:30 a.m. leaving Medical Center Boulevard, police said.

A Silver Alert has been issued for Buie who suffers from cognitive issues, police said.

Buie is a Black man who stands 5 feet 6 inches in height and weighs 200 pounds, police said. Buie has black hair and brown eyes.

Buie was last seen wearing a black T-shirt that says, "boyz in the hood," black pants and black Jordan shoes, police said.

Anyone with information about Buie's whereabouts can call Winston-Salem police at 336-773-7700, Crime Stoppers at 336-727-2800 or its Spanish line at 336-728-3904. Crime Stoppers of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County is on Facebook.

The Text-A-Tip program at 336-276-1717 allows people to text tips, photos and videos to the police.
We have taken down the Silent Sam Civil War monument on UNC Chapel Hills campus and the statues of Confederate soldiers on many courthouse plazas.

But there are other monuments to the Civil War and slavery that cannot be removed  unfortunately. In Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South, David Silkenat explains how over a 200-year period slavery made possible environmental disasters that cursed and continue to curse our region.

Silkenat says the slave owners in Americas South saw their landscape as disposable.

Using intensive farming methods made possible by slavery, southern plantation owners wore out their farms. Rather than rehabilitating the land as they exploited it, they simply bought new land to replace what had been ruined.

Sometimes, the replacement land could be purchased nearby. Other times, the owners and slaves from worn-out plantations would move from North Carolina to fresh lands in Alabama or Mississippi, with the enslaved people walking all the way.

In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson noted in 1793 that he did not use manure to fertilize or replenish his worn-out tobacco fields because we can buy an acre of new land cheaper than we can manure an old acre. Twenty years later Jefferson acknowledged that the intensive farming by his slaves had left his soils inert. But the environmental damage associated with slavery was not limited to farmlands.

In North Carolina, for instance, intensive enslaved labor made possible the exploitation and destruction of the magnificent longleaf pine forests that covered our state. To secure the pitch and tar from the pine trees, enslaved labor tapped, and scratched the surface, taking the blood the trees needed to sustain themselves, leaving only ghosts of once-magnificent forests.

Silkenat wrote, Intensive extraction conspired with environmental factors to expedite the forests destruction. Scarification caused by repeating chipping made the trees vulnerable to wood-boring insects such as the ips beetle, the turpentine bore, and the black turpentine beetle. Stripped of their bark, the pine trees stood defenseless against these insects. A turpentine-borer epidemic in 1848-1849 along the Cape Fear River devastated the heart of North Carolinas longleaf pine. Also, in North Carolina, the use of enslaved labor during the gold rush days before the Civil War made possible the extraction of gold but left a ruined landscape behind.

In South Carolina, the rice plantations that made that state wealthy before the Civil War, required an enormous commitment of enslaved labor to dig and manage the canals and other waterways that provided the right conditions for the crop. Those canals and their upkeep, adjustment and repairs destroyed the natural environment and left the coastal lands permanently affected.

Similarly, along the Mississippi River, the construction of levees to protect farmlands from flooding required enslaved labor. Continuing maintenance and repair demanded a long-term commitment of enslaved labor. The adjustments to the normal ebb and flow of the river still make for the continuing disruption of the great rivers natural flow.

In cotton and tobacco fields, hardwood and pine forests, rice fields, goldmines, rivers and levees, slavery brought about even more damage to the environment. Although the author sets out many more examples of damage, he acknowledges that the environmental devastation chronicled in this book pales in comparison to the brutality of American slavery on human bodies and souls. Yet looking at slavery through an environmental lens reveals how the chattel principle poisoned everything it touched.

Note: The books author, David Silkenat, a senior lecturer in American history at the University of Edinburgh, has strong North Carolina connections. His wifes parents live in Chapel Hill. His father-in-law, Willis Whichard, was a North Carolina supreme court justice and dean of Campbell Universitys law school. Whichard himself is the author of an important new book, A Consequential Life: David Lowry Swain, Nineteenth-Century North Carolina, and Their University.
Its another long, hot summer, perhaps hotter than it was in 1787, but we think now of the founders then sequestering themselves in Philadelphia with the windows shut, so nothing of their spirited discussions could be overheard by the passing public. Two-hundred-thirty-five years ago, they were creating the U.S. Constitution as a framework of governance to replace the failed Articles of Confederation.

Recent events weighed heavily on their minds: Shays Rebellion. This was an uprising of disgruntled farmers and tradesmen in western Massachusetts angered by new laws about taxes and debts as imposed by Gov. James Bowdoin and the remote government in Boston. The rebels called themselves Regulators, a nod to the War of the Regulation in North Carolina almost two decades before. Across six months, these angry Massachusetts citizens surrounded courthouses and an armory, disrupting court business and intending to arm themselves to overthrow the government. The state government in Boston was unable to finance a militia force to quash the uprising of insurgents, so local merchants provided the money to raise a militia force of 3,000 men, mostly from the east. The state-sponsored militia force was led by Benjamin Lincoln, commander of the Southern Department of the Continental Army during the Revolution. (Our Lincoln County is his namesake.)

In the winter of 1787, Lincoln and his Massachusetts militia forces successfully routed the Shaysites. Some 4,000 men signed confessions in exchange for amnesty. Many others were pardoned. John Hancock was elected the new governor.

Not surprisingly, the proposed Constitution, out for ratification by the states that September, did not meet everyones expectations. North Carolina would not ratify it without a Bill of Rights. When the founders enumerated certain rights, they wanted to make sure that a militia force could be raised at public expense, so they did not have to relive the impotence of Massachusetts during Shays Rebellion. Hence, they crafted the Second Amendment with their understanding of the times: A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State,  (you know the rest).

Bearing arms had a different meaning to people of that era than today. Armed with a muzzle-loading, single shot musket or rifle, a man was reluctant to fire his weapon because he would then be vulnerable until he could reload. A group of armed men had safety in numbers because every person was capable of firing his one shot while others reloaded. Bearing arms was a collective show of force, a demonstration of a willingness to fight, if need be. It was part bluff, but a show of resolve. The Shaysites surrounding the courthouses made a show of force by bearing arms.

Even in duels of the era, the confrontation was designed to resolve matters of honor, each man armed with a one-shot pistol. If one man took his shot, he was honor-bound to stand in place as his opponent decided whether to fire at him or to fire into the air, thus declaring the matter of honor resolved. Each had stood exposed.

All of that comes to mind now for myriad reasons, but locally because the Forsyth County GOP has decided to raise funds by raffling an assault weapon, supposedly demonstrating its enduring support for the right to bear arms as they want to think of it.

Might we all agree that the founders were thinking one man, one shot? How could they have comprehended otherwise? Moreover, it is hard to imagine, in that hot summer of 1787, that the thought ever crossed the founders minds that as technology changed, the rule-makers would not change with it. Remember, they were creating a framework for governance, not engraving tablets with commandments. If you want to contend originalism  a recent and arguable concept, not a tradition  then, OK, allow anyone to carry a muzzle-loading musket, shot and powder. Itll take them 20 seconds to reload if they practice. Not that they should have to. After all, bearing arms is for show.

If the members and supporters of the Forsyth County GOP want to show their courage, resolve, honor or any other virtue they would want to use to applaud themselves as true Americans, perhaps they can gather together in a large auditorium for the presentation of the raffle prize. When the winner stands on the stage and is handed an assault rifle and boxes of ammunition, will they feel a pang of concern for their safety and the position they have put themselves in  and everyone else?

Welcome to America.
The news that President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID should serve as a wake-up call for the rest of us: Almost three years on, the pandemic is still not going very well.

Perhaps its human nature to put bad news out of mind. Still, one reason so many people have chosen to ignore COVID-19 may be that they are wary, and weary, of public health authorities. If people admit COVID is still a big problem, they are implicitly giving regulators permission to control their lives once again. But people are tired of lockdowns, mandatory testing, canceled school sessions and travel restrictions. And so they are fighting back with the ultimate form of nonviolent resistance  forgetting about the issue altogether.

Consider this sorry state of affairs in a broader context.

This post-vaccine phase of COVID is worse than many expectations. More than 300 Americans, and sometimes as many as 400, are dying each day. If COVID were some new malady that had just emerged this year, this would be big news indeed.

The pandemic also continues to have a corrosive effect on the ability to make plans. Even if you are young, in good health and relatively safe, you have to worry about those you might infect. Planning conferences or family trips now is more difficult than it was in 2019, in part because it is not clear who exactly is going to show up.

Another possible problem is long COVID. Even among experts, there are dramatically varying answers as to how bad a problem long COVID is going to be. Some dismiss the phenomenon altogether, others suggest there are incontrovertible biomarkers of its relevance.

As an economist, I view this debate through the concept of expected value. Say that there is a 20% or 30% chance that 1% of the American public will have longer-term problems resulting from COVID infections. The expected costs of that scenario still are enormous.

Yet the response to this crisis remains lackadaisical. There is an urgent need for a new Operation Warp Speed for pan-coronavirus vaccines, which show increasing signs of working against known new and unknown future variants. So far no such plans are in the offing, and updating the previous vaccines (based, to be clear, on now-obsolete strains) may take nearly as long as it did to develop the original vaccines.

Why is the pandemic no longer a preoccupation of most Americans? Even many people I know who used to refresh the various coronavirus trackers regularly, no longer do. People have moved on. (There are exceptions; when I visited the Bay Area last month, I observed people walking alone, outside, wearing masks. Many of them are, unfortunately, still living in 2020.)

The lack of interest is not confined to the U.S. So far this year, I have traveled to England, Ireland, Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and Colombia. With the possible exception of Italy, where I observed a fair amount of mask-wearing, most people in those countries seemed to be ignoring COVID-19.

I consider this optimal private behavior for most people; I took off my mask (except for when I had COVID) once I was allowed to. But I worry about the public implications of this attitude. When it comes to pandemics, people seem to have either an on or off switch. Ideally, the approach should be more along the lines of: I need to get on with my life, but I will exercise caution when appropriate. In the meantime, a vigorous public-sector response is still needed for better vaccines and therapeutics.

Yet people are afraid that such an attitude could be used against them. And so a variety of defense mechanisms kick in. Some take the form of intellectual chicanery, such as blaming the vaccines rather than the malady, or blaming the failure to deploy hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin or whatever other supposedly miracle cure is on offer. When I hear people create these diversions, in my mind I hear voices screaming: We are not going to let you do this to us again!

But most individuals are not so anti-scientific, nor do they have such complex theories. They are simply tired of the pandemic and its consequences  on our longevity, our health, our society and our state of mind.

And so they retreat, if only mentally and emotionally. And a catatonic America continues to stumble through a disappointing response to one of the greatest challenges this country has ever faced.
With the general election just under four months away, the candidates for Nebraskas 2nd Congressional District seat are hitting the summer parade circuit and knocking on doors.

Behind the scenes, incumbent Republican Rep. Don Bacon and his Democratic challenger, State Sen. Tony Vargas, also continue to raise money.

According to the latest campaign finance reports, Bacon ended the second quarter on June 30 with nearly $1.17 million in the bank, compared with Vargas $532,526.

Throughout this election cycle, Bacon has held the advantage when it comes to fundraising and spending, with $2.7 million raised and $1.7 million spent since January 2021. Vargas has raised a total of $1.6 million and spent $1.1 million since launching his campaign in July 2021.

Our continued strength in fundraising reflects our strong support across the 2nd District, Bacon said in a press release. Nebraskas 2nd District is one of the tightest in the nation and remains ground zero in the battle for control of the House.

Vargas, a two-term state lawmaker representing an Omaha district, outraised Bacon in the latest quarter  a fact his campaign touted in a press release. In the reporting period spanning April 21 through June 30, Vargas raised nearly $144,000 more than Bacon. However, Bacon still outspent Vargas by about $51,000.

Randall Adkins, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said he would expect an incumbent like Bacon to have at least $1 million cash on hand. Adkins said it shows Bacon takes his opponent seriously and the congressman hasnt had to deplete his money.

If he couldnt raise the money, he should be worried, Adkins said of Bacon. If hes having to spend the money, he should be worried.

Adkins said there is still time for Vargas to raise money and the $532,526 is a strong showing. Still, he said the state senator will need more money.

The disadvantage is that when you dont have cash on hand and youve got four months left in a campaign, that means you have to spend time raising money, which means youre not spending time campaigning, Adkins said.

Adkins said the fact that Vargas raised more money than Bacon this quarter shows Vargas is a viable candidate, but it also could show that outside groups, which otherwise would support Bacon, are choosing to spend money in races they see as closer.

Adkins said the Cook Political Report, which rates congressional races, considers the 2nd District race as likely Republican.

The 2nd District includes Saunders County, western Sarpy County and all of Douglas County, including Omaha. Bacon has represented the district since 2017.

The World-Herald reached out to Bacon and Vargas to discuss the latest fundraising reports, but both were unavailable. The Bacon campaign made its campaign manager, Derek Oden, available to discuss the reports.

Oden said the campaign expected Vargas to outraise Bacon in the period after the primary. He noted that Kara Eastman, a Democrat who challenged Bacon in 2018 and 2020, did the same in 2020.

But Bacon did better than expected and currently has about $140,000 more than he did at this time during his last campaign, Oden said.

Were in a really strong spot, we feel, Oden said.

In the campaigns press release, Vargas criticized Bacon for a nearly $5,000 contribution from the National Rifle Association. In the finance report, that contribution is dated May 31, a week after 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

That contribution brought Bacons career total funding from the NRA to about $15,000, the Vargas campaign said.

Vargas also criticized Bacon for voting against two gun control bills that passed in the House.

A screenshot of the NRA check provided by the Bacon campaign shows the date on the check as April 27 and the stamped postmark as May 19, indicating the check was sent before the May 24 shooting in Uvalde.

According to the Federal Election Commission, the date a campaign actually receives a contribution is the date used for reporting purposes.

Oden said that the NRA has given other members of Congress thousands more dollars than what Bacon has received and that political contributions do not influence Bacons votes. Oden noted that Bacon voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages.

If we cared about donations and money and toeing the party line, he wouldnt have voted for those two things, Oden said.

It remains to be seen whether the recent mass shootings or the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade  which was credited for energizing Democrats during a recent special election in Nebraskas 1st District  will remain on the minds of voters heading into November. Adkins said he doesnt know what the impact of those two issues will be on the election.

Whether its going to be the difference in winning and losing, I dont think were going to know until the whole thing is over, he said.
The River Boys Band, experts at Dutch hop and polka music, will perform Friday, July 29, from 7-11 p.m. at the Embassy Suites, 1040 P St., as part of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) annual convention.

The dance is open to the public for $10 per person at the door.

We are thrilled to have the River Boys Band back for our first in-person convention in two years," said Sue Nakaji, Convention Committee chairperson. "Their music inspires everyone to get off their feet and dance. Everyone, no matter what their age, will want to tap their toes and reminisce about their family history. Its a great family fun event.

Dutch hop is a unique genre of music celebrated for generations by Germans from Russia. The River Band Boys, composed of Bob Schmer on accordion, Steve Deines on bass, Joe Herman on dulcimer and Bill Jackson on trombone, hail from northern Colorado and have performed across the country. Many of the band members share German from Russia ancestry from the Volga Region.

Not familiar with Dutch hop? No worries, Nebraska Education Television created a Dutch hop documentary that can be seen at www.netaonline.org/episode/dutch-hop.

AHSGRs 52nd annual convention

The AHSGRs 52nd annual convention features over 30 speakers from the United States, Germany and Canada. The event celebrates German from Russia ancestors, the brave souls who answered the call of Catherine the Great and her grandson Alexander II to relocate to Russia during the late 1700s to early 1800s, and their descendants around the world.

Attendance at the convention is not required to attend the dance, however there is still time to register for the conference. The convention is primarily in-person presentations, but it's also a hybrid event that offers Zoom-accessible sessions for virtual participation for some presentations. For registration details, visit https://ahsgr.org/event/2022-convention/. For hotel reservations, visit www.hilton.com/en/book/reservation.

We have an exciting line-up of speakers, many who have never spoken at our conventions before," said Nakaji. "Speakers from many areas of the Germans from Russia diaspora: We have speakers covering Catholics in Siberia to Mennonites in Canada. We will explore our connection to the current conflict in Ukraine and the Black Sea German Colonies. We will learn about some personal histories of escape from Russia and the history of specific German Colonies.

About AGSGR

Those who wish to become an AHSGR member can do so at https://ahsgr.org/membership/.

AHSGR is a nonprofit educational organization engaged in researching the history of Germans who settled in the Russian Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries. This includes areas of present-day Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. AHSGR headquarters are located at 631 D St. in Lincoln.
How do you celebrate someones 60 years of dedication to an organization? Its best to secretly involve family. And, pull in longtime friends. It doesnt hurt to do a bit of research. Then top it all off by asking a guy you went to elementary, middle and high school with to present the surprise award.

Art Knox, originally from Oklahoma but a Nebraskan for nearly 70 years, was recognized for his 60 years of dedication and involvement in Lincolns Downtown Rotary (also known as Rotary 14) at the clubs meeting on July 12.

My father-in-law suggested that I join Rotary 14, so I officially joined the club on July 10, 1962, noted Knox. And, Im as dedicated to the organization today as I was the day I joined.

John Gessert, current club president, realized that Knox would celebrate his 60th anniversary not long after he began his term as president.

I wanted to do something special for Art. Hes got the distinction of being our longest-term member, said Gessert. So, I got in touch with Allen Beermann, another long-term member and good personal friend of Arts. Allen reached out to arrange for Art to be recognized with a special declaration by the State of Nebraska. We also contacted Jim Mastera, another longtime friend, who helped pull the details together. In recent years, Jims been driving Knox to the meetings, and the two have known each other for many years. Hes the one that reached out to Earlene, Arts wife of 67 years.

Knox graduated from Oklahoma State University, and it was a fraternity visit to Lincoln that introduced him to Earlene, a Lincoln native, who would eventually become his wife. Thats what brought him to Nebraska. His career included serving as president of Lincoln Steel, a board member of Lincoln Northland, and on the Cornhusker Bank Board of Directors. He and Earlene have been longtime members of Westminster Presbyterian Church and remain active there.

I primarily was a weekly participant in Rotary during my first years in the club, Knox noted. Then, when I retired in the early 90s, I took on the challenge of being president of the club. Charlie Thone really encouraged me to take on that challenge. Knox followed longtime Rotarians Steve Glenn and David Livingston as head of the club, which has the distinction of being one of the oldest and largest clubs in the world. His friend Mastera followed in his footsteps.

For me, Rotary is all about the people, building friendships and joining together to serve the community, the state and beyond, said Knox. One thing I have grown to appreciate is that if youre a member of Rotary, you have friends all over the world.

Knox has attended nine international conventions in his years affiliated with the club. Earlene and I went to Nice, France years ago, and there were 30,000 Rotary members at that convention. We took a busload of people from Nebraska to Chicago when Rotary celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005.

Some great memories in Arts mind after 60 years as a Rotarian include the change in membership guidelines to invite women in 1985.

I was there when our club approved it, and I nominated Kay Orr, our governor, to be an honorary member, Knox shared. Priscilla Henkelmann has been a member of our club since 1987, and she as well as all women who followed her, have made a positive impact on our organization.

Another memory was during Knoxs year as president, when the club grew by 48 members.

It was a special time each week when I could introduce a new member, he said. And Im thrilled that our club remains a vibrant organization doing some great things in Lincoln.

Knox also talked about his contribution to helping manage a large club.

With multiple committees and service activities of all sorts, its hard to keep track of whos doing what, he noted. I produced our very first Rotary Plan, and that model is followed even 30 years later.

Finally, Knox talked with pride about Rotary Seniors Park, which is located just south of Cascade Memorial Fountain in one of Lincolns parks. Thats such a comfortable place to stroll in the evening, he said. My father-in-law started that project the year before I was president, and I was there to help dedicate it.

OK, so weve talked about secretly involving friends and family in this celebration. Weve shared quite a bit of research about Knox. The real surprise was that the award arranged by Allen Beermann was announced and presented by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts. The governor and Rotary 14 President Gessert are both from Omaha, and the two have known each other since elementary school.

I was sitting back in my seat to hear the governor speak, said Knox, a longtime Republican activist. Then he said something about someone in the room had been part of Rotary for 60 years  It took a minute, then I realized he was talking about me.

On July 12, Knox was named an honorary Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska, a fitting recognition for 60 years of service to Rotary 14.
By Trend

The International Media Forum in Azerbaijan's Shusha is aimed at discussing and finding solutions to various global issues on the agenda, Former Adviser to the President of Serbia, Director for Policy Research, Analysis, and Publications at the Institute for Development and Diplomacy within ADA University Damjan Krnjevi? said, Trend reports.

Krnjevi? made the remark on the sidelines of the first International Media Forum on "Global trends and new challenges in mass media", organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency in Shusha city on July 22.

He expressed hope that the cooperation between various media both in Azerbaijan and abroad will benefit from the forum.

According to him, after the 2020 second Karabakh war, it became clear that it wasnt sufficiently covered by the world media.

"The policy of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev contributes to Azerbaijani media outlets reaching the world level. The creation of such organizations as the Media Development Agency indicates that Azerbaijan understands that it still needs to solve the problem seriously and comprehensively, and expand cooperation with international media outlets, the analyst said.

In this sense, the creation of the Media Development Agency testifies to the desire of Baku to globally promote Azerbaijan and its media environment," Krnjevi? said.
Laura Ann Walker, the attorney for the teen against whom charges were dropped, told the Journal Times it appeared a witness had been untruthful in identifying her client as being involved in the crime. The prosecutor then "did what she is supposed to do as a prosecutor and that is to speak the truth, Walker said. So kudos to her. However, Walker did express concern about the rush to charge her client. I wish they would spend more time investigating prior to issuing the criminal complaint."
Less than two weeks after she pleaded guilty to a criminal charge related to setting fire to and destroying the Thelma Orr COP House two years ago, one of the accused arsonists was arrested while out on bond.
A former Genoa City and Twin Lakes village president has been identified as the pedestrian who died as a result of an accident that occurred Tuesday, July 19.

Police have identified Kenneth L. Koehn, 81, of Lake Geneva as the victim of a pedestrian/vehicle accident that occurred about 7:30 a.m., July 19 near the intersection of Williams Street and Milwaukee Street in Lake Geneva.

According to police, the driver of the vehicle, a 75-year-old from the Town of Geneva, was heading north on Williams Street and did not appear to notice Koehn. Police have said speed does not appear to be a factor in the accident.

Koehn served as the village president for Genoa City and Twin Lakes for many years. He also was a trustee for the Genoa City village board.

Greg Koehn, Kenneth Koehns son, said his father enjoyed being involved with local politics and interacting with the residents of the communities he served.

Everybody in Genoa City loved my dad, because he was a politician that was there for the people, Greg Koehn said. He would be out in the streets with people. He would buy you a beer at the bar. He just loved to talk. He loved that type of work and not too many people can do it or be respected in it. I know he was.

Kenneth Koehn was the owner of K&M Appliance in Twin Lakes for many years. Greg said his father always tried to treat his customers fairly.

He wanted to make the best deal for everybody. He wanted you to go home happy, Greg said. He wasnt pushy.

Kenneth Koehn was involved with several community organizations including the Lake Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Twin Lakes Chamber of Commerce and Genoa City Lions Club.

Greg said his father always enjoyed helping other people. He describes his father as a gentle, kind-hearted person.

He was a strong man of faith. He was there to help everybody and anybody that needed a hand, Greg said. He instilled that in all of his kids, too. He always helped people. Were so proud of our father for what he did for us and others.

Kenneth enjoyed hunting, fishing and woodworking. Greg said his father would use his woodworking skills to make decorative walking canes for people.

He would go out in the woods and get his own wood, and he would make these canes, Greg said. He decorated them for all different people and different sizes. Thats the one thing he really enjoyed.

Kenneth also enjoyed walking and socializing with others.

He loved to try to stay in shape. Walking was a big thing, because with a bad knee he had a hard time doing a lot of things that he wanted to do, Greg said. Getting out in the woods and walking around the block and shooting the breeze with neighbors and friends, he was a real social person. He loved talking to everybody. I think thats why people loved him so much.

Greg said he feels safety could be improved near the intersection of Williams Street and Milwaukee Street, were the accident occurred. He said people have commented that a traffic light or crosswalk should be installed in that area.

Im not an engineer, but theres always improvements for everything. Then again no matter what you do, its not going to solve everything, Greg said. I think the biggest thing is that people need to be more aware and more respectful of others.

Growing up, Kenneth was a member of the Boy Scouts and became an Eagle Scout. Greg said his father always enjoyed spending time out in nature.

He said, You can learn so much from a book, but when you get out in the woods and youre with nature, youre going to learn just as much, Greg said.

Kenneth is survived by his wife Dolores and his children, Greg Koehn, Cheryl Otto, Kristy Skipper and Matthew Koehn, as well as his stepchildren, Rick Koehn, Jim Katzenberg, Janet Fry and Julie Lois. He also is survived by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Carol.

Greg said Kenneth had a great love for his family.

He loved all his kids and grandkids dearly, Greg said. His family was number one in his life.

A private family service will be held for Kenneth. Memorials can be made in his name to Trinity Church, W775 Geranium Road, Genoa City, WI. or to the Wisconsin Lions Foundation, 3834 County Road A, Rosholt, WI. 54473-9335, attention: Lions Camp.

Online condolences can be made by visiting www.Haaselwoodfhs.com. The Haase-Lockwood & Associates Funeral Home and Crematory in Genoa is assisting the family with arrangements.
WIND POINT  The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread has heard the issues. Now it wants to see the change.

In partnership with a broad coalition of partners, including United Way of Racine County, The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread spent last summer listening to 270 community members in 19 conversations with an average of 15 participants each, talking about education, the economy, health and justice.

Community members with diverse perspectives and life experiences were at the center of these kitchen-table style conversations, held in neighborhoods across the area, with a focus on concerns and aspirations.

The information from the community conversations, report and website will be used to monitor community conditions and chart progress, and aim to spark community-informed and data-informed actions.

The Foundation on Tuesday launched Racine Speaks, the next Resilient Communities collaboration, to amplify Racine experiences and spark collaborative action. Tuesdays launch was held at Wingspread, 33 East Four Mile Road, Wind Point, and began with a program covering some key data findings and a panel discussion. It concluded with a reception on the Wingspread lawn.

Racine Speaks is an extension of the Foundations Resilient Communities Initiative, which catalyzes coordination and collaboration among community stakeholders to enhance the quality of life, drive economic vitality and ensure a stronger future for community members.

In addition to listening to the voices of Racine, the Johnson Foundation worked with the Wisconsin Policy Forum to conduct a full analysis of the data used to quantify progress in the four areas across the region. This resulted in a robust, digital Racine Speaks report with a companion website.

Find the full report at johnsonfdn.org/racine-speaks, complete with videos, charts and graphs of data, quotes from participants or groups of participants, bright spots or positive findings, recommendations and potential solutions for change.

Racine residents may take action by sharing the information on social media; host or participate in a conversation; volunteer or support a local cause; attend a meeting for a council, board or committee; or vote.

We are firm believers that if we want different results, we need to pursue different approaches, said Johnson Foundation President Marcus White. Working toward the possible is why were all here today, so thank you for that, and thank you for believing. Because when we get down to it, when we believe in the possible, it means we believe in one another. And at the end of the day, that might be what matters most.

Here are some surprising facts and key takeaways from the presentation.

Demographics

Racine Countys Hispanic or Latino population has nearly doubled since 2000, according to data from The American Community Survey.

In 2020, the City of Racine was 46% white, 23% black or African American and 24% Hispanic or Latino  the first time in the citys history that people of color made up a slight majority.

Over the last 20 years, most growth in eastern Racine County was in the surrounding villages. The City of Racines population decreased from around 82,000 to 78,000.

The countys population would also be declining if not for growth in communities of color. Racine Countys total population increased over the last 20 years from 188,831 to 197,727. Given these demographic trends, communities of color are increasingly important to the future of Racine County, the report concluded.

Economy

In conversations with people who were unemployed, low-wage or underemployed and working women and mothers, the Johnson Foundation heard that the minimum wage ($7.25 per hour or $2.33 for tipped employees) is too low, especially with ever-increasing rent costs.

Participants said opportunity is limited by race, gender and background. They seek more affordable talent development opportunities and childcare and workplace flexibility that supports employees.

In conversation with business owners, the Foundation heard that the community lacks a shared vision and shared responsibility.

Participants want to see more cross-collaboration across borders and sectors, entrepreneurship support and qualified job candidates, the report said.

Health

The rate of people countywide in Racine County uninsured dropped since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. But in 2019, 6% of the countys population was uninsured, and nearly 60% of those uninsured resided in the City of Racine.

Racine County uninsured rates dropped significantly from 2012 to 2015, particularly among black and Hispanic individuals, as the Affordable Care Act and other reforms extended coverage to those previously uninsured.

On average, the uninsured rate is higher in the City of Racine and among Hispanic or Latino individuals. In 2019, 11,819 of Racine Countys 191,234 residents, or 6% of the population, were uninsured. Nearly 7,000 of those uninsured resided in the City of Racine.

Racine only accounts for about 39.3% of the countys total population.

Uninsured people receive less preventive care, dental care, chronic disease management and mental health care and have higher mortality rates, the report said.

Life expectancy, considered a measure of a communitys health, was 78.7 years in Racine County from 2010-2014 but as low as 68.9 years in certain eastern Racine County census tracts.

The crime rate for the City of Racine in 2020 was 56 per 100,000 individuals.

Violent crime not only harms individuals but also causes social and emotional distress, with far-reaching effects, the report said.

Education

Racine Unified School District enrollment fell 18% from 2009 to 2019: from 21,276 to 17,529 students, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

While declining birth rates play a role, Wisconsin saw a statewide drop in public school enrollment in that same period of only 2%, from 871,262 to 854,959.

White student enrollment dropped from 10,221 to 6,741, and black student enrollment decreased from 5,806 to 4,378. Meanwhile, enrollment of Hispanic students rose from 4,845 to 5,050. Students identifying as two or more races was at 1,109 in 2019; the statistic was not tracked in 2009.

Shrinking resources for operations and improvements puts more pressure on already-struggling schools, potentially amplifying existing inequities in education, the report concluded.

Justice

Black youth arrests numbered almost four times those of white youth in 2020 in the City of Racine. Black adult arrests were 59% higher than those of white adults, data from the Wisconsin Uniform Crime Reporting Data Dashboard Center said.

In 2020, there were:

966 arrests in the City of Racine of black adults (over age 18).

608 of white adults.

224 of black youth under 18.

59 of white youth.

Studies show job applicants with criminal records are disfavored by employers. In Wisconsin, it is not employment discrimination under the law when an employees arrest or conviction is substantially related to the employment.

Black people make up roughly 6% of Wisconsins population but 42% of the Wisconsin prison population. In 2020, the Wisconsin prison population included roughly 10,500 white, 8,200 black, 1,000 American Indian/Alaskan Native and 250 Asian or Pacific Islander individuals.

Prison life can lead to mental health disorders and difficulty rejoining society, the report said. The loss of liberty and separation from family and social support, as well as uncertainty, loneliness and fear, can affect the ability to be an effective partner, parent and employee upon release.
RANDALL  Whether youre in the market for barbecue, kettle corn, cookie dough or cowboy hats, Country Thunder has you covered  and festival attendees showed up for this years vendors.

The Country Thunder festival grounds in Randall were filled with food and retail vendors, offering endless options for shopping and eats while fans waited for performers to come out. Multiple vendors said they saw a surprisingly high number of patrons as the festival as a whole received record turnout opening night.

Karen Starkman, co-owner of Mustards Last Stand, said they got great business. This is her eighth year as a vendor at the festival.

It was the busiest first day weve ever seen, Starkman said.

Nearby at Ottes Concessions, owner Jeff Otte had a similar experience with the large crowds. Based in Sauk Centre, Minn., Otte has made the seven-hour drive to sell at Country Thunder Wisconsin for 16 years. Selling at the festival seemed like a fun idea, he said, and it has definitely paid off for the concession stand, which is popular for its cheese curds, corndogs and kettle corn.

The weather can be iffy at Country Thunder, but the crowds are always here, Otte said.

Mary Prange, owner of Emmas Cookie Kitchen, said business was decent the first night of the festival for her two cookie booths. The booths feature deep-fried cookie dough, fresh-baked cookies, cookie dough sundaes and more. This is Pranges fourth year selling at Country Thunder, and her second with two booths.

Its fun, I like country music, Prange said. I did Iowa Country Thunder once also, and Id do the others ones if they were closer.

Other vendors said the music was a big highlight for them, as well.

Christy Conrad, general manager of Milwaukee-based retailer Drink Wisconsinbly, said she enjoys having her booth set up by the festivals Lake Stage so she can hear the live music. People watching at the festival is fun too, she said.

Theres been a good crowd, so business is good. I was shocked at the crowd yesterday, usually the first day is slower, Conrad said. And everyone walks past us coming from the campgrounds, so a lot of people see us.

Country Thunder first-timers Joe Koeppl and Leslie Reuter set up their tent for their shop Lake Cowboy. From Minnetonka, Minn., Koeppl and Leslie are lifelong friends who decided to start the business together, honoring their Minnesota roots in lake life and rural life.

We wanted to combine our love of country music, lake life and the barn, Koeppl said.

Even for vendors who didnt receive record-breaking business on opening night, those who were Country Thunder veterans knew that the business would come as the festival continued. Marc Harden, owner of Florida-based retailer RDNKN, said business tends to pick up after the first day. Harden said he has been coming to Country Thunder Wisconsin for five years.

I really like the owners. Theyre like a family, Harden said. Its a great venue, also. Its a great company, a great event and its a lot of fun.

Beau Richards, owner of retailer Concert Alien, had similar sentiments about the festival.

Weve been coming here for six years, Richards said. There are really good people at Country Thunder.

Sundays performers are scheduled to include:

2:30 p.m.  Jackson Dean

3 p.m.  Alika Arlynn Band

4 p.m.  Sawyer Brown

4:30 p.m.  Zac Matthews Band

5:30 p.m.  Tenville Townes

6 p.m.  Jordan Rager

7 p.m.  Chase Rice

8 p.m.  Drew Cooper

9 p.m.  Florida Georgia Line

10:30 p.m.  Bootjack Road
Authorities were investigating four deaths  three homicides and a possible suicide  Friday at Maquoketa Caves State Park.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation were called about 6:23 a.m. for a report of a shooting at the park campground and found three people dead at a camp site, Mike Krapfl, a special agent in charge with DCI, said during a preliminary news conference late Friday morning.

Krapfl said he did not have information as of late Friday morning as to how the three people were killed, but a release issued on the DCI website said the fatalities were being considered homicides.

Authorities were working on confirming their identities, but the information was not yet available, Krapfl said.

As they investigated, police found another camper was missing and had information that he was armed.

That camper, identified as Anthony Sherwin, 23, was found dead about 11 a.m. west of the park, Krapfl said. He had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Krapfl could not say if a firearm had been recovered.

Krapfl said he believed Sherwin was from Nebraska.

There were other campers in the park at the time, and at least some of them were evacuated, Krapfl said. No one else was reported injured.

Krapfl said there was believed to be no further threat to the public.

The park would be closed until further notice, the DCI release states.

Investigators were still trying to figure out what relationship, if any, there was between the four people, Krapfl said.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued the following statement Friday afternoon: Im horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives. As we grieve this unimaginable tragedy, Kevin and I pray for the victims family members and the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene. We ask Iowans to do the same.
An 81-year-old man was pronounced dead on Friday, July 22, after he reportedly fell off his paddleboard in Geneva Lake and went under water.

At approximately 12:45 p.m. Friday officers with the Town of Linn Police Department along with Linn Fire and EMS responded to the south shore of Geneva Lake near Hunt Club Lane for a report of a drowning, according to news releases from the Town of Linn Police Department and Geneva Lake Police.

Responding officers arrived to find EMS personnel performing life saving measures on an 81-year-old man who was pulled from Geneva Lake. Witnesses said the man, identified as Peter K. Scheuer of Chicago, had been on a paddleboard when he lost his balance, fell into the water and went under. He was not wearing a personal flotation device.

Witnesses reported Schauer had traveled approximately 100 yards east of the pier when the paddleboard encountered a wake from a passing boat causing Schauer to fall into the water, according to the Geneva Lake Police.

Within approximately five minutes bystanders and family members were able to locate him and get him to shore. Lifesaving efforts by family and EMS were not successful and the man died at the scene.

The Town of Linn Police Department sends our condolences to all those involved, and our thoughts are with the family and loved ones during the tragic and difficult time, Linn Police said in their press release.

The Town of Linn Police Department was assisted by the Walworth County Sheriffs Office, Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Agency, Town of Linn Fire and EMS, City of Lake Geneva Fire and EMS, Mercy Hospital MD and the Water Safety Patrol.
The Republican head of the Assemblys election committee has called for the impossible task of decertifying Wisconsins 2020 presidential election results, a position her Republican Senate counterpart called lunacy at best.

In a statement Friday, Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, said she was joining fellow Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, who is running for governor this fall, in calling for decertification  something experts and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said isnt an option under the law or the Wisconsin and U.S. constitutions.

Tyranny is at Wisconsins door, Brandtjen said. We have been told for months now that decertification is impossible, meaning there is no downside to cheating in Wisconsin elections. How many more times do we need to endure this election injustice?

Multiple reviews, recounts and court decisions have found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which saw President Joe Biden narrowly defeat incumbent Donald Trump in the state. Despite that, escalating rhetoric from the Republicans continues to animate the partys base.

Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, chair of the Senate elections committee, has consistently rejected calls for decertification based on baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

We cannot open up a door that has been closed, we cannot un-ring a bell, Bernier said Friday. So to keep going after the decertification of an election that has been fully certified and the new president has been in office for nearly two years, is lunacy at best.

Ramthun earlier this month revisited his call for state lawmakers to take up his resolution seeking to decertify the states presidential election results. Ramthun said his resolution only applies to the presidential election, and not the dozens of other races, including his own, on the 2020 ballot.

Bernier said she wasnt surprised by Brandtjens call for decertification. Brandtjen has previously called for a full cyber-forensic audit of the 2020 election and used her Assembly committee to provide a platform for several election deniers, including a man convicted of mail and bank fraud, to give a presentation featuring false and unprovable claims about the 2020 election.

Brandtjen has also clashed with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, who has also made unfounded claims of widespread fraud but has insisted there is no way for the Legislature to decertify the 2020 election.

Janel has been in this corner all along so it shouldnt be a surprise, Bernier said, adding that she feels Brandtjens chance of being the Assembly elections committees chair next session is pretty remote.

Vos office did not immediately respond Friday to questions about whether or not Brandtjen will serve as the committees chair next session. Brandtjen also did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, for his part, ramped up his pressure on Vos to decertify the election following the Wisconsin Supreme Courts 4-3 decision earlier this year barring the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the state.

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!

The decision by the states high court applies to future elections  not past ones, including the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Biden by close to 21,000 votes.

If you could even decertify an election, the proof (of fraud) isnt there, Bernier said. (Brandtjen) has not proven it.

Trump last month endorsed Brandtjen in the upcoming election, saying she was the most courageous member of the Assembly and provided the platform for the investigation into the Rigged and Stolen 2020 Presidential Election.

Bernier took issue with Trumps endorsements in states like Wisconsin, where he repeatedly denies the results of the 2020 election.

I find it hypocritical at best that Donald Trump is going around endorsing all sorts of people, including Janel Brandtjen, in a state where he has no confidence in the electoral process, Bernier said.
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

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By Trend

Media cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan has a high development potential, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of JSC Egemen Qazaqstan republican newspaper Vladimir Kuryatov told Trend on the sidelines of the first International Media Forum on "Global trends, new challenges in media" in Shusha, organized by the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency.

According to him, the essential factor in strengthening Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan relations is the exchange of information.

Kuryatov also noted the importance of developing cultural ties between the two fraternal states. In this regard, collaboration as part of the Organization of Turkic States is of particular significance.

"The relevance of the International Media Forum is self-evident, because all media representatives attending the forum are facing the same problems, such as fake news, and the impact of social media on the public consciousness. In my opinion, social media is like nuclear energy having both positive and negative effects on society. In this sense, the society of professional journalists is in unfair competition with bloggers," Kuryatov said.

According to him, authorities should introduce dedicated curricula to improve media literacy, which is already being practiced in Kazakhstan's schools.

Actively consuming fake news is a big problem of the whole society. Introducing laws entails risks, as their non-adoption will cause a public outcry. Raising the level of culture, the ability of turning to various information sources to get a complete picture of what's happening around needs to be worked on both in Kazakhstan and in Azerbaijan," he added.
KEARNEY  In 2020, more than 25% of all crash fatalities were speeding-related, and there was a dramatic 17% increase in speeding-related crash fatalities from 2019-2020.

Motivated by these statistics and other data, the Kearney Police Department will join law enforcement agencies across the nation through Aug. 14 in raising awareness of the dangers of speeding and reminding citizens to obey speed limits, according to a city of Kearney press release.

We are asking our community to please slow down and obey the posted signs, said KPD Chief Bryan Waugh. Our goal is to save lives, and were putting all drivers on alert. The posted speed limit is the law. No excuses.

In 2020, there were 11,258 Americans killed in speeding-related crashes, accounting for 29% of all fatal crashes in the United States.

Waugh said speeding reduces a drivers ability to steer safely around another vehicle, a hazardous object or an unexpected curve. A speeding driver also affects stopping distances. As speed increases, so do the odds of a vehicle crash.

Even the safest cars with the newest technologies are limited in how much they can help reduce the odds of a crash, according to the KPD release.

Kearneys participation in the speeding crackdown is funded through a grant from the Nebraska Department of Highway Safety.
The victim was initially listed in critical condition, and when he became conscious, records say he had ringing in his ears and could communicate only by writing.
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 admission 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.

The State Fair runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5.
Following the ban on abortion in many states, some are concerned about the future of birth control, especially access to Plan B.

Justice Clarence Thomas in late June suggested the Supreme Court should reconsider previous laws requiring the right to contraception, pointing to a 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut, which ensured married persons could purchase and use birth control.

Emergency contraceptives, such as the Plan B morning after pill, have long been controversial, with some equating them to abortion pills. (Emergency contraceptives prevent implantation of a fertilized egg; they do not terminate an existing pregnancy). And some are of the mindset that discussing birth control with teens, or providing them with free access, encourages sexual activity.

At present, birth control remains legal in all 50 states, and more options may be available in the near future: HRA Pharma is currently looking for approval to sell its Opill contraceptive without a prescription, and a male birth control pill is being clinically tested.

OTC pros and cons

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, over the counter birth control pills are currently available in more than 100 countries worldwide. While a prescription is required in the U.S. and Canada, HRA Pharma has presented research to the FDA to request making its Opill available over the counter.

For a product that has been available for the last 50 years, that has been used safely by millions of women, we thought it was time to make it more available, said Frederique Welgryn, HRAs chief strategy officer.

A decision from the FDA could come in 2023.

Lisa Boyce of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin told the Tribune in an interview while it would be convenient and enhance access, over the counter pills would not remove cost barriers, as they arent covered by insurance. HRA has not yet proposed a price, but TIME cites Welgryn as saying Were committed to making the pill affordable for all those who need it.

Many birth control pills contain both estrogen and progesterone, while Opill has just the hormone progestin. Some women cannot take hormone based pills for health reasons, or prefer not to due to side effects.

If it is approved, it would add one additional option for women, but there are 18 FDA approved methods of birth control available for people to choose from based on their health needs, says Boyce, who notes birth control is not one size fits all.

It is important that people have access to information about and access to the full range of birth control options that take into consideration each individual persons health and needs, Boyce says.

More options for men?

Females face the greatest burden when it comes to contraceptives, partly due to long held perceptions of reproductive responsibility and the limited options for men: vasectomy and condoms. The former is an invasive, sometimes irreversible method, and the latter has a 15% failure rate.

Some women are reticent to use birth control, whether due to side effects, health concerns or other reasons. A World Health Organization study found that among women who had an unintended pregnancy, over 65% had either not used contraception or had used an unreliable version, such as the rhythm method. Globally, around 44% of pregnancies are unintended, and more than half will be aborted.

Research into male birth control options began some 60 years ago, and yet no new methods are currently approved. Options are in the works, however. Enrollment is open for a study of ADAM, a non-hormonal injection in the vas deferens that would offer around a year of protection. A progestin gel, called NES/T, is undergoing clinical trials, and a non-hormonal pill created by a team at the University of Minnesota  which proved 99% effective in preventing pregnancy when tested on mice  may begin undergoing human trials by fall or winter 2022.

Expanded access to birth control for both men and women is a positive step towards preventing unintended pregnancy, Boyce says. More research is needed, she says, and, even if approved, whether men will be open to taking on the birth control responsibility is uncertain.

(We dont yet know) ultimately know how effective and impactful those products could be, Boyce says.

A 2020 study published on NIH found 78% of men believe both partners share an equal responsibility for family planning, but various surveys of men that asked whether they would actually take a birth control pill or have an injection showed a wide range of responses. For some proposed versions of birth control, as few as 27% said they would be open to using them.

Existing options and effectiveness

At present, Planned Parenthood lists 18 methods of birth control, with effectiveness rates ranging from 71 to 100% and protection length from as little as one use to to over a decade.

Birth control implant: 99% effective, lasts up to 5 years

IUD: 99% effective, lasts up to 12 years

Birth control shot: 94% effective, needed every three months

Vaginal ring: 91% effective, insert and removal required monthly

Birth control patch: 91% effective, replace weekly

Birth control pill: 91% effective, take daily

Condom: 85% effective, use every time

Internal condom: 79% effective, use every time

Diaphragm: 88% effective, use every time

Birth control sponge: 76-88% effective, use every time

Spermicide: 72-86% effective, use every time

Cervical cap: 71-86% effective use every time

Withdrawal/pull out method: 78% effective, use every time

Breastfeeding as birth control: 98% effective, do every 4-5 hours

Outercourse and abstinence: $100 effective, use every time

Fertility awareness (tracking ovulation): 76-88% effectiveness, use daily

Sterilization: 99% effective, lasts for life

Vasectomy: 99% effective, lasts for life unless reversed

Each person needs to make their birth control choices based on their comfort levels and what works best for their health, Boyce says. A trained medical professional can provide helpful counseling and health evaluations.

Planned Parenthood can assist with birth control counseling and prescribing via many platforms, including telehealth, through birth control apps and in person, depending on the method chosen. For information about birth control options or to make an appointment, go to ppwi.org.

More than ever, it is important people understand the different methods of birth control and how to access care if they not ready to become pregnant, Boyce says. (Our) staff work with people to understand the different forms of birth control, their effectiveness and health considerations.

Individuals without insurance may eligible for Quarterly Contraceptive Kits, no cost birth control mailed to their home.

Abortion care for Wisconsin residents

Leaders of Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI) on July 14 discussed a partnership to help meet the demand for abortion care now that Wisconsin cannot legally offer the service. The Waukegan, Ill. Planned Parenthood Health Center, which is located along the border of Wisconsin, near Kenosha, has brought in Wisconsin clinicians and nurses to help increase care capacity.

Because abortion is safe and legal in Illinois, we are now an oasis for care as millions of patients are stranded in a vast abortion desert, including Wisconsin residents, said Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of PPIL. Fortunately, trained medical professionals from Wisconsin are providing the care patients need in Illinois, and Illinois has the space to accommodate this increase of staff and patients.

Call volume to both Planned Parenthoods have doubled, the organization says, and PPILs care for Wisconsin residents has risen 10 fold since Roe V. Wade was overturned.

At PPWI, we have anticipated this difficult moment for years and worked with our health care partners at PPIL and others to do what we can to protect and enhance access to safe, non-judgmental abortion care for patients traveling across state lines, said Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of PPWI. Despite the devastating impact of Wisconsins criminal abortion ban, we are grateful to the dedicated patient services team who are doing everything they can to meet the growing patient demand next door.

Legislators looking to help

Democratic senators including Tammy Baldwin this week introduced the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act. The legislation would increase funding for the Title X Family Planning Program, which protects access to birth control, pregnancy counseling and more. As of Saturday, the bill was still in the introduction phase, having been read twice and referred by the senate to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

In 2020, over 1.5 million patients utilized services through Title X, and the new bill would, in part, increase funding from $268 million annually to $500 million each year; reinstate regulations prohibiting discrimination of providers who deliver Title X services; and require that pregnancy counseling include information about prenatal care and delivery, infant care, foster care, adoption and pregnancy termination, unless a patient does not have any interest in receiving information about an option.

Said Baldwin, While Republicans have stripped away the reproductive rights and freedoms of Wisconsin women, we must continue strengthening critical programs like Title X that give women access to essential family planning health care services.
Governor declares emergency over wildfire near Yosemite

WAWONA, Calif. (AP)  A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of California's largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

The Oak Fire started Friday afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by Saturday had grown to nearly 19 square miles (48 square kilometers), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.

Evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday due to the effects of the Oak Fire.

More than 400 firefighters were battling the blaze, along with helicopters, other aircraft and bulldozers, facing tough conditions that included hot weather, low humidity and bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades, Patterson said.

UN health agency chief declares monkeypox a global emergency

LONDON (AP)  The expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an extraordinary situation that qualifies as a global emergency, the World Health Organization chief said Saturday, a declaration that could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.

A global emergency is WHOs highest level of alert but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal. Similar declarations were made for the Zika virus in 2016 in Latin America and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision on calling monkeypox a global emergency despite a lack of consensus among experts on the U.N. health agency's emergency committee, saying he acted as a tiebreaker. It was the first time a U.N. health agency chief has unilaterally made such a decision without an expert recommendation.

We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, Tedros said. I know this has not been an easy or straightforward process and that there are divergent views."

WHOs emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said the director-general declared monkeypox a global emergency to ensure that the world takes the current outbreaks seriously.

Jan. 6 hearings traced an arc of 'carnage' wrought by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP)  To understand how Donald Trumps desperation and lies became a potent danger to democracy, consider the ginger mints.

Mints featured in one of the absurdist but toxic episodes fleshed out in the Jan. 6 hearings, which now pause even as the Justice Department presses ahead on a parallel criminal investigation that it calls the most important in its history.

Here's how one conspiracy theory, in a dark sea of them, was born:

A mother-daughter team at a Georgia elections center shared the treat during a long election night. Someone videotaped them and chose to believe the mint mother gave to daughter was a USB port. Trumps lawyer spread the accusation that the video caught the women using the device to try to corrupt the election against the president.

Frantic to stay in power, grasping at anything, Trump ran with the lie. He attacked the mother by name, branded her a professional vote scammer, and soon vigilantes showed up at a family home intending to execute a citizens arrest, the committee was told. For the love of mints.

Russia hits Ukraine's Black Sea port despite grain deal

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday's airstrikes as a spit in the face to Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements.

Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the port's infrastructure and Ukrainian air defenses brought down two others, the Ukrainian militarys Southern Command said. Odesa regional governor Maksym Marchenko said an unspecified number of people were injured in the attack.

Command spokeswoman Nataliya Humenyuk said no grain storage facilities were hit in Odesa. Turkey's defense minister, however, said he had spoken with Ukrainian authorities and one missile struck a grain silo and another landed nearby but neither affected loading at Odesa's docks.

It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesas port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the U.N. and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.

The invaders can no longer deceive anyone, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Parents, 6-year-old girl fatally shot in tent at Iowa park

A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Their bodies were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Des Moines.

Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead Friday in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safetys division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown.

We dont know what led up to this, what precipitated it, he said, adding that so far, the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.

Supreme Court leak probe: So many questions, so few answers

WASHINGTON (AP)  Less than 24 hours after the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into the egregious breach. "

Since then? Silence.

The Supreme Court won't say whether it's still investigating.

The court also won't say whether the leaker has been identified or whether anyone has been disciplined.

Or whether an outside law firm or the FBI has been called in.

Investigators: Attacker 'did not know who' Zeldin was

A man accused of attacking New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin during a recent campaign rally told investigators hed been drinking that day and didnt know who the congressman was, authorities said as the man was arrested on a federal assault charge Saturday.

David Jakubonis, 43, made an initial court appearance Saturday before a federal magistrate judge in Rochester, New York, on a single count of assaulting a member of Congress with a dangerous weapon. The charge carries a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

He was ordered held until a bail hearing in federal court Wednesday. Prosecutors said he should remain detained as a flight risk and is dangerous, according to a court filing. Assistant federal public defender Steven Slawinski, representing Jakubonis, said in an email to The Associated Press that he planned to ask the judge to release Jakubonis from custody.

Jakubonis was arraigned Friday on a separate state charge of attempted assault in the second degree and was released by a local judge. That prompted criticism from Zeldin and other Republicans who held it up as an example of the need to reform New Yorks bail laws, something Zeldin has called on Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to toughen.

A 2019 bail reform law in New York eliminated pretrial incarceration for people accused of most nonviolent offenses. The law gives judges the option to set bail in nearly all cases involving violent felonies, but it has exceptions for certain attempted felonies like attempted assault.

Doctor: Biden likely has highly contagious COVID-19 strain

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden likely contracted a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly through the United States, and now has body aches and a sore throat since his positive test, according to an update from his doctor on Saturday.

The variant, known as BA.5, is an offshoot of the omicron strain that emerged late last year, and it's believed to be responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the country.

Dr. Kevin OConnor, the presidents physician, wrote in his latest update on Biden's condition that Biden's earlier symptoms, including a runny nose and a cough, have become less troublesome. O'Connor's earlier notes did not mention the sore throat or body aches.

Biden's vital signs, such as blood pressure and respiratory rate, remain entirely normal, and his oxygen saturation levels are excellent with no shortness of breath at all," the doctor wrote.

O'Connor said the results of the preliminary sequencing that indicated the BA.5 variant do not affect Biden's treatment plan in any way.

Marvel teases new Avengers movies, Black Panther' sequel

Marvel Studios unveiled the first trailer for  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever   set to No Woman No Cry  to fans at Comic-Con on Saturday in San Diego.

It was just one part of the massive Hall H presentation, which also included first-looks at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and new information about Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which will conclude with two Avengers movies in 2025: Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.

 Black Panther: Wakanda Foreve r director Ryan Coogler was on site in San Diego to preview the highly anticipated film, which is due to arrive in theaters on Nov. 11 and serve as the conclusion to Phase 4. Coogler paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who died in August 2020.

The impact that he made on this industry will be felt forever, Coogler said.

After the massive success of Black Panther in 2018, plans for a sequel were quickly set into motion. But those were altered after Bosemans unexpected death from colon cancer. The studio said it would not recast Bosemans role of TChalla. but very little has come out about the film in the years since. Production wrapped in March after several delays, one of which was due to an injury sustained by Letitia Wright, who plays TChallas brainy sister Shuri. Also returning are Lupita Nyongo, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett, but not Daniel Kaluuya, whose Nope schedule conflicted.

Has Florida Man finally met his match? Meet Florida Sheriff

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  When a naked man in southwestern Florida recently raised a ruckus outside his house and threatened a deputy with a kitchen knife, the SWAT team swooped in and apprehended him.

Soon afterward, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno stood on the man's driveway in combat gear for a news conference while the suspect went to the jailhouse that the sheriff likes to call the Marceno Motel.

Hes an oxygen-stealer and a scumbag, and Im glad hes outta here, Marceno told reporters. Im proud to say that in this county, if you present deadly physical force ... we meet you with deadly force every time, and we win. Its pretty clean, pretty quick.

The Sunshine State has become internationally notorious for the oddball miscreants who populate its police blotters and local news reports  known collectively as Florida Man. There are murders and mayhem, like anyplace else, and then there are the only-in-Florida incidents like the man charged with assault with a deadly weapon for throwing an alligator through a Wendys drive-thru window in Palm Beach County in 2015.

But an equally eccentric cast of hard-boiled sheriffs make a career of going after these guys. Florida Man, meet Florida Sheriff.
Governor declares emergency over wildfire near Yosemite

WAWONA, Calif. (AP)  Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County due to the effects of the fast-moving wildfire near Yosemite National Park. Thousands of people were ordered to flee the Oak Fire that exploded into one of California's largest wildfires of the year. Officials said the fire began Friday afternoon southwest of the park near Midpines in Mariposa County. By Saturday, it had grown to nearly 19 square miles. A Sierra National Forest spokesperson says evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living in the sparsely populated, rural area. Fire officials called the blaze explosive" and fueled by hot weather and dry vegetation.

UN health agency chief declares monkeypox a global emergency

LONDON (AP)  The chief of the World Health Organization says the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an extraordinary situation that qualifies as a global emergency. The head of the U.N. health agency made the decision to issue the declaration Saturday after WHOs expert committee didn't reach a consensus. Monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades. It wasn't known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May. That's when authorities detected epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries.

Jan. 6 hearings traced an arc of 'carnage' wrought by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Jan. 6 congressional hearings have paused, at least for now, and Washington is taking stock of what was learned about the actions of Donald Trump and associates surrounding the Capitol attack. The Justice Department also watched with interest as each of the eight sessions revealed new information that could figure into a potential prosecution of the ex-president. The House committee exposed or fleshed out behind-the-scenes scheming that revealed the lengths Trump and his enablers wanted to go to keep him in power. Though the summer hearings are over, more are expected in the fall as inquiry gathers new evidence.

Russia hits Ukraine's Black Sea port despite grain deal

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian missiles have struck Ukraines Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. A Ukrainian spokesperson described Saturdays attack as a spit in the face to Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the deal. The Ukrainian military says two Russian cruise missiles hit the ports infrastructure and Ukrainian air defenses brought down two others. Elsewhere, Russia fired missiles Saturday at an airfield and railway in central Ukraine, killing at least three people, while Ukraine launched rocket strikes on river crossings in a Russian-occupied region. Russian forces are blocking 1,200 vehicles carrying fleeing Ukrainians, and a local official says four people have died waiting in the high heat.

Parents, 6-year-old girl fatally shot in tent at Iowa park

A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family. The victims were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles east of Des Moines. They were 42-year-old Tyler Schmidt, his wife, 42-year-old Sarah Schmidt, and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula. Sarah Schmidt's brother said the couple's 9-year-old son, Arlo, is safe. Investigators have provided no motive, but named the suspected gunman as 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, of La Vista, Nebraska. Sherwin's body was found at the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Supreme Court leak probe: So many questions, so few answers

WASHINGTON (AP)  Less than 24 hours after the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into what he called an egregious breach. Since then? Pretty much silence. The Supreme Court wont say whether it's still investigating. The court also wont say whether the leaker has been identified or whether anyone has been disciplined. Or whether an outside law firm or the FBI has been called in. Or whether the court will ever offer an accounting of what transpired. Or whether it's taken steps to try to prevent a repeat. To these and other emailed questions, Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said by email: The Court has no comment.

Investigators: Attacker 'did not know who' Zeldin was

A man accused of attacking New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin during a recent campaign rally told investigators hed been drinking that day and didnt know who the congressman was. David Jakubonis's remarks are summarized in a federal criminal complaint filed Saturday. Jakubonis appeared in court Saturday in Rochester to face a count of assaulting a member of Congress with a dangerous weapon. Authorities say Jakubonis, an Iraq War veteran, told investigators he went onstage to ask the speaker if he was disrespecting veterans. Video shows Jakubonis raising his arm toward Zeldin as he holds a keychain. The two tussled to the ground and Zeldin suffered a minor scrape.

Doctor: Biden likely has highly contagious COVID-19 strain

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden likely has contracted a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly through the United States, and now has body aches and a sore throat since his positive test. That's according to an update from his doctor. The BA.5 variant is an offshoot of the omicron strain that emerged late last year. It's believed to be responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the country. Dr. Kevin OConnor writes in his latest update on Bidens condition that the results of the preliminary sequencing that indicated the BA.5 variant do not affect Bidens treatment plan in any way. Biden tested positive on Thursday. He's been isolating in the White House residence since then.

Marvel teases new Avengers movies, Black Panther' sequel

Marvel Studios returned to Comic-Con's Hall H for the first time in three years with a massive presentation and new information about phases five and six of the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Saturday presentation included first-looks at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and new information about Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which will conclude with two Avengers movies: Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. The Guardians of the Galaxy will also come to an end in the midst of Phase 5 in May.

Has Florida Man finally met his match? Meet Florida Sheriff

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Maybe Florida Man has finally met his match. Meet Florida Sheriff. On any given day one or more of the states 67 sheriffs step into the social media spotlight, taking on the common criminal in news conferences that often go viral. Take Bob Johnson in Florida's Panhandle who recently invited residents to gun safety classes so they could learn to more accurately shoot at suspected home invaders. Or Wayne Ivey who broadcasts a regular Wheel of Fugitive show over in Melbourne. Or Lee County's Carmine Marceno whose news conferences are often made-for-YouTube productions. Then, there's Polk County's Grady Judd who targets drug dealers, prostitution rings, gangs and human traffickers in his folksy Southern drawl.
China urges Japan to stop hyping up security threats to justify its military build-up

Xinhua) 08:59, July 23, 2022

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to concerning content in Japan's 2022 defense white paper, urging the country to stop arbitrarily hyping up security threats in the neighborhood to justify its military build-up.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily press briefing that the white paper contains groundless accusations against China's defense policy, normal defense development and legitimate maritime activities, deliberately plays up the so-called "China threat," and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs on the Taiwan question.

"China strongly deplores and firmly rejects this," said the spokesperson.

Wang pointed out that China is committed to the path of peaceful development, and follows a defense policy that is defensive in nature.

"China's defense building is aimed at upholding our sovereignty, security and development interests. It is legitimate, reasonable and beyond reproach," he said, adding that military cooperation including joint naval patrol between China and relevant countries is consistent with international law and established international practice, and it does not target any particular country.

He further noted that due to the recent history of overseas aggression waged by Japanese militarism, Japan's moves in the military and security fields have always been closely followed by its Asian neighbors including China and the international community.

"In this latest white paper, Japan has openly added content about revising relevant defense documents by the end of this year, further increasing its defense budget, and developing so-called counter-strike capabilities," said the spokesperson. "All these give rise to the concern that Japan is deviating further from the path of pacifist and exclusively defense-oriented strategy."

"We urge the Japanese side to immediately stop the erroneous practice of arbitrarily hyping up security threats in the neighborhood to justify its military build-up, heed the voice of the international community, deeply reflect on the history of aggression, stay committed to the path of peaceful development, and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community with concrete actions," Wang said.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
By Trend

Georgia increased re-export of cars to Kyrgyzstan from January through June 2022, Trend reports with reference to the National Statistical Office of Georgia.

According to the statistical data, re-export of cars from Georgia to Kyrgyzstan in the first six months of 2022 amounted to $8.7 million, which is an increase of 81.2 percent compared to the same period of 2021 ($4.8 million).

In the reporting period, Georgia re-exported 1,525 cars to Kyrgyzstan, which is almost three times more compared to the corresponding period of the preceding year (536).

Meanwhile, the total value of Georgia's re-exported cars in the first half of 2022 totaled $191 million, which is a decrease of 6.8 percent compared to the same period of 2021 ($205 million).
In 2021, shooting incidents in the northwestern American city of Seattle, Washington, reached their highest level for the five-year period starting in 2017.

Dominique Davis was inside a Seattle-area religious center one day in March 2021 when a man with a handgun started firing. It was during a meeting of Community Passageways, a group he started that works to stop gun violence.

The gunman shot 19-year-old Omari Wallace several times before fleeing. Wallace was attending a program meant to turn young people away from violence and keep them out of prison. Wallace died from his wounds.

Two more Seattle shootings followed that week.

Davis heard that there were two rival groups whose fights had recently gotten worse. A leader of one of the groups said the only way the violence would stop would be if the groups had more distance between each other.

So Davis got 16 young men from the two groups to leave the city. He paid them to stay away for 30 days and to work with therapists and counselors. Davis said that since returning to Seattle, all but three of the young men have faced no criminal charges.

The unusual plan is an example of how community groups are looking for new ways to stop the increase in shootings over the past two years.

It is called community violence intervention. The approach sends people with personal influence within a community to help those most likely to be involved in gun violence. Community violence intervention is not new, but interest in it is growing.

The U.S. Congress recently passed a law aimed at reducing gun violence. It contains measures meant to keep guns away from dangerous people. Through the law, Congress will provide $250 million for community violence prevention. The administration of President Joe Biden has also told city and state governments to use federal pandemic aid money for violence intervention.

Paying money to local organizations is different from usual methods for dealing with violence  by using police.

Alia Harvey Quinn is the director of FORCE Detroit. She compares violence intervention to how we prevent drunk driving with our friends: just intervening and snatching the keys aggressively and using our relationships to do so.

In June at the same church in south Seattle where a shooting took place, Davis invited members of local groups that try to ease conflicts to the front of the room. The leaders were mostly Black. They said their work is part of a long struggle for safety and justice and against racism.

They talked about their methods with members of similar groups from Newark, New Jersey, and Baltimore, Maryland. The meeting was part of an 18-month program supported by the Biden administration. It was paid for by 12 organizations that give to people in need called charities. The Community Violence Intervention Collaborative began in June 2021. Its goal was to train and expand local organizations in 16 cities.

So far, few large cities or states have answered the Biden administrations call to spend money on these programs. But cities have until 2024 to use funding from the $1.9 trillion aid law passed in 2021 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the economic damage the disease caused.

People working in Seattles gun violence intervention groups feel a growing urgency about their work.

Marty Jackson is the director of the Seattle-area group, the SE Network.

We totally know the rest of the city needs this kind of attention, Jackson said. We need resources to replicate what we know for sure is working in these concentrated places.

Jeffrey A. Butts is a researcher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He said there is not enough research about the effectiveness of such intervention efforts.

They say, We started doing program X here two years ago and our shootings have gone down by 30 percent, Butts said. But thats not evidence that the program resulted in that change.

But the Biden administration says it hopes its new program can create more money for such efforts.

By bringing philanthropy, the federal government and (community intervention) leaders togetherit puts our country on a path to redefining public safety in this country and reducing gun violence, said Julie Rodriguez, a Biden administration adviser.

Im Dan Novak.

Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

rival  n. a person or thing that tries to defeat or be more successful than another

therapist  n. a person trained in methods of treating illnesses especially without the use of drugs or surgery

drunk  adj. having had too much alcohol and unable to carry out normal actions

snatch  v. to quickly take away

replicate  v. to repeat or copy

concentrated adj. dense, not spread out over an area

philanthropy n. the activity of giving money and time for good causes

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By Trend

Families of second Karabakh war martyrs were provided with new apartments in Azerbaijans Beylagan region, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of the Azerbaijan Republic told Trend.

Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection Hidayat Abdullayev noted that more than 100,000 family members of martyrs and war veterans have been covered by social support measures, and 193,000 social services have been provided to them.

Abdullayev emphasized that one of the important measures of social support is the program to provide families of martyrs, war-disabled people with housing. This program was expanded five times last year.

Families of martyrs and war-disabled persons were provided with 3,000 apartments in 2021, and more than 600 apartments since the beginning of 2022.

Citizens of these categories will be provided with another 500 apartments and private houses from August through September this year.
Pope Francis begins his trip to Canada on Sunday.

The leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church is going to Canada to apologize for the way Catholic religious workers, or missionaries, treated indigenous people there in the past.

The job of a Catholic missionary is to spread Catholic religious beliefs. The goal is to get people to become Catholics. In their work, missionaries set up religious schools in Canada that operated for over 100 years, ending in the 1970s. The missionaries separated indigenous children from their families and forced them to attend the Catholic schools. The schools were called residential schools because the young people lived there. Because they were away from home, the children were not able to learn traditions from older family members and community leaders.

An important request

While the Pope is in Canada, some indigenous groups plan to ask him to return art objects from their ancestors. Some Catholic leaders say the pieces of art were gifts sent back to Europe to be included in a 1925 event at the Vatican. Others disagree.

Michael Galban is a Washoe and Mono Lake Paiute. He also heads the Seneca Art & Culture Center in New York state. He said it is hard for him to accept that there wasnt some coercion going on in those communities to get these objects. Coercion means to make someone do something by force or threats.

Gloria Bell is with the American Academy in Rome and assistant professor at Canadas McGill University. She said: Using the term gift just covers up the whole history. Bell added, We really need to question the context of how these cultural belongings got to the Vatican.

Many thousands of artworks and artifacts are kept in a little-visited museum called Anima Mundi inside a group of Vatican buildings within Rome. Anima Mundi is a Latin phrase that means Soul of the World in English.

The groups asking for the return of the artifacts include the Metis, who are one of the three large indigenous people of Canada.

It is the second time the Metis will ask the Pope to return the objects. Metis representatives asked the Pope to send the artifacts home last spring during a visit to Italy.

Cassidy Caron is president of the Metis National Council. She said, the pieces that belong to us should come home.

She said that when the objects come home, her people will be able to tell their story more openly. We had to hide our culture and hide our traditions to keep our people safe, Caron said. Now that the indigenous people of Canada can speak freely about themselves, they want to explain what the objects are, what they mean and how they are used in ceremonies. In the past, Caron said, many Metis people had to hide their traditions because they were afraid.

The Canadian government has also admitted to working to move the native people into Canadian society in the 1800s and 1900s. For example, the government banned a special ceremony called Potlatch, which it said was too destructive, in 1885. Agents took away special objects that were used in the ceremonies, such as masks, that eventually appeared in private collections and museums in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

What is in the museum?

Some of the artifacts in the Vatican Museum include walrus tusks, animal skins and special head coverings used for ceremonies. The Vatican says those items were gifts for Pope Pius XI, who served as the Churchs leader from 1922 to 1939. Other objects in the collection go back to the 1600s.

One report from a Canadian newspaper in 2021 showed a boat used by the Inuit people of Canada in the museum.

The indigenous leaders say they only know about the objects being shown. They say there could be many more in holding places.

The Vatican News said some objects have been sent back to their people. For example, in 2021, the Church sent a shrunken head used in religious ceremonies back to the Jivaroan people of Ecuador.

Katsitsionni Fox is an indigenous filmmaker from the Mohawk people. She took a video of some of the objects in the museum earlier this year. As she was filming, she can be heard saying you can sense thats not where they belong and thats not where they want to be.

She showed a display of beaded belts used as money by native peoples and sticks used as weapons.

The museum would not speak with the Associated Press for this story. But in a 2015 listing of the objects it has from the Americas, the museum said the good condition of the artifacts shows how much the Church cares about world cultures.

In other years, the Vatican has worked with Aboriginal communities in Australia to get more information about the artifacts it holds. In 2010, the museums director went to Australia to speak with native people and record information about the items.

Pope Francis in 2019 said the native peoples' artifacts held by the Catholic Church are cared for in the same way as the masterpieces of the Renaissance or the immortal Greek and Roman statues. He also noted that the museum is open about the objects it holds, and visitors can see the holding areas through glass dividers.

However, most people who visit the Vatican do not see the collection because it is not popular. Guides do not show visitors Anima Mundi because the displays do not have writings that explain where the artifacts come from and what they were used for.

One native person from Australia, named Neale, said the artifacts are not being given the respect they deserve by being named in any way. He called the display beautiful but said the collection only shows how the pieces are exotic but without more information the objects are culturally diminished.

It is not clear if informational writing will be added to the collection.

Cultural awareness

Museums in other European nations are making changes to their collections of artifacts from native people. Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are attempting to return objects. Many objects were collected during colonial times.

For example, France and Germany announced a plan in late 2021 to return special religious pieces to Nigeria.

Jos van Beurdon follows the efforts some countries are making to return objects to the people who once owned them. He runs the social media group called Restitution Matters.

There is a certain willingness growing in a number of European countries to return objects, he said.

A Vatican spokesperson, Matteo Bruni, said the Pope might bring some objects to Canada during the trip. Well see what happens in the coming days, Bruni said.

Gregory Scofield is a member of the Metis community from the Canadian province of British Columbia. He is working with the Royal British Columbia Museum to help other indigenous people get back their traditional objects.

He worked to recover over 100 beaded Metis objects that were made between 1840 and 1910. He bought them online and in his travels. Metis scholars and artists can study the collection so they can learn more about the objects.

These pieces hold our stories, he said. These pieces hold our history.

Im Dan Friedell. And Im Dorothy Gundy.

Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report from the Associated Press.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

indigenous  adj. produced, living, or existing naturally in a particular region or environment

artifact  n. a simple object (such as a tool or weapon) that was made by people in the past

soul  n. the spiritual part of a person that is believed to give life to the body and in many religions is believed to live forever

tusk  n. a very long, large tooth that sticks out of the mouth of an animal (such as an elephant, walrus, or boar)

masterpiece  n. a great book, painting, piece of music, or movie

immortal  adj. living forever

exotic  adj. very different, strange or unusual

diminish  v. to make smaller or to lessen

restitution n. the act of returning something that was lost or stolen to its owner

scholar n. a person who has studied a subject for a long time and knows a lot about it

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Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.
Madisons largest craft brewing company has closed.

Ale Asylum, the maker of Hopalicious, Ambergeddon and a long list of other beers, made the announcement Friday via Facebook, Instagram and the homepage of its website. The company, founded in 2006 and now located near the Dane County Regional Airport, had been up for sale for nearly a year and had appeared to have secured a buyer as late as last month.

However, those plans have fallen through, idling a 45,000-square-foot brewing plant, putting 15 people out of work, and ending a business that helped define the citys craft beer scene.

We began with a dream and a bag of hops in May of 2006. Since then, weve grown into a big family of brewers, cooks, bartenders, service staff, marketing, sales, and more, the company statement said. The past couple years have been difficult for all businesses but with your support we were able to weather the storm. However, under circumstances we cannot control we have made the decision to close our doors.

The brewery had closed its kitchen last fall but kept the the taproom and brewery open in what co-founder Otto Dilba termed continuation mode. The taproom expanded its hours in late spring, and Dilba said the kitchen was set to reopen after the sale. Dilba said the new owner had plans to expand the brewerys portfolio beyond the traditional but often hop-forward beers that it traded on in its first 16 years.

Thursday was the companys last full day of business, but Dilba said late Friday that he is hoping to sell the brewerys brands to other brewers in an attempt to keep the recipes alive. Its likely equipment and other assets of the brewery will be sold at auction. He also said the prospective buyer was not another brewing company.

The situation just didnt turn out the way everyone had hoped with the buyer, Dilba said during a phone interview. We had worked for the past several months to get things to where we wanted them to be, but they just didnt pan out.

But in June, Dilba seemed encouraged that a sale was imminent.

He told the Wisconsin State Journals Beer Baron, Chris Drosner, that several prospective buyers had emerged last fall and that one of those buyers, who wanted to continue the brand after the sale, was in the final stages of purchasing the brewery.

We have the buyer, its just taken longer than we thought, Dilba told Drosner in the June 19 column. Were still as excited to move this thing forward as we were back then.

A Madison pioneer

The loss of Ale Asylum will be felt by many who enjoyed its beers and by other brewers in the region who credit the company with helping grow the local craft beer scene and provide encouragement to other entrepreneurial brewers.

So many of us wouldnt be here today if there werent forerunners like Ale Asylum that had really jumped in and made craft beer grow in this market, said Jessica Jones, who co-founded Giant Jones in 2018 with her partner, Erika, at 913 E. Main St. All of us are always going to be in their debt and a part of their legacy. The markets really complex, especially on this side of COVID. Were really in this totally unique moment where everything is surprising and nothing is surprising.

Dilba and fellow co-owner Dean Coffey met while working at what was then Angelic Brewing Co. in Downtown Madison. Coffey was the brewmaster, and Dilba wanted to put his marketing skills to use. In 2005, they created the Ale Asylum brand and eventually ran out of room at their brewing facility at the corner of Stoughton Road and Kinsman Boulevard, which is now home to Karben4 Brewery. In 2012, Dilba and Coffey, plus a group of investors, opened a sparkling $8 million brewery and tasting room at 2002 Pankratz St.

At that time, the duo had visions of producing 100,000 barrels of beer a year, but as the craft brewing industry continued to explode, brewers faced challenges trying to squeeze their brands onto limited shelf space, in coolers and into bars and restaurants with limited tap handles. Loyalty also has become an issue throughout the industry as craft beer drinkers are typically not wedded to a single beer or even a single brand.

More recently, COVID-19 has rocked the industry with supply chain problems that hiked the price of equipment and aluminum cans. Meanwhile other major breweries in the area such as Octopi Brewing Co. in Waunakee and Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Verona have capitalized on using their facilities for contract brewing, making beer and other beverage products for other companies while their own brands only account for a small fraction of production.

Over the years, Dilba said, the monthly lease rate on such a large space became insurmountable. In 2020, Ale Asylum produced 14,500 barrels of beer. Prior to the pandemic the company employed more than 45 people.

Were all very sad, Dilba said of the closing. Its certainly not the outcome that we all wanted, but we have a lot of good memories to look back on.

This story has been corrected after misidentifying the gender of Erika Jones, co-founder of Giant Jones Brewing Co.
Republican voters will have the choice between a former state lawmaker, a district attorney and a conservative lawyer in the partys primary for attorney general on Aug. 9. The winner of the primary will face sitting Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul on Nov. 8. The term is for four years.

Karen Mueller did not respond to the State Journals questions.

Adam Jarchow

Age: 43

Address: 1602 Apple River Lane, Balsam Lake

Family: Married with two children

Job: Attorney, small business owner and volunteer firefighter

Prior elected office: State representative, 2015-18

Other public service: Former board member of Polk County Economic Development Corporation; Polk County K-9 Association; Lifetime NRA member; member of Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association

Education: Law degree, University of Florida; bachelors degree in finance, University of South Florida

Eric Toney

Age: 38

Address: N7115 Leonard Drive, Fond du Lac

Family: Single with no children

Job: Fond du Lac County district attorney

Prior elected office: District attorney since 2012

Other public service: Judge and trainer for Teen Court; board member of ASTOP (sexual assault survivor advocacy nonprofit); Volunteer with Drug Free Communities of Fond du Lac County; Fond du Lac Countys Health 20/20 Committee and Fond du Lac Running Club; Member of Wisconsin, Fond du Lac County and Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Associations; Lifetime NRA member; former executive board member of Fond du Lac County Republican Party and Badger Boys State alum.

Education: Law degree, Hamline University School of Law; bachelors degree in history and political science, St. Norbert College

Email or website: www.erictoney.com

Q&A

What experience do you bring to the office of attorney general?

Jarchow: Ive been practicing law for nearly 20 years  from large national law firms to partner at a regional law firm to owning my own private practice. Ive worked with clients big and small, from Wisconsin municipalities to small business owners who had their doors shuttered by Governor Evers illegal Safer at Home Order. As the father of two school-aged kids, Ive experienced the frustration of what our children are being taught in schools and I worry about them not having the same opportunities in Wisconsin that we had growing up. As a state representative, I proudly worked with constituents who were dealing with out-of-control Madison bureaucrats while also writing the laws of our state, formulating the state budget, and championing personal liberties for the people of Wisconsin. Like many small business owners, Ive signed the front of paychecks and not just the back; Ive worried about the wellness of my employees and their families; and most importantly, I succeeded through a results-oriented leadership style. We need an attorney general who knows how to manage the close to 750 employees at the Department of Justice, and I have the broad career and life experience necessary to achieve results while doing it.

Toney: In my 10th year as the Republican district attorney of Fond du Lac County I have personally prosecuted cases ranging from cold case homicides, sexual assault, racketeering, drug conspiracies, to violent crime and utilized the Department of Justice resources including the crime labs, DCI, prosecutors, and others to keep our communities safe. I serve as the President of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association and work with the budgets of our DOJ, Public Defenders, Courts, and Prosecutors. I also spent 2 years in private practice handling mental health, juvenile, and criminal defense, giving me the perspective of both sides of the criminal justice system. This unique experience allows me to hit the ground running to address the historic violence and drug epidemic sweeping across Wisconsin.

What issues set you apart from your opponents in this race?

Jarchow: My opponent has spent nearly his entire adult life running for political office and sees this race as an opportunity to climb the ladder. In contrast, Ive spent my entire career working in the private sector. Even when I was a state representative, I continued to practice law while working with my wife to run our small businesses. Far too often, we elect people to public office who have no idea how the real world works and how reckless and burdensome government overregulation negatively impacts the people of Wisconsin. This primary is the choice between a career politician looking for a promotion and me  a lawyer, small business owner and father of two who wants to make Wisconsin the best state in the country to live, work, and raise a family.

Toney: Im on the only GOP candidate that has ever prosecuted a crime and Wisconsin hasnt elected an attorney general without prosecution experience since 1963. I manage a district attorneys office of prosecutors and support staff coordinating with law enforcement to fight crime, which no other GOP candidate has done. Im a Prosecutor and not a Politician, I won my first election defeating the incumbent, I oppose drug legalization, and I will apply the rule of law without bias or favor. I have a plan to address the surge in violent crime including DOJ receiving original jurisdiction in Milwaukee to tackle the record murder rate.

What is your plan for addressing violent crime?

Jarchow: In April, I introduced my Make Wisconsin Safe Again plan where I outlined four policy proposals to address violent crime and protect our communities. To reduce crime, I would work with the Legislature, many of whom are my former colleagues, to fully fund our police and address hiring challenges. I would create a Violent Crimes Taskforce at the Department of Justice, composed of agents from the Division of Criminal Investigation and prosecutors from Criminal Litigation, who would deploy at a moments notice to assist local prosecutors in combating violent crime. I would work with the Legislature to give the Department of Justice original jurisdiction over violent gun crimes in Wisconsins counties with first- and second-class cities, allowing the DOJ to hold violent criminals accountable when district attorneys cant or wont do their jobs. Finally, I would transform the Office of School Safety into a standalone Division of School Safety, allowing for dedicated resources and staffing to address the mental health and physical safety of our teachers and students.

Toney: I will ensure that we enforce the rule of law and that the public and our law enforcement know they have a vocal advocate supporting our cops and our public safety mission. This is crucial to help with recruitment and retention issues we are seeing in law enforcement across the state. We need to give our Department of Justice original prosecution authority over Milwaukee County to end their historic violence and drugs, which bleeds across Wisconsin. By protecting Milwaukee, we protect all of Wisconsin. We need to improve the cash bail system, which includes 1) amending the Wisconsin Constitution to require judges to consider the dangerousness of criminals, 2) statutorily define what it means to be likely to appear in court to ensure judges are holding dangerous criminals on cash bail to protect our communities, and 3) fix the statute to allow defendants to be held with no bail. We also must have mandatory minimums for violent crime, fix the mismanagement at the Wisconsin Crime Labs, fill all the vacant DCI law enforcement and prosecutor positions and ensure they remain fully staffed to provide the necessary resources to cops and prosecutors across Wisconsin. We must also raise the pay of frontline prosecutors to ensure we are recruiting and retaining prosecutors across Wisconsin that fight for justice in our courtrooms.

Youve criticized Attorney General Josh Kauls handling of the Wisconsin State Crime Lab. What reforms would you institute at the crime lab?

Jarchow: We need a problem solver as attorney general, and that is what I have been throughout my private sector career. Despite time and resources, Kaul has failed to improve state crime lab operations. As attorney general, I will quickly bring in a team to evaluate processes and interview crime lab leadership and staffers to understand all aspects of the issues the lab faces. That team will cross check our lab with state crime labs around the country to understand best practices and implement reforms within 120 days of taking office.

Toney: Josh Kaul is taking in thousands of less items at the labs, testing of thousands of less items, and taking longer to test in many categories, including DNA, in comparison to former AG Brad Schimel. This is despite having the same or more resources at AG Schimel. We need to make sure the lab employees are in person working and coordinating with prosecutors and law enforcement to allow for more items to be received and tested. The capacity is there to test more and do so more efficiently but the attorney generals leadership is missing.

As attorney general, what would be your top budget priorities during your first year in office?

Jarchow: As a state representative, I gained first-hand experience crafting the state budget. When there is a change in administrations, theres a quick turnaround in revising budget priorities for the next budget. I will hit the ground running immediately, prioritizing the public safety of all Wisconsinites. There is no time for on the job training, and we need an attorney general who knows the process and is experienced in getting results.

Toney: Public safety is my top priority and I will work with our legislature to ensure we have added prosecutor positions, DCI agents and continue to evaluate the crime lab resources as science and technology evolve in public safety. I will also work with the legislature to bring back our Solicitor Generals Office to protect against government and agency overreach at any level of government.
People with disabilities risk consequences for exercising their right to vote after the Wisconsin Supreme Court said absentee ballots returned in person must be done so by the voter, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Madison Friday.

The lawsuit, against the Wisconsin Elections Commission and its administrator Meagan Wolfe, also challenges Wolfes assertion  in response to the courts ruling  that only voters can deposit their ballots in the mail.

The plaintiffs, all of whom live with disabilities, state many Wisconsinites with disabilities simply cannot vote if they cant receive help from somebody to mail their ballots for them or deliver them in person.

When a state makes it impossible for some voters with disabilities to vote at all, it violates the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs are asking the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin to declare that Wisconsinites with disabilities are entitled to receive help returning their ballots. The plaintiffs allege violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments as well as numerous federal laws, including the Voting Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act.

The plaintiffs are being represented by attorneys at the law firm Law Forward as well as attorneys from the firms Stafford Rosenbaum and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

Just over three months out from the Nov. 8 general election, the lawsuit states, many Wisconsin voters with disabilities face the imminent threat of discrimination or disenfranchisement, both of which are prohibited under federal law.

An Elections Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In early July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled absentee ballots must be delivered by mail or in person to a local clerks office or designated alternate site. The majority also held that no one but the voter can return his or her ballot in person. The court did not rule on whether voters can have someone else handle their ballot on its way to a mailbox.

But one week later, Wolfe told the media, the voter is the one who is required to mail their ballot.

In combination with (the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling), Administrator Wolfes comments delivered a disturbing message to voters with disabilities: ballot-return assistance is prohibited in all circumstances throughout Wisconsin, the lawsuit states.

Clarification from WEC

Following Wolfes comments, Elections Commission spokesperson Riley Vetterkind said her comment shouldnt be interpreted as a policy statement or statutory interpretation. Instead, he said, it was a reference to state law that says absentee ballot envelopes shall be mailed by the elector, or delivered in person, to the municipal clerk issuing the ballot or ballots.

Under the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision and Wolfes application of the decision, the only way for the plaintiffs to lawfully vote is by physically returning their absentee ballots in person or by mail without help from a third party, the complaint states. But voting in such a way would be impossible for many Wisconsinites including the plaintiffs, some of whom live with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and paralysis from the neck down, the lawsuit states.

Because of the court decision and Wolfes interpretation of Wisconsin law, the complaint states, Plaintiffs are faced with an impossible, and unlawful, choice: abstain from voting altogether or risk that their ballots will be invalidated, or that their only available method to vote absentee (ballot-return assistance) could subject them to prosecution.

That disenfranchisement, the plaintiffs state, is explicitly prohibited under several laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under that law, public entities must create accommodations to avoid discriminating on the basis of a disability.

Among the Wisconsinites who filed the lawsuit is Timothy Carey, who lives with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and is unable to move his body, though he can use his mouth to control a power wheelchair to move around his home. Carey, who the lawsuit states requires a ventilator at all times, has always voted by absentee with the assistance of a third party.

Another plaintiff, Martha Chambers, has been paralyzed from the neck down since falling off a horse. She cannot use her arms or legs to open doors, grasp an absentee ballot, place an absentee ballot in a mailbox or hand it to a municipal clerk, the lawsuit states. Chambers has always received help from a third party when voting absentee, the lawsuit states.
Danube Home, a key home furnishing brand in the region, has joined hands with Saudi-based Masah Specialized Construction Company to set up an new venture in the kingdom that will develop multiple projects across the educational, hospitality and other key sectors.

A unit of Dubai building material company Danube, it operates in the lifestyle retail sector and has a presence in more than 20 countries across the globe including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Egypt.

Officially established in 2006, Masah Construction has over the years completed a wide range of projects with specialisation in the health care sector utilising the latest technical design applicable methods.

As a solution provider in the home improvement sector with an in-house design and develop team offering affordable luxury, Danube Home aims to add value to the projects undertaken by Masah Construction, said a senior official.

"This is a successful step in expanding our presence across Saudi Arabia, keeping in mind the sudden surge of economic growth the region is facing. We are sure that our association with the Masah Construction will take Danube Home to greater heights," remarked Adel Sajan, Managing Director at Danube Group, after signing the deal with Mohammed Abdul Nayeem, the General Manager of Masah Construction, and Sayed Habib, Director (Business Development, E-Commerce & Franchise) for Danube Home.

Expressing delight at the partnership, Nayeem said: "Masah Construction is sure that products and services from Danube Home will facilitate our work and enhance the outcome."

Habib hailed the Saudi partnership agreement as path-breaking. "With the market and economy in Saudi Arabia booming with opportunities, we believe that it is the right time to step into the market in collaboration with Masah Construction, who are one of the leading players inthe building sector with many major projects associated to their name," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
After serving as mayor of Superior, I had the pleasure of serving in former Gov. Scott Walkers administration. I served as his Transportation secretary during Walkers last two years.

What I saw and learned is important for the people of Wisconsin to know as they make their decision on who the next governor of the state should be.

My tenure began as the debate over transportation funding was at a fever pitch. The special interests were in a frenzy trying to raise taxes on Wisconsin residents. I stood with Gov. Walker and his pledge not to raise taxes. If it was not for the Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch administration, imagine where we would be today. We would have even higher gas prices.

Not only were the special interests raging, but the state Audit Bureau was releasing a report on our highway programs. It included numerous findings of waste and inefficiency. I agreed with the findings and was committed to implementing all the recommendations in the report.

Under intense pressure, we marched forward. We worked to implement audit recommendations. We kept projects on time. We found efficiencies and, most important, we tried to rein in the insider gaming that goes on in road projects. Some of these practices were detailed in the nonpartisan audit. One of those ways road builders game the system is by working together to submit one bid on a project so there is no competition. No competition leads to inflated costs for taxpayers.

There are several ways to squeeze out inefficiency and waste at DOT. One is by cracking down on these improper single bids designed to prevent competition. The audit estimated tens of millions in savings. We proved that is just the beginning of the savings at DOT.

One glaring real-world example came at the end of my tenure as secretary. A single bid came in for part of the Interstate 39-90 project between Illinois and Madison. It was $27 million over estimate.

This upset me. I refused to sign the contract. This bid was approved by my successor, the former lobbyist for the road builders, and signed by Gov. Tony Evers just months after I left. Road builders win, taxpayers lose.

Paula Quinn: Tim Michels has the vision, experience, resources to win in November Im not a famous political figure. I have no pull. Im a suburban mom who has known Tim Michels for many years, and heres why Im supportin

The winning single bid is on the client list of Tim Michels, who is running to be governor. In an interview announcing his run for governor, Michels refused to say there was waste in road construction. He also defended this process where road builders work together to submit just one bid, eliminating competition on projects. This gives me pause.

Michels company also has funded groups that advocate for higher gas taxes. The groups he is a part of and funded stand firmly against taxpayers. They support taking more of our hard-earned money when prices are sky high.

The state spends billions on road projects each year. Michels and his company have made millions on state road projects and have ties to more than a $1 billion in state contracts. It should go without saying that the conflicts of interest here are enormous.

Our ultimate check on these practices is the governor. Governors and their appointees approve these contracts. With Michels background and defense of this bidding practice, I have concerns he would be the fox guarding the hen house.

I know Kleefisch can be trusted. I know she will work to continue reforming our bid processes and squeeze out the waste and inefficiency at the DOT. She stood strong with Gov. Walker, and she will stand strong again.

I wholeheartedly support Kleefisch for governor. The swamp does not control her, and Wisconsinites wont need to wonder who she will be looking out for. It will be the taxpayers of Wisconsin.
Today we begin with a quiz. What is the most important responsibility of the president of the United States?

a. Protecting our security interests around the world.

b. Promoting a healthy economy.

c. Combating climate change and other environmental problems.

d. Avoiding nuclear war.

e. Fostering racial equity.

The answer is: none of the above. All of these obligations are important, and any president who neglects them deserves criticism. But they are ultimately secondary matters.

The most important obligation of the president is enshrined in the oath of office: to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Aside from the simple duty to faithfully execute the office, that is the only responsibility specified in the oath. Nothing else a president does matters so much.

Donald Trump is remembered for the brazen lie he perpetrated on his first day in office, when his press secretary told reporters that his inauguration crowd was the biggest ever. But that wasnt his first lie as president. His first came in his recital of the oath, when he swore to do something he had no intention of doing: that stuff about the Constitution.

Many presidents have taken actions that press the limits of their constitutional authority. Thomas Jefferson secured the Louisiana Purchase even though the Constitution gave him no power to acquire territory. Several have conducted wars without getting a declaration of war from Congress, as the framers intended. But no president has exhibited such contempt for the Constitution as Trump.

As the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has documented in exhaustive detail, he actively encouraged an armed mob to storm the Capitol, stop the certification of Joe Bidens election victory and provide the second term the voters had denied him.

The Constitution provides a mechanism for choosing a president. But to Trump, it meant nothing because it didnt keep him in power. He had every right to go to court to contest the results in states he lost, but those lawsuits were an all-encompassing failure. Even judges appointed by Trump rejected his claims, because they had no basis in fact.

On July 14, a group of distinguished Republican lawyers and former judges issued a 72-page report that examined each of the Trump campaigns allegations of fraud and reached this conclusion: There is absolutely no evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election on the magnitude necessary to shift the result in any state, let alone the nation as a whole. In fact, there was no fraud that changed the outcome in even a single precinct (my emphasis).

But Trump didnt let facts deter him. He pressured election officials to alter their vote counts. He promoted the acceptance of fake electors  including in Wisconsin  who would override their state results. He urged Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue to say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and Republican congressmen. He demanded that Vice President Mike Pence block the election certification.

When those efforts proved unavailing, he urged the people attending his rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6  including some he knew to be armed  to go to the Capitol and fight like hell. He told them he would join them, and only the firm refusal of the Secret Service kept him away.

One line in his speech that has gotten little attention raised the prospect that Biden would become president. Were just not going to let that happen, Trump vowed. His followers, some of them chanting, Hang Mike Pence, did their best to vindicate that claim.

As the committee and its witnesses showed in Thursdays hearing, Trump had plenty of time to put a stop to the assault. But time was not the problem. The problem was that he didnt want it to stop. He wanted it to continue and succeed.

So he watched TV coverage, spurning aides, friends and family members who pleaded with him to make a public statement telling the Capitol rioters to cease and desist. For 187 minutes, he sat idly as the mob rampaged through the seat of American democracy.

The lives of Pence, his family, Capitol police Secret Service agents, members of Congress and congressional staff were in dire peril. But Trump wouldnt lift a finger to protect them.

That day, he not only declined to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. He led, approved and facilitated a ferocious attempt to cast it aside. And he showed no remorse afterward.

Other presidencies have been successes or failures. Trumps was something unprecedented: a profound betrayal.
Savvy consumers consider price, performance and reliability when making a major purchase, such as a car or home appliance. The greatest of these is reliability  particularly lately.

Supply chain disruptions can mean long waits for parts or replacements if something breaks. Getting a new refrigerator, dishwasher or other major appliance now often takes weeks or even months, says Paul Hope, home and appliances writer for Consumer Reports. Plus, the microchip shortage means many manufacturers prioritize making their most expensive models, which are typically the most profitable, Hope says.

Its getting increasingly difficult to get some of the inexpensive models of any given product, Hope says.

Even in normal times, of course, you dont want to waste money on unreliable products. Plus, buying stuff thats built to last can help save money and create less waste.

It's a huge expense to have to replace products prematurely. It's also extremely detrimental to the environment, Hope says.

Price and reliability arent necessarily related

Finding truly reliable and durable products isnt always easy, however. You might assume that more expensive products will last longer, but that isnt necessarily the case. For example, you can spend $5,000 or more on a premium range that breaks down frequently or $850 on one that provides years of trouble-free use.

We actually find that many of the pro-style range brands are some of the least reliable products that we test, Hope says. On the contrary, we often find very good performance out of very inexpensive brands.

Consumer-generated reviews, like those on Amazon, may alert you to products that break quickly or dont perform as expected. But such reviews can be skewed by a grumpy few who had bad experiences or a torrent of fake reviews designed to boost a products star rating.

To create reliability ratings that are actually, well, reliable, you need large sets of data. Consumer Reports surveys tens of thousands of people each year about their experiences with various products. Similarly, J.D. Power, which rates cars, bases its dependability ratings on reports from more than 80,000 owners of 3-year-old vehicles, who detail the type and number of problems theyve encountered in the previous 12 months.

Even then, reliability ratings are predictions, not guarantees. You might luck out and have a great experience with a product thats usually flawed or get the rare lemon in a product line thats generally solid.

Watch the warranties

So its also important to check out a products warranty. A long warranty can signal a companys confidence in its products reliability. (You can typically add a year to a manufacturers warranty, by the way, if you purchase the item with a credit card that offers such extended protection as a benefit.)

A one- or two-year warranty is standard for major appliances, but some brands offer longer guarantees on certain parts, Hope says. An LG refrigerator typically has a one-year general warranty for parts and labor, for example, but compressors, which circulate the refrigerant, may be under warranty for five or even 10 years.

Lifetime warranties are obviously the gold standard, although companies differ considerably in their definition of lifetime. With Craftsman hand tools, for instance, lifetime essentially means indefinitely. According to the companys site, if a Craftsman wrench, screwdriver, hammer or other hand tool fails to perform for any reason, the company will replace it, with or without a receipt.

Meanwhile, Manduka, a manufacturer of yoga supplies, offers a lifetime warranty for many of its mats  but its for the expected 10-year lifetime of the mat, not your lifetime. Some lifetime guarantees are limited to defects in materials and manufacture, not normal wear and tear.

They dont make em like they used to

Some products are better built than ever before. Cars used to be ready for the junkyard at around 100,000 miles, but you can expect a typical new car to last over 200,000 miles, or roughly 15 years of average driving, without major problems if its well maintained, according to J.D. Power. The average price Americans paid for new cars exceeded $47,000 last year, according to Kelley Blue Book, so hanging onto your cars longer can be a smart financial decision.

Other products may not last as long as their predecessors, which means we have to budget for more frequent replacements. Your grandmas clothes washer or refrigerator may have chugged along for 30 or 40 years, but most major appliances these days have an expected life span of around 10 years, according to Consumer Reports.

That said, todays products may offer energy savings, convenience and technology the older versions lacked. A new refrigerator is typically twice as large as the workhorses from the 1970s and runs on a fraction of the electricity, Hope says. Many have ice and water dispensers. Some have smartphone apps, interior cameras and internet connectivity so you can check the contents of your fridge while youre standing in the supermarket.

Yes, things have become a little bit more disposable, but they actually have become far better in a lot of ways, Hope says.
SHOSHONE  As the stolen van driven by a 16-year-old boy barreled toward town, Lincoln County Sheriff Rene King knew in his gut something bad was going to happen.

A police chase then sped from Blaine County into Lincoln County at speeds in excess of 100 mph Tuesday afternoon. County deputies scrambled to intercept the vehicle. Spike strips were employed a few miles outside of Shoshone, but the driver was able to evade them, driving into the borrow pit and back onto the highway.

After that failed attempt to stop the vehicle, King said he feared for the worst. Sure enough, the vehicle didnt navigate a curve near the Shoshone railroad tracks, went airborne and struck a pickup pulling a horse trailer. Four people  two in the van and two in the pickup  were sent to the hospital, the male driver of the pickup being transported by air ambulance.

It is a bad situation, King said. Fortunately, none of the people received life-threatening injuries, and the two passengers in the pickup are now home and recovering.

Lanes were closed for four hours as first responders cleaned up the mess.

There is still some uncertainty regarding the incident on Tuesday. The van, a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country, was reported stolen Monday in Pocatello. The juveniles appear to have ties to both Pocatello and Twin Falls, Will Fruehling, chief deputy of Blaine County Sheriffs Department, said.

The chase began after a deputy in Carey noticed a taillight hanging out of the back of the van, according to Fruehling. Without making contact with the occupants of the van, the deputy ran the license plate number and discovered the vehicle was reported stolen.

When the deputy tried to pull the driver over, the car quickly sped off, Fruehling said.

Basically, the driver failed to yield all the way to Shoshone, he said.

Several Lincoln County deputies, meanwhile, were busy at the scene of an accident in which a vehicle ended up in a canal north of Shoshone. That delayed deputies response to the pursuit as it crossed into Lincoln County.

King said he was unaware that the suspect vehicle was being driven by a juvenile.

I had no idea, he said.

Once the deputies got into position, they had little time to stop the driver, as he was just a few miles from Shoshone.

But deputies from the two counties are unable to directly communicate with each other, King said. The radios are on different frequencies.

Messages from Blaine County had to be phoned into dispatch and the dispatcher then relayed the messages to the Lincoln County deputies.

It was a huge frustration, King recalled. Because of the poor communication, there were times that we thought at times that the pursuit had ended.

Law officers from Blaine County were unavailable for comment.

The driver now faces two charges from Blaine County: Felony eluding and felony possession of stolen vehicle, Fruehling said.

Charges so far wont be filed in Lincoln County if the Blaine County charges remain, King said.
Tarpley honored

Dr. Cynthia Tarpley was recognized as a Leader of Continuous Improvement by the Virginia Department of Education Office of School Quality.

Tarpley is the executive director of special education and student services for Martinsville City Public Schools, where she has been employed for more than 32 years in capacities also including principal, assistant principal and teacher.

She earned a doctoral degree in educational leadership and policy studies from Virginia Tech this year.

She was elected for this award by her peers for her leadership in student achievement and growth, which she attributed to data-informed decision making, according to a press release.

Averett

Garrett Haskins and Jenifer Silva of Henry County and Tracy Walker of Martinsville have been named to Averett Universitys President List for spring for having grade point averages of 4.0.

Evelyn Balderrama of Henry County was named to Averetts spring deans list for having a grade point average of 3.4 or above.

Emory & Henry

The following students were named to the Emory & Henry Colleges spring 2022 deans list, which recognizes grade point averages of 3.6 or above: Tizianna Palumbo of Martinsville, Caitlin Barker of Collinsville, Madeline Bishop of Collinsville, Neil Fredericksen of Ferrum, Hannah Mitchell of Ridgeway, Jonathan Werger of Rocky Mount, Nicholas Werger of Rock Mount and Blake Wilson of Axton.

MHS Class of 1982

Martinsville City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Zebedee Talley, who joined MCPS in 1978, was honored at the Martinsville Class Reunion of 1982. The Class of 1982 also donated $500 to Martinsville High School.

NCI

New College Institute, in partnership with Dottie Rose Foundation, Carolina Women In Tech and William & Mary, is sponsoring a Girls Who Game field trip on Aug. 9 for high school girls from the greater Martinsville area who like to game and are interested in learning about careers in the gaming industry.

Students will travel from NCI to Wake Tech Community College in the Research Triangle Park area near Durham, N.C., to meet and interact with professionals and educators in the gaming and tech industry.

Students will have a full day experience to gain real-world exposure, access to resources and mentorship to career paths in the gaming and tech industries. They also will be will be able to play and code inside one of the top gaming platforms.

We are working to address the dearth of career opportunities for women wanting to work in technology, NCI Chief Information Officer Dr. Ken Russell said. Technology jobs in gaming are growing  not just for programmers, but for analysts, administrators, producers, and writers too.

To register, visit https://info.carolinawomenintech.org/girls-who-game-2022. For more information, email Dr. Sharon Jones at sharon@thedotconsulting.com.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Right now, more than 1 in 10 Americans take medicines for depressiona number that has risen during the pandemic.

But how do those drugs workand why don't they work for everyone? And why do people get depression, anyway?

Experts still don't know all the answers to these questions. After all, the brain is a complicated place. But they do know that depression has its roots in everything from the genes we're born with, to the experiences we had in our early years, to what's happening in our lives right now.

At the same time, they do know that a lot of people with depression get help from antidepressant drugsand from talk-based therapy, better sleep, exercise, more social interaction and, in severe cases, treatments like ketamine and ECT.

The critical thing is for people with depression symptoms to reach out for help and keep trying until they find something that works for them.

That's why the director of the nation's first Depression Center, Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., is concerned about the impact of a new study about the role of serotonin in depression that's getting a lot of attention.

He worries that over-simplified news stories and social media posts might make some people question whether they should keep taking depression medications that target the brain's serotonin system.

Such medicines, called SSRIs, are far from perfect, he says. But there's plenty of evidence they work for many people.

Key takeaways for people with depression

Sen directs the Eisenberg Family Depression Center that has brought together University of Michigan researchers for more than 20 years. His own research has explored the roots of depression for more than two decades. He's both a depression scientist and a psychiatrist who has treated many people for depression.

"Do we need to understand exactly how a drug or a non-drug treatment works in order to use it? Noif that were true we would have no treatments for depression, whether it's drugs, like SSRIs, psychotherapies like cognitive therapy, or lifestyle changes like more consistent sleep patterns," he says. "The biology of the brain, and how the brain is different when we are in an episode of depression, is incredibly complex and our current understanding is limited."

There's no doubt that basic science, including research on serotonin and genetic variation between individuals with depression, is crucial to our search for future, better treatments, and more personalized treatment. The EFDC's memberswho come from many areas of U-Mare helping lead that search.

But, Sen says, "For people dealing with depression right now, the information we get from clinical trials should guide care. And clinical trials indicate that SSRIs are moderately effective and play an important role in depression treatment, along with other medications and psychotherapy."

In other words, "If a treatment or combination of treatments prescribed or recommended by your health care provider is working for you, that's greatstay with it. Your personal experience with the treatment is much more relevant than this study. And if you're using a depression medication or other therapy and not getting relief you're your depression symptoms, talk with your health care provider."

The state of serotonin science

Sen notes that mental health experts certainly don't believe that a simple 'chemical imbalance' is the root cause of depression.

Serotonin is one of the primary brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, that helps brain cells "talk" to one another by connecting to receptors on cells' outer surfaces.

The new study that's getting lots of attention looks at a lot of older studies about serotonin, and tries to draw conclusions by combining the information from them.

The study did not conduct new experiments or even combine previous studies in a meta-analysis. But instead, the researchers conducted an "umbrella review" of some, but not all, meta-analyses related to serotonin.

By coincidence, another such "study of studies" on serotonin and depression was published just a week before the one that's in the news. It concluded that serotonin transporter gene variations do play a key role in depression risk, in combination with stressful experiences across a person's life. But that study hasn't gotten nearly as much attention.

In other words, Sen says, the science of serotonin's exact role is far from settled.

Looking ahead

Sen and his colleagues hope that newer studies, using modern tools that allow scientists to look at far more information from far more patients than those older studies, will accelerate progress on depression treatment.

"Within the brain, we now have much better tools to look more directly at how neurotransmitters are acting and neural circuits are changing than we did 20 to 30 years ago when many of the primary studies covered in the umbrella review were conducted," he notes. "Further, computationally we can now combine information across many levels of study and many patients in ways that were not possible before."

Sen and his colleagues, for instance, are working to determine how different combinations of genetic differences, combined with life events and current lifestyle including sleep patterns, affect depression risk or response to treatment.

By studying people who live with intense stress and varying schedulessuch as the thousands of new doctors in the Intern Health Study that Sen leadsthey're learning more about how these factors interact.

At the same time, researchers at U-M and beyond are studying ketamine, esketamine, ECT, talk therapy and even psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, derived from fungi, to see what effect they have and who responds most to them. They're seeking people with depression, anxiety and other conditions to take part in carefully controlled research studies.

"Basic science is critically important for identifying new targets and understanding what's happening in the brain when we get depressed or anxious, and can eventually lead to the development of new treatments that will work better and for more patients," says Sen. "But we don't need to know the precise molecular mechanisms to act on the clinical trial data that show the positive effects of interventions like better sleep, cognitive behavioral therapy, or SSRIs."

The future of depression treatment may be much more personalized to the individual patient, just like cancer treatment has become.

"We need new medications that work better, and we need to understand how to give the right treatment to the right patient at the right time," says Sen. "We all have different vulnerabilities and sensitivities."

Explore further Depression is probably not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, says new study

More information: Joanna Moncrieff et al, The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence, Molecular Psychiatry (2022). Joanna Moncrieff et al, The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01661-0 Claudia Delli Colli et al, Time moderates the interplay between 5-HTTLPR and stress on depression risk: gene x environment interaction as a dynamic process, Translational Psychiatry (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-02035-4 Journal information: Translational Psychiatry , Molecular Psychiatry
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

(THE CONVERSATION) Senate Democrats recently blocked US$13.5 billion in relief for Americans whose lives were disrupted by hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, flooding and other natural disasters. The objections had to do with Puerto Rico.

In addition to aid for Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, this bill included $600 million to cover six months worth of nutritional assistance requested by Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello. But Democrats refused to back the bill because it lacked funds that would protect the island from floods and rebuild its electrical grid.

The result is an impasse between a Congress that wants to assist a U.S. territory in distress and a hostile White House. As the daughter of Puerto Ricans who moved to the mainland and a policy analyst of racial inequities, Im concerned that the Trump administrations neglect of Puerto Rico is based in racial bias.

Complaints

President Donald Trump has vocally opposed disaster relief for Puerto Ricans almost since Hurricane Maria made landfall in September 2017. Within two weeks of that storm, which killed an estimated 3,000 people, Trump accused Puerto Ricans in a series of tweets of wanting everything to be done for them.

Not much has changed. Since January 2019, Trump has reportedly dismissed the need for emergency food aid on the island as excessive and unnecessary.

Rossello responded by urging Trump to stop treating Puerto Ricans as second-class U.S. citizens. He seems to have reached a breaking point after avoiding being critical of the president. When CNN asked if he felt working with Trump was like dealing with a bully, Rossello replied, If the bully gets close, Ill punch the bully in the mouth.

Part of the US

Yet Trump has repeatedly ignored these basic facts by asserting that money to aid Puerto Rico takes money away from priorities on the U.S. mainland. We could buy Puerto Rico four times over with this aid money, he reportedly said in late March.

Some things operate differently in Puerto Rico, though, including the safety net. Puerto Ricans, for example, lack access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nutritional benefit system formerly known as food stamps and today better known as SNAP. Instead, Puerto Rico operates its own Nutrition Assistance Program, or NAP.

Hurricane Maria did so much damage to Puerto Ricos economy that nearly 300,000 more Puerto Ricans became poor enough to be eligible for its nutrition assistance  a roughly 30% increase in beneficiaries. Without the additional $1.27 billion in funding that Congress approved in September 2017, the greater need would have meant that everyone getting this help would have had to make do with less, as the cost of this program is generally capped at around $2 billion per year.

Puerto Ricos nutrition assistance program differs from SNAP in another critical way: The threshold is much lower. Americans in families of three on the mainland can be eligible for food stamps if their income totals $1,732 per month. Puerto Rican families of the same size may not earn more than $4,901 per year  $408 per month  and get their own version of SNAP benefits. Because of this distinction, fewer Puerto Rican families get nutritional assistance benefits than would be the case if they earned the same incomes on the mainland.

The poverty rate in Puerto Rico is nearly 44%, triple the national average poverty rate. Thats especially problematic given that Puerto Rico ranks among the most expensive places in the U.S. to buy groceries.

Slashed benefits

Even before Hurricane Maria struck, the territorys nutritional benefits program was already failing to meet the nutritional needs of low-income Puerto Ricans amid a prolonged recession.

And once the disaster relief funds Congress appropriated for this purpose ran out in March 2019, Puerto Rico was forced to slash benefits for the 1.35 million people getting nutrition aid.

While nutritional assistance funds should certainly be a high legislative priority, so should protecting Puerto Rico from future floods and fixing the islands power grid. Puerto Rico experienced an 11-month power outage, the longest blackout in American history and the second-longest in world history after Hurricane Maria.

The House, unlike the Senate, passed a $14.2 billion disaster relief bill in January.

A new House version, about 25% bigger, would cover $17.2 billion in expenditures. As lawmakers entered their two-week spring recess in mid-April without sending legislation to Trump to at least consider signing, Puerto Rico, Iowa and other disaster-struck regions remained in limbo.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/a-political-stalemate-over-puerto-rican-aid-is-leaving-all-us-disaster-funding-in-limbo-114498.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

(THE CONVERSATION) Would you pay someone US$150,000 to have your baby?

The high cost of surrogacy in the U.S. has pushed many potential parents to seek cheaper options elsewhere. Countries like India and Thailand have attracted surrogacy clients from countries like the U.S., Britain, Australia and Israel. The global surrogacy trade, however, has been fraught with scandals.

In India, where Ive studied surrogacy since 2008, the government is rethinking regulations. Gay couples were banned from using commercial surrogacy in 2012. In March 2017, the Indian government extended the commercial ban to everyone. Now, only so-called altruistic surrogacy is allowed  when a consenting female family member bears a child for a childless heterosexual Indian couple without pay.

But what impact are bans on commercial surrogacy having for women who work in the reproductive industry?

Downsides of commercial surrogacy

Some bioethicists and feminists have welcomed bans on commercial surrogacy. They argue that its unethical to build businesses on womens reproductive capacities.

Surrogacy businesses in India almost exclusively focused on the needs of the client.

Destinations such as India became popular precisely because they offered surrogacy at bargain basement prices by paying surrogate mothers less. They offered preterm childbirth through cesarean surgeries in order to accommodate clients availability to take time off from work. They created barriers between surrogate mothers and clients to minimize the emotional costs for clients. This allowed clients to leave India with their babies  no strings attached.

Many bioethicists believe that selling pregnancy as a service is untenable because it puts a price on human body parts and life. Commercial surrogacy, they note, results in the devaluation of women and children and the eventual degradation of society. Thus, removing cash payment for surrogacy and instead endorsing it as an altruistic, gift-like exchange between transactors is seen as more ethical.

These arguments carry weight. Countries like Canada and Australia allow only altruistic surrogacy.

Downsides of bans

Like other countries that provide commercial surrogacy, there were no legal requirements in India to provide statistics on how many clinics provided surrogacy services, the number of clients or women employed. What we do know is that the ban has slowed a brisk global trade in Indian working-class womens reproductive capacities that is estimated to have garnered anywhere from $400 million to $1 billion per year. The baby trade, however, does not stop with bans on commercial surrogacy. Instead, infertility clinics jump through legal loopholes by moving surrogate mothers across borders. These movements expose surrogate mothers to great risks.

For example, when India first banned surrogacy for gay couples in 2012, various infertility businesses in Delhi continued to sign on gay clients from all over the world. Clients shipped their frozen sperm to Delhi, which was used to fertilize eggs from Indian donors. The resulting embryos, legally belonging to the gay men, were implanted into Indian surrogate mothers. To avoid the ban, infertility clinics then moved surrogate mothers across international borders into Nepal. There, they gave birth and clients arrived to pick up their children.

This emerging trade route between Delhi and Kathmandu halted when an earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, 2015, killing 8,000 people and injuring more than 21,000. While various governments airlifted babies belonging to their citizens, the fate of the Indian mothers and how they got back home remains unclear.

I learned more about this type of workaround in conversations with a Mumbai-based infertility specialist in September 2015. The specialist, who will remain anonymous to protect confidentiality, revealed that he was recruiting surrogate mothers from Kenya to come to Mumbai. Through in vitro fertilization, he implanted the Kenyan women with embryos belonging to gay men. The women were then flown back to Nairobi after completing 24 weeks of pregnancy in India. They birthed babies in designated hospitals in Nairobi, from where gay father clients picked up the babies. The Mumbai doctor maintained that he had not broken the law, because technically, he had not interacted with gay clients within Indian territory, and all he had provided was in vitro fertilization for Kenyan health-care seekers.

News reports have documented a similar effect in Cambodia, where the government has begun to crack down on surrogacy earlier this year. Now, surrogate mothers from Phnom Penh are being sent to Bangkok, Thailand to deliver babies. Thai law bans commercial surrogacy transactions, but enforcement agencies are unable to distinguish surrogate mothers in hospitals from other pregnant women. Cambodian surrogate mothers are also being sent to Laos, where there are no laws, to deliver babies in clinics staffed by Thai doctors who once worked in Thailand when commercial surrogacy was still legal there.

Under these circumstances, women are far more vulnerable than before. They are wholly dependent on agencies that have brought them into countries where they are strangers and unfamiliar with the language, culture and social norms. Surrogacy agencies provide them with housing and food in these foreign countries. And they control the money. As a result, the women are powerless to terminate their contracts, or go back home if they choose to do so. They are isolated from friends and family and have no legal recourse to address financial abuses or medical malpractice.

Human rights of surrogate mothers

Country-specific bans do nothing to alleviate the vulnerability of working-class women across poor countries. Instead, these bans create situations where women may be exposed to far deeper mistreatment and exploitation. Governments might want to reconsider bans on commercial surrogacy.

One option is to negotiate multilateral agreements between countries to govern global surrogacy. Such international law would need to balance the rights of persons pursuing parenthood, childrens rights and surrogate mothers rights. But because of differences in countries norms on gay rights and surrogacy, international agreements are difficult to forge.

A more pragmatic solution for countries like India and Thailand would be to legalize commercial surrogacy but regulate it heavily. Rather than bans, governments should consider laws that uphold surrogate mothers sense of dignity and bodily integrity. Surrogate mothers should be treated as full human beings who have the right to choose how they get pregnant, the right to opt out of medical interventions, the right to refuse cesarean surgeries and the right to maintain contact with the babies they birthed. Commercial surrogacy is tenable only if surrogate mothers emotional, physical and intellectual well-being is respected.

Editors note: This article and video were produced in collaboration with News Deeplys Women & Girls.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/india-outlawed-commercial-surrogacy-clinics-are-finding-loopholes-81784.
The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) said it has joined the United Nations Global Compact, the worlds largest corporate sustainability initiative.

A major global initiative, it calls upon companies to align their strategies and operations with their Ten Principles regarding human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, as well as taking action to advance societal goals.

More than 14,000 companies and 4,000 non-business participants across the globe have already embraced the initiatives commitments.

NBB said the move comes in line with the bank's commitment towards conducting business practices rooted in universal principles that contribute to a more inclusive global market and help build prosperous and thriving societies.

As part of its promise to advance its global sustainability impact through this initiative, NBB aims to assess, define, implement, measure and communicate its current sustainability strategy with a focus on considering all of its stakeholders.

The bank will focus on actualising long-term business success matters for its employees, its communities, and the planet, it added.

CEO Jean-Christophe Durand said: "With a promise to enact the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, NBB is pleased to be taking part in the United Nations Global Compact initiative. By partaking in the initiative, the bank is closer to achieving long-term success for our various stakeholders."

"We are committed to showcasing our values as a responsible bank by further establishing a culture of integrity through the necessary policies and strategies with a goal to become a more sustainable and responsible organisation on a global scale," he added.

Group Chief Human Resources and Sustainability Officer Dana Buheji said: "Integrating the UN Global Impact and its Ten Principles into our core business operations is another milestone that will accelerate NBBs contribution to the UNSDG."

"Our commitment to ESG considerations is motivated by our promise to implement sustainability practices in everything we do. We are committed towards contributing to the Kingdoms Economic Vision 2030 and a future net-zero economy by 2060," she added.-TradeArabia News Service
A motorcycle trip through Spain with his wife turned out to be inspirational enough for Ben Burda to build a Barcelona-style bar and restaurant 5,000 miles away and years later in downtown Missoula.

Bar Plata opened quietly the week of July 11 at 107 S. Higgins Ave. No. 6, in the historic Hammond Arcade Building just north of the Wilma Theater.

At only 500 square feet, it's probably one of the smallest bars in Montana. But Burda has packed a lot into the small space, including a kitchen where he and his staff prepare bocadillos (small pressed hot sandwiches), croquettes (spiced potato balls), pickled vegetables, conservas (canned fish and seafood from Spain) and other treats.

The bite-sized appetizers are called pintxos (pronounced pinchos), a Basque word for a small snack stabbed by a tiny skewer.

They've got a full liquor license and whip up cocktails like the Little Birdy, made with strawberry and pineapple pisco, elderflower and grapefruit.

Michelle Adams is in Missoula for a few days from out-of-state visiting her father. On Friday, she came in to Bar Plata for lunch with her young daughter.

"She loved the bread and the almonds yesterday," Adams explained. "I was just super impressed with the menu. It's top-notch. And I just found out about it literally by walking by."

Burda said Barcelona has a rich social scene, where people bounce from bar to bar eating small portions of healthy food.

"And everything there is for everyone," he said. "So it's not exclusive. It doesn't cost extra to get the best experience. And you're just always kind of eating and drinking and you never really stop for dinner. It's exciting, it's fun, it's energetic."

Burda has worked in restaurants his entire life, and decided Missoula needed something like that. He took photos, he studied menus and he secured a downtown location on one of the busiest corners in Missoula. Then, he designed the interior of the bar himself. The finished product, he says, has even recent travelers to Spain complimenting him on Bar Plata's similarity to the real thing.

He's even got the famous jamon Iberico (Iberian ham), aged and cured using centuries-old techniques, on a spit at the bar where he and his staff cut off paper thin slices.

"You don't chew it, you sort of just let it melt in your mouth," he explained.

Burda said the Italian tradition of canning seafood as soon as it's caught or harvested is actually the best way to preserve its freshness. He imports products like tinned scallops and sardines in a spicy oil. He calls them a "time capsule" from across the ocean.

"Conservas are basically the freshest way that you can possibly get fish and seafood," he said. "And so I love that we can have some of the world's best seafood in this tiny little hole here, as fresh as you can get it from Spain."

He has seating in the bar for now and tables outside, but his goal is to eventually remove all the seats so people mingle and mix more.

Burda and his business partner Drake Doepke are in the process of remodeling the former Caffe Dolce building on Brooks Street into a new Italian-inspired eatery, so he's a busy man. He's also got other projects in the works. One of his foremost goals, though, is to ensure his staff is well-taken care of so they can afford the high cost of living in Missoula and don't have to switch careers or move away.

"We've attracted some really cool service industry professionals," he said. "We have outstanding hospitality, and we're going to be a part of creating sustainable jobs in Missoula. This is one of those."

Missoula is an unlikely place for a Barcelona-style bar, but Burda said the era of easy global travel is making the world more connected.

"So it kind of goes back to a motorcycle trip and falling in love with Barcelona and years later, making it happen here in Missoula," Burda said. "That's pretty cool."

Bar Plata is open seven days a week from noon to midnight.
A woman who was not breathing was rescued from the Clark Fork River in Missoula on Friday afternoon.

According to the Missoula Fire Department, firefighters were dispatched at 2:45 p.m. to a report of a person in the water and not breathing, just upstream of the Van Buren Street footbridge. Dave Wolter, battalion chief of the Missoula Fire Department, said that when rescuers arrived on scene, "we found a group of folks that had assisted her out of the river and had started bystander CPR."

Eleven firefighters responded, according to the department.

The woman, whom Wolter estimated was middle-age, wasn't wearing a personal flotation device when rescuers arrived on the riverbank, but Wolter didn't know if she wore one in the water. Because the woman had a pulse, he said, "we just proceeded with medical treatment on the scene, all while she was located at the bottom of a very steep riverbank probably 20, 25 feet high."

Firefighters moved the woman up the bank using low-angle rope rescue techniques and transported her to Providence St. Patrick Hospital downtown. Wolter did not know the woman's status upon admission to the hospital. St. Patrick Communication Director Stacy Rogge was not immediately available for comment Friday afternoon.

In a news release about the incident, the fire department urged people recreating in water to have a buddy with them and to wear a personal flotation device.

"Hope everybody has fun and is safe out there," Wolter said. "There's a lot of people out on the river today."
BOISE, Idaho  Both pilots of a firefighting helicopter that crashed in Idaho have died, the U.S. Forest Service said on Friday.

Mary Cernicek with the Salmon-Challis National Forest said Thomas Hayes, 41, of Post Falls, Idaho, and Jared Bird, 36, of Anchorage, Alaska, died from injuries they sustained when their CH-47D Series Chinook crashed in the Salmon River about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The pilots were employees of the Anchorage-based ROTAK Helicopter Services, which was contracted to help fight the Moose Fire burning about 21 miles north of Salmon.

Both pilots were highly experienced and military veterans, Cernicek said. Emergency crews responding to the crash were able to extricate the men and transport them to medical facilities but they did not survive, she said.

On its website, ROTAK said it confirmed the accident with heavy hearts and asked for prayers and privacy on behalf of the families involved.

ROTAK Helicopter Services is working closely with all appropriate agencies and will issue a full statement as information is released, the company wrote.

The Idaho crash comes less than a week after four first responders were killed in another helicopter crash in New Mexico. Authorities in New Mexico said the helicopter crew had wrapped up a firefighting mission and was heading home to Albuquerque when the helicopter came down at a high rate of speed, hitting the ground upright before toppling over. One of the four people killed in that crash managed to call 911 before succumbing to his injuries.

Nearly 700 firefighters have been battling the Moose Fire in Idaho. The fire started on Sunday, and the National Interagency Fire Center said in an incident report Friday that nine helicopters were being used to support ground firefighting resources with water bucket drops.

The fire was burning on about 37 square miles on Friday and threatening several structures, and fire managers said the fire was expected to increase as hot, dry conditions continued in the region. A red flag warning was issued in the area because wind gusts were expected to reach up to 35 mph.

The helicopter wreckage was still in the Salmon River and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were en route to the scene, Cernicek said. That stretch of the river is popular with rafters and recreationists, and officials closed the area to recreational day trips. It remains open to people on multi-day river trips, Cernicek said.
Qatar Airways CEO said he received 20,000 applications for 700 pilot jobs despite airlines battling an industry-wide shortage of flight crews

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said his airline received 20,000 applications for 700 pilot jobs.

European startup Norse Atlantic Airways also received a large batch of applications for its pilot roles.

US airlines are not so lucky, with many struggling to recruit, forcing some planes to be grounded.

While there is an ongoing pilot shortage in the US, one Middle Eastern airline is not struggling to find qualified candidates.

In a meeting with reporters at the Farnborough Airshow in England on Monday, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the airline decided a few months ago that it wanted to hire 700 pilots, and got 20,000 applications.

He emphasized that all the applications were from individuals who were "qualified and type-rated," meaning the pilots already had the necessary training and certification to fly a specific aircraft.

"They have to go through very a stringent testing facility before we select because we are very, very picky," Al Baker said.

According to the CEO, the applications came from all over the world, minus the US, and that Qatar's operation has not been impacted by staffing issues.

Qatar is not the only airline receiving thousands of applications for its pilot roles. In May, Norway-based Norse Atlantic Airways received 3,000 applicants for its first 50 pilot job openings, all of which were qualified candidates.

A Norse spokesperson told Insider at the time that the number was higher than expected and that pilots' desire to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fueled the interest.

Airlines in the US have not been so lucky with their hiring pools, leading to a pilot shortage that is creating challenges for carriers and passengers. Companies like American Airlines and United Airlines have been forced to ground about 100 regional aircraft each due to not having enough pilots to fly them, which had also led to route cuts.

In an effort to find more crews, low-cost carrier Breeze Airways has sourced talent from Australia, while many regional airlines, like American Airlines' wholly-owned carriers PSA, Envoy, and Piedmont, have increased their hourly pay to entice pilots to stay with the company longer.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mental health providers, advocates and citizens alike were invited to attend the 10th Annual Conference on Suicide Prevention Friday at Butte High School.

Starting at 7:30 a.m., booths for the conferences sponsors were set up with informational materials for attendees, with presentations starting in the auditorium at 8 a.m.

Jennifer Preble of AFSP kicked off the lineup of speakers, noting that AFSP is all volunteer work. She pointed to a picture on the projector screen of volunteers with the Montana chapter, saying, These are all people who have been impacted by suicide or the loss of suicide.

The conference comes on the heels of the implementation of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on July 16, a number similar to how people call 911 for a medical emergency. The 988 replaces the former longer, 10-digit number.

Montana has been in the top five states for highest suicide rates in the country for almost the last 40 years.

The most recent report available online from the states suicide mortality review team, from 2016 cited several reasons for that.

Access to lethal means (firearms), alcohol, a sense of being a burden, social isolation, altitude, undiagnosed and untreated mental illness, lack of resiliency and coping skills, and a societal stigma against depression, all contribute to the long-term, cultural issue of suicide in Montana, according to the report.

Montana has a high rate of gun ownership, and 63% of all suicides in the state involve a firearm, compared to the national average of just about half. Sixty-three percent of Montana youths who completed suicide used a firearm compared to the national average of 39%.

According to a research brief from the Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development at the University of Montana, rural areas have a much higher rate of suicide than more urban areas, at 20 per 100,000 in rural areas compared to 11.1 per 100,000 in urban places.

Montana also has the highest risk of veteran suicides, at a rate of 68 per 100,000, compared to 17 per 100,000 nationally. In 2016 a quarter of suicides in Montana were among veterans.

Between 2005 and 2014, suicide was the No. 2 cause of death for kids ages 10-14, adolescents 15-24 and adults ages 25-44, the report found.

Dr. Len Lantz  a psychiatrist  who founded the conference, spoke after Preble, detailing how the conference started and how its evolved since then.

Lantz said that good, local journalism, is the seed that planted the idea of the conference. In 2012, Cindy Uken of the Billings Gazette wrote an award-winning series on suicide in Montana.

You know, our problem with suicide is real, Lantz said. And I already knew Montana had a high suicide rate, but reading those articles made me angry.

Because he was already running the Montana Psychiatry Conference, he had leadership skills and management experience. Since there was no statewide suicide prevention conference at the time, he decided to create one.

The first one was in 2013, and in 2016, the Montana AFSP got involved. In 2019, Lantzs daughter and wife brought to his attention that both conferences were taking up too much of his time, so he passed the baton to the AFSP to host.

In 2020, when the organization was supposed to host the conference for the first time, COVID struck, so it switched gears and hosted it virtually. It was also virtual in 2021.

This was the first year the AFSP got to hold the conference in person.

After Lantz, there were multiple speakers who talked about a variety of things from the risks of suicide at pivotal transitions throughout life, such as the transition from active military duty, high school to college, or to retirement.

Speakers also spoke about the new 988 line, the Zero Suicide American Indian Grant, the school screening program for suicide prevention in Montana and the prevelance of suicide among veterans.

There was also a panel discussion and trainings. Providers attending the entire conference earned 5.75 Continuing Education Units to put toward their license.

During the 2021 legislative session, a proposal to spend $1 million on suicide prevention efforts, similar to a proposal included in the budget of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, though with a different funding source, was voted down.

 The Lee Montana State Bureau contributed to this report.
MAQUOKETA  A 9-year-old boy survived the attack that killed three members of his family Friday at Maquoketa Caves State Park.

Tyler and Sarah Schmidt, both 42, were found dead, along with 6-year-old Lula Schmidt. They were from Cedar Falls.

Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green issued a statement late Friday on Facebook saying the family was camping at the state park. The Schmidts' 9-year-old son, Arlo, was also there. He "survived the attack, and is safe," Green wrote.

Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safetys division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown.

We dont know what led up to this, what precipitated it, he said, adding that so far, the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.

Green said the family was his neighbors and said Sarah Schmidt was a Cedar Falls Public Library employee.

"Like many of you just hearing the news, I'm devastated," he wrote in the Facebook post. "I knew Sarah well, and she & her family were regular walkers here in the Sartori Park neighborhood." He had spent some time working with her during the past week on a presentation.

Cedar Falls, which borders Waterloo in Black Hawk County, is just over two hours northwest of the Quad-Cities. Home to the University of Northern Iowa, the city has a population just over 40,000.

"Details will be forthcoming about services and other memorials, and I will ensure the community knows about this," Green wrote. "Please offer some extra grace to the Schmidts' many friends, neighbors, and coworkers as we try to process this horrible tragedy." The Cedar Falls Library was closed Saturday "for the sake of the staff who loved and worked with Sarah," he added. A Go Fund Me account has been set up for Arlo and had raised about $58,000 by mid-afternoon Saturday.

The Des Moines Register reported that Sherwin came from La Vista, Neb., a suburb of Omaha. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten told the newspaper that Sherwin had lived in an apartment complex with his parents and that he had no history of criminal conduct.

Cecilia Sherwin, Anthony Sherwin's mother, told The Omaha World-Herald in an email Saturday that the family refuses "to believe the news."

She said they were camping at the park Friday morning when she heard yelling and two gunshots. A young boy ran up to the Sherwin's campsite yelling for help and told her that a man wearing black had shot his family, she said.

Cecilia Sherwin said her son was wearing green, not black, and no black clothing was found in the area. She also said that they were legally traveling with a gun, which was located in a secure container.

We think (Anthony) might have sensed trouble and grabbed the gun for safety, Cecilia Sherwin said. We refuse to believe the news. We are deeply saddened as he had so much to live for and gave us no indication that anything was wrong.

A review of Nebraska criminal justice records found no signs that Sherwin had a criminal history. Cecilia Sherwin did not respond to an email seeking further comment.

Autopsies on Sherwin and the victims were scheduled to be performed over the weekend, Mortvedt said, and more information would likely be released based on those findings.

Found at campsite

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office and DCI were called about 6:23 a.m. for a report of a shooting at the park campground, Mike Krapfl, a special agent in charge with DCI, said during a news conference late Friday morning.

"When officers arrived, they located three deceased bodies at a campsite," Krapfl said.

The killings prompted the evacuation of the park and campground, including a children's summer camp. After the evacuations, Sherwin was the only person unaccounted for, Mortvedt said.

He said that during the course of the investigation, authorities learned Sherwin was armed and that of course heightened our awareness. Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit and provided no information about the firearm that was used to kill the Schmidts.

Investigators were still trying to figure out what relationship, if any, there was between the Schmidts and Sherwin, Krapfl said.

The park will be closed until further notice because of the investigation.

Crowded park

Other people were in the park at the time, and at least some of them were evacuated.

"The campground was relatively full," Krapfl said, though he did not have the exact number of people who were in the park when police arrived.

"Officers made contact with all the campers, tried to get as many out as they could," Krapfl said.

There was believed to be no further threat to the public.

One employee at Maquoketa Caves said that, at about 8 a.m., she was given the option to go home after police arrived and the park was locked down in response to the report of a shooting.

Parents with children attending the nearby Camp Shalom were notified Friday morning that it also was locked down.

"We were just notified that there is an active shooter at Maquoketa Caves," according to a Friday morning message to campers' parents. "Our top priority is camper safety, and we are following the protocols."

Fridays are usually pick-up days for campers at the Christian-focused camp. It is about a mile and a half away from the Maquoketa Caves, executive assistant Beth Sallak said.

But plans changed at 9:11 a.m., when local law enforcement sent a notification to the directors that there was an active shooter situation at the state park and told them to evacuate immediately.

So, Sallak said, staff shifted gears.

We told the campers, Were going to do a surprise visit to Little Bear Park in Maquoketa. They all cheered, and we loaded everyone on the bus. They had no idea there was an active shooter a mile and a half down the road.

She complimented the staff for staying calm and quickly changing plans, as theyve trained to do in emergencies. Campers this week ranged in ages from second-graders to seniors in high school.

Nobody expects for this to happen. The Maquoketa caves? Come on," Sallak said. "Its one of the safest places you can be. I take my kids there, I hike there with my friends. That doesnt mean you cant in the back of your mind be prepared.

Camp Shalom will continue to host campers until the end of the summer, which will be two more weeks.

Well continue to keep campers safe, happy, and hydrated, slept and well-fed. Were just going to move forward as we normally we do, Sallak said.

Officials respond

State officials issued statements about Fridays incident.

Im horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said. As we grieve this unimaginable tragedy, Kevin and I pray for the victims family members and the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene. We ask Iowans to do the same.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said on Twitter he was "closely monitoring" the situation in Maquoketa Caves State Park.

"Praying for the lives lost & their loved ones Im grateful for Iowa law enforcement who responded +camp staff for ensuring safety of other campers Violence cant be tolerated Killing innocent ppl is sickening," Grassley tweeted.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, likewise, wrote on Twitter: "I am heartbroken to hear of the tragedy in Maquoketa Caves State Park and am praying for the victims and their families. My staff and I are following the situation. Thankful for all of the responding law enforcement."

Kayla Lyon, Iowa Department of Natural Resources director, said she and the DNR staff were also devastated by the incident.

Our long-standing tradition of enjoying Iowas natural wonders was shaken today, but the legacy for the millions of families that recreate at Iowa state parks will continue, Lyon said.

U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, said in a statement: "This was a horrifying and senseless act of violence. As we wait to learn more, I join all Iowans in praying for those who lost their lives and our community. My team will continue to be in contact with local officials and I am grateful for our law enforcement officers who are working to keep us safe."

Associated Press, Des Moines Register and Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier staff and Quad-City Times reporters Barb Ickes and Anthony Watt contributed to this report.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County due to the effects of the fast-moving wildfire near Yosemite National Park. Thousands of people were ordered to flee the Oak Fire that exploded into one of California's largest wildfires of the year. Officials said the fire began Friday afternoon southwest of the park near Midpines in Mariposa County. By Saturday, it had grown to nearly 19 square miles. A Sierra National Forest spokesperson says evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living in the sparsely populated, rural area. Fire officials called the blaze explosive" and fueled by hot weather and dry vegetation.
Former President Donald Trump and his estranged vice president, Mike Pence, are campaigning Friday in Arizona for rival candidates for governor. Trump and Pence both talked up the successes of their administration and hammered President Joe Biden, but neither directly addressed the growing rift between them. The split-screen moment marks a more confrontational phase in their relationship as they both consider running for president in 2024. And their dueling events serve to underscore the divide between the party establishment and Trumps Make America Great Again movement.
Having insight into weather and how it relates to supply and demand is an important aspect of meteorology, particularly with long-range forecasts.

Our guest this week is Shunondo Basu, a meteorologist in the field of commodities, energy and finance and he helps explain his role the field.

We talk about weather, energy and money, including whats up with that Texas electricity grid and how cryptocurrency plays a role.

And check back Monday for the next episode. North Carolina climatologist Kathie Dello joins the team to talk about the climate change connections to extreme heat.

About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
The Pentagon is pushing for the passage of legislation aimed at boosting the USs domestic semiconductor industry, telling lawmakers the components, which go into everything from vacuum cleaners to fighter jets, are needed for the war in Ukraine.

The national security stakes for passing the Chips Act are high, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in a statement to Bloomberg News. Microelectronics are fundamental to virtually every current and legacy military system.

Hicks said the production of Javelin and Stinger missiles  systems desperately needed by those in Ukraine  are hampered by persistent semiconductor manufacturing delays and that having access to on-shore manufactured chips would help the US deter its adversaries and better assist its partners and allies.

A Javelin missile system has about 200 chips.

The USs share of semiconductor manufacturing has fallen to 12% from 37% since 1990 and the country currently produces none of the most advanced chips, which are made largely in Taiwan.

The Senate is considering a package of legislation that would funnel $52 billion in grants and subsidies to US semiconductor manufacturers as well as funding to 5G wireless networks. It would provide $3 billion for research.

The bill contains a 25% tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing  the source of a projected $79 billion revenue loss.

This is a national security issue for us, said Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former fighter pilot and astronaut, following a recent briefing on Capitol Hill with Hicks, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. We need to get this bill done.

The next generation of technologies is bound up in our ability to make sure that we have a secure and resilient supply chain, and it means getting the kind of structures in place to get the most sophisticated kinds of chips to the United States, Hicks said.

Now read: US reviewing chip export restrictions on China
Saudi Arabia's National Aviation Academy (Tatayaran) said it has reached an agreement with the coalition of BAE SDT, the local unit of British multinational security and aerospace company BAE Systems, and Turkey's first independent simulator flight training centre IFTC to establish a flight simulator training centre in Riyadh.

Announcing the deal, Tatayaran said it will be the first centre to provide simulator training in the region outside the airlines.

The MoU keeps pace with the Saudi Vision 2030 and help localize the industry, in order to enhance the Saudi Arabias economic position to become a hub for high-tech industries and services, said Tatayaran officials at the signing ceremony held on the sidelines of Farnborough International Airshow.

The development of the new simulator flight training unit is an extension of the quality programmes offered by the academy.

Once operational, it will provide training to Saudi students on Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 flight simulators in the first stage.-TradeArabia News Service
Jericho Canyon Vineyard winery accomplished the dual goals of cleaning up code violations and securing visitor increases as well as various other requests that went even further.

Thats hardly a given before the Napa County Planning Commission. In some code compliance cases, the commission decides a winery asking for forgiveness should wait before asking for additional growth.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.

I think I have probably been the most outspoken about the issue of granting approvals beyond the compliance issue, Commissioner Dave Whitmer said during Wednesday's hearing.

But after hearing the Jericho Canyon Vineyard story, he and other commissioners decided by unanimous vote that the winery's growth requests had merit.

I find myself in a place to understand this application and its importance to this family and their business moving forward," Whitmer said. "Im in a place where I feel it's appropriate to support it.

Jericho Canyon Vineyard is located on 131 acres at 3320 Old Lawley Toll Rd. near Calistoga. The Bleecher family founded the operation about 30 years ago.

Marla Bleecher recalled how her husband Dale was doing financial work in San Francisco and she was raising three children in San Mateo. They decided they wanted to live a different life and moved the family to Napa Valley after buying the Jericho Canyon land beneath Mount St. Helena and the volcanic Palisades.

At the time, we knew absolutely nothing about what we were getting into, Marla Bleecher said. We didnt know how to grow grapes. We didnt know anything about growing grapes. And it had been a cattle ranch.

Dale Bleecher went to Napa Valley College and Santa Rosa Junior College to learn about terraced vineyards and irrigation. They sold their grapes for wine and in 2006 completed a winery of their own.

The Jericho Canyon Vineyard use permit allows for up to 15 visitors a week and the winery has hosted up to 126 visitors a week, a county report said.

When we designed the winery, we didnt even design in a tasting room, Dale Bleecher told the commission. Somehow we thought wed be able to sell wine in some other way.

But as the number of wine distributors shrunk, having visitors come to the winery grew in importance.

The winery doesnt really get huge amounts of traffic coming in because it is off the beaten path and has by-appointment-only tastings. But sometimes, requests come for large groups, Dale Bleecher said.

Because we are struggling to get visitors, it was very difficult to say 'no' when somebody we were working with asked us to host their groups, he said.

Commissioners agreed to legalize the existing tasting room visitation. Beyond that, it agreed the winery can have up to 500 tasting room visitors a week, but no more than 13,800 annually.

Another violation corrected is recognizing the 6,715 square feet of caves, compared to the 4,100 square feet in the original use permit.

Basically, we designed our cave, Marla and I, sitting in a restaurant (writing) on a napkin. And it was just two bore holes with a crossover, very little imagination, Dale Bleecher said.

During construction, the builder suggested improvements, such as saying one crossover was too little for twin 140-foot bore holes. He relied on this advice without giving much thought to the use permit, Dale Bleecher said.

Commissioner Anne Cottrell said cave plans can change when the actual building takes place and issues arise.

I dont think thats a unique situation. We have heard that before, Cottrell said.

Beyond correcting the cave violation, commissioners approved increasing the cave space to 22,078 square feet comprised of about 19,600 square feet of production space and 2,500 square feet of hospitality space.

Commissioner Joelle Gallagher zeroed in on water use figures, trying to make sense of them amid apparently conflicting figures. At the end of the day, the winery will save water in part by using treated, processed wastewater for landscape irrigation.

Amid a drought, commissioners welcomed the news.

Seeing the water usage actually decline because of the reused water I think is really key to the application and to the project, Gallagher said.

Attorney Thomas Carey on behalf of Jericho Canyon Vineyard noted the commission is sometimes reluctant to do more than legalize violations. But the application for this project was begun two years before the county started the amnesty program in 2019, he said.

I want to emphasize this is not an attempt to get a bonus out of the amnesty program. This is something that happened along the away, he said.

The winery's future expansion plans are in two phases. Winemaker Nicholas Bleecher told commissioners the winery has worked on its requests for seven years. He clearly wanted to take care of everything at once.

Thinking about expansion in 2030, to be back here again is a really difficult concept to get through our heads to do that, because its difficult and its exhausting, he said.

In this case, commissioners legalized the violations and granted a range of extra requests as well. Among them was increasing wine production from 20,000 gallons annually to 50,000 gallons annually and converting a barn into a hospitality building.

Watch now: Napa kids enjoy summer fun at Camp Napa Napa kids enjoy summer fun at Camp Napa, a program hosted by the city's parks and recreation department. Take a look here.
Riverside County has offered Napa County Executive Officer Minh Tran a job as its county counsel, though it has yet to make the appointment and Tran has yet to say whether he has accepted.

The appointment was to go before the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on July 26. However, as the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported on Friday, the item was subsequently pulled after appearing on the county's website.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.

Tran could not be reached on Friday morning or early afternoon to say whether he will accept. That added a touch of mystery to the affair.

The Napa County Board of Supervisors met for a closed session at 2:30 p.m. Friday on an unrelated matter. Resident James Hinton, during public comments, said he had heard about the Riverside job offer. Tran, who sat a desk nearby, didn't respond.

Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon, reached Friday morning, said she didn't know about the matter.

Neither did Napa County Board of Supervisors Chairperson Ryan Gregory.

I was very surprised learning the news today and Im disappointed that Im surprised," Gregory said. "I have asked staff to put a supplemental (closed session) item Tuesdays agenda so we can sit with Minh and ask him whats going on.

Riverside County officials couldn't be reached for comment on Friday. However, The Press-Enterprise reported a county spokesperson as saying the county will announce the appointment of a new county counsel before the Aug. 2 meeting but would have nothing further to say before that point.

A June 10 letter to Tran from Riverside County CEO Jeffrey Van Wagenen, Jr. offered Tran a four-year term as county counsel. This letter was briefly posted on the Riverside County website.

Tran in 2020 had the highest base salary in Napa County government at $299,000 and total pay and benefits of $462,000, according to Transparent California. The Riverside offer is for a base salary of $285,000, a $10,000 relocation allowance and monthly $550 "executive vehicle benefit" allowance.

Riverside County made a nationwide search for a county counsel using an executive search firm, a county report said. The report said the appointment was to take effect Aug. 11, though it's unclear how the delay might change that date.

On a personal note, I look forward to working with you in this capacity and having your knowledge and skills available for application to the issues and needs of Riverside County, Van Wagenen wrote to Tran.

For Tran, a move to Riverside would be a return to his roots. He graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a biochemistry degree and worked for the U.S. Forest Service.

Tran later earned a law degree from the University of La Verne in Southern California. After working in private practice, he worked as Riverside County senior deputy county counsel for 10 years.

Tran came to Napa County as assistant county counsel in 2009. He became county counsel in 2012. He became interim CEO in May 2017 after Leanne Link left the post.

He always said it was his interest to return to county counsel, Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht said at the time. Hes a trained, excellent lawyer. He wanted to return to his wheelhouse.

But the Board of Supervisors in October 2017, after looking at a list of about 60 candidates, said Tran would be the next CEO.

Tran has spent much of his CEO tenure dealing with disaster response. The county has had five large wildfires that destroyed more than 1,300 homes. It led the local COVID-19 response.

The Napa County Farm Bureau recently gave Tran its Distinguished Leadership Award.

Tran ran into some turbulence in 2021 after the Board of Supervisors decided to do a COVID-19 vaccination investigation that focused on Supervisor Belia Ramos.

Ramos had received a vaccination at a county clinic before she was eligible. She said this was an end of the day vaccine that otherwise would be thrown out. The incident became controversial after a report on a Bay Area television station.

Tran had staff do what he called a very quick check into the vaccine incident. The resulting staff email said Ramos apparently was simply in the right place at the right time.

Ramos contended Tran should have shared that information with the Board of Supervisors before it decided to do the third-party investigation. She reported Tran to the State Bar of California. The State Bar website doesn't show any disciplinary action being taken.

Tran sent a memo to the Board of Supervisors later obtained by the Napa Valley Register that said Ramoss actions have done permanent and irreparable harm to my reputation and career.

In the aftermath, Supervisors Ryan Gregory and Alfredo Pedroza, state Sen. Bill Dodd and former Supervisors Mark Luce and Keith Caldwell sent a letter to the Napa Valley Register praising Tran.

"CEO Tran is to be commended for the skilled leadership that he provides to Napa County every day," the letter said. "We are fortunate to have Minh Trans leadership as CEO of Napa County and fully support the work that he has done and continues to do for our county."
New California education data helps tell an old story: Schools with higher rates of low-income students have more underqualified teachers.

A CalMatters analysis of teacher credentialing data released this month by the California Department of Education found this correlation statewide as well as within districts.

The states data from the 2020-21 school year details the percentage of classes by school and district that were taught by fully credentialed teachers, intern teachers or teachers without proper subject credentials. The data also shows the percentage of classes taught by experienced teachers those with more than two years of experience.

The CalMatters analysis crossed the states data with student demographic information for the states 10 largest school districts which collectively serve about a sixth of Californias public school students. It compared the 10 schools with the highest percentages of students qualifying for free or reduced price meals to the 10 schools with the lowest percentages of those students at each of the districts.

Statewide, 83% of classes were taught by fully credentialed teachers in the 2020-21 school year. But at eight of the 10 largest school districts, classes at schools with the highest percentages of low-income students were more likely to be taught by a teacher without full credentials than at schools with the lowest percentages. Los Angeles Unified had the largest disparity among non-charter schools  the rate of fully credentialed teachers was 22 percentage points higher at schools serving more affluent families.

The 2020-21 school year was the first full school year under the pandemic, which brought a pre-existing shortage of fully credentialed teachers to a breaking point. Educators and experts interviewed by CalMatters said early retirements surged and other teachers left the profession, sometimes in the middle of the school year. School administrators said they rushed to get vacancies filled, often hiring teachers without full credentials. Substitute teachers were also in short supply, especially for schools with high rates of low-income students.

Marcus Funches, who oversees human resources at San Bernardino City Unified, said the district has battled a teacher shortage for years. To fill vacancies, the district hired teachers who lacked a full credential as long as they demonstrated a commitment to staying in the district. Earning a full or clear credential typically requires a bachelors degree, completion of a credentialing program at a university and working as a student teacher. There can be additional testing or coursework requirements, depending on the grade you want to teach.

If those teachers are interns, but they have a passion for our students, those are the educators were looking for because theyre apt to stay, he said. Theyre not going to leave when the going gets tough.

But Kai Matthews, a project director at UCLAs Center for the Transformation of Schools, said low-income students  defined as those qualifying for free or reduced price meals  have always had less access to better prepared teachers, mostly because their schools were underfunded. And schools serving more affluent families are able to fundraise to pay teacher salaries, allowing them to reduce class sizes.

The socioeconomic disparity among schools is often coupled with racial disparities, Matthews said. A preliminary study shes conducting shows that barriers to the teaching profession result in fewer qualified and experienced teachers of color, while students of color are more likely to be in classrooms taught by underqualified teachers.

What does it mean if we keep sending less prepared teachers to less resourced schools? Matthews said. Theres no additional pay, just additional heartache and struggle for teachers.

At Los Angeles Unified, the largest district in the state, the 10 schools with the greatest share of low-income students reported 76.3% of classes were taught by fully credentialed teachers. At the 10 schools with the smallest percentages of low-income students, 98% were taught by fully credentialed teachers. Los Angeles Unified spokesperson Shannon Haber said the district is working to address these disparities for the upcoming school year.

The disparities at the states largest school districts are the product of historical underfunding of public education as well as a system of teacher preparation that presents barriers to aspiring educators who come from low-income backgrounds, Matthews said. The credentialing process includes being a student teacher, which means working without pay to fulfill the teaching hours required. Additionally, the relatively low teacher salaries compared to those of other college-educated professionals can deter prospective teachers.

The state data, released for the first time, isnt a perfect snapshot of teacher qualifications or experience. Statewide, credentialing data was missing for the teachers who teach about 7% of public school classes.

From my understanding, there could have been a transition from one teacher to another or a mid-year resignation, said Funches, the human resources director at San Bernardino City Unified. Its just a matter of not having all the information.

Officials at San Juan Unified in Sacramento County contested the data published by the state. According to the data, 75% of classes in schools with the highest rates of low-income students were taught by teachers with more than two years of experience. At schools with lowest rates of low-income students, 92% of classes were taught by experienced teachers.

However, San Juan Unified spokesperson Raj Rai said the districts own data shows some of the schools actually have higher percentages of experienced teachers. Rai said the district would work with the state to address the discrepancy.

In at least one case, the percentage of classes taught by inexperienced teachers doesnt match the percentage of inexperienced teachers at a district. At Long Beach Unified, the states data shows that 80% of the classes at the districts 10 highest-poverty schools are taught by teachers with more than two years of experience. However, the districts own report shows about 94% of teachers at those schools have more than two years of experience.

Despite problems with the data for some districts, experts like Matthews say this data collection will help policymakers allocate funding more equitably.

I think we need to get serious about resources, she said. How much longer are we going to ask these schools that serve a majority of students of color to make do?

Students and teachers of color lose

Matthews, the UCLA expert, said a preliminary study conducted by her team shows that teachers without full credentials are more likely to be people of color. They are often stuck in the credentialing pipeline because they cant afford to take an unpaid year to work as a teacher-in-training.

Getting a teaching credential is expensive, Matthews said. Not only are students of color receiving less, but the teachers who are getting less than stellar credentials are teachers of color.

In rural districts, Matthews said, the lack of nearby colleges and universities to recruit from results in a labor shortage for schools. And while some districts have the marketing budgets to hold teacher hiring fairs, others are stuck in these pipeline deserts.

These are counties where there isnt a teacher preparation program in a 50-mile radius, she said. You dont even have the pipeline thats being generated there. Its almost impossible to get teachers to go to these areas that arent their hometowns.

According to the CalMatters analysis, rural and smaller school districts had a disproportionate percentage of teachers with substandard credentials and less experience. While 83% of classes statewide were taught by fully credentialed teachers, that was the case for only 77% of classes at Californias smallest districts. And 90% of classes statewide were taught by teachers with more than two years of experience compared to 82% at small, rural districts.

Linda Darling-Hammond, the president of Californias State Board of Education and CEO of the education research center the Learning Policy Institute, said research shows that a fully credentialed teacher is the biggest factor contributing to student success. But keeping qualified and experienced teachers at the schools that need them most, she said, means creating working conditions that entice educators. Compensation is the most obvious way to keep teachers, she said.

First, I would make sure teacher salaries were comparable to other professions that have college degrees, Darling-Hammond said. Teachers are on average paid 85% of what their college-educated peers make.

Teachers union leaders said beyond compensation, districts need to reduce class sizes and make sure principals and administrators are supporting teachers to retain quality educators.

What is the promise once they get here? said Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, Los Angeles Unifieds teachers union. Are we willing to lower class sizes? Are we willing to give them the professional development they need?

But Myart-Cruz said she does not want raises or bonuses for just the teachers who work at schools with high rates of low-income students. She wants an overall increase in teacher pay and smaller class sizes across the district.

Ashley Alcala, the president of the San Bernardino City Unified School Districts teachers union, also said she wants to see pay raises across the district. In San Bernardino, nearly all of the schools have a majority of students who are low-income .

When the majority of schools are high poverty, it doesnt really make a difference where youre teaching, she said. Were going to be competing with surrounding districts if we dont raise the salaries for everyone.

Alcala said the state data only tells half the story. She said while more experienced teachers tend to be more effective educators, she said newly credentialed teachers might also bring more enthusiasm and a willingness to try new methods.

Its frustrating, Alcala said. If you have the right working conditions then people will stay. If you have an administrator who supports their employees and a school that has a culture that has a positive working environment, then people will choose to stay.

Myart-Cruz and Alcala say you cant just target high-poverty schools with more money. They say the state needs to fix the entire education system.

When you do surveys, its not the money that keeps teachers at a school, Alcala said. Its the culture, and its the administrators that teachers are drawn to.

The state in recent years has funneled billions of dollars into addressing the teacher shortage. The most recent effort has been the Golden State Teacher Grant Program, which gives college students $20,000 in grants if they commit to teaching for four years at a school where at least 55% of students are English learners, foster children or students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Darling-Hammond said shes hopeful about the grant, saying four years is enough time for teachers to get invested and stay in their school communities as long as they receive the compensation and training they need from their school and district leaders.

Teachers union leaders agree with experts that compensation and smaller class sizes help attract and retain fully credentialed teachers. But building a healthy and stimulating environment for both students and teachers will make a school a more enjoyable place to work and to learn. This means hiring more mental health counselors as well as more art and drama teachers.

The whole system is broken in its design, Myart-Cruz said. I want to see a holistic solution.

CalMatters Reporter Jeremia Kimelman contributed to this report.
Is Western unity over Ukraine about to crack?

Which countries could survive nuclear war?

Surmalu re-inspection scheduled for November

In Lebanon, man who held hostages in bank released without charges

TerraPower of Bill Gates raises $750 million for projects in nuclear energy and medicine

China's 'Galaxy Fold clone' sold out in five minutes and became a bestseller

Germany plans to postpone closure of its last three nuclear power plants

Expert estimates environmental consequences of Yerevan explosion and gives advices

Switzerland signs agreement with Uzbekistan to return $131 million seized from Gulnara Karimova

Artsakh also declares mourning

Norway can no longer supply Germany with more gas

UN Secretary General to meet with Presidents of Ukraine and Turkey in Lviv

Ministry of Emergency Situations: There were about 4 tons of flammable substances in Surmalu

Russian Security Council says Kyiv threatens global nuclear security

Content of toxic substances in air after explosion in Yerevan has increased sharply

Scholz says Sweden and Finland's NATO accession process goes according to plan

Macron and Zelenskiy discuss situation over Zaporozhye nuclear power plant

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 contracts 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

Electricity bills in Germany will rise by another 480 euros year because of gas surcharge

12 injured in Surmalu shopping mall explosion remain in hospitals

Media: Russia signs contract with Iran to buy 1,000 drones

Armenian DM attends opening of Army 2022 exhibition at Patriot center near Moscow (PHOTOS)
Human Rights Watch International has called on Sri Lanka's new President Ranil Wickremesinghe to immediately order security forces to stop the illegal use of force against protesters who have been demonstrating against the government for months over the country's economic crisis, AP reported.

A day after Wickremesinghe was sworn in, hundreds of armed soldiers stormed the demonstration camp outside the president's office Friday morning, attacking demonstrators with batons in what Human Rights Watch said was "a dangerous signal to the people of Sri Lanka that the new government intends to act with brute force, not the rule of law."

The soldiers also attacked two journalists and two lawyers during the crackdown. Security forces arrested 11 people, including protesters and lawyers.

Wickremesinghe, who previously served as prime minister six times, was sworn in as president a week after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country after protesters stormed his residence. Rajapaksa later resigned while in exile in Singapore.

Sri Lankans have been taking to the streets for months demanding the resignation of the country's top leadership, blaming the authorities for the economic chaos that has left Sri Lanka short of basic necessities, including medicine, fuel and food.
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Revolution, the press service of PM reported.

The message reads as follows,

"Honorable Mr. President,

I warmly congratulate you on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Revolution.

We can proudly state that the relations between Armenia and Egypt are distinguished by friendship based on close historical interactions and great potential for development. I am confident that due to joint work, we will raise Armenian-Egyptian relations to a new level, expanding the agenda of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

Armenia is greatly interested in the stability of the Middle East and highly appreciates Egypt's positive role in strengthening the region's security and fighting against terrorism.

I wish you health and new successes, and peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Egypt.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Russia and Ukraine on Friday signed a UN-backed deal to resume exports of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

The agreement, which will be implemented in the next few weeks, was signed in the Turkish city of Istanbul and was brokered by the government in Ankara, reported CNBC.

Millions of tonnes of wheat have been stuck in the war-torn nation. Grain exporters in Ukrainian port cities like Odesa have been unable to ship their goods due to the conflict, fueling a global shortage of the commodity and pushing up food prices. Ukraine is one of the worlds biggest wheat exporters, and Russian forces have been blocking the Black Sea, where the grain silos at key Ukrainian ports are located. The Bosporus and Dardanelles are the only water routes in or out of the Black Sea. That gives Turkey influence over how Russias navy can move.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was in attendance along with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Russian and Ukrainian officials sat at separate tables to sign the documents.
Sharjah developer Arada has announced that work is currently under way on nearly 6,500 residential units being built across its various communities. Of these, nearly 5,000 homes are on track for completion by the end of this year.

During the first six months of the year, Arada had launched the Phase Three of its woodland megaproject Masaar, after Suyoh communitys first two phases got sold out.

These new launches come amid renewed buyer interest in Sharjah and wider UAE property markets for mainly spacious and green integrated communities. Arada said it had witnessed a 30% growth in the value of property sold during the first six months of 2022. The developer sold homes valued at a total of AED1.49 billion ($405.6 million) at its two Sharjah megaprojects, Aljada and Masaar.

During the first half, Arada had awarded contracts valued at AED460 million to build the Phase One of Masaar, and is currently putting the final touches to the first part of the project to be completed, the Masaar Experience Center and surrounding precinct.

The value of sales at Masaar rose by 49% to AED781 million, with a total of 331 homes purchased.

At Sharjahs largest mixed-use community, Aljada, the launch of Nasaq District in February has witnessed encouraging buyer demand, while the first residential phase of the project, totalling 1,482 homes was also completed.

In total, Arada sold 980 homes at Aljada valued at AED709 million, up 39% over last year.

The rise in sales for both master communities compensated for the absence of sales at Nasma Residences, Aradas first community, which sold out last year, stated the Sharjah developer.

During the first half of 2022, Arada also completed the sixth and final phase at Nasma Residences, where all 1,117 homes have now been finished.

Vice Chairman Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal said: Our performance in the first half of the year is proof once again of both the resilience of the Sharjah market, which continues to see steady and sustainable growth, and of the interest in our product."

"In particular, Arada is witnessing exceptional demand for well-designed homes, with great facilities and competitive pricing, he noted.

The first half results cap a particularly strong period for Arada, which also saw the award of credit ratings and the successful completion of the companys first public financing deal, a $350 million sukuk issuance.

The results also come against the continuing strong performance of the Sharjah property market, which saw a 65% increase in the total value of property sold in 2021 to AED26.2 billion, compared to the previous year, stated Prince Khaled citing data released by Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department.

Group CEO Ahmed Alkhoshaibi said: These strong results put us firmly on track for our overall sales target of AED3 billion in property sold by the end of this year."

"As we look ahead to the H2, we have a strong pipeline of new launches, including our first Dubai project, which will help consolidate our sales still further and achieve the ambitious targets we set for ourselves earlier this year, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Aerospace engineering graduate receives regional SGT award

Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | Manager, CEAT marketing and Communications | 405-744-5831 | kristi.wheeler@okstate.edu

Caleb Bengs, an aerospace engineering graduate, was one of the eight students in the country to receive the 2022 Regional Undergraduate Student Award from Sigma Gamma Tau (SGT).

Sigma Gamma Tau (SGT) is the National Honor Society in Aerospace Engineering. The organization aims to foster a high standard of ethics, professional practices and to create a spirit of loyalty and fellowship.

Each year the faculty adviser nominates an aerospace engineering student for the SGT Annual Undergraduate Award. Dr. Kurt Rouser, a professor in OSUs School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, became the chapter adviser in 2016. He selected Bengs based on his academic honors and distinctions, extracurricular activities and technical achievements.

I nominated Caleb Bengs because he excelled in all of these areas, Rouser said. He is the epitome of professionalism, as I observed in class and as he served as our chapter vice president.

Not only was Bengs selected for OSUs SGTs chapter Undergraduate Award, but he was also selected as a recipient for the Southwestern Region. This includes New Mexico State, The University of Oklahoma, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Texas at Austin. The last time a student from OSU was selected for the regional award was in 2018.

Achievements like this distinguish our aerospace engineering program, so Caleb not only won this recognition for himself, but he also brought great credit to our university, Rouser said. Aerospace continues to thrive in the US and particularly here in Oklahoma, and Calebs accomplishment highlights the contribution our aerospace engineering program makes in terms of technical achievements and student development.

Bengs served as the SGT vice president, the chapter president of the Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, a member of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

He also encourages current and future engineering students to get involved in research because of his experience as an undergraduate research assistant for the Center of Integrated Building Systems and a research and development intern for AAON in Tulsa.

Although understanding engineering theory is important, undergraduate research gives an individual the opportunity to apply what he or she has learned to a real application, Bengs said. Furthermore, it allows one to develop great personal connections with professors, graduate students, and fellow undergraduate students.

In August of 2022, Bengs will begin pursuing his doctorate in aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University where he will specialize in the dynamics and control of spacecraft. He will be working under the direction of Dr. Terry Alfriend.

Throughout his undergraduate career, Bengs realized the importance for students to show gratitude to those who have helped and mentored them. If there is one thing he could change about his experience at OSU, it would be to thank people more throughout his educational journey.

At almost all points in the journey of life, somebody took an interest in our personal development and helped us reach our goals, Bengs said. I am very honored and thankful that Dr. Rouser chose to nominate me for this award. There are many great individuals in the local SGT chapter that are just as deserving of this award as me, so I was pleasantly surprised when he informed me of his decision to nominate me.

As he prepares for the next chapter in his educational career, he will remember different lessons he learned throughout his leadership experience in SGT. While COVID-19 prevented the chapter from participating in many activities, the obstacle taught Bengs how to be a leader through unexpected challenges.

I learned the importance of effective communication, patience and empathy, Bengs said. Therefore, I hope my time as chapter vice president is remembered as an era of perseverance and willingness to serve in the face of difficulties.

Story By: Bailey Sisk | basisk@okstate.edu
Mumbai (Maharashtra)[India], July 23 (ANI/NewsVoir): Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company Ltd. (ABHICL), the Health Insurance subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Limited, a significant non-banking financial services company, has set a new Guinness World Records title for the 'Largest online video album of people jumping in the air' with 5455 videos. ABHICL has achieved this record during its annual #JumpForHealth Campaign. The 5th edition of #JumpForHealth Campaign kick-started on World Health Day i.e. April 07, 2022, and continued till May 16, 2022, witnessing a large number of people start their health journey through the power of jumping while contributing towards helping differently-abled people walk again. Combining the efforts of the participants, for every 10,000 jumps, ABHICL has vowed to donate one prosthetic leg. Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Aditya Birla Capital said, "We are delighted to create this new record for our #JumpForHealth 2022 campaign. At Aditya Birla Capital we believe in encouraging people to self-realise the importance of staying healthy. #JumpForHealth was a step in that direction. A movement we started in 2017, it has been an inspiration for people to not only take care of their own health but to also contribute to the mobility of a deprived person. Our sincere gratitude to the 5,455 participants who contributed more than 89,56,214 jumps in less than 40 days of this year's campaign. On behalf of all of us across Aditya Birla Capital, I want to express my sincerest gratitude to Guinness World Records for recognising our efforts." Mayank Bathwal, Chief Executive Officer, Aditya Birla Health Insurance said, "At Aditya Birla Health Insurance, we have always worked to instil the concept of HeathFirst in the minds of our customers. We encourage people to take care of their health and inculcate the habit of healthy living. #JumpForHealth started in 2017, is one of those initiatives that enable us to create awareness on healthy living and its benefits. Achieving the Guinness World Records title during this edition of #JumpForHealth Campaign has given us a moral fillip and we are thankful to all our stakeholders who've played a pivotal role in amplifying the 5th edition of ABHICL's #Jump for health campaign." This year's #JumpForHealth campaign was based on the theme of freedom, and also promoted the concept of HealthFirst. As the world goes digital in the post-pandemic era, the #JumpForHealth campaign enabled people to work, play, learn, and socialise from any location. ABHICL with its campaign tapped into these qualities of participants, encouraging them to work towards a healthier lifestyle while bringing joy and happiness to those who can be benefitted a prosthetic leg. In this edition of #JumpForHealth Campaign, 5455 participants contributed more than 89,56,214 jumps in two months. As a result, ABHICL will donate 895 legs to further its noble cause of helping specially-abled people walk again. Over the years, the campaign has received over 32.62 million jumps and ABHICL has donated 3262 legs so far. Celebrities like Sanjay Dutt, Mandira Bedi & Remo D'souza actively participated and encouraged others to jump along with them. Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co. Limited (ABHICL), a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Ltd. (ABCL), is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and MMI Holdings of South Africa. ABHICL was incorporated in 2015 wherein Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL) and Momentum Metropolitan Strategic Investments (Pty) Limited (Formerly known as MMI Strategic Investments (Pty) Ltd.) hold 51 per cent and 49 per cent shares respectively. ABHICL commenced its operations in October 2016 and is engaged in the business of health insurance. Company's current product portfolio includes unique offerings including chronic care and incentivized wellness. As on FY22, ABHICL recorded a gross written premium (GWP) of Rs.1727 Crore and covered more than 19 Mn lives. ABHICL has a nationwide distribution presence in over 4790 cities through branches and partner offices, 12 bancassurance partners and over 63,000 direct selling agents. ABHICL has scaled and diversified digitally enabled distribution through 89%+ digital channel growth with 183 branch locations, bancassurance available through 16,000+ branches, and 43+ digital partners covering 5 Mn.+ lives through 52+ contextual byte-sized and contextual products. Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL) is the holding company for the financial services businesses of the Aditya Birla Group. ABCL's subsidiaries have a strong presence across Protecting, Investing and Financing solutions, ABCL is a universal financial solutions group catering to the diverse needs of its customers across their life stages. Powered by more than 30,500 employees, the subsidiaries of ABCL have a nationwide reach with 1,048 branches and more than 2,00,000 agents/channel partners and several bank partners. As of March 31, 2022, Aditya Birla Capital Limited manages aggregate assets under management over Rs 3,706 billion, has a consolidated lending book of approx. Rs. 672 billion, and an active customer base of over 35 million, through its subsidiaries and joint ventures. Aditya Birla Capital Limited is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, in the league of Fortune 500. Anchored by an extraordinary force of over 140,000 employees, belonging to 100 nationalities, the Aditya Birla Group operates in 36 countries across the globe. Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited (Momentum Metropolitan) is a South African-based financial services group listed on the Johannesburg and Namibian Stock Exchange. Momentum Metropolitan was formed from the merger of Metropolitan and Momentum, sizeable insurance-based financial services companies in South Africa. MMH conducts its business through operating brands Metropolitan, Momentum, Guard risk, Momentum Multiply and Eris Properties. The group operates in 17 countries across the globe: 13 in the African continent, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and India through a direct presence, strategic partnerships and joint ventures. For more information, please visit www.momentummetropolitan.co.za/en. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], July 23 (ANI/NewsVoir): Jagran Lakecity University recently hosted a national-level career fair at the University Campus. Students from the Faculties of Management and Commerce, Journalism and Creative Studies, Architecture and Engineering, Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Hospitality participated in the event. The event was mounted by the JLU Career Development Center of the University. Well-known companies, organizations, and professionals from India attended the event spread over two days and held sessions with more than 400 students to get them acquainted with the nuances of the practicing world, expectations, excitements, and responsibilities across diverse careers. The students interviewed for Summer Internships and full-time placement opportunities had the chance to hold face-to-face conversations with the recruiters and learn about the application process, and incentives. Moreover, the companies also had the chance to find the right fit for their organisations. 139 students were shortlisted and opportunities were offered by more than 30 companies that participated in the event. The highest package received by students was INR 5,00,000. Several apprenticeships have also been offered to the students by MP Police and BNest Incubation Centre. Some of the companies that participated in the career fair were Grant Thronton, Trident Group, Vardhman Group, Airtel Payment Bank, ByJu's, Willy M3, Career Launcher, Raj Express, Free Press Journal, Buzzmeter, Technotask, Awesome Sauce Creative, Miles Education, Ecoholics among others. The companies were incredibly happy and delighted to participate in the event and how the entire fair unfolded. The recruiters were impressed by the caliber of Jagran Lakecity University's students and their talent. JLU believes in providing its students with the best academic and practical experiences during their degree programs at the University with Intensive Industry Intervention. Our Global Connect approach also enables the students to learn and bring an outer perspective to the table and come up with solutions that are practical and feasible. The University has held an inspiring and exceptional placements record over the years. Students have been successfully placed across the top MNCs, public and private sectors across various domains of journalism, finance, law, creative industries, commerce, humanities, sports, management, and hospitality, both in India and internationally. JLU is currently offering 56+ UGC-approved programs and admissions are open for the academic year 2022-23. For more information, please visit: jlu.edu.in. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 23 (ANI/BusinessWire India): WBR Corp, a leading brand consulting company in India organized Women Achiever's Award and Leadership Excellence Award in Mumbai on July 20, 2022, at The Lalit, Mumbai. This ceremony was organized with the aim to recognize the efforts made by professionals, corporates and organizations toward the work they have done in various industry sectors all over the nation. Leading Bollywood Actor and Environment Activist Dia Mirza was the chief guest who felicitated all the winners. Leadership Excellence Summit recognized varied organizations and professionals from all over India on the basis of their product and service quality, pricing, marketing strategies and leadership strategy in the industry/market segment/geography, dedication to customer satisfaction, entrepreneur initiatives, exemplary business practices, business growth etc. The ceremony was meant to appreciate the contribution of organizations and business leaders who are the true inspiration of our future generation. The winners of the event were decided on comprehensive market research study and opinion surveys conducted over the period of the last six months. Some of the key winners at the ceremony included names like: Women Achievers Awards:- Falguni Nayyar, Naiyya Saggi, Shamim Khan, Dr Deep Shikha Pandey and Lyra Bajaj. Leadership Excellence Awards:- Dr K V Sathish, Dr Puneet Kumar Gupta, Dr Bipin Sule, Assert AI, Panacea Institute of Fashion Technology, NIEM The Institute of Event Management LLP, Rahul Sharma, Five Online Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Dr Shailendra Pandya, ZNS NIST Shiksha Academy, Dr Khizer Ahmed, Monisha Bordoloi, SMFB Services Pvt. Ltd., Acme Physiotherapy Clinic, Medesun Prime and Vishal Anajwala, "These awards reinforce the importance of overall quality of products and services that the organizations offer. Winning an award forces people to do even better as they have a reputation to live up to, effectively enabling them to rise and match the international standards" said Shilpa Gupta, director of WBR Corp. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
The bank's profit jumped on the back of lower provisions and improvement in asset quality performance.

The bank reported consolidated profit after tax for the first quarter of 2022-23 at Rs 2,755 crore as against Rs 1,806 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, registering a year-on-year growth of 53 per cent.

At the consolidated level, the Return on Assets (ROA) (annualised) was 2.04 per cent for Q1 FY23 as compared to 1.49 per cent for Q1 FY22.

The Board of Directors of Kotak Mahindra Bank approved the standalone and consolidated results for Q1 FY23 at the Board meeting held in Mumbai on Saturday.

At the standalone level, the bank's net interest income (NII) for Q1 FY23 increased to Rs 4,697 crore, from Rs 3,942 crore in Q1 FY22, registering a growth of 19 per cent.

Net Interest Margin (NIM) stood at 4.92 per cent for Q1 FY23.

Customer assets, which include advances and credit substitutes, increased by 29 per cent to Rs 303,629 crore as on June 30, 2022 from Rs 2,35,340 crore as on June 30, 2021.

Advances increased by 29 per cent to Rs 280,171 crore as on June 30, 2022 from Rs 217,447 crore as on June 30, 2021.

Average current deposits grew to Rs 55,081 crore for Q1 FY23 compared to Rs 46,341 crore for Q1 FY22 up 19 per cent.

Average Fixed Rate Savings deposits were Rs 114,237 crore as on June 30, 2022, which is 8 per cent higher when compared with Rs 105,724 crore recorded on June 30, 2021.

Average term deposits rose by 16 per cent from Rs 112,406 crore for Q1 FY22 to Rs 130,035 crore for Q1 FY23.

As on 30th June 2022, COVID-related provisions stood at Rs 482 crore. In accordance with COVID Resolution Framework announced by RBI, the Bank has standard restructured fund-based outstanding of Rs 379 crore (0.14 per cent of advances).

Under the MSME Resolution Framework, the Bank has standard restructured fund-based outstanding of Rs 697 crore (0.25 per cent of advances) as of June 30, 2022.

As of June 30, 2022, GNPA was 2.24 per cent NNPA was 0.62 per cent. Credit cost on advances for Q1 FY23 was 16 bps (annualised) (excluding COVID and restructuring provision/reversal). The provision coverage ratio stood at 72.6 per cent.

The capital adequacy ratio of the Bank, as per Basel III stood at 22.1 per cent as of June 30, 2022. (ANI)
According to Variety, the forthcoming season will star series creator Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz.

It finds Earn, Alfred, Darius and Van back in their hometown of Atlanta after their Season 3 journey across Europe, with the overarching theme of the new season pondering whether the city has changed or if they have.

The newly released teaser highlights many references from the show's 31-episode run to date, including the invisible car from Season 1 episode 'The Club' and an appearance from fan-favourite side character Zan, played by Freddie Kuguru.

The third season featured the main cast traveling throughout Europe in just more than half of its ten episodes with the other episodes shifting back to Atlanta, containing anthology stories focused on new characters.

Glover executive produces 'Atlanta' alongside brother and series writer Stephen Glover, show director Hiro Murai, writer Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms and Dianne McGunigle. The show is produced by FX Productions, as per Variety. (ANI)
Taking to Instagram, the 'Dhamaka' actor captioned the post, "First song with Master Ji Actually Master G - G for Genius Something really different from what I have done till dateWait for it @ganeshacharyaa#Shehzada #RohitDhawan."

In the picture, the 'Pyar Ka Punchnama' actor and the choreographer could be seen looking back at the camera lens with the Brass band people in front of them.

Kartik is currently shooting a high-voltage dancing track for his upcoming film 'Shehzada' in Haryana.

Earlier, the 'Sonu Ke Titu ki Sweety' actor dropped a behind the lens video from the sets of the film, which also features director Rohit Dhawan in it.

Along with Kartik, the film also features actor Kriti Sanon in the lead role. This marks the actor's second collaboration after their film 'Luka Chuppi'.

'Shehzada' is the Hindi remake of the Telugu blockbuster 'Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo' which starred Allu Arjun and Pooja Hegde.

Meanwhile, 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.

He will be also seen in 'Freddy' opposite Alaya F. Produced by Ekta Kapoor, the film is touted to be a romantic thriller and in Hansal Mehta's 'Captain India'. Bankrolled by Ronnie Screwvala and Harman Baweja, the film revolves around India's most successful rescue operations from a war-torn country. (ANI)
At least 38 people died of Japanese Encephalitis in Assam in the last three weeks while 251 were infected, prompting the Health Department to undertake various measures to deal with the disease, officials said on Friday. A fresh death was reported from Biswanath district on Friday. According to the National Health Mission (NHM), since July 1, at least 38 people have died after being infected by the vector-borne disease in more than 20 of the state's 35 districts. On the direction of the NHM authorities, District Rapid Response Teams were constituted to keep a close watch on the situation and to take preventive measures. Japanese Encephalitis and malaria kill many people in Assam every year, specifically during the monsoon season that usually starts in May and stretches to October. Principal Secretary, Health, Avinash Joshi and NHM Director M.S. Lakshmi Priya are in close touch with the district authorities and asked them to remain pro-active to deal with the situation. The NHM has also issued a standard operating procedure and guidelines to tackle the situation arising with the outbreak and health workers have been conducting a massive awareness campaign against the disease. Last year, at least 40 deaths were reported due to Japanese Encephalitis, officials said. Japanese Encephalitis is transmitted by infected mosquitoes mainly during the monsoon. --IANS sc/vd ( 230 Words) 2022-07-22-23:00:05 (IANS)
Health professionals are increasingly ready for a future in which COVID-19 variations develop, surge, and fade similarly to seasonal flu as the BA.5 omicron variant spreads. The ability to immediately monitor the virus at a "population scale," a task that will need precise and extremely quick testing, will be crucial for keeping up with these changes. Researchers from the School of Science at IUPUI are working to create a new biosensor that could meet the future COVID-19 testing requirements for speed and efficiency in order to help tackle this issue. The study was just published in the American Chemical Society Journal 'Applied Material Interfaces. Adrianna Masterson, a graduate student in Sardar's lab at the time of the study, and Rajesh Sardar, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the School of Science, are the project's leaders. "Everyone is chasing high-throughput testing; this type of high-speed analysis is essential to the future of the fight against COVID-19," Sardar said. "There are many advantages to our technology in particular: It's fast, efficient, accurate and unprecedentedly sensitive." According to Sardar, the COVID-19 test from his lab can presently examine samples from 96 people in less than three hours. The method works most effectively with 10 microliters of blood. In contrast, 10 millilitres of blood are typically drawn for a blood panel ordered by a primary-care doctor, which is 1,000 times greater. According to Sardar, the sensor also functions with different sample types including saliva. However, blood was used in the study since it is the most complex biological fluid and the best gauge of a sensor's accuracy. The Indiana Biobank, which contributed 216 blood samples, including 141 samples from COVID-19 patients and 75 samples from healthy controls, was where all test samples were collected. Blind examination by IUPUI researchers revealed that their biosensor had a 100% accuracy rate and a 90% specificity rate. In other words, the sensor only ever returned a false positive in 1 out of 10 samples and never a false negative. According to Sardar, the absence of false negatives is more crucial for public safety than the presence of false positives since someone who has a false negative could unintentionally infect others whereas a person who has a false positive is not a threat. Sardar added that the sensor's ability to measure the body's COVID-19 antibody concentration was proven to be quite accurate. This is so that it can recognise both the virus' spike protein and the immunoglobin G, or IgG, proteins that the body produces to fight off viruses. He added that it is important to be able to measure COVID-19 antibodies because many COVID-19 antibody tests that are currently authorised under the FDA's emergency use authorization do not provide precise antibody counts, even though this number represents the potency of an individual's immunity to infection. According to Sardar, it will be essential to accurately measure patients' immune levels in order to prevent COVID-19 in the future. This is really evident in the way things are right now, where varieties like omicron and, most recently, BA.5, are infecting people who have had all of their vaccinations and booster shots. Sardar's lab's biosensor relies on chemically manufactured gold triangular nanoprisms to produce its results because they offer a remarkably potent optical response to even minute levels of IgG. It also implies that the sensor is capable of detecting antibodies in the initial stages of infection. The research, which started in the early stages of the pandemic, builds on early, encouraging findings that were released in June 2021. Sardar's next goal is to improve the system even more, with the end goal of processing 384 samples in less than an hour -- or 5,000 samples a day, if utilised in a bigger testing facility. According to Sardar, who is also a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, "this research is about preparing for the future." "The H1N1 influenza strain has been around for almost a century. I anticipate the coronavirus will be around for a very long period as well. In order to keep one step ahead of the virus, we must devise rapid, simple, and effective approaches to assess the risks of infection for a large number of people." (ANI)
The plan to replicate one of the country''s most successful rhino rehabilitation programme at the Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh is stuck -- for want of a sedating drug that is banned in India. The state''s forest department has now sought to obtain no-objection certificate (NOC) from the central government to acquire -- Etorphine (M99) and its antidote -- a drug banned in India and produced in some African countries, the officials said. "The drug is used to immobilise large animals like the rhino. It is required to shift some of them from their present enclosed area to the new one, and to do tests," Dudhwa National Park Director Sunil Choudhary told IANS. The plan is to rehabilitate three rhinos in an enclosed area of 14 sq.km in the Belraya Range of the forest, some 15 km from the present 24 sq.km Sonaripur Range''s enclosure where 34 rhinos thrive. Abode to a highly diverse ecosystem at the heart of Terai region bordering Nepal, Dudhwa has several endangered animals, including tigers, elephants, Indian rhino, leopard, barasingha (swamp deer), sloth bear and others. Considered as an example of one of the most successful rehabilitation programmes in India, rhinos were re-introduced in Dudhwa in 1985 after the region was stripped off its last free ranging rhino by a hunting party in 1878. "The rehabilitation case of Dudhwa is one of the most successful in India. There is a need to replicate it. We have everything at place, the electric fencing is complete and the new area is ready," Dudhwa Deputy Director Mahaveer Koujalaji told IANS. Pointing towards a new only-months-old rhino-calf playing with its mother, Koujalaji says that Dudhwa has a great scope for them in near future. However, the second phase of the rhino rehabilitation in Dudhwa has been delayed for over 25 years. The Indian Wildlife Board in 1991 strongly underlined the urgency of creating another viable rhino breeding area here and identified a site for that. The department, however, needs to speed up the process and complete the logistics demanded of the programme to make up for the lost time. For this, it needs to sedate and immobilise targeted rhinos so they could be physically translocated to a new place. Unfortunately, the drug used for sedating and its antidote are banned in India and need to be procured and imported from African states, which have substantial numbers of rhinos and where translocation is often practised. Rhinos as a routine are not tranquilised since they cannot be left in that state for longer than 60 minutes. Sedating is practiced to immobilise them so during handling they do not become aggressive and attack the people around. "The NOC is sought from at least four different ministries, including agriculture and environment ministries, and the Narcotics Department. It would take next two to three months to obtain the drug," Choudhary said. To avoid in-breeding -- which drops the immunity levels of the next generation -- a male free-ranging rhino that came wondering from Nepal and was captured, will be used. Two identified females will also be shifted. "The other option is to use one of the Dudhwa''s male rhinos named Sehdev and Raghu. We also have option to bring females from Assam, West Bengal or Nepal in future if required," Chaudhary said. He added that the rhinos will be go through some tests and their behaviour around the new area will be observed. "We had roped in experts from WWF and Kaziranga National Park. We hope to get results in a year or two," Choudhary said. Referring to another ''lost'' free-ranging rhino from Nepal, which is wondering around the periphery of Lakhimpur-Kheri district, Choudhary said, "We will try tranquilise and run some tests on that rhino as a mock drill. If required rehabilitate it in the new enclosure." A natural habitat for the rhinos with a mixture of dense Sal forests, grasslands and ponds, Dudhwa''s first batch of six rhinos was bought here from Assam in 1984. However, three of the animals died, leaving behind two males and one female. "The Indian government then got four female rhinos from Nepal in exchange of 16 elephants. The first seven rhinos here included two males from Assam, Raju and Banke," Dr V.P. Singh, a Terai region based wildlife expert, told IANS. According to Singh, Raju died in 1988 in a territorial fight with Banke. The ''grand'' father of Dudhwa''s rhinos, Banke recently died at the age of 48 in December 2016. There are around 2,768 rhinos in India, of which 2,505 are in Assam as of 2012, 229 in West Bengal as of 2013 and 34 currently in Dudhwa, Uttar Pradesh. The rhinos of Dudhwa have now entered the third generation. (Kushagra Dixit can be contacted at kushagra.d@ians.in) --IANS kd/vt ( 807 Words) 2016-12-25-15:40:12 (IANS)
Revenues of medical and recovery tourism throughout the world are estimated at nearly $100 billion annually and are expected to double over the next ten years, said the President of Arab Tourism Organization (ATO).



The size of Arab tourists expenditure amounts to nearly $30 billion, Dr Bandar Al Fihaid was quoted as saying in a Bahrain News Agency (BNA) report, which cited the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).



This indicates the importance of this pattern to get it developed in the Arab region and benefit from its impacts on the economy and investment, SPA reported.



He confirmed that said than 60 experts and specialists in the field of medical and recovery tourism representing 20 Arab and world countries are expected to take part in the event.



He said that the Arab world is characterized by the availability of natural fundamentals including mineral-rich hot fountains, seawater, and advanced medical centres equipped with medical and scientific skilled personnel in this field.



Al Fihaid highlighted the Arab countries that put long-run strategies to lay the necessary foundations for state-of-the-art medical and recovery tourism such as : Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and UAE.






The Delhi High court on Friday directed Delhi police to hand over to Yemen national and his wife's passport recovered from the interpreter working for a private hospital and all the documents related to the treatment of his one-year-old child. Justice Yashwant Varma directed the Delhi police to hand over the passport to the petitioner Mahfood Qasem Ali Amer Al Garadi. The court granted liberty to approach the appropriate forum for seeking compensation from the hospital. The Court also granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the competent body for the inquiry in the alleged medical negligence committed during the treatment of the child of the petitioner. The foreign national had approached the High court seeking direction from the hospital to release his and his wife's passport, direction to the government authorities to take legal action against the hospital and the interpreter and constitute a medical board to enquire into the negligence in the treatment of the one-year-old child of the petitioner. The counsel for the Delhi police submitted that the passport has been recovered and would be handed over to the petitioner. An FIR has been registered in this matter and an investigation is in progress. The Delhi police have registered an FIR on the complaint of the official of Yemen Embassy against the interpreter Lubna Ahmed in relevant sections. It is the second time the embassy gave a complaint to the hospital against the interpreter. Earlier also she had cheated another Yemen National. The petition moved through advocates Tariq Siddiqui and Ahmed Shahriiz, sought direction from the hospital to return the passport of the petitioner's wife namely Sumaia Farea Mohammed Manea and infant son namely Aiham Mahfoodh Qasem Ali Al-Garadi to facilitate the petitioner, his wife and the minor son return to his country Yemen. The petition had also sought direction to the Central Government and the Ministry of Health and Family welfare to constitute a medical Board to ascertain the present medical condition of the infant child of the petitioner who has been treated and operated on twice by the respondent hospital and whether the correct line of treatment was provided by the respondent hospital. The petitioner had also sought direction Commissioner of Police, Delhi to investigate the entire scam whereby the petitioner was lured for the treatment of his infant child at the respondent hospital and collect all documents pertaining to the treatment given to the infant child and money transactions between the petitioner and respondent hospital and the interpreter Lubna and submit the same to this Court. The petitioner had alleged that the passport were taken by Nakul Kumar, the manager of the hospital and interpreter Lubna. During the court proceedings, the counsel for the hospital had submitted that the interpreter Lubna is not their employee. The claim was rebutted by the petitioner's counsel that she was engaged and provided by the hospital to the petitioner as he does not know Hindi or English. On July 12, a Yemen national approached the Delhi High Court challenging the action of Max Super Specialty Hospital in the city, allegedly confiscating passports of his family following dispute over the medical bills. A single bench comprising Justice Yashwant Varma had then taken cognisance of the matter and has sought response from the Delhi Police as well as the family's interpreter. It also took note of the "serious complaint" made by the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen, to the hospital, against the alleged action. The family had approached the hospital for treatment of their infant son, suffering from Meningomyelocele (Spina Bifida), a birth defect affecting development of spinal cord. The family received a medical treatment visa of India and accordingly travelled to Delhi for their son's treatment. The petitioner alleges that the respondent hospital, under the pretext of treating his son, charged him exorbitant, without providing for any details of the medical treatment, medical bill and receipts/ invoices for the same. The petitioner further submitted that under the pretext of completing formalities for discharge of his infant son, he was asked to hand over his original passport, along with the passport of his wife and the infant child. However, later, when the petitioner requested the hospital to return the passports, he was asked to make the payment first. Eventually, while his passport was released, the hospital never returned the passports of the wife and the infant son, it is alleged. (ANI)
An Indian Air Force helicopter would be pressed into the action on Saturday even as the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) continued their search to locate the 19 workers, belonging to Assam, who went missing last week near the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh's Kurung Kumey district, officials said. Congress' Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, meanwhile urged Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to deploy the Army to locate the missing workers. Kurung Kumey Deputy Commissioner Bengia Nighee said that responding the requisition of the district administration, the IAF chopper would launch the search operation around the Kumey river at Damin areas. "The SDRF personnel are continuing their search operation while the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) would soon join the search operation to locate the missing workers," the DC told IANS over phone from district headquarters Koloriang. The 19 workers, residents of Assam, had been engaged by a contractor to work for a road construction undertaken by the Border Road Organisation (BRO). "An official team, composed of police and civil officials, went to the area two days ago. The area is an extremely remote and dense forest," Nighee said. He said that the reports regarding the recovery of a dead body of a worker was not yet confirmed by the official team. Earlier, local officials, quoting villagers, said that the body of one of the 19 missing workers was recovered from nearby Kumey river. 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. Gogoi, in a letter on Friday to Rajnath Singh, said: "There is no clarity on when; why and how they went missing. As per the Kurung Kumey district administration, it heard about their plight on July 13. The district administration had conducted search operation but the team couldn't find them since the area is inhospitable, full of deep gorges, steep hills and a river. Now, the families of those missing labourers are waiting for their safe returns to their homes." --IANS sc/vd ( 408 Words) 2022-07-22-23:04:02 (IANS)
Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (Retd) VK Singh inaugurated the direct flight between Jabalpur and Kolkata by SpiceJet on Friday. The airline will be operating daily flights and deploy its Q400,78-seater turbo prop aircraft designed for shorter distance flights on the route. This new flight route is a part of 26 new domestic flights that SpiceJet is launching Friday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed. Speaking on the occasion, Scindia said that there has been a massive expansion in the air services in the country in the last one year, particularly in Madhya Pradesh where there were 554 aircraft movements per week in July 2021 and the figure has now gone up to 980. The inaugural event was also graced by Rakesh Singh, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), Vivek K Tankha, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Ashok Rohani, Member of Legislative Assembly, Jabalpur Cantonment, Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, MoCA and Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet and many other dignitaries virtually. Providing details, he said that Jabalpur is now connected to 10 cities, and aircraft movement has gone upto 182. Similarly, Gwalior was connected to 4 cities in July, 2021 with 56 aircraft movement, and the figure has gone upto 100. Indore with 308 aircraft movement has leaped to 468 and is now connected with 20 cities. The state capital Bhopal, which had airlinks with 5 cities in July 2021, is now connected with 13 cities and has 226 aircraft movements. Khajuraho airport is also connected with Delhi, having 4 flights per week. The Minister said that Jabalpur airport was established in 1930, and was used in the second world war. "Now, the airport is being expanded, with runway length going up from 1988 metre to 2750 metre. Terminal building capacity is being expanded from 200 passengers in peak hours to 250, and its area will go up from 2600 square metres to 10713 square metres 3 aero bridges are being built, and new ATC tower and fire station are being built. He assured that the expansion work, being undertaken at the cost of Rs 412 Crore, will be complete by March next year," the minister said. General (Retd) VK Singh congratulated the people of Jabalpur for getting new connectivity, which will help in boosting the business, trade and tourism in the area. The people of Jabalpur and its adjoining areas will benefit by getting a direct air connectivity which will facilitate seamless movement of passengers and vice-versa. With the new direct flight, common people will get a new option to travel which will boost the tourism potential and increase the economic activity of both regions. Jabalpur has already connected with nine cities i.e. Bengaluru, Delhi, Bilaspur, Hyderabad, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Bhopal. Now it is being connected with 10th city which is Kolkata. (ANI)
Actor-turned-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Kishan on Friday said he was going to introduce a private member's bill on population control in the Lok Sabha. A Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur constituency, Kishan has four children, three daughters and a son, with his wife Priti. "We can be Vishwa Guru only when Population Control Bill is brought. Very important to bring the population under control," Kishan said to ANI. "With the way in which it's rising, we are heading towards explosion. I request the Opposition to let me introduce the bill and listen to why I want to do it," Kishan added. A recent UN report said that India is projected to surpass China as the world's most populous country next year. But the World Population Prospects 2022 also highlighted that India's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) had come down from 5.9 children per woman in 1950 to 2.2 children per woman in 2020, just shy of 2.1 replacement level fertility. Minister of State for Health, Bharati Pravin Pawar, informed the Upper House on Tuesday that the government seeks to stabilise population by 2045 and its efforts have been successful in reining in the growth of population. Bharati Pawar further informed the house that modern contraceptive usage has increased to 56.5 per cent and the unmet need for family planning is only 9.4 per cent, according to NFHS 5. She said that according to the Sample Registration System of the Census, the Crude Birth Rate (CBR) had declined to 19.7 per 1,000 people in 2019. The Monsoon Session of Parliament commenced on July 18 and will continue till August 12. There will be 18 sittings during the Session. (ANI)
Tamil Nadu Police personnel have been deployed outside Kallakurichi Government Medical College and Hospital where the body of the deceased Class 12th girl will be given to her parents, on Saturday. The death of the girl led to violence and vandalism at a school in Kallakurichi on July 17. The Madras High Court on Friday, ordered the family of the Class 12 student who died in Kallakurichi, to accept her body which is currently in police custody, and asked the parents not to draw the case out further. The Court was hearing a plea by the Tamil Nadu government, seeking direction to the parents to collect the student's mortal remains and conduct the last rites. The High Court Bench ordered the parents to collect the body no later than 11 am on Saturday, July 23, failing which police action would be taken. The parents have agreed to collect the body between 6 am and 7 am on Saturday. Following the violence that erupted in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi after the death of a Class 12 student, who purportedly jumped to her death from the terrace of her hostel at a private school, the district Superintendent of Police, S Selvakumar was on July 19 transferred with immediate effect. Triplicane Deputy Commissioner of Police Pakalavan has been appointed as Kallakurichi Superintendent of Police. 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 had moved to the Supreme Court, seeking an amendment of the Madras High Court order on the second autopsy. The Class XII student who purportedly jumped from the terrace of her hostel at a private school in Tamil Nadu's Kallakuruchi sparked violent protests in the district, prompting the Salem police to deploy heavy security around the school and other areas. Section 144 had to be imposed in several areas. A Class 12 student in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi died by suicide after alleged torture by teachers. Violence broke out in parts of Tamil Nadu after the Class 12 student jumped off her hostel building on July 13. She was allegedly tortured by a teacher, as stated in the girl's suicide note.Meanwhile, a notice has been issued to all private nursery, matriculation and CBSE schools that remained closed on Monday following violent protests over the death of the schoolgirl. Relatives of the girl and people belonging to her village in the Cuddalore district have been protesting outside the school. On Sunday, protesters clashed with the police and set several buses on fire. Her family alleges that two teachers had mentally harassed and humiliated her. Chief minister MK Stalin, addressed the media on the incident and called the violence 'worrying' and urged the protesters to maintain peace. Promising justice for the Class 12th student, Stalin said, "I have asked the DGP and the home secretary to travel to Kallakurichi. Accused will be punished when the police probe over the school girl's death ends." (ANI)
The incident took place in the Reengus area of Sikar after a cow reportedly came in front of the car following which breaks were applied immediately.

Speaking to ANI, local police officials present on the spot said, "The police vehicle escorting PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra overturned in the Reengus area. Prima facie, it appears that the police vehicle has overturned as a cow reportedly came in front of the car following which breaks were applied immediately."

"As many as four police personnel were injured in the said incident, The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital in the area. The treatment of all four personnel is going on. We are looking into the matter," the police said.

The police are investigating the matter. More details are awaited. (ANI)
On Friday, the NIA Special Court, Patna, Bihar pronounced a sentence against an accused Mohammad Ali Akhtar Ansari for his involvement in the proliferation of FICN in India after convicting him on July 18, 2022.

The case involved the seizure of a parcel containing High-Quality FICN having face value of around Rs 25 lakhs, the investigative agency in a press release said.

The accused had come to Raxaul town of Bihar, to take delivery of the said FICN consignment on 30th September 2015 and was subsequently arrested.

The investigation had established that the seized FICN had been smuggled from a foreign country into India and the consignment was to be delivered to the accused, Abi Mohammad of Nepal.

It also came to light that Syed Muhammad Shaffi, a Pakistani national, but now residing in UAE, had couriered the parcel from UAE through ICS (International Courier Service). After thorough investigations by the NIA, a chargesheet was filed in September 2016 against the arrested accused, Mohammad Ali Akhtar Ansari.

Mohammad Ali Akhtar Ansari has been awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment with Rs 50,000 as a fine under section 16 of the UA(P) Act, 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 25,000 under section 489B of the IPC and seven years of rigorous imprisonment under section 489C of the IPC by the NIA Special Court Patna, Bihar.

Earlier on July 18, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said in a statement that Mohd Ali Akhtar Ansari was sentenced under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the quantum of punishment will be declared by the court on July 22. (ANI)
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday urged all citizens to strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga movement, ahead of Independence Day celebrations to be held across the country on August 15. "On 22nd July our National Flag was adopted. It is the symbol of struggles and sacrifices of our forefathers and hopes and aspirations of a New India. Let us reaffirm our commitment for upholding honour and dignity of Tiranga with the same vigour and dedication," tweeted the office of Sinha yesterday. The tweet further read, "I appeal to all citizens to strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga movement. Let's take a pledge to hoist the Tiranga or display in homes between 13th-15th August." Ahead of the 75th Independence day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday appealed to people to strengthen the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' movement by hoisting or displaying the national flag in their homes between August 13-15. The 'Tiranga campaign' aims at hoisting national flags in about 20 crore houses across India. In a series of tweets, PM Modi said this movement will deepen our connection with the Tricolour and noted that it was on July 22 in 1947 that the Tricolour was adopted. "Today, we recall the monumental courage and efforts of all those who dreamt of a flag for free India when we were fighting colonial rule. We reiterate our commitment to fulfil their vision and build India of their dreams," he said. He said, "This year, when we are marking 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', let us strengthen the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' movement. Hoist the Tricolour or display it in your homes between 13th and 15th August. This movement will deepen our connect with the national flag." PM Modi also posted details of official communications leading to the adoption of the Tricolour as the national flag. He also posted a picture of the first Tricolour unfurled by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The Government has envisioned the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' exercise in the run up to the 75th anniversary of India's independence. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also appealed to people to join the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' movement. "With this campaign, the Tricolour will be hoisted on about 20 crore houses across the country, which will work to further brighten the unbroken flame of patriotism in the minds of every citizen, especially the youth," he said. "I appeal to everyone to join this campaign," he said 'Har Ghar Tiranga' is a campaign under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to encourage people to bring the Tiranga home and to hoist it to mark the 75th year of India's independence. Our relationship with the flag has always been more formal and institutional than personal. Bringing the flag home collectively as a nation in the 75th year of independence thus becomes symbolic of not only an act of personal connection to the Tiranga but also an embodiment of our commitment to nation-building. The idea behind the initiative is to invoke the feeling of patriotism in the hearts of the people and to promote awareness about the Indian National Flag. (ANI)
As many as five people died while one person was seriously injured after a speeding truck ran over Kanwar devotees returning to Gwalior from Haridwar in the early hours of Saturday in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district, police said. The incident took place near Sadabad Police Station in Hathras. Rajeev Krishna, Additional Director General of Police in Agra Zone said, "5 persons died, 1 has been seriously injured after seven Kanwar devotees were mowed down by a truck around 2.15 am today, at Sadabad Police Station in Hathras. One other person has been moderately injured. They were en route to Gwalior from Haridwar with their Kanwars." The police assured the people that the matter is under investigation and the guilty will not be spared. Further investigation is underway. Meanwhile, the educational institutions in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, including all the schools will be shut down on July 2022 and July 26, 2022, on account of the Kanwar Yatra that commenced on taking place in Sawan (Shrawan). The officials have said that on both days, that is July 25 and 26, the educational institutions will not be open as pilgrims will be out on the streets to go to the temple to offer prayers and to avoid traffic jams schools are to be closed. Even schools in Haridwar and Meerut have also been closed due to the Kanwar Yatra. Schools in Haridwar will remain closed till July 26, 2022 and schools in Meerut will be closed till July 27, 2022. The schools have been shut so that students don't face any difficulty travelling and it might create traffic disruptions. Kanwar Yatra, is a yatra which is conducted annually in which Kanwariyas or pilgrims visit holy places like Hardiwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to fetch the holy water of the Ganges, which they then use in the worship of Lord Shiva. The Yatra has resumed this year after two years due to restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (ANI)
"Sadhu Vijay Das died at around 2.30 am in the hospital where he was undergoing treatment after his self-immolation attempt. The post-mortem has been scheduled for 9 am," informed Sub Divisional Officer, Sanjay Goyal.

Earlier on July 21, his condition was said to be stable.

The incident was reported in Deeg on July 20 when Sadhu Vijay Das attempted self-immolation amid protests over illegal mining in the area.

The city officials had rushed to the spot to put out the fire and rescue Das.

The locals and sadhus had been demanding a ban on the mines for a long time.

The administration also assured the sadhus that mines will be shifted from the area and informed them about the state government's plans to transform the vicinity into a religious tourist spot.

"These mines will be shifted and about 2,500 people who will be unemployed as a result, will be employed somewhere else...The state govt intends to make it (stone mining area) into a religious tourism spot," Ranjan added.

On Tuesday a sadhu climbed atop a mobile tower in the district's Deeg on Tuesday morning to protest stone mining in the area.The man was persuaded to come down eventually. (ANI)


The arrested youth Marghoob Ahmad Danish, as per his family, is undergoing treatment at the psychiatric department of the Patna wing of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for mental illness.

Sami Ahmad | TwoCircles.net

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PATNA (BIHAR)  Parents of the 24-year-old youth from Bihar who was arrested by police last week on allegations of being part of a terror module have contested the police claims saying their son is mentally ill and cannot be part of any terror activities.

Marghoob Ahmad Danish, per his family, is undergoing treatment at the psychiatric department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Patna.

AIIMS IQ statement report, a copy of which is with TwoCircles.net, notes that the patient is definitely below average in intellectual capacity.

Recounting the circumstances of his arrest, Marghoobs father Sauffudin Ahmad, told TwoCircles.net that on the morning of July 14, he was attending a Quran Khawani ceremony in his neighbourhood. Marghoob was with me. As he is mentally unwell, he was sitting outside the room, Ahmad told TwoCircles.net.

Ahmad said that when he heard his son was arrested, he rushed outside. I ran after them as they were taking him to my house. At our house, they said that Marghoob was wanted in connection with anti-national activities. They searched the house but found nothing, he said.

The family lives in Munir Colony at Phulwari Sharif, Patna. Saufuddin runs a milk booth and his wife Nusrat Parween does sewing work.

We heard about Marghoob from what is reported in the media. We are worried about his health and wellbeing as he needs an attendant even to go to the bathroom, Marghoobs mother Parween said.

What are the charges against Marghoob?

An F.I.R. under sections 121, 121 (A), 120 (B), 505 (1) (b), 153 (A) of IPC and 66 of IT act is registered at Phulwari Sharif police station against him. TheF.I.R. says that he was picked from near Qurban Masjid where he had gone to meet his colleagues. This claim is contested by Marghoobs father who said they had gone to attend a Quran Khwani ceremony there.

Marghoob is accused of posting, liking and sharing content on social media that were anti-national, provocative, radical and hateful. The FIR says that he was preparing a sleeper cell for waging Jihad against the country. It also mentions one Whatsapp group Ghazwa-e-Hind created by a Pakistani named Zain and he made Marghoob the admin later. One of the comments mentioned in the F.I.R. purportedly made by Marghoob reads Koi fayda nahin aimim ko support karne ki, Ab direct Jihand karenge 2023 me Khilafat ka elan Indian Muslim karenge (There is no gain in supporting AIMIM. We should do Jihad and in 2023 Indian Muslims will announce caliphate).

Following his arrest, police had told reporters that Marghoob had stayed in Dubai from 2006 to 2016 and during this time came in touch with terror groups. He is among the five people arrested so far in Patna polices crackdown on the alleged terror module. The first arrests took place on July 11, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Patna.

Marghoobs father who has worked in Dubai as a storekeeper rubbished this claim. Marghoob was born in 1998. So, how can an eight-year-old boy go to Dubai to work?

Media reports have quoted police officials as saying that it was a slip of tongue on part of the police.

It was a slip of the tongue that led us to say that Marghoob had worked in a foreign country. His father had worked there, Phulwari Sharif police station SHO Ekrar Ahmad told The Telegraph.

SHO Ahmad is further quoted in the report saying that police are investigating whether he is mentally ill or not.

Both Saufuddin and the local police said that Marghoob had no prior criminal history. He was a phone addict and used to watch it for hours till morning but we never overheard anything running from his video that contained anything anti-India, Saufuddin said.



Sami Ahmad is a journalist based in Patna, Bihar. He tweets at @samipkb
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested former West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board recruitment scam. The arrest comes following the raids by the central probe agency where it seized Rs 20 crore in cash from the premises of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state. The arrests were made at Chatterjee's residence in Kolkata. The ED team was at the spot since yesterday. Earlier on Friday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided the residences of Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari and several others and recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee, who is a close associate of Partha Chatterjee. The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of said SSC scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines. A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which is being ascertained, said the probe agency. Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam. It is noteworthy to note that the High Court of Calcutta in a slew of writ petitions had recently directed the CBI to carry out investigations into the recruitment scam of Group 'C' & 'D' staff, Assistant Teachers of classes IX-XII and primary teachers. In these cases, involving the illegal appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C & D), teaching staff [Assistant teachers (Class IX-XII) and teachers in Primary school, ED is investigating cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)]. Further details are awaited. (ANI)
The NIA registered the case last night under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act following the July 22 order issued by the Counter Terrorism and Counter Radicalisation division of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directing the agency to take over the investigation from Bihar Police, an official said.

The PFI "terror module" case was recently unearthed by Bihar Police with the arrest of three people for their alleged links with the group and their plans to indulge in "anti-India" activities.

The NIA on Wednesday carried out searches in Jamia Maria Niswa Madrasa located in Bihar's Purvi Champaran district and arrested a teacher identified as Asghar Ali.

Mohammad Jalaluddin, a retired Jharkhand Police officer, and Athar Parvez were arrested on July 13 from the Phulwari Sharif area of Bihar's capital Patna while Nuruddin Jangi was arrested three days later from Lucknow by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad on the request of Bihar Police.

Bihar Police have so far arrested five persons in the Phulwari Sharif case, which has named 26 people.

In the raids carried out by the Bihar Police in Phulwari Sharif, many objectionable documents were recovered. One such document was titled 'Vision 2047 India' had documented ways to launch an armed attack on the Indian State by Indian Muslims aided by Islamic nations like Turkey. Various pamphlets of PFI were also recovered by the police.

These terrorists were being trained in Phulwari Sharif 15 days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Patna. They held meetings on July 6-7 and used communally inciting speeches.

Earlier, similar arrests were made in Telangana's Nizamabad where PFI had organised a similar radicalization camp to recruit and train Muslims in arms.

The case has drawn wide attention in Bihar.

The Enforcement Directorate has also launched a money laundering probe against PFI in the case. (ANI)
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on Saturday paid tributes to freedom fighters, Lokmanya Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad on their birth anniversary. He also shared an excerpt of Mann Ki Baat in which he had spoken about Lokmanya Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad a few years ago. In a series of tweets, the Prime Minister said, "I bow to two greats sons of Maa Bharti, Lokmanya Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad on their birth anniversary. These two stalwarts epitomise courage and patriotism. Sharing what I had spoken about them during #MannKiBaat a few years ago." In the video shared by PM Modi, he can be heard saying that many great persons have dedicated their lives to the nation....one such personality was Lokmanya Tilak who left indelible marks in the hearts of Indians. He also shared snapshots of his Mumbai visits, where he visited the Lokmanya Seva Sangh, which has a close association with Lokmanya Tilak. "One of the everlasting legacies of Lokmanya Tilak is the large-scale Ganesh Utsav, which ignited a spirit of cultural consciousness among the people. During one of my Mumbai visits, I visited the Lokmanya Seva Sangh, which has a close association with Lokmanya Tilak." Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born on in 1856 and Chandra Shekhar Azad in 1906. Tilak is well known for promoting Swaraj, meaning self-rule across the nation during the British regime. He also fearlessly took over the Britishers with his pen and started two weeklies 'Kesari' and 'Mahratta'. Chandrashekhar Azad was inspired to fight for the country from a very young age and was just 15 when he participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement. He's famous for his slogan " "We will face the bullets of enemies. We were free and we will remain free." (ANI)
Following the demise of the seer who self-immolated to mark the protest over illegal stone mining in Rajasthan, Congress MLA Bharat Singh Kundanpur has urged Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot "to sack the state's Mining Minister Pramod Bhaya if the mining mafia in the state is to be brought under control". " There is a saying of Hadoli, "Kankh mein Chhora village mein dhindora".The big mining mafia is the mineral minister himself.A record of illegal mining has been created by him. In 12 other districts, the minister's been appointing officials so as to carry out illegal activities of forests, lands, rivers and drains. Many people have lost their lives due to the minister's operation," Bharat Singh wrote in his letter addressed to the Chief Minister of his own party. Another Congress MLA Wajib Ali also expressed his concern over the Bharatpur incident and said, " The state should have taken a note on the situation earlier. The sadhu had warned already and then attempted self-immolation." Wajib Ali said that self-immolation by the Sadhu shows "negligence on part of the administration, especially when he had already been given a warning. He should have been pacified, spoken to , but I agree that whatever happened was really wrong." The seers had been protesting over stone mining "Sadhu Vijay Das passed away as he'd been sitting on dharna for over 500 days but there was no hearing on issue of illegal mining. In Congress rule, the administration became silent. CM is supporting mining mafia to save his seat," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bharatpur, Ranjeeta Kohli said. The sadhu, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital, said the officials on Saturday. "Sadhu Vijay Das died at around 2.30 am in the hospital where he was undergoing treatment after his self-immolation attempt. The post-mortem has been scheduled for 9 am," informed Sub Divisional Officer, Sanjay Goyal. Earlier on July 21, his condition was said to be stable.The incident was reported in Deeg on July 20 when Sadhu Vijay Das attempted self-immolation amid protests over illegal mining in the area. The city officials had rushed to the spot to put out the fire and rescue Das. The locals and sadhus had been demanding a ban on the mines for a long time. The administration also assured the sadhus that mines will be shifted from the area and informed them about the state government's plans to transform the vicinity into a religious tourist spot. "These mines will be shifted and about 2,500 people who will be unemployed as a result, will be employed somewhere else...The state govt intends to make it (stone mining area) into a religious tourism spot," Ranjan added. On Tuesday a sadhu climbed atop a mobile tower in the district's Deeg on Tuesday morning to protest stone mining in the area.The man was persuaded to come down eventually. (ANI)
Election Commission of India on Saturday asked new rivals in Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde (two camps of a party), who approached the poll body to stake claim over Bal Thackeray-founded outfit, to submit documentary evidence to prove that they have the majority members in the Shiv Sena. The ECI also sent to the Thackeray camp the letter written to them (EC) by the Shinde faction and Thackeray camp's letter to the Shinde faction and sought replies from both the camps by August 8. The poll body would hear the claims made by both the factions after receiving the reply from both ends. Notably, Shinde led a revolt against Thackeray last month leading to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state. The fight to stake claim over Shiv Sena reached the ECI after both sides wrote to the Commission. The Shinde faction, which gained power with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has 40 out of the 55 Shiv Sena MLAs. It has requested the ECI to recognise the faction as the 'real' Shiv Sena while also urging the poll body for allocation of the bow-and-arrow poll symbol to the faction. What came as another jolt to the Uddhav faction in the Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday accepted the demand of the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena to change the party leader in the House. Now the leader of Shiv Sena in the house will be Rahul Shewale. Earlier today, 12 Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena met the Lok Sabha Speaker and requested him to change the leader of the party in the lower house of Parliament. Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shawale said that a letter to change the party leader in the lower house of the parliament has been sent to the Lok Sabha speaker as he will be giving recognition to the party, once legal actions are taken. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday posted for hearing on August 1 the petitions filed by both factions of the Shiv Sena relating to the control of the Shiv Sena party and the recent political crisis in Maharashtra, which brought down the Maha Vikas 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 granted time to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led camp to file an affidavit on the pleas filed by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray-led faction. Senior advocate Harish Salve for the Shinde camp sought time to file a reply on pleas filed by the Thackeray camp and asked the court to post the hearing next week. Hinting at the formation of a larger bench in the future, CJI Ramana said, "Some of the issues, I strongly feel, may require a larger bench. A larger bench can hear the case." Supreme Court said that the issues in petitions may require reference to a five-judge bench.The bench further said that the Speaker will maintain the status quo and not decide on any disqualification applications. (ANI)
Four have been arrested after an alleged case of gang rape was reported from the New Delhi Railway Station on the night of Thursday, said Delhi Police. A 30-year-old woman was raped in the electrical maintenance staff hut at Railway Station platforms 8 and 9. The accused are Railway Employees in Electrical Department. "The victim, aged 30, was raped in the electrical maintenance staff hut at Railway Station platform 8-9 Thursday night. All 4 accused are Railway Employees in Electrical Department and have been arrested," said DCP Railway Harendra Singh. Further investigation is underway. On July 16, the Delhi Commission for Women on Saturday issued notice to Delhi Police in a matter of alleged rape and attempt to murder of a 15-year-old girl. The father of the girl informed the Commission that he is a daily wage labourer and lives in Delhi along with his family. He informed that his 15-year-old daughter used to work in a shoe factory. The complainant alleged that one day the contractor of the shoe factory took his daughter to his house on the pretext of his wife's illness and raped the girl. He also alleged that on Jul 5, 2022, the accused forcibly made his daughter drink acid. DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal took cognizance of the matter and has issued notice to Delhi Police. The Commission has sought the details of the FIR registered and the accused arrested in the matter. Earlier this month, a man has been apprehended by Delhi Police for allegedly raping a 4-year-old girl in North East Delhi. According to the police, the accused misbehaved with the girl after seeing her alone. On inquiry, the mother of the victim said that a man had sexually assaulted her daughter. "Both families are residing in the same building and are engaged in labour works. Counselling of the victim girl has been done. And, following due procedure, a case has been registered under Sections 376 and 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and POCSO Act and the accused person (aged 20-21 years) has been apprehended," said police. (ANI)
The riders laid a wreath at the Chinar War Memorial to pay their respects to those bravehearts who made the supreme sacrifice in the highest tradition of Indian Army, the Army said. The motorcyclists also visited the Chinar Museum here.

The motorcycle rally was flagged off by Lt Gen BS Raju, Vice Chief of Army Staff on July 18, the National War Memorial in New Delhi to commemorate the saga of bravery and sacrifice of the gallant soldiers of Indian Army in the Kargil War.

This rally moved from the national capital and travelled along two axis; Delhi - Srinagar - Zojila - Kargil - Dras, and Delhi - Chandigarh - Rohtang - Leh - Dras.

The first group reached Udhampur on July 20, via Ambala and Pathankot and arrived in Srinagar on July 22. It will reach Kargil War Memorial on July 26, officials said.

Lt Gen ADS Aujla, GOC Chinar Corps conveyed his best wishes to the rally for their remaining journey. The GOC in his message to the youth of Kashmir Valley urged them to draw inspiration from the sacrifice of the brave soldiers and scale new heights through self-belief and passion. (ANI)
The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Dhayanidhi Alagiri's plea challenging a Madras High Court judgement refusing to quash summons issued against him in a money laundering case. A bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose issued notice to ED on Dhayanidhi Alagiri's plea. Dhayanidhi Alagiri, who is former Union Minister MK Alagiri's son. has challenged The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court order dated December 2 2021. The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has refused to quash summons issued to Dhayanidhi Alagiri, in a money laundering case. The Madras HC had said that the summons issued to the petitioner Alagiri cannot be treated as premature or illegal, since the petitioner is liable to face the trial both in his individual capacity as well as a person-in-charge and responsible for the conduct of the business of the Company, which has alleged to have contravened the provisions of the PMLA. Madars HC had held Alagiri's petition devoid of merits and liable to be dismissed and directed the trial court to proceed with the complaint. Dhayanidhi Alagiri has moved Madras HC against a trial court order which has issued summons against him under Section 45 read with Sections 70 and 8(5) of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002. Earlier, the ED had provisionally attached properties of M/S Olympus Granite Private Limited and its stakeholder Alagiri Dayanidhi. It attached the properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA) after conducting investigations on the basis of an FIR and charge sheet filed by Tamil Nadu Police against the said company for "criminally conspiring and indulging in illegal granite mining activities leading to losses to the government and wrongful gain to themselves. The charge sheet mentioned various offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Explosive Substances Act, 1908 amongst others committed by the accused in the illegal granite mining and trade carried out by the Company which made the act a Scheduled offence. (ANI)
Chief Justice of India NV Ramana while addressing Justice S.B. Sinha Memorial Inaugural Lecture in Jharkhand's capital Ranchi on Saturday said he was keen on joining active politics. "I was keen on joining active politics, but destiny desired otherwise. The decision to give up something for which I had worked so hard, was not easy at all," said CJI Ramana. He asserted that the non-filling up of judicial vacancies and not improving the judicial infrastructure was the main reason for the pendency of cases in the country. He also lamented over the false narratives about the lives of judges. "On multiple occasions, I have highlighted the issues leading to the tendencies. I have been strongly advocating the need to revamp the infrastructure - both physical and personal to enable the judges to function to their full potential." In his address, the CJI raised concerns over judges' security post-retirement. "These days, we are witnessing an increasing number of physical attacks on judges...Judges have to live in the same society as the people that they have convicted, without any security or assurance of safety." He also highlighted how professionals from other occupations had security deployed owing to the sensitivity of their jobs. "Politicians, bureaucrats, police officers and other public representatives are often provided with security even after their retirement owing to the sensitiveness of their jobs. Ironically, judges are not extended similar protection." The CJI came down heavily on the media and said it is taking democracy two steps backwards. "Of late, we see media running kangaroo courts, at times on issues even experienced judges find difficult to decide. Ill-informed and agenda-driven debates on issues involving justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy." "By overstepping and breaching your responsibilities, you are taking our democracy two steps backwards. Print media still has a certain degree of accountability, whereas electronic media has zero accountability," he added. The lecture was organised by the Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority (JHALSA), Ranchi Judicial Academy Jharkhand, and the National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi. (ANI)
The vehicular movement on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH 44) was stopped after the heavy rainfall lashed the Udhampur area of the Union Territory on Saturday. Earlier, hundreds of trucks remained stranded in the Udhampur district due to the landslides caused because of heavy rainfall in the Ramban sector. Recent incidents of heavy rainfall in the Union Territory, in July, have caused great damage to lives and property. The India Meteorological Department in Srinagar issued warnings for heavy rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir. The weather forecasting department has predicted fairly widespread light to moderate rain and thunderstorm over the Jammu and Kashmir divisions and has also warned of scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rains and thunderstorms for the subsequent two days. It said that Jammu needs to be prepared as isolated heavy rains, thunderstorms, and lightning in the area can disrupt the traffic, cause landslides, and might result in flash floods, while it also cautioned Kashmir to be aware of the deteriorating weather conditions until the further update. Overnight heavy rain near the Kahara village of Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Tuesday resulted in floods that damaged the area and destroyed properties including an educational body and the building and grounds of Tourism. On July 14, heavy rains and flash floods damaged a foot-over bridge in the hilly areas of Rajouri causing much inconvenience to the people, due to which they were forced to cross the rivulet in waist-deep water for commuting. The heavy rains in Rajouri had also damaged the crops of the local farmers. A cloudburst that struck the holy cave area of Amarnath on July 8, resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah' adjoining the holy cave and claimed 16 lives. In the tragic incident, at least 36 people were also reported missing. Amarnath Yatra was partially suspended after the said cloudburst incident and was later resumed from the Nunwan Pahalgam side on July 11. Another cloudburst triggered by the heavy rains blocked the Srinagar-Leh highway on July 5, after flash floods occurred in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir. Flash floods also occurred in the Shah Mohallah Kullan area of Kangan in the Ganderbal district on July 3, thus inundating several houses and causing damage. (ANI)
Ill-informed and agenda-driven kangaroo courts on television debates and social media on issues involving justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said on Saturday. "Of late, we see media running kangaroo courts, at times on issues even experienced judges find difficult to decide. Ill-informed and agenda-driven debates on issues involving justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy," said the CJI while delivering the Justice SB Sinha Memorial Inaugural Lecture in Ranchi. On the issue of the rising number of media trials, CJI Ramana said, "It cannot be a guiding factor in deciding cases". He said, "New media tools have enormous amplifying ability but appear to be incapable of distinguishing between the right and the wrong, the good and the bad and the real and the fake." Chief Justice Ramana also cautioned that the judges may not react immediately and this should not be mistaken for weakness or helplessness. "Biased views being propagated by media are affecting the people, weakening democracy, and harming the system. In this process, justice delivery gets adversely affected," the CJI added. "By overstepping and breaching your responsibility, you are taking our democracy two steps backwards. Print media still has a certain degree of accountability. Whereas, electronic media has zero accountability as what it shows vanishes into thin air . Still, worse is social media," he said. The CJI also highlighted that these days, there is an increasing number of physical attacks on judges. "Can you imagine, a judge who has served on the bench for decades, putting hardened criminals behind the bar, once he retires, loses all the protection that came with the tenure? Judges have to live in the same society as the people that they have convicted, without any security or assurance of safety," the CJI pointed out. The CJI also commented on the long-standing matter of contention of the judicial review of legislative and executive actions. "One gets to hear that judges, being unelected, should not get into legislative and executive arenas. But this ignores the Constitutional responsibilities that is placed on the judiciary. Judicial review of legislative and executive actions is an integral part of the Constitutional scheme. I would go as far as to state that it is the heart and soul of the Indian Constitution. In my humble view, in the absence of judicial review, people's faith in our Constitution would have diminished," he said. "Only a flourishing and vibrant democracy can lead our country on the path of peace, progress and global leadership. And a strong judiciary is the ultimate guarantee for the rule of law and democracy," CJI Ramana said. The Chief Justice also stressed that it becomes a challenge to accept the false narrative surrounding the supposed easy life of a judge. "There exists a misconception in the minds of the people that Judges stay in ultimate comfort, work only from 10 am to 4 pm and enjoy their holidays. Such a narrative is untrue. When false narratives are created about the supposed easy life led by Judges, it is difficult to swallow," Justice Ramana further stated. Justice NV Ramana also congratulated the judiciary of Jharkhand for marking the golden jubilee of setting up of the Circuit Bench of Patna and extended wishes to the children who received scholarship under Project Shishu. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party's Bharatpur MP Ranjeeta Koli on Saturday demanded Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death of a seer, who set himself ablaze against illegal mining in Rajasthan and hit out at Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over inaction of the government for not looking into protests for over 500 days. "I request CBI enquiry into it. Why did they delay looking into protests for over 500 days? Seers had been fighting for people, not for some personal gain". Her remarks came after the seer, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital. His body is being transported to Barsana in Uttar Pradesh for last rights. "Sadhu Vijay Das (who set himself ablaze on July 21) was shifted from Rajasthan to Delhi for better treatment, but he succumbed late last night. Post-mortem to be conducted. Body will be taken to Barsana," said SDOBharatpur, Sanjay Goyal. BJP State president Satish Punia also held the state accountable over the death of the sadhu and highlighted the "chief minister's carelessness". "It is the Rajasthan govt which is responsible for the death of Sadhu. They had been protesting for over 500 days but they did not care. The govt is under the rule of the mining mafia. Why are the state, the Chief Minister and the Home Minister so careless," said Punia. The seer, who attempted self-immolation at Deeg in Bharatpur to protest against illegal mining, was declared dead in a Delhi Hospital, said the officials on Saturday. "Sadhu Vijay Das died at around 2.30 am in the hospital where he was undergoing treatment after his self-immolation attempt. The post-mortem has been scheduled for 9 am," informed Sub Divisional Officer, Sanjay Goyal. Earlier on July 21, his condition was said to be stable. The incident was reported in Deeg on July 20 when Sadhu Vijay Das attempted self-immolation amid protests over illegal mining in the area. The city officials had rushed to the spot to put out the fire and rescue Das. The locals and sadhus had been demanding a ban on the mines for a long time. The administration also assured the sadhus that mines will be shifted from the area and informed them about the state government's plans to transform the vicinity into a religious tourist spot. "These mines will be shifted and about 2,500 people who will be unemployed as a result, will be employed somewhere else...The state govt intends to make it (stone mining area) into a religious tourism spot," Ranjan added. On Tuesday a sadhu climbed atop a mobile tower in the district's Deeg on Tuesday morning to protest stone mining in the area.The man was persuaded to come down eventually. (ANI)
As many as seven people died due to the swine flu infection in Maharashtra till July this year. According to a recent report from Maharashtra's Public Health Department, some parts of the state have observed a significant rise in the cases of Swine Flu, which claimed two lives in Pune, three in Kolhapur, and two in the Thane Corporation of Maharashtra. A total of 142 cases of Swine Flu have been reported from various parts of the state since the beginning of the year. So far, the state has recorded 43 cases of Influenza A H1N1 in Mumbai alone, with no reported deaths. Pune, Palghar and Nashik have recorded 23, 22 and 17 cases of the infection respectively. As per the health bulletin, 14 cases of infection have been reported each from Nagpur Corporation and Kolhapur district while seven people in Thane Corporation caught the infection and two others in Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) during the period of January 1 to July 22. According to Health experts, flu does not have very serious consequences but those who have comorbid conditions need to be careful. Meanwhile, two patients were tested positive for Omicron sub-variant BA.5 in Maharashtra, the state health department informed in its media bulletin on Friday. The samples of both the patients were sent to NIV, Pune. Both of them were found COVID-19 positive at the routine screening of Pune airport (Period July 3-9) while they were returning from Dubai. As per the report, they were asymptomatic and recovered fully at home isolation.These additions have taken the overall tally of BA.4 and BA.5 cases in Maharashtra to 160. The state has also reported 2,515 Covid-19 cases and six more deaths linked to the infection, taking the tally to 80,29,910 and the toll to 1,48,051. The recovery count increased to 2,449 in the last 24 hours on Friday. The state also reported 14, 579 active cases of infection due to the Coronavirus infection. BA.4 and BA.5 are subvariants of the Omicron variant circulating globally. These were reported first from South Africa earlier this year and are now reported from several other countries. These variants have not been associated with disease severity or increased hospitalization. The first case of BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 were found in Tamil Nadu and Telangana respectively, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) confirmed. (ANI)
Former Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje Scindia on Saturday, slammed the current CM Ashok Gehlot for running an "anarchy" in the state. Scindia while paying tribute to the late seer Vijay Das, who died by self-immolation in a protest against illegal mining in Rajasthan, blamed Gehlot's government for the saint's death. Scindia went on to point out the inefficiency of the state government and said, "In a state where the selfless society of saints has to agitate, if they have to sacrifice themselves to get the demands made in the public interest, then there can be no greater anarchy in that state." She further pointed out the inefficiency of the state government and said, "if the state government had not taken 551 days to listen to the voices of the saints and had taken action in time, then today a saint would not have died. Illegal mining was banned in the Braj area on 27 January 2005 on demand, but illegal mining started again in the Braj area associated with faith in the state Congress government." "When the Chief Minister himself got helpless and accepted that illegal mining is not stopping in the state, then it makes clear that if anyone is responsible for the death of the saint, then it is the state government." Scindia also said that she is very hurt by the passing away of seer Vijay Baba and prayed for his departed soul. She also requested the Centre to conduct a high-level enquiry into the matter. Following the demise of the seer, Congress MLA Bharat Singh Kundanpur has urged CM Gehlot "to sack the state's Mining Minister Pramod Bhaya if the mining mafia in the state is to be brought under control". Another Congress MLA Wajib Ali also expressed his concern over the Bharatpur incident and said, "The state should have taken a note of the situation earlier. The sadhu had warned already and then attempted self-immolation." (ANI)
Union Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday dismissed the allegations that her 18-year-old daughter was running an 'illegal bar' in Goa. She reiterated that her daughter is a college student and does not run any bar. The minister added that she will take the matter to the court and the people. Hitting back at the Congress, she said that her daughter's only fault is that her mother keeps on holding press conferences 'on the loot of Rs 5,000 crore' by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. "My daughter's fault is that her mother holds press conferences on the loot of Rs 5,000 crore by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Her fault is that her mother contested against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in 2014 and 2019," Irani said. Addressing a press conference, she said that she will defeat Rahul Gandhi again in 2024 from Amethi. She challenged Sonia Gandhi to field Rahul again in 2024 from Amethi. Posing a question to Pawan Khera, Smriti Irani said that while showing the paper, he alleged that her daughter runs an illegal bar and for this she was also given a show cause notice, but Khera should say where is the name of her daughter in these papers. "Jairam Ramesh has accused my daughter on the basis of RTI but he should tell whether my daughter's name is there in that RTI application? Is her name in that RTI reply," Irani questioned. --IANS stp/uk/bg ( 251 Words) 2022-07-23-19:44:03 (IANS)
The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested two absconding members of an interstate gang of Mewat-based extortionists, an official said on Saturday. The accused, identified as Arshad Khan, 30, and Mushtaq Khan, 39, had been absconding for the past nine months in a case of extortion in Delhi and were also carrying a reward of Rs 20,000 each on their arrest. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Jasmeet Singh said there was credible information about the illegal activities by the members of this Mewat-based gang in south Delhi following which a team was deputed to mount surveillance on their movements. "We received specific information on July 21 about the coming of Arshad Khan, one of the members of the syndicate in Flower Market Chattarpur between 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. to meet one of his contacts," DCP Singh said. Subsequently, a trap was laid and the accused Arshad Khan was apprehended on the same day. During interrogation, Arshad Khan disclosed that Mushtaq Khan, his associate, was hiding in an abandoned house in their village. "A team was then immediately sent to his village in Dausa district (Rajasthan) and Mushtaq Khan was arrested from a house on the intervening night of July 22-23," the DCP said. Both the accused disclosed that they were members of an interstate syndicate consisting of Mewat-based associates which is led by Saddam Hussain. "They further disclosed that they along with 4-5 of his other associates had demanded an extortion from one advocate in Delhi after luring and trapping him in their dragnet by subsequently making his indecent online video to blackmail and threaten him," the senior official said. The modus operandi of the gang members was to lure the gullible persons in Delhi NCR by sending friend requests to them through Facebook and other social media platforms and start chatting with them by posing as female. Thereafter, members of the gang used to make incriminating online vulgar videos of these gullible persons by luring them to indulge in indecent acts online by prompting them. "They further used to demand extortion from their victims by threatening them to make these videos viral or send the same to their family members, relatives and friends if they failed to pay the extortion amount," he said. --IANS uj/uk ( 392 Words) 2022-07-23-21:10:02 (IANS)
The role of another woman, reportedly a close aide of arrested Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, has come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the multi-crore financial scam relating to the recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). Earlier on Saturday, the ED had arrested Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee, the current state Commerce and Industries Minister. Her arrest from her residence in South Kolkata was officially announced by the ED at 5.14 p.m. on Saturday, about seven hours after the probe agency nabbed Chatterjee. The name of the second woman under the ED's radar is Monalisa Das, the head of the department of Bengali at state-run Kazi Nazrul University in Asansol in Burdwan district. ED sources said that the name of Das came up from the statements made in the face of interrogation by Mukherjee. It is learnt that in 2014, when Chatterjee was the state Education Minister, Das was appointed directly as the head of the department of Bengali. Her appointment had created ripples at that point of time, since as the head of the department, Das was directly promoted to the rank of associate professor from her position as assistant professor. Many people had then alleged that Das' close association with Chatterjee helped her get the prized posting. ED sources said that the agency has come across at least 10 flats which are registered in the name of Das and most of these flats are located in Bolpur-Santiniketan in Birbhum district. "The total value of these flats is highly disproportionate to the declared income of Das," an ED official said. However, Das has so far claimed total ignorance in the entire matter. "I as a teacher knew Partha Chatterjee, who was then the Education Minister. So in a sense he was my guardian," she said. --IANS src/arm ( 325 Words) 2022-07-23-21:48:02 (IANS)
A video has gone viral on social media, which shows the Taliban torturing Youtubers Ajmal Haqiqi and his team, according to sources. As per the local media, they filmed it for fun and the Taliban members sent the video to each other. The horrific videos show that Ajmal Haqiqi and his team are brutally beaten with rods by them. The Taliban's General Directorate of Intelligence has arrested Ajmal Haqiqi, a YouTuber from Afghanistan, and three of his colleagues on blasphemy accusations, reported Khaama Press. Four of the young activists are handcuffed in a video released on the Taliban's intelligence agency's Twitter handle, with Ajmal Haqiqi confessing to "promoting indecency and lewdness, and insulting Quran verses." One of Haqiqi's colleagues, Gholam Sakhi, who was once addicted to drugs and claimed to have a "mental condition," recited verses from the Qur'an in a humorous voice in a video posted by Haqiqi's YouTube channel, where Sakhi sings and dances, reported Khaama Press. Haqiqi laughs in that widely shared video as Sakhi mimics recitations in a humorous voice. Sakhi's conversational style is noted for being funny and amusing, reported Khaama Press. "No one is allowed to insult or ridicule the verses of the Qur'an, the Prophet's hadiths, or Islamic sanctities under the rule of the Islamic system," the Taliban intelligence agency wrote on Twitter. Those who have recently insulted and disrespected the Qur'an's holy verses; "They are arrested." Amnesty International has called on the Taliban to release Afghan model and YouTuber Ajmal Haqiqi and his colleagues immediately, reported Khaama Press. Taliban forces have arrested Ajmal Haqiqi and three of his colleagues on blasphemy accusations. The Taliban's intelligence agency confirmed the arrest of Haqiqi and his colleagues on Tuesday, June 7, with the release of a video of their confessions. Meanwhile, the Taliban has detained journalists and critics of the group, including human rights activists, since regaining control of Afghanistan, reported Khaama Press. The Taliban had previously released a video of a number of detained protester women's confessions, which sparked outrage. The Taliban has been accused of imposing harsh censorship on free media, as well as arrest and torture of journalists. (ANI)
The Taliban shot dead a young man in the Andarab district of Baghlan and then, publicly displayed his body at the Bazar of this district. As per the local media, local residents brought the corpse to the capital of the district and sought an explanation from the Taliban on Thursday, July 21. According to sources, the Taliban forced a resident of Andarab in the Kasa Tarash area to come out of his house and then, killed him, on July 20. Local residents said that the Taliban dispersed people who had gathered in front of the district building through aerial firing. This killing happened a day after UNAMA's report regarding arbitrary killings of Taliban had been published. UNAMA reported that the Taliban is not committed to their amnesty decree and killed tens of former security forces and employees during the past 10 months. United Nations mission in Geneva said that the latest United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report reveals a "disturbing and consistent pattern of human rights violations" by the Taliban. The UN mission in Afghanistan on Thursday released a report outlining the human rights situation prevailing in Afghanistan over the 10 months since the Taliban takeover. The mission said that while the report highlights aspects of the Taliban's human rights violations, it does not fully reflect the number of violations and abuses reflected in this report, and the full scope of the deterioration of the human rights situation since August of last year. UN mission said that this could be attributed to the methodology used for the report and or lack of access to places where torture and ill-treatment, unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and forced displacement are taking place, including in the provinces of Panjshir, Parwan, Kapisa, Baghlan, Thither, Kandahar, Saripul, Nangarhar and Samangan. "It has become extremely difficult and dangerous to seek redress, register complaints, and document abuses in a climate of fear, impunity, and atmosphere of arbitrary exercise of power," the UN mission said in a press release. The report undoubtedly reveals a disturbing and consistent pattern of human rights violations by the Taliban, in line with the previous findings of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and international and non-governmental organizations. It said that the UNAMA has a vital role in monitoring and documentation the violation and protection of human rights in Afghanistan. The UN mission said that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) also have a significant role to play in preventing human rights violations and ensuring accountability, in line with Afghanistan's international obligations. (ANI)
Historic deal to resume grain exports from Ukraine signed in Istanbul

Xinhua) 09:00, July 23, 2022

Russia and Ukraine are signing an agreement with Turkey and the United Nations on shipping Ukrainian grain, foodstuff, and fertilizer to international markets via the Black Sea in Istanbul, on July 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)

ISTANBUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Ukraine signed a long-awaited deal here on Friday to safely transfer Ukrainian grain, foodstuff, and fertilizer to international markets under the supervision of the United Nations.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed respectively with Turkiye under the UN auspices, would allow significant volumes of commercial food and fertilizer exports from three key ports in the Black Sea -- Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, the UN said in a statement on its website.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York, July 13, 2022. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday hailed what he called "substantive progress" in ensuring the export of Ukrainian food products through the Black Sea. (Xinhua/Xie E)

"It is a beacon of hope," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after attending the signing ceremony in Istanbul, adding "it will help avoid a food shortage catastrophe for millions worldwide ... It must be fully implemented."

The ceremony was also attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was committed to facilitating a solid outcome from rounds of talks his country hosted for Russia and Ukraine over the past two months.

"We are talking about 25 million tonnes of grain," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters after the ceremony, noting that the need for a safe transport corridor to transfer these products by sea was urgent.

A Joint Coordination Center will be established in Istanbul to monitor implementation in Istanbul including representatives from Turkiye, Russia and Ukraine, said the UN statement.

According to a copy of the agreement released by Andrii Sybiha, deputy head of the Ukrainian President's Office, the deal will be effective for 120 days and can be renewed for the same duration unless one of the signing parties terminates.

"All properly identified and accredited trade vessels will be guaranteed safe passage from the three Ukrainian ports," and will be inspected by a team with members from all parties, it said.

Ukraine is among the world's leading grain exporters, supplying more than 45 million tons annually to the global market, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

UN reports revealed that more than 800 million people around the world at the moment directly face the possibility of hunger, and the numbers could rise.

Ukraine and Russia are breadbaskets of the world, producing almost one-third of the world's wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil. Russia is also a top global exporter of fertilizers and the raw materials for its production, Guterres' press office said in a note to correspondents.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
Many nations across the world are grappling over whether to accept or reject Huawei Networks 5G technology - a leading Chinese company amid charges of spying. Valerio Fabbri, writing in Geopolitica.info said that in some countries, Huawei faces product and 5G wireless network bans, security scrutiny and related pushback. Many countries allege that the company's products may contain security holes that China's government could use for spying. Furthermore, some countries allege that Huawei steals intellectual property from foreign technology companies. Despite such obstacles, many countries have proceeded with Huawei as a potential or confirmed choice for 5G wireless network projects and associated infrastructure. The story of the arrest of Huawei company official Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer, in December 2018 at the request of the US and her release in September 2021, reflects the larger concerns of many nations. A Council for Foreign Relations (CFR) Report (29 March 2021) on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) shows that, in addition to the United States, eight other countries, close allies of the US, have issued outright bans on the company. In May this year, Canada announced that it was banning both Huawei and ZTE, a Chinese telecommunication company based in Senzhen, from working on its 5G networks, said Fabbri. In September 2019, Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei dismissed US accusations that the company was helping China to spy on Western governments. Huawei said it was willing to sign "no-spy" agreements with governments, including the UK, amid US pressure on European countries to shun Huawei over espionage concerns. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Huawei with bank fraud and stealing trade secrets. In a 13-count indictment, the DOJ charged Huawei, its chief financial officer, the afore-mentioned Meng Wanzhou, and two affiliated firms with crimes including conspiracy, money laundering, bank and wire fraud, flouting US sanctions on Iran and obstruction of justice, reported Geopolitica.info. The US had alleged that Meng misled the HSBC bank over the true nature of Huawei's relationship with a company called Skycom, putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions against Iran, said Fabbri. Globally, multiple factors have heightened media coverage and discussion about Huawei. Questions about its business practices intensified amidst the US-China trade war. Also, numerous countries and companies worldwide are considering 5G wireless network rollouts. The US DOJ case against Huawei provides the legal basis for a ban by many countries. US government officials say Huawei is dangerous in part because it uses its growing share of the telecom equipment market to spy for the Chinese government. As far back as 2012, a US House Intelligence Committee report had tagged Huawei and ZTE as potential security threats. Concerns about Huawei drove the 2018 decision by then-President Donald Trump to block a hostile takeover bid from Broadcom, based at the time in Singapore, for the US chipmaker Communal. The deal could have curtailed American investments in chip and wireless technologies and handed global leadership to Huawei, which allegedly circumvented sanctions imposed on North Korea and Iran, by providing them with telecom equipment that can be used for extensive spying on populations, essentially dual-use technologies, reported Geopolitica.info. Several countries have warned against using Chinese hardware because of security concerns, which stem from the Chinese government's use of Huawei's products to spy on people around the world, said Fabbri. In the Pacific region, Australia blocked Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment for its 5G network. At the same time, Australian media reports suggest that government officials had advised India to ban Huawei from supplying parts for a rollout of a high-speed telecommunications network. France had announced telecommunications operators would not be able to renew licenses for Huawei equipment when they expired, effectively phasing out the company's presence. Vietnam has not barred Huawei, but its service providers have avoided using its equipment in both their 4G and 5G networks. Sweden's ban was amongst the most direct in Europe. (ANI)
As the Ukraine-Russia war is set to enter its fifth month, the US is mulling increasing its military aid to the Eastern European country and in the latest announcement by the White House, Pentagon is now considering providing Ukrainian forces with fighter jets, media reports said. On Friday, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said that the Pentagon "is making some preliminary explorations into the feasibility of potentially providing fighter aircraft to the Ukrainians," adding, "But it's not something that they're going to be able to execute immediately or even in the short term." This move would expand US involvement in war and risk significant escalation with Russia, reported Wall Street Journal. The comments from a senior White House national security spokesman are the latest sign of the Biden administration's growing assertiveness on arms supply for Kyiv. It suggests an increasing willingness to provide advanced weaponry in an effort to help turn the tide of the war however the outcome is hard to predict as the war prolongs. Poland, in March, proposed transferring MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine however the Pentagon rejected the offer, calling it "high risk." The US intelligence community assessed that transferring the Russian-made aircraft would risk a response from Moscow that could result in a direct military conflict with NATO. Kirby while addressing reporters during a briefing said that the issues that must be addressed before the US is to give Ukrainians training on the jet's maintenance, and providing spare parts. However, he did not say anything about the kind of aircraft the US was considering or when the administration would make a decision. A former Pentagon official said F-15 and F-16 fighter jets have been discussed as options for Ukraine, though both aircraft require significant training and maintenance. The Pentagon declined to provide details about what it is assessing. "We are certainly engaged in a large discussion with the Ukrainians about their future force needs," a senior defense official told reporters during a briefing, as per the media portal. (ANI)
China's national observatory on Saturday issued a yellow alert for high temperatures as intense heat waves linger in many regions of the country. During daylight hours on Saturday, parts of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi are expected to experience temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius, Xinhua news agency reported citing the National Meteorological Center said. Temperatures in parts of Xinjiang, Zhejiang and Fujian may surpass 40 degrees Celsius, the centre said. The centre advised against outdoor activities during high-temperature periods in the afternoon and suggested workers exposed to high temperatures or who need to work for a long time outdoors take necessary protective measures. China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General last week warned that heatwaves will happen more frequently because of climate change, adding that the connection has been clearly demonstrated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC). After the UK broke an all-time high record, Petteri Taalas said, "In the future, this kind of heatwaves 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. We haven't been able to reduce our emissions, globally." "I hope that this will be a wake-up call for governments and that it will have an impact on voting behaviours in democratic countries", he said. According to IPCC, temperatures will rise more quickly in European areas than elsewhere. In the Mediterranean, a worrisome combination of climatic impact-driver changes (warming; temperature extremes; increase in droughts and aridity; precipitation decrease; wildifire increase; mean and extreme sea levels; snow cover decrease; and wind speed decrease) is expected by mid-century if global warming exceeds 2C. The IPCC Special Report on Extremes also shows that heatwaves will be more frequent, longer and more intense in the 21st century. Early warning systems and reinforced health systems will be needed. "Stable, stagnant atmosphere traps atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter, resulting in a degradation of air quality. Sun rays lead to ozone formation. Both impact health, particularly among vulnerable people, and also impact vegetal life", said Bob Stefanski Health systems are challenged by heatwaves. "When a heatwave goes along with high levels of pollution it exacerbates respiratory, cardiovascular diseases and conditions, especially in large urban spaces that are not adapted to cope with these high temperatures," said Maria Neira, Director of Environment and Health at WHO. "We have been alerting for a long time that climate change is severely affecting human health and therefore taking measures to reach the zero carbon and accelerating the transition to clean renewable sources of energy will be extremely important." (ANI)
After Meta's crackdown on Taliban-affiliated content and pages, Afghans have launched a trend on the social media platform Twitter with a hashtag calling for a ban on Taliban. The hashtag "BanTaliban" became a global sensation, with over thousands of tweets so far in support. Rapidly on the rise, the trend has gained significant coverage in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Europe and India, as well as the United States of America. According to Afghan Peace Watch, among the advocates are Afghan journalists and civil activists urging Twitter to deny access to all Taliban members on Twitter, owing to the group's spreading of misinformation and engaging in harmful content, including calls for violence and beheading, as well as support for terrorists. [{29d711df-b539-4cd7-89c3-2197333f3073:intradmin/fasdgADSgAdsfAsgASd.JPG}] This comes as Meta, formerly known as Facebook, banned Taliban-related content and pages on various platforms, including the RTA TV channel and Bakhtar News Agency, on Wednesday. The decision of banning Taliban- related content has been highly welcomed by the Afghan public, leading to the Twitter campaign. Last year in August, as the Taliban came to power, many social media companies revisited their policies on pro-Taliban accounts. However, Twitter decided to allow Taliban-affiliated accounts to continue using its platform despite its policies against the glorification of violence and threats. This Twitter trend comes as 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. (ANI)
Pakistan's Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Friday released a sketch of the main facilitator of the Karachi University suicide attack that resulted in the death of three Chinese nationals. The main facilitator is identified as Zaib, a member of the banned terrorist outfit BLA, Majeed Brigade. The accused is said to have prepared the bag loaded with explosives for use in the attack on the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute. Four people, including a minivan driver and three Chinese teachers, were killed in an attack on Karachi University on April 26 this year, after Balochistan Liberation Army's (BLA's) Shari Baloch blew herself up outside the gate of the institute. Post this deadly attack in Karachi, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has prepared the sketch using CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, reported The News International. The terrorist was residing with the family of Hebtan Bashir, the husband of the female suicide bomber Shari Baloch, in Delhi Colony, Karachi, media reported citing police sources. He was not just involved in preparing the bag of explosives, but Zaib also trained other terrorists of the BLA's Majeed Brigade. The data with the terrorism department shows that the 26-year-old wanted culprit was a Brohi Baloch and was five feet seven inches tall. Moreover, in another revelation into the case, Zaib also trained Dad Buksh aka Shoaib, the suspected mastermind behind the attack. Dad Buksh is a commander of the banned BLA and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) in Karachi. He was trained to become a terrorist in Afghanistan in 2020, as per the media portal. Police arrested Buksh on July 5, and produced him before the anti-terrorism court and sought his physical remand. China's confidence in Pakistan's ability to protect the Chinese workers in the country was 'seriously shaken' after the attack on a minibus in Karachi. "The Chinese confidence in Pakistan's security system's ability to protect their citizens and their projects is seriously shaken," Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain, the chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, had told Dawn. "It has caused serious concern and understandable indignation in China. More so, the pattern of attacks is so recurring and it's clear that Pakistani promises of 'foolproof security' are mere words, not matched by countermeasures on the ground," he maintained. He had also slammed Pakistan's security system for being indolent and said that the security agencies seemed to have been caught napping. "If such attacks continue, not just Chinese but other foreign investors will be forced to review their role in Pakistan," he added. (ANI)
US has reported the first cases of monkeypox as two cases of the rare viral disease have been identified in children, media reports said citing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. According to CDC, the cases are not related and could be cases of local transmission. One case is a toddler who is a resident of California while the other is an infant who is not a US resident. After the identification of the cases, the public health officials are investigating them to see how the infection occurred. Though the infected children have symptoms yet both are in good health condition, reported CNN. Necessary treatment is being provided to the children with an antiviral medication named tecovirimat or TPOXX. These medications are recommended by CDC for children under the age of 8. It is worthy to note that children are considered to be at a higher risk of infection. The CDC says the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine is being made available for children through special expanded use protocols. The agency has also developed new guidance for health care providers about identifying, treating and preventing monkeypox in children and teens. Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC's Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said Friday that the cases in children were not surprising and that the US should be ready to respond to more. "The social networks that we have as humans mean that we have contact with a lot of different people. And while this outbreak is spreading in a particular social network right now, I think we've messaged from the start that there could be cases that occur outside those networks and that we need to be vigilant for it and ready to respond and message about it," she said. "I know that in Europe and other places where this outbreak is also expanding, they have reported cases in children, in women. And I think the same thing is happening and expected to happen here in the United States," she said. "There is no evidence to date that we're seeing this virus spread outside of those populations to any degree," McQuiston said. The US government has shipped 300,000 monkeypox vaccines to US states and territories as of Friday afternoon. "That means hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to be getting vaccinated in a matter of days or weeks," Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said Friday. "Jurisdictions, states territories, cities are getting their vaccines typically about 30 hours after ordering them," as per the media portal. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reconvened the Monkeypox Emergency Committee to assess the public health implications of the evolving multi-country outbreak. This comes as global cases passed 14,000, with six countries reporting their first cases last week. The committee first met last month but decided against declaring it a public health emergency of international concern. On Thursday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged his "acute" awareness that any decision regarding the possible determination involves "the consideration of many factors, with the ultimate goal of protecting public health". The committee has already helped "delineate the dynamics of this outbreak," he said in his opening remarks to committee members and advisors. "As the outbreak develops, it's important to assess the effectiveness of public health interventions in different settings, to better understand what works, and what doesn't". Monkeypox, a rare viral disease, occurs primarily in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa, though it has been exported to other regions. This year, more than 14,000 cases have been reported across 71 Member States, from all six WHO regions. Tedros revealed that six countries reported their first cases last week and that the vast majority continue to be among men who have sex with men. "This transmission pattern represents both an opportunity to implement targeted public health interventions, and a challenge because in some countries, the communities affected face life-threatening discrimination," he said. He warned of "a very real concern" that men who have sex with men could be "stigmatized or blamed...making the outbreak much harder to track, and to stop". "As many of you know from your deep engagement with these communities, there is a very real concern that men who have sex with men could be stigmatized or blamed for the outbreak, making the outbreak much harder to track, and to stop," the WHO chief said. He further affirmed that one of the most powerful tools against monkeypox is information,"The more information people at risk of Monkeypox have, the more they are able to protect themselves," Tedros said. "Unfortunately, the information shared with WHO by countries in West and Central Africa is still very scant". The inability to characterize the epidemiological situation in those regions represents a "substantial challenge" to designing interventions that can control the historically neglected disease. The UN health agency is working closely with affected communities in all its regions and as the outbreak evolves, has called for increased, "targeted and focused" access to all countermeasures for the most affected populations. (ANI)
Prayut won the vote in the House of Representatives after receiving 256 votes in favour and 206 against with nine abstentions from the members of the parliament, Xinhua news agency reported.

The vote followed four days of censure debate broadcast live this week and was the latest attempt by the oppositions to unseat Prayut's government, the report added.

Ten cabinet ministers, who were targeted alongside the prime minister by the opposition in the no-confidence motion, also survived the vote. (ANI)
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shehbaz on Saturday took oath as Punjab Chief Minister, following the political drama that saw Parvez Elahi's defeat after provincial assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari decided not to count the votes of PML-Q lawmakers. Shehbaz, clad in a black sherwani, was administered oath today by Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman at a ceremony held at the Governor House in Punjab, the Dawn newspaper reported. This is the second time that Hamza defeated Elahi in the contest for the Punjab CM. Back in April, his oath-taking had been delayed for days with then then-governor, Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, refusing to administer the oath to him. Earlier, PML-N's Shahbaz was re-elected as the chief minister of Punjab after the votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were rejected by the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker. On Friday, Pervaiz Elahi - joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q - received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. However, 10 votes of PML-Q were cancelled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176. Following the counting of votes, the deputy speaker, citing Article 63A of the Constitution, rejected ten votes cast by the PML-Q members. As a result, Hamza received 179 votes, while Elahi managed to bag 176 votes. After the election, PTI's and PML-Q's parliamentary parties held a meeting and deliberated on Mazari's ruling. Later, they reached the apex court's Lahore registry to submit the petition, reported Geo News. Meanwhile, Deputy registrar SC Lahore registry Ijaz Goraya also reached the court and received the PTI petition. "I have come here to accept the PTI petition," he said while talking to Geo News. While talking to media outside the SC's Lahore registry building, PTI leader Yasmeen Rashid said that "186 members of Punjab assembly are present here, therefore I request that court is opened immediately." Former Pakistan prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan has called for protests tonight against the outcomes of the Chief Minister (CM) Hamza Shahbaz's 'surprising' victory in Punjab. He was surprised by the happenings in the Punjab Assembly today. "Everyone is now looking to the Supreme Court (SC). Parliament has the power of morality, not the army, democracy is based on morality." "These people are mafias, not politicians. I am surprised after witnessing what happened in the Punjab Assembly today despite the clear direction of Article 63A which defines the enforcement of the parliamentary party's decision. PTI had also sent the letter against the 25 turncoats through the parliamentary leader," said Imran Khan. (ANI)
Pakistan Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb lashed out at former Prime Minister Imran Khan saying that he wanted to spread political unrest and chaos in the country to cause economic instability. The federal Minister's remarks come after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Fawad Chaudhry said that the people of the country have rejected the "politics of thieves, hypocrites, and liars." Marriyum's statement was cited by local media Daily Times. She said that Imran Khan's "electoral framework" was seen in 2018, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Senate and Daska by-elections. Earlier, Marriyum Aurangzeb had said that Imran Khan's era was the darkest period for the media and that the PTI chairman had left no stone unturned to make the country another Sri Lanka. She also said that Imran Khan claims that the media was the most independent in his time whereas the Reporters Without Borders reports show that there were threats to the lives of journalists in his regime, News International reported. "If any news was published against him, the journalist would not be left alive. Imran is saying that the media was the most independent in his time, there was no restriction and censorship on the media, but reports show that during Imran Khan's time, media agencies were banned, channels were closed, and there were threats to the lives of reporters and Imran Khan threatened journalists," she said. Marriyum also said the report of Reporters Without Borders is Imran Khan's original worksheet. (ANI)
A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ship was spotted near the east coast of Taiwan, ahead of the second session of Han Kuang annual war-games, the nation's largest military exercises involving all branches of the armed forces, designed to test the country's combat readiness in the event of a Chinese invasion, according to media reports citing sources. The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessel appeared 44 nautical miles (81 kilometers) from the coastal township of Fengbin on Friday around 4 am, sailing from the north to the southeast, Taiwan News reported. The second phase of the Han Kuang exercise, live-fire drills, is expected to be held in July 25-29, a defense authority on the island of Taiwan said, as per Global Times. The first phase was kicked off in May 16, as per reports. Taiwan's defence authority has been reporting significant increases in PLA warplane activities to the island's southwest and southeast. Over 31 PLA aircraft sorties featuring H-6 bombers, J-11 and J-16 fighter jets, KJ-500 early warning aircraft, Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft, as well as Ka-28 anti-submarine warfare helicopters were spotted by Taiwan's defence authority in May itself. Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff said that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force dispatched the Izumo, a de-facto aircraft carrier, to monitor the PLA carrier group. According to the Fleet and Marine Tracker by the news website of the US Naval Institute, US Navy's Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group was also operating in the Philippine Sea at least as of May 2. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan despite the separate two sides being governed separately for more than seven decades. Taipei continues to counter the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US. Meanwhile, international businesses are assessing the implications for global trade following possible intense disruption of trade in the event of an escalation of conflict between Taiwan and China. This comes after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine led to a disruption in the supplies of oil, gas and wheat along with a price surge all across world. (ANI)
A New York-based rights group has condemned the assault on peaceful protesters in Sri Lanka that led to injury to more than 50 people and the arrest of at least 9 others. This condemnation comes after Sri Lankan security forces forcibly dispersed people at a peaceful protest site in the early hours of July 22. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office on July 21, should immediately order the security forces to cease all unlawful use of force against protesters, release everyone arbitrarily detained, and investigate and appropriately prosecute those responsible for abuses, said Human Rights Watch (HRW). Foreign governments and multilateral agencies that have sought to address Sri Lanka's economic crisis should emphasize to the new government that respect for human rights is critical for economic recovery. "Just one day after taking office, President Wickremesinghe oversaw a brutal assault by security forces on peaceful protesters in the heart of Colombo," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "This action sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law." Several hundred police, army, navy, and air force personnel carried out the July 22 raid. Hours earlier, protest organizers had announced that they would leave the protest site the following day. Using batons, the security forces attacked demonstrators who had remained at the protest site, along with several journalists and two lawyers who were there. Protesters told HRW that air force personnel detained a small group of people for several hours and severely beat them before they were released. A person who was there at around 1 a.m., when the security forces attacked the protest site, said: "Some people were badly injured. Since we were surrounded by security forces, we couldn't get the ambulance inside [the site]." He said the first ambulance arrived at about 7 a.m. "There was one person who got beaten very badly, he couldn't even stand. He got to the hospital after five hours." He said that the security forces appeared to be targeting perceived leaders of the protest movement: "They pointed out some specific people and they took them in." Others were beaten but not arrested. Nine people who were arrested were produced in court on July 22 and released on bail. A Bar Association of Sri Lanka statement said that they included "at least one lawyer and several journalists. . . The use of the Armed Forces to suppress civilian protesters on the very first day in office of the new President is despicable and will have serious consequences on our country's social, economic, and political stability." Since the beginning of 2022, Sri Lanka has experienced an escalating economic crisis and the government has defaulted on its foreign loans. The United Nations warned that 5.7 million people "require immediate humanitarian assistance." With many Sri Lankans experiencing extreme shortages of essentials including food and fuel, peaceful protests began in March. The protests led then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign on May 9, and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to flee the country on July 13 and resign the following day. Wickremasinghe became acting president, and parliament elected him as the new president on July 20 with the support of the Rajapaksas' political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. He had previously described some protesters as "fascists" and declared a state of emergency on July 18. On July 21, Wickremesinghe issued an order to "call out with effect from July 22, 2022 all the members of the Armed Forces . . . for the maintenance of public order." Under emergency powers, the president can override, amend, or suspend a provision of any law, except the constitution. Emergency powers can be used to detain people while bypassing the ordinary process of the courts and have repeatedly been used in the past to enable human rights violations. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka said the state of emergency was "inappropriate" and called for it to be withdrawn. It called the military attack on peaceful protesters "brutal and despicable." Diplomats from countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada, as well as the UN and European Union, also condemned the assault on the protest site. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday congratulated the people of Egypt on their National Day and exuded confidence in the "long-standing partnership" between the nations. The year 2022 is of particular significance since it marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Egypt. In a Tweet, Jaishankar wrote, "Greetings and best wishes to Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the Government and people of Egypt on their National Day. Our long-standing partnership continues to grow." India and Egypt, two of the world's oldest civilizations, have enjoyed a history of close contact from ancient times. Both countries share a close political understanding based on a long history of contact and cooperation in bilateral, regional, and global issues. The joint announcement of the establishment of diplomatic relations at the Ambassadorial level was made on August 18, 1947. Both countries have cooperated closely in multilateral fora and were the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. During 2015 to 2019, a number of Ministerial and official visits took place from India to Egypt and vice-versa. Egypt has traditionally been one of India's most important trading partners in the African continent. The India-Egypt Bilateral Trade Agreement has been in operation since March 1978 and is based on the Most Favoured Nation clause and the bilateral trade has increased more than five times in the last ten years. During this period of 2021-22, the top Indian imports from Egypt were Mineral Oil/Petroleum, Fertilizers, Inorganic Chemicals, and Cotton and the main items of export to Egypt from India were Buffalo Meat, Iron & Steel, Light Vehicles, and Cotton Yarn. Russia-Ukraine conflict has threatened Egypt with a shortage of wheat, 80 percent of which is imported from Russia and Ukraine. On 14 April 2022, the Egyptian Cabinet announced the inclusion of India in the list of accredited countries which can supply wheat to Egypt, thus ending a long pending Non-Tariff Barrier. Bilateral mechanisms are in place to facilitate trade and economic relations between India and Egypt. The Mission also assists in organizing various fora for commercial collaboration. Since 2020, due to the pandemic, most of the events and meetings have been held virtually. On May 9, 2021, Egypt dispatched three planes with medical supplies to India that included 300 oxygen cylinders, 50 oxygen concentrators, 20 ventilators, 8000 vials of Remdesivir & other medical equipment. Egypt and India also enjoy cordial defense relations. There was close cooperation between the Air Forces, with efforts at jointly developing a fighter aircraft in the 1960s. IAF pilots had also trained Egyptian pilots from the 1960s until 1984. In the recent past, since 2015, there have been several high-level exchanges of visits by defense delegations. (ANI)
After the "surprising" victory of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shahbaz as the Chief Minister of Punjab province, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's supporters staged a protest outside the headquarters of the Peshawar Corps Commander and chanted slogans "Hum Leke Rahenge Azadi". Protesting the outcome of the Punjab CM election, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters are demonstrating in all major cities including Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad after Punjab Assembly's Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari rejected PML-Q votes in the Punjab CM election voting. Hamza Shehbaz on Saturday took oath as Punjab Chief Minister. He was administered oath today by Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman at a ceremony held at the Governor House in Punjab, the Dawn newspaper reported. Hamza Shehbaz retained the seat after PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain sent a letter to the Deputy Speaker telling him that he had instructed his MPAs to vote for the younger Sharif instead of Pervez Elahi. The PTI had approached the Supreme Court against the Deputy Speaker's ruling and expressed the hope that it would emerge victorious. PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan called for protests against the outcomes of the elections. "I am 72 years old but I go to every meeting, whoever is honest will be with Imran Khan. I am deeply disappointed with what happened today in Punjab. People's mandate was robbed. These people will eat their mouths," said an elderly woman who participated in Karachi's Shahrah-e-Faisal protest. "Salutations to you Karachi people, it is impossible to defeat your determination. I told the leadership in Lahore that there are thousands of people who are determined to go to CM House and Bilal House. Patalgah, my application has been approved for hearing. We will give our next action plan tomorrow. President PTI Karachi," tweeted PTI Karachi. Earlier, PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz was re-elected as the chief minister (CM) of Punjab. Pervaiz Elahi - joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q - received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. However, 10 votes of PML-Q were canceled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176. Following the counting of votes, the deputy speaker, citing Article 63A of the Constitution, rejected ten votes cast by the PML-Q members. As a result, Hamza received 179 votes, while Elahi managed to bag 176 votes. Notably, the Supreme Court in its decision on a presidential reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution which is related to the status of defecting lawmakers, said the votes of defecting lawmakers will not be counted. PTI supporters are protesting across Pakistan against Mazari's ruling on CM Punjab poll. Nationwide protests happening right now in - Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Gujrat, DG Khan, Faislabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sukkur, Layyah, Larkana and Hyderabad. "People are protesting at these places all over the country. Get out for the sake of Pakistan!" tweeted PTI. PTI also slammed Asif Zardari, Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) leader and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The PTI thanked people for supporting them. "Shukriya Pakistan, InshAllah we will defeat the mafia once again... remember no one can defeat a zinda qoum!" Protests are taking place in all the small and big cities of the country. (ANI)
Expressing grave concerns, the Japanese Ministry of Defence in its latest annual report said that China is trying to heighten tensions by relentlessly continuing to unilaterally change the status quo in the East and South China Sea by coercion. "China continues to unilaterally change or attempt to change the status quo by coercion in the East China Sea and South China Sea. China has made clear that it would not hesitate to unify Taiwan by force, further increasing tensions in the region," the Japan's MoD said in its Annual Report 2022. It added that for over 30 years, China has been growing its defence budget at a high level and rapidly improving its military power in qualitative and quantitative terms with focus on nuclear, missile, naval and air forces, which is raising strong concerns. "China is ramping up "Civil-Military Fusion" (CMF is the fusion of military and civilian resources), and intelligentization (use of AI, etc.), with the aim of building a "world-class military," it added. It pointed out that China may be trying to develop military forces that are equal to, or, in some cases superior to the US forces. The report also raises concerns over intrusions into the territorial waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands by China Coast Guard and other vessels. The reports further stresses over the strategic competition between the U.S. and China and says that such inter-state competition is constantly occurring through a variety of means, including social networks (SNS), and sometimes even through "hybrid warfare" that combines military and non-military measures. "The Indo-Pacific region in which Japan is situated has been significantly affected by changes to the global balance of power and faces various security challenges. In particular, the tension between the U.S. and China is becoming more pronounced in Taiwan and the South China Sea," the Japanese MoD stated. It adds that considering the scenario it will be important to closely monitor related trends with intense interest. "The Biden administration has focused on reestablishing US dominance and prevailing in strategic competition with China," it continued saying. The MoD report said, "In the National Defense Strategy Fact Sheet released in March 2022, the administration identified China as its most consequential strategic competitor and pacing challenge, to be addressed with the highest priority." "In October 2021, Chinese and Russian warships conducted joint sails that circled around Japan. This exercise seemed to have been intended as a show of force against Japan." It noted that the Chinese military trends, combined with insufficient transparency about China's defence policies and military affairs, have become a matter of grave concern to the region including Japan and the international community, and these trends have been intensifying in recent years. The report pointed out that the conflict between US and China is also becoming prominent over Taiwan. "In April 2021, the US issued "New Guidelines" to encourage interaction with Taiwanese officials, demonstrating that the U.S. is committed to accelerating U.S. involvement in Taiwan. The U.S. continues to conduct U.S. warship transits through the Taiwan Strait and arms sales to Taiwan." "On the other hand, in 2021, China further increased the number of Chinese military aircraft entering the airspace southwest of Taiwan and has announced that it is conducting field training in the sea and airspace around Taiwan." It added that China is also enhancing their capability to interfere with other countries' use of space, and these countries and their militaries are reportedly involved in cyber attacks. "The United States, Japan's ally, and Australia, India, as well as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other European countries, Canada, and New Zealand, are countries that not only share fundamental values with Japan, but also have geographic and historical ties to the Indo-Pacific region." (ANI)
A high-level UN trade official has said the world body will continue to stay engaged with partners in the European Union, the United States and Russia to understand any obstacles to grain exports in the wake of the deal with Ukraine. "We will continue to be engaged. And obviously we will be talking to our partners in the rest of the world, in the EU, in the US and we will continue to talk to our Russian counterparts to understand what are the problems and obstacles that they're facing in terms of food and fertilizers and raw materials for fertilizers export," UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Rebecca Grynspan told Sputnik news agency. This statement comes as the defence ministers of Russia and Turkey and the infrastructure minister of Ukraine met in Istanbul to ink an UN-brokered deal on grain exports that would allow Russia to export its grain and fertilizers, Washington Post reported. The agreement has ended a wartime standoff that had threatened food security in several countries and cleared the way for exporting tons of Ukrainian grains. "Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. "A beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever." "You have overcome obstacles and put aside differences to pave the way for an initiative that will serve the common interests of all," he said, addressing the Russian and Ukrainian representatives. Guterres said that the "Black Sea Initiative," would open a path for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea: Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny and would also bring relief to developing countries on the edge of bankruptcy and the most vulnerable people at the brink of famine. "It will help stabilize global food prices which were already at record levels even before the war - a true nightmare for developing countries," Guterres added. The deal will enable Ukraine to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to the war. Notably, the deal will create provisions for the safe passage of ships. Moreover, a control centre will be established in Istanbul, staffed by UN, Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian officials, to run and coordinate the process and the ships would undergo inspections to ensure they are not carrying weapons. Ukraine is regarded as the "breadbasket of Europe" supplying 10 per cent of the world's wheat, 12-17 per cent of the world's maize and half of the world's sunflower oil. Twenty-five million tonnes of corn and wheat - the entire annual consumption of all the least developed countries. The West accused that Russia's actions have driven up prices in countries like the UK and the ongoing blockade has placed 47 million people around the world on the brink of humanitarian disaster. Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, security experts say one of Moscow's earliest strategic aims quickly became apparent as its armoured columns advanced along the coast in an effort to seize Ukraine's coastline. (ANI)
While discussing the situation in Afghanistan and the increasing hunger crisis in the country, the EU Ambassador to Afghanistan, Andreas Von Brandt said that there is a consensus on the non-recognition of the Taliban government in the western world. According to Brandt, the world is trying to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan, not to the government which came to power by means not provided for in the country's constitution, Khaama Press reported. "We have a very cautious approach...and I think ...if there are a few good things at the moment it is, that there is the tremendous consensus on the non-recognition in the entire western world and I actually don't see that changing in the near future," he said, as TOLOnews quoted. Meanwhile, political analysts believe the current situation in Afghanistan could get worse if the Taliban leadership do not consider an inclusive government, saying such could also pave the way for the international community to offer formal recognition to the group. "The international community and the people of Afghanistan want the current government to include diverse layers of educated youth and representatives from different ethnic groups," another political analyst, Ahmad Monib Rasa said. According to the publication, the Islamic Emirate government had repeatedly said that their leaders had "fulfilled all the promises it made with the United States in the Doha Agreement." "The Islamic Emirate does not allow anyone to use the territory of Afghanistan against the United States and its allies," spokesman of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Zabihullah Mujahid said. "In addition, IEA is also committed to providing all the Shariah rights of its citizens," he added. Reflecting on the overall security of the country, the spokesman said a "peaceful atmosphere" has been created in the country, where women and men could rightfully take part in Afghanistan's development. "In Afghanistan, a normal life and peaceful atmosphere has been created for women and men, and the rights of all minorities are maintained," he said. "Moreover, the system and way of life in Afghanistan are issues related to Afghans." The Taliban's claim of creating a peaceful atmosphere for men and women is so ironic to the real picture. Women are denied their basic rights like education and even freedom of speech, which was seen and condemned by the whole world but still the Taliban makes false claims. (ANI)
Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Friday raised his concern over the targeted killings of police in the province and called for a 'workable' plan to check those attacks. While chairing a meeting in Peshawar regarding law and order, Khan reviewed the security situation in the province with a special focus on the spike in targeted killings of police personnel. In the meeting, the participants also reviewed the situation and took decisions to devise strategies to prevent such incidents. Special assistant to the Chief Minister Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari, principal secretary to the CM Amjad Ali Khan and other senior police officials also attended the meeting. The Chief Minister said that peace was indispensable for the development and prosperity of the province. "Maintaining law and order is the first priority of my government. We will make no compromise on law and order," he said. According to the publication, Khan directed the relevant authorities to the result-oriented efforts to stop the targeted killing of policemen and said all authorities of police should sit together and come up with a comprehensive and workable action plan for the purpose. He said such killings couldn't be tolerated anymore and the morale of police officials performing their duties in the field at all costs. Khan paid tribute to the police personnel over their loss of lives for peace and said the people and government of the province were proud of them. "Police personnel are facing the situation with great bravery and dedication," he said. Looking at the rising incidents of attacks on police, Pakistani authorities earlier strengthened security at all check-posts and relieved the personnel responsible for security lapses. The police personnel posted at the check post in Arjali Nadi, where a policeman and a substitute were killed in an attack on July 16, were transferred to remote Tirah valley for negligence, according to the Dawn citing a statement issued by a district police officer in Jamrud. The statement said that DPO Mohammad Imran, along with other security officials, visited different checkpoints in Bara and issued instructions to the policemen. He also checked the security measures at these buildings. The policemen on duty were ordered to stay alert and wear both helmets and bulletproof jackets during duty timings. They were also warned against the use of mobile phones during duty timings, Dawn reported.Meanwhile, Peshawar Capital City Police Chief Ejaz Khan expressed displeasure over the rising incidents of terrorism in Khyber and the killing of a number of policemen in the attacks. At least four policemen lost their lives and two more were injured in such attacks during the last three to four months. A checkpoint in Tirah was also attacked with a hand grenade a week ago. (ANI)
A high-level military huddle in Pakistan has discussed "peace talks" with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and decided to pursue the matter in accordance with a "comprehensive security strategy". Chaired by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Nadeem Raza, the national security meeting was held on Friday. "The forum was given a detailed briefing on review of national security situation specific to Western Border, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan," the ISPR said about the meeting, Dawn newspaper reported. It added that "fast-paced developments in the realm of strategic and conventional policies, the importance of peace in Afghanistan for sustainable development in the region and the operational preparedness of the armed forces" were also discussed. The military leadership had told the political leadership at the earlier briefings that it wanted to give peace a chance, but would respond with full force if the TTP did not abide by the agreement that may be eventually concluded, Dawn reported. The meeting noted its "complete satisfaction" and "full confidence" in the readiness of all three services. The participants, the ISPR said, while reaffirming the resolve of the armed forces to befittingly respond to the threats, "lauded the sacrifices of security agencies in the fight against terrorism". Moreover, the ongoing bid of TTP to enter the political mainstream in Pakistan may face obstruction as several experts feel that the outlawed group will harm and shrink political space for citizens of the country. Islamabad agreed to hold fresh talks with the group under the auspices of the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan. "Through its political statements, it appears that the TTP is preparing its foot-soldiers to work within the constitutional framework of the country," an expert said while terming the efforts an attempt to reposition the group in line with its agenda. After the Afghan Taliban captured Kabul in August 2021, the unforeseen exodus of US-led NATO forces gave the group a new lease of life, as the latter reorganized itself and Islamabad also agreed to hold fresh talks with the group under the patronage of the interim Taliban government. (ANI)
In yet another grim incident, one person was killed and five others were injured in a shooting in the Seattle suburb of Renton early Saturday morning, police said. Officers responded to shots fired in downtown Renton just before 1 am local time, Renton police spokesperson Sandra Havlik said, reported CNN. Upon arrival, officers located multiple victims. One person was dead, and emergency personnel treated others at the scene, Havlik said. Initial reports indicate the shooting stemmed from a dispute outside a large gathering, which led to gunfire by possibly more than one person, police said. The shooting still was being investigated Saturday morning, Havlik said. Renton is a city of around 106,000 people about a 12-mile drive southeast of downtown Seattle. There had been 302 mass shootings across the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. With increasing incidents of gun violence in the United States, President Joe Biden had said that the US needs to ban assault weapons for the sake of protecting children and families or raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21. On June 22, a group of US lawmakers reached a much-awaited deal on a bipartisan gun safety bill after recent mass shooting incidents in Uvalde, Buffalo and Texas, that struck a nerve in the country. The new bill aims to take firearms away from dangerous people and provide billions of dollars in new mental health funding. The bill does not ban assault-style rifles or significantly expand background-check requirements for gun purchases, but it gives states more resources to take guns away from dangerous individuals. In the recent incidents, two people were killed and four others including three officers were injured in a shooting in Haltom City of Texas on Saturday. Police said that one woman was found dead inside the home and a man was found fatally shot in the home's driveway. An elderly woman who called 911 was shot but expected to survive. On May 24, a mass shooting incident took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in which several people including 19 children were killed. This was the deadliest attack since the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed, according to CNN. On June 20, a teenager was shot dead and three others including a police officer were injured in a shooting in the area of 14th and U Street Northwest in Washington, DC. On June 1, at least four people were killed in a shooting incident at a hospital campus in Oklahoma's Tulsa city, CNN reported citing police. The shootout incidents in the US have been increasing. (ANI)
Turkey's Defence Minister Hulusai Akar said that the Russian officials have told them that they have nothing to do with the strike on the Ukrainian Odesa port. "In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail," the Turkish Defence Minister said in a statement. "The fact that such an incident took place right after the agreement we made yesterday really worried us," he said as quoted by Al Jazeera. Earlier, Serhii Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa military administration said that two missiles hit the infrastructure of the port and two were shot down by Ukraine's air defence. As many as six explosions were heard in Odesa, according to CNN citing Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko. This attack came one day after Ukraine and Russian ministers signed an agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul, to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports aimed at easing the global food crisis sparked by the war. "That's all you need to know about deals with Russia," Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas added on Twitter. Meanwhile, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said that the bloc "strongly condemns" the attack. "Striking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of Istanbul agreements is particularly reprehensible and again demonstrates Russia's total disregard for international law and commitments," Borrell said in a tweet. "Russia agreed to some deal on grain export, but immediately after this attacked it -- showing they want to continue to threaten the world's food security," Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko told CNN. "There will be new campaigns where [Putin] will definitely attack Odesa and the only answer of the world for this is to give weaponry to Ukraine - finally to give Ukraine long-range missiles, fighters. And that is the only answer for this aggression from Putin and to restore international order," he added. Earlier, on Friday, a deal was reached between Ukraine and Russia where Russia promised to unblock ports on the Black Sea to allow the safe passage of grain and oilseeds, some of Ukraine's most important exports. Russia has so far been blocking maritime access to those ports, meaning that millions of tons of Ukrainian grain have not been exported to the many countries that rely on it, according to CNN. "Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea. A beacon of hope -- a beacon of possibility -- a beacon of relief -- in a world that needs it more than ever," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday at the signing ceremony, which was attended by Ukrainian and Russian ministers. After the deal was sealed, the UN Secretary-General said, "The agreement signed today by Ukraine, the Russian Federation & Turkiye under UN auspices opens a path for commercial food exports from Ukraine in the Black Sea. It will help avoid a food shortage catastrophe for millions worldwide. It is a beacon of hope, possibility and relief." (ANI)
Jamiat Ulema-e Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday said that former Prime Minister Imran Khan is not a threat to the coalition government of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N). Speaking with Geo News, Fazl said, "Imran Khan is nothing in front of us and should not be presented as a threat," adding that they know the worth of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and he knows theirs. The statement comes after massive protests across Pakistan took place against PML-N's Hamza Shahbaz's re-election as the chief minister of Punjab after the votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were rejected by the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker. On Friday, Pervaiz Elahi - joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q - received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. However, 10 votes of PML-Q were cancelled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176. Following the counting of votes, the deputy speaker, citing Article 63A of the Constitution, rejected ten votes cast by the PML-Q members. As a result, Hamza received 179 votes, while Elahi managed to bag 176 votes. Hamza Shehbaz took oath as Punjab Chief Minister on Saturday. Fazl revealed that the coalition government has been told to follow instructions otherwise a crisis would be created for them, reported Geo News. He said that if institutions are quiet then there would be no crisis. The JUI-F chief said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has the status of unity of command, however, the government is told to follow directions. He went on to say that he has complained to the coalition government over its silence on Imran Khan's scams during his tenure. Talking about the establishment's "soft intervention" under which it may mediate between PTI Chairman Imran Khan and the coalition parties, Fazl said that the coalition government does not accept "soft or hard interference". "I want to see the army, generals and the judiciary neutral. The institutions should remain in their boundary," said Fazl, adding that "Imran Khan had the support of the establishment and the judiciary, but both of them acted as neutrals as soon as the coalition government came into power". The JUI-F chief said that the idea of early elections is a result of "soft intervention". Fazl, speaking on the judiciary, said that the court should stick to its verdict given earlier, and the new developments shouldn't take place on daily basis, reported Geo News. "If the court has made a mistake, then it should not hear that case again," he added. Pakistan Supreme Court allowed Hamza Shahbaz to stay as a 'trustee' chief minister of Punjab till the court resumes hearing on Monday. A three-member SC bench comprising Pakistan Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhter issued the verbal order during a hearing on PML-Q leader Pervez Elahi's petition against Dost Mazari's ruling in the CM election case. In its order after the day-long hearing, the court said that it cannot leave a province without a chief executive and so, "Hamza will continue to work as a trustee chief minister till Monday." The court also said Hamza is not allowed to work as per the constitution and law during the time period. Supreme Court directed Hamza Shehbaz to exercise only ceremonial powers while restraining him from exercising the absolute powers of the chief minister till Monday. Pakistan SC has summoned Mazari pm for citing Article 63A of the Constitution and not counting the votes of defecting lawmakers as well as electing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shahbaz as Punjab Chief Minister. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed a petition against Mazari's ruling to reject 10 PML-Q votes in Punjab Chief Minister's elections, media reports said. The development comes after the Leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) reached Supreme Court (SC) registry in Lahore late at night and submitted a petition against CM Punjab election. The petition stated that the ruling violated the apex court's decision with regard to the interpretation of Article 63 A of the Constitution and asked the court to annul the ruling. (ANI)
Mini bottles of booze are usually found in very specific locations and circumstancesairplane drinks carts, distillery gift shops and flattened bottles of Fireball littering city streets are a few that come to mind. But a miniature 50ml bottle of single malt scotch whisky just broke a new record by selling for nearly $9,000 at auction, the equivalent of nearly $200 per milliliter of liquid.

The whisky in question is a 50-year-old single malt distilled at the Springbank distillery in 1919 that sold on the website Whisky.Auction. Given its age and vintage, its obvious that this is a very rare and limited whisky. The new sale price actually beat the record that the same whisky set last year, when it sold for just under $8,000 in August of 2021.

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Whisky.Auction director Isabel Graham-Yool told the website The Spirits Business that these prices are not unexpected because of the scarcity of the spirits. Much of the liquid we see coming to auction in miniatures is simply unavailable in full bottles, having been consumed many years before, she said. Miniatures often outlive their full-size counterparts in souvenir style. And sometimes, the liquid is so scarce that only miniatures ever existed.

If youre in the market for mini whiskies, there are plenty to be found, ranging from affordable to exorbitant. These tiny bottles are highly collectible, but of course not everyone who keeps a stash is a fan. Last December, the BBC reported that a man in Kettering, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom named Brian Marshall sold his collection of minis for almost 30,000 pounds (or $36,000). Marshall was quoted as saying that he thought whisky tastes horrible so he hadnt opened a single bottlewhich, of course, is the key to ensuring that any collection retains its value. Given how inexpensive current miniature bottles of whiskey are, why not start your collection now. You never know, it might just yield a windfall of cash someday in the future.

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Jurors made short work Friday of former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannons defense on contempt of Congress charges, returning two guilty verdicts against him after less than three hours of deliberation, including a lunch break.

The pair of guilty verdicts from a D.C. jury for Bannon over his defiance of a subpoena from the House committee probing the Jan. 6 attacks and former President Donald Trumps campaign to overturn the 2020 election results are sure to grab the attention of other witnesses still resisting the panels requests or who may have given less-than-forthcoming testimony up to this point.

However, any actual jail time for Bannon in the case could be modest and may be years away. And the significant restraints the judge put on the defenses Bannon could offer at trial raise issues that could find traction at an appeals court or even the Supreme Court.

Heres POLITICOs look at the key takeaways from Bannons brief but attention-grabbing trial this week in D.C. federal court:

Can Bannons lawyers lick Licavoli?

Perhaps the most central figure in Bannons conviction Friday and the key to his potential victory in any appeal is a long-dead Detroit mobster and bootlegger, Peter Horseface Licavoli.

Licavoli died almost four decades ago and spent time in federal prison on a colorful variety of charges, including tax evasion, bribery and trafficking in stolen art. However, it was his refusal to testify to Sen. Estes Kefauvers 1951 hearings on organized crime that produced a legal precedent central to Bannons case.

A decade later, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a contempt-of-Congress conviction against Licavoli, ruling that he could not rely on his lawyers legal advice as a defense.

While the precedent was set 61 years ago, U.S. District Court Carl Nichols concluded it is still good law and, as a result, Bannon could not use the advice-of-counsel defense. The ruling also undercut Bannons ability to argue that executive privilege excused him from showing up in response to the subpoena.

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However, Nichols said on several occasions before and during the trial that he thinks the Licavoli case may well be wrong under modern legal standards, but he was compelled to apply it anyway.

I was bound by D.C. Circuit precedent that Im not even sure is right, the Trump-appointed judge said Thursday.

Now, Bannons lawyers will face the task of trying to get the decision overturned or deemed irrelevant, something that may require getting Bannons case in front of the full bench of the appeals court or even taking it to the Supreme Court.



Bannons no-defense defense

The judges ruling on that issue left the former Trump White House aide with little in the way of feasible defenses. He was left with slender and unsatisfying theories: he didnt understand the deadlines on the subpoena or thought they were flexible because sometimes congressional committees negotiate with witnesses.

That left Bannons attorneys sometimes trying to grasp at out-there arguments, like the possibility that House Jan. 6 Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompsons signature on the subpoena might have been forged.

You can ask yourself if one of those things is different than the other, said defense attorney Evan Corcoran, displaying various Thompson signatures from other letters and from the subpoena to Bannon. That could be a doubt as to the governments case, a reasonable doubt as to whether Chairman Thompson signed this subpoena.  If youve got a doubt in your mind, youve got to give Steve Bannon the benefit.

However, Bannon managed to get many of his arguments in front of the jury. They wound up seeing the entirety of letters in which Bannon lawyer Robert Costello argued for executive privilege. They also learned of a belated offer by Bannon, earlier this month, to testify under certain conditions.

Bannon said that move was prompted by Trump withdrawing his executive privilege claims, but prosecutors said the offer was a transparent effort to sow confusion on the eve of trial.

This was a last-minute excuse, another excuse, prosecutor Amanda Vaughn told the jury. His haphazard attempt to get out of his contempt by pretending to comply now is a waste of everyones time.

Nichols did tell jurors not to consider the executive privilege issue, but if there was a juror open to persuasion to Bannons side of the story, he or she had what she needed to piece that together. It appears there was no such juror.

Could Bannon have drawn any better D.C. judge?

Of all the judges who could have been assigned to Bannons case, Nichols seemed like about the best pick he could have hoped for. Only two of the 22 judges assigned to Jan. 6 criminal cases have publicly raised serious questions about the substance of some such prosecutions: Nichols and colleague Trevor McFadden. Both are Trump appointees.

Nichols is the first and only judge among the 22 to have thrown out felony obstruction charges in Jan. 6 on pretrial motions, concluding that the statute doesnt cover the conduct alleged unless it was aimed directly at official documents, such as the paper electoral college certifications sent in by states.

The Justice Department has appealed those rulings. Every other judge to consider the issue has disagreed with Nichols.

Nichols also happens to preside over a series of civil defamation lawsuits related to 2020 election fraud claims, including cases the Dominion voting machine company brought against several Trump allies, including Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell. Last year, Nichols rejected their motions to dismiss the cases, making it more likely they will proceed to fact-finding.

Nichols, 52, is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and D.C. Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman. Nichols led the Justice Departments unit handling civil litigation against the government under President George W. Bushs administration, then spent about a decade in private practice at D.C. law firm Wilmer Cutler.

Nichols was confirmed in 2019 and has been on the bench a little more than three years, so has limited experience presiding over trials, which were suspended in Washington federal court for more than a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At times, Nichols' status as a criminal trial novice seemed to show through. The judge often seemed to defer or revisit rulings. And some typical courtroom formalities were not observed. It wasnt clear why, for instance, Bannon wasnt asked to stand when the verdicts were read. Or why the judge often left the bench before the jury rather than after it. But there was no sign those oddities affected the outcome of the trial.

Did Bannon get bad advice or the advice he was looking for?

What may have sealed Bannons prosecution and the guilty verdicts Friday was the all-or-nothing stand he and lawyer Costello took in their dealings with the House committee, refusing to produce any documents and failing even to appear on Capitol Hill in response to the subpoena.

Costello seems to have crafted or endorsed that strategy in the absolutist letters sent to the House committee, claiming not only that Bannon could not testify but that he was somehow legally forbidden from doing so even though he was a private citizen on Jan. 6 and in the months and years leading up to it.

Trump lawyer Justin Clark told prosecutors last month that while executive privilege issues were raised, he told Costello that Trump never instructed Bannon not to show up for a deposition or rebuff all document requests, a court filing in Bannons case said.

Notably, other witnesses who took more flexible positions seem to have escaped prosecution.

Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Trump social media guru Dan Scavino engaged in months-long negotiations with the select committee, haggling over the terms of potential testimony and the bounds of executive privilege. Meadows also turned over thousands of text messages and communications he had with members of Congress and other White House advisers.

The other Trump White House aide facing a contempt prosecution for defying the committee, trade adviser Peter Navarro, also took an absolutist position against compliance based on the notion that Trump was asserting privilege.

After the guilty verdicts were returned Friday, Bannon lawyer David Schoen seemed to concede that the legal advice Bannon got was open to debate, but Schoen insisted that Bannon should have been permitted to rely on it without opening himself to criminal prosecution.

You can debate whether he could have complied in part or in full, Schoen said. He listened to his lawyer. It's not an intuitive process.

Prosecution fights fire with fire

With other arguments foreclosed, Bannons defense leaned hard in its closing argument on the notion that their client was the target of a vendetta by congressional Democrats.

Right now, the president, the Senate and Congress are in the hands of one party  the Democrats, argued Corcoran, in the first of a string of arguments that drew objections from the prosecution.

Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor who once worked as a top aide to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), also suggested Bannon might have been targeted in an effort to shut him up. He has a show, a podcast on political topics and that has a very large following and its an election year, the defense attorney said.

Nichols sustained the objections and later told prosecutors to ignore those defense arguments, but the political provocation seemed to encourage the prosecution to dispense with the appearance of complete neutrality and embrace their opportunity to tie Bannon to a better known figure highly unpopular with most Washington residents: Trump.



Trump fired Bannon from the White House in 2017. But in the prosecutions final pitch to the jury, Vaughn made the two men sound like peas in a pod.

How convenient that the former president chose to give the defendant an excuse for his defiance. The defendant stood with Donald Trump and that choice, the deliberate decision to stand with former President Trump, that is a choice, Vaughn said.

But after the guilty verdicts came in, one of Bannons attorneys suggested prosecutors overreached with those sorts of arguments and created an opening to argue that the prosecution was explicitly appealing to the jurys likely anti-Trump views.

They won the case maybe in closing today. They lost their appeal in closing today, Schoen said. The overreaching by the government in this case has been extraordinary on every level. But shame on this office of the United States attorney's office and the Department of Justice for how far it went in this case.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
A group of climate activists and their kids protested at White House chief of staff Ronald Klains Maryland home on Saturday to demand that President Biden declare an official climate emergency, which would dramatically expand his executive power to enact environmental regulation.

BREAKING: We just went to @WHCOS @RonaldKlains house in Chevy Chase to tell him the #climatecrisis is a 4 alarm  & asked him to deliver a card from our kids to @potus. The police REFUSED to deliver our card but we know Klain heard us. Declare a #ClimateEmergency NOW! pic.twitter.com/n2xMYBOQb3  Climate Families NYC  (@sunrisekidsnyc) July 23, 2022

Multiple organizations were represented in the coalition including Sunrise Movement, which has advocated for the radical Green New Deal and the creation of green jobs, Families for a Future, which claims to fight against pollution, People vs. Fossil Fuels, 350 Brooklyn Families, which is a part of the NYC Climate Families Coalition, and New York Communities for Change.

The activists said they traveled from New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to demand that Klain pressure Biden to stop delaying and act on climate.

Ron Klain chose to stay in his air conditioned house instead of coming to talk to us. Shame on him for ignoring families trying to make sure we survive on this, the account tweeted.

Many of the protesters brought their kids, who dressed as firefighters to signify that the U.S. is in a climate emergency. They urged the cancellation of new fossil-fuel projects and increased investment in alternative renewable energy. They also proposed expanding the Supreme Court as a means to fast-track the Democrats environmental agenda.

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And for all the weirdos out there who have nothing better to do than troll kids and families fighting for our future, many of us supported Biden in 2020 Bc of his climate promises. Damn right were going to hold @POTUS @WHCOS accountable!, the group wrote.

Last Wednesday, Biden called climate change an emergency and vowed to use executive powers to bypass Congress but stopped short of issuing a formal national climate emergency. He made the announcement after centrist Democratic Senator Joe Manchin confirmed his opposition to Bidens sweeping legislative climate agenda, dooming it to fail in the chamber.

Since Congress is not acting as it should, and these guys here are, but were not getting any Republican votes, this is an emergency, Biden said. As president Ill use my executive powers to combat climate crisis in the absence of Congressional action.

More from National Review
An American Airlines plane. Getty Images

American Airlines has canceled close to another 1,200 flights in an effort to reduce disruptions.

The Allied Pilots Association told Bloomberg it was shocked by the timing of the decision.

Thousands of passengers have had flights canceled or lost their luggage in the summer travel chaos.

American Airlines has canceled almost 1,200 more flights in a effort to minimise last-minute disruption to schedules.

The Allied Pilot Association told its members in an email seen by Insider that the airline "is once again acknowledging that they cannot honor their published schedule" and was going ahead with the cancelations taking effect as early as July 27.

Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the union that represents AA pilots, told Bloomberg it was "shocked that this is happening at this late stage" of the peak summer travel season.

The union's vice-president, Chris Torres, told members: "Let's be clear here: management planned for more capacity than they could handle and did so with improperly constructed schedules."

Torres said the airline made the decision before a conference call on Thursday for the company's second-quarter results "but intentionally delayed any announcement until after those two events."

The union "received no advance notice of any kind, and neither did our passengers, which is unfortunately all too typical of our airline's management," he added.

According to the email seen by Insider, the cancelations came just two days after August schedules were finalized.

AA had already revealed plans to reduce flight capacity by up to a tenth this quarter and by 9.5% for 2022 as a whole compared with pre-pandemic levels, Bloomberg reported.

American posted net profit of $476 million for the three months to June 30, up from $19 million for the same period last year. Revenue jumped 12% to $13.4 billion despite operating 8.5% fewer flights than the same quarter in 2019.

Shares fell 2.5% on Friday in New York and have lost almost 8% this week.

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Passengers have experienced severe disruptions as airlines struggle to cope with demand for air travel this summer.

Thousands of flights have been canceled, passengers have had their luggage gone missing, a child was temporarily lost in Miami airport by AA, and a couple was left stranded in Mexico for two days after their flight was canceled twice.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Daniel Slim/Getty Images

Airlines are facing many challenges this summer, including a pilot shortage that's causing flight delays and cancelations.

American Airlines says it's facing several other shortages as well.

It has daily trouble providing pillows, blankets, plastic cups, and food for flights, according to CEO Robert Isom.

While the pilot shortage is wreaking havoc on airlines' flight schedules, leading to spates of delays and cancelations, one airline says it's facing additional shortages impacting customer experience onboard.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told investors on an earnings call this week that the company is struggling every day to provide many of the basic items provided to passengers for comfort in-flight, as first reported by Inc.

"Pilots are one piece," Isom said. "But ... there's not a day that goes by where we don't have issues with provisioning our aircraft with pillows, blankets, plastic cups, food. At various times, we have issues with fueling."

He continued: "It's just a myriad of things that all have to come together to put an aircraft in the air. And yes, the supply chain for aircraft parts is one thing that we monitor closely. But it's all these other things that we really are dependent on so many other parts of the system."

American Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

As for the pilot shortage, Isom reportedly said last month that American will hike pay for 14,000 pilots even higher than initially proposed to help mitigate staffing challenges. The news came weeks after the carrier grounded 100 regional jets because it didn't have enough pilots to fly them.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), a union representing more than 14,000 pilots at rival United Airlines, voted to approve a tentative agreement last month that would give pilots a 14.5% pay raise over 18 months, among other benefits, if ratified.

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines has announced a new partnership with private aviation company Wheels Up to help pilots finish their training faster so airlines can hire them sooner.

Read the original article on Business Insider
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.
An Atlanta-area prosecutors investigation into former President Trumps effort to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat in Georgia poses the most significant legal threat to the former president, legal experts say, with the probe intensifying as Trump eyes a 2024 bid for the White House.

The former presidents team is keeping close watch on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Williss investigation, even as it remains unclear whether Trump himself would face charges, according to one source, who noted that recent subpoenas issued to close Trump advisers Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had heightened concerns in Trump World.

The steps her office has taken, including empaneling a special grand jury and subpoenaing high-profile witnesses, are very likely not steps she would have taken if she did not feel there was at least a significant possibility that she will move forward with charges, said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The stakes in holding Trump accountable for an attack on our democratic system of government couldnt be higher, and the evidence is extremely compelling.

Trumps effort to bypass the will of voters in Georgia and a handful of other swing states he lost to President Biden in the 2020 election sparked congressional investigations and figure into multiple criminal probes, including by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

But it is the Georgia investigation that is proving to be more of an immediate concern among Trump allies  more so than the DOJ probe, the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol or an unrelated criminal fraud investigation in New York that appears likely to conclude without charges being brought against Trump.

With the Manhattan criminal probe winding down, the Fulton County probe represents the most clear-cut criminal exposure facing Mr. Trump, said Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer and partner in the law office of Mark S. Zaid.

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The Georgia investigation appears to be intensifying as Trump is weighing launching a White House campaign as early this summer.

The grand jury recently issued subpoenas to several high-profile figures, including Graham and Giuliani, as well as conservative lawyers John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell. And Williss office recently informed a group of Republicans who served as a phony slate of pro-Trump electors in 2020 that they could face criminal charges.

The Jan. 6 panel also made Trumps effort in Georgia the subject of one of its hearings last month. The centerpiece was Trumps phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021.

In the call, which was taped, Trump pressed Raffensperger to find the number of votes required to overturn Bidens margin of victory. Raffensperger resisted Trumps efforts and has rebutted his false claims of election fraud.

The Jan. 6 panel hearing highlighted not just how Trump relentlessly pushed Raffensperger and others to find enough ballots to declare him the winner, but also how the former president and his allies targeted election workers who endured months of harassment as a result.

According to legal experts, a critical question that would face Willis if she pursues Trump would be whether to prosecute Trump individually, or as part of a broader conspiracy.

There is audio, there is witness testimony, there is documentation, and all of that is currently before a special grand jury. The only question is whether Mr. Trumps actions were sufficient to bring a criminal charge against him alone and independent of anyone else, or if the Fulton County DA will need to encompass his fragmented actions within a broader conspiracy charge tied to individuals like Mr. Giuliani and the fake electors, Moss said.

There has been speculation that formally declaring his candidacy could insulate Trump from charges and additional investigations because he could argue they are politically motivated. Trump, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, has also waved away claims that another White House run might be motivated as a way to deter prosecutors.

In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Trump rejected the idea that he would run for president again to guard against potential legal jeopardy.

Well, I did nothing wrong, so I dont see that, Trump told the outlet. I did absolutely nothing wrong. I had a perfect phone call in Georgia, so Im not concerned with it.

If the House Jan. 6 committee, which wrapped up the first phase of its public hearings this week, makes a criminal referral to the DOJ to indict Trump, it would put Attorney General Merrick Garland under enormous pressure.

But experts said the Georgia investigation differs from the federal probe in key ways that may make the Fulton County prosecutor more likely than Garland to bring criminal charges against Trump.

For Garland, the decision over whether to criminally charge Trump for his effort to overturn the 2020 election results pits his mission to restore the DOJs reputation as a nonpolitical agency against the certainty that indicting a former president for the first time in U.S. history would unavoidably plunge the DOJ into the political realm. Although the political ramifications are difficult to overstate, the decision Willis faces over whether to bring a prosecution against Trump is less fraught than Garlands.

There are real dilemmas and obstacles facing Garland as he considers whether to prosecute a former president, though I think the evidence is so overwhelming and the offenses are so serious that they should override those very real concerns, but it will undoubtedly be a difficult decision-making process, Bookbinder said.

Willis faces some of those same concerns  charging a former president should never be taken lightly in any jurisdiction  and Im sure she will take them very seriously, but the balance of equities pushing toward bringing any case supported by the facts and the law may well be even clearer there.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Jul. 22With the return to school around the corner, a number of Kern County organizations are hosting back-to-school events aimed at preparing students for a healthy return to the classroom and equipping families with free supplies.

Kern County Child Support Services hosted its 13th annual Ready-Set Back to School Health and Wellness Fair on Friday, and there will be several others throughout the area in the weeks to come.

On Sunday in Wasco, the Tabernacle of Praise Church of God at 812 9th St. is hosting a backpack giveaway for families starting around 11:15 a.m.(after its 10 a.m. service). All are welcome, according to organizers.

Next week, Kern County Child Support Services is also hosting a back-to-school fair from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Rosamond Library at 3611 Rosamond Blvd.)

The Kern County Public Health Services Department is also hosting a back-to-school vaccinations event from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at 455 Lexington St. in Delano.

There will also be a child support services back-to-school event from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday at Leroy Jackson Park at 300 E. French Ave. in Ridgecrest.

The Dignity Health Mercy and Memorial Hospitals Learning and Outreach Centers will host its annual Back to School Fair from 8 to 11 a.m. July 30 at Bessie E. Owens Primary School at 815 Potomac Ave. in Bakersfield.

That event will provide backpacks and school supplies for K-12 students, and children must be present to receive school supplies, according to organizers.

There will also be free food and information about health care and insurance services available for families.

The Kern County Child Support Services is hosting its Bakersfield event at the Kern County Museum from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 4 at 3801 Chester Ave. Its last event before school starts will happen from 9 to 11 a.m. Aug. 11 at Ford City Park, which is located at 207 Tyler St. in Taft.

The Outlets at Tejon's Back-To-School Bonanza charity event is happening at 1 p.m. Aug. 6 at 5701 Outlets at Tejon Parkway in Arvin. During the event, the Outlets will hand out free school supplies to children at stations located throughout the center. The stations will offer complementary backpacks, pencils, binder paper, crayons, color pencils, erasers, rulers, folders, binders and glue sticks while supplies last.

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New Hope Full Gospel Church is hosting a Back to School Bash from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 14, which is being billed as a free, fun, family-friendly event before the end of summer. It will offer food, fun, a dunk tank and a bounce house at 305 Roberts Lane in Oildale.

For those interested in donating to help local families in need, the Boys & Girls Clubs is soliciting donations of cash and supplies to offset the costs for families, which average more than $860 per year for school items.

Traditional school supply donations will be accepted at the three local club sites, and online donations accepted at bgclubsofkerncounty.org/schoolsupplies through Aug. 10. The money will be used to purchase school supplies, according to club officials. More information is available at the organization's website.
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
Good Morning America

Authorities in Northern California have announced a new phase in the ongoing search for a teenager who disappeared after a party 11 days ago. Kiely Rodni, 16, was last seen on Aug. 6 around 12:30 a.m. local time near the Prosser Family Campground in the small town of Truckee, some 20 miles north of Lake Tahoe. "Her cellphone went dead and became virtually untraceable shortly after," Angela Musallam, public information officer for the Placer County Sheriff's Office, told ABC News during an interview that aired Aug. 9 on "Good Morning America."
A Bedford officer fatally shot a driver who fired at police after a car chase ended in Dallas early Saturday morning, according to Dallas police.

The suspect shot and wounded a bystander before the officer returned fire, according to the preliminary investigation, Dallas police said in a news release.

Dallas police officers were called about 1:20 a..m. to assist with a pursuit involving the Bedford Police Department and Dallas County sheriffs deputies, who were chasing two men in a vehicle, the release said.

The driver stopped in the 2300 block of North Stemmons Freeway and began shooting at the officers involved, Dallas police said. The passenger in the vehicle got out and surrendered.

A male victim who was behind the officers, inside a vehicle, was hit by the suspects gunfire, police said.

A Bedford officer returned fire, striking the driver, who was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the release.

The injured bystander was taken to a local hospital and was in stable condition, police said.

No officers were injured during this incident, and no Dallas police officers were involved in the pursuit or shooting, the release said.

This is a developing story. For the latest updates, sign up for breaking news alerts.
A bipartisan House delegation met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraines capital of Kyiv on Saturday as the countrys war with Russia approaches the five-month mark.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a statement along with the four other members of the delegation that they saw firsthand during their visit how Russian President Vladimir Putins war has failed to achieve its goals. The other members of the delegation are Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.).

Facing stiff Ukrainian resistance to its invasion, Russia failed to take control of Kyiv in the early weeks of the conflict and has lost roughly 15,000 soldiers in nearly 5 months of fighting, the director of the CIA estimated this week. Moscow has also drawn condemnation from international bodies and leaders around the world over its actions in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Finland and Sweden have moved to join NATO in response to the war, with the military alliance officially inviting both countries to join late last month.

Putins aggression has brought Ukraine and the other democracies of Europe closer together, not driven them apart, the lawmakers said. His contempt for the rules-based international order has resulted in devastating isolation for the Russian economy and renewed purpose for the NATO alliance.

The delegation members said the war has violently disrupted the lives of Ukrainian civilians and that they saw evidence of Russian atrocities in Irpin and Bucha, two cities in the province surrounding Kyiv.

Throughout the war, Russia has been accused of committing war crimes as soldiers have been documented targeting civilians and civilian buildings, kidnapping Ukrainians and raping women. Ukraine has pushed to hold Russia accountable for its actions in the war in the International Court of Justice for violating international law.

Four months since Vladimir Putins unlawful further invasion began, President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine continue to inspire the world with their courageous fight for their freedom, sovereignty, and democracy, the delegation said.

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The lawmakers said they will continue to seek ways to help Zelensky and the Ukrainian people as effectively as they can as they continue their brave stand.

Zelensky said in a Telegram message about the meeting that he is grateful for the $270 million security assistance package that President Biden announced for Ukraine on Friday.

The package includes four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and hundreds of tactical drones. About a third of the funding will go toward contracting up to 580 Phoenix Ghost unmanned aerial systems.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces especially need the HIMARS, shells and unmanned aerial vehicles.

We appreciate the help of the United States in defending our territory, our land and the Ukrainian people, he said.

The Ukrainian presidents office said in a statement that Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is leading the delegation.

The office said that Zelensky briefed the members of the delegation on the missile strikes that Russia launched against Ukraine in the past day, specifically targeting the port of Odessa. The city announced that four missiles were launched toward the port, but two were shot down before impact.

Zelensky noted that this happened just one day after Russia and Ukraine agreed to allow Ukraine to export grain internationally through its ports to address global food shortages.

This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it, he said. Geopolitically, with weapons, bloodily or not, but it has several vectors, as it always acts.

Zelensky also told the delegation about the planned reconstruction of Ukraine after the war ends, according to the statement. He said the first step is implementing the Fast Recovery Plan, which would focus on quickly restoring destroyed residential, educational and medical infrastructure.

We appeal to our partners, in particular the United States, with a proposal to take an active part in the implementation of this ambitious but extremely important project, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Google has fired one of its engineers who said the company's artificial intelligence system has feelings.

Last month, Blake Lemoine went public with his theory that Google's language technology is sentient and should therefore have its "wants" respected.

Google, plus several AI experts, denied the claims and on Friday the company confirmed he had been sacked.

Mr Lemoine told the BBC he is getting legal advice, and declined to comment further.

In a statement, Google said Mr Lemoine's claims about The Language Model for Dialogue Applications (Lamda) were "wholly unfounded" and that the company worked with him for "many months" to clarify this.

"So, it's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information," the statement said.

Lamda is a breakthrough technology that Google says can engage in free-flowing conversations. It is the company's tool for building chatbots.

Blake Lemoine started making headlines last month when he said Lamda was showing human-like consciousness. It sparked discussion among AI experts and enthusiasts about the advancement of technology that is designed to impersonate humans.

Mr Lemoine, who worked for Google's Responsible AI team, told The Washington Post that his job was to test if the technology used discriminatory or hate speech.

He found Lamda showed self-awareness and could hold conversations about religion, emotions and fears. This led Mr Lemoine to believe that behind its impressive verbal skills might also lie a sentient mind.

His findings were dismissed by Google and he was placed on paid leave for violating the company's confidentiality policy.

Mr Lemoine then published a conversation he and another person had with Lamda, to support his claims.

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An interview LaMDA. Google might call this sharing proprietary property. I call it sharing a discussion that I had with one of my coworkers.https://t.co/uAE454KXRB  Blake Lemoine (@cajundiscordian) June 11, 2022

His firing was first reported by Big Technology in its newsletter.

In its statement, Google said it takes the responsible development of AI "very seriously" and published a report detailing this. It added that any employee concerns about the company's technology are reviewed "extensively", and that Lamda has been through 11 reviews.

"We wish Blake well", the statement ended.

Mr Lemoine is not the first AI engineer to go public with claims that AI technology is becoming more conscious. Also last month, another Google employee shared similar thoughts with The Economist.

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BROCKTON  The South Boston man who was arrested in September of 2020 in New Hampshire for the fatal stabbing of a father of two outside the Stop 'N Gas station on Warren Avenue in August 2020, has been found guilty by a jury  after an eight day trial  of voluntary manslaughter, the district attorney's office announced Thursday.

The defendant, Cody Urban, now 25-years-old, stabbed the victim, Samuel Rutledge, 31, six times in the chest after an altercation at the gas station, The Enterprise reported at the time.

Police initially responded to Good Samaritan Medical Center on Aug. 23, 2020 at around 9:51 p.m. after receiving a report from hospital staff that a man who had been stabbed in the chest had arrived at the emergency room, according to the DA's office.

Earlier in the night, Rutledge and his girlfriend stopped to get gas and encountered a man, later determined to be Urban, blocking the pumps, prosecutors said. Rutledge got out of the car, where he and Urban argued, leading to a fight, which was captured on video at the gas station.

Cody Urban, 23 , of South Boston, was arraigned in Brockton District Court on Sept. 9, 2020 for the alleged murder of Samuel Rutledge of Brockton.

At one point, Rutledge is seen doubled over and says he has been stabbed, prosecutors said. In the video, the man Rutledge fought with ran to a white car.

It took Brockton and state police from both Massachusetts and New Hampshire 12 days before they found Urban in a Manchester apartment.

What $1M buys in Brockton area: 'Highly desirable' Easton Tanglewood Estates sold for $1M: June 6-10 real estate report

His lawyer, Neil Madden, said he was visiting a friend, not fleeing from the area at the time.

During his arraignment in September 2020, prosecutors said Urban has a criminal record, which includes several assault and battery charges, an 18-month sentence for possession of a loaded weapon and parole violations.

Chante Rutledge wears a button for her brother Samuel Rutledge of Brockton during the arraignment of Cody Urban, who was 23 at the time, of South Boston, in Brockton District Court on Sept. 9, 2020 for the murder of Samuel Rutledge.

Rutledge was a father to a 10-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl at the time of his death, family members said. He wanted to mentor youth and give back and was a talented musician and enjoyed his job at a warehouse, his family said.

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Persistence pays off: Brockton neighbors celebrate legal win in fight over dusty gravel pit

After the arraignment, family members and friends remembered Rutledge.

He was loved by many people, said his sister, Chante Rutledge. Were going to miss him a lot.

Urban's sentencing will take place on Aug. 4.

With reporting by Cody Shepard and Mina Corpuz.

Send your news tips to reporter Namu Sampath by email at nsampath@enterprisenews.com or connect on Twitter at @namusampath. Thank you, subscribers. You make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Brockton Enterprise.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton stabbing: Cody Urban convicted in murder of Samuel Rutledge
Jul. 22Boulder police have one person in custody and are investigating an assault in Central Park on Thursday.

According to a release, a couple visiting from out of state was walking on the bike path near the 1700 block of 13th Street when a man walked up and attacked the woman.

The suspect grabbed the 75-year-old woman by her hair and threw her to the ground. Passersby pulled the suspect off the woman and were able to detain him until officers arrived.

The woman was treated by medics at the scene and released.

The suspect, identified as James Moore, 24, was taken to the hospital for a medical hold and issued a felony summons for assault on an at-risk adult due to the age of the woman.

Police said Moore has no known ties to Boulder and no local address.

Anyone who witnessed any part of this incident or has information related to this investigation is asked to call Boulder police Detective S. Ramos at 303-441-3323 and reference case No. 22-06932.
While legally separated since 2016, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are not yet divorced  and are still fighting over assets.

Their current dispute regards the Chateau Miraval winery in Correns, France, where two got married in 2014, according to Vanity Fair. The former couple took control over the award-winning company and moved into its main chateau in 2008.

Pitt sued Jolie in February 2022 after she sold her stake in in the winery in October 2021 to Tenute del Mondo, the Stoli Groups wine division owned by Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler, according to People. Pitt alleged Jolies business Nouvel owed his Mondo Bongo company the right to first refusal on that sale.

The sale spawned a litany of lawsuits between the two in the U.S., France and Luxembourg, according to Page Six. Jolie won an important battle Friday in Los Angeles when a judge denied a request from Pitts legal team to refuse her subpoena to share related documents with Jolies lawyers.

The former couple, seen here in 2014, took control of the French winery and moved into its main villa in 2008. (Photo: Justin Tallis - PA Images via Getty Images)

The former couple, seen here in 2014, took control of the French winery and moved into its main villa in 2008. (Photo: Justin Tallis - PA Images via Getty Images)

Sources from both sides of the dispute told Page Six that Pitt believes retaining ownership of the company would be a wise business decision  while others claim his anger toward Jolie has impeded his business sense.

The 1,200-acre property itself, meanwhile, is certainly one to behold.

Chateau Miraval is not all vineyards and olive groves  it also contains pine forests, a moat, a fountain and private lake. Pitt and Jolie signed a long-term lease on the sprawling estate in 2008, when their neighbors included Johnny Depp and David and Victoria Beckham.

Pitt and Jolie purchased the 1,200-acre property for $60 million in 2012. (Photo: MICHEL GANGNE via Getty Images)

Pitt and Jolie purchased the 1,200-acre property for $60 million in 2012. (Photo: MICHEL GANGNE via Getty Images)

The former couple purchased the property outright for $60 million in 2012 and were wed in a 13th-century chapel on the grounds. Situated along an ancient Roman trade route, the villa was a huge draw in the 1970s when former owner Jacques Loussier, a musician, built a recording studio. Hits like Sades Sweetest Taboo and AC/DCs Heatseeker were recorded at the villa. Icons including Elton John, Morrissey and Belinda Carlisle held recording sessions at the chateau as well.

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As for Pitt, the actor told GQ in a June profile that he spent the last year searching for literal gold on the property. Pitt said he was told there were millions of dollars worth of gold hidden on the grounds by its medieval owners and became obsessed with the quest to find it.

While he came up short  and discovered that his source was merely an individual hoping to make him an investor in a radar company  Pitt fondly remembers the search as exciting.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
By RachnaManojkumar Dhanrajani and Lisa Baertlein

(Reuters) - Independent truckers who have been protesting at California's busy Oakland seaport over the past week against a new state law known as the "gig-worker" law took a break on Saturday, when the port business slowed to a crawl.

But some truckers said protests may resume on Monday when normal port traffic is scheduled.

"Protests are scheduled for Monday to Friday, as the port also does not have any major operations scheduled through the weekend," Bill Aboudi, owner of a trucking company and supporter of the protests, told Reuters.

The Port of Oakland's four marine terminals do not have scheduled operating hours on Saturday and the truck gates, too remain shut, Oakland Port's spokesperson confirmed to Reuters.

However, Oakland Port spokesperson also said operation of the terminals is leased out to companies that schedule their operations and may have been carrying out some shipping operations on Saturday morning.

Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT) is the largest, handling about 70% of the port's cargo. It is operated by SSA Marine, who did not immediately respond to Reuters request for a comment, outside of business hours.

"If the protests will resume or not on Monday, that shall be determined on Monday only as the truckers are in active talks with the concerned authorities," Aboudi said.

Operations at the Northern California port ground to a near standstill last week after protesters used pickets and tractor-trailers to block terminal gates. Work on ships and docks slowed after cargo flows stopped and hundreds of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members declined to cross blockade lines for safety reasons.

The Port of Oakland is a key hub for California's $20 billion-plus agriculture exports, which include almonds, dairy products and wine. The eighth-busiest U.S. container seaport, which also handles imports like coffee, electronics and manhole covers, was already working to clear a pandemic-fueled cargo backup before the trucker protests began.

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Independent truck drivers are opposed to California's labor law formally known as AB5. It would make it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors.

Truckers say the law will require them to spend thousands of dollars on insurance and equipment rentals like chassis to remain independent.

"AB5 is everything that obstructs a small truck business owner's ambition to live the 'American Dream,'" Aboudi said.

(Reporting by Rachna Dhanrajani in Bengaluru and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; editing by Diane Craft)
Black College of the Desert students receive $1,000 scholarships in Indio, Calif., on Thursday, April 28, 2022.

College of the Desert Superintendent/President Martha Garcia and a group of staff and students from the college's Black Student Success Center plan to attend an education summit this September at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana.

The 2022 All African Diaspora Conference is part of Ghanas Beyond the Return policy initiative, a 10-year project to engage people of African descent 400 years after the first records of enslaved Africans arriving in Jamestown, Virginia.

"This will benefit our Black, African, and African American population at College of the Desert by helping attendees and the other Black Student Success Center advisors to create a more Afrocentric space on campus," according to a COD board report. "Moreover, it will help our students connect to the roots from which their ancestors were stolen."

The COD Board of Trustees approved on Thursday a $22,000 budget to send Garcia, two professors, a counselor and three students associated with the Black Student Success Center to the conference.

After the conference, attendees will give a presentation about their experience to the Board of Trustees, and the Black Student Success Center intends to host various workshops discussing how they can introduce Black and African culture into a curriculum that is rooted in black excellence, according to Sara Butler, COD's interim vice president of instruction.

This past semester, two online COD events were disrupted by "lewd and racist behavior" targeting Black students, Garcia wrote in a campus-wide email to students and staff in April. One of the events was tied to Black History Month, and was forced to end early after individuals entered the Zoom room and wrote racial slurs on a screen visible to all participants. Both events were open to the public.

In April, the College of the Desert Foundation awarded $1,000 scholarships to 13 students affected by the racist incidents.

"I felt like I was a pot boiling over," Emmanuel Doublin, a Black student in his mid-forties studying studio arts, said in April. "It pissed me off. These guys would come trash an event I care about. Trash my heritage."

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He said the Black Student Success Center was a vital support to him after the racist incidents.

Talking through the events with his peers in the group and Jermaine Cathcart, the group's advisor, was like "a slow, gradual release," Doublin said. "The anger, the pain dissipated."

Palm Springs Life published a feature on Doublin and his impressive artwork earlier this summer. This fall, Doublin is slated to be one of the students attending the conference in Ghana.

More: Painting away the pain: Manny Doublin finds redemption and relief in unexpected places

Emmanuel Doublin, a 43-year-old COD studio arts student, is an active member of the Black Student Success Center.

"This trip to Ghana means a lot to me, and just shows how great not only our community is, but the support we have at COD," Doublin told The Desert Sun.

"Traveling to Ghana allows us students to get a glimpse at our roots and see the actual land where my people came from," Doublin added. "For Black people, our family lineage has been severed down the line due to slave trading. This trip to Ghana is very important in that it also provides an opportunity for Black students such as myself to heal generational trauma."

Jonathan Horwitz covers education for The Desert Sun. Reach him at jonathan.horwitz@desertsun.com or @Writes_Jonathan.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: College of the Desert group to attend education summit in Ghana
A convicted felon from Statesville was sentenced Wednesday to serve more than 12 years in prison for illegally possessing and selling guns, according to U.S. Attorney Dena J. King.

Anthony Dewayne Daye, 38, is also required to serve three years of supervised release.

ALSO READ: Man sentenced for selling 100+ machine gun conversion kits for AR-15-style rifles, court docs say

Between October 2020 and February 2021, authorities said Daye illegally sold over 20 firearms and ammunition in the Statesville area, and aided and abetted in selling other illegal guns.

The firearms he sold included handguns, ghost guns, rifles and semi-automatics and records show some of the guns were reported stolen.

Due to prior convictions, Daye was not allowed to possess guns or ammunition.

On Nov. 19, 2021, he pleaded guilty to illegally possessing and selling guns and aiding and abetting. Daye is in Federal custody and will eventually be transferred to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

(WATCH BELOW: Former Chester County sheriff, deputies sentenced on federal corruption charges)
Jul. 22CORINTH  A Corinth man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted of murder for a fatal shooting two years ago.

First Circuit District Attorney John Weddle said an Alcorn County jury found Isaiah Jerome Gunn guilty of first degree murder Thursday for the Oct. 24, 2020 killing of Brandy Leigh Mauney Smith, 40. Following the conviction, Circuit Court Judge Kelly Mims sentenced Gunn to life in prison.

Gunn was also convicted of attempted murder, aggravated assault and shooting into a dwelling. Those related charges dealt with other victims who were at the residence at the time of the crime. The judge sentenced him to serve a combined 30 years on the three felonies.

Assistant District Attorneys Kyle Robbins and Clay Cummings prosecuted the case.

william.moore@djournal.com
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner American Airlines aircraft near Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Fiumicino, Italy, on July 14th, 2022. Massimo Insabato/Getty Images

American Airlines CEO on Thursday said it could be years before flight capacity returns to normal.

It may take a year for capacity to stabilize for the airline's main routes, CEO Robert Isom said.

The airline recently canceled hundreds of summer flights amid an ongoing pilot shortage.

The CEO of American Airlines on Thursday said it could be two to three years before flight capacity returns to normal amid an ongoing staffing and pilot shortage.

CEO Robert Isom told investors that demand for flights has surged up while the supply of staff and pilots is struggling to keep up, NBC News reported.

Isom said it would take approximately one year to get the airline's main flight routes back to full capacity and two to three years for the regional routes.

"I think it's dependent on the supply chains of aircraft manufacturers and ultimately, pilot supply to get all back in sync," Isom said, per NBC. "From a regional perspective, it's just going to take a little bit longer than that, maybe 2 or 3 years, to kind of get the supply chain for pilots back to where we need it to be."

It comes after the airline canceled an additional 1,200 summer flights to minimize flight schedule disruptions, Insider previously reported. Allied Pilot Association, the union for American Airlines pilots, told its members that the airline was "once again acknowledging that they cannot honor their published schedule."

Summer travel on the airline (and most others) has been wrought with cancellations, delays, and lost luggage. One family described a frantic phone call from their 10-year-old daughter who was traveling as an unaccompanied minor when American Airlines canceled her connecting flight without informing her parents. Another couple described their flight being canceled twice, leaving them stranded in Mexico.

The airline recently offered pilots pay raises of up to $64,000 in an attempt to combat the shortage. Meanwhile, Allied Pilots union members are planning to picket in Chicago on July 26 to "send management a clear message" as they work to improve conditions for pilots.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police have identified 10 suspects and served 145 warrants in connection with a catalytic converter theft ring.

Catalytic converters  a round piece that connects two pipes  are part of a vehicles exhaust system that help turn pollutants into less harmful emissions. The devices contain precious metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium.

Police started seeing a large increase in catalytic converter thefts about a year and a half ago, Maj. Cecil Brisbon said in a video posted on CMPDs YouTube channel.

Folks were going out to their cars in the morning, starting their car and hearing these horrendous noises and realizing that somebody had cut something off their vehicle, he said.

An investigation earlier this month, called Operation Sawzall, led five arrests on July 8. A sixth suspect was already in prison, and four others are wanted on outstanding warrants in relation to the thefts, police said on Twitter.

Sawzall refers to the reciprocating saw thieves use to cut through protective covers.

CMPD also retrieved eight stolen converters and four vehicles believed to have been used in the thefts, Brisbon said. Some drugs and a couple stolen firearms also were found, Brisbon said.

In Charlotte-Mecklenburg 2,059 catalytic converters were stolen in 2021, and so far this year there have been 1,016.

CMPD does believe more individuals are involved with the theft ring outside of the 10 identified in Operation Sawzall, police spokesman Mike Allinger told The Charlotte Observer in an email.

These four vehicles are believed to have been used to carry thieves in a catalytic converter theft ring in July 2022, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said.

On Dec. 1, a new state law took effect that makes the theft of a catalytic converter a class I felony with a mandatory $1,000 fine, the Observer previously reported.

Brisbon said some vehicle owners can take measures to prevent the theft of their catalytic converters, include a shield for the converter.

Other suggestions from CMPD:

 Park in well lit and populated areas

 Pay attention to your surroundings and pay attention to any weird noises at night outside your home

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 Buy some catalytic converter covers to bolt over your converter

Staff writer Joe Marusak contributed to this report.
While it may be July, its also halfway to the holiday season. Next year, Disney Cruises will continue to offer magical experiences.

Disney Cruise Line announced its fall 2023 itineraries Thursday.

These include the special Halloween on the High Seas and Very Merrytime voyages.

Read: Coronavirus: CDC ends COVID-19 monitoring program for cruise ships

The ships will depart from Fort Lauderdale for the first time.

Halloween on the High Seas will be from September to October next year while Very Merrytime will set sail from early November to December 2023.

Read: New app to help guests find their car at Disney Parks

Both holiday cruises will have themed activities and festive decorations for the whole family to enjoy.

Disney Cruise Line will also introduce new destinations aboard the Disney Dream and set sail from New York City for the first time next year.

Read: Disneys newest cruise ship, the Disney Wish, arrives at Port Canaveral

The Disney Dream will find a new home in Port Everglades, where it will begin taking guests to tropical destinations in the western Caribbean and Bahamas in November 2023.

Cruise bookings will be open to the public starting Thursday, July 28, and more information can be found here.

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.
JetBlue A320 aircraft. Marcus Mainka/Shutterstock

JetBlue flight attendants who recently started their jobs say they face high accommodation costs.

Some who spoke to Insider said up to eight people were sharing a hotel room meant for four.

The workers say they are not getting assigned to flights, which affects how much they can make.

Traveling isn't what it used to be  airlines are losing passengers' luggage, canceling flights, diverting planes while in the air, and even asking people to get off a plane they just boarded.

Airline crew are also under pressure from this summer's travel chaos. Insider spoke to two JetBlue flight attendants  including one who recently resigned  who described their difficulties finding affordable accommodation after completing the airline's training and being assigned to a base.

Jiani Santana, who quit about two weeks after being assigned to Newark airport, said she had spent far more money on accommodation than what she had earned.

Another flight attendant, who did not want to be named, told Insider: "This was supposed to be a dream job for a lot of us, but we are living a nightmare. Most of us are practically homeless or living in a hotel with up to eight people in one room, barely surviving on the little bit of salary we make."

They fear they will be evicted from the hotel if management realizes how many people are staying in a room meant for four people.

JetBlue began flying from Newark, in New Jersey, in July 2020 and expanded last year but cut several routes earlier this year, according to Simply Flying.

One flight attendant said JetBlue was aware it could not cope with the influx of new crew. "We have spoken with union representatives and the crisis fund  no one is willing to help. All of the crashpads are full until September. We don't make much money as newbies, so we are splitting a room that is almost $3,000 a month."

The flight attendant added: "There are still quite a few of us here with no place to go. There are so many newbies that have quit already because they couldn't afford to stay."

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The worker also knows of colleagues who are breaking the rules by staying in airport crew lounges.

Santana said they were told not to worry about where they would be based until they completed the training. "You don't need to look for anywhere to stay right now, because you don't know if you're gonna pass," Santana said she was told.

Both Santana and the flight attendant said they were both on standby, like many others. They were paid $21 an hour before tax but were only guaranteed a minimum of 75 hours a month, which equaled $1,575.

However, Santana said she spent about $2,400 in about two weeks on accommodation, food and Uber trips.

Santana said she felt unsupported: "Everybody in management kept telling us it'll get better  it's just something you have to go through. I didn't get any flights. I was literally spending money that I wasn't making back in return."

The anonymous flight attendant added: "The biggest problem is that we are not flying. Our base is new so there are not as many flights."

A JetBlue spokesperson told Insider it did not provide housing for staff, but was offering confirmed seats on flights for those who decide to commute to their bases from other areas during the summer peak travel season.



"JetBlue has reduced its flying by more than 10% this summer to reduce operational issues, including cancellations and delays from weather and air traffic control programs," they added.

Receipts, a copy of a contract, and screenshots of a group chat have been viewed by Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Step back 300 years into colonial Latin America and the textiles are lavish, fashions often akin to couture, and who wore what was determined not just by what they could afford, but by class and race, too.

Its a setting the exhibit Painted Cloth: Fashion and Ritual in Colonial Latin America, opening Aug. 14 at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, will surround its visitors with.

More from WWD

Through garments, textiles, paintings and sculpture, this trip to 1700s Latin America (the last full century of Spains colonial reign in the region; it ended in the 1820s after more than 300 years) is an opportunity to revisit and revise a narrative shaped by colonial rule, and to understand the meaning of fabric and garments in life and religion during the period. With Indigenous groups, enslaved Africans, Spanish colonizers and their mixed-raced descendants intermingling in one form or another, its impossible for the story of fashion in the region to be told through Spains lens alone.

Fashion provided agency for all social sectors both in terms of race and class, and despite the goal of the Spanish authorities, who tried to restrict certain garments to specific social sectors, fashion was, as it is today, very fluid, Dr. Rosario I. Granados, Marilynn Thoma Associate Curator of Art of the Spanish Americas for the Blanton Museum, says. You can wear things to be perceived in the ways you want to be perceived and that was very much what happened in the colonial period. And I think its important because maybe that same conversation about how fashion allows you to navigate from different periods is something that [could help us] start having a conversation about race. Just as gender is very fluid, why dont we accept that race is also very fluid, that your skin color says something about you but doesnt limit you to what you need to be?

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The exhibition unfolds in five sections: Cloth Making, Wearing Social Status, Dressing the Sacred, The Holiness of Cloth and Ritual Garments. Pieces are culled from Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Venezuela and the American Southwest.

Not ignoring the conflict of highlighting a period that was the foundation of so many still-standing societal inequities in all places that experienced colonial rule, Granados writes in the exhibits accompanying catalogue that those living under Spanish rule  and bending those rules where dress was concerned  found ways to use fashion to deceive the system and turn it into their best interests.

Womans dress and petticoat (robe a la francaise), England, circa 1770, silk plain weave (faille) with metallic thread supplementary-weft patterning and metallic thread bobbin lace, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Costume Council Fund. - Credit: photo  Museum Associates/ LAC

photo  Museum Associates/ LAC

Citing historian Tamara Walker, who wrote in her own research that enslaved Africans were able to find their own agency by traversing the streets of Lima prominently in Spaniards sartorial elegance, which gave a nod to their masters status, Granados says the Wearing Social Status section of the exhibit shows Indigenous groups and those of mixed-race in other parts of Latin America also found ways to use fashion to navigate life.

In this way, fashion uniquely showcases how colonialism as well as agency were exercised in everyday life, Granados writes, adding, It offers a better understanding of the social fabric that led to the very need for sovereignty.

Rules dictated that certain races in particular should wear certain garments so the authorities could retain social and economic control over them.

A 1582 ordinance in Mexico City, for one, ruled that women who were not Indigenous could not wear traditional Indigenous clothing, like the tunic-like huipil and cueitl, a wrap skirt (which would have gotten them out of certain taxes the protected Indigenous populations werent liable for, among other freedoms).

Whats perhaps a full-circle moment with today, where artisanal and traditionally made garments are more widely appreciated (if not trendy), Indigenous garments were a status symbol during colonial rule (which Granados admits could have been considered colonial-era cultural appropriation).

On Display at Painted Cloth: De Lobo y Negra, Chino, Mexico City, circa 1775, oil on copper, 14 3/16  18 7/8 in., Museo de America, Madrid. - Credit: Javier Rodriguez Barrera

Javier Rodriguez Barrera

Non-Indigenous common women were expected to dress in the Spanish style, with an asayo (skirt), a blouse, a rebozo (shawl) and a tapapies (underskirt). Black women often covered their heads and upper bodies with the tapapies. Women with greater means might have a corset tied at the front of their blouse, nodding to the influence of French fashion. Indigenous male commoners wore straw hats, while nobility wore felt hats. And on and on went the distinctions.

Each group was supposed to wear specific things so they could be recognized, Granados says. The Spanish crown was very worried about how people were just mixing because it was not possible to tax them correctly because it was a problem of identifying in which box each [group of] people was, as it is today and as it is always. And I think this is a big difference to understand how colonialism worked differently in the Americas versus in the United States or India or any other colonial environment.

Some of these dress distinctions will be visible in the casta paintings on display at the exhibit. These paintings, intended to represent an ideal version of what colonial society was, according to Granados, depict different people with different ethnicities and wearing different fashions engaged in various activities corresponding to their class or caste, hence the genres name (e.g., nobility doing nothing, working class engaged in commerce). A series of similar-style pieces from Peru will be on display in the U.S. for the very first time at Blanton.

As these various ethnic groups continued to mix, and with Mexico City in particular a center for trade, so did the regions textiles  which visitors to the exhibition will be able to see, including a set of silk swatches from Mexico sent with official reports to the king of Spain  take on new traits and characteristics.

Traditional uncus, for instance, those tunics that were made in Peru that were so important for the Inca that were made with wool, they started to be made in cotton with silk embroidery. The huipiles that were made with cotton, they started to be made with silk. Also, the dyes were different. Silk was dyed with local insects, the cochineal [a red-hued insect], for instance. So there was a constant influence between each other, Granados explains. Were going to have in the show a painting of an Indigenous cacique, or leader, that is wearing a huipil, the very traditional womens attire, and its embroidered with an eaglethats a [Spanish] royal insignia, so there was constant influence.

There, again, is the often-contentious line between cultural influence and appropriation. But this exhibit isnt about digging into that controversy, rather educating to enlighten.

What Granados wants visitors to take away from the exhibit is a deeper understanding of the various influences on fashion and dress during colonial rule, which was by no means solely dictated by the colonizers. She also wants the industry to better grasp Indigenous groups contribution to fashion and textiles in the region, which remains a thriving industry today  not a niche to be noted only when a European luxury designer appropriates it for the runway.

These textile traditions have been changing constantly, but they were very much alive in the colonial period as much as they continue to be today, she says. [The exhibit] will also bring the conversation to what the colonial experience in Latin America actually was.

Its about visibility, and adding to fashions canon what has long been omitted in favor of Euro-centric narratives.

On Display at Painted Cloth: Inca anacu (womans dress), late 16th century, camelid fiber and cotton with embroidered-edge stitching, Brooklyn Museum, gift of Dr. John H. Finney. - Credit: Courtesy Blanton Museum of Art

Courtesy Blanton Museum of Art

Among the curators favorite pieces? A womans anacu (dress) made of camelid (a member of the camel family) fiber and cotton with embroidered edge stitching from the late 16th century, and a silk and cotton rebozo from the late 18th century. Of the latter, Granados says, It was not an object to be worn every day but it has images of [Mexico City] and I think it is very interesting how this particular rebozo, and also other ones that do that as well, they were used as objects to show the pride of Mexico City at the center of many influences, and you can see the embroidered figures are showing European and Indigenous fashion.

The Painted Cloth exhibition runs at the Blanton from Aug. 14 through Jan. 8, 2023. The accompanying coffee-table book of the same name, with deeper context for those who want to dig in, is available for preorder via the University of Texas Press and will be released in line with the exhibit. On Oct. 21, an adjacent symposium (via Zoom), The Fabric of the Spanish Americas, will bring together scholars from across the Americas and the U.K. to continue the exploration of the social role textile arts played in colonial Latin America.

I really hope it is just the starting of a larger and more meaningful conversation, Granados says.

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Firefighters battle a blaze near Yosemite on 22 July 2022 (AP)

An explosive and fast-moving California wildfire has challenged firefighters combatting a blaze that has grown to more than 10 square miles (26.5 kilometers) since it sparked on Friday afternoon, burning more than 6,500 acres and forcing evacuations near Yosemite National Park.

An update from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on Saturday describes the Oak Fire as extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching as the blaze reaches the Sierra National Forest.

Emergency personnel are working to safely evacuate people and are actively engaged in protecting structures. Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters, according to Cal Fire.

The fire  the largest among the states active wildfires  destroyed at least 10 residential and commercial structures and damaged at least five others as of Saturday morning. More than 6,555 acres burned by Saturday morning, with more than 400 fire personnel, 45 fire engines and four helicopters deployed to battle the blaze.

Several road closures include a portion of Highway 140, partially blocking access to Yosemite National Park.

The fire began Friday in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada near Midpines, roughly nine miles northeast from Mariposa, the seat of Mariposa County.

This video shows the devastation caused by the Oak Fire in Mariposa County in just a few hours. If you look closely, you can see fire crews working dangerously close to the flames, fighting to save lives and homes. Latest here:https://t.co/sR8XyYkZt9 pic.twitter.com/TEiYRAhzkj  ABC30 Fresno (@ABC30) July 23, 2022

It marks the third wildfire in the county in two weeks.

It is unclear what sparked the fire. Fire officials have reported that a combustible combination of intense heat, dry vegetation and intense drought have fuelled wildfire blazes that are difficult to get under control.

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An aerial view of the Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park shows smoke from the blaze above Yosemite Valley, California. (via REUTERS)

The states second-largest active wildfire, the Washburn Fire, has burned near the southern point of Yosemite for more than two weeks, burning nearly 5,000 acres, though officials report that it is 79 per cent contained.

Meanwhile, firefighters have made significant progress against a wildfire that began in Yosemite National Park and burned into the Sierra National Forest.

The Washburn Fire was 79% contained Friday after burning about 7.5 square miles (19.4 square kilometers) of forest.

That fire broke out on 7 July near Yosemite and forced the closure of the parks southern entrance and the evacuation of the town of Wawona as it threatened hundreds of giant sequoias.
The Hill

Fox News host Tucker Carlson predicted former President Trump will be indicted following a search at his Florida residence last week carried out by the FBI in connection with an investigation into classified information reportedly taken from the White House. Theres nothing to see here, thats the line, Carlson said on his show Monday, naming
PATERSON  The lawyer for the family of a man who has been missing since Feb. 2 sued the borough of Haledon this week to get documents about the police investigation into his controversial disappearance.

Felix DeJesus, a 41-year-old Haledon resident, was last seen on Feb. 2 after he was detained by two Paterson police officers after a disturbance in a city bodega and then dropped off blocks away at Westside Park, according to his family members and law enforcement officials.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday, said DeJesus family believes information in the missing person investigation file may help them find him. Haledon officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Haledon police have said five people saw DeJesus at the park after the police left him there on a freezing night wearing a T-shirt and pants. But Haledon police have not divulged the names of those people or exactly what they told investigators.

Felix DeJesus, 41, was reported missing by his family on Feb. 3.

The conduct of the two officers, who turned off their police body cameras while DeJesus was still inside their patrol vehicle, has been the subject of a Paterson Internal Affairs investigation, according to multiple sources familiar with the case. But the Passaic County Prosecutors Office has not acknowledged the existence of the IA probe.

An Open Public Records Request filed on June 16 by the familys lawyer, Jeff Patti, sought numerous documents from the Haledon police missing person investigation, including the witness interviews. But Haledon on July 12 denied Pattis request due to the fact that there is an ongoing investigation.

Prior to Pattis OPRA request, officials in Paterson had attempted to keep confidential the video recordings from the body cameras worn by the two cops who detained DeJesus. But a judge ordered the recordings be released after news organizations filed an OPRA lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Patersons law director, Aymen Aboushi, sent the Bergen County Prosecutors Office a letter on July 13 asking on behalf of the Paterson City Council that the Bergen County agency take over the DeJesus investigation. Aboushi based the request on the appearance of a conflict of interest because one of the officers is related to a council member in Paterson.

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Earlier:Paterson says radio transmissions in Felix DeJesus missing person case no longer exist

Authorities have not identified the cops by name. Neither did Aboushis letter. But Patti has said in a letter to the Attorney Generals Office that the officer in question is Jacob Feliciano, cousin of councilman Michael Jackson.

Jackson, who has been supportive of the DeJesus familys demands for answers over the past five months, acknowledged the appearance of a conflict and said he has no problem with the probe being shifted to the neighboring county. The Bergen County Prosecutors Office did not respond to a reporters message regarding Aboushis letter.

On Tuesday night, Jackson took exception with what he said was an increased police presence at council meetings since the DeJesus family began attending the sessions. The family members  who have attended every council session since February, repeatedly have engaged in angry verbal exchanges with city officials during the meetings.

Jackson said prior to the DeJesus case that there would be no officers at the councils workshop meetings and two officers at council business meetings. In recent months, the councilman said, there have been three cops at City Hall on meeting nights and sometimes additional officers outside the building.

Were taking officers off the streets when were already short, Jackson said.

During Tuesdays meeting, Jackson asked for an explanation for the cops, but none of the other officials provided him with an answer.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Missing person Felix DeJesus family sues Haledon NJ seeking records
Jul. 23TRAVERSE CITY  The Traverse City Pit Spitters played like All-Stars on Friday, scoring more than three runs in the third and six runs in the fourth to extend their winning streak to five games.

Before the Pit Spitters handled business, winning 12-3 against the Lakeshore Chinooks (26-24), CEO Joe Chamberlin announced Friday morning that Turtle Creek Stadium will host the 2023 Great Lakes All-Stars Game.

"We're excited. I think getting selected to host an All-Star Game always says something about your market, your region and ballpark," Chamberlin said. "For us, it's a signal that the Northwoods League thinks very highly of Traverse City and Turtle Creek Stadium."

Traverse City (28-21) has become a place for locals to spend their summer nights. On average, Turtle Creek Stadium has welcomed more than 2,000 fans, but Friday's game alone had north of 3,000 in the stands.

Next year is the first year that there will be two All-Star Games, with the Great Plains Division game in Bismarck, North Dakota, because the Northwoods League is expanding.

Many of the players heard about the news and have echoed Chamberlin's remarks about Traverse City being a destination for the All-Star Game.

"This place has been awesome all year. Friday, Saturday. Thursday through Saturday. Every game is just awesome," Pit Spitters third baseman Sam Tackett said. "The environment, I mean, you're sitting here playing in front of 4,000 people. I mean it's a cool experience."

While the All-Star Game isn't until next year, many of the players were making a case for an early roster spot. Players like Brennen Dorighi, who started for the Spitters earlier this month.

Dorighi finished the game with two RBIs after a single in the seventh, extending the score to 11-2.

Dorighi got the Spitters moving in the third inning after a two-run RBI double after the Chinooks scored first in the top of the third on a sacrifice out, but that wouldn't be enough. In the three games, Traverse City has tacked on more than seven runs.

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The Colorado native started with the Spitters in early July after rehabbing his thumb, but since then, Dorighi has exploded into a reliable player.

"I think it's just settling in and confidence of getting to know my teammates and getting to know the Northwoods pitching in general," Dorighi said.

The Spitters got their six runs in the fourth with Alec Atkinson scoring the first of six runs after stealing first on a wild pitch but would add another stolen base to his season total of 12.

Colin Summerhill and Marshall Toole added more runs with a pair of RBI singles. Tackett finished the inning with an RBI double, making it 9-1.

For any pitcher, having a lead this size allows them to go out and perform. Morgan Lunceford pitched five innings and allowed one run, striking out four and walking one. As for Lakeshore, they fleshed out their bullpen just to contain the damage.

Traverse City was able to add to the blow with a Camden Traficante RBI double and Dorighi RBI single, making it 12-3 in the seventh.

Lakeshore tried to make a game of it, but the Spitters continued to go streaking across the Northwoods League with their fifth straight win.

"I mean, it is just taking one game at a time. Especially out here, since you are playing every single day," Tackett said. "You just got to stick to your routine and do it."

The Pit Spitters in the last 10 games are 8-2. They look to extend their streak against the Battle Creek Battle Jacks on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
An Oklahoma man claiming to be a film financier has been sentenced in Florida to nearly 22 years in federal prison for participating in a scheme to steal more than $60 million from investors and producers seeking financing for movies and Broadway shows.

Jason Van Eman, 44, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was sentenced Thursday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, according to court records. A jury found him guilty in May of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to court records, Van Eman and co-defendant Benjamin McConley, operating as Weathervane Productions, offered to provide financing to investors and producers seeking funds to produce motion pictures, theater performances and other projects. McConley and Van Eman promised the victims they would match their cash contributions and use the combined funds to secure financing from financial institutions in South Florida and elsewhere, investigators said.

Read: Mega Millions: Still no winner as jackpot soars to $790 million

Benjamin Rafael, a former Wells Fargo bank employee recruited by McConley and Van Eman, furthered the scheme by lying to victims about the security of their funds, prosecutors said. Victims lost millions of dollars and their contributions were never matched. Instead of financing projects, the money was transferred to personal and corporate bank accounts and spent on luxury automobiles, personal watercraft, real estate, stocks, jewelry, home furnishings, designer clothes, hotel accommodations and air travel, prosecutors said.

Read: Florida unemployment rate falls to 2.8% in June

Eman was sentenced on Thursday to 21 years and 10 months in prison. On a previous occasion, McConley was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Rafael previously pleaded guilty to his part in the scheme, as well as another case involving fraudulent applications for COVID-19 relief loans. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Story continues

Read: Orlando bike groups voice safety concerns in proposed Robinson Street redesign

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Their bodies were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Des Moines.

Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead Friday in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safetys division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown.

We dont know what led up to this, what precipitated it, he said, adding that so far, the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.

Adam Morehouse, Sarah Schmidt's brother, said the family had no connection to Sherwin and he believed it was a completely random act.

Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green, who said he is a neighbor of the Schmidts, posted on Facebook on Friday that the couple's 9-year-old son, Arlo, survived the attack, and is safe. The post did not say whether Arlo was in the tent or even at the campsite when the shootings happened, and the mayor told the AP he didn't have those details.

Morehouse confirmed Arlo was on the family's camping trip, but said he did not know exactly where the boy was at the time of the shooting or know specifics about how it unfolded.

He is with family and he is OK, but I have not had any interaction with him, Morehouse said Saturday. As far as I know, he was uninjured physically.

By Saturday evening, more than $75,000 had flowed into a GoFundMe page created for Arlo. The page, organized by a cousin, Beth Shapiro, said: Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can. The page says the fund will help Arlo now, and help fund his future education.

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The killings prompted the evacuation of the park and campground, including a children's summer camp. After the evacuations, Sherwin was the only person unaccounted for, Mortvedt said.

He said that during the course of the investigation, authorities learned Sherwin was armed and that of course heightened our awareness. Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit and provided no information about the firearm used to kill the Schmidts.

The Des Moines Register reported that Sherwin was from La Vista, Nebraska. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten told the newspaper that Sherwin lived in an apartment complex with his parents and had no history of criminal conduct.

Felicia Coe, 35, of Des Moines, was at the campground Friday morning with her boyfriend and his two sons, ages 11 and 16. She said the 16-year-old went out early to go running, and she was talking with someone at the park at about 6:30 a.m. when two park rangers dressed in helmets, vests and carrying what looked like automatic rifles told them to leave the campground.

More law enforcement and an ambulance showed up as Coe went to find her boyfriend's teenage son.

At the time, Coe did not know what happened. But she recalls seeing a little boy standing near the paramedics.

He was in his pajamas. I distinctly remember he had one blue tennis shoe, she said. She later saw a picture of the Schmidt family online and said she recognized the boy she saw as Arlo.

Hes got this really cute, floppy-curly, moppy, strawberry-blond hair thats really distinguishable, Coe said. He was in these super cute little pajamas, like a cotton T-shirt and shorts that matched. ... He was just standing there. He wasnt crying. He wasnt distraught. But he also wasnt being comforted. He was just standing there by himself.

She said the campers got little information about what happened and she began piecing it together on the drive home.

Its hard to be so grateful that it wasnt your family, when you know that another family, is just being ripped apart  multiple families," she said.

Green, the Cedar Falls mayor, said Sarah Schmidt worked at the city's Public Library, which was closed Saturday.

Like many of you just hearing the news, Im devastated, Green wrote on Facebook. I knew Sarah well, and she & her family were regular walkers here in the Sartori Park neighborhood. I was working with her this week on a public library tech presentation for 7/26.

Morehouse said Tyler Schmidt's parents live in the Cedar Falls area, and Sarah Schmidt's family members are scattered around the country, but were heading to Iowa. He said Tyler and Sarah lived in Lawrence, Kansas, for a time, where Sarah worked at the University of Kansas. Tyler was an IT software engineer. At one point, he said, Sarah worked on a project about monarch butterflies, and the couple were huge Kansas Jayhawks fans.

In 2018, the Schmidts moved to Cedar Falls and had been active in the community ever since, Morehouse said. He said they loved the outdoors, and just got four pairs of snowshoes for Christmas.

The best way to describe all four of them was the quintessential Midwestern family. They gave everybody everything they possibly could. They loved family ... They enjoyed the outdoors, enjoyed the hiking  and this is just a question mark of Why that campground and that campsite on that night?"

___

Forliti reported from Minneapolis.

___

An earlier version of this article misspelled Lula Schmidt's first name.
Hundreds of people protested Saturday in Tunis against a draft constitution put forward by President Kais Saied, demanding his resignation two days before Tunisia votes on the disputed charter.

The referendum will take place a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament in a decisive blow against the country's often chaotic young democracy.

"Get out", the demonstrators yelled as they waved Tunisia's red-and-white flag at a gathering on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the capital.

"The people want the fall of Kais Saied; the people want the fall of the constitution," chanted those who rallied in response to a call by the National Salvation Front (FSN) opposition alliance.

Among the demonstrators, who numbered fewer than 1,000, were elected officials of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, the political rivals of Saied.

Tunisia is preparing to vote Monday on a draft constitution that would enshrine the vast powers that Saied has exercised since he sacked the government and suspended parliament on July 25 last year.

His move was seen as a decisive blow against the crisis-ridden political system in Tunisia, and his rivals allege his constitution aims to restore an autocracy.

"A year has passed and Saied has failed to manage the country and present a clear vision," Imed Khemiri, spokesman for Ennahdha, told the crowd.

Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, a veteran opposition figure, also addressed the gathering that was closely monitored by police.

"Saied will get a good slap on Monday because the people will show him they're not interested," he said.

The new text aims to replace the mixed presidential-parliamentary system enshrined in a 2014 constitution, which saw Tunisia praised as the sole democracy to emerge from the 2011 Arab uprisings.

The leader of Saied's "new republic" would have ultimate executive power and would appoint a government without the need for a confidence vote in parliament.

The president would also head the armed forces and appoint judges, who would be banned from striking.

Opponents have called for a boycott of Monday's referendum, but while observers have predicted most Tunisians will snub the poll, few doubt the charter will pass.

kl/fka/dv/hkb
Bega Cheese Limited (ASX:BGA) shareholders (or potential shareholders) will be happy to see that insider John Forrest recently bought a whopping AU$15m worth of stock, at a price of AU$3.25. Aside from being a solid chunk in its own right, the deft move also saw their holding increase by some 15%.

See our latest analysis for Bega Cheese

Bega Cheese Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent purchase by insider John Forrest was not the only time they bought Bega Cheese shares this year. They previously made an even bigger purchase of AU$108m worth of shares at a price of AU$5.41 per share. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price of AU$3.40. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price.

While Bega Cheese insiders bought shares during the last year, they didn't sell. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership of Bega Cheese

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Bega Cheese insiders own 11% of the company, worth about AU$114m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

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What Might The Insider Transactions At Bega Cheese Tell Us?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. Once you factor in the high insider ownership, it certainly seems like insiders are positive about Bega Cheese. Nice! If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Katherine Ryan is pregnant with her third child, the star revealed on an episode of her podcast. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Stand-up comedian Katherine Ryan has announced that she is expecting her third child.

The 39-year-old star gave birth to son Fred in June 2021 after rekindling her relationship with childhood sweetheart Bobby Kootstra and the couple are now preparing for another new arrival.

Read more: Katherine Ryan reveals son is potty trained after just eight months

Ryan revealed on her podcast Telling Everybody Everything that she was still breastfeeding Fred when she found out she was pregnant again.

"One day I'm walking around and I feel, you know, damp. And I felt a little more attractive than usual. I thought, well, let's wait and see, let's track all the things," she said.

Watch: Katherine Ryan reveals son Fred was almost born in car

Ryan added: "I thought maybe I'm getting my period. And I didn't expect to get a period this month as I could because these things have to even themselves out after your first period when you're breastfeeding.

"Soon after, days later I had a positive pregnancy test."

Read more: Katherine Ryan worried pregnancy announcement would hurt career

Ryan explained that she would not be revealing her due date or how long she had been pregnant, but said she and Kootstra had decided to try again soon after Fred was born.

She said: "I thought 'we've got to get the kids out of the way'. You never know how long you're gonna have and I love my kids. I just thought: 'Well, let's go for it'."

Katherine Ryan and Bobby Kootstra entered into a civil partnership in 2019. (Getty)

As well as her son with Kootstra, Ryan has a 13-year-old daughter named Violet from a previous relationship.

The star reconnected with Kootstra when she travelled back to her hometown in Canada as part of the filming process for Who Do You Think You Are?, exploring her family history.

Read more: BBC defends Katherine Ryan gag amid complaints

Ryan recently launched her Prime Video fly-on-the-wall series Backstage With Katherine Ryan, in which she lifts the lid on the atmosphere behind the scenes at a comedy show.

She is also set to join forces with Joe Wilkinson for Channel 4 series Bargain Holidays, which follows the duo as they try to track down the best cheap getaways.

Watch: Katherine Ryan's daughter intervenes to stop fight at comedy show
CANADA-INDIGENOUS-SCHOOL-GRAVE

People from the indigenous community hold up their drums as they gather at Place du Canada, the site of the former statue of John A. Macdonald, in Montreal, Quebec, on July 1, 2021. Credit - Andrej IvanovAFP/Getty Images)

On July 24, Pope Francis will begin a weeklong trip across Canada that he called a pilgrimage of penance to meet with Indigenous communities and formally apologize for the rampant abuse and cultural genocide, at residential schoolsran by the Roman Catholic churchwhere more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly enrolled.

In late March, delegates of the three largest Indigenous groups in CanadaMetis, Inuit and First Nationsmet Pope Francis in the Vatican, and the Pope issued the first-ever official apology from a Pope to Canadas Indigenous community. During the meeting, the Pope said that he would aim to travel to Canada to begin a process of reconciliation and healing.

Unfortunately, in Canada, many Christians, including some members of religious orders, contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation that in the past gravely damaged native populations in various ways, Pope Francis said in a public statement in Vatican City last week.

Heres what you need to know about the visit:

Why the Pope is visiting Canada

Pope Franciss trip comes roughly a year after the remains of more than 1,000 people, primarily children, were discovered on the grounds of former residential schools across Canada, notably in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The unmarked, mass burial sites sparked national outrage over Canadas long history of abuse and death that took place at residential schools.

At the schools, children faced emotional, physical and sexual abuse from school authorities, oftentimes clergymen who worked there. Unsafe living conditions and abuse resulted in an undocumented number of deaths at the schools that went mostly unreported. Indigenous communities have long called for a papal apology taking accountability for the churchs involvement.

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The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, went into effect in 2007. Along with financial compensation for former students, investigations into individual physical and sexual abuse allegations, funding for health and healing programs and commemoration of the hardship the schools caused, the settlement called for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The TRC was a Canadian government commission created to examine the effects and legacy of the Indian Residential School system and to outline solutions that dont erase the history of Indigenous suffering. The commission highlighted the churchs role in the residential school system and advocated for then Pope to make a statement.

We call upon the Pope to issue an apology to Survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Churchs role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children in Catholic-run residential schools. We call for that apology to be similar to the 2010 apology issued to Irish victims of abuse and to occur within one year of the issuing of this Report and to be delivered by the Pope in Canada, the TRC wrote in its Calls to Action in 2015.

The Pope will visit Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit, three culturally significant locations with large Indigenous population, on his trip. In a unique diplomatic fashion, the Pope wont be meeting with Canadas head of state, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, until halfway through the trip.

Read More: Indigenous Groups in Canada Want More Than Apology During Popes Visit

The first pope to hail from the western hemisphere, Pope Francis, born in Argentina, has been credited for being more vocal about Indigenous rights than other prominent figures in the Catholic church have.

The fact that the church deals with this is going to be really important. On Sunday, this should be discussed in every pulpit across the country for Catholic people. The priests should be explaining what this means to the Catholic people so that they turn their actions around as individuals, Bill Erasmus, Canadian Chair for the Arctic Athabaskan Council and former Dene National Chief, tells TIME. Thats the only way this will have any impact and meaning.

What to know about the Roman Catholic Churchs abuses in Indigenous schools

The residential school system, which was established by the Canadian government, was a network of boarding schools across Canada, and for years attendance was mandatory for all Indigenous children. The schools have thorough documentation of wide-scale physical, sexual and psychological abuse issues that traumatized generations of Indigenous children.

Myself, I didnt go to a residential school. My father had to go. He experienced it, and he didnt want that for us, says Erasmus. I didnt experience it, but Im the next generation. Its intergenerational, it affects all of us.

The Catholic church operated about 70% of residential schools in Canada from the 1880s to the 1990s. Beyond a rudimentary general education, indoctrination into Christianity and Euro-Canadian customs took precedence in the schools

If you study how Indigenous lands were invaded or colonized, theres a pattern that involves the church, says Erasmus. Its because our people already knew spirituality. They already had their own belief system and they werent about to argue about god when other spiritual people came amongst them, so they accepted Christianity to a large degree, but then they were lulled into what happened to them.

The residential school curriculum was designed to eradicate all aspects of Indigneous culture, according to the University of British Columbia article. Siblings were separated from each other and Indigenous languages, customs and traditions were banned. Children also endured overcrowding, poor sanitation, insufficient food and healthcare and concerningly high death rates, the article reported. In 1907, a Canadian government inspector reported that 24% of previously healthy Indigenous children were dying in residential schools.

The schools also had coursework teaching trade skills and manual labor, but the practice was generally regarded as a method to enforce social order and to contain Indigenous people to lower-working-class jobs.

What Indigenous communities want from his visit

Indigenous Canadians across the country are grappling with what the Popes visit could mean for them. Some feel that its a hollow gesture in many ways, while others look forward to it as an opportunity to find peace.

Chief Doris Bill of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation emphasizes the importance of healing that this trip offers for many survivors. The Kwanlin Dun First Nation delegation is bringing counselors and medical professionals in case the event is triggering or overwhelming for any survivors.

Im a survivor myself, there are about 49 of us from our First Nation that came down. It was interesting because at 4:30 this morning we had to be at the airport and everybody was excited and smilingit was really something, says Bill. I think everybody has different expectations for what this trip means to them. My hope is that this helps them on their healing journey. For some, the apology means a great deal and I really hope that it helps them move forward and leave all of that negative stuff behind.

Erasmus shares that although an apology is necessary, people may or may not be ready to accept. It remains to be seen if the Catholic church and other authorities complicit in Indigenous oppression will continue to listen to Indigenous communities and help them recover, Erasmus says.

When it comes to the church, the government cant be left out of this. One of the big issues here in Canada, also in the U.S., [is that] the Catholic church was paid by the government to care for our children in schools, says Erasmus. Its deeply rooted, its systemic. Its in the laws, its in the worldviews of Canada.

Indigenous leaders and advocacy groups also continue to point out issues with the Doctrine of Discovery, the legal precedent that gave European governments and the Catholic church justification to colonize Indigenous land. In 2016, the Catholic church issued a public statement about the Doctrine of Discovery acknowledging its role in the oppression of Indigenous people, however the doctrine has never formally been renounced.

Part of the message that the First Nations of Canada brought to the Pope when they met earlier this year is that they also have to dismiss the Doctrine of Discovery, which basically says that our people were discovered by others and because we were not Christian at contact, others had the legal obligation to occupy our lands, says Erasmus. Part of that is the perpetuation of the myth that we gave up our lands or that we were conquered. We were never conquered. We entered into treaties, which are peace and friendship.

The Popes visit to apologize for a long and devastating history of abuse against Indigenous people in Canada is the first step in his goal to make amends.

When the council talked about this, for us it was a no-brainer. We have to support our survivors. This could be a real watershed moment for some people in helping them to move forward on their road to healing, says Bill.
Kristin Cavallari expressed her concerns about raising children during the age of social media.

The Laguna Beach alum, who shares three children with her ex-husband Jay Cutler, appeared this week on Marie Claires She Pivots podcast with host Emily Tisch Sussman. She shared that she worries that her kids  and especially her daughter James, 6  will be subjected to unrealistic body expectations from the images they see on social media.

Sharing that she was once scary skinny but didnt realize it at the time, Cavallari explained, I don't think being super thin is healthy or good look, and I have a daughter.

She pointed out that its now so difficult with girls and young women especially who are looking to Hollywood and the celebrities and Instagram for ideas of how they should look.

[There are] all these apps now, you can change your face, you can change your body, nothing is real that we see on the internet, The Hills star said. And I just think that it's important to remind these young kids that you know, you can't, you're chasing something that's unrealistic.

In a recent interview with Insider, the Uncommon James founder also expressed her desire to make sure her children grow up with a healthy body image.

"I have a daughter and I think it's very difficult now for everybody, but especially girls growing up and looking at social media. This idea of body image is just so warped," she explained. "And I just worry about these young girls and so I think it just needs to be a bigger conversation about being OK gaining weight and not focusing on a number on the scale."

Cavallari has celebrated her own body recently as well: Earlier this summer, she opened up in an Instagram post about how she was working hard with a personal trainer to put on muscle weight after getting too thin from stress.

"I am 35, I'm a mom to three kids," Cavallari wrote in her post. "That doesn't mean that I can't show off my body and be proud of it. I've gained a lot of muscle weight. I work really hard on my body and I think that's something to celebrate, not something to be ashamed of."

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
Maura Healey Erick Russell Zooey Zephyr

From left: Candidates in line to make history this year include Maura Healey, running for governor of Massachusetts; Erick Russell, up for Connecticut treasurer; and Zooey Zephyr, running for Montana state representative. Photos courtesy LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Its once again a record election year for LGBTQ+ candidates.

There are at least 1,008 out candidates running this year, surpassing the record of 1,006 set in 2020, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which supports out candidates who are also qualified and viable.

Were excited to continue making historic firsts, Sean Meloy, Victory Funds vice president of political programs, tells The Advocate.

The field this year is significantly more diverse than previous ones as well. We have a lot of folks whove stepped forward to represent the most underrepresented parts of our community, Meloy says. There are over 100 more LGBTQ+ people of color running in 2022 than in 2020, a 58 percent increase from that year and a 225 percent increase from 2018.

Fifty-five transgender people are running in 2022, a 62 percent increase from 2020 and a 15 percent increase from 2018. There are 20 gender-nonconforming candidates, compared to none in 2020 and two in 2018. There are also 103 bisexual candidates, a 32 percent increase from 2020 and a 264 percent increase to 2018.

Since 2020, there has been a 73 percent increase in LGBTQ+ people running for federal office, a 12 percent increase in out candidates for state legislatures, and a 543 percent increase in LGBTQ+ candidates for statewide office.

Visibility and participation in the political process are especially important at a time of escalating political attacks on LGBTQ+ people, Meloy says. If were not in the room, were not going to be able to respond, he says.

Victory Fund President and CEO Annise Parker made that point as well in a Victory Fund press release. The writing is on the wall for the LGBTQ community and our allies: Our rights are on the ballot this year, she said. The people we elect this cycle will make decisions about what our kids are allowed to learn and say in the classroom, what health care choices people will be allowed to make about their own bodies and possibly, whether we will continue to be allowed to marry those we love. With more LGBTQ people running than ever before, this election also brings incredible opportunity to elect fiercely pro-choice, pro-equality leaders up and down the ballot. The LGBTQ leaders we elect will not only be critical voices in halls of power across the country, their success will be a deafening rebuke to the wave of hate impacting our community.

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So far, Victory Fund has endorsed 314 candidates this year, with more likely to come before November. The organizations criteria, in addition to being out, include supporting reproductive choice and other privacy-related rights; endorsing the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community; being qualified for the office sought; and having a viable campaign plan.

Numerous Victory Fund-endorsed candidates stand to make history this year. Maura Healey in Massachusetts and Tina Kotek in Oregon could become the nations first lesbian governors. Jared Polis, seeking reelection in Colorado, would be the first out gay man elected to a second term.

Dana Nessel, a lesbian, is seeking reelection as Michigans attorney general; shes only the second out AG in the nation (Healey was the first). In Arizona, Kris Mayes, another gay woman, is running to be that states first out attorney general. There are some others running for statewide offices, such as Erick Russell, a gay man running for Connecticut treasurer; hed be the first Black member of the LGBTQ+ community to hold statewide office.

Several states are likely to elect their first out members of the U.S. House, including Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, and Vermont. State legislatures in Minnesota, Montana, and Pennsylvania stand to have their first trans or nonbinary members.

For people with political aspirations, there are opportunities before 2024, Meloy notes. Many school boards and city councils hold elections in odd-numbered years, and those bodies can be a good place to start ones political career, he says. For those interested in those races, he suggests receiving training through Victory Institute (Victory Funds sister organization) or another group, studying the issues, forming a message, and making a campaign plan. A lot of that is knocking on doors and knowing your neighbors, he says.

For those who want to support candidates, campaigns always need volunteers to make phone calls, go door-to-door, and more, and above all, its important to register and vote.

Meloy adds that even with the record number of candidates this year and more than 1,000 out politicians in office nationwide, the U.S. is far from having proportional representation of the LGBTQ+ community. We need to elect 35,000 more LGBTQ people to have parity, he says. But this years record field provides a chance to work toward that.
Vanessa Bumpus, exhibit coordinator, and Curator Shelley Cathcart stand with Worcesters version of Rosie the Riveter, a uniform worn by a female welder who worked for the St. Pierre Co. during World War II, Thursday at the Worcester Historical Museum.

WORCESTER  Worcester's first selfie. A 167-pound monkey wrench. And the city's version of Rosie the Riveter.

What do these all have in common?

Theyre part of a new exhibit, We All Got History...Worcester at 300," at the Worcester Historical Museum to honor the citys 300th anniversary that is being celebrated this year.

It opened this month, there is free admission through August, and the exhibit runs through September.

This is something people can relate to. There are newer acquisitions and old favorites," said Vanessa Bumpus, the museum's exhibit coordinator.

Brie Goldberg holds up her daughter Phoebe OHara, 3, in a mirror on display to reflect visitors history at the Worcester Historical Museums newest exhibition, We All Got History Worcester at 300, on Thursday.

Housed in one room, Bumpus said it was difficult to narrow down the museums vast stock of collectibles to succinctly represent 300 years of history.

There are photos culled from the museum's collection that numbers 500,000, including what could be the citys first selfie, taken by the late photographer Kazar Sarkis Melikian (1890-1969).

Another photo is quite whimsical, taken by the late Edwin Bradley Luce (1863-1938) that shows a cat wearing glasses, with its paws hanging on the open pages of a book.

Bumpus explained that every photo selected shows the subject - whether human or feline - looking directly into the camera. The goal is to connect photos to visitors, to create a sense of shared experience.

Lots of ephemera

One section includes a bench and table from the El Morocco restaurant, a popular nightspot that closed for good in 1994. There's also a 20th-century porcelain toilet with an inlaid design made by the former Baker Lead Manufacturing Co.

"Its thoroughly cleaned, said Bumpus with a smile.

Don't miss the 167-pound, 6-foot-long monkey wrench made by the Coes Wrench Co.

The 167-pound, 6-foot-long monkey wrench made by the Coes Wrench Co.

Once used to change steel wheels on railroad cars, Bumpus said its one of only three wrenches of its type and size made by Coes that are still in existence. Worcester inventor and manufacturer Loring Coes patented the monkey wrench design in 1841.

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Old and new

Old items are present, including what Bumpus called one of the oldest pieces of furniture in America, a 16th-century chest that belonged to Mercy Hurd when she immigrated from England to Massachusetts.

We dont open it. Its so fragile, said Bumpus.

One new item is the museums most recent acquisition, a welding uniform worn by women who worked at the St. Pierre Manufacturing Corp. during World War II. The family-owned wire rope maker is still in business in the city.

The Mercy Hurd chest dates to the 16th century.

"Im fascinated by the uniform, said Bumpus, who said 500 women worked at the factory during the war. Its physical evidence that women kept industry going, which kept the city going.

Beer, not for consumption

Redemption Rock Brewing Co. produced three new beers to mark the citys 300th birthday. Two  Rescue from Oblivion and Made in Worcester  each have an empty can on display.

We chugged them before they went into the exhibit, said Bumpus with a chuckle, noting both beers are available locally on tap.

A third beer that Bumpus believes will be called Salisbury Old Ale to honor the 250th anniversary of the Salisbury Mansion, could be available in September.

Stark reminder of tragedy

A driver-side door of a Worcester police cruiser is displayed, on loan from the Worcester Police Department. It's full of signatures from police officers nationwide who paid tribute to Enmanuel "Manny" Familia, a Worcester officer who drowned last June at Green Hill Pond while attempting to save the life of a drowning teenager.

Also on view are memorial tablets saved from the demolition of the Elks Quinsigamond Lodge No. 173, also known as the Black Elks, once located in the citys Laurel/Clayton neighborhood, a Black district destroyed by the construction of Interstate 290 and Plumley Village.

Museum staff are researching the names on the tablets, said Bumpus, to secure a clearer picture of their lives and contributions to the city.

Constant change

Just like Worcester's history that is constantly changing, the museum collection is evolving. Staff continue to seek information, perspectives and historical donations from the public to reflect the past, present and what will be considered important in the future.

One section of the exhibit, titled "Whats Next," asks visitors to apply sticky Post-It notes to the wall to suggest what the museum needs to round out Worcesters history.

There is no story that is not important...We want people to come here and share their stories, said Bumpus.

Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @henrytelegram

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester tercentennial history museum
IRYNA BALACHUK  SATURDAY, 23 JULY 2022, 08:32

On 22 July, the Armed Forces of Ukraine repelled Russian attempts to advance in the direction of Verkhnokamianske, Luhansk Oblast, and Siversk, Donetsk Oblast, from the city of Lysychansk.

Source: Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Haidai: "The enemy takes turns attacking different areas situated on the administrative border between Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts, and sometimes attacks several areas at once, all from the city of Lysychansk. On 22 July, the Russians attacked along at least two axes. The Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled the assault operations on Verkhnokamianske and Siversk."

Details: The head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in the vicinity of Slovianoserbsk.

On 22 July, the Russians used aircraft [to conduct airstrikes on Luhansk Oblast - ed.], carried out two artillery attacks, and attempted four mortar attacks.

Haidai also said that the Russian forces were beginning to feel less confident in the cities and villages they have recently captured, where about 10-15% of the local population remains.

According to the head of the military administration, for the most part, the remaining residents are the elderly and the so-called "zhduns" [literally, "waiters"  people who are waiting - ed.]. But the Russians see enemies even among them, Haidai said, citing the fact that Russian forces created a checkpoint in Sievierodonetsk in order to restrict freedom of movement in the region; local residents will be issued passes at this checkpoint [presumably determining the scope of their allowed movements - ed.].
President Emmanuel Macron on Monday begins a three-nation tour of western African states in the first trip to Africa of his new term as he seeks to reboot France's post-colonial relationship with the continent.

Macron will begin his July 25-28 tour, also the first venture outside Europe of his new mandate, with a visit to Cameroon, before moving on to Benin and then finishing the trip in Guinea-Bissau.

Top of the agenda in the talks will be food supply issues, with African nations fearing shortages especially of grain due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

But security will also loom large as France prepares to complete its pullout from Mali this year, with all countries in the region seeking to head off fears of Islamist insurgencies.

The trip to three countries which rarely feature on the itinerary of global leaders comes with Macron, who won a new term in April, pledging to keep up his bid for a new relationship between France and Africa.

France has also followed with concern the emergence of other powers seeking a foothold in an area Paris still considers parts of its sphere of influence, notably Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but also increasingly China and Russia.

- 'Political priority' -

The tour "will show the commitment of the president in the process of renewing the relationship with the African continent", said a French presidential official, who asked not to be named.

It will signal that the African continent is a "political priority" of his presidency.

In Cameroon, which has been riven by ethnic violence and an insurgency by anglophone separatists, Macron will meet President Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled the country for almost 40 years and is the longest-serving non-royal leader in the world.

Biya has run the country with an iron fist, refusing demands for federalism and cracking down on the rebellion by separatists.

Macron will move on Wednesday to Benin, a neighbour of Africa's most populous nation Nigeria. The north of the country has faced more deadly attacks, with the jihadist threat now spreading from the Sahel to Gulf of Guinea nations.

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He is likely to be lauded for championing the return in November of 26 historic treasures which were stolen in 1892 by French colonial forces from Abomey, capital of the former Dahomey kingdom located in the south of modern-day Benin.

Benin was long praised for its thriving multi-party democracy. But critics say its democracy has steadily eroded under President Patrice Talon over the last half decade. Opposition leader Reckya Madougou was sentenced in 2021 to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges.

On Thursday, Macron will finish his tour in Guinea-Bissau, which has been riven by political crisis at a time when its President Umaro Sissoco Embalo is preparing to take the helm of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

- Rethink strategy -

With all the countries criticised by activists over their rights records, the Elysee has insisted that governance and rights issues will be raised, albeit "without media noise but in the form of direct exchanges between the heads of states".

Macron's first term was marked by visits to non-francophone African countries including regional powerhouses Nigeria and South Africa as he sought to engage with the entire continent and not just former French possessions.

Benin is a former French colony, but Guinea-Bissau was once a Portuguese colony while Cameroon's colonial heritage is a mixture of British and German as well as French.

Macron meanwhile has insisted France's military presence in the region will adapt rather than disappear once the pullout from Mali is complete.

He announced last week that a rethink of France's presence would be complete by autumn, saying the military should be "less exposed" in the future but their deployment still a "strategic necessity".

The pullout from Mali follows a breakdown in relations with the country's ruling junta, which Western states accuse of relying on Russian Wagner mercenaries rather than European allies to fight an Islamist insurgency.

jri-dab-sjw/imm
Jul. 23MARIETTA  A Cobb County judge has sentenced a Columbus man to 15 years in prison for sexual assault of a child, the Cobb County District Attorney's office announced Friday.

Originally arrested in December of 2020, Trevon Lamar Teague entered a guilty plea for aggravated child molestation on July 12, according to Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady. As part of the plea, the 22-year-old received a forty-year sentence, with 15 of those years to be served in prison, without the possibility of parole.

Teague was originally charged with four counts of aggravated child molestation and four counts of aggravated sodomy, according to the Cobb County Sheriff's Office. Teague's address is listed as Fort Benning, the U.S. Army post near Columbus, in jail records.

The sentence was handed down by Assisting Superior Court Judge Tambra Colston.

The charges against Teague stem from allegations dating back to 2019, when Teague was accused of assaulting an underaged male victim over the course of several years. In May of 2019, the victim, then 12 years old, informed his parents of the abuse, and parents called local law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

"This defendant preyed upon this child for many years," Broady said. "This sentence holds him accountable for his unconscionable actions. We pray this will be one of the first steps in healing for the victim."

Teague is currently incarcerated at the Cobb County jail.
PROVIDENCE  A man was in the hospital with serious injuries after he was shot Saturday afternoon at a gas station on Smithfield Avenue, according to police.

The man was shot at about 4:15 p.m. at Quality Fuel, said Providence police Maj. David Lapatin. Lapatin said police have not made any arrests in the shooting. An investigation continues.

More: Kayaker drowns at Lincoln Woods State Park

More: Deaths of Cumberland couple ruled murder-suicide

More: Two men cited for posting white nationalist flyers in East Providence appear in court

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Man shot at Providence, RI gas station, police say.
The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/GettyConcerns are swirling within the Kremlin and splashing onto the screens of Russias tightly controlled state media. Moscows grueling invasion of Ukraine and Washingtons potential designation of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism are at the top of the listbut the upcoming U.S. elections are likewise causing some heart palpitations.Having gotten over their initial shock over the FBIs search of Donald Trumps Florida estate, Russian ex
Good Morning America

In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America," Amber Escudero-Kontostathis sits down to talk for the first time about being the sole survivor of a lightning strike near the White House earlier this month, on her 28th birthday, and her road to recovery. "I don't remember much of that day at all," Escudero-Kontostathis told "GMA" in her first interview since the incident. On Aug. 4, Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, was canvassing outside the White House for Threshold Giving, a nonprofit organization through the International Rescue Committee that helps refugees, when she and three others took cover underneath a tree at Lafayette Square after it began to rain.
Moms mobilized by COVID school closures have channeled their energy into politics, and not just by electing officials they agree with  now they're recruiting and running for positions themselves. The group "Moms for Liberty" started in the wake of school closures and grew due to curriculum inclusions on gender and sexuality that many parents were unaware of until they became more involved.

"Parents realized that this American government does not work well without us," said Tiffany Justice, one of the co-founders of the group. "And while we were busy raising our kids and working, we saw during COVID that elected officials abdicated their authority."

Justice's group held their first annual event in Tampa, Florida, over the weekend to help train, recruit and educate parents who want to get more involved in their local school boards or even run for office themselves.

"Parents are ready to take the reins in school districts across the country to sit on school boards," she said. "And we feel like we were able to give parents a lot of good skills, tips and resources to be able to be effective candidates as well."

SAN DIEGO PARENTS FURIOUS AS SCHOOLS RETURN TO MASK MANDATES AND REMOTE CLASSES: WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP

Esther Wells, a parent in Maryland and a school board candidate decided to run after her children  including one with disabilities  had extended virtual-only school.

"With the virtual-only option, my son lost all of his resources and has significantly regressed in his schoolwork," she said Monday on "FOX & Friends First." "And that's when I said I needed to step up as a mom and run for the Board of Education."

Parents say the issue of school closures may have faded from the headlines, but they are still seeing the effects on their kids and are pointing the blame straight at elected officials at the time. One official who kept schools open in his state amid much criticism, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., spoke at the Tampa event. He said that as a result of the state's decision, their students are largely on track academically while other states that did lengthy remote learning are behind.



"In Florida, over the last two years, there's been no increase, no widening of the achievement gap, between rich, poor, black, white," he said. "Because we had kids, and you know what, the California school closures and all these other places, you know, that hurts disadvantaged kids the most."

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BIDEN'S BREAKTHROUGH COVID INFECTION: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM' IS HE IS PUSHING 80 YEARS OLD, SAYS RILEY

But Democrats are fighting back against the idea that they don't want open schools or parent involvement. Last month, the Biden administration launched the National Parents and Families Engagement Council to link families and educators together and involve parents more in their child's education.

"The Council will help foster a collaborative environment where we can work together to serve the best interest of students and ensure they have the academic and mental health support they need to recover from the pandemic and thrive in the future," said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a statement last month.

President Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona deliver remarks during an event for the 2022 National and State Teachers of the Year in the East Room of the White House in Washington on April 27, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Conservative groups, however, are pushing back against that council, labeling it as yet another instance of political bias, which they say violates federal law. Fight for Schools, Parents Defending Education and America First Legal are suing over claims the members of the council are all Biden allies and Democratic donors. The lawsuit alleges the councils members are allies of the Biden administration and that nearly 80% of their leaders have donated to Biden or other Democrats.

Justice says she hopes the agency gets back to focusing on educating rather than activism.

"Parents want the unions and the Department of Education to get back to focusing on teaching and learning or to get out of the business of education," she said.
Jul. 22While the entire Miami Valley is now under high risk for COVID-19 according to the Centers for Disease Control, many area colleges and universities are not requiring masks or vaccines for all students on campus.

That trend has continued from last spring, when most universities and colleges in the area dropped mask mandates after the Omicron peak passed. But some universities are putting new precautions in place due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and the changing nature of new variants, which are more easily spread.

Cases and hospitalizations from COVID-19 have skyrocketed in the last three weeks, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Cases have risen by 41% across Ohio and hospitalizations rose by 68% compared to three weeks ago. Many counties, including Montgomery, Greene, Butler, Clark, Champaign, Darke, Miami, Preble and Warren are labeled high risk by the CDC.

All the universities and colleges surveyed said they would continue to look at the spread of COVID-19 around the region and make decisions based on COVID-19 data.

Most universities surveyed  Central State University, Clark State College, Wright State University, University of Dayton, Ohio State University, Sinclair Community College and Edison State College  do not require masks, but do recommend them to be worn indoors, especially as COVID-19 cases climb. Miami University is requiring masks indoors at the red, or high-risk, level of COVID-19 spread in Butler County.

More universities are requiring students be vaccinated against COVID-19 than are requiring masks on campus. Ohio State and Miami require all students be vaccinated. Wright State requires student employees and all employees be vaccinated. Incoming students at UD are required to upload proof of vaccination, as are students living on Central State's campus.

"While it feels like COVID is in the past, we are still seeing cases on and off-campus," said Jessica Stark Rivinius, spokeswoman for Miami University. "Continue to take precautions and test if you have symptoms  it may not be a cold or allergies."

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University of Dayton officials said incoming students will get an email next week outlining what the students and their families need to know about coming to campus. The university dropped a requirement for employees of the university to be vaccinated in January.

The three community colleges do not have a vaccine mandate, other than in health care settings. Each college said they would continue to monitor the situation, but community colleges don't typically have as many students living close together in a dorm setting as the region's universities do.

"Based on the information available at this time, we are proceeding with caution, similar to this past spring," said Matt Franz, senior vice president for technology, safety and strategic initiatives at Clark State College. "We are in frequent contact with local health officials and meet regularly to assess the impact of the disease on students and operations."

Cathy Petersen, spokeswoman for Sinclair, said the college is closely monitoring the situation, but noted Sinclair has a lot of flexibility in how it can deliver classes.

"COVID-19 is still here, and new variants are emerging," she said.
Police say a sheriffs deputy in North Carolina was shot in a struggle with a car-theft suspect.

The Sampson County Sheriffs Office tells news outlets that the deputy was shot in the leg with her own service weapon during the struggle and is expected to recover.

The sheriffs office said the deputy, Caitlin Emanuel, responded to a vehicle theft outside Roseboro around 2 a.m. Saturday.

ALSO READ: Video shows Gastonia police officers shoot man while responding to kidnapping call

She called for backup, and another deputy who responded saw that she had been shot in the leg.

Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said the suspect put Emanuel in a stronghold when she approached him after spotting the stolen vehicle.

Police arrested a 36-year-old Pennsylvania man within three hours of the shooting. The sheriffs office did not specify the charges against him.

Emanuel was flown to a hospital for surgery and described in stable condition. She has been with the sheriffs office for more than 2 years.

(WATCH BELOW: CMPD officer shot in leg in NoDa, police say)
Jul. 23TUPELO  With her elected post on the line, a pair of rulings by Circuit Court Judge Paul Funderburk has cleared the way for City Councilwoman Nettie Davis to face a trial before a jury of her peers on misdemeanor criminal charges.

In an order dated Tuesday, Funderburk denied a motion brought by Davis asking that her criminal charges of participating in an illegal election lottery be dismissed.

The circuit judge on the same day denied a motion brought by the Office of District Attorney John Weddle requesting that Davis face a bench trial with a judge deciding the verdict, not an 12-person jury.

In a brief order denying the district attorney's motion, Funderburk ruled that Mississippi's constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial for anyone criminally charged by indictment.

Funderburk ruled the same way on identical motions involving Charles Penson, a local minister and political operative who faces the same misdemeanor charges of proposing or conducting an unlawful lottery as a voting incentive.

Weddle told the Daily Journal he's now trying to get a trial scheduled for Davis.

"We're going to have to see what dates Judge Funderburk has available, and then we'll go from there," Weddle said.

The circuit court judge issued a longer order dealing with the motions of Davis and Penson to dismiss. Jim Waide, a criminal defense attorney representing both defendants, had argued that the law used to charge them is unconstitutional.

Davis faces charges that she violated a law that prohibits "offer[ing] any prize, cash award or other item of value to be raffled, drawn for, played for or contested for in order to encourage a person to vote or to refrain from voting in any election."

Several days before Tupelo's municipal general election in June, Davis solicited donations for a raffle intended to award cash prizes to people who voted in the general election. Davis has said the raffle never occurred.

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Waide had argued that the offer of money in these circumstances should be regarded as political speech and that a prohibition on election lotteries therefore violates the constitutional guarantee of free speech.

However, Funderburk ruled that the state law in question serves a "compelling interest in preserving the integrity of elections."

The charges lodged against Davis and Penson are only misdemeanors and carry no possibility of jail time. Instead, both could face maximum fines of $5,000 if convicted.

However, a conviction would trigger the removal of Davis from her elected office on the Tupelo City Council.

caleb.bedillion@djournal.com
Gavin Newsom Photo by David McNew/Getty Images

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed Senate Bill 1327, a gun control law modeled on the Texas abortion ban known as SB 8, CNN reported. Both pieces of legislation rely on private citizens, not police, to enforce the law.

Specifically, SB 1327 empowers Californians to bring civil action  for a minimum of $10,000 per gun  against licensed dealers who sell firearms to people under 21. It also allows for lawsuits against anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports, or imports assault weapons or ghost guns in California.

Newsom's comments on the bill suggest that it's intended less as a serious piece of legislation than as an way of proving a point. "We believe this will be litigated in the Supreme Court and we believe the Supreme Court will be challenged. Because if there's any principle left whatsoever  and that's an open-ended question with this Supreme Court  there is no way they can deny us the right to move in this direction," Newsom said after signing the bill.

The California gun law contains a provision that would make it "inoperative upon invalidation" of the Texas abortion law.

The U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Supreme Court have both rejected challenges to SB 8, but the fall of Roe v. Wade (1973) may have rendered the point moot. Texas is now able to enforce its pre-Roe abortion law, which bans the procedure at all stages unless the life of the mother is at risk.

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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 ...
Jul. 23A 56-year-old Bonners Ferry man who shot and killed the driver of a pickup truck in which he was riding was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison.

The first-degree murder sentence stems from an incident on April 13, 2021, while Victor Claus was a passenger in his Toyota Tundra heading north on U.S. Highway 95 near Athol, according to the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office. Claus shot Melyssa Schloe, 45, of Sandpoint, in the back of the head with his Glock .45 pistol as she was driving 70 mph on the highway, the release said. Claus had a blood alcohol level of 0.32.

After Schloe was shot, the truck crossed the median, nicked a motorcyclist and then struck another vehicle, inflicting serious injuries on the driver of that vehicle.

The matter went to trial April 25 and lasted eight days, the prosecutor's office said. The defense asserted Schloe shot herself.

Claus will be eligible for parole in 2047.
Ben Frazier of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville says We are encouraging residents to register to vote before the July 25th deadline this Monday.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

The Coalition will be registering people to vote at Lonnie Miller park on Saturday between 2pm and 5pm.

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Its very important that people register to vote because the fundamental rights of Black Voters are under attack in Florida said Frazier.

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

A local civil rights activist says The upcoming August 23 primary election is very important; and could change the political landscape in Duval county in the years to come.





Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Oklahoma tourism entities win awards

The Oklahoma Travel Industry Association recently held its annual RedBud Awards ceremony, recognizing numerous tourism groups throughout the state.

The awards recognize Oklahoma's top tourism attractions, events, programs and organizations for outstanding efforts to serve and promote Oklahomas tourism industry.

This years RedBud Award submissions were highly competitive, said Debra Bailey, Oklahoma Travel Industry Association president and CEO. With travel picking back up, each submission is an example of why Oklahoma is a perfect travel destination and we are thrilled to be honoring these entries.

Competition entries must have been produced, published, broadcast or held between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2021. All entries were evaluated by a slate of tourism professionals on specific criteria, including customer service and experience, marketing effectiveness, media relations, variety of audiences reached, value and overall creativity.

Winners included:

Outstanding Agritourism Attraction

 RedBud: Simply Country Ranch.

Best Social Media Campaign

 Merit: Visit Norman  2021 Visit Norman Digital Social Media Campaign.

 RedBud: Visit Ponca City  Whats Happening in Ponca City.

 RedBud: Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism  Visit Cherokee National Virtual Video Series.

Best Brochure or Publication ($10,000 or less budget)

 Merit: Visit Shawnee  Shawnee Twin Lakes Brochure.

 RedBud: Oh18  Oh18 Magazine May through June 2021.

Best Brochure or Publication ($10,000 or more budget)

 Merit: Visit Stillwater  Stillwater Guide to the Local Scene.

 RedBud: Chickasaw Country  Chickasaw Country 2021 Travel Guide.

Best Overall Marketing Campaign (Small budget organization)

 Merit: Visit Claremore  Visit Claremore FY 21  22 Strategic Marketing Plan.

 RedBud: Tour Tahlequah  Tour Tahlequah Marketing Campaign.

Best Overall Marketing Campaign (Large budget organization)

 Merit: Visit Norman  2021 Visit Norman Marketing Campaign.

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 RedBud: Visit Stillwater  Visit Stillwater Marketing Campaign.

Best Website

 Merit: Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum.

 RedBud: Visit Shawnee.

Best Partnership

 Merit: Visit Claremore & the Board of County Commissioners of Rogers County.

 RedBud: Edmond Fine Arts Institute & Visit Edmond.

Outstanding Media Coverage

 Merit: Visit OKC.

 Merit: Chickasaw Country.

 RedBud: First Americans Museum.

Outstanding Attraction

 Merit: Visit Claremore  Claremore Mountain Bike Trails.

 RedBud: Shangri-La Resort  The Anchor at Shangri-La Resort.

Outstanding New Attraction

 Merit: Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism  Cherokee Nation History Museum.

 RedBud: First Americans Museum.

Outstanding Temporary Exhibit

 Merit: General Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum  9/11 Never Forget: 20th Year Memorial.

 RedBud: Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism  Sequoyah: An American Icon.

Outstanding Event

 Merit: Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma  Annual Choctaw Nation Pow Wow.

 RedBud: Citizen Potawatomi Nation  FireLake Firelight Balloon Festival.

Outstanding New Event

 Merit: Dancing Rabbit Music Association  Dancing Rabbit Music Festival.

 RedBud: Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism  Cherokee Syllabary Bicentennial.

Best Pandemic Related Campaign

 Merit: Visit Muskogee  Depot Green District: Summer Fun 2021.

 RedBud: Visit Claremore  Visit Claremore Wish You Were Here Campaign.

Tourism Organization of the Year (Small budget organization)

 RedBud: Visit Shawnee.

Tourism Organization of the Year (Large budget organization)

 RedBud: Visit Norman.

OU students get grant for invention

Four biomedical engineering students at the University of Oklahoma hope their invention will help those diagnosed with Parkinsons disease or a tremor disorder.

Their invention is called SteadiSpoon, a self-stabilizing eating utensil that helps Parkinsons and essential tremor patients to feed themselves despite hand tremors, said Jacob Nichols, of Ardmore.

Our team designed SteadiSpoon to empower people with tremors to regain the agency, autonomy and dignity that comes from feeding oneself. Unlike other devices, the SteadiSpoon is self-stabilizing and does not require batteries, Nichols said.

In April, Nichols, Andrew Daniel, Jiahui Mao and Ethan Trotter were awarded a $5,000 VentureWell E-Team Grant for SteadiSpoon. Raleigh Dewan, of Austin, Texas, is the entrepreneur behind the invention. The prototype was created by the four students in the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering in the Gallogly College of Engineering.

Yo Shih serves as director of the Center for Human Performance at the OU Health Sciences Center.

The students were persistent during the process to execute their ideas and seeking out the best way to test their hypothesis. It was a pleasure to work with these young creative minds who devote themselves to solving real-world problems, she said.

OU professor wins Catalysis Award

The 2022 Robert B. Anderson Catalysis Award from the Chemical Institute of Canadas Catalysis Division was presented to University of Oklahoma engineering professor Daniel Resasco for his research that deepens the understanding of chemical reactions in the production of sustainable energy.

The award, named after a prominent Canadian catalysis researcher, is given to an internationally recognized leader in the field of catalysis.

Resasco was distinguished for advancing solutions for a lower-carbon future, including catalytic conversion of biomass feedstocks to carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals, a news release stated. Among the various fundamental aspects of the reactions investigated by Resasco and his group is the molecular interactions occurring at the solid-liquid interfaces that determine the performance of the catalyst and govern the type of products that are obtained. Resasco, a professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, joined the OU faculty in 1993 and holds the inaugural Gallogly Chair of Engineering.

He specializes in the study of catalysts and nanomaterials for commercial and industrial applications. He is the author of more than 300 publications, holds more than 40 industrial patents and has received about 30,000 citations in scientific literature.

He recently received the Excellence in Catalysis Award by the Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York.

To be considered for this column, please email achievement announcements and photos to LLynn@Oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Community achievers: Tourism awards, grant recipients, professor honor
Jul. 23Plans are taking shape for Old Navy to debut at Nez Perce Plaza in Lewiston.

A building permit application has been submitted to the city of Lewiston for a 12,496-square-foot structure to house a location of the national clothing chain with 60 parking spots. The permit application is currently under review.

Attempts by the Tribune to get comment from Old Navy were not successful.

The store would be located between Village Centre Cinemas and Ulta at 2638 Nez Perce Drive. The cosmetics store debuted in 2019 and was one of the last additions to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley's retail scene, which has contracted in the last five years.

Macy's, J.C. Penney, Rue21, Bi-Mart and Kmart are among the stores that have left the area as part of reducing their brick-and-mortar footprints. Shopko's Lewiston store closed when the chain folded nationwide.

Old Navy is a brand of Gap Inc., which describes itself as the "largest specialty apparel company in the U.S."

It was started by Don and Doris Fisher with a single store in San Francisco in 1969, selling men's Levi's jeans, tapes and records.

In North America, the company now has 1,258 Old Navys, including one that opened in Moscow in 2007, 512 Gaps, 445 Banana Republics and 231 Athletas.

In recent months, Gap Inc. has faced challenges. It had a loss of $162 million for the 13 weeks that ended April 30, compared with earnings of $166 million for the same time last year, according to its May 26 earnings report.

The business has "grappled with supply chain obstacles," according to a July 11 CNBC story.

"An imbalanced mix of clothing sizes, following a push into plus-size styles, coupled with an uptick in price-lowering promotions put a dent in Old Navy's performance," according to the story.

Earlier this month, Gap Inc. announced its president and CEO, Sonia Syngal, was stepping down and being replaced with Bob Martin, Gap Inc.'s board chairperson, on an interim basis. She had been in the position since March 5, 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started. Martin is a 40-year industry veteran with experience at Dillard's Inc. and Walmart, where he served as CEO of its international division, according to a news release from Gap Inc.

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At the same time, Gap Inc. shared that Horacio "Haio" Barbeito, a 26-year Walmart executive, would start Aug. 1 as president and CEO of Old Navy.

Barbeito was most recently president and CEO of Walmart Canada, where he oversaw more than 70,000 employees and "drove significant growth in the online business," according to the Gap Inc. news release.

At Old Navy, Barbeito has been tasked with leading efforts to deliver on its "unique value proposition, offering style, fit, quality and cultural relevance at jaw-dropping prices," according to the news release.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.
Jul. 23TUPELO  Oxford police say they have made an arrest in connection with the disappearance of a missing Ole Miss student.

Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., 22, of Grenda has been charged with murder in connection with the July 8 disappearnance of Jimmie "Jay" Lee, the Oxford Police Department announced on Friday.

According to a release from the police department, investigators have yet to locate Lee's body.

As of Friday afternoon, Herrington was being held without bond.

"This is still an ongoing investigation and updates will be given at a later date," the release reads.

Lee was last seen leaving the Campus Walk Apartments on July 8 at 5:58 a.m. His black 2014 Ford Fusion was towed from the Molly Barry Trails apartment complex Friday afternoon. Officials believe Lee may have been visiting someone at the apartment complex at the time of his disappearance. The car was taken to the state crime lab in Jackson for processing.

On July 14, Oxford police released a recording featuring Lee's father, Jimmie, pleading with the public for help in finding his missing son.

Lee is a Jackson native and public policy major. He's a graduate of Murrah High School.
Pat Benatar is taking a stand.

The rock singer, 69, shared in a new interview that she will no longer be performing her hit song, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," on her current tour with husband Neil Giraldo.

"If we dont play them, youll give us (a hard time)," she told USA Today. "Were not doing Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and fans are having a heart attack. And Im like, Im sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, Im not singing it."

Pat Benatar halts performances of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." Kevin Mazur

In the wake of recent mass shootings, Benatar said she just can't perform the tune from her album "Crimes of Passion," telling fans, "If you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it"

TIM MCGRAW, CHRIS PRATT AND SELENA GOMEZ LEAD STARS SPEAKING OUT ON TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING

"(Hit Me With Your Best Shot) is tongue-in-cheek, but you have to draw the line. I cant say those words out loud with a smile on my face. I just cant," Benatar said.

"Im not going to go on stage and soapbox  I go to my legislators  but thats my small contribution to protesting. Im not going to sing it."

Benatar and Neil Giraldo are on tour and will be dropping her hit song from their set list for remaining dates. Rick Diamond

The rock legends decision comes after the tragic May 24 Uvalde school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

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The shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is the third most deadly school shooting in American history, following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 28 and the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 that killed 33.

Benatar also spoke about the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade during her interview.

Benatar also spoke about the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade during her interview. Medios y Media

"Im worried, like all of us, about fundamental autonomy rights. This is a slippery slope. Its not about abortion for me," she said. "Im concerned that people are not paying attention to what this actually means."
A 23-old was killed after being shot at a Thorntons gas station and convenience store on Eagle View Boulevard at Bell Road in the Antioch area on Friday.

Kentrail Williams died shortly after arriving to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, police said. The shooting was reported just before 7:30 p.m.

Police didn't immediately identify a suspect. Police believe the victim was targeted.

Williams was inside the store. When Williams went outside the store, the shooter opened fire, according to the initial police investigation.

Crime: Man, 28, killed after gunfire at Mapco on Gallatin Pike South in Nashville

The shooter fled in a white sedan, police said. Police and fire department personnel tried to give aid to the victim.

Anyone with information can call 615-742-7463.

Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on Twitter @ AndyHumbles.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Police: 23-year-old killed in shooting at Thorntons in Antioch
Jul. 23Spokane police arrested a man last week described as a "prolific identity thief" who purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods from a number of retail stores.

Azariah Hulsey, 43, was arrested on July 14 for charges relating to an "extensive scheme" of identity theft and the use of fraudulent checks, police said on Friday.

Hulsey is said to have purchased more than $30,000 worth of goods from retail stores using stolen or forged checks and then verifying the checks using fake IDs, police said.

Spokane police investigators discovered that Hulsey used 25 forged checks in the names of four victims at 18 businesses during a period of nine weeks, police said. According to police, Hulsey would obtain the victims' identities through various means and then manufacture realistic ID cards using a photograph of his own face and the victims' information on the card.

Hulsey was arrested when he arrived at a local business to pick up something he had purchased with a forged check, police said. He was booked into the Spokane County Jail on 47 charges that include theft, identity theft, forgery and criminal impersonation.

Police said that Hulsey is a six-time convicted felon with a history of forgery, possession of a stolen vehicle and theft.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas was joined by a special birthday buddy during her 40th-birthday getaway  her daughter, Malti Marie.

On Friday, the "White Tiger" star posted pics from her dreamy birthday bash in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on Instagram  and one of the images showed her and husband Nick Jonas toasting Malti Marie on her 6-month birthday.

In the shot, Chopra Jonas, wearing sunglasses and a yellow head wrap, holds baby Malti Marie, who's dressed in a cute pink tutu and a shirt that boasts "6 months." Proud dad Jonas, 29, stands alongside the two holding a piece of birthday cake in honor of his little girl.

Photograph of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas with their baby. (priyankachopra / via Instagram)

Just a girl and her birthday squad! Chopra Jonas captioned the festive gallery. So grateful and thankful to be surrounded by so much love and to be able to spend time with my nearest and dearest. (Even though a lot of them flew in from very far).

The actor went on to credit her hubby with executing the most incredible celebrations during the getaway. Words are not enough to thank you for the most memorable birthday you really know how to love baby, she wrote, adding, Im a lucky girl.

Chopra Jonas also thanked friends and family members for their lovely DMs, surprises, calls, texts, and big hugs that made the day even brighter and made me feel truly special.

Thank you everyone who reached out, it means the world, she added. Heres to the beginning of the rest of my life.

Jonas, who tied the knot with Chopra Jonas in 2018, commented to tell her, Love celebrating you.

The couple welcomed Malti Marie together in January.

Earlier this week, Jonas honored his wife's 40th birthday by posting his own set of images from her birthday celebration on Instagram.

The musician shared a photo of the pair kissing on a beach and another of them embracing as they watch fireworks. In a third pic, Jonas holds a commemorative towel reading "Priyanka! The Jewel of July est. 1982."

"Happiest birthday to my  the jewel of July. So honored to be on this crazy ride called life with you. I love you," he captioned the collection.

Chopra Jonas made her feelings known in the comments of her husband's post. Love of my life," she wrote.
A Peking University professor has been accused of academic fraud after a background check revealed that her doctoral degree was obtained from a fake university in Europe.

The professor, 58-year-old Chen Chunhua, is being questioned after it was discovered that her doctoral degree was issued by an unlicensed university 21 years ago. Chen stated in her professional biography that she received her doctorate of business administration from the European University of Ireland in 2001, reported South China Morning Post.

The school, however, has no official website and is not listed in the 25 official Irish universities acknowledged by the Chinese education ministry. A report in The Irish Times in 2011 lists the self-claimed university as operating without an official approval at a Dublin address with no office.

Chens professional biography also states that she finished her postdoctoral research at Nanjing University in 2005.

More from NextShark: Beijing Olympics ceremonies uniforms deemed by Chinese social media as 'unbearably ugly'

From 2015 to 2018, Chen was named in Fortunes Chinas 25 Most Influential Businesswomen Leaders list and is currently the dean of the Beijing International MBA Business School at Peking University, which is currently ranked as the 16th top school globally by Times Higher Education.

Probes into Chens background began after she made suspicious claims of being a military adviser for the Chinese tech company Huawei. On July 6, Huawei released a statement explaining that over 10,000 online articles with Chens comments on the company were found as well as claims that she had met with the companys founder, Ren Zhengfei.

Huawei does not know her, and it is impossible for her to know Huawei, the statement said per Sina.

More from NextShark: Chinese researchers develop AI that can read minds and determine party loyalty, report reveals

In one particular article written by Chen in 2017, she claimed that she had met with Ren and that he insisted on personally driving her.

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Chen responded to Huaweis statement by explaining that the articles were not written herself and that the company was used for a case study she had been working on.

More from NextShark: China reports first COVID deaths in over 2 years amid Shanghai lockdown disaffection

Featured Image via Bilibili

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New Hong Kong textbooks say it was never a British colony, calls 2019 protests 'terrorist activities'
Since Paul LePage is running another anti-income tax campaign for Maine governor, its time to dust off the history books and delve into The Great New Hampshire Tax Myth, for its at the root of most of our national tax dilemmas, as well of those of New England states and, well, Maine.

Douglas Rooks

The theory, like all anti-tax theories, is easily stated: Starting in the 1970s, when Maine adopted a progressive income tax and New Hampshire booted out a governor who proposed one, New Hampshire has grown in population, business and prosperity, while Maine has withered on the vine.

Unlike most myths, it really doesnt have a grain of truth  its almost entirely false  but that hasnt prevented its substantial adoption in the minds of politician and voters in both states, mostly because no one musters the energy to refute it.

More from Douglas Rooks: Tribes have waited too long for Maine governors respect

Parts of the myth, as least in Maine, are of recent origin. Here are two:

A recent letter to the editor, proclaiming the New Hampshire advantage once again, said Maine has a top rate of 8.5%; it does not. It was lowered to 7.95% early in the LePage administration, and then to 7.15%. Both times, Democrats voted to make it happen.

More substantively, several reporters think LePage never agreed to raise the sales tax to lower the income tax  also wrong. The sales tax was increased to 5.5% temporarily, then permanently.

So Maine is replacing progressive income tax dollars paid by the wealthiest taxpayers with regressive sales tax dollars paid by everyone  but disproportionately by poor and working class residents. Yes, Democrats voted for that, too.

Its the myth that keeps on giving. But to get at its roots, you have to go further back. In 1969, Maines progressive governor, Ken Curtis, and some enlightened Republicans, including House Leader Harrison Richardson and Senate Leader Bennett Katz, pushed through an income tax with a top rate of 6%, later raised to 10% by bipartisan votes.

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More from Douglas Rooks: Supreme Court lays down the gauntlet. There's still time to get it right.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire Gov. Walter Peterson, noticing a trend  Rhode Island, Connecticut and half a dozen other states were adopting income taxes  said hed consider one as he ran for re-election in 1972.

Enter William Loeb, the autocratic publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, who found his own candidate, amiable lawbook publisher Meldrim Thomson, to oppose the tax. Thomson beat Peterson by 2,000 votes, and narrowly bested a Democrat in November; the tax pledge was born.

Candidates pledge to oppose any general sales or income tax, and most statewide candidates take it. New Hampshire has, however, long taxed unearned income  interest and dividends; go figure.

By the 21st century, Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan was promoting the New Hampshire Advantage at every opportunity.

But is is true? For a time, it did seem to be.

Maine grew rapidly during Curtiss decade, faster than the national average, with healthy gains into the 1980s. But growth stagnated in the 1990s as New Hampshire continued to grow.

Yet since the turn of the century, New Hampshire also has minimal population growth. Despite confident predictions it would easily surpass Maine, the two states today have exactly the same population.

State taxes are really not the likely explanation for growth and stagnation in either state. What drove Maines growth was the back to the land movement, an influx of young people for the first time in more than a century.

In New Hampshire, it was primarily suburbanization and sprawl as high-tech companies from Massachusetts sought cheap land and an available work force across the border in Nashua for expansion. That boom lasted longer, but it too, played out.

Since 2000, its the return of young people to cities and their suburbs driving growth  as witness Portland, and, in Vermont, Burlington. Even today, 75% of New Hampshires population lies in four southern counties.

That doesnt mean there arent substantial differences between state governments. New Hampshire, having little revenue, provides precious little support to public schools, and much of that is reallocated property tax dollars.

If you live in property-rich cities like Concord or Portsmouth, youre in luck. If you live in countless small, property-poor towns, youll have a badly funded school, low teacher salaries, and sky-high property taxes.

In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills has just funded an astonishing 55% of all accredited school expenses statewide. It may not be sustainable, but its impressive, and means that educational opportunity is broadly distributed here.

There are countless other contrasts, from mental health, public health, support for rural clinics, and on down the list of departments and programs.

Perhaps its not just about taxes, after all.

Douglas Rooks, a Maine editor, commentator and reporter since 1984, is the author of three books. His first, Statesman: George Mitchell and the Art of the Possible, is now out in paperback. He welcomes comment at drooks@tds.net.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Rooks: Mainers should not be fooled by 'Great New Hampshire Tax Myth'
SheKnows

Reddit is rallying around a dad who wont pay for school supplies for good reason. He took to the AITA forum to explain that his ex-wife recently took his daughter to buy all the back-to-school necessities. An important note: this ex-wife lives with her boyfriend (with whom she had an affair) and his daughter, who []
SATURDAY, 23 JULY 2022, 09:30

On the morning of 23 July, Russian forces launched 13 missiles on Kirovohrad Oblast, striking the Kanatove military airfield and an Ukrzaliznytsia [Ukrainian Railways] facility. At least 3 people were killed and 9 people were injured.

Source: Andrii Raikovych, head of the Kirovohrad Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram, Raikovych on air during the national 24/7 joint newscast

Quote from Raikovych: "There were enemy strikes this morning. 13 missiles (8 naval Kalibr missiles and 5 Kh-22 missiles launched from a Tu-22M3 plane).

The missiles hit infrastructure facilities outside the regional capital [the city of Kropyvnytskyi - ed.]. In particular, the Kanatove military airfield and an Ukrzaliznytsia facility. There are fatalities and casualties."

Details: Later, Raikovych reported that as of 9:30, at least one serviceman is known to have been killed and 9 were injured. Also, according to previous data, 2 security staff who were guarding a transformer substation were killed.

The head of the Oblast Military Administration said that rescue workers and explosives specialists are working on the scene.

Electricity was cut off in one of the neighbourhoods in the city of Kropyvnytskyi, but emergency crews from Oblenergo [regional power distribution entity - ed.] are already working to restore electricity supply.

Raikovych urged residents of the Kirovohrad Oblast to heed air-raid alarms and urgently move to shelters.
KYIV (Reuters) -Russian missiles hit infrastructure in Ukraine's port of Odesa on Saturday, a day after Russia and Ukraine signed a deal to reopen Black Sea ports to resume grain exports, the Ukrainian military said.

"The enemy attacked the Odesa sea trade port with Kalibr cruise missiles; 2 missiles were shot down by air defense forces; 2 hit the infrastructure of the port," the Operational Command South wrote on the Telegram mesaging app.

Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal in Istanbul on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports to export millions of tonnes of grain that has been stuck in Ukrainian silos during Russia's invasion.

Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesperson said the attack called into question agreements and promises made by Russia in Istanbul to the United Nations and Turkey, which brokered the deal.

In a statement, Ukraine's foreign ministry called on the United Nations and Turkey to ensure that Russia fulfills its commitments under the agreement for a safe corridor for grain exports from Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the attack.

U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink called the strike "outrageous".

"Russia strikes the port city of Odesa less than 24 hours after signing an agreement to allow shipments of agricultural exports. The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," she said on Twitter.

(Reporting by Natalia ZinetsWriting by Tom BalmforthEditing by Angus MacSwan and Frances Kerry)
Ryan Gosling on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." NBC/Getty Images

Ryan Gosling appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" Thursday.

Gosling, 41, revealed why he agreed to play Ken in the upcoming "Barbie" film.

A number of stars, including Margot Robbie and Simu Liu, have signed on to director Greta Gerwig's film.

Ryan Gosling revealed why he agreed to play Ken in Greta Gerwig's upcoming film, "Barbie."

Gosling, 41, recalled the day Gerwig offered him the role during a Thursday appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," to promote his new Netflix film, "The Gray Man."

According to Gosling, he walked outside in his backyard for a moment to think after receiving the offer to star in "Barbie."

"Best script I've ever read," Gosling told Fallon. "I walk out in the backyard and you know where I found Ken, Jimmy? Face down in the mud next to a squished lemon."

Variety reported that the doll belonged to one of Gosling's daughters that he shares with actress Eva Mendes. The couple first met while filming the 2012 film "The Place Beyond the Pines."

Gosling told Fallon he then texted a photo of the Ken doll to Gerwig and accepted the role.

"I texted it to Greta and said, 'I shall be your Ken, for this story must be told,'" he told Fallon.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling on the set of "Barbie." Mega/GC Images/Getty

Deadline reported in October 2021 that Gosling was in "final negotiations" to join the film. According to the outlet, Gosling initially passed on the role due to his busy schedule but later signed on after the project was pushed back, adding that the studio "remained persistent" about his participation.

Last month, official photos of Gosling's Ken hit the internet and caused a buzz among fans.

The highly anticipated film also stars Margot Robbie as the titular character, as well as America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Will Ferrell, and many more.

The film will premiere in theaters on July 21, 2023.

Read the original article on Insider
Skateboarder Minna Stess, the 2021 USA Skateboarding national champion in women's park, is set on winning X Games gold on Saturday. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

She skates like the sound of a slick Britpop song.

Blurs Theres No Other Way was released 15 years before 16-year-old Minna Stess entered the world, but her mother says its punchy guitar, infectious tambourine dance beat and cool ethos embody the skateboarding phenoms movement around the park.

The 2021 USA Skateboarding national champion in womens park skates so smoothly that last summer, she was selected as an alternate for the Tokyo Olympics at just 15. So smooth, Stess mother Moniz Franco says its hard to detect the sound of the skateboard wheels scraping across the surface when she performs tricks on the halfpipes. Judges at the 2022 X Games will hear that Blur track as they witness the skater compete in the womens park competition Saturday at the California Training Facility in Vista. Stess placed fourth in last years womens park event.

Its like a big bowl or big pool, basically, Stess said. And you have to figure out how to skate all of it in a 40-second run without falling and doing hard tricks. Its a lot.

Still, no park compares to the one back home in Petaluma, a town 30 miles north of San Francisco. Phoenix Theater boasts just a couple ramps, but its where Stess attends hardcore shows like her mother did in her youth and where her older brother, Finnley, went before introducing his family to skateboarding.

Her parents thought their kids would be musicians.

In 1991, the same year the English band dropped Theres No Other Way, Stess father, Andrew, moved from the East Coast to Petaluma in search of the '90s version of the San Francisco sound. There he met Stess mother, a fellow music nerd and East Coaster.

Legendary rock band the Who played at that venue in Petaluma in the '60s. Decades later, Stess would build her own legend in a sport that has seen an increase in female participants. Shes the smiling, diaper-clad toddler on the skateboard in a clip featured in Candace Parkers recent Title IX documentary. She competed in her first local contests at age 5.

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Three years later, the Paris 2024 prospect started making the podium at competitions, sometimes beating all the boys.

Every park Im at, theres always a girl there, which is amazing, Stess said. And I think its becoming a norm now, which is good, because it should be a norm.

Stess prefers skating in the Bay Area. Now that she is older, her parents have started letting her take the ferry into the city with her friends to skate into the air and catch that weightless feeling she loves so much.

Stess is still their little girl, though.

Minna Stess competes during a Dew Tour event in Des Moines, Iowa in May 2021. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

Her father remembers the piercing screams. In 2018, Stess broke and dislocated her elbow  the worst injury of her career.

I was watching her land this trick over and over again until she didnt, her father said.

Stess' parents know how dangerous skateboarding is. Theyve come to accept their daughter will get banged up, but that doesnt reduce the anxiety they feel watching her compete.

Even with her apt skater name, Stess isnt necessarily fearless.

I do get scared  a lot, she said.

For her protection, Stess wears knee pads, usually with a pair of Vans sneakers and jean shorts. Her personal style already fit the skater mold  girly clothes werent her thing. Stess scratches her head at some of her past outfits, but shes still a teen. Still evolving.

Her father says the best is yet to come in her prolific skating career, but he thinks shes an even better person than she is an athlete. Stess uses her social media accounts to express herself and share what she believes in, but she said shes only 16 and is still developing a voice in that sense.

Her parents say they dont have to keep Stess grounded because she does that herself.

She doesnt go to a skate park and say Look at me, her father said. She just wants to be out there skating.

This is not to say Stess doesnt tell it like it is. Her father jokes that the East Coast spirit has awakened in their West Coast kid as shes gotten older. Shes sassy and steezy and unapologetic wrapped in one.

Thats what makes skateboarding special to her.

Its something that you can do in your own way, Stess said.

Her mom says Stess skates like a Blur song, but lyrically speaking, Estelles Do My Thing  its message oozing confidence  truly captures her daughters energy as she pushes for an X Games title and a ticket to Paris in 2024.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP)  Police in Mecca say they have arrested a Saudi man who helped an Israeli-Jewish reporter sneak into Islam's holiest city, defying a rule that only Muslims can enter the area.

While Muslims of any nationality and background can enter Mecca, non-Muslims are not permitted because a very specific code of conduct and behavior is required of all people within its boundaries, including certain forms of modesty, ritual cleansing and prayers.

The public backlash over television reporter Gil Tamarys visit was immediate on social media, with Muslims and Saudis expressing their anger over his deception and apparent disregard for the sanctity of the site.

It comes as Saudi-Israeli ties have been quietly growing amid shared concerns over arch-enemy Iran. This incident is unlikely to dampen the relationship. Publicly, the kingdom insists its policy is that full ties can only happen when Palestinian statehood and rights are guaranteed.

The outcry appears to have prompted Saudi police late Friday to announce the arrest of the Saudi man who they say facilitated the entry of the journalist into Mecca in explicit violation of regulations prohibiting the entry of non-Muslims. The Saudi male national, whose identity was not revealed, was referred to prosecution and remains under arrest.

The veteran reporter for Channel 13 in Israel filmed himself in Mecca for a roughly 10-minute-long segment that aired on Monday in which he visited a key site on the hajj pilgrimage route where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon some 1,400 years ago.

He made clear he knowingly had slipped into Mecca with a driver, saying he is speaking in Hebrew quietly so no one can hear him. He claimed to be the first Israeli Jew ever to enter the city. He did not identify himself as Israeli or Jewish to the driver during the recordings.

In the clip that aired, Tamary and his Saudi driver pass a highway turnoff that says non-Muslims cannot pass, and then pass under a huge Quran replica that is the main gateway to the city. The dream came true, he says as they pass through Mecca and make their way to Mount Arafat.

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After he climbs the mount, he says religious police are starting to ask questions and want to make sure he is a Muslim. They decide to leave.

Mecca is home to Islam's holiest shrine, the cube-shaped Kaaba, the metaphorical house of God located in the city's Grand Mosque. The shrine marks the point toward which observant Muslims worldwide pray five times a day. It is also the ultimate destination for the Muslim hajj and smaller umrah pilgrimage.

The reporter and Channel 13 responded on Twitter after the report aired. The news channel, in both Hebrew and Arabic, said Tamary's report was driven by journalistic curiosity and a desire to witness and see things firsthand. The popular Israeli channel apologized for any anger stoked by his visit, which occurred during President Joe Biden's trip to the nearby city of Jeddah. The Times of Israel quoted an unnamed source familiar with the matter saying Israeli government officials were satisfied with the statements issued by the channel and its reporter.

Police in Mecca said they also referred the journalist's actions to public prosecutors, though the Israeli national is no longer in the kingdom.

The Saudi statement did not identify the journalist, saying only he was non-Muslim and had U.S. citizenship, implying he'd entered the country using his American passport since the kingdom has no formal ties with Israel.

Police called on visitors to respect the country's laws, particularly when it comes to Mecca and Islam's holiest sites in the kingdom.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Ariel Schalit in Jerusalem and Fares Akram in Gaza City contributed to this report.
Associated Press

William Contreras and Eddie Rosario hit back-to-back homers off Carlos Carrasco in the second inning, Ronald Acuna Jr. doubled three times and drove in three runs, and the Atlanta Braves routed the New York Mets 13-1 Monday night for their seventh straight win. The second-place Braves moved within 4 1/2 games of New York for the NL East lead and put a brief halt to a hot streak in which the Mets had won 17 out of 20.
A special school board meeting that was scheduled for Saturday morning to terminate Pete Arredondo, Uvalde schools police chief, has been canceled.

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District made the announcement on Friday.

"In conformity with due process requirements, and at the request of his attorney, the meeting to consider the termination of Chief Arredondo will be held at a later date which has yet to be determined," the statement from UISD said.

Until then, Arredondo "shall be on unpaid administrative leave," the statement said.

UVALDE, TEXAS - JUNE 03: Flowers and photographs are seen at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on June 3, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. 19 students and two teachers were killed on May 24 after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire inside the school. Wakes and funerals for the 21 victims are scheduled throughout the week. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Arredondo, 50, has come under fire from community members and state officials for his conduct during the Robb Elementary mass shooting on May 24, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Arredondo has said he did not consider himself in charge during the massacre.

Arredondo's firing was recommended by Superintendent Hal Harrell.

Last week, a scathing report by a Texas House investigative committee found "systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making" surrounding the shooting.

After the report was made public, family members of the dead and members of the community lashed out during a Uvalde school board during a meeting last Monday, shouting, "Shame on you! Shame on you!"

Brett Cross, an uncle of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia, who was among those slain, berated board members at length for not holding themselves accountable for the massacre. He particularly challenged members for not knowing school exit doors were locked to the outside and for not firing Arredondo.

"If he's not fired by noon tomorrow, I want your resignation and every single one of these board members because you don't give a damn about us or our children," Cross said, addressing Harrell.

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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.
West Side Story may be Steven Spielbergs last time directing a full length musical, but the Oscar winner clearly isnt sick of filming people singing. In early July, Spielberg made his debut as a music video director, helming a video for Marcus Mumfords new song Cannibal. And if that wasnt surprising enough, the celluloid-loving director shot the entire video on an iPhone, with some help from his wife Kate Capshaw.

Mumford announced the collaboration with Spielberg in a tweet that included a photo of them filming in a high school gym.

On Sunday 3rd July in a high school gym in New York, Steven Spielberg directed his first music video, in one shot, on his phone, Mumford wrote. Kate Capshaw was the almighty dolly grip.

Any musician would be thrilled to have Steven Spielberg direct one of their videos, and the fact that he chose Mumfords song to make his debut as a music video director made the experience particularly special. In the same Twitter thread, Mumford expressed his gratitude about the experience.

Ive been overwhelmed by the support of the people around me to bring this music to you, and I cannot hope to express all of my gratitude, he wrote. When people get it, it blows my mind. Kate and Steven just got it, and I cannot thank them enough.

Though this marks Spielbergs first time making a music video, it has long been a standard practice for major Hollywood filmmakers to direct videos for musicians. Martin Scorsese famously directed Michael Jacksons Bad video, Spike Lee collaborated with Eminem, Paul Thomas Anderson frequently directs videos for the likes of HAIM and Fiona Apple, and David Fincher got his start as a successful music video director. If anything, its surprising that Spielberg waited this long.

In addition to his music video work, Spielberg is currently in post-production on The Fabelmans, an autobiographical film about his childhood in Arizona that he wrote with Tony Kushner. That film, which will be making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, stars Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and David Lynch.

Story continues

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Zelensky: Grain exports deal fully meets Ukraines interests

Xinhua) 09:27, July 23, 2022

KIEV, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The agreement on grain exports separately signed by Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, Turkiye, fully meets Ukraines interests, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.

"The text of the document signed today is published, and everyone can read its points. They fully meet the interests of Ukraine," Zelensky said in an address to the nation.

The deal will enable Ukraine to export 20 million tons of last year's grain harvest and part of this year's harvest, Zelensky said.

The agreement will provide a chance to reduce the severity of the global food crisis and prevent a global catastrophe, he added.

The signing of the deal is another illustration that Ukraine can withstand the conflict with Russia, Zelensky emphasized.

Earlier on Friday, Russia and Ukraine separately signed a deal with Turkiye and the United Nations to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
IRYNA BALACHUK  SATURDAY, 23 JULY 2022, 11:00

An explosion took place in the city of Shostka in Sumy Oblast on the morning of 23 July. There are casualties.

Source: Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, head of the Sumy Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Zhyvytskyi: "An explosion took place in Shostka just after 09:00. There are casualties. Details to follow in due course."

Details: The head of the Sumy Oblast Military Administration said that the night in Sumy Oblast was relatively quiet, despite the air raid alarms. In the morning, however, Russian forces struck a number of hromadas [amalgamated territorial communities] in the oblast.

Just after 06:00, Russian occupying forces fired roughly 20 rounds of artillery on the Yunakivka hromada.

At 06:30, the Russians used mortars to fire 10 bombs on the Myropillia hromada.

Just after 07:00, Russian forces launched two grenades using a grenade launcher on the Bilopillia hromada and fired four bombs using a mortar on the outskirts of a village in the Khotin hromada.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court took a procedural step Friday that will allow the courts first Black woman to participate in a high stakes challenge to affirmative action in college admissions.

The court agreed in January to take up the issue by granting two cases  one involving Harvard, a private university, and the other from the University of North Carolina, a public institution. The two cases were consolidated, meaning they were to be argued and decided together.

During her confirmation hearing, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she would not take part in the consideration of the affirmative action issue, because she was on a board that advised Harvard on policy matters. Participating in the case would present a potential conflict of interest, she said.

Students walk through Harvard Yard, on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on April 27, 2022. (Charles Krupa / AP file)

But in a brief order Friday the court said the two cases are no longer consolidated. Because theyre now separate, she can participate in the case from the University of North Carolina.

The court said Justice Jackson took no part in the consideration of Fridays order.

The courts January decision to take up the cases presented the most serious threat in decades to the use of affirmative action by the nations public and private colleges and universities.

The court has repeatedly upheld affirmative action in the past. But two of the justices who were key to those decisions are gone  Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Their replacements, Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, are more conservative and less likely to find the practice constitutional.

People remove belongings on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., on March 18, 2020. (Gerry Broome / AP file)

The challenges to be heard in the fall were brought by groups backed by a longtime opponent of affirmative action, Edward Blum of Maine. He sued Harvard and UNC in federal court, claiming their undergraduate admissions systems were discriminatory  against Asian American students in the Harvard case and both Asian American and white students in the North Carolina case.

The groups lost in the lower courts, which ruled that a schools limited consideration of race was a legitimate effort to achieve a more diverse student body.

The Supreme Court has long barred racial quotas in admissions. But it has allowed schools to consider a students race to be one plus factor among many other qualities, provided the admissions process looks at the overall qualifications of applicants and uses race no more than necessary to achieve a level of diversity.

The Supreme Court will hear the cases in its next term, which begins in October.
As we covered here recently, ex-Old Forester master taster Jackie Zykan left her job a few months ago to embark upon her own whiskey venture, Hidden Barn. And the first release, a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, has dropped sooner than anticipated. Its a world away from Old Forester in terms of flavor profile, but its a solid first foray into the world of blending.

Heading out on your own in the whiskey world is no small feat, particularly in todays oversaturated market of countless new sourced and in-house-distilled brands and bottles. Everyone is looking for something to make their product stand out, and it seems like Zykan and her team have settled on working with small producers and using her particular palate talent to blend the best batches she can. The full name of this new whiskey is pretty long: Hidden Barn Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Small Batch #001 Whiskey Made the Hard Way series. What that amounts to is bourbon distilled at Neeley Family Distillery in Sparta, Kentucky, relatively unknown in the bourbon world. Zykan, along with her partners Nate Winegar and Matt Dankner of Colorados 5280 Whiskey Society, selected just seven barrels for this initial release aged between four and five years.

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The mash bill falls into the lower end of the high-rye bourbon category70 percent corn, 20 percent rye, 10 percent malted barley. Wild yeast was used for a five-day fermentation, the whiskey was double pot-distilled, came off the still at 127 proof and entered standard 53-gallon barrels at 110 proof. It was bottled at 53 percent ABV and is filtered for sediment but not chill-filtered, according to the brand. The first thing that jumped out at me upon nosing this whiskey is just how fruity it is. Theres a bit of wood chips as well, along the lines of that familiar woody craft whiskey sensation, but there are big berry and apples notes that greet you. These flavors follow through on the palate, with a dose of dry tannin, tobacco, vanilla and freshly ground coffee beans.

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The flavor profile of the first Hidden Barn release is not in the same playing field as anything youve tried from Old Forester or any other major bourbon brand, but that seems to be the point here. And the next release will likely be pretty different from this first batch, which again is how Zykan wants to do things now. This is a good (if not outstanding) whiskey on its own merits, but perhaps what might be most interesting is how it marks the beginning of Zykans career post-Old Forester. Bourbon fans should give this a try, and Im already looking forward to seeing what comes nextwhich according to a rep for Hidden Barn, will be announced soon.

Score: 85

What Our Score Means

100: Worth trading your first born for

95  99 In the Pantheon: A trophy for the cabinet

90  94 Great: An excited nod from friends when you pour them a dram

85  89 Very Good: Delicious enough to buy, but not quite special enough to chase on the secondary market

80  84 Good: More of your everyday drinker, solid and reliable

Below 80 Its alright: Honestly, we probably wont waste your time and ours with this

Every week Jonah Flicker tastes the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Friday for his latest review.

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By David Ljunggren

(Reuters) - Ukraine's defence ministry on Saturday urged citizens in a key area seized by Russia to reveal where Moscow's troops were living and who among the local population was collaborating with the occupying authorities.

The statement by the ministry's defence intelligence directorate was aimed at people in and around the southern city of Enerhodar, which is home to a major nuclear power station.

"Please let us know as a matter of urgency the exact location of the occupying troops' bases and their residential addresses ... and the places of residence of the commanding staff," it said, adding that exact coordinates were desirable.

It also asked for details "of local collaborators who went over to the side of the enemy", including where they lived and worked, as well as information about "people who 'sympathise' with the occupiers".

Russia captured Enerhodar in early March and in May, the Russian-appointed head of the city was injured in an explosion. The Kremlin termed it a "terrorist attack".

In June, a pro-Russian official in the southern Kherson region was killed in a blast, RIA news agency said. Earlier that month the head of the region's penal service was taken to hospital after a bomb exploded near his car.

The intelligence directorate's appeal - published on Telegram - also asked for the routes that Russian military equipment was using in Enerhodar.

"Together, let's kick the occupants out of our homeland!" it said, adding people could either call in details or provide them via the WhatsApp or Signal instant messaging apps.

Enerhodar had a pre-war population of more than 50,000. Many residents work at the two power plants near the town, one of which is the Zaporizhzhia facility, the largest nuclear power station in Europe.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak, which has affected nearly 17,000 people in 74 countries, to be a global health emergency -- the highest alarm it can sound.

"I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

He said a committee of experts who met on Thursday was unable to reach a consensus, so it fell to him to decide whether to trigger the highest alert possible.

"WHO's assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region where we assess the risk as high," he added.

Monkeypox has affected over 16,800 people in 74 countries, according to a tally by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published on July 22.

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.

Overall, 98 percent of infected people were gay or bisexual men, and around a third were known to have visited sex-on-site venues such as sex parties or saunas within the previous month.

Tedros has previously expressed concern that stigma and scapegoating could make the outbreak harder to track.

On Saturday, he said the outbreak was "concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners" which meant it "can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups".

He urged all countries to "work closely with communities of men who have sex with men, to design and deliver effective information and services, and to adopt measures that protect" the communities affected.

- Potential vaccine -

On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee (EC) of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) -- the UN health agency's highest alert level.

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But a majority advised Tedros that the situation, at that point, had not met the threshold.

The second meeting was called on Thursday with case numbers rising further, where Tedros said he was worried.

"I need your advice in assessing the immediate and mid-term public health implications," Tedros told the meeting, which lasted more than six hours.

A viral infection resembling smallpox and first detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.

Ninety-five percent of cases have been transmitted through sexual activity, according to a study of 528 people in 16 countries published in the New England Journal of Medicine -- the largest research to date.

The European Union's drug watchdog on Friday recommended for approval the use of Imvanex, a smallpox vaccine, to treat monkeypox.

Imvanex, developed by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic, has been approved in the EU since 2013 for the prevention of smallpox.

It was also considered a potential vaccine for monkeypox because of the similarity between the monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus.

The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headaches, muscle pain and back pain during the course of five days.

Rashes subsequently appear on the face, the palms of hands and soles of the feet, followed by lesions, spots and finally scabs.

vog/raz/gw
Former President Donald Trump (L) speaks during Pennsylvania rally on May 6, 2022. Mitch McConnell (R) is pictured on May 3, 2022. Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday.

Trump called McConnell a "disloyal sleaze bag" after the Jan. 6 committee aired a video of him blaming the former president for the Capitol riot.

The mob was "provoked by the president and other powerful people," McConnell said in the clip.

Former President Donald Trump went after Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday amid the Jan. 6 committee investigation into the Capitol riot.

The committee, tasked with investigating what happened before, during, and after the Capitol riot last year, played a video of McConnell blaming the former president for inciting the insurrection.

In the video, McConnell is addressing the Senate floor right as Trump faced his second impeachment trial.

"The mob was fed lies," McConnell said. "They were provoked by the president and other powerful people."

Seven Republican senators voted to convict Trump during the second impeachment trial on an "incitement of insurrection" charge. McConnell was not one of the seven.

"Is this the same Mitch McConnell who was losing big in Kentucky, and came to the White House to BEG me for an Endorsement and help? Without me he would have lost in a landslide. A disloyal sleaze bag!" Trump posted on Truth Social after the committee aired the clip of McConnell on the Senate floor.

The Capitol riot left five people, including one police officer, dead. Members of the Proud Boys, which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were also present.

Organizers were emboldened by former President Donald Trump's urges to protest the results of the 2020 election with him, despite Joe Biden's election victory. While members of Congress were meeting inside the Capitol to certify the results and verify Biden's electoral win, Trump supporters organized an attempted coup and stormed the Capitol.

After the riot, insurrectionists scrambled to delete photos and social-media posts proving their participation in the Capitol riot. Some broke their cellphones, scrubbed their social media accounts, and tried to wipe hard drives that might contain photos and other proof of their involvement.

But others boasted of their involvement, making it easier for the FBI to identify and later bring charges against them. So far, more than 882 people have been charged in connection with the insurrection, according to Insider's database.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Donald Trump Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence held competing rallies in Arizona on Friday, touting rival candidates in a gubernatorial primary that has become a major proxy fight in the battle for the GOP.

Pence is backing businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson, who also has the support of term-limited incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey (R). Pence told the crowd that, by electing Robson, they would signal that "the Republican Party is the party of the future." Later, Pence tweeted that "[s]ome people want this election to be about the past," presumably referring to Trump's stolen election claims. "If the Republican Party allows itself to become consumed by yesterday's grievances, we will lose," the former VP wrote.

The Associated Press notes that Robson has taken a moderate line on Trump's 2020 grievances. She's willing to blame liberal judges and big tech companies for tilting the election in Democrats' favor, but "has stopped short of saying Trump lost because of fraud."

Trump has endorsed former television anchor Kari Lake, who he said understands "how to fight back against the fake news media and the radical left." Lake is a vocal proponent of Trump's stolen election claims, even going so far as to call for the imprisonment of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), who oversaw the 2020 election in that state.

A poll conducted earlier this month by public affairs firm HighGround showed Lake leading Robson 39-35  within the 4.9 percent error margin  with 21 percent of voters still undecided.

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Former President Trump called Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) a RINO coward, using the acronym for Republican in name only, and reiterated his support for his endorsed candidate who is vying for a state Senate seat against Bowers.

Rusty Bowers is a RINO coward who participated against the Republican Party in the totally partisan unselect committee of political thugs and hacks the other day and disgraced himself, and he disgraced the state of Arizona, Trump said during a rally held in the Grand Canyon State for several of his endorsees.

David Farnsworth is going to do a fantastic job. And importantly, I have to say, you have so many advantages. That would be the guy Id most like to run against cause this guys bad news, Trump added, referring to Bowerss opponent for the Arizona state Senates 10th legislative district, whom the former president has endorsed.

Bowers gave testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot last month in which he disagreed with Trumps claims that Bowers told him that Trump had won the state of Arizona in 2020 and that the election had been rigged.

Anywhere, anyone, anytime has said that I said that the election was rigged, that would not be true, Bowers said as he testified before the committee in June.

The Arizona House Speaker also told the panel that Rudy Giuliani had told him that Trumps allies did not have specific evidence showing that election fraud had been committed during the last presidential election.

And I dont know if that was a gaffe or maybe he didnt think through what he said, but both myself and others in my group  both remember that specifically, and afterwards we kind of laughed about it, Bowers said.

The Arizona GOP executive committee earlier this week voted to censure Bowers.

The @AZGOP Executive Committee formally censured Rusty Bowers tonight he is no longer a Republican in good standing & we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary. Full press release from AZGOP coming soon, Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, tweeted this week.

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While Trump was stumping for his endorsed Arizona candidates, including gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) on Friday, former Vice President Mike Pence was stumping for his endorsed candidate in the governors race, Karrin Taylor Robson (R), the same day.

According to NBC News, Bowers attended a campaign event for Robson on Friday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish foreign ministry summoned the Swedish charges d'affaires in Ankara to convey its "strong reaction" to what it called "terrorist propaganda" during a Kurdish group's protest in Stockholm, diplomatic sources said.

Finland and Sweden have applied for NATO membership in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but were faced with opposition from Turkey, which accused them of supporting groups it deems terrorists.

The three countries signed an accord last month to lift Ankara's veto in exchange for promises on counter-terrorism and arms exports.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Editing by Louise Heavens)
KYIV (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Kyiv said that Moscow should be held to account for what she said was an "outrageous" Russian strike on the port city of Odesa on Saturday.

Russian missiles hit infrastructure in Odesa a day after Russia and Ukraine, with mediation by the United Nations and Turkey, signed a deal to reopen Black Sea ports and resume grain exports.

"The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account," U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink wrote on Twitter.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Angus MacSwan)
Paddy Pimblett (left), Tom Aspinall (top) and Paul Craig (Getty Images)

UFC London cards, as it turns out, are a bit like buses in the English capital. You wait ages for one to come along, then two arrive at once.

In 2020, the UFCs annual visit to London was a matter of days away when the card was cancelled  one of the first events to fall as Covid-19 crippled the sporting calendar. Britains own Leon Edwards was set to headline the card at the O2 Arena, taking on former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. The fight fell through, along with the rest of the event, and British fans one-year wait for a UFC event eventually grew into a three-year longing.

Yet absence has a significant effect on the heart, its atriums and ventricles, and when the UFC ultimately returned to London this March, 17,081 fans and 24 mixed martial artists embraced the evening in equally full-blooded fashion. Together they made for a night that will go down in the folklore of British MMA, and one that captivated followers of the sport worldwide.

Records were broken as UFC London became the highest-grossing sporting event in the history of the O2 Arena, as well as the highest-grossing Fight Night that the UFC has ever staged. Of the 10 British fighters competing, seven were victorious  six of them winning via stoppage. Molly McCanns spinning back elbow to knock out Luana Carolina was heralded as arguably the greatest KO ever in a womens UFC fight, while Tom Aspinalls first-round submission of veteran Alexander Volkov in the main event was emphatic. While most UFC events see two or three performance bonuses handed out, every fighter to have won via stoppage on 19 March received a monetary boost.

It would feel lazy to simply say there was magic in the air that evening, but the identifiable elements above fused with intangible ones to make for a jubilant celebration of British MMA  and the sport on the whole.

Tom Aspinall will headline at the O2 Arena for the second time in four months (Action Images via Reuters)

And so, what choice was UFC president Dana White left with but to bring MMAs flagship promotion back to the English capital at once? His voice raspy from hours of addressing fans and reacting to the stunning action on the other side of the Octagon fence, White croaked that the UFC would return to London at the earliest opportunity.

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Since the UFCs inception in 1993, it has staged 25 events in the UK  the first taking place at Londons Royal Albert Hall in 2002, the 26th scheduled for this Saturday. The last time two cards were staged in the UK in one year was in 2018, when a London event in March was followed by a trip to Liverpool in May. The latter card was designed to capitalise on the hype around Darren Till, who was scheduled to co-main-event this weekend until the Scouser sustained an unfortunate injury.

Tills withdrawal may be seen as a sacrifice to the MMA gods so that the rest of the card may stay intact  unlike in 2019. Aspinalls headline bout with Volkov in March was his first UFC main event, and the Wigan heavyweight will top this Saturdays card as well. His heavyweight clash with Curtis Blaydes may just crown a new No 1 contender in the division, as Aspinall looks to move a step closer to fulfilling prophecies that he is a UFC champion in waiting  Britains second ever UFC title holder, perhaps.

When White addressed the media moments after the cards conclusion in March, he even teased that the next London event could be Britains first UFC pay-per-view since 2016, suggesting that Edwards could headline against welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in a long-awaited rematch. That title bout will in fact play out in Utah in August, but White and his team have delivered a more appetising set of fights on paper than they did in March.

Whether or not that will translate to an even more electric evening than the one that played out in March remains to be seen. Aspinall is not alone in making a swift return to the O2; McCann will feature again, as will Paddy Pimblett, Paul Craig, Muhammad Mokaev and Jai Herbert.

Liverpudlian pair Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann are fan favourites (Getty Images)

While Herbert was one of the three beaten Britons in March, he had come agonisingly close to stopping Ilia Topuria. Mokaev, meanwhile, opened the prelims by submitting Cody Durden just 58 seconds into what was a perfect UFC debut for the Dagestan-born 21-year-old  one of the youngest fighters on the roster. Scotlands Craig continued his thrilling run of stoppage wins with his own submission victory, avoiding what looked like certain defeat to submit Nikita Krylov.

And then there was Pimblett. In just his second UFC fight, Paddy The Baddy was the undeniable prince of proceedings, recovering from an early knockdown to submit Rodrigo Vargas in Round 1 and send the O2 Arena into raptures. The energy given off by the loudmouth Liverpudlian and returned in kind by the adoring masses in the building suggested that  even as an unranked fighter  Pimblett could have main-evented the card. While such a feat seems an inevitability for the 27-year-old, he will have to overcome a sterner test in Jordan Leavitt this weekend if he is to keep that dream alive  as well as hopes of headlining at Anfield, home of his beloved Liverpool FC.

The eyes of the MMA world will be on British fighters again this weekend, now more piercing than peering. The pressure will also be on.

UFC London in March felt like a moment in time for British MMA. Whether that night represented a peak or simply a precipice to keep climbing will become clearer on Saturday. In the words of UFC icon Bruce Buffer: Its time.
Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksander Kubrakov and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Read also: Russian invaders steal at least 400,000 tons of grain from Ukraine, says Agrarian Ministry

"It concerns unblocking the three ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov explained on Facebook.

It is from them that we will start exporting food by sea already in the coming weeks.

He stressed that the signing of this agreement on Ukrainian terms became possible solely thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, whose successes made it possible to defend the key conditions for Ukraine, namely, to regain full control over Ukrainian territorial waters in the north-western region of the Black Sea.

Read also: Ukraine increases grain exports after regaining control over Snake Island, says infrastructure minister

A Joint Coordination Center will be established under the auspices of the UN, which will include representatives of Turkey, Ukraine, the United Nations, and Russia, who have provided guarantees regarding the safe movement of ships that will participate in the transportation of grain and food products from Ukrainian ports.

Read also: Turkey plays a delicate balancing act between Ukraine, Russia and NATO

In order to comply with the agreements, Turkey will create inspection groups from among representatives of all parties, which will ensure the inspection of cargo and personnel going to or leaving Ukrainian ports. The inspection will take place exclusively in harbors, at the entrance and exit of the Turkish Straits (the Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways, which connect the Black and Mediterranean seas through the Marmara and Aegean seas, are usually called this collectively  NV Business). Joint inspection will protect Ukrainian ports from the entry of "Trojan horses" disguised as civilian vessels.

"I emphasize once again that activity and control in the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi will be carried out under the authority and responsibility of Ukraine," Kubrakov wrote.

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That is, control over Ukrainian ports remains entirely with the Ukrainian side. The movement of no other ships, except those that are supposed to ensure the export of grain and food products related to it, is stipulated.

Whats in it for Ukraine?

First of all, this represents significant support for the Ukrainian economy. Kubrakov noted that more than 20 million tons of grain have locked in warehouses since last year, and a new harvest is already waiting for export. If it were not possible to break the impasse, Ukrainian farmers would question the very need to sow fields for the next year.

Read also: Russia exports 7,000 tons of Ukrainian grain via Berdyansk, Russian media reports

"These are huge direct foreign currency earnings and a condition for the stability of our state, which will also allow us to strengthen our economy and army," the minister asserted.

Whats in it for the world?

"Operating seaports of Ukraine are our contribution to global food security and the world economy," says Kubrakov.

Read also: Putins Black Sea blockade leaves millions facing global famine

According to experts, the possibility of exporting Ukrainian grain will reduce world food prices, which would slow the flywheel of inflation that has become a problem for the whole world.

The blockade of Ukrainian seaports by the Russian navy has put at least one and a half billion people worldwide at risk of starvation, as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly stated.

"This agreement gives us opportunities, but we do not stop working on the development of alternative logistics routes and are ready for any scenarios," Kubrakov added.

A mirror agreement was also signed in Istanbul by representatives of Russia.

Read also: Grain Agreement" to extend automatically, says Turkish Defense Minister

The first quadrilateral meeting on unblocking the Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain took place on July 13, in which representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the UN participated.

The Turkish Defense Minister said that the delegations agreed on the establishment of a coordination center in Istanbul and aligned on "key technicalities", including "joint control at points of departure and arrival".

Russia has deliberately blocked Ukrainian ports and sea routes in the Black Sea used to export grain from Ukraine, as well as hindered exports by rail, launching missile attacks on elevators, railway infrastructure, and even grain fields, provoking widespread fires.

On July 23, following the signing of these agreements, the Russian military struck one of the ports intended to be lifted from the blockade in Odesa, causing widespread fires.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
SATURDAY, 23 JULY 2022, 07:21

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have repelled a Russian assault towards Verkhnokamianske and Siversk on the Kramatorsk front.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 06:00 on 23 July

Details: On the Kramatorsk front, Russian occupying forces fired on the areas around Verkhnokamianske, Siversk, Starodubivka, Pyskunivka, Bilohorivka, Hryjorivka, Spirne, and Vyimka using tanks and tubed and rocket artillery.

There were no significant changes on the Volyn, Polissia, and Sivershchyna fronts. On the Sivershchyna front, Russian forces shelled the village of Mykolaivka, in Chernihiv Oblast.

On the Slobozhanshchyna front, Russias main efforts are focused on preventing the Ukrainian forces from advancing towards the Ukrainian state border in the northern and northeastern parts of Kharkiv Oblast.

Russian forces did not undertake active combat operations on the Kharkiv front, though they used tanks and tubed and rocket artillery to fire on the areas around Kharkiv, Zolochiv, Pytomnyk, Borshchova, Lisne, Ruski Tyshky, Cherkaski Tyshky, and Mospanove.

Russia did not undertake active combat operations on the Sloviansk front either. Russian forces fired on the areas around Hrushuvakha, Dolyna, Krasnopillia, Dibrovne, Mazanivka, Protopopivka, Chepil, Velyka Komyshuvakha, Nortsivka, Bohorodychne, Virnopillia, and Karnaukhivka.

On the Bakhmut front, Russian forces used artillery to fire on the areas around Yakovlivka, Soledar, Bakhmut, Pokrovske, Bakhmutske, and Novoluhanske, and conducted airstrikes near Novoluhanske. Once again, the Russians attempted to storm Pokrovske and the Vuhlehirska Power Plant, but were once again forced to retreat with losses.

On the Avdiivka, Novopavlivka, and Zaporizhzhia fronts, Russian occupying forces fired on the areas around Novobakhmutivka, Pisky, Vuhledar, Opytne, Vodiane, Prechystivka, Mala Tokmachka, Novoiakovlivka, Uspenivka, Orikhiv, Pavlivka, Novopil, Shcherbaky, Novoandriivka, and Mali Shcherbaky, and conducted airstrikes near Krasnohorivka and Kamianka.

On the Pivdennyi Buh front, Russian forces continue to defend their previously occupied positions and are focusing their efforts on holding back the Ukrainian counter-offensive. The Russians used tubed and rocket artillery, as well as tanks, to fire on the Ukrainian positions along the entire frontline.

Two Russian naval missile carriers (carrying Kalibr cruise missiles) remain in the waters of the Black Sea.
IRYNA BALACHUK  SATURDAY, 23 JULY 2022, 12:30

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that this mornings missile strike by the Russians on the port of Odesa calls into question the Ukrainian grain export agreement which was signed the day before.

Source: Oleh Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Facebook

Quote from Nikolenko: "It took less than 24 hours for the Russian Federation to launch a missile strike on the territory of the city of Odesa to question the agreement and the promises it made to the UN and Turkey in the document signed yesterday in Istanbul.

The Russian missile is Vladimir Putin spitting in the face of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who made a huge effort to reach the deal, and to whom Ukraine is grateful."

Details: Nikolenko said that Ukraine emphasised the need for rigorous implementation of the agreements on resuming the safe export of Ukrainian agricultural produce via the Black Sea from three ports: Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi (formerly Yuzhny).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is calling on the UN and Turkey to ensure that Russia complies with its obligations with regard to the safe functioning of the grain corridor.

"If the agreements reached are not adhered to, Russia will bear full responsibility for intensifying the global food crisis," Nikolenko concluded.

Background:
Jul. 23A Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation and the Jasper County prosecutor concluded that a Joplin police officer used justified force in the March 8 fatal shooting of a fleeing gunman who shot three officers during attempts to evade arrest.

The Jasper County prosecutor, Theresa Kenney, said Friday the patrol has submitted a review of the police actions in the case and did not present any charges or probable cause for charges against police in the death of Anthony Felix, 40.

Capt. Will Davis fatally shot Felix that day as Felix fired upon officers who attempted to apprehend him. He had sped away in a police car, leaving two officers mortally wounded at a shopping center at Fourth Street and Geneva Avenue. Felix then led other officers on a chase from Seventh Street to Range Line Road and down 15th Street through a Campbell Parkway neighborhood before being cornered and wounding a third officer in a shootout.

"I believe Capt. Davis's actions were justified," Kenney said. "He returned fire in self-defense."

At a news conference Friday afternoon, the Joplin Police Department showed 27 minutes of video from police body cameras and vehicle cameras that documented some key details in the events that led up to the shooting deaths Cpl. Ben Cooper and patrol Officer Jake Reed, and the subsequent wounding of Officer Rick Hirshey by Felix.

Cooper died the day of the shooting. Reed died three days later. Hirshey was shot in the face by a bullet that pierced the windshield of his cruiser and was hospitalized for eight days. He spent more than three months on medical leave to recover from the shooting before returning to duty in late June.

At the time of the shootings, police said that after Hirshey was hit, Davis left a position of cover to get a clear shot at Felix, downing the gunman who had sprayed numerous rounds at officers during the chase.

On Friday, Joplin police Chief Sloan Rowland said the videos were being made public because the patrol investigation had concluded and because open records requests had been filed for the videos. He said the families of the officers were provided access to the videos and consulted about the public release of them before the news conference was announced.

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The videos open with a 911 call to police dispatch by a store manager of The Buckle, 405 Geneva Ave., who said a suspicious acting man had been in the store and harassed an employee. "He just left, but he was getting aggressive," she said.

The first camera video is of Reed, a five-year veteran of the department, driving into the parking lot and seeing the man, described as wearing a leather jacket and red hat, walking nearby. Reed calmly spoke to the man and asked if something had happened at the store.

Felix said nothing was going on. "They told me to leave, and I left," Felix said. After talking to Felix, Reed got some information including Felix's birthdate and told Felix to sit on the curb while he talked to the store personnel to get their side of the story.

Reed sat in the police car and called the store, where the store manager told him that the man had worn a mask in the store, making employees fearful of a robbery or theft. The man was threatening when he was asked to set the jeans on the checkout counter while he continued to shop. Reed was told the man yelled and cussed at the staff, and said the employees had taken the jeans away from him and touched his hand.

Officer Cooper arrived at the location, but his cameras were not turned on. He stood on the street while Reed talked on the phone.

Reed stepped out of his car and told Felix to stand up, that he was under arrest. Felix struggles as the officers try to take hold of him. During the struggle, Reed's body cam fell to the ground and did not pick up the remaining struggle.

The police chief said Felix pulled a gun he had hidden in his clothes and fired two shots that struck Reed. He then turned to Cooper and shot him in the back of the head. Felix got into Cooper's car and drove away.

Cooper's patrol car video showed a Duquesne police car pulling into the parking lot from Seventh Street. Rowland said the Duquesne officer located the downed officers, and called for ambulances and assistance.

Felix sped onto Seventh Street, hitting a median and crossing into the oncoming lanes before he turned off on a side street and sped toward Range Line Road. He turned onto Range Line, then drove into the parking lots at O'Reilly Automotive and then Chili's restaurant, and pulled out onto 15th Street.

Officers following him could be heard in the video reporting that they were traveling at speeds of 65 to 70 mph west on 15th Street. Felix fired nine shots at them. One bullet hit the head rest of an officer's seat, missing his head by inches. Then Felix made a sudden turn onto Campbell Parkway headed toward Connecticut Avenue with smoke showing from the passenger-side rear section of Cooper's patrol car.

After a couple of blocks, the passenger-side back wheel and tire fell off the car and Felix pulled into a driveway and limped the car past the house into a backyard. He jumped out and ran west to some apartments with guns in both hands. A white van was parked near an apartment and he opened the door, but several police cars closed in on his location and he took cover behind the driver's door, and fired at the officers, striking Hirshey.

While Officer Lacey Baxter and others guided a bleeding Hirshey out of the line of fire to take cover behind a vehicle, Baxter called out for help for the wounded officer, shouting, "I need medical right now." Hirshey told Baxter that "he only got me in the face. He only shot one shot."

The police chief said that Cooper and Reed were taken to the hospital where they remained in critical condition until they died.

Felix was a homeless man who stayed with people from time to time, the police chief said. He had a felony conviction and could not legally buy a gun from a store, but he got one from a private individual. There is an ongoing investigation into the sale of the gun to Felix, the chief said.

The second gun he used that day, firing more than 18 shots at police officers, was Reed's service weapon Felix took after shooting him.

The videos do not show the actual shootings of Cooper and Reed.
Jake Sullivan

Read also: No signs that weapons for Ukraine will be smuggled somewhere else, Pentagon says

During his speech, Sullivan said that U.S. President Joe Biden isnt ready to supply Ukraine with certain forces and means.

Among them are long-range missiles, ATACMS, which have a range of 300 km, explained Sullivan.

Because he believes that while the key goal of the United States is to do whatever is necessary to support and protect Ukraine, another key goal is to ensure that we dont get into a situation in which we are approaching the Third World War.

He added that at the same time, Biden approved the transfer of high-precision projectiles for HIMARS to Ukraine. He pointed out that the United States is also supplying Kyiv with various UAVs that are effectively used by the Ukrainian military.

Read also: Ukraine uses HIMARS to eliminate over 30 Russian military targets

Earlier, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the supply of weapons would depend on the needs of Ukraine and the situation on the battlefield. He clarified that now the United States is supplying Ukraine with ammunition for HIMARS with a range of 80 kilometers.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov expressed confidence that Ukraine would receive missiles for the HIMARS Multiple Launcher Rocket Systems capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 300 km.

Read also: Ukraine presents a system that monitors Western weapons disbursement

At the end of May, President Biden said that the United States would not send missile systems to Ukraine that could reach the territory of the aggressor country, Russia. Later, the State Department clarified that Washington is not supplying long-range missiles "for use outside the battlefield in Ukraine."

Ukraine has pledged not to use high-precision weapons, including the HIMARS Multiple Launcher Rocket Systems, against facilities in Russia.



Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Young evangelical Christians are facing a dilemma whether to follow in the footsteps of their parents or pursue other choices. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

The extent to which the number of white evangelicals have declined in the United States has been laid bare in a new report by the Public Religion Research Institutes 2020 Census on American Religion.

The institutes study found that only 14% of Americans identify as white evangelical today. This is a drastic decline since 2006, when Americas religious landscape was composed of 23% white evangelicals, as the report notes.

Along with a decline in white evangelicalism, the data indicates a stabilized increase in the number of those who no longer identify as religious at all. Scholars of religion refer to this group as nones, and they make up about a quarter of the American population. These statistics are even more drastic when considering age. In short, older Americans are much more religious than younger Americans, while millennials are likely to not practice or identify with religion.

This data is significant. Even though white evangelicals tend to be politically vocal and influential, several are known to be leaving the faith.

Increasingly, scholarship is tracking the emergence of those defecting from religion. Religious studies scholar Elizabeth Dreschers 2016 book, Choosing Our Religion, examines numerous cases in which people transition away from their faith. She notes that people leaving evangelicalism tended to express anger and frustration with both the teachings and practices of their childhood church.

Although the statistics are sure to capture the attention of various readers, the data can give only limited insights into the more nuanced perspectives specific to critiquing white evangelicalism.

Over the past six years, I have been part of a team of scholars from various disciplines and universities examining the hesitancy and rejection of younger individuals either leaving or attempting to reform evangelicalism in America. Some younger evangelicals are disenchanted with their faith traditions staunch and divisive political positions and how theology has been used to prop up these positions.

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Younger evangelicals experiences

Between 2010 and 2018, I conducted over 75 interviews with those dissatisfied with their evangelical faith and observed multiple white evangelical megachurches.

My interviewees, all white, were typically in their late 20s to early 40s and highly critical of the Christian faith of their youth. These interviewees respond differently to their dissatisfaction. Some completely leave their faith while others try to reform their faith from within. For the majority, church was a major part of their social life, and they described rigid expectations to defend their theology, politics and spiritual communities to outsiders.

Several of those interviewed during my research mentioned how politics had influenced the theology of white evangelicalism in the United States. Rob, who resides in Florida and spent the majority of his early adult life as a musician in a white evangelical megachurch, told me that his church preached God, country and the Republican Party. He was even taught as a teenager that Jesus was definitely a Republican, and he characterized God as quite angry, a cosmic referee seeking to regulate the lives of the faithful. Today, Rob identifies as a progressive Christian and holds a much more generous view of his god.

My research shows some younger evangelicals are fatigued with white evangelicalisms allegiance to the Republican Party and to specific stances on racism and sexuality. White evangelicals categorize these issues as a culture war for the soul of America  an internal struggle for who will define and decide the future of America.

By framing these issues as a cultural battle, white evangelicals maintain an embattled posture targeting a list of such enemies as liberals, secularists and atheists. As sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry note in their study of Christian nationalism, white evangelicals maintain a collective desire to protect their cultural-political turf.

Furthermore, in a racially and ethnically diversifying and increasingly pluralistic country, some evangelicals experiences transform their positions on political issues. Take for instance, the issue of immigration policies in the United States. White evangelicals as a group highly favor restrictive immigration policies.

Some evangelicals have taken a position against restrictive immigration policies. AP Photo/Sarah Betancourt

However, Jerry, one of my interviewees who lives in North Carolina and grew up Methodist, cited the white evangelical position against restrictive immigration policies as a reason to question his faith. Today, Jerry identifies as spiritual but not religious; while still an evangelical, Jerry explained, When it came to issues of immigration, we wanted our kids to know what it means to be an outsider. We want our kids to have a global experience. His theological interpretation of the Bible at that time taught Jerry to welcome outsiders, and he applied this to national borders.

Political changes can shift religious beliefs. Jerrys growing cultural awareness eventually replaced his evangelical interpretation of Scripture. He notes, As opposed to looking to the Bible or church for answers, lets have a multicultural world perspective to answer those questions.

Likewise, Sarah grew up in Kentucky, spending much of her childhood in church services, Bible studies and Christian camps within a Baptist denomination. Part of me likes the idea of church, she says, but I think I like the idea of just helping people more. Thats my idea of what a Christian is, someone who helps others. She admits this while maintaining that for her personally, religious identity is unimportant.

Sarahs involvement in poverty alleviation in Kentucky influenced her attitudes on how she sees white evangelical worship today: The way that the church operates in Kentucky is so backwards. Its all about the self. About pleasing yourself. Its all white, middle- to upper-class people watching a big screen with a full band. I think thats probably the opposite of what Jesus wanted.

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Why is this happening now?

For those trained and disciplined within white evangelicalism, the insular and authoritarian nature of the faith often creates circumstances where questioning or critiquing the faith seems impossible and can lead to shunning.

Brandy, in Tennessee and raised a Baptist, recounted that her family actually held a religious intervention, with a screen, PowerPoint and projector, after she stopped attending her familys church. She experienced ostracization: I felt rejected, overlooked, looked down upon, she says. I felt apart from the community. Brandy is still a Christian and attends another more progressive church regularly, but her evangelical family refuses to accept her church as legitimate.

This is only a sample of interviewee comments I heard indicating a growing disaffection with the political stances and alliances of white evangelicalism. They represent a growing movement of exvangelicals  those who grew up in the faith but have since abandoned it.

The staunch resistance to civil unions, transgender rights and womens equality, along with the inability of white evangelicalism to grapple with its racialized and patriarchal structures, is misaligned with some of these younger perspectives today.

As the report indicates, many millennials are simply rejecting traditional forms of religion altogether.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Terry Shoemaker, Arizona State University.

Read more:



Terry Shoemaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Wall Street Journals editorial board criticized former President Trump for refusing to take action on Jan. 6, 2021, as a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol, saying in an editorial published Friday that his vice president passed his Jan. 6 trial while Trump utterly failed his.

Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didnt call the military to send help. He didnt call [then-Vice President Mike Pence] to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mobs anger and let the riot play out, the editorial board wrote.

Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his, the editorial board added.

The Journals editorial came one day after the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot held its final summer hearing, which focused on the 187 minutes between Trump finishing his remarks at his Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6 and a tweet he sent in the late afternoon telling his supporters to go home.

Using footage of taped depositions from officials like former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and in-person testimony from Trump White House officials Sarah Matthews and Matthew Pottinger, the committee accused the former president of dereliction of duty as they described how for hours he did nothing to stop the violence that ensued that day.

President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home, committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said during the hearing. He chose not to act.

The Journals editorial board made clear that it did not agree with the committee on all fronts of its investigation  arguing it lacks political balance and was trying to make a criminal case that might be hard to prove and might tear the country apart.

However, the editorial board also acknowledged that the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering as it condemned Trumps inaction on the day of the riot.

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The editorial comes as The New York Posts editorial board also offered strong words against the former president in its own editorial on Friday.

Its up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this countrys chief executive again, the Post editorial said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
For 15 years, a hospital in southern Japan has been the only place in the country where a child can be anonymously and safely abandoned.

Jikei hospital in the Kumamoto region also offers a 24-hour pregnancy support hotline and Japans only confidential birth programme. Expectant mums are offered health checks and other support, and they are encouraged to provide confidential information that could help a child learn about their origins later in life. The Catholic-run hospital opened its baby hatch in 2007, modelled on a German scheme. Such facilities have been banned in some countries including Britain. The United Nations has criticised baby hatches for violating a childs right to eventually discover who their parents are.
Japan-based Regional Fish Institute is now selling gene-edited pufferfish to the public  one of the first times a gene-edited seafood product was offered over-the-counter to Japanese consumers.

The companys online store has been offering the product since it gained government approval in 2021. The sale of gene-edited fish is part of a wider trend in Japan toward the new technology.

Japan is not just allowing gene-editing, it is also funding it. In a 27 June press release, Regional Fish Institute announced that it had  along with Kyoto University and Tokyo Marine University  been awarded a government subsidy of JPY 97.5 million (USD 705,000, EUR 690,000) for research as a year-2022 growth-type small and medium enterprise R&D support project. The company will use the money to develop gene-edited tilapia and vannamei shrimp.

Japan has followed the lead of the U.S.A. and Canada in approving the sale of gene-edited foods with limited safety review, in contrast to the procedure for transgenic foods. In the former, an existing gene is deleted, or its effect reduced, while in the latter, new genetic material is introduced from another species. Transgenic foods pose a risk of introducing allergens into food products, while gene-edited foods contain no new genes, but rather deletion or the targeted mutation of a gene. It is also considered that changes of this scale sometimes occur randomly within the range of typical natural mutations.

In 2019, an advisory panel to Japans Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare recommended allowing gene-edited foodstuffs to be sold to consumers without safety evaluations, opening up new opportunities for such developments.
CEDAR RAPIDS  Attempting to diminish the significance of poll numbers and fundraising that trails Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear told Linn County supporters Thursday that such figures do not capture the sentiment of Iowans.

Campaign filings this week showed Reynolds has more than 10 times as much cash in her campaign coffers as DeJear in her bid for a second full term, as a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows the Osceola Republican with a 17-point lead in the race.

That poll gives us a barometer, but it does not tell us what people actually feel all over this state, DeJear told about 75 attendees of a fundraiser at CSPS Hall in Cedar Rapids, which included candidates, elected officials, local activists and faith leaders. What does that is our continued efforts and our approach to meet people where they are.

The November race for governor is tough, she said, but Reynolds approval ratings have fallen as people of all political stripes dont like the direction of this state.

The most recent Iowa Poll found Reynolds approval rating has risen in recent months. Overall, 52 percent of Iowans approve of the way she is handling her job  up from 49 percent in March.

They see that there is a stronger Iowa in our future and our current governor is just holding us back, DeJear said of Republicans, Democrats and independents alike.

On a recent swing through western Iowa, DeJear said Iowans were making do grappling with their challenges. She said that showed her Iowans already have the vision and solutions to move the state forward.

Were not short of vision, folks, DeJear said. We just need a governor thats willing to turn the lights on.

Eric Van Lancker, DeJears running mate, said Iowans concerns that DeJear hears on the campaign trail are issues the Reynolds administration is not addressing: How am I going to pay for these groceries? Can I afford the rent that Im paying now? Can I take my child to this doctors appointment and afford it?

DeJears solutions are from the heart  Iowa solutions, he said.

Shes spending time listening to Iowans from every corner of this state to understand the common grounds that Iowans share, Van Lancker said.

If elected, Van Lancker told The Gazette their Day One priority would be to fund public schools. DeJear said that starts with early childhood education and continues through the community colleges and public universities governed by the state Board of Regents.

It impacts every aspect of what were doing right now when we look at the challenges we have with a shortage of skilled workers to fill empty jobs in Iowa, DeJear said.

Despite likely facing a Republican-led Legislature if elected as a Democratic governor, DeJear said she would reach across the aisle and work with people regardless of political affiliation. She said she and Van Lancker, the Clinton County auditor, would focus on empowering local communities to ensure all of Iowas 99 counties are strong.

DeJear said there is a strong path to victory if, unlike 2018, independent voters, people of color and the age 18 to 24 voting bloc all cast ballots.

To rally the reliably blue Linn County base around other Democratic candidates on the November ballot, Ann Brown, who co-hosted the fundraiser with Amara Andrews, highlighted elected officials in the room, including some who are seeking re-election.

Brown also mentioned several candidates, including Elizabeth Wilson in Iowa House District 73, a district we need to keep Democratic  and Kris Nall in Iowa House District 83 in rural Linn County  a potential pickup for the Democrats.

DeJear urged people to raise money so the campaign can air ads on TV and volunteers can make phones and knock doors to spread her message.

She asked if the attendees were willing to bring home her victory for Iowa in honor of the people whove fought in the past for the rights to vote, access quality education and reproductive health care.

Weve seen their playbook, DeJear said. Weve seen their culture wars  . We will no longer settle for their tenacious complacency, good people, because we know were better.
Iowa Republicans voted against a bill that passed the U.S. House Thursday largely along party lines that would enshrine in the law the right to use contraception nationwide.

Iowa Republican U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, of Ottumwa, said the legislation went too far.

They said it would lead to more abortions, which supporters deny, allow the use of drugs not yet fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration and force health-care providers to offer contraceptives, even if that contradicted their religious beliefs.

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, of Hull, also voted against the bill. Iowa Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, of West Des Moines, voted in favor.

Hinson instead introduced legislation co-sponsored with Miller-Meeks that would allow people over age 18 to access birth control pills over-the-counter that have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

House Democrats blocked consideration of Hinsons bill.

Over-the-counter birth control pills are available worldwide, but are available in the U.S. only with a prescription. The FDA is currently considering whether to approve over-the-counter contraceptive pills from HRA Pharma.

Hinson said women should be able to access their preferred birth control method conveniently, and that it was particularly important for women in rural areas who may have to drive more than an hour to see their doctor.

Miller-Meeks, in a statement, said as a physician and former Iowa Director of Public Health she recognizes the need for increased access to affordable oral contraceptives and common-sense legislation that both increases availability and protects womens health.

However, I do not support H.R. 8373 because this bill permits non-FDA approved agents and devices that would put womens health at risk, and it eliminates conscience protection laws and singles out that all providers would be required to administer contraceptives despite their moral or religious beliefs, she said. I believe that it is important to protect health-care workers and allow them to make decisions according to their sincerely held beliefs.

Its unclear whether the Right to Contraception Act will pass the evenly divided U.S. Senate, where they will need at least 10 GOP votes to defeat a filibuster.
An error due to redistricting kept former Iowa House speaker Brent Siegrist off the Republican primary ballot in June, but after the state GOP nominating convention, he will be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot as the Republican candidate for state representative for District 19.

When collecting signatures to appear on the Republican primary ballot, Siegrist accidentally fell short. Because of redistricting, he got signatures from voters who no longer lived in his district.

I forgot we had flipped one precinct from one district to the other, so in the end, I was a couple of signatures short, Siegrist said in a May interview.

Under Iowa law, if a political party does not have a candidate for a particular office in the primary election, the party can hold a convention to nominate a candidate who would then appear on the general election ballot.

At the nominating convention, candidates must file an affidavit of candidacy and a political party convention certificate. Then, party delegates from the candidates district hold a vote to determine whether the candidate will appear on the general election ballot as the partys nominee for that office.

At the July 7 nominating convention, Siegrist and a challenger both filed the paperwork to be considered for the nomination.

We both gave a speech and I prevailed, Siegrist said in an interview. Im on the ballot and Ive started campaigning, raising money, knocking on doors and doing what we need to do.

Siegrist was first elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 1984 and served until 2002, when he did not seek reelection. His last 10 years in the House were in leadership positions, split between serving as majority leader or speaker of the House.

After leaving the House, Siegrist worked as executive director of Iowas Area Education Agencies, a position he held until his retirement in 2018. He then worked as a lobbyist in Des Moines for a couple of years before deciding to again run for office.

Siegrist returned to the General Assembly as the state representative for District 16 after his victory in the 2020 general election.

Going back now, I think I bring, not credibility, but respect, Siegrist said. People know my background and Ive been pretty successful there, so I think thats good for Council Bluffs.
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 next step in the expansion of Moroccos automotive sector is the setting up of an electric vehicle battery plant to build on existing raw material and meet a rising demand in the domestic and international market, industry minister Ryad Mezzour said.

The ministry is negotiating with several manufacturers the setting up of such a plant in Morocco, where renewable energy, cobalt and phosphates are locally available, Mezzour told Reuters in an interview.

He said Morocco plans to double its production of 50,000 electric cars within two years.

Now, Moroccos conventional car production capacity by Renault and Stellantis stands at 700,000, he said, noting the potential to increase output to 1 million units in the next four years.

The first and second best selling cars in Europe, Dacia Sandero and Peugeot 208, are both made in Morocco, he said.

The country is also set to bolster its competitiveness by increasing the rate of locally-sourced parts in its exported vehicles from 64% to 80%, a target that would bolster the countrys competitiveness in the face of China and India.
A senior US delegation led by Ron Busby, President/CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, visited Agadir, as part of a working trip to Morocco.

The two-day visit to the Souss-Massa region (Thursday & Friday) was part of preparations for the celebration of Agadir as guest of honor of the 2023 Morocco Day in Washington DC.

On this occasion, the delegation visited the Chtouka-Ait Baha seawater desalination plant, the Souss-Massa Technopark, and the University Hospital (CHU) of Agadir, as well as the cable car station and the Kasbah of Agadir Oufella to inquire about the economic potential and investment opportunities offered by this region.

This visit, which included meetings with several elected officials and economic stakeholders in the region, was an opportunity to exchange information and ideas on the economic and human potential of the city, and on the prospects for joint cooperation between Morocco and the United States in various fields.

A ceremony was held to hand over an official invitation to the president of the local government of Agadir to participate in the 8th edition of Morocco Day after the city was announced as the guest of honor of this international event.

This invitation was handed over by the head of the US delegation, the head of the Moroccan American Network, and the executive chairman of Morocco Day, Mohamed Hajjam, in the presence of the executive chairman of the Morocco Day event in Washington DC, Adib Sliki.

On this occasion, the president of the US Black Chambers and the US delegation praised the efforts made to ensure a comprehensive development in the region and voiced desire to build bridges between the two parties with a view to creating partnerships in various areas of development.

Morocco Day, celebrated on July 15, is considered one of the economic events officially recognized by the Mayor of Washington DC. It has become an occasion to celebrate the centuries-old Moroccan-American relations.

The president of the US Black Chambers and his accompanying delegation attended earlier in Marrakech the US-Africa Business summit and met with Head of Government, Aziz Akhannouch.

During this meeting, the two parties explored partnership and cooperation opportunities between Morocco and the chambers of commerce represented in the US organization, especially with regard to the promotion of investment and entrepreneurship, as well as the empowerment for businesses in the African continent.

The Head of Government surveyed the role played by Morocco to develop investments on the African Continent, noting that Morocco has become the first African investor in West Africa and the second on the African Continent.

The Washington-based US Black Chambers is a non-profit organization created in 2009.
Bystanders Thursday restrained a man who attempted a carjacking after fleeing police in another vehicle, according to a North Platte police spokesman.

North Platte police officers spotted a man with known warrants out for his arrest at 3:50 p.m. Thursday

David Nuno, 25, was seen in the parking lot of the Kwik Stop at B and Jeffers streets, Investigator John Deal said in an email. As the officer approached in a police vehicle, Nuno entered a 1999 Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan that had two passengers and drove away from the parking lot, Deal said.

The officer attempted to stop the vehicle, but it accelerated away. As a pursuit began, the Oldsmobile ran the stop sign at C and Jeffers eastbound and collided with a 2021 Ford Expedition that was traveling south on Jeffers. No injuries were reported.

After the collision, Nuno and two other occupants from the Oldsmobile ran away. An officer spotted one of the others near D and Bailey and arrested him. The other passenger, a woman, also was arrested.

After Nuno ran from the disabled Oldsmobile, he attempted to enter and steal a nearby occupied motor vehicle. While doing so, he attracted attention from several people nearby.

These brave citizens intervened and were able to restrain David in a parking lot of a business in the 300 block of South Jeffers, Deal wrote. The citizens restrained David long enough for officers to arrive and take him into custody.

While being restrained, Nuno bit one persons arm, causing injury.

The Oldsmobile was searched and inside officers found prescription pills (a controlled substance) that nobody in the car owned along with multiple knives and a handgun with a defaced serial number.

Nuno, a convicted felon, was arrested on suspicion of operating a vehicle to avoid arrest, resisting arrest, DUI, third-degree assault, possession of a firearm and deadly weapon (knives) by a prohibited person, possession of a defaced firearm, and possession of a controlled substance.

Sheridan Stark, 25, was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest, possession of a defaced firearm, and possession of a firearm and deadly weapon (knives) by a prohibited person as he was also a convicted felon.

Toni Hopkins, 30, also a convicted felon, was arrested on suspicions of the same weapon offenses and possession of a controlled substance.
When on a trip to Colorado in 2019, Ashley felt funny. Not nauseous, like she was going to throw up, but something felt off. She thought that maybe it was traveling nerves, which she doesnt normally have.

When she came back and the feeling didnt shake, she went to buy over-the-counter nausea medication. Then, she realized that she didnt remember the last time she had a period. She decided to take a pregnancy test.

I said some curse words, Im not even going to lie, said Ashley, who is now 25. I was like, Ah, thats a blue line. And I was not ready for that blue line.

For Ashley, terminating the pregnancy was not a real consideration for her. Neither was dropping out of Auburn University.

I thought I was just going to bulldoze through it, but life humbled me, she said. Going through pregnancy humbled me. You think that you can keep up with the pace that you normally go, but it does take a lot out of you to grow another person.

Last month, the Supreme Court of the United States decided in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to an abortion. In Alabama, abortion is now illegal, except when there is a serious medical emergency. As a result, people facing unplanned pregnancies in Alabama will likely carry their baby to term.

Kaitlyn Willing is the director of operations at Baby Steps, a non-profit organization in Auburn that provides support and community to pregnant and parenting students. She said student mothers face unique challenges that make it difficult to finish their degrees.

A lot of [student parents] drop out because they dont have the resources to stay in school, and so thats what we provide, Willing said. If they are wanting to finish their degree, an unplanned pregnancy shouldnt have to stop that. To truly empower a female in todays world means giving her the option to stay in school and raise the baby and have a little bit of extra help so she can do that.

As a pregnant student, Ashley had a full-time class schedule and also worked full-time to support herself. In a fisheries class she took, she was required to travel to different ponds, in the summer heat, sometimes with no bathrooms available.

Soon enough, it became clear to her that the mental and physical stress she was under was too much. She decided to medically withdraw.

After working for a year to pay the money she owed the university, Ashley returned to her classes, now a student mother. She said it was difficult.

I was commuting from Tallassee, she said. So I was leaving my house around 6:30 every morning with my child, dropping him off at daycare, getting to work by 7:45.  I would clock out to go to class, go back to work.  Id work until 5, pick up my child, drive all the way back to Tallassee. That was my daily routine.

The routine was taxing on her, but more than that, it did not give her much time to spend with her son. She wouldnt get back home until 6 p.m., and by that time, he needed to get ready for bed.

But that was the time I was walking through the door, she said. I hadnt fed him, I hadnt bathed him, I hadnt gotten to read bedtime stories, I didnt  I didnt get any of those opportunities on that type of schedule, so it was just very overwhelming. There was a lot of me in different areas where I couldnt fully be present.

Ashley had heard of Baby Steps through a sign she saw in a bathroom on campus while she was pregnant, but she didnt reach out and ask for help because she didnt think that she would need it. Once she was a mother, she realized how much she did.

After reaching out to Baby Steps, Ashley moved into the house that Baby Steps runs for student mothers. When she had nighttime classes, Baby Steps arranged for volunteers to watch her son. Now, she didnt have to decide whether to go to class or stress about finding a babysitter.

They took out a lot of the things that weighed on me, so that way I could be me again, she said.

Filling a need

Baby Steps opened its doors in Auburn in 2017. Since then, Willing said, they have served over 70 student mothers, whether that be through housing, community support or other resources.

For student mothers living on the Baby Steps property, a live-in support and a student resident assistant provide whatever the mothers may need, so student mothers constantly have someone they can go to, Willing said.

A baby boutique on the property has clothes, bottles, diapers, wipes and other things mothers may need, all for free, either new or gently loved, Willing said. She wants the support they offer to communicate to student mothers that they are not alone in their experience.

Student mothers get coffee together once a week, also free of charge. Willing said this gives them the opportunity to talk with other student moms or study for classes.

Because of the unique struggles faced by student mothers, Willing said it is an invisible population on Auburns campus. When she had an unplanned pregnancy during her time at Auburn, before Baby Steps was formed, she was lonely. She said she thought she was the only pregnant student on campus and there were no resources to help her.

When I told my professor, they actually sent me to the office of disabilities, and I got laughed out of the office of disabilities, because they didnt know what to do with me, she said with a laugh. There was not really a protocol or something in place to help students who had found out that they had an unplanned pregnancy.

When a recent social media post from Baby Steps went viral, Willing said students from all over the United States messaged the organization, asking if they could join the program if they transferred to Auburn.

What people have to understand is theres not another nonprofit like Baby Steps, Willing said. We truly are the first of our kind to see this population in need and try to fill it.

Baby Steps is currently raising money to hire an expansion team to train future Baby Steps chapters on other campuses, starting with the University of Central Florida.

Its our goal to be able to make it a simplified process to where we can deliver in a cookie cutter box: This is exactly how you run Baby Steps on your campus, Willing said.
Real hero

Thursdays Our View editorial entitled Heroic or Foolish suggested that the young man who killed the mass shooter in the Greenwood, Indiana, shopping mall should be recognized as reckless, perhaps even foolish instead of being heroic.

As I read the article, I could not help but think of the Uvalde, Texas, situation where literally hundreds of police officers stood around instead of taking action. I think the children in the classroom would have appreciated a little recklessness on the part of those officers.

I recognize the difference  a citizen vs. officers whose job it is to take risks to do their duty. In my mind, that makes the young man even more of a hero. It was not his job but he stepped up to save the lives of others.

I guess the author would also consider joining the military or the police force reckless and foolish, since one doing such runs the risk of getting killed. Every day, I thank our military and police officers for being reckless and foolish.

Claude Fortin

Opelika
A sculptor's lawsuit against Jeff Koons over the originality of the mega-artist's most infamous work can proceed, a U.S. judge rules: https://t.co/qJ1UxYl8U0 pic.twitter.com/PJCKklZKDE  Artnet (@artnet) July 21, 2022

Artist Michael Hayden claims that Koons improperly used one of his sculptures in his controversial Made in Heaven series. Hayden says that his copyright was infringed upon when Koons incorporated into the series one of his original sculpture works of a giant sculpture wrapped around a rock.Hayden says he made the sculpture in 1988 as an prop for Ilona Staller (professionally known as Cicciolina and Koons then-wife) performances. He sold the sculpture to Diva Futura, the company owned by Cicciolina and her manager. He says he retained all copyrights to the work and did not assign authorship, copyright ownership, or sublicensing rights to Diva Future or anyone else, and did not intend for anyone other than Cicciolina, her manager and Diva Futura, to use the work commercially.In 1989 Koons and Cicciolina collaborated together in what would become the sexually explicit Made in Heaven series. Haydens lawyers identify three images from this series as infringing works: a 1989 lithograph initially commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art that was displayed as a billboard in downtown New York City; a polychromed wood sculpture featuring a three-dimensional replica of the original work; and an oil-on-canvas painting titled Jeff in the Position of Adam (1990). The works are on Koons website without giving credit or attributing any portion of copyright to Hayden.Its interesting to note that it took Hayden 30 years to bring suit, claiming he didnt know that his work was used and he only discovered the infringement in April 2019, when he came across an Italian news article that displayed an image of one of the works. How on earth he didnt know about I have no clue because the Made in Heaven series not only toured around the world, it was instantly infamous due to the fact that Cicciolina was a porn star in her past life and the art world definitely milked the whole Tee-hee, Jeff married a porn star and they did nasty naked things together and made art from it angle. Another point to make is that even though Cicciolina purchased the snake sculpture from Hayden as a prop (which was ultimately reproduced in one of the works) Braydon was never acknowledged as the creator of that part of the sculpture, and thats what he has issues with. It does not seem like hes doing it for moneys sake because the lawsuit cites a figure of up to 25,000 for each count of copyright infringement.In an opinion dated July 18, district judge Lorna Schofield wrote that Haydens complaint sufficiently alleges a valid claim of copyright. With respect to the claim of fair use that Koons argued, the judge wrote that he bears the ultimate burden of proving that the factors balance in its favor. There are two ways to see this case. One being that the artwork was sold as a prop and therefore is fair game; would a furniture manufacture sue Koons if the sculpture depicted the couple lying on a couch? On the other hand, its a piece of art in its own right and Koons has been shady in the past with using the work of others in his work without permission. What do you think, ONTD?Source:
AI is making oil and gas companies more efficient and helping to monitor emissions.

While still in the early stages, countries are crafting AI strategies to fit their specific needs.

Several nations are embracing AI to diversify and bolster their economies.

As part of ongoing efforts to diversify their economies and build a platform for sustainable future growth, MENA nations are increasingly turning towards artificial intelligence (AI). A slew of recent investments and initiatives  primarily in academia and the government, but also in the private sector  has reinvigorated interest from industry leaders around the globe in the potential for AI to strengthen the efficiency and sustainability of MENA economies.

According to a report from the Economist Impact Unit (EIU) and Google published earlier this year, AI could bring about an additional $320bn in economic growth in the MENA region by 2030.

Many long-term economic strategies in the region target high-value sectors with the potential to benefit from the Fourth Industrial Revolution  a raft of technological advancements in AI, data and cloud computing that merge the physical, digital and biological worlds.

AIs economic potential

In recent years the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt have published ambitious, government-driven strategies to develop AI. However, much of their momentum was derailed in the Covid-19 pandemics early months, as attention turned to dealing with the unfolding heath situation, the broader economic downturn and the collapse in oil prices.

Despite the temporary setback, the pandemic has underscored the urgency of economic diversification, and several MENA nations have accelerated investment in non-hydrocarbons sectors where AI could play a key role.

Global private sector investment in AI, largely driven by companies in China and the US, increased by 40% in 2020, according to research from Stanford University, underscoring the surging interest in the field and its potential applications, especially in high-value-added sectors.

A March report from Saudi management consultancy Strategic Gears recommended that the country focus on harnessing AI to boost three sectors  oil and gas, government services and financial services  that already contribute more than 50% of GDP. Manufacturing, health care, education, automotive, retail and e-commerce, and transport are also positioned to benefit from the technology.

Rather than being restricted to ICT and tech-based fields, AI is expected to have a far-reaching impact across broader economies and will be key to realising long-term economic plans.

The implementation of AI is helping businesses become more customer-centric, efficient, productive and competitive in both local and regional markets, Said bin Abdullah Al Mandhari, CEO of ITHCA Group, an Omani ICT company, told OBG.

This is already the case in Omans oil and gas industry, and it will be particularly important moving forwards for priority sectors like fisheries, tourism and logistics. AI can ultimately help unlock these sectors potential, see them become significant contributors to national GDP and help achieve their targets under Oman Vision 2040.

Cybersecurity is another area where AI can add value. As OBG recently detailed, cyberattacks have been on the rise since Russias invasion of Ukraine, presenting an elevated threat to emerging markets.

According to media reports, an extensive phishing campaign that involved the impersonation of the UAEs Ministry of Human Resources was recently discovered with the help of an AI digital risk-monitoring platform from Indias CloudSEK.

Energy efficiency gains

In a region where several countries derive sizeable portions of GDP and export revenue from hydrocarbons, it is unsurprising that the energy sector has attracted significant AI investment from governments and companies looking not only to diversify away from oil and gas, but also to bolster the sectors efficiency and reduce its carbon emissions.

Related: MI6 Chief: Iran May Not Want A Nuclear Deal

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has already deployed machine learning to mine its historical and current data, which has helped generate scenarios and forecast operations that have, in ADNOCs estimation, generated $1bn in business value over three years.

AI is also expected to be highly valuable in enabling the transition to green energy by managing the decentralised electricity systems renewable sources rely upon and monitoring carbon emissions.

To this end, in May London-based AI start-up Arloid Automation announced three new partnerships across the Middle East to track and reduce emissions.

Investment in the future

Given their large youth populations, many MENA nations are making significant investments in AI education, training and research to ensure that such technologies play a key role in the future economy and workforce.

Of the $320bn the EIU-Google report estimates that MENA nations will generate by 2030 thanks to the adoption of AI, Strategic Gears expects Saudi Arabia to yield 42%, partly due to its investment in education. Roughly three-quarters of Saudi Vision 2030 goals involve data and AI, and the Kingdom plans to train 20,000 data and AI specialists by the end of the decade.

Highlighting this focus, in April national energy major Aramco signed a memorandum of understanding with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology to establish a new research centre to advance AI technological development.

Among the UAEs largest investments in AI education was the establishment of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in 2019. Located in the smart city and innovation cluster of Masdar City, MBZUAI ranks 30th globally among institutions that conduct research in AI, computer vision, machine learning and natural language processing, according to computer science metrics-based platform CSRankings.

Elsewhere, Qatar has several branch campuses of renowned universities such as Carnegie Mellon University in the US, where students can pursue AI-related degrees and research. The country is also home to the Qatar Centre for Artificial Intelligence, which is working to attract talent to its AI faculty and establish a research and policy centre.

Given that AIs benefits are multi- and intersectoral, MENA countries can craft strategies and build AI tailored ecosystems to suit their respective economic and social structures.

For example, as part of the Egyptian governments efforts to harness AI for economic growth and quality-of-life improvements, it is allocating funds for teacher training programmes and other AI-related vocational initiatives.

As MENA nations and other emerging markets continue to invest in AI education, some industry figures say they may have a distinct advantage over developed nations by leveraging local talent.

With the drive towards affordability  a defining trait in developing markets  now also a feature of more advanced markets, software engineers in developing markets are gaining a competitive advantage based on the combination of their inherent affinity for cost-effective solutions and the possibilities opened up by AI, Soham Chokshi, CEO and co-founder of logistics software provider Shipsy, told OBG.

However, to realise this competitive advantage and achieve significant improvements in domestic AI capacity, countries the region will also need to incentivise investment.

In order for Oman Vision 2040 to become a reality and accelerate economic development, the country needs to work on creating a business environment conducive to greater investment in advanced technology, particularly in the area of AI and data analytics, Maqbool Al Wahaibi, CEO of Oman Data Park, told OBG. In this context, local IT companies will need to prepare to compete against global players that are expanding their presence in the local market.

By Oxford Business Group

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com
The mayors of Papillion, La Vista and Ralston practiced their diplomacy over lunch Friday when they hosted two members of Parliament of the United Kingdom.

They met for lunch at The Sojourn Cafe in downtown Ralston with Scott Benton, who represents Blackpool South, and Tom Hunt, who represents Ipswich. Both are members of the governingConservative Party, and the mayors are all Republicans.

Rep. Don Bacons office organized the visit through the State Departments International Visitor Leadership Program, which facilitates short-term visits for current and emerging foreign leaders that reflect participants professional interests and U.S. foreign policy goals.

We wanted to share a slice of the 2nd District featuring some of our smaller communities, and give the MPs a chance to share some ideas and thoughts, Bacon said in a statement through a spokesperson.

Black told the Papillion Times that this was the the second time hes participated in an IVLP visit, which he said helps to build international relationships and improve trade relations.

The IVLPs citizen diplomacy relies on the commitment and skills of volunteer-based community organizations across the United States, according to its website.

The visiting MPs learned about how government works in Nebraska, including the states unique, officially nonpartisan unicameral Legislature and, at the local level, sanitary and improvement districts. Bacon said they wanted to understand the roles of mayors and city councils, and Kindig said they also asked about economic development and taxing authority.

Benton and Hunt planned to travel to Boston and Washington, D.C., as part of their trip.

While their purpose was to learn about our government system, Black said they did talk about the British system, which has a more centralized government than the U.S.

It was interesting to compare and contrast, Black said.

Schools in the U.K. arent operated by local school districts in the same was as the U.S., which Kindig notes has the potential to be dangerous because it makes it easier to adopt national curriculum changes. Local councils dont have the same level of oversight and taxing authority that city and county governments do in the United States.

Im a local control guy, Kindig said. It is still much more state controlled over there.

Kindig said he enjoyed visiting with people who are involved in politics but working in a different democratic system. He said they both had respect for the U.S. system, which he said was telling  especially at a time when many are calling for political reform.

It was a lot of fun, Kindig said. As we all know, theres a lot of us that think (our system of government) could be better, and it can be better, but theres a lot of us that want to throw out the old way of doing it, and outside the United States borders, weve got a lot of respect on how we do it.
Cousins Barb Dahlhauser and Mimi Bommarito grew up hearing a family legend  known succinctly as the pig story  at nearly every gathering of their large clan.

The true tale is rooted in the Nebraska Sandhills, where their ancestors, Florian and Theresa Gesiriech, eventually settled after immigrating to America from Austria. It was spread far and wide by the cousins great-grandmother, Grandma Pearl, who had 25 grandkids and numerous great-grandchildren.

She passed when she was 96, and every summer up to her 90th year, she would get us all together, Dahlhauser said. Invariably one of us would ask her to tell us her pig story.

Its a yarn about a family wedding, an angry, tormented pig who attacks and injures onlookers, and the rare silver dollar that saved the day.

And now its the premise  along with another swine story  of the play that won the inaugural Fremont Opera House playwriting contest in 2021.

Of Pearls and Swine, written by Bommarito and Dahlhauser, is onstage through Sunday at the opera house, directed by Midland University drama professor Lee Meyer. The show features a local cast.

Neither woman had ever written a play when Dahlhauser suggested entering the contest. They knew a little something about writing, however  Bommarito has a journalism degree and a column in the Orinda, California, newspaper, where she lives, and Dahlhauser, of Omaha, has written poems and a short story for publication.

The pig story seemed like the perfect topic for the play. Both had heard it numerous times, and Bommarito was in the process of learning more about her ancestors.

I am a huge genealogy nerd, she said. This was all taking place during the COVID lockdown. I wasnt able to do anything so I took a deep dive into researching our family roots. That search was on my mind when we were trying to come up with a topic.

Her work helped them get a sense of place for the play. Their ancestors lived in the community of Newport, near Stuart in the Sandhills. Valentine and Long Pine werent far away.

The Gesiriechs had a tree claim, meaning that settlers were entitled to as many as 160 acres if they promised to plant trees within a set time frame. They arrived in the region in the late 1880s.

In the course of their joint effort, the cousins visited the site of the homestead.

Trees that the family planted are still on the property. They pulled up saplings from the Niobrara River and planted them and they grew. It was very moving for me to see that, Bommarito said.

They also met relatives on the trip. The land has remained in the family since it was purchased in the late 1800s.

The women say the story theyre telling is true, with some embellishment. The second swine story involves a Catholic priest who comes in February 1894 to bury Florian, the family patriarch. The priest asks to take home a pig for his trouble, and Mama Theresa refuses because the family needs the animal. The priest then wont allow them to move the body inside, making mourners endure the funeral in the chilling winter wind.

Though the plays wedding and funeral are four years apart, Bommarito said they wrote it thinking that the angry pig and the one the priest requested were the same.

We are filling in a lot of blanks and making a lot of assumptions, she said. But we realized that while things have changed immensely since 1898, a lot of things have remained the same.

Dahlhauser said the play examines the hidden connectedness among all humans and touches lightly on the role of religion in our lives. She said they also hope it shows the importance of storytelling and remembering the past.

We wrote it during COVID when we all needed comfort, and it made us realize as humans how much we rely on stories to comfort us, she said.

Playwright Beaufield Berry of Omaha and University of Nebraska at Omaha screenwriting instructor Ehren Parks were contest judges.

Berry especially offered a lot of helpful tips, the cousins said. Her play about racial unrest and lynching in early 20th century Omaha, Red Summer, won accolades when it was produced at the Blue Barn Theater, and she has received positive reviews for her other work as well.

We were really grateful to get Berrys eyes and ears on that script. She gave us fantastic advice that helped with the rewrite, Bommarito said.

As the cast was assembled and they started talking to people about the production, they encountered several coincidences that highlight our connectedness.

One happened when Dahlhauser reached out to Fremont businessman Brian Fox to sponsor the performances. When he learned about the plays setting and premise, he said I think your play is about my family. It turned out that the real-life wedding couple in the play, Lindsey and Hattie Fox, are his great-grandparents.

The cousins said it took about three weeks to write the play  they pushed the deadline and finished it just in time. The rewrites took longer, however. And there probably will be more once they see it onstage.

Both hope to take the play to another level at regional theaters, perhaps beginning in Omaha, once theyve further refined it.

I feel like theres great room for improvement. I am so grateful to the opera house to even do this so we can gain experience, Bommarito said.

Midland Universitys Meyer, the plays director, said she thinks the play won the contest because it was the most developed of the entries. She said the script probably will appeal to a fair amount of directors.

It included so many things  there was humor and a lovely message that comes across. And its very special (at least in Fremont) because of the Nebraska area, she said. They have cleaning up to do and probably will change some things after they see it onstage, but I do think it has potential.

No matter what happens in the future, the cousins hope the play touches many folks over the next couple of days. Theyre expecting numerous family members and friends at the performances.

We wanted to draw out what is so rich and so beautiful about a story that brings family together, Dahlhauser said. We hope the audience will feel like they are coming home when they see the play.
WASHINGTON (AP)  COVID-19 symptoms left President Joe Biden with a raspy voice and cough as he met Friday via videoconference with his top economic team. But the president tried to strike a reassuring tone, declaring, I feel much better than I sound.

Later Friday, White House officials told reporters that Biden was working more than eight hours a day. His appetite hadnt diminished  with Biden showing off an empty plate with some crumbs when speaking with his advisers  and he signed bills into law and took part in his daily intelligence briefings, albeit via phone.

Hes still doing the job of the president, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. That does not end.

It was all part of a diligently choreographed effort by the administration to depict a commander-in-chief who had not relinquished his day job, despite testing positive for COVID-19 Thursday and being sent into isolation at the White House residence.

As he beamed into a virtual meeting from the Treaty Room, Biden took off a mask and sipped water as he began discussing the decline in gas prices in recent weeks. Reporters were allowed to view a few minutes of the proceedings and, when they asked how Biden was feeling, he flashed a thumbs up  although he was audibly hoarse and coughed a handful of times.

The presidents doctors said his mild COVID symptoms were improving and he was responding well to treatment, as the White House worked to portray the image of a president still on the job despite his illness. Biden received his presidential daily security briefing via a secured phone call while, separately, Chinese President Xi Jinping wished Biden a speedy recovery.

Biden had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday, but that went down with Tylenol, according to a new note from Dr. Kevin OConnor, the presidents personal physician. Biden also used an inhaler a few times but hasn't experienced shortness of breath.

The president completed his first full day of Paxlovid, the antiviral therapy treatment meant to reduce the severity of COVID, and Bidens primary symptoms were a runny nose, fatigue and a loose cough. Other metrics, such as pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation were normal, OConnor said, although the White House did not release specific figures and did not commit to doing so.

The president right now feels well enough to continue working, and he has continued to work at a brisk pace, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters.

Jha said Biden will remain in isolation in the White House living quarters for five days and then be tested anew. He plans to return to in-person work once he tests negative. As he works in isolation, the number of aides around Biden has been reduced to a very, very small footprint, Jean-Pierre said  including a videographer and photographer who captured the images of Biden in the residence.

Once Biden tested positive Thursday  after more than two years of successfully dodging the virus  the White House sprang into action, aiming to dispel any notion of a crisis and to turn his diagnosis into what Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain said he hoped would be a teachable moment.

The White House released a photo Friday of Biden, masked and tieless, in the Treaty Room of the president's residence, on the phone with his national security advisers. After the economic team meeting, he participated in a separate discussion with senior White House advisers to discuss legislative priorities. Jha said his hoarse voice might actually be a sign that he is improving rather than the alternative.

Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre said 17 people were determined to have been in close contact with Biden when he might have been contagious, including members of his senior staff and at least one member of Congress. None have tested positive so far, she said.

One of Bidens close contacts was first lady Jill Biden. Her spokesman Michael LaRosa said she tested negative for COVID-19 on Friday morning in Wilmington, Delaware, and hasnt shown any symptoms. LaRosa said shes spoken to the president multiple times as he remains in isolation.

Another close contact was Vice President Kamala Harris, who participated in a National Urban League luncheon Friday and was spotted hugging participants, although during the event, she was seated more than six feet from others. She was masked as she headed onto the stage but took it off during the luncheon.

The administration is trying to shift the narrative from a health scare to a display of Biden as the personification of the idea that most Americans can get COVID and recover without too much suffering and disruption if theyve gotten their shots and taken other important steps to protect themselves.

Jha said, This virus is going to be with us forever, as he echoed Bidens message that Americans get vaccinated and boosted.

The overall message was crafted to alleviate voters concerns about Bidens health  at 79, hes the oldest person ever to be president.

Jha said Friday that it'll likely take until next week for sequencing to determine which variant of the virus Biden contracted. Omicrons highly contagious BA.5 substrain is responsible for 78% of new COVID-19 infections reported in the U.S. last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions latest data released Tuesday.

Jean-Pierre has repeatedly bristled at suggestions the Biden administration wasnt being much more forthcoming with information about the presidents illness than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump. The former president contracted COVID-19 in the fall of 2020, before vaccines were available, and was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three nights.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Matt Pottinger was a journalist in China, concerned about the country's drift toward authoritarianism, when he decided  at age 31  to enlist in the U.S. Marines after the invasion of Iraq.

Our form of government is not inevitable," Pottinger recalled thinking during an interview two years ago with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. "And it shouldnt be taken for granted. But its a form of government very much worth fighting for.

Pottinger had no way of knowing when he put on his military uniform for the first time how close to home that battle for democracy would get. He became deputy national security adviser to President Donald Trump, and he resigned after the Jan. 6 attack that tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power to President Joe Biden.

On Thursday, he'll be one of the key witnesses at a prime-time hearing of the select House committee investigating the attack. The other is Sarah Matthews, who resigned from her position as a deputy press secretary the same day.

Pottinger and Matthews will join Cassidy Hutchinson, a former assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump's final chief of staff, in the exclusive club of Trump White House insiders who have appeared publicly. Their appearances stand in blunt contrast to the cadre of Trump loyalists who have tried to defy the committees subpoenas, remained silent or continued to dismiss the investigations findings.

Any details on what Pottinger and Matthews will share on Thursday have been kept under wraps, but the hearing is expected to focus on what Trump did  and didn't do  as his supporters swarmed the U.S. Capitol and interrupted the ceremonial certification of the election.

Roughly three hours elapsed between Trump's speech at a rally near the White House and his release of a video calling the rioters very special but asking them to go home now.

Pottinger, 49, and Matthews, 27, may be able to illuminate what was happening behind the scenes as Trump resisted pleas from family, aides and Republicans to condemn the riot and urge people to leave the building.

As a member of the press office, Matthews was privy to debates over what the White House and Trump should say publicly during the riot and what other aides advised. And although Pottinger was focused on foreign policy, his position placed him at the crossroads of national security matters.

Whatever they saw that day, they decided to quit, helping to begin an exodus that included other White House staff and various Cabinet officials.

These are people who believed in the work they were doing, but didnt believe in the stolen election," said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a member of the select committee.

Luria added, Its just a key piece of telling the story about that day, because well be hearing from people who were in the White House, what they observed, what their reactions were."

Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former White House director of strategic communications, said Pottinger and Matthews could make potent witnesses, particularly because of their very different backgrounds.

Pottinger, Griffin said, is someone with enormous credibility, who is highly respected in the national security space and not seen as overtly political. Matthews, in contrast, is a tried and true Republican who worked for Trumps reelection campaign and was hand-picked to join the White House.

I think their testimony will be incredibly compelling and carry a lot of weight, said Griffin, who has been supportive of the committee's work and has discussed Matthews' testimony with her.

Matthews began working for Republicans on Capitol Hill as an intern while she was still a student at Kent State University in Ohio. She was so eager to begin a career in Washington that she moved to the city for her first job a month before her graduation, missing her last weeks of college and finishing her final classes online, she told her alma mater in an interview two years ago.

Matthews was hired as a deputy press secretary for Trump's reelection campaign and was brought over to the White House by press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. She worked in the area of the West Wing known as upper press, placing her in closer proximity to the Oval Office than others in her office.

Sometimes she joined Trump for media interviews, but mostly she fielded questions from reporters and helped prepare for White House briefings.

When Matthews resigned on Jan. 6, she issued a statement saying she was deeply disturbed by what I saw today." On the anniversary of the attack, she called it one of the darkest days in American history.

Make no mistake, the events on the 6th were a coup attempt, a term wed use had they happened in any other country, and former President Trump failed to meet the moment, she tweeted.

Pottinger did not issue a statement when he resigned on Jan. 6, but he discussed the decision during previous, closed-door testimony to the committee.

While the riot was underway, Pottinger said, a staff member brought him a printout of a Trump tweet accusing Vice President Mike Pence of not having the courage to do what should have been done to overturn the election.

I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign," Pottinger said. "Thats where I knew that I was leaving that day once I read that tweet.

Pottinger took a much more roundabout path to the White House than Matthews.

His father, John Stanley Pottinger, served as an assistant attorney general under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Matt Pottinger studied China in college, then moved to the country to work as a reporter for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.

But in 2005, he joined the Marines. Explaining his unusual decision, Pottinger wrote an essay saying that living in China also shows you what a nondemocratic country can do to its citizens.

Qualifying at age 31 wasn't easy. He wrote that he got winded after running for five minutes, and he could only do half a pullup. But by the time he took his physical fitness test, he could do 13 pullups and run 3 miles in less than 21 minutes.

Pottinger deployed to Iraq as an intelligence officer, and he later worked in Afghanistan with U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. At the time, Flynn was a respected military leader, not the promoter of conspiracy theories that he's become today.

They ended up writing a report criticizing military intelligence efforts in Afghanistan. Years later, after Trump was elected, Flynn invited Pottinger to join him in the National Security Council. Flynn didn't last long  he was forced out after a little more than three weeks because of his obfuscations about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.  but Pottinger stuck around.

He was promoted to deputy national security adviser in 2019. Pottinger was focused on Asia during his time in the Trump administration, and helped outline a more aggressive stance toward China, one that was rooted in his own experiences as a reporter in the country.

He is now a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and the chair of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Follow APs coverage of the Jan. 6 committee hearings at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.
ATLANTA (AP)  Georgia's highest court has a new chief justice.

Michael Boggs, who had been the court's presiding justice, was sworn in Monday as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. He replaces David Nahmias, who announced in February that he was stepping down from the court.

As chief justice, please know Im committed to helping our courts in ways that ensure theyre prepared to meet the needs of Georgias citizens, Boggs said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Our judicial system will continue to need resources, even patience from everyone, as we work through the long-term consequences of the pandemic.

Georgia chief justices are chosen by their colleagues to serve a single four-year term leading the states judicial branch. The chief justice speaks for the high court and the rest of the states judiciary and presides over oral arguments and deliberation meetings. The chief justice also chairs the Georgia Judicial Council, which makes policy for the judicial branch.

Georgia Supreme Court justices run for six-year terms and can be reelected.

Justice Nels Peterson was sworn in Monday as the court's presiding justice. Typically, the presiding justice is next in line to be chief justice.

Boggs was appointed to the Supreme Court by then-Gov. Nathan Deal in 2016 and won election to a six-year term in 2018. He previously served on the state Court of Appeals and as a superior court judge in Waycross, where he founded that circuits drug court program.

Before taking the bench, Boggs served two terms in the Georgia General Assembly. Deal appointed him to serve as a co-chair of the Georgia Criminal Justice Reform Council from 2012 to 2018. A graduate of Georgia Southern College and Mercer University School of Law, Boggs also is a member or leader of numerous other organizations having to do with the judicial branch.

Boggs co-chaired the Criminal Justice Reform Council when Deal was governor and has also been a member of Gov. Brian Kemp's Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission, serving as chair of the mental health courts and corrections subcommittee.

In introducing Boggs Monday, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton applauded Boggs' dedication to criminal justice reform, the Journal-Constitution reported.

Im talking about work that has reduced incarceration rates among African-Americans by 25 percent, Melton said. Im talking about work that has brought lives back together and that has restored families, that has changed communities. Im talking about work that has done all this while reducing recidivism.
Trump and Pence both talked up the successes of their administration and hammered President Joe Biden, but neither directly addressed the other or the growing rift between them.

Pence, who this week added his name to a growing list of GOP establishment figures endorsing housing developer Karrin Taylor Robson, offered only an oblique critique of the Republicans still pushing the lie that Trump lost because of fraud.

If you elect Robson, Pence said, you can send a deafening message heard all across America that the Republican Party is the party of the future.

He was more direct later on Twitter: Some people want this election to be about the past, but elections are always about the future. Democrats would love nothing more than for Republicans to take our eye off the ball and focus on days gone by.

Robson says the 2020 elections weren't fair," accusing liberal judges of changing the rules late in the cycle and the media and big tech of suppressing conservative voices. But she has stopped short of saying Trump lost because of fraud.

Her main rival, former television anchor Kari Lake, has embraced Trumps election lies along with his combative approach to his political enemies and the media.

No one understands better than Kari how to fight back against the fake news media and the radical left, Trump said Friday evening during his own rally in Prescott Valley, one of the most conservative areas of Arizona.

Trump took aim at two Arizona Republicans who refused to go along with his efforts to remain in office after losing to Biden. He said state House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified last month to the House Jan. 6 committee, "participated against the Republican Party. He said Gov. Doug Ducey has failed to secure the border with Mexico.

Robson is a lawyer and housing developer who is locking up support from mainstream GOP figures growing increasingly comfortable with breaking from Trump. In addition to Pence, her supporters include former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey, who famously silenced a call from Trump while certifying Democrat Joe Bidens 2020 presidential victory in Arizona.

Telegenic and already well-known from her decades anchoring the evening news in Phoenix, Lake has energized Trump's most ardent supporters in Arizona. But she faces a potentially close contest with Robson, whose family's vast fortune has allowed her to vastly outspend Lake with early voting underway.

As your governor I want to bring those America First Trump policies here to Arizona Lake said. Were going to secure that border. We are going to restore honesty and faith in our elections.

Pence highlighted Lake's past support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and a not my president meme the then-news anchor posted as Trump prepared for his 2017 inauguration.

You need a governor thats supported every conservative cause from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, Pence said of Robson, who worked in the Reagan administration and raised money for Trump's campaign along with her husband, housing developer Ed Robson, one of Arizona's wealthiest residents.

Robson has also donated to Democrats.

Robson, Pence and Ducey also discussed border security during a second event in Tucson at the headquarters for the Border Patrol union, which staunchly supported Trump but broke with him and endorsed Robson.

Securing the border takes two things: resources and will power, Robson said. President Trump and Vice President Pence already showed that it can be done.

Trump and Pence have occasionally taken different sides in primaries this year, but this is the first time that they will have appeared in the same state on the same day to rally for their preferred candidates. The split-screen moment marks a more confrontational phase in their relationship as they both consider running for president in 2024.

It also comes just a day after the House Jan. 6 committee revealed new details about the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that fractured the relationship between the two men. The committee recounted how Trump refused to call off the mob attacking the Capitol as Pence, just feet away from rioters, was whisked to safety.

The committee played audio from an unidentified White House security official who said Pences Secret Service agents started to fear for their own lives at the Capitol and left messages for their loved ones in case they didn't survive. Shortly afterward, at 2:24 p.m. on Jan, 6, 2021, Trump tweeted that Pence didnt have the courage to block or delay the election results as Congress was certifying Bidens victory.

Mike Pence let me down, an unidentified White House employee testified Trump telling him at the end of the day on Jan. 6.

Trump did not talk about Pence Friday night, but did push back against earlier testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who said she saw a White House valet cleaning up a mess after an angry Trump smashed a plate and the remains of his lunch on a wall.

They have me throwing food, Trump said. I dont throw food in the White House. I dont throw food anywhere. I eat the food.

Trump and Pence will again cross paths next week as the former president returns to the nations capital for the first time since leaving the White House.

The Arizona primary is among Trumps last opportunities to settle scores and install allies to lead states that may prove decisive if he decides to run again in 2024. Trump and Pence were also at odds in the primary for Georgia governor, where the Pence-backed incumbent Brian Kemp easily defeated former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who had Trumps support.

Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold whose move toward the center accelerated during Trump's presidency, was central Trump's push to remain in power despite his loss. Trump pressed state officials to block the certification of Biden's victory and, when he failed, his allies in Congress objected to counting the state's 11 electoral votes.

Since the election, Trump supporters have recounted ballots and analyzed vote-counting machines in an attempt to prove something was amiss.

Federal and state election officials and Trumps own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted. Trump's allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

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
Chicago Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, has a proposed an ordinance to prevent CBD shops, like the Smokepost CBD dispensary behind him, from advertising themselves as dispensaries unless they are state-licensed cannabis dispensary. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

A proposed ordinance would prohibit CBD shops in Chicago from advertising themselves as dispensaries, in an attempt to distinguish them from state-licensed recreational cannabis shops.

Licensed marijuana companies see the proposal as a way to keep unregulated competitors from confusing customers. Members of the hemp CBD industry see the move as another example of big cannabis trying to harass them to protect their restricted market.

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The measure by Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, would also ban CBD shops from advertising with the image of a cannabis leaf or bud  as licensed dispensaries are forbidden to do  or a green cross.

Some of these unregulated retailers are trying to masquerade as legitimate dispensaries, Hopkins said. Its false and deceptive marketing, and it needs to stop.

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Charles Wu, owner of hemp CBD grower and retailer prescribd in Bridgeview, said he doesnt generally use the word dispensary, but at least one product he sells from an outside supplier uses a leaf logo.

Though the Chicago ordinance would not affect his business directly, Wu feels its a sign of how the CBD industry as a whole is treated.

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We feel its harassment, he said of the proposed law. Its basically large companies trying to maintain their monopolies.

The licensed cannabis market in Illinois is dominated by the owners of just 21 grower licenses. That causes high prices and limited supply, and helps perpetuates the illegal market.

The state also allows just 110 dispensaries, compared with hundreds of shops in other states with legal weed. On Friday, regulators released another 149 preliminary dispensary licenses, which are expected to open by next year. Licensed business have to pay high state fees and taxes and follow strict regulations, such as laboratory testing, of the type that CBD dealers generally do not face.

Before those state licenses were delayed by regulatory problems and litigation, federal and state lawmakers legalized growing hemp, defined as cannabis with less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient that gets users high.

The most popular product derived from hemp initially was CBD, which doesnt get users high. Its been proven to help treat children with severe seizures, and proponents make a host of other claims that it reduces inflammation and pain, which are still being researched.

Meanwhile, hemp processors have developed a string of other derivatives such as Delta-8 THC pr THC-O, which are said to get users high, with milder effects than conventional cannabis.

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A proposed state law to regulate such cannabinoids went nowhere. With little publicity, the Illinois Department of Agriculture published a policy in March prohibiting producing such cannabinoids from hemp, but retailers generally have continued to sell it unabated.
BLOOMINGTON  A conditional dispensary license was issued on Friday within Bloomington's "BLS" region, which consists of McLean and DeWitt counties.

This license was one of 149 issued by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. This marks the first issuance of conditional adult use dispensing organization licenses since Illinois legalized adult use cannabis in 2019, according to Pritzker's office.

Businesses were selected from a series of lotteries conducted last year. The license issued in the McLean County region was awarded to an LLC out of Scottsdale, Ariz. named "Illinois Health and Wellness."

An LLC with the same name also was awarded licenses in Macon County and the Chicago, Naperville and Elgin region. Another conditional license in Macon County was awarded to Clean Slate Opco LLC.

Last month, the Bloomington City Council approved a special use permit from Project Equity Illinois to allow a second adult-use dispensary to operate on 1006 JC Parkway, near Walmart.

Because the city restricts the number of dispensaries within its limits to two, Conor Johnston, a partner with Project Equity Illinois, said he doubts that the license issued to Illinois Health and Wellness LLC will be for a dispensary in Bloomington.

Entities that have been awarded these conditional licenses will have 180 days to select a physical storefront location and receive a full Adult Use Dispensing Organization License. The conditional licenses awarded to applicants on Friday do not entitle the licensee to buy or sell cannabis.

A 180-day extension may be granted to those business unable to find a physical location by the deadline.

Each business that was awarded a license also qualified as a Social Equity applicant under Illinois cannabis law.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity administers the Social Equity Cannabis Loan Program, which offers low-interest loans to qualified applicants. The first round of these applicants are expected to finalized loan agreements in the next few weeks, according to the governor's office.
BLOOMINGTON  The Bloomington-Normal NAACP Youth Council will mark its first anniversary by showing a documentary on the experiences of two of the first Black professors at Illinois State University.

Their history in the Bloomington-Normal community is quite meaningful, Youth Council President Bradley Ross Jackson said.

The documentary, now in its production phase, will feature an interview done by Youth Council members with Charles and Jeanne Morris, who started as professors at ISU in the 1960s.

A public viewing of the film will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, at the McLean County Museum of History.

Its nice to have a record of their history, said Youth Council Vice President Myles Manns.

He said the interview and making the documentary have been an experience he will never forget.

One story the professors shared was about buying a house for use by Black ISU students who had been denied housing opportunities, including on campus, Ross Jackson said.

The Youth Council worked with a professional photographer to film the interview. Each member who participated was able to ask two questions to the Morrises. Ross Jackson said he asked for their thoughts on the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, in May, where the shooter specifically targeted Black people.

They also taught us how they overcame awful situations back then and played a large role in the civil rights movement (locally), Ross Jackson said.

The couple retired in 1995, an ISU news article from 2021 said. Charles Morris was a math professor, vice president of administrative services and eventually vice chancellor for academic and student affairs with the Illinois Board of Regents, the former governing body for ISU.

Jeanne Morris was a professor of curriculum and instruction, including helping create ISUs early childhood education bachelors degree program.

Since their retirement, the couple have created an Educational Equity Endowment Fund to support historically marginalized groups at ISU. They have stayed in the area and have received other recognition for their work, including being named History Makers by the McLean County Museum of History in 2017.

One of the main things Ross Jackson took from the interview was the extent of the impact racism had on the lives of Black people then, and its continued impact today.

The documentary showing next month will also help mark the Youth Councils first year in existence. The group has around 42 members, Ross Jackson said. He will be a junior at Normal Community High School this coming school year, while Manns will be a freshman at Normal West High School.

Were so thankful that we were able to get one started (here), Bloomington-Normal NAACP President Linda Foster said of the Youth Council.

The group is open to anyone younger than 18, regardless of race, and annual dues are $10. Ross Jackson said he has found the group a great way to build leadership skills and confidence. It also helps address problems in society and gets youth involved in advocating for racial justice, he said.

Individuals that feel you dont have a voice, this allows that to happen with support of adults, Foster said.

Other events the group has done include talks at schools and other community organizations, distributing Thanksgiving meals, grocery giveaways, creating COVID-19 safety kits, tutoring and walking in parades, Ross Jackson said.

I just wanted to be sure to give back to our community even more, he said.

More information about the local NAACP chapter, including the Youth Council, can be found at bnnaccp.org.
100 years ago

July 23, 1922: Condemnation proceedings will begin against certain properties bordering on Sugar Creek as a step toward the acquisition by Bloomington and Normal Sanitary District of all the property needed for the widening and deepening of the creek. The purpose is to prevent the flooding of the creek above the city water works, which causes sewage to be carried away with the flood water.

75 years ago

July 23, 1947: Coffers of 12 Bloomington societal, civic and fraternal organizations were enriched by $3,108.35 after a decision by County Judge Robert C. Underwood in the much-discussed case of "The People vs. 111 Slot Machines." The judge ordered confiscation and destruction of the machines and the stands on which they rested, but ordered the county sheriff to return to the defendant organizations all the money found in them.

50 years ago

July 23, 1972: Mrs. Edith Pressler Belt, 76, co-founder of the Steak 'n Shake restaurant chain, died at 2:45 a.m. July 22 at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. Belt, who was living in St. Louis, and her late husband, Augustus "Gus," opened their first restaurant at Main and Virginia in Normal in 1934. Since then, the chain has grown to 62 restaurants, including three locally. The home office is at 1700 W. Washington.

25 years ago

July 23, 1997: The McLean County Board reversed an earlier decision and approved a controversial rural LeRoy park planned by board member Bill Emmett. Critics argue the 1-acre park, honoring the Kickapoo Indians, is simply a way for Emmett to continue his crusade against megahog farms, since new state regulations prohibit larger-scale livestock facilities within a half-mile of outdoor recreational facilities.
BLOOMINGTON  To some antiquarians of rare and ornate doorknobs, escutcheons and locks, their collections are functional sculptures.

That includes Liz Gordon, who said she got into dealing the antique fixtures 40 years ago. She said she met a man in a Chicago alley who had a musty warehouse floor full of architectural junk.

Gordon said the man wanted to get out of the business and sell it all. And for $3,500, she bought in.

The Los Angeles woman was one of at least 20 members with the Antique Doorknob Collectors of America who attended the clubs 42nd convention Friday and Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel in Bloomington.

According to club president Paul Woodfin, their members convened to buy, sell and trade items after traveling in from all parts of the country. He came from Austin, Texas, and others were from New York, Oregon, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Woodfin said theyre a very social organization that dines together and toured the David Davis Mansion in Bloomington. Earlier in the week, they made a visit to historic sites in Peoria. Part of why they chose the Twin Cities for this years event is because of its history and location, he said.

Woodfin said around 40% of their members live in the Midwest, adding they have a few members who live in Central Illinois.

Two of their members present Saturday were from McLean County, including Laura Walden, of Lexington. She said everyone in the club is super helpful.

Walden said she sold a lot over the weekend. Only a few items remained on her table Saturday morning, including lavish door hinges made in the 1880s by Bradford Lock Works, of Connecticut.

Reproductions today are garbage, she noted. But for her original, Walden said the casting is incredible and crisp.

Sometimes, tracking down the origin of an old hardware item can be a challenge. On the back of the display case for the Bradford hinges reads a vague encryption: Removed from a building that was over 90-years-old when it was torn down in 1972. No town or street address is noted.

The clubs founding member, Loretta Nemec, 88, of Naperville, said shes been collecting hardware since she was 12 years old. A black doorknob for her home in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago first caught her eye.

Now, she boasts rarities in her collection, like doorknobs made from hemacite. Thats a material made from animal blood, sawdust and shellac.

Nemec explained that 19th century butchers were pouring blood into the sewers and attracting rats. She said the government wanted to stop that, so the waste products were molded into doorknobs and buttons.

What Nemec enjoys most about collecting old hardware is their history and beauty.

No one appreciates the beauty of the years gone by, she said.

Andy Streenz was another member there, also representing Bill's Key & Lock Shop in Bloomington. Streenz is Bill's son.

He said they specialize in antique lock repair, and preserving historical hardware is a priority. He worked on the Vrooman Mansions room locks, so each guest could be provided a working skeleton key.

Steenz said the locking mechanisms fascinate him because theyre almost two-dimensional. Open them up, and he said you can see what every piece does and how it works together.

It's all very logical, he said.

Gordon said she has over a million items her collection. When relocating her operation to California years ago, she said she filled 50 50-gallon barrel drums with them.

Her clients include interior designers, contractors, architects, people restoring their homes and locksmiths.

While only a portion of her stock made it to the Twin Cities this weekend, one special piece included a door handle and escutcheon (the plate that surrounds the doorknob mechanism) from the Chicago Stock Exchange building. Gordon priced it at $900.

She said no matter where you travel through the world, youre going to find special hardware.

The ADCA is offering scholarships to students in fields of study related to historical preservation in architecture or design, and historic restoration and trades. For more information, visit www.antiquedoorknobs.org/scholarships.html
Eureka! a Greek word meaning I have found it! an exclamation that accompanies a discovery captured the state of the Ghanaian medical practitioner, Dr Dennis Dwomoh of Daprof Herbal Care after receiving news of his treated cancer patient from Holland.



He busted into excitement after hearing and reading the MRI scan of the patient, De Heer KH Agyei at his Nima, Accra office on Friday.



Indeed, he goes into the annals of medical practices as the first ever practitioner to cure a cancer patient with his FDA approved prepared herbal medicine, having plagued millions of patients and sent countless to their graves.



To the orthodox turned herbal medical practitioner, who specializes in Kidney diseases, the good but rare news completes his joy of ensuring total health delivery to his numerous clients.



The former 37 Military Hospital medical officer said in an interview that the good news came as a surprise not only to himself but to a medical practitioners WhatsApp group he belongs to.



He said he was waiting for the final test from the medical facility in Holland that confirmed the healing of the patient for a final confirmation.



It all started when the patient, domiciled in Holland contacted him (Daprof) on phone and later sent him drugs he prepared using herbs and other properties.



Elated Dr Dwomoh said I am so excited, I must admit my joy is complete, it has always been my dream to see patients recover from their ailments, I have empirical evidence to back his healing, our chats on whatsapp, monetary transactions are there to show. He added I want to express profuse thanks to God, my hardworking staff and my patient who believed in the efficacy of the medicine and took it as prescribed.



I have evidence of many healed kidney patients after using the medical concoction (Daprof). I want to use this opportunity to appeal to government to rally support for herbal medicine, it is as good as the orthodox ones.



The products are not registered for Cancer and kidney failures, but they are registered for various health problems by FDA. I have 22 herbal medicines and 15 are FDA approved with others pending. You can get more evidence of cured kidney, liver and other complicated ailments on."http://www.daprofherbal.com."



The multiple award winning Daprof Herbal Care, based in Nima, Accra has been in existence since 2009, and specializes in the treatment of kidneys and other ailment.



He resigned from the 37 Military Hospital in 2017 to fully go into herbal practice.

Few months on, he succeeded in receiving kidney failure resolution news.









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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There seems to be no end in sight to the deterioration at the state-owned Efua Sutherland Childrens Park.

The one-time vibrant park, strategically located in the heart of Accra, is on its knees.



In its glorious days, the facility was a centre of attraction for many families who sent their children there, especially on public holidays and weekends, to have fun.



Also, schools and various groups hosted programmes such as the award-winning Italian IL Florilegio Circus, fun fairs, among others, there.



Left to rot



However, for more than a decade, the one-time vibrant park has been left inactive.



This is in sharp contrast to private parks in the national capital which have been well kept and continue to receive patronage.



Notable private parks and family centres that have taken the space in the region are the Bliss Family Centre, Splash and Play, Kiddy Ground, Kids Cottage and The Play Zone.



Started in 1979, the Efua Sutherland Childrens Park was originally known as the Accra Childrens Park or the Ridge Park.



It was later renamed after the Ghanaian playwright and childrens books author, Efua Sutherland, who died in 1996, aged 72.



During the Eid-ul-Adha public holiday on Monday, July 11, the Daily Graphic visited the Efua Sutherland Childrens Park, and it was a sorry sight.



Between11.30 a.m and 1.30 p.m, there was no activity and the place was empty, with no individual or groups undertaking any form of activity.



Overgrown grass



Overgrown grass covered many parts of the 14.83-acre park, while playground equipment, such as swings, childrens train, merry-go-round and slides, had been left to the mercy of the weather, with some already rusty.



A number of homeless people have taken advantage of the development by using the place as their home.



There were no officials or caretakers at the park to interact with.



Ministry evades enquiries



Attempts to reach the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection for comments hit a snag, as officials were not ready to provide answers to enquiries.



However, on February 28, 2022, the ministry issued a statement in reaction to allegations that the park had been sold.



The statement indicated that the Efua Sutherland Childrens Park was still a government property and was not for sale.



The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) wishes to inform the public that the Efua Sutherland Childrens Park is a government property designated as a Childrens Park.



The development of the park into a modern facility is a top priority for the ministry. Proposals have been received in this respect and they are currently being reviewed. We, therefore, want to place on record that the Efua Sutherland Childrens Park remains a government property, it said.



Importance



The National Tourism Customer Service Brand Ambassador for Ghana, Caleb Koffie, told the Daily Graphic that childrens parks played an important role in the growth of children.



In that case, he expressed disappointment at the deterioration of the Efua Sutherland Childrens Park.



He said it was important for the authorities to up their game.



Mr Koffie, who is the Executive Director of the Service Excellence Foundation, said it was the role of every government to create an environment that would build young children, saying childrens parks gave children the opportunity to gradually enhance their skills, such as social bonding, emotional, cognitive and critical development, which were necessary for their growth.



He said although revenue was accrued from parks through tourism, the communication and relationships built through engagements by kids and parents at the parks contributed to national cohesion, which help overcome social, ethnic and religious barriers or tolerance and promoted peace.



Political will needed



On the current state of the Efua Sutherland Childrens Park, he expressed his disappointment at the leadership of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection which was in charge of operations of the park.



He blamed them for not actively taking up initiatives to properly manage the park, which he said had now become a home for the riff raff, mentally retarded people and smokers and an abode for illegal activities.



He said the government could partner private individuals, groups or institutions to grow and maintain the Childrens Park to contribute to the growth of children in the country.



Sutherland Family unhappy



A source close to the Sutherland Family said they were also not happy with the state of the facility.



However, it said, the Gender Ministry had assured them that it was looking for private sector partners to bring the park back to life.



Private facilities



The Managing Director of the Bliss Family Centre at the Aviation Social Centre, a private facility, Laurencia Bobtoya, said the play centre, which opened in May this year, was aimed at giving opportunities to families who had not had the experience of enjoying such centres but had to travel outside to access it.



She said the space was a registered legal entity for both adults and kids aged six to 40 years, with 70 per cent of patronage being adults.



She said the peak moments were on weekends and public holidays, such as the Eid-ul-Adha.Speaking about challenges, Ms Bobtoya said: We sometimes find it difficult controlling the crowds, as everyone wants to have a go at a particular game.



At the Splash and Play Centre, a water park, kids were seen having fun, while their guardians watched on.



A parent who did not disclose his identity said the play centre was convenient and a choice for his kids because they had a lot of variety to choose from and they were carefully taken care of.



The water park is a spacious area that has an aqua house with six slides and spray features, a spray area with seven features and a dry playground.



Government must act



Other people who shared their views on the state of the Childrens Park expressed disappointment at the neglect.



If the state cant manage it, it should be leased to a private organisation to manage it. It can be transformed into a state-of-the-art amusement park, where both adults and children could go to have fun, Stephen Farbeng, a salesperson, told the Daily Graphic.



A teacher, Isaac Manu, said the government needed to allocate funds for the renovation of the park, as the current state of the facility was a dent on the image of the country.



Whatever has to be done by the authorities should be done quickly because, yet again, we are losing another important national asset, K. Appiah, a retired banker, said.

Source: graphic.com.gh









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.



The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and follows a worldwide upsurge in cases.



It came at the end of the second meeting of the WHO's emergency committee on the virus.



More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.



There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.



There are only two other such health emergencies at present - the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.



Dr Tedros said the emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency.



However, he said the outbreak had spread around the world rapidly and he had decided that it was indeed of international concern.



Too little was understood about the new modes of transmission which had allowed it to spread, said Dr Tedros.

"The WHO's assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region, where we assess the risk as high," he added.



There was also a clear risk of further international spread, although the risk of interference with international traffic remained low for the moment, he said.



Dr Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.



The WHO is also issuing recommendations which it hopes will spur countries to take action to stop transmission of the virus and protect those most at risk.



"This is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups," Dr Tedros said.

He said cases were currently concentrated among men who had sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners, and that countries needed to adopt measures that protected their health, human rights and dignity.

"Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus," he said.



Monkeypox was first discovered in central Africa in the 1950s.

In the UK, there have so far been more than 2,000 confirmed cases.



Health officials are already recommending people at highest risk of exposure to monkeypox - including some gay and bisexual men, as well as some healthcare workers - should be offered a vaccine.

Initial symptoms typically include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery, chickenpox-like rash or lesions - often on the mouth or genitals in the recent cases. Infections are usually mild.



Declaring a global emergency is a significant act.



It is a rallying cry for countries to take the virus seriously, it raises awareness around the world and it can help poorer countries get the tools they need to control monkeypox.



In principle, we have the tools to stop the virus. Monkeypox does not spread as easily as Covid and we already have a vaccine (developed for smallpox) that offers good protection.

And while anyone can catch monkeypox, the outbreak is overwhelmingly concentrated in gay and bisexual men, as well as other men who have sex with men.



This can make the outbreak easier to tackle, as efforts, including vaccines and public health information, can be targeted at those most at risk.



But remember, there are still countries where same-sex relationships are illegal - and stigma and persecution can act as a barrier to help.



Whether we can stop monkeypox can be stopped is as much a societal and cultural challenge as it is about the virus.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The 50-year-old Pastor of the 12 Apostles Church, accused of defiling a four-year-old girl at Asuokaw in the Eastern Region, which later led to her death, was intoxicated at the time of the incident, his lawyer has said.

The lawyer has therefore argued that he should be charged with manslaughter and not murder.



The pastor, Isaac Bowe Gyasi, allegedly lured the girl to his bathroom before allegedly defiling the deceased.



He has been charged with murder and has been remanded into custody by an Accra High Court.



According to state prosecutors, the incident led to the untimely death of the girl.



His lawyer, David Owusu Tachie, put up a defence in his application for bail via a Justice For All Virtual Court session on Friday (July 22, 2022).



The lawyer argued that his client, who had been behind bars since 2018, was intoxicated at the time of the incident and the charge of murder could be reduced to manslaughter.



Counsel, therefore, prayed the court, and presided over by Justice Clemence Honyenuga, a Justice of Supreme Court sitting as an additional High Court judge, to grant the accused bail.



Opposition



The state, led by an Assistant State Attorney, Yvonne Dacosta, opposed the application on grounds that the pastor bolted after committing the alleged crime and if granted bail, Gyasi may not avail himself for trial.



The application for bail was subsequently refused by the court based on the circumstances that led to the untimely death of the four-year-old victim.



The court ordered the prosecution to expedite the processes needed for the trial to commence within one month.



Justice for All



Gyasis case was one of 60 cases to be heard virtually through the Justice For All Programme (JFAP), an initiative meant to decongest Ghanas prisons.



The JFAP is organised by the Judicial Service and facilitated by the POS Foundation, a civil society organisation.



All the 60 cases brought under the consideration of Justice Honyenuga and Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah, a court of appeal judge, were from the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, where majority of accused persons are based.



Statistics



Out of 60 cases heard during the one-day virtual sitting, three of the accused persons were discharged unconditionally after they had spent over three years behind bars without trail.



27 of the accused persons were granted bail while the two courts dismissed a total of 23 cases.



Six of the applications for bail were struck out while one suspect was referred to a Mental hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.



At the end of the virtual session, the Chairman of JFAP National Steering Committee, Justice Clemence J. Honyenuga, said the programme will turn its attention to the Ho Central prison for the virtual court session.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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Featured Video
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta a few days ago told Parliament that all outstanding funds for Planting for Food and Jobs for 2021 had been released.



The minister who was responding to a question about the issue of Financial Clearance to MOFA to clear the large debt owed partners and suppliers, revealed that his ministry has already released money to clear outstanding debts.



Mr. Speaker, at the end of 2021 an amount of GH86.31 million was outstanding, under the PFJ programme. This amount has now been released to MOFA for payment. This year, MOFA has requested an amount of GHC 485.90 million for payment under PFJ programme. An amount of GHC 278.57 million has subsequently been released to MOFA, Ken Ofori-Atta said on the floor of Parliament.



Suppliers of Fertiliser Unhappy



But Fertilizers Suppliers under government's flagship Planting for Food and Jobs programme dared the Financial Minister to be clear with his presentation over payment of money to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for some outstanding debts.



They expressed reservations over his presentations especially, the sector Minister's claim that an amount of 278.57 million has been released to the MoFA. these owed partners and suppliers insist for over a year now they have not received payment and some payment are even in arrears since 2020 from the implementing ministry.



Finance Minister Misquoted



Addressing this contentious issue, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto in a one-on-one interview on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' said the Finance Minister was misquoted and that the money rather went to the Controller and Accountant General.



"The Minister was misquoted. It is not true that the funds were released to the Ministry of Agriculture. It was released to the Controller and Accountant General to release to MoFA but that's not the money we've received. There was a misquotation; the Minister should have been quoted as saying the amount of money has been released to the Controller and Accountant General because we don't receive money directly from the Ministry of Finance. We get it upon his instruction to the Controller," he pointed out.



The failure of the government to pay fertilizer suppliers has made the majority of these contractors face bankruptcy forcing their banks to chase them for their monies.





Listen to him in the video below







Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Chief Imam Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu has offered prayers and benedictions on the newly elected General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Lawyer Justin Frimpong Kodua to have a successful tenure in the next four (4) years of his administration.



The Chief Imam prayed for Lawyer Justin Frimpong Kodua, popularly known as "JFK" when he and his team paid a courtesy call on the Chief Imam to express his profound gratitude for his spiritual support during the just-ended NPP national elections.



The General Secretary was thankful and appreciative that although he called on the Chief Imam on the eve of the elections, the revered leader didn't hesitate to give him the needed support to secure his bid.



Lawyer Kodua promised to serve the New Patriotic Party and the entire Ghanaian community selflessly and in the best interest of all.



He also promised to work closely with the Chief Imam's office and the government to expand development opportunities for the Zongo communities.



Chief Imam also promised to continuously support the young vibrant chief scribe of the NPP in prayer to achieve success in his endeavors.



The General Secretary was accompanied by some members of his campaign team, constituency executives and a host of other dignitaries.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Flames consume a home on Triangle Road as the Oak Fire burns in Mariposa County, Calif., on Saturday, July 23, 2022. (Noah Berger/AP)

WAWONA, Calif.  A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of Californias largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuations and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

The Oak Fire, which began Friday afternoon southwest of the park near Midpines in Mariposa County, grew to 10.2 square miles by Saturday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.

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Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters, Cal Fire said in a statement Saturday morning that described the Oak Fires activity as extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.

By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five more and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said. The fast-growing blaze prompted numerous road closures, including a shutdown of Highway 140 between Carstens Road and Allred Road  blocking one of the main routes into Yosemite.

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More than 400 firefighters, along with helicopters, other aircraft and bulldozers, battled the blaze, which was in a sparsely populated, mostly rural area of the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

Hot weather, low humidity and bone dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades was fueling the blaze and challenging fire crews, Patterson said.

The fire is moving quickly. This fire was throwing embers out in front of itself for up to 2 miles yesterday, Patterson said. These are exceptional fire conditions.

About 1,700 residents in the area were put under mandatory evacuation orders Friday night.

Pacific Gas & Electric said on its website that more than 2,600 homes and businesses in the area had lost power as of Friday afternoon and there was no indication when it would be restored. PG&E is unable to access the affected equipment, the utility said.

A shoeless older man attempting to flee the blaze on Friday crashed his sedan into a ditch in a closed area and was helped by firefighters. He was safely driven from the area and did not appear to suffer any injuries. Several other residents stayed in their homes Friday night as the fire continued to burn nearby.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, Cal Fire said.

Meanwhile, firefighters have made significant progress against a wildfire that began in Yosemite National Park and burned into the Sierra National Forest.

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The Washburn Fire was 79% contained Friday after burning about 7.5 square miles of forest.

The fire broke out July 7 and forced the closure of the southern entrance to Yosemite and evacuation of the community of Wawona as it burned on the edge of Mariposa Grove, home to hundreds of giant sequoias, the worlds largest trees by volume.

Wawona Road is tentatively set to reopen on Saturday, according to the park website.
" " People enjoy dining by the Spree River (with a view of the Berlin Cathedral) in Berlin, Germany, a great place to experience sommerloch. ElOjoTorpe/Getty Images

The German language has a poetic way of describing unique emotions and phenomena that often lack a direct English translation. Schadenfreude is the best-known example, a word that means "deriving pleasure from another person's pain or failure," but there are plenty of other German gems, including fernweh, (literally "distance pain"), a feeling of wanting to get away from where you are and kummerspeck, ("grief bacon"), the weight put on by emotional overeating.

Here's another fun and timely German word that captures the languid laziness of late summer: sommerloch (pronounced "summer-lock"). Directly translated as "summer hole," sommerloch is used in Germany to describe the slow season of late July through August when everyone in Germany goes on vacation to escape the heat, many shops are closed, and the news media has nothing to report on except fluff stories. (Sommerloch is also the name of a German village. In this case, loch doesn't mean "hole" as much as "gap," referring to the town's scenic location in the Nahe River Valley.)

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"A great example of sommerloch this year would be the media frenzy in Germany around wild animals," emails Taylor Hermerding, a Berlin-based editor in didactics at Babbel, the language learning app. "Recent sommerloch stories include a bold fox in Berlin who has turned into a bit of a shoe thief, or a wild boar at the famous Teufelssee nudist park which stole an unsuspecting man's laptop."

AKA 'Sour Cucumber Time'

Germans actually have more than one word for the roughly six weeks of late summer when the whole country seems to take a collective nap. Predating sommerloch is the mouthful sauregurkenzeit, which literally means "sour cucumber time." According to one explanation, the phrase comes from 18th-century Yiddish proverbs referring to times when food is scarce and the only thing left in the pantry is pickles.

"Interestingly, many other countries refer to cucumbers when talking about the slow season of summer," says Hermerding. "Dutch, Norwegian, Icelandic, Czech, Polish and Hungarian people all reference 'cucumber time' or 'cucumber season' when discussing the sluggish news agenda of the summer months."

Hermerding says that the cucumber connection may also have 18th-century roots, when late summer was the time when Berlin shops stocked up on gurken (German for cucumber) harvested from the local Spree Forest.

Now That's Cool In the United Kingdom, the slow news days of summer are called the "silly season," because the entire British government is on vacation and news outlets are left scrambling for content. The term was coined back in 1861 by the Saturday Review.
Archaeologists have been investigating the site of Mayapan since the 1950s. Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided

The city of Mayapan was the largest Mayan city from approximately 1200 to 1450 AD. It was an important political, economic and religious center, and the capital of a large state that controlled much of northwestern Yucatan in present day Mexico.

When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, Mayapan was fondly remembered and Mayans proudly claimed descent from its former citizens. But inherent instability meant that it was doomed to fail.

Or so the story went. This narrative has influenced views of this important city, and this period of Mayan civilization more broadly, for some time.

In a new study, my collaborators and I show that warfare, collapse and abandonment at Mayapan were not inevitable. Instead, they were exacerbated by drought.

Traces of a massacre

Experts from a wide range of fields worked together to piece together this story. The team included included archaeologists, biological anthropologists, geologists and paleoclimatologists.

Archaeologists led by Carlos Peraza Lope of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia of Mexico and Marilyn Masson of the University at AlbanyState University of New York have been investigating the ruins of Mayapan intensively since 1996 and 1999, respectively. Intermittent work has been going on at the site since the 1950s.

Researchers have long suspected that Mayapan collapsed violently, based on early colonial documents. These records describe a revolt led by the noble Xiu family that resulted in the massacre of the ruling Cocom family.

When archaeologists from the Carnegie Institute of Washington started to investigate the site in the 1950s, they were not surprised to find buried bodies that had not been given the usual respectful funerary treatment.

Credit: Bradley Russell, Author provided

Desecration and destruction

I am a bioarchaeologist, which means my job was to look for evidence of trauma in the skeletons that may have contributed to the deaths of these individuals. This evidence would support the idea of a violent collapse of the city.

Most burials lacked evidence of violence. However, some exhibited injuries such as an embedded arrowheads, stabbing wounds or blunt force trauma to the skull.

The signs of violence were concentrated in important contexts at the site and found in association with evidence of desecration and deliberate destruction. It seems some of the site's own elite inhabitants had been the targets of violence.

Rising violence

To find out when this conflict occurred, and how it related to changes in climate, required a large number of high-precision radiocarbon dates and paleoclimate data from the vicinity of Mayapan.

These analyses were carried out in the labs of Douglas Kennett of the University of California, Santa Barbara, David Hodell at the University of Cambridge, and colleagues.

As a result, we now have more radiocarbon dating information for Mayapan than for any other Mayan site.

The temple of Kukulkan, dedicated to the feathered serpent deity, was at the heart of Mayapans most sacred precinct. Credit: Susan Milbrath, Author provided

Paleoclimate data, meanwhile, was obtained from a stalagmite recovered from a cave directly beneath the site's principal temple pyramid, which was dedicated to the feathered serpent deity Kukulkan.

These analyses revealed that episodes of violence became more common later in the site's history, corresponding with evidence of drought that began in the late 1300s and continued into the 1400s.

One mass grave in particular, recovered in Mayapan's most sacred precinct at the foot of the temple of Kukulkan, appeared to date to around the time of the city's purported collapse in the mid-1400s. Remarkably, this was confirmed through radiocarbon analyses, corroborating historical accounts of the site's violent overthrow at this time.

Drought and decline

But the story does not end there.

Radiocarbon dating also provided the surprising result that Mayapan's population started falling after approximately 1350 AD. Indeed, the city was already largely abandoned by the time of its famous collapse in the mid 1400s.

It may be that as drought continued through the late 1300s, the residents of Mayapan started voting with their feet.

After Mayapan's fall, the city's former inhabitants returned to their ancestral homelands in different parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. By the time of Spanish contact in the early 1500s, the peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces, some of which were thriving.

Climate migration

Although from a vastly different time and place, our study contributes to current efforts to combat global climate change.

When environmental conditions were favorable, populations expanded. But when conditions deteriorated, this put pressure on social and political institutions.

Mayapan's people migrated away from the city to cope with the change in climate. While migration may be less of a solution in the face of today's climate change, due to global population levels, climate refugees are expected to rapidly grow in number without significant action by governments and citizenry alike.

Big questions, big collaboration

To address big questions such as this requires a level of multidisciplinary collaboration that is difficult to achieve but essential.

Importantly, local Yucatecan Mayan communities have been integral to this process. Inhabitants of the equally ancient town of Telchaquillo, located just outside Mayapan, have contributed to this work in innumerable ways, including excavation, artifact cleaning, processing and analysis.

Explore further New research demonstrates connections between climate change and civil unrest among the ancient Maya

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This Hubble Space Telescope image centers on whats known as a low surface brightness, or LSB, galaxy (blue), surrounded by more familiar-looking galaxies (yellow). Astrophysics believe that more than 95% of the matter found in LSBs is dark matter. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Calzetti

About three years ago, Wolfgang "Wolfi" Mittig and Yassid Ayyad went looking for the universe's missing mass, better known as dark matter, in the heart of an atom.

Their expedition didn't lead them to dark matter, but they still found something that had never been seen before, something that defied explanation. Well, at least an explanation that everyone could agree on.

"It's been something like a detective story," said Mittig, a Hannah Distinguished Professor in Michigan State University's Department of Physics and Astronomy and a faculty member at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB.

"We started out looking for dark matter and we didn't find it," he said. "Instead, we found other things that have been challenging for theory to explain."

So the team got back to work, doing more experiments, gathering more evidence to make their discovery make sense. Mittig, Ayyad and their colleagues bolstered their case at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, or NSCL, at Michigan State University.

Working at NSCL, the team found a new path to their unexpected destination, which they detailed June 28 in the journal Physical Review Letters. In doing so, they also revealed interesting physics that's afoot in the ultra-small quantum realm of subatomic particles.

In particular, the team confirmed that when an atom's core, or nucleus, is overstuffed with neutrons, it can still find a way to a more stable configuration by spitting out a proton instead.

Shot in the dark

Dark matter is one of the most famous things in the universe that we know the least about. For decades, scientists have known that the cosmos contains more mass than we can see based on the trajectories of stars and galaxies.

For gravity to keep the celestial objects tethered to their paths, there had to be unseen mass and a lot of itsix times the amount of regular matter that we can observe, measure and characterize. Although scientists are convinced dark matter is out there, they have yet to find where and devise how to detect it directly.

"Finding dark matter is one of the major goals of physics," said Ayyad, a nuclear physics researcher at the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics, or IGFAE, of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Speaking in round numbers, scientists have launched about 100 experiments to try to illuminate what exactly dark matter is, Mittig said.

"None of them has succeeded after 20, 30, 40 years of research," he said.

"But there was a theory, a very hypothetical idea, that you could observe dark matter with a very particular type of nucleus," said Ayyad, who was previously a detector systems physicist at NSCL.

This theory centered on what it calls a dark decay. It posited that certain unstable nuclei, nuclei that naturally fall apart, could jettison dark matter as they crumbled.

So Ayyad, Mittig and their team designed an experiment that could look for a dark decay, knowing the odds were against them. But the gamble wasn't as big as it sounds because probing exotic decays also lets researchers better understand the rules and structures of the nuclear and quantum worlds.

The researchers had a good chance of discovering something new. The question was what that would be.

In the teams experiment published in 2019, beryllium-11 decays through beta decay to an excited state of boron-11, which decays to beryllium-10 and a proton. In the new experiment, the team accesses the boron-11 state by adding a proton to beryllium-10, that is, by running the time-reversed reaction.

Help from a halo

When people imagine a nucleus, many may think of a lumpy ball made up of protons and neutrons, Ayyad said. But nuclei can take on strange shapes, including what are known as halo nuclei.

Beryllium-11 is an example of a halo nuclei. It's a form, or isotope, of the element beryllium that has four protons and seven neutrons in its nucleus. It keeps 10 of those 11 nuclear particles in a tight central cluster. But one neutron floats far away from that core, loosely bound to the rest of the nucleus, kind of like the moon ringing around the Earth, Ayyad said.

Beryllium-11 is also unstable. After a lifetime of about 13.8 seconds, it falls apart by what's known as beta decay. One of its neutrons ejects an electron and becomes a proton. This transforms the nucleus into a stable form of the element boron with five protons and six neutrons, boron-11.

But according to that very hypothetical theory, if the neutron that decays is the one in the halo, beryllium-11 could go an entirely different route: It could undergo a dark decay.

In 2019, the researchers launched an experiment at Canada's national particle accelerator facility, TRIUMF, looking for that very hypothetical decay. And they did find a decay with unexpectedly high probability, but it wasn't a dark decay.

It looked like the beryllium-11's loosely bound neutron was ejecting an electron like normal beta decay, yet the beryllium wasn't following the known decay path to boron.

The team hypothesized that the high probability of the decay could be explained if a state in boron-11 existed as a doorway to another decay, to beryllium-10 and a proton. For anyone keeping score, that meant the nucleus had once again become beryllium. Only now it had six neutrons instead of seven.

"This happens just because of the halo nucleus," Ayyad said. "It's a very exotic type of radioactivity. It was actually the first direct evidence of proton radioactivity from a neutron-rich nucleus."

But science welcomes scrutiny and skepticism, and the team's 2019 report was met with a healthy dose of both. That "doorway" state in boron-11 did not seem compatible with most theoretical models. Without a solid theory that made sense of what the team saw, different experts interpreted the team's data differently and offered up other potential conclusions.

"We had a lot of long discussions," Mittig said. "It was a good thing."

As beneficial as the discussions wereand continue to beMittig and Ayyad knew they'd have to generate more evidence to support their results and hypothesis. They'd have to design new experiments.

The NSCL experiments

In the team's 2019 experiment, TRIUMF generated a beam of beryllium-11 nuclei that the team directed into a detection chamber where researchers observed different possible decay routes. That included the beta decay to proton emission process that created beryllium-10.

For the new experiments, which took place in August 2021, the team's idea was to essentially run the time-reversed reaction. That is, the researchers would start with beryllium-10 nuclei and add a proton.

Collaborators in Switzerland created a source of beryllium-10, which has a half-life of 1.4 million years, that NSCL could then use to produce radioactive beams with new reaccelerator technology. The technology evaporated and injected the beryllium into an accelerator and made it possible for researchers to make a highly sensitive measurement.

In an open quantum system, a discrete, or isolated, state, analogous to boron-11 (left), mixes with an adjacent continuum of states, related to beryllium-10 (middle), which results in a new resonant state (right). Credit: Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

When beryllium-10 absorbed a proton of the right energy, the nucleus entered the same excited state the researchers believed they discovered three years earlier. It would even spit the proton back out, which can be detected as signature of the process.

"The results of the two experiments are very compatible," Ayyad said.

That wasn't the only good news. Unbeknownst to the team, an independent group of scientists at Florida State University had devised another way to probe the 2019 result. Ayyad happened to attend a virtual conference where the Florida State team presented its preliminary results, and he was encouraged by what he saw.

"I took a screenshot of the Zoom meeting and immediately sent it to Wolfi," he said. "Then we reached out to the Florida State team and worked out a way to support each other."

The two teams were in touch as they developed their reports, and both scientific publications now appear in the same issue of Physical Review Letters. And the new results are already generating a buzz in the community.

"The work is getting a lot of attention. Wolfi will visit Spain in a few weeks to talk about this," Ayyad said.

An open case on open quantum systems

Part of the excitement is because the team's work could provide a new case study for what are known as open quantum systems. It's an intimidating name, but the concept can be thought of like the old adage, "nothing exists in a vacuum."

Quantum physics has provided a framework to understand the incredibly tiny components of nature: atoms, molecules and much, much more. This understanding has advanced virtually every realm of physical science, including energy, chemistry and materials science.

Much of that framework, however, was developed considering simplified scenarios. The super small system of interest would be isolated in some way from the ocean of input provided by the world around it. In studying open quantum systems, physicists are venturing away from idealized scenarios and into the complexity of reality.

Open quantum systems are literally everywhere, but finding one that's tractable enough to learn something from is challenging, especially in matters of the nucleus. Mittig and Ayyad saw potential in their loosely bound nuclei and they knew that NSCL, and now FRIB could help develop it.

NSCL, a National Science Foundation user facility that served the scientific community for decades, hosted the work of Mittig and Ayyad, which is the first published demonstration of the stand-alone reaccelerator technology. FRIB, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility that officially launched on May 2, 2022 is where the work can continue in the future.

"Open quantum systems are a general phenomenon, but they're a new idea in nuclear physics," Ayyad said. "And most of the theorists who are doing the work are at FRIB."

But this detective story is still in its early chapters. To complete the case, researchers still need more data, more evidence to make full sense of what they're seeing. That means Ayyad and Mittig are still doing what they do best and investigating.

"We're going ahead and making new experiments," said Mittig. "The theme through all of this is that it's important to have good experiments with strong analysis."

Explore further Researchers observe exotic radioactive decay process

More information: Y. Ayyad et al, Evidence of a Near-Threshold Resonance in B11 Relevant to the  -Delayed Proton Emission of Be11, Physical Review Letters (2022). Journal information: Physical Review Letters Y. Ayyad et al, Evidence of a Near-Threshold Resonance in B11 Relevant to the  -Delayed Proton Emission of Be11,(2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.012501
Scientists stored data in the chemical structure of a polymer, mixed it in the ink of a personal letter, mailed it and were able to retrieve a complex encryption key and decrypt a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Credit: The University of Texas at Austin

Imagine being able to hide an extremely complex encryption password or detailed financial information for an organization inside the chemical structure of ink. It might sound like something out of a spy movie, but scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Massachusetts Lowell recently proved it possible.

In a paper out today in the journal ACS Central Science, researchers outlined how they were able to take a 256-bit encryption key and encode it into a plastic-like material they synthesized in the lab, resulting in a new storage medium for encrypting a large data set.

"When it comes to information storage, we're looking for ways to store data in the smallest amount of space and in a format that is durable and readable," said Eric Anslyn, a UT Austin chemistry professor and corresponding author on the paper.

To prove their technique for storing data, Anslyn, collaborating with UMass Lowell's James Reuther and other researchers, encrypted a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The 256-bit encryption key is virtually impossible to break by even the fastest computers. It was stored in a material, called a sequence-defined polymer, made up of a long chain of monomers. Each monomer corresponds to one of 16 symbols and, using their newly developed technique, the researchers were able to encode the 256 bits of information to be read in the correct sequence.

A robotic machine in Anslyn's lab created the polymer material using commercially available amino acids. The finished polymer was mixed into the ink of a personal letter in Texas, mailed to a third party in Massachusetts and then extracted and analyzed using a liquid chromatography mass spectrometer. The analysis revealed the encryption key, which decrypted the bookall on the first try.

Many potential applications exist for storing data in a plastic-like material. As an era of quantum computing approaches, the ability of quantum computers to potentially break standard 8-bit passwords in seconds creates the need for new, more complex encryption methods. The new innovation creates the possibility of having a key hidden in the molecular structure of a note, a key chain, or a necklace.

Meanwhile, with vast amounts of digital data driving the need for data centers that take a toll on the environment and contribute to climate change, new alternatives for data storage are considered critical.

"This is the first time this much information has been stored in a polymer of this type," Anslyn said, indicating it signaled "a revolutionary scientific advance in the area of molecular data storage and cryptography."

Another UT Austin lab used DNA to encode Baum's book in synthetic DNA, using the four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T), in a four-symbol coded system. The new technique has 16 symbols, making the density of information storage far higher.

"Think about it. All of the information required to make a human is stored in one of your cells," Anslyn said. "And that's done with four symbols. This has 16 to work with."

Samuel Dahlhauser, Christopher Wight, Sarah Moor, Phuoc Ngo, Jordan York, Marissa Vera, Kristin Blake and Ian Riddington of UT Austin and Randall Scanga of University of Massachusetts Lowell all contributed to the research.

Explore further Researchers build a durable molecular encryption key from sequence-defined polymers

More information: Samuel D. Dahlhauser et al, Molecular Encryption and Steganography Using Mixtures of Simultaneously Sequenced, Sequence-Defined Oligourethanes, ACS Central Science (2022). Journal information: ACS Central Science Samuel D. Dahlhauser et al, Molecular Encryption and Steganography Using Mixtures of Simultaneously Sequenced, Sequence-Defined Oligourethanes,(2022). DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.2c00460
GREENFIELD  A Greenfield man who has volunteered as an instructor for the Boy Scouts of America was arrested on Friday for allegedly possessing child pornography.

State police said Ryan Surprenant, 34, possessed and promoted images consistent with child sexual exploitation via the internet. His arrest followed an investigation stemming from a cyber tip received by the New York State Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and a search of his residence.

Surprenant was charged with felony counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child and promoting a sexual performance by a child. He was arraigned in Greenfield Town Court and sent to Saratoga County Jail in lieu of bail of 20,000 cash, $40,000 bond or 200,000 partially secured bond.

Police said Surprenant has had contact with youth in his community through the Boy Scouts. Anyone with information relating to this investigation is asked to email Crimetips@troopers.ny.gov.
A Glens Falls woman was arrested on Saturday during a traffic stop after police discovered she had an active bench warrant, and she was also found to be in possession of narcotics, police said.
GREENWICH  State police are investigating a fire that left one adult with non-life threatening injuries on Wednesday that investigators say appears suspicious in nature.

Police responded to a residential fire at 912 County Route 77 at roughly 10:56 p.m., according to a news release.

At the time of the fire, there were four children and two adults inside of the residence. All of the residents made it out of the house, with one adult being airlifted by helicopter to Fletcher Allen Hospital in Burlington, Vermont to treat injuries.

Police said that preliminary investigation indicates that the the fire appears suspicious. Anyone with information about the fire is asked to contact state police by emailing crimetip@troopers.ny.gov.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation at this time. State police are being assisted in the investigation by the Washington County Bureau of Fire and New York State Fire.
ATLANTIC CITY  A small group of people gathered Friday morning at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center on Pacific Avenue for the unveiling of the latest enhancement to the centers Safe Beginnings program  a vehicle for in-home care for expecting mothers and infants.

The Safe Beginnings program, started last year by the medical center, is funded by grants from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. The money helped buy the SUV, which will be used by nurses and doulas to travel to the homes of women and babies.

It is the first program in Atlantic City designed to help combat high rates of both maternal and infant mortality by providing families care from pregnancy up to the childs first birthday.

Services provided by Safe Beginnings include home visitations, a Transitions of Care Clinic and access to free baby safety items such as car seats, regardless of insurance or payment abilities.

Having care before, during and after pregnancy and through a babys first birthday is so critical to the health of babies and families, and to preventing infant and maternal mortality, said Sandra Garrett, assistant vice president for AtlantiCare Womens and Childrens Services.

The mortality rate for infants is six of every 1,000 live births in Atlantic County, compared with four of every 1,000 statewide, which is reason for concern, according to New Jersey state health assessment data.

The program coincides with AtlantiCares Womens and Childrens Services, which provides care to 61 mothers and infants, although AtlantiCare is committed to seeing at least 100 patients this year.

By using this bright, branded Safe Beginnings vehicle, we show our presence in the community to increase awareness about the program, said Garrett, who said when the team is in the home, they also assess the environment to identify other needs families might have.

Garrett said lack of transportation, housing and food insecurity, and social or emotional issues are some of the many barriers that keep some of their patients from getting access to necessary prenatal care.

The Safe Beginnings team includes certified nurse midwives, certified community doulas, a social worker, neonatologist, peer specialist and registered nurses. They not only provide care and services to women and infants in need but also provide parents with education and help connect them with community resources to give them a healthy start.

Charnea Briggs, one of two doulas in the program, is one of the many AtlantiCare workers to have used her own vehicle to see patients before Safe Beginnings got its own. The vehicle allows them to meet patients wherever they are, whether it be at home, in a library or even a cafe.

Its very important to provide affordable care to the women and infants of Atlantic City, said Briggs, who sees at least 10 to 15 mothers and infants a week. This levels the playing field so they get the best care and support.

Mother rescued from ocean off Brigantine expected to recover BRIGANTINE  The 28-year-old mother of two who nearly drowned off the citys beaches last we

Safe Beginnings organizes several other events for expecting mothers and infants, including quarterly baby showers for women in the program that offer them a group setting to connect with other women, talk to staff, work together and be more engaged in the program.

AtlantiCare also provides other services for expecting mothers and families, including having their Center for Childbirth, NICU, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Family Planning and OB/GYN services at their Mainland location in Galloway Township, which will eventually be moved to their new comprehensive care building in Atlantic City, set to open in the fall.

We ultimately aim to have an impact on the local rates of both maternal and infant mortality, Garrett said.
STONE HARBOR  Citing an increase in the number of complaints regarding people accessing a conservation area, police plan to more strictly enforce the boroughs code about access to that area, police said Thursday.

The borough will prohibit people from accessing its beaches, including Stone Harbor Point, via any watercraft, power driven or otherwise, according to a news release.

The regulation does not prohibit the use of watercraft as permitted elsewhere in the boroughs code. Operators are free to use the waterways around Stone Harbor Point but are not allowed to access the beach from the water.

Police said there has been an increase in boaters, swimmers and beachgoers at Stone Harbor Point, a bird habitat thats a shorebird migration stopover. The area is subject to a conservation easement and plan to protect the birds that inhabit the area.

The calls specifically mentioned watercraft that were anchoring or mooring near the shoreline and accessing the beaches from the water, police said.

Jitney cancels weekday shuttles in the Wildwoods WILDWOOD  Jitney is canceling its Sunday-through-Thursday island-wide services because of l

The Boroughs environmental stewards, who oversee and monitor the wildlife and activity at the point, have communicated that the accessing of the Point beaches from the water is directly disturbing the wildlife sanctuaries and ecosystems that the Borough has long sought to protect, police said.

Police said the borough doesnt plan to restrict the rights of the boating community, beachgoers and those who visit the habitat; it plans to balance those rights with health, safety and environmental concerns. Police added that accessing the beach by way of any watercraft is potentially hazardous and the location of Stone Harbor Point relative to emergency services renders rapid response difficult.

We appreciate the cooperation and understanding of all impacted as the Borough continues to promote its precious natural resources while protecting the same, police said.

Contact John Russo: 609-272-7184

Twitter: @ACPress_Russo
Chanel Embrey speaks as participants from My Block, My Hood, My City resume the organization's youth-led community walks program in Chicagos North Lawndale neighborhood on July 14, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

On Tuesday, nine high school and college students between the ages of 14 and 18 gathered on the West Side at Collins Academy High School in Douglass Park to prepare for the seven weeks ahead.

It was a training day for the teens who are part of My Block, My Hood, My City, an organization that encourages young Chicagoans to expand their knowledge of the city they live in. For its fifth year, M3 is bringing back its youth-led community walks program to help educate and entertain guests about the history of North Lawndale.

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Ernesto Gonzalez, marketing manager for My Block, My Hood, My City, said recruitment for the program starts at the beginning of the school year to attract high school freshmen for the following summer.

Its a way for them to step outside of their homes and step outside of their comfort zones, Gonzalez said.

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This is the first summer since 2019 that the program is running at full capacity, with up to 40 guests.

During the summers of 2020 and 2021, the program ran with limited capacity, with one to three guests per teen, according to Gonzalez.

But before putting on their walking shoes and speaking in front of people they have not met before, the community walk leaders had to learn important skills such as voice projection, enunciation and confidence.

This year is opened up so that the whole city and tourists can go on the community walk, Gonzalez said. People dont usually go to North Lawndale, but North Lawndale has a lot to offer.

Youths from My Block, My Hood, My City walk outside the Dr. King Legacy Apartments as they train for the community walks program. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Guests visit the streets where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived and served while he organized in Chicago, and they learn about the current organizations that continue the work at Stone Temple Church.

Chicago native Imani Muse returned from her first year at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to intern at My Block, My Hood, My City and assist the teens with public speaking.

She led a group activity that made them all chuckle while they did it.

One by one, the teens took turns standing in front of the classroom to read a tongue twister off a computer screen: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

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The next activity was even more challenging. The group leaders were asked to introduce themselves in a park right outside of their school. They needed to be heard from a distance and over noises such as cars passing by or conversations within earshot.

Akira Young, 15, said meeting new people and public speaking are her favorite parts of the program.

I was really afraid to talk to people at first, Young said. But the more and more I talk to people, the less nervous I am and its something that I look forward to.

Young, who lives in Austin, said she was eager to learn more about the North Lawndale neighborhood.

I didnt know about all the stuff North Lawndale had to offer, Young said. Id never experienced this side of my city.

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Its not all work, though. During the week, the group takes trips, such as going to a lasagna-making class.

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In the summer of 2019, two of the teens traveled to Spain and lived with a host family for two weeks.

So many lessons can come from these community walks, Gonzalez said. We try to plant the seeds in them and let them make the decisions on what to do with that.

Chantel Embrey leads a My Block, My Hood, My City tour of Chicagos North Lawndale neighborhood on July 14, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Private tours take place Fridays and Saturdays. All proceeds are given back to the program to pay and support the participating youths.

Free walks for residents of the community are available once a week with Westside Wednesdays.

I still get nervous when I get a new group of people, Young said. But the nerves shake off as I go along and at the end I breathe again and am happy I can say that I did it.

tatturner@chicagotribune.com
MAQUOKETA  Three people from Cedar Falls died Friday at Maquoketa Caves State Park.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation identified the dead as Tyler Schmidt, 42, Sarah Schmidt, 42, and Lulu Schmidt, 6.

Their deaths are being investigated as homicides, according to a news release from the Iowa DCI. The park will be closed until further notice because of the investigation.

A fourth person was found deceased of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office and DCI were called about 6:23 a.m. for a report of a shooting at the park campground, Mike Krapfl, a special agent in charge with DCI, said during a news conference late Friday morning.

"When officers arrived, they located three deceased bodies at a campsite," Krapfl said.

Krapfl said he did not have information as of late Friday morning as to how the three people were killed.

As officers searched the campground, they learned one other camper was missing, Krapfl said.

"He was later identified as 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin and we had information that he was armed at the time," Krapfl said.

Sherwin was found dead about 11 a.m. west of the park, Krapfl said. He had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Krapfl said he believed Sherwin was from Nebraska, but could not say if a firearm had been recovered.

Investigators were still trying to figure out what relationship, if any, there was between the four people, Krapfl said.

Other people were in the park at the time and at least some of them were evacuated, Krapfl said.

"The campground was relatively full," Krapfl said.

He said he did not have the exact number of people who were in the park when police arrived.

"Officers made contact with all the campers, tried to get as many out as they could," Krapfl said.

Krapfl said there was believed to be no further threat to the public.

One employee at Maquoketa Caves said that, at about 8 a.m., she was given the option to go home after police arrived and the park was locked down in response to the report of a shooting.

Parents with children attending the nearby Camp Shalom were notified Friday morning that it also was locked down.

"We were just notified that there is an active shooter at Maquoketa Caves," according to a Friday morning message to campers' parents. "Our top priority is camper safety, and we are following the protocols.

Fridays are usually pick-up days for campers at Christian-focused camp, which is about a mile and a half away from the Maquoketa Caves said executive assistant Beth Sallak.

But plans changed at 9:11 a.m., when local law enforcement sent a notification to the directors that there was an active shooter situation at the state park, and told them to evacuate immediately.

So, Sallak, said, staff shifted gears.

We told the campers, Were going to do a surprise visit to Little Bear Park in Maquoketa, Sallak said. They all cheered, and we loaded everyone on the bus. They had no idea there was an active shooter a mile and a half down the road.

She complimented the staff for staying calm and quickly changing plans, as theyve trained to do in emergencies. Campers this week ranged in ages from second graders to seniors in high school.

Nobody expects for this to happen. The Maquoketa caves? Come on," Sallak said. "Its one of the safest places you can be. I take my kids there, I hike there with my friends. That doesnt mean you cant in the back of your mind to be prepared.

Camp Shalom will continue to host campers until the end of the summer, Sallak said, which will be two more weeks.

Well continue to keep campers safe, happy, and hydrated, slept and well-fed. Were just going to move forward as we normally we do, Sallak said.

Other state officials also issued statements about Fridays incident.

Im horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said. As we grieve this unimaginable tragedy, Kevin and I pray for the victims family members and the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene. We ask Iowans to do the same.

Kayla Lyon, Iowa Department of Natural Resources director, said she and the DNR staff were also devastated by the incident.

Our long standing tradition of enjoying Iowas natural wonders was shaken today, but the legacy for the millions of families that recreate at Iowa state parks will continue, Lyon said.

Reporters Brooklyn Draisey and Sarah Watson contributed to this report.
Long stored the in basement of city hall, the City of Moline is in the process of advancing a new records management system. The city is wanting to dispose of records that are no longer needed and to digitize records to free up space in the basement and use it for employee purposes
Davenport Police are investigating a shots fired incident that occurred at 7:43 p.m. Friday in the 700 block of West 63rd Street in the Goose Creek Heights neighborhood.

Police located nine spent shell casings in the street. A house was struck several times, and a car parked in the driveway was struck.

No injuries were reported to people or any of the dogs inside the home.

Police ask anyone with information about this incident to call the Davenport Police Department at 563-326-6125, Crime Stoppers of the Quad-Cities at 309-762-9500, or submit an anonymous tip via the P3 Tips mobile app or submit a tip online at qccrimestoppers.com.
Rock Island Police are investigating the fifth homicide in less than two months, and the third in three straight weeks, with the shooting death of a 21-year-old man early Friday.

Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson identified the man as Braylon Walker of Osceola, Arkansas. An autopsy is tentatively scheduled for Monday, Gustafson said.

Rock Island Deputy Police Chief Timothy McCloud said in a news release that officers were called to the 1400 block of 8th Street at 12:04 a.m. Friday to investigate a report of shots fired.

Officers located Walker who was taken to UnityPoint Health-Trinity Rock Island where he died of his wounds.

At 2:55 p.m. May 22, Rock Island Police were sent to the 1000 block of 15th Street to investigate a shots-fired call. Desavion D. Foster, 19, died of his wounds at UnityPoint Health-Trinity Rock Island. Police have arrested Terrionce C. Kitchen, who is charged with one count of murder. Kitchen is being held in the Rock Island County Jail on a cash-only bond of $1 million. A pre-trial hearing in the case is set for Aug. 18 in Rock Island County Circuit Court.

At 12:25 a.m. June 25, 61-year-old Gregory McGhee arrived at UnityPoint Health-Trinity Rock Island with a gunshot wound. He later died of his injuries. Gustafson said McGhee died of traumatic gunshot injuries to his chest and abdomen. Police said he was shot in the 500 block of 6th Street. McGhee's death remains under investigation.

At 7:14 a.m. July 10, the body of Amani Kamata, 39, of Rock Island, was found by police in the 1100 block of 10th Avenue. Kamata had been shot to death. Kamatas death remains under investigation.

At 9:50 p.m. July 15, Rock Island Police were called to the 1300 block of 4 Street at the Century Woods apartment complex to investigate a report of shots fired. Officers located Davion Roe, 25, of Chicago, who was taken to UnityPoint Health-Trinity Rock Island but die of his wounds before arrival. McCloud said the initial investigation indicates Roe was involved in an altercation with a group of people when he was shot.

Rock Island Police Chief Richard Landi said Friday that detectives are working the cases as hard as they can. Theyre getting assistance from our other local agencies. We all work together from the sheriffs departments to the other city agencies of Davenport, Moline, Bettendorf, Silvis, East Moline, Milan, and our state and federal partners.

There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that the public doesnt see, he said. More information will come out in due time.

Many of the cases are spontaneous violence or retaliation, he said.

None of the cases are related, he added.

Part of our investigation is figuring out the motive, Landi said. But these investigations take time with some investigations being tougher than others. Each case has its unique challenges, but there are new challenges facing police today, he added.

The standards we have to meet for convictions have gone up, obviously because of things that have occurred in recent years, he said.

He added that judges, juries, prosecutors all want more evidence, he added.

While we have more technology today than when we had when I started in 1993, this is not like TV, Landi said.

Additionally, Landi said police are often frustrated by a public that is not always willing to step forward and help.

Many of the people involved dont want to cooperate with the police, he said. Some will give us false information just to send us the wrong way so we waste time chasing leads that take us to dead ends.

Naturally, there are societal issues that are beyond the control of police, he added.

But the violence the Quad-Cities has seen is not unique to Rock Island or the rest of the area, Landi said.

This is a nationwide problem and were all struggling with it, he said. We are working these cases with the tools and the technologies we have.

My first year on in 1993, we had 13 homicides that year, Landi said. Its unfortunate were going through this right now, and I hope things will change for the better in the future.

But right now we have to work together to find solutions to the problems out there, he said. 

We have to be sure that resources are available to those people who want to make themselves better, he added, saying there are many success stories of people coming out of the justice system who have remade themselves and are working to improve their communities.

Landi added that it is a very small percentage of people committing crimes, particularly violent crimes, and those are the ones we need to focus on and try to bring to justice.

What you have is a small area of a larger city that can cast the wrong impression on the rest of the city, he said. Its not fair to all those people who work hard to make the city great, and its not fair that it takes away from all the good thats being done.
Months after his conviction, a Pennington County judge set a date for Maxton Pfeiffers sentencing.

Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Connolly set aside the entirety of Aug. 24 for Pfeiffer's sentencing during a Friday hearing.

In March, a Pennington County jury found Pfeiffer, 22, guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the 2018 death of 19-year-old Ty Scott. Pfeiffer shot Scott in a Keystone apartment June 13, 2018, while he and friends played with guns. He was immediately taken into custody following the jury's verdict. He faces a maximum of life in prison and a $50,000 fine.

According to testimony during the trial, Pfeiffer, Scott and four others were at an apartment in Keystone and were pretending to shoot each other with a .38-caliber revolver and an AR-15. Two others, including Scott, were watching videos. Pfeiffer said he reached for a .45-caliber pistol sitting in its holster on a nearby dresser. He said he removed the gun from the holster and the weapon's magazine, pulled the slide back, and saw nothing come out before pointing the gun at the others.

Pfeiffer said he swept the room with the gun before it discharged. A bullet struck Scott, who died from the injury.

Connolly set the sentencing date during a status hearing where he denied Pfeiffers lawyers motion asking the judge to reconsider his decision declining his request for a new trial or an acquittal.

Dana Hanna, Pfeiffers defense attorney, argued his client deserves a new trial because Connolly did not include instructions to the jury to find mens rea, criminal intent.

Connolly said he did include instructions according to a 2015 South Dakota Supreme Court decision in State v. Birdshead. In that case, the state Supreme Court decided the jury's threshold for criminal intent in a first-degree manslaughter case is, When a person intentionally or recklessly does an act which the law declares to be a crime, the person is acting with criminal intent, even though the person may not know that the conduct is unlawful.

Hanna argued that phrasing was not enough to protect his clients rights. He pointed to a June 5 United States Supreme Court decision on Ruan v. United States which addressed standards of criminal intent.

The case involved doctors convicted of unauthorized distribution of controlled substances. The U.S. Supreme Court opinion said jurors should have been instructed to determine if the government proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants knowingly or intentionally acted in an unauthorized manner. The original instructions only asked jurors if the defendants attempted to act in accordance with what a reasonable physician should believe to be proper.

Connolly said the state Supreme Courts decision is more on point than the U.S. Supreme Court decision and that Hanna had already made the motion before the court decided Ruan. He said Hanna can appeal the decision at a higher court.

After lengthy discussion, Connolly also told Hanna he would not grant his motion for a hearing to discuss allowing Pfeiffer out on pre-appeal bail prior to sentencing, but that he would address it the same day of sentencing.
A slum, hope and the wonders of nature were on the itinerary when Daryn Meyer and Rhett Bradsky made their first trip to Africa earlier this summer.

Cousins Meyer and Bradsky, both 19, accompanied their grandparents Rich and Gayla Meyer to Nairobi and Tanzania. One of their destinations was Missions of Hope Internationals location in Bondeni, in Nairobis capital city of Kenya.

Bondeni is one of a network of urban slums Missions of Hope serves by providing education, health care, social workers and more. About 200,000 people live in Bondeni, a community riddled with unemployment, crime, drug addition, illiteracy, teen pregnancies, prostitution and school dropouts.

Missions of Hope has a center and school in Bondeni. The school serves 1,025 students.

For the past five years, the Meyers have sponsored a student through Missions of Hope. The Rapid City couple wanted to show their grandchildren the positive work Missions of Hope is accomplishing in the midst of extreme poverty.

Slum residents typically live on less than $2 a day. In addition to educating students, Missions of Hope is working to improve security, household income, infrastructure, roads and sanitation in Bondeni. Missions of Hopes goal is to take a holistic approach to combating conditions that create and perpetuate poverty.

We visited this Mission almost by accident five years ago and have been sponsoring a child there since then. The Mission is located in the largest and worst slum in Nairobi and what is being accomplished, along with the outreach, is absolutely phenomenal, Rich said. Id like to be able to introduce Missions of Hope to as many people as possible.

On their first trip to Missions of Hope five years ago, the Meyers visited the Bondeni Mission School, met the students and observed the living conditions in the slum. This time, the couple was excited to introduce their grandchildren to Sheldon, the student they sponsor, and her family.

We saw what kind of conditions they live in and it would blow your mind, Rich said. The streets are three to four feet wide and a sewer runs down the middle. They have about an 8- by 10-foot area to live in. Its truly a slum.  Missions of Hope International  is the only thing that gives these kids a chance.

For the Meyers and their grandchildren, this was their first opportunity to meet Sheldon, her mother and her younger sister.

We got to go to her home and meet her mom, Gayla said. The mother is in this very scary area raising two little girls. They live in a home with no door, no lock. Its a few feet wide and a few feet deep.  (Slum residents) pay $25 a month for nothing. They have absolutely no security. You really worry about those little girls.

For Sheldon, having a sponsor means she can attend the Bondeni Mission School, receive two meals a day, an education in English and a school uniform.

Its just wonderful to see theyre getting an education and theyre getting fed and they have a place to go to be safe, Gayla said.

Although Sheldons mother has a job, I dont know if the mother could feed those girls if they werent in school, Gayla said. The hope is to send them on to college and provide them a way out. I feel pretty good about the money we are spending supporting Sheldon being (at Missions of Hope.)

Sponsoring Sheldon costs $38 a month, Rich said. In addition to financial support, sponsors are encouraged to write to the child they sponsor and let the child know they are being prayed for. Sponsorship and more information is available at https://mohiafrica.org/.

Daryn Meyer said she was surprised by the contented attitude of the children despite the hardships in their lives, and she feels inspired to help.

In the future I would like to do mission trips for sure. Im realizing how much I do have compared to them, she said.

What probably stuck out most was going to that mission and the school and its definitely made me want to actually support one of the kids, Bradsky said. We had the privilege of visiting and meeting all the kids. For me personally, that was probably the most influential part of the trip.  It was unbelievable what these kids have to go through and where they live.

A lot of the kids, you can see theyre happy even though they have close to nothing, and that in and of itself is pretty amazing, Bradsky said. A lot of people (in the United States) dont appreciate what they have and what theyve got nearly as much as these kids do. Sponsors mean a lot to them.

Though the Meyers and their grandchildren value their South Dakota roots, the Meyers also believe in the importance of travel and seeing other parts of the world. They strive to impart that to their all six of their grandchildren.

They dont get to see that kind of thing (poverty) that is a truth of life around the world and you just dont see that here. You can hear about it and you want (the grandchildren) to see that there are ways to help people help themselves, Gayla said.

The trip to Africa concluded with eye-opening astonishment of another variety when the grandparents and grandchildren traveled to Tanzania. They spent about nine days on guided safari observing and photographing animals.

We had a guide that was just brilliant and very well-educated and  could tell us anything we wanted to know about anything  the government and the birds and the vegetation and the history of the country, Gayla said.

We got to witness part of the wildebeest migration, Bradsky said. It was probably one of the craziest things we saw there. You see hundreds of them crossing this big river. Its just unbelievable. Its like the stuff youd see on National Geographic.

The Meyers have a long tradition of taking their grandchildren on adventures  whether around the Black Hills or around the world.

Theres nothing quite like living in a tent, jumping in a safari vehicle and traveling through the savanna and the Serengeti right amongst the animals, Gayla said of their most recent adventure. The smells, the sounds, the vision is overwhelming.
Jamie Smith said he cannot do it alone.

The Democratic candidate for South Dakotas governor asked a crowd of about 50 people Friday evening at Robbinsdale Park to work together with him and the other candidates to change the state.

Together were going to do this, he said. Its going to take you, along with me and everyone who does the snowball dance a lot of you because it is going to take that to make sure Jamie Smith is your next governor.

Other Democratic candidates were there including District 32 representative candidate Christine Stephenson, District 33 representative candidate Vince Vidal, District 32 senator candidate Nicole Heenan, and District 35 representative candidate David Hubbard, all of whom said it would take everyones vote to put them in office.

During the meet-and-greet, Smith said his several number one priorities include continuing Gov. George Mickelsons efforts at reconciliation with the Native American tribes, establishing a prekindergarten program for the state, expanding Medicaid, allowing teachers to teach without fear of repercussion, matching high-level education with high-level jobs, and keeping South Dakota open and welcome to all.

Smith said there is a lot of discussion on freedom, but said freedom is not free and someones freedom stops when it infringes on someone elses right.

He also said the agriculture industry is incredibly important and he would like to see more value-added grain.

Smith also said, if elected, he would have an open-door policy because not all good ideas come from one party.

Stephenson said she is a value voter, and so is everyone else. She said most people value community and empathy, and there is not one person in the country who would say they made it to where they are on their own.

We know, were Democrats, we recognize that and we need to be spreading that message, she said. I value hard work, I value initiative and drive, but I also value my family, the supporting community that supported me, the school district that teaches my kids. We need community and we need to have that at the top of our priorities.

Smith said he will host another meet-and-greet at the Old Storybook Island Park Aug. 3.
A Tinley Park woman has been charged with making threats to disrupt July 4 fireworks demonstrations in communities such as Orland Park and Tinley Park, the same day that a gunman killed seven people and wounded several others at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park.

Jeanette Larue, 50, was charged with disorderly conduct Friday after allegedly sending a series of text messages to her nephew July 4 threatening to attack fireworks displays in Orland Park and neighboring Tinley Park as well as Lockport and Joliet, Tinley Park police said Friday.

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She is due to appear in Cook County Circuit Court in Bridgeview Aug. 12, police said in a statement.

Police said they were able to determine before the fireworks shows in Orland Park and Tinley Park that the threats were hollow, and that there was no danger to the public.

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Tinley Park police said that Larues nephew contacted them after receiving the text messages and that Larue admitted to sending the messages but denied sending any threatening messages.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the Chicago area were on alert to possible attacks to Fourth of July events after a man, later identified as 21-year old Bobby Crimo III, allegedly unleashed a hail of gunfire onto people watching an Independence Day parade in Highland Park.

Some communities opted to cancel other July 4 events, such a fireworks shows, but displays continued in southwest suburbs such as Orland Park and Tinley Park, with decisions coming after the suspected shooter was taken into custody and concerns about a possible broader threat discounted.

In Orland Park, a fireworks display took place as planned in Centennial Park and a show organized at McCarthy Park by the Tinley Park Park District also went ahead.

mnolan@tribpub.com
QUESTION: Im thinking about getting company credit cards for my employees who routinely spend money on reimbursable items. Do you think this is a good idea?

ANSWER: Some companies issue company credit cards for employees to use for business expenses. The company expects that the employee will use the card only for legitimate expenses. The credit card bill comes to the company and is paid by the company, often without the employee ever seeing it.

In general, we find that company credit cards are more trouble than theyre worth, but there are pros and cons. Depending on the circumstances, issuing company credit cards may be justified. Consider two scenarios:

Charges need to be assigned to specific accounts: If charges need to be assigned to specific accounts, company credit cards can be problematic. Consider a situation where the company can frequently pass through charges on the company credit card to clients. The employee will need to indicate which charge to allocate to which client.

There are a number of ways to accomplish this but, in our experience, getting employees to provide this information in a timely manner can be challenging. Employees have other priorities and getting expense reports turned in on time is often not at the top of the list. Accounting cares about expense reports, but the employees boss may not.

This leaves accounting in the awkward position of having to chase employees to get the information it needs, costing the company time and money. Of course, you can resort to draconian measures. But firing an otherwise good employee for not turning in expense reports on time does not go a long way toward building a positive culture in the workplace.

A much more effective way to deal with the issue is to require employees to use their own credit cards for company expenses. Employees then turn in expense reports to receive reimbursement. This provides the incentive to submit expense reports in a timely manner. When this happens and the company reimburses quickly, the employee will receive his/her money before the credit card bill is due.

Charges do not need to be assigned to specific accounts: In some cases, all charges from a particular employee may be assigned to the same account. There is no need for the employee to communicate which charges go where. In such situations, company credit cards are less problematic.

But in our experience, there can still be problems with employees charging things inappropriately. When confronted, employees will invariably say the charge was a mistake and perhaps it was. Fewer mistakes happen when employees are required to use their own cards and submit expense reports for reimbursement.

Ultimately, the risk of mistakes has to be balanced against the cost of dealing with expense reports. A company may well decide that its employees are trustworthy and that the cost of expense reports (i.e., completing and processing them) greatly exceeds the risk of mistakes. In such circumstances, company credit cards may be warranted, particularly if the business generates a large volume of small charges.

But if you are going to issue company credit cards, spot-check the charges to make sure they are appropriate. Further, make sure that your employees know youre doing that. If they believe their charges are never reviewed, at some point, they will be tempted to charge something inappropriately. Dont put your employees in this situation. Remove temptation by letting them know that charges are monitored.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with more than 20 Virginia legislators Saturday morning in Henrico County, exhorting them to fight for protection of abortion rights in a state whose future policy is unclear.

You dont have to abandon your faith or your beliefs to agree the government should not be making that decision for that woman, Harris said at a union hall in Highland Springs.

It may not be something you choose to do, but lets all agree, when it comes to the most intimate decisions that a woman can make, intimate decisions about heart and home, she should be able to do that without the government telling her what to do.

Harris spoke with Democratic leaders of Virginia at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 666. They discussed the political battle in Virginia, the possibility of proposing a state constitutional amendment to codify abortion rights and what they termed barriers to protecting abortion rights, including a member of their own party and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has proposed a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks.

In the month since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Harris has met with legislators and advocates at the White House and in Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Atlantic City, N.J.; and Charlotte, N.C.

Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, who chairs the Senate Education and Health committee, said the body will stand as a brick wall against any measures to further limit or ban abortion. A bill limiting abortion likely would have to clear the committee of nine Democrats and six Republicans. Democrats hold a 21-19 edge in the Virginia Senate, and Republicans control the House of Delegates 52-48.

We are a safe haven here in Virginia, and were going to fight like hell to make sure it stays that way, Lucas said.

Youngkin has proposed banning most abortions after 15 weeks, allowing for exceptions of rape, incest and when a womans life is in jeopardy. He tasked three Republican legislators with writing a bill, which they can introduce in January.

In the days after his announcement, Youngkin expressed a desire to limit abortion further. He told The Family Foundation he believes life begins at conception but that proposing a bill more likely to pass was the top priority.

It wont be the bill that we all want, Youngkin said. Any bill that comes to my desk, I will sign happily, gleefully, to protect life.

Harris referred to Youngkin on Saturday  but not by name. She said she was fully aware of the context in which we meet and what this will mean to the people of Virginia.

While Democrats control the Virginia Senate, Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, has indicated he might support a further restriction.

In a statement after the Supreme Courts decision, Morrissey likened his personal opposition to abortion to that of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Still, I defend the position that women should have safe access to the procedure, at the very least, up to the moment a fetus can feel pain which many agree is 20 plus weeks of a pregnancy; in cases when a mothers health or life is at risk; in cases of rape that result in a pregnancy; and in cases of incest that result in a pregnancy, Morrissey said in the statement.

Just to be very clear: I do not believe the government, whether Federal or State, should be telling women what to do with their bodies.

Though some Republicans favor a 15-week bill, they could propose a 20-week bill as a fallback position.

On Saturday, Rep. Don McEachin, D-4th, called out Morrissey for not aligning with the party, saying theres a problem child in the Virginia Senate. The legislators who appeared Saturday are the choir, and they dont need preaching, McEachin said. Opponents of abortion are the ones the vice president needs to address.

Hes the one who needs to be here, McEachin said. Hes the one who needs to understand the importance of being pro-choice in this environment.

Morrissey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the senator said Morrissey was not invited to Saturdays roundtable.

McEachin called on the U.S. Senate to make an exception to the filibuster rule when it comes to bills regarding a persons civil rights, including abortion or voting rights. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have stood in the way of Democrats hopes of suspending the filibuster. Currently, the Senate requires 60 votes to end debate on most topics.

In Virginia, Democrats have proposed legislation of their own to codify abortion rights, going as far as suggesting a state constitutional amendment. But the chance of passing an amendment is slim, considering it would have to pass both chambers in two separate years and then be approved by the states voters as a referendum.

Its more important than ever that our voices be heard, said Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton.

Among the lawmakers in attendance Saturday were Sens. Lucas and Locke; Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond; and Creigh Deeds, D-Bath; as well as House Democratic leader Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, and fellow Dels. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria; Karrie Delaney, D-Fairfax; Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria; Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville; Clint Jenkins, D-Suffolk; Mark Keam, D-Fairfax; Candi King, D-Prince William; Michelle Maldonado, D-Manassas; Ken Plum, D-Fairfax; Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax; and Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax.
An off-duty sheriffs deputy who was injured in a fatal shooting at a Norfolk home Wednesday night has been placed on paid leave pending the conclusion of the investigation by the Virginia State Police, the Norfolk Sheriffs Office confirmed.

The deputy involved in the shooting has worked for the sheriffs office for just over three years, said Jamie Bastas, a spokesperson for the sheriffs office.

While the investigation is ongoing for both the integrity of the investigation and the safety of the deputy, we will not be releasing the deputys name at this time, Bastas said in an email.

The shooting occurred at a residence in the 8000 block of Glade Road in the Colonial Heights neighborhood of Norfolk. The sheriffs office described the incident as an exchange of gunfire involving at least the deputy and another unnamed man. The deputy was shot and injured while the other man died at the scene.

Two neighbors said the residence where the shooting occurred is owned by a sheriffs deputy.

No information about what led to the confrontation has been made available by either Virginia State Police or the sheriffs office.
Back in 1949, the United States, Canada and 10 Western European countries formed a military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty organization, or NATO. Washington had decided that the Soviet Union, its wartime ally  the one that had broken the back of the Nazi war machine  now was its peacetime enemy.

By 1990, the Soviet Union and most of its socialist allies were collapsing, the result of internal contradictions and outside pressures. The U.S. was promoting the reunification of Germany  a move opposed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who still remembered how his country had lost 20 million people to the Nazi invasion, and was not real excited about the prospect of a revitalized Germany.

So U.S. Secretary of State James Baker offered a deal: If Gorbachev agreed to a united Germany, NATO  which, by that time, had grown from its original 12 members to 16  would promise not to advance one inch eastward. Gorbachev agreed.

Today, each of the 14 new NATO member countries has been to the east. Of the seven countries bordering Russias western flank, Estonia, Latvia and Norway already are NATO members. Finland, Georgia and Ukraine have asked to join.

Once that process is completed, Russias only western border ally would be Belarus. Every other bordering country would be committed by Article 5 of the NATO Charter to come to each others defense in the event of a military confrontation.

And this should worry Russia, why?

In 1999, NATO carried out a 78-day air campaign in Yugoslavia that involved 400 aircraft, 5,000 personnel and the use of cancer-causing depleted uranium munitions.

From 2003 to 2014, NATO led the Western military effort in the U.S. war in Afghanistan, a disaster for both the U.S. and the Afghans.

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003  the one based on the lie about weapons of mass destruction  NATO trained, mentored and assisted the U.S.-dominated Iraqi Security Forces. That mission continues to this day.

In 2011, NATO led a massive bombing campaign against Libya  once the most prosperous country in all of Africa  reducing it to a failed state and a haven for extremists who since have expanded their operations throughout most of West Africa.

For the sake of argument, lets leave aside the question of whether any of these NATO wars were justified. Instead, lets look at the relative balance of forces between Russia, the U.S. and NATO.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russias military expenditure in 2021 was $65.9 billion. The U.S. was $801 billion  more than 12 times that of Russia.

For NATO, combined military expenditures of all 30 member countries in 2021 was an estimated $1.2 trillion  more than 18 times that of Russia.

And even though Russia and NATO have rough parity when it comes to nuclear weapons, its just possible that the steady eastward expansion of a steadily growing, hostile NATO might have raised some legitimate security concerns in Russia.

Then, theres the matter of U.S. support for the anti-Russian Ukrainian coup of 2014. This began as peaceful protests against then-President Viktor Yanukovych for his opposition to closer economic ties with Western Europe. It morphed into a violent uprising in which openly neo-Nazi organizations played a major role.

The U.S. support was not in dispute. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had traveled to give encouraging speeches to the protesters. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland handed out pastries to the crowds. More importantly, she later openly bragged about how the U.S. had spent $5 billion promoting pro-democracy groups in the country.

The coup changed Ukraine in fundamental ways. The new government banned the use of the Russian language for official business, even though 17% of the population was ethnic Russian and some 30% spoke Russian as a first language.

Statues honoring Ukrainian fascists like Stepan Bandera, who had collaborated with the Nazi occuaption, were erected while memorials to Soviet war heroes were taken down. The neo-Nazi organizations were free to roam the streets, attacking anyone opposed to the coup. Those acts of violence included the May 2014 Odessa Massacre, where dozens of people were murdered in the Black Sea port city.

Meanwhile, Ukraine began to operate as a NATO member in everything but name, including carrying out joint military exercises right up to Russias border.

None of this is meant to endorse Russias war. But since the Biden administration already has given Ukraine $5.3 billion in military aid, it might be a good idea to view the war in a historical context.

And if we do that, unprovoked might not be the first word that comes to mind.
Since CNBC started its Top States for Business rankings 15 years ago, Virginia has been named No. 1 five times (2007, 2009, 2011, 2019 and 2021). But the path to that top ranking evolves each year, and of all the factors CNBC considers, infrastructure has become a more salient determinant over time.

Take the 2009 studys methodology. The transportation and infrastructure category counted for only 300 points on CNBCs 2,500-point scale, and it included a pretty fleeting explanation of why these elements matter to a states business climate.

Access to transportation in all its modes is key to getting your products to market and your people on the move, the surveys methodology explained. We measured the vitality of each states transportation system by the value of goods shipped by air, land and water. We looked at the availability of air travel in each state, and the quality of the roads.

Now, in 2022, the category has been rebranded as just infrastructure  and its value has increased to 380 points, with criteria that is twice as long. While recent headlines covered Virginias slip to No. 3 in CNBCs overall rankings, critical public works improvements should not go unnoticed.

The commonwealth finished No. 9 in infrastructure (its best showing ever)  up from No. 24 in 2021. While North Carolina and Washington state finished No. 1 and No. 2 overall in 2022, they were No. 17 and No. 29, respectively, in this individual category.

To stay a top state for business, Virginia must go all in on infrastructure investments. This is a direct indicator of economic competitiveness, and the need for resilience only will grow in the years to come.

COVID-19 was a real tipping point for the systems that support business. The pandemic sparked a worldwide re-evaluation of supply chains, as well as where and how we work and travel, CNBC said in its 2021 study. Rebuilding supply chains and redefining the very nature of work takes a reimagined infrastructure, CNBC added in its 2022 edition.

How did Virginia manage to make such strides during this highly disruptive time? State and local leaders already were committed to forward-thinking moves, regardless of how the public health crisis changed the economy.

As in 2009, CNBC continues to consider the vitality of each states transportation system, including air, water, road and rail. But the pandemic placed an extra strain on these routes.

Ports were a prime example, as U.S. sites suffered severe congestion issues. Yet thanks to $1.3 billion in gateway investments that began prior to COVID-19  led by expanded lift capacity and deeper, wider ocean channels  the Port of Virginia emerged in a position of strength.

Another noteworthy factor in CNBCs 2022 infrastructure criteria was availability of vacant land, office and industrial space. This is relevant to Virginia, as officials have been attentive to the need to improve the states site selection landscape.

In the recently approved budget, the General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin dedicated more than $150 million to the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program  an economic development initiative aimed at opening doors to large-scale, job-generating projects.

For example, Legos recent decision to build a $1 billion, 340-acre toy manufacturing plant in Chesterfield County was welcome news, as it is anticipated to employ more than 1,760 people. But as a recent Times-Dispatch op-ed by former Secretary of Commerce and Trade Todd Haymore explained, mega-sites typically are 1,000 acres or higher, and Virginia only has a handful of ready-to-build options.

Another pandemic-era component of CNBCs 2022 infrastructure criteria was broadband availability. With remote work continuing to shape business opportunities, the rankings made note of the quality, availability and price of service.

Over the past few years, Virginia invested hundreds of millions of dollars to connect hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses to affordable, high-speed internet options. Lawmakers also pursued innovative legislation to generate public-private partnerships between local governments and electric utilities.

The work is far from finished. CNBCs 2022 infrastructure criteria also incorporated energy and environment factors: electrical grid reliability, access to renewables and sustainability in the face of climate change, which includes flooding, wildfires and extreme weather.

As of July 11, the U.S. already endured nine billion-dollar weather disasters in 2022, per National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. Virginia largely has been spared from being the primary location in any of these events.

But to mark the start of hurricane season, the Youngkin administration alerted Virginians that NOAA forecasters predict an active slate of storms: 14 to 21 named events (winds 39 mph and up), 6 to 10 possible hurricanes (winds 74 mph and up), and 3 to 6 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; winds 111 mph and up).

Roughly 60% of the commonwealths population (4.9 million people) lives in coastal areas, the NOAA adds. But as Youngkin pointed out in the recent hurricane memo, severe weather can affect systems statewide. Look no further than the recent severe flooding in Buchanan County, which affected dozens of properties and families.

This includes not only our coastal residents but inland Virginians as well, he said. History has proven that our inland communities are just as susceptible to hurricane impacts like flooding, tornadoes, and high winds.

Our leaders not only have to strengthen our infrastructure. They have to protect it, too. To stay a top state for business, the commonwealth must go all in on this category.

 Chris Gentilviso
FOREST  After backlash from some Bedford County residents, a drag show fundraiser originally scheduled for next month at the Jefferson Forest High School auditorium has changed performance locations.

The show, by 2017 Jefferson Forest High School graduate Kendall Mullins  who goes by the stage name Kendall Knight  is titled A Knight with Kendall and will be performed 8 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg instead.

Controversy arose on social media in recent days surrounding the upcoming event.

Knight has performed family-friendly drag shows at Cavalier Theatre several times since graduating, raising money for the schools theater program. This will be his sixth drag show fundraiser benefiting his alma mater, with admission fees charged on a pay-what-you-can basis.

But this year, for the first time, the event became embroiled in conflict, with complaints that a drag show was being held on public school grounds. The controversy largely began and ensued on social media, especially Facebook.

Knight and Spence White, director of Cavalier Theatre and a long-time supporter of his former student, said the backlash seemed to be triggered by the use of the term drag.

Knight said all of his previous events have been drag shows and have been family-friendly, and all have been held at the JF high school auditorium. Previous shows, he said, were tributes to certain artists  Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Miley Cyrus, to name a few  and the word drag was not used. This years show is titled differently, though, as it pays tribute to nine of Knights inspirations.

I didnt think of it as being any different in terms of the content, because its not, Knight said in a Facebook message.

Because of the pushback from some Bedford County residents  including Facebook posts from Bedford County supervisors John Sharp, who represents District 4 and is the board chair, and Charla Bansley, who represents District 3  Knight and Cavalier Theatre changed the event venue to the Academy.

This does not meet Bedford Countys community standards, Sharp wrote on Facebook, calling the fundraiser ill-advised and saying he has heard from people who will no longer support the theater program and will remove their children or grandchildren from Bedford County Public Schools.

At a time in which our public schools are hoping that students will return to the school system after having left during covid, it appears that this is a tone deaf decision, Sharp wrote. This is not the way to instill confidence in our school system within our community.

Some community members who objected to the show said in online comments that a taxpayer-funded facility should not be used for this type of event.

White said the Academy was supportive and enthusiastic when approached about using the venue. It was the first alternate venue he and Knight contacted.

White, who lived in New York for 20 years, said he has attended several actual drag shows, and because those types are not necessarily made to be family-friendly, a misconception about Knights show has spread.

Theres nothing harmful in there, White said. You hear lots of great music and see lots of great choreography in there.

Knights career started during high school at JF, he said. He always enjoyed lip syncing and being on stage, and White encouraged him to perform, making space for his students talents. Some of Knights shows took up entire class periods. A high point came when Knight represented his senior class in a pep rally lip sync battle  and he won.

I would argue no one has more school spirit than me  which makes this even more hurtful, Knight said.

When Knight put on a drag show during one class period, the auditorium filled up with teachers and students.

I was shocked at the support I received, Knight said.

The success gave him the idea to ask Spence and Niki White  the husband-wife duo who co-direct at Cavalier Theatre  if he could do a show over the summer as a fundraiser. The theater directors gave the go-ahead, and the event was a success, leading to four more shows through February 2019.

During this time, Knight said he realized he was really doing drag, so he honed in on the drag culture, pulling in wigs, makeup, elaborate costumes  all the vibrant elements.

I understand that the issue here is people have a preconceived notion of what drag is  but its so many things and my shows at JF are for everyone, a celebration of love, Knight said in a Facebook message. I pride myself on looking out in my audiences and seeing eight-year-olds, 80-year-olds and everything in between!

Cavalier Theatre shared a statement responding to the incident on its Facebook page.

Cavalier Theatre at Jefferson Forest is, and has always been, an inclusive place. Kendall Mullins has been a fearless benefactor for this program, donating his considerable talents to the tune of close to $3,000 over five past public performances, the statement said in part. We are profoundly disappointed in this decision, and most importantly, the message this sends to certain students of Bedford County.

Multiple comments online in defense of Knight and the JF theater expressed disappointment at a lack of inclusivity and love and a seeming disrespect for diversity, as well as concern over the message the backlash sends to students in the county.

Despite the negative attention his event received, Knight looked on the bright side.

Through this Ive gained more exposure and such a larger platform to fight for the voices of the LGBTQIA+ people in Bedford County and beyond. As harmful as it is theyve done the opposite of what they thought they were doing! Knight said.
Virginias labor force expanded by 6,250 employees last month, dropping the state unemployment rate to 2.8%, the lowest it has been since the month before the COVID-19 pandemic began more than 28 months ago.

But the industry with the biggest job gains  hotels and restaurants  is still struggling to find employees to fill jobs.

The June unemployment rate dropping to 2.8% is promising news for Virginias economic health and is a welcome return to pre-pandemic unemployment levels, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement following the release of monthly employment data by the Virginia Employment Commission on Friday.

In such a competitive labor market, we remain committed to expanding workforce development opportunities for Virginians, he said.

For Youngkin, the most important number is the more than 4.2 million Virginians who are employed, a gain of 13,792 from May to June, according to the household survey that the Virginia Employment Commission released on Friday.

Elected last fall partly on a commitment to accelerate the states recovery of jobs lost during the pandemic, the governor estimated Virginia has added almost 94,000 employed residents since Feb. 1, about two weeks after he took office.

While the 94,000 job additions is promising, we must remain vigilant regarding the workforce participation rate, which does continue to lag, Youngkin said. I am focused on increasing Virginias participation rate across the commonwealth.

Virginias labor force participation rate remained unchanged in June at 63.8%, about 7 percentage points lower than its peak in 1992. The state labor force rose to nearly 4.4 million Virginia residents last month, as the number of unemployed residents declined by 7,542 people.

But Virginia businesses and other employers continue to struggle to fill jobs and retain workers almost 2 years into the ongoing pandemic.

The leisure and hospitality industry made the biggest gain in June, compared with the same month a year earlier, adding an estimated 62,300 jobs, according to a monthly survey of 18,000 Virginia businesses by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and released by the VEC on Friday. The industry added 3,400 from May to June.

However, leisure and hospitality businesses estimate they lost 95,000 jobs in Virginia during the pandemic, so theyve recovered only two-thirds of them.

It is still dire, said Eric Terry, president and CEO of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association. We are still struggling with staff.

A national survey of hotels showed that 97% reported staffing shortages. In Virginia, some hotels dont rent rooms on nights they dont have employees to service them, and some restaurants close one or two days a week for the same reason.

Were not even close to recovering, Terry said Friday.

The second largest gain was in the education and health sector, which added 26,200 jobs, followed by business and professional services at 16,400 jobs.

Local governments gained 1,000 jobs in June compared with a year earlier and state government added 900, but the federal government shed 4,200 jobs during the 12-month period, according to the survey.

Statewide, employers added 123,400 jobs from June, 2021, through last month. Most of the gains were in Northern Virginia, which added 45,800 jobs, followed by the Richmond area at 15,800 and Hampton Roads at 8,300.

On a percentage basis, the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford area saw the biggest increase, 8.2%, or an additional 6,100 jobs compared with the same month a year ago.
China and South Korea have made substantial progress in the second phase of their free trade agreement negotiations, and China hopes for a win-win outcome to come quickly, Shu Jueting, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, said in a video conference on Thursday.



"The two sides have reached consensus on speeding up follow-up negotiations, and China is willing to keep up the negotiation momentum together with South Korea to reach a mutually beneficial agreement early, and therefore improve the openness and cooperation of the two nations on trade in services and investment," she said.

China and South Korea signed a bilateral FTA in 2014, which came into effect the following year.

Since then, eight rounds of tariff slashes have been rolled out between the two nations, and China has waived more than 40 percent of tariffs on imports from South Korea.

The current negotiations mainly focus on negative list-based high-level trade in services and investment liberalization.

Analysts said the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which took effect in China and South Korea on Jan 1 and Feb 1, respectively, has provided more impetus and room for the two to strengthen trade and economic cooperation.

Data from the MOC showed trade between the two Asian countries has reached $184.25 billion in the first half of the year, up 9.4 percent year-on-year.

In 2021, their bilateral trade exceeded $360 billion, or 72 times that 30 years ago when they first established diplomatic relations.

"Against the fragile global economic recovery, the fast growth in China-South Korea trade indicated the two countries have strong economic complementarity and has also demonstrated the resilience and potential of their economic and trade cooperation," Shu said.

The two countries have been effectively aligning development strategies and smoothly implementing the FTA.

They have also been steadily promoting cooperation for the establishment of the China-South Korea industrial parks and continuously deepening cooperation in overseas markets.

Shu said China and South Korea have formed deeply integrated, stable and smooth industrial and supply chains.

Shu also said the stability of industrial and supply chains is a global issue that has attracted wide attention, and China always believes any framework and arrangement to ensure such stability should be open and inclusive, instead of being discriminatory and exclusive, which would damage and divide global markets.

She made the remarks when asked about some news reports that the United States has urged South Korea to decide whether or not to join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue before August. Reports indicated South Korea said it is discussing with the US ways to strengthen cooperation on chip production.

"Reinforcing the openness and cooperation of industrial chains to avoid their breaking up will benefit all stakeholders and the whole world," she said.

Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, said China and South Korea are expected to have stable economic and trade cooperation, given their strong industrial coordination, complementarity and the two governments' willingness and commitment to promote such cooperation.

Zhou also said China and South Korea have a strong connection in technology sectors like semiconductors, which therefore creates ample investment opportunities and a solid foundation for the two sides to expand economic cooperation.

China is always inclusive on cooperation and welcomes others, including the US, to jointly tap development opportunities, because different economies have different advantages in production, design, markets, services and other links across the industrial chain, and only market-oriented cooperation can lead to win-win outcomes, he said.
Outrageous statement by Sadybakas Doolov, a cleric in Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)  Sadybakas Doolov, an award-winning Imam in Muslim-majority Kyrgyzstan, has made an outrageous statement regarding women in which he blamed womens thighs for the skyrocketing prices of meat in the country. In a public meeting, he said, Do you know when meat prices go up in your town ? It goes up when womens flesh cheapens. A womans meat becomes cheap when she bares skin and exposes her thighs like a thumb. His statement has triggered angry responses and criminal investigation is being demanded against him. On the other hand, the religious authorities in Kyrgyzstan said that Doolov did not violate any Islamic law.

Award-winning Imam blames womens exposed thighs for soaring meat priceshttps://t.co/WmxUZLlef6  OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) July 18, 2022



The prices of meat are currently on the rise in Kyrgyzstan. Meat is being sold at a price of Rs 600/kg there. Prices are predicted to increase further in the coming time.
Because so much happened while shooting the second season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, creator Tim Federle didnt want to overthink the third.

We had COVID and shutdowns and Olivia (Rodrigos) music career exploding. It was a hard season, a long season, he says, so we just wanted to refresh and breathe and say to the audience, Hey, its High School Musical.

The solution: Send the kids to camp.

In the third season, a group of East High Wildcats head to Camp Shallow Lake for a summer of theater fun. As a surprise, Corbin Bleu  one of the original HSM actors  turns up as himself, looking to film a documentary about summer camp.

A host of guest stars also appear. And those regulars who dont appear to be on the cast list? Dont dismay. All of your loved ones probably appear in some meaningful way this season, Federle says. Rodrigo, for example, is an important part of the storyline and doesnt just phone it in.

For Bleu, who hadnt been in Wildcats mode in years, it was a very easy yes. Federle gave him several options and when they landed on one, I just felt theres no way I couldnt be a part of this.

For the young actors, it was mind-blowing to have him in the show, says Saylor Belle Curda, who plays Maddox. He would give us these speeches  Im so glad that you guys are the ones continuing this. Its absolutely insane and I couldnt be more grateful for it.

The original, which also starred Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, was slated as just another Disney Channel movie of the week. We werent expecting to make the lightning in a bottle that we did, Bleu says. High School Musical blew up, spawned sequels and launched the stars film and theater careers.

What surprises me even more is how it continues to inspire generations, Bleu says.

A different Disney world

When he and Jason Earles (who starred in Hannah Montana and appears in this outing of HSM:TM:TS) were in the Disney fold, TV movies were a different ballgame. You just did your show, shot a couple of promos and showed up at Disneyland, Earles says. Now, its kind of a 24/7 never-ending engagement thing.

Singing, dancing, acting? Theres no faking it, Earles says. Nobody is pretending like they can dance when they cant actually dance. I think theres a level of authenticity now in these young performers. You could fake more stuff back in the day.

Now, Federle says, we live in the era of the multi-hyphenate. The actors he casts  like Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, who both landed record deals  have to be talented. Some of it is luck, but I think I hire real theater kids and then get out of the way.

Bassett and Rodrigo were writing music during the first season of the series and, nonchalantly, Federle remembers saying, Maybe you guys should try writing for the show. They did  and it really took off. Other cast members are offering their own songs.

Finding success

Its an art, not a science, Federle says. But even more than just writing songs for the show, the most important thing to me is that these young people learn how to be good citizens of the world. When they go on beyond this show theyre, hopefully, bringing professionalism and decency to their own worlds, that are rapidly expanding.

Julia Lester, who plays Ashlyn on the show, just opened on Broadway in Into the Woods. The experience  something the HSM:TM:TS characters dream about  is better than anything I could have ever pictured. Im constantly pinching myself.

Shes loyal to the series, however, and, like others, wants to see where life leads after summer camp.

We just got picked up for Season Four, Federle says. So were in the beginning conversations about the passing of the torch. I dont think were quite at graduation yet. But, after summer camp, it definitely makes sense to go back to East High and see what happens when a two-week summer camp shakes up some of their senior years.

"High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" begins its third season July 27 on Disney+.
Vince McMahon, the former WWE chief executive, is retiring from the company, he said in a statement on Friday. The news follows an investigation into McMahon paying millions of dollars in hush money to cover up alleged infidelity and misconduct with multiple women.

"As I approach 77 years old, I feel it's time for me to retire as Chairman and CEO of WWE," McMahon said.

Last month, a report in the Wall Street Journal said the company's board was investigating McMahon for agreeing to pay a secret $3 million settlement to a former employee with whom he allegedly had an affair.

A new report from the Journal came out earlier this month that said McMahon paid more than $12 million to four women, including the one from the prior report, to cover up "allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity."

The longtime WWE boss agreed to step back from his role as chairman and CEO while the investigation was ongoing. His daughter, Stephanie McMahon, and president Nick Khan will serve as co-CEOs.

McMahon has said previously he is cooperating with investigators. His lawyer told the Journal that "WWE did not pay any monies" to the former employee "on her departure."

The WWE did not have any further comment Friday beyond McMahon's statement.

McMahon has been a major part of the WWE for decades, both behind the scenes and in the ring.

The CEO helped turn the company into a global brand and media powerhouse, which currently has deals with Fox and NBCUniversal. McMahon also helped to elevate many famous wrestlers, like The Rock, John Cena and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

According to the Journal, the women, all of whom were involved with WWE, signed agreements with McMahon that "prohibit them from discussing potential legal claims against or their relationships with the 76-year-old executive."

The Journal said McMahon paid the women over a period of 16 years.

On Friday, McMahon said that the company will "continue to entertain you with the same fervor, dedication, and passion as always."

"I am extremely confident in the continued success of WWE, and I leave our company in the capable hands of an extraordinary group of Superstars, employees, and executives," he said. "As the majority shareholder, I will continue to support WWE in any way I can."

He ended the statement with the company's signature phrase: "Then. Now. Forever. Together."
Authorities were investigating four deaths  three homicides and the apparent suicide of a gunman  Friday at Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa, north of the Quad-Cities.

According to the Associated Press, three family members were shot to death while camping in the park in eastern Iowa, and the suspected gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation assistant director Mitch Mortvedt said the three victims were related. He did not provide their names or ages, or explain how they were related.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation were called about 6:23 a.m. for a report of a shooting at the park campground and found three people dead at a camp site, Mike Krapfl, a special agent in charge with DCI, said during a preliminary news conference late Friday morning.

As they investigated, police found another camper was missing and had information that he was armed.

That camper, identified as Anthony Sherwin, 23, was found dead about 11 a.m. west of the park, Krapfl said. He had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Krapfl said he believed Sherwin was from Nebraska.

"He was known to be armed. That of course heightened our awareness as well," Mortvedt said. Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit.

There were other campers in the park at the time, and at least some of them were evacuated, Krapfl said. No one else was reported injured.

A children's summer camp on site called Camp Shalom said in a Facebook post that parents had been notified and that it had established a pick-up site for campers. Camp Shalom officials said they have accounted for all campers.

Krapfl said there was believed to be no further threat to the public.

The park would be closed until further notice, the DCI release states.

Autopsies on Sherwin and the victims were scheduled to be performed over the weekend, Mortvedt said, and more information would likely be released based on those findings.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement Friday afternoon: Im horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives.

Read here for further updates on this story:

***
The old book and instrument of wood and ivory need each other. In fact, they share what biologists call a symbiotic relationship. In my recall of days of yore, the hymnal and old piano made beautiful music. And they still do.

When boyhood held me in its tenuous grasp, church didnt thrill me. Oh, the wasps that congregated in New Hope Baptist Churchs sanctuary entertained me. I had a secret longing that a wasp would sting someone slap dab in the middle of a sermon. What might unfold? A sting never happened but magical music did, and it lives in me still.

The music moved me through its power and it came from ordinary folk. Men, women, and children, old ladies with their hair in buns, and many a bald man and daresay one or two wearing rugs joined in the chorus to make a mighty sound to the Lord. The music proved memorable and provided a rare live performance for me, living as I did in a bit of a cultural desert.

Gospel music. It changed lives in intended and unintended ways. Read the bios of some legendary musicians and youll learn that church music steered them toward their careers. Elvis loved gospel music. So did Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Sam Cooke.

Gospel takes its place among Chuck Leavells early musical influences. Hardscrabble musician Carl Perkins grew up the son of poor sharecroppers near Tiptonville, Tennessee, and as with many Southerners, gospel music caught his ear at a young age. Gregg Allmans rendition of I Believe Ill Go Back Home hints of a gospel messageAcknowledge that I done wrong.

We must acknowledge that gospel music constitutes a genre of American Protestant music. Rooted in the religious revivals of the 19th century, it branched off into several directions within white and black communities. Gospel and 1920s blues and 1930s country music provided dark rich loam for rock n rolls roots. Throughout the country, gospel, folk, and blues in cities such as Memphis, Chicago, New Orleans, and others contributed to rock. Early rock n roll featured a piano or saxophone as lead instrument, but legendary bluesman Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads where the devil gave him a guitar, and the guitar would rise to prominence in the late 1950s.

As the 1950s go, the piano sits prominently at my crossroads of memories. My parents, ever dutiful, took my sisters and me to church every Sunday. I cant sing, never could, but those old songs still play in my head. Im going out on a limb here but seems I recall Marching to Pretoria, but no doubt its Marching To Zion, I recall. Pretoria doesnt ring biblical but I remember how the congregation sang certain songs with gusto, songs such as What A Friend We Have In Jesus and Bringing In The Sheaves was one such song also. And Blessed Assurance, which just popped into my head.

I cant recall the pianists who passed through church doors but I hear them playing and see them on the bench pounding the keys and swaying. The old piano put off a honky-tonk sound, a saloon timber, perish the thought, but I liked it. The preacher or self-appointed song director would say, Stand and turn to page so and so, and the pianist would bang out a few introductory notes and folks were off to the races.

All that was long ago. These days I come across inactive churches in Georgialina. Birds nest in them. The churches stand in pine thickets, at the edge of fields, and some overlook forever-forsaken parking spaces. Pews sit empty. A piano sits in each, and now and then I spy an old hymnal.

When Im in them I take photos and remember my childhood Sundays at church. I could always count on wearing my Sunday finest, music, preaching, and piano playing. I remember and remember and remember, and then magic takes over. In an old abandoned church, tombstones just outside its windows, I close my eyes, wasps take wing, the choir stands, music comes to me, and when some player piano cranks out a honky-tonk sound, Mom and Dad stand and the congregation bursts into song and its the 1950s all over again.
Black Sea grain exports agreement "a beacon of hope": UN chief

Xinhua) 10:11, July 23, 2022

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The agreement to resume grain shipments from Ukrainian ports to international markets via the Black Sea is "a beacon of hope" for the world, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

The agreement signed Friday by Ukraine, Russia and Turkiye under UN auspices "opens a path for commercial food exports from Ukraine in the Black Sea," Guterres said in a tweet.

"It is a beacon of hope, possibility and relief," the UN chief tweeted, noting that the deal will help avoid a food shortage catastrophe for millions worldwide.

Guterres attended the signing ceremony of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, Turkiye.

In remarks at the ceremony issued by his press office at the UN headquarters in New York, Guterres thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government for facilitating the talks that led to the deal, and commended the Russian and Ukrainian representatives for putting aside their differences in the common interests of humanity.

"The question has not been what is good for one side or the other," he said. "The focus has been on what matters most for the people of our world. And let there be no doubt -- this is an agreement for the world."

The secretary-general pointed out that the shipment of grain and food stocks into world markets will help bridge the global food supply gap and reduce pressure on high prices.

"This initiative must be fully implemented because the world so desperately needs it to tackle the global food crisis," he added.

Guterres also announced the establishment of a joint coordination center in Istanbul to monitor the implementation of the Black Sea initiative.

He acknowledged "the long road" and immense efforts and commitment by all sides as well as weeks of around-the-clock negotiations leading up to the agreement.

On the UN side, Guterres said that in April, after talks with Erdogan, he also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to propose a plan for solutions, and "we have been working every day since."

Two UN task forces worked in parallel on the talks -- one focused on the shipment of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, which was led by UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths, and the other on facilitating access of Russian food and fertilizers, headed by Rebecca Grynspan, secretary-general of the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD.

"For months, the secretary-general has been underlining the importance of facilitating full access to world markets for Ukraine's food stocks and Russian food and fertilizers," Guterres' press office said Friday in a note to correspondents.

Ukraine and Russia are breadbaskets of the world, producing almost one-third of the world's wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil. Russia is also a top global exporter of fertilizers and the raw materials for its production, according to the note.

The parties of the initiative recognized the role of the UN secretary-general in securing the discussions. They went on to request his further assistance in its implementation, in the furtherance of the humanitarian mission of the United Nations, subject to its authorities and mandates, the note said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Guterres pledged the UN's full commitment to the agreement, and urged all sides to do the same.

"We will remain closely involved in working for the agreement's success," he said. "I urge all sides to spare no effort to implement their commitments. We must also spare no effort for peace."

In a tweet Friday, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, welcomed the signing of the Black Sea agreement, described it as a very meaningful step, and echoed Guterres' appeal for peace.

"Hope the parties concerned will maintain the momentum of dialogue and foster conditions for the early restoration of peace," Zhang tweeted.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
You are here: China

Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Wang Huning on Friday urged enhanced protection, utilization and inheritance of cultural relics and heritages.



Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks when addressing a national conference on cultural relics.

Calling for a sense of political responsibility and historical mission in cultural relics-related work, Wang said protection must come first.

He also underscored deepening the study of the history of Chinese civilization, promoting knowledge about history and culture among the people, and strengthening international cooperation and exchanges on cultural relics.

The meeting commended outstanding groups and individuals, as well as role models from the cultural relics sector.




When Diors couturier Maria Grazia Chiuri told Pamela Golbin recently that a dress alone is important, but the woman in the dress and in her surroundings is what makes the difference, the observation stuck with her, and helped shape the approach to her latest book, Jean-Louis Deniot: Destinations.

The home space is a natural extension of fashion because it defines the context in which you wear your clothes, Golbin muses while discussing the 320-page tome, due out this September from Rizzoli New York. Its more about lifestyle.

More from WWD

The cover of the new book, out in September. - Credit: Courtesy of Rizzoli New York

Courtesy of Rizzoli New York

The photo-driven book, interspersed with a lively conversation between Golbin and the French interiors maven Deniot, has the transporting feel of a travelogue and the glamor of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, sprinkled with some DIY advice.

Golbin, an author and luxury-industry expert perhaps known for her long tenure as chief curator of fashion and textiles at Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris, describes it as a masterclass in conceiving an interior, considering such aspects as the rhythm inside the house, the impact of light and dark colors, how to deal with rooms that are too large or too small, and the relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Among Deniots recommendations are using sparse furnishings to amplify the ethereal nature of a spacious room; rolling the same outdoor carpet inside and on the terrace to extend the size of the room, or using indoor-looking furniture outside; throwing a painted canvas on a low ceiling to give a room depth and movement, and using yellow paint to suggest sunlight in a somber room.

His challenge in all his projects, whether its a mansion, an apartment or a private plane, is to create an interior with lasting appeal, and one that reveals its secrets slowly to its owners.

Story continues

Im not here to give you what you wish for now. My challenge is to make you discover your taste for the next 15 to 20 years, he tells Golbin.

Among the insights Deniot offers:

I like to mix objects from different eras and even centuries to skew the notion of time.

People get rid of things too quickly and too easily. On the contrary, I encourage people to collect and keep objectsThey create an instant feeling of stability and continuity with the past.

You always need a monumental piece so that your eyes can read the true scale of the room and have a baseline for the right measurements.

The one thing I cannot control is the clients personal art collection. In order to do it justice, I like to isolate the art near a set of doors or panels flanking the piece so that its not about matching the artwork with the drapes.

A duplex penthouse in New York Citys Chelsea district. - Credit: Stephan Julliard

Stephan Julliard

Golbin says shes known Deniot for almost two decades so their 30 hours of conversation flowed easily, much of it conducted in Paris during the pandemic.

It really is about the process of getting to what the picture shows, she says, citing a wish to open up these projects to any type of reader, for them to see things differently, and maybe get some ideas for their own homes and how to think about their interiors differently. Because, just like clothing, interiors change your mood, but also change your lifestyle and how you live.

Golbin says she also hopes readers come away with the idea that interiors are malleable, even if Deniots decorating takes a village of artisans.

You can have a very light approach in changing your interiors: It doesnt have to be a major production. Even small changes can have a big impact, whether it be the colors of the walls, or certain accessories, or certain fabrics, she suggests.

Pamela Golbin - Credit: Eric Ogden

Eric Ogden

The owners of the 18 properties are rarely identified, one exception being the two-story residence in Cali, Colombia, of handbag designer Nancy Gonzalez (who was recently arrested and extradited to the U.S. as a result of Justice Department charges of smuggling and conspiracy).

Her home really reflects her sense of precision. Shes exceptionally detailed in her choices, but is always open and appreciates new and different points of view, Deniot offers.

He tried to maintain a loft-like ambiance while demarcating rooms with various ceiling treatments  a gray oval inset over the living room; a square over the dining room, and a circle in the bedroom.

A Russian dacha that sits in Normandy, France, has an indirect fashion connection: It used to belong to Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent, who commissioned Jacques Grange to transform the vast estate, which includes a neo-Gothic 19th-century villa.

Now owned by Russians, the country cottage was given a contemporary spin.

I felt very respectful of the place, its DNA and its initial purpose  to be more of a smoking room for Yves Saint Laurent, Deniot relates. Originally, the dacha referenced a winter white Russia, whereas I amplified elements that were inspired by the proximity of the seaside.

Fashion has inspired some of the elements used in Deniots projects, from monumental curtains embroidered by famous couture embroidery house Lesage to the color of whats underfoot.

I remembered a suede sofa that Coco Chanel had in her Rue Cambon apartment in a color she referred to as wet sand. It inspired me to do a wet sand-colored cement flooring throughout the entire property, he says, referring to a villa in Porto Vecchio, Corsica.

Golbin says her wish is for readers to discover Jean-Louis approach to creating seamless narratives, like movie screenplays  to tell the best story out of an existing space.

A duplex penthouse in New York Citys Chelsea district. - Credit: Stephan Julliard

Stephan Julliard

SEE ALSO:

Hundreds of Chanel Projects In, Peter Marino Still Isnt Tired of Black and White

Stefano Pilati Turns His Hands to Furniture Design

Christian Siriano Discusses Interior Design, Hotel and Restaurant Projects

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 8 HENLEY I2.7 NOVO LAND71 25   4818% 2 1360     8232021A0.8 BENG SOON MACH 20 841.15  462.6 THE HENLEY I32 186666  10.4234% 721.97 306.2% 816   5270  182.913.1% 10%  TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4  Porsche Edition Taycan  240  43 10%1000 1.52% 2.79%8%   19826  
Wilber once had a thriving brewery that brewed Czech beer for a couple of decades before it burned down after a lightning strike in 1918.

Now, more than a century later, the town known as the Czech capital of the U.S. is on the cusp of bringing back that brewing tradition.

A group of Wilber natives and current residents has been working for several years on opening another brewery and they are now at a critical juncture.

Thursday night, the group will hold an informational meeting for potential investors in the Wilber Czech Brewery Company.

Those who attend the meeting at the American Legion park building will hear about the effort and can invest on the spot if they want, at $500 a share.

Wilber Czech Brewery Company Board President Kim Kovar-Anderson said members originally considered selling shares for $1,000 apiece but eventually settled on $500 because it's more affordable to the average person.

"That's our goal, is to make this available to everybody to be a part of," said Kovar-Anderson, who grew up in Wilber and now lives in Elkhorn.

The shares the brewery is selling are being offered under an exemption that makes them available only to Nebraska residents, although Kovar-Anderson said the company might consider opening up shares to people living outside the state in the future depending on how the Nebraska effort goes.

Those who buy shares will join the board members, who have all invested enough in the project so far to pay for a lot in downtown Wilber where the brewery would be built.

Kovar-Anderson said that the goal is to potentially start construction on the brewery next year.

That's going to be largely dependent on fundraising, which is looking to be a tall task. The company is offering up to 5,200 shares, or $2.6 million worth. The minimum amount it needs to move forward, according to its prospectus, is $600,000.

Kovar-Anderson said there has been a "tremendous response" to the Facebook event set up for the meeting, with 176 people expressing interest as of Tuesday night.

"One hundred seventy-six  for Wilber that's pretty good-sized," she said.

Though Kovar-Anderson described the brewery plans as "just kind of starting out," the company already has worked with Alpha Brewing in Lincoln to identify brewing equipment and has been working with consultants from the Czech Republic who specialize in setting up authentic Czech breweries.

Kovar-Anderson said the brewery's signature beer will be a traditional Czech pilsner, and it may take the name of the beer brewed at the previous brewery, Silitel, which she owns the rights to.

Whatever brewer is eventually hired will spend several weeks in the Czech Republic learning how to brew in the Czech style, so he or she can produce an authentic Czech Pilsner, something that's a rarity at U.S. breweries.

She said the brewery also plans to do seasonal beers, at least one of which would be timed to coincide with the Wilber Czech Festival held each August in the town that's about 40 miles southwest of Lincoln.

One of the main backers of the brewery effort is Czech Festival founder Joe Vosoba, a longtime Wilber attorney and former state senator.

Vosoba, who now lives in Lincoln, told the Fairbury Journal-News last month that the project is important to both the Czech Republic and Southeast Nebraska because of shared heritage. That heritage includes 50,000 Czechs who immigrated to Nebraska between 1857 and World War I, ranking the state first in the U.S. for per-capita Czech immigration numbers.

"He's an amazing man," Kovar-Anderson said of Vosoba. "He's the reason we're all here."

While Vosoba deserves a lot of credit for the effort, as do the other board members, "We just want to emphasize that this is a community project," Anderson said.
SIOUX CITY -- Blood drops left on a broken window have led to the arrest of a man suspected of breaking into a Sioux City garage in 2021.

Darnell Smith, 25, of Sioux City, is accused of breaking a window and entering a detached garage in the 1100 block of South Linn Street on June 4, 2021. He is suspected of stealing tools, battery chargers and lawn care equipment.

According to court documents, Smith cut himself on the window's broken glass, and blood drops were left on the windowsill. Samples of the blood were collected from the scene, and a DNA analysis matched the blood to Smith's DNA profile on file from previous convictions.

Smith was arrested Thursday on charges of second-degree theft and third-degree burglary. Both charges have an added habitual offender enhancement because of his past felony convictions. The enhancement increases the prison sentences of both charges to 15 years.

Smith pleaded guilty in February to four drug charges from three separate cases and is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence. He had been arrested on a misdemeanor charge in the first case in April 2021 and was released from jail without bond prior to the alleged break-in and theft. His arrests in the other two cases occurred after the break-in.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Arkansas lawmakers on Thursday took back the authority they gave for the state to distribute about $460 million in remaining federal COVID-19 relief funds to school districts, saying they want schools to use the money for teacher and staff bonuses.

The move faced opposition from Democrats who said it was an effort to avoid considering raising teacher salaries while the state sits on a $1.6 billion surplus. It was also criticized by Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who said lawmakers didn't have authority to take such a step.

The Legislative Council voted to rescind the appropriation for the federal funds, and recommended schools use the money for bonuses. The council said the districts' plans for spending the money will now have to go before a legislative panel. The council recommended districts use the funds to provide $5,000 one-time bonuses to teachers and $2,500 to staff.

Senate President Jimmy Hickey said some districts were unaware they could use the funds for the bonuses.

Obviously now there's not going to be any question that it can be done," Hickey, a Republican, said. They're going to all have to get together to make this work."

The move came as Democrats and teachers' groups are pushing for teacher salary increases to be on the agenda when the Legislature convenes next month for a special session focused on tax cuts.

It seems to be we're working hard just to not face up to raising the salaries when we can," Democratic Sen. Keith Ingram said.

Hutchinson earlier this year proposed raising teacher salaries. But Hutchinson said he wouldn't put raises on the agenda for the special session, citing a lack of support in the majority-GOP Legislature.

Republican legislative leaders have said the special session isn't the right time for the issue since the Legislature hasn't completed its annual review of education funding required by law. That review is used to issue recommendations on school funding increases and includes a look at teacher salaries.

Hutchinson said he was disappointed by the council's decision and said the panel can't undo an appropriation they've already approved. Under the new approach, some districts' priorities may not get approved, he said.

I am concerned that teachers in some districts will get a bonus, but others may not," Hutchinson said in a statement. The creative approach by the committee today while well-intentioned is not the best approach to helping our teachers."

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 are higher.

This story has been corrected to show that Arkansas has a state budget surplus of $1.6 billion, not $1.6 million.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  International human rights groups on Saturday urged Sri Lankas new president to immediately order security forces to cease use of force against protesters after troops and police cleared their main camp following months of demonstrations over the countrys economic meltdown.

A day after President Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn, hundreds of armed troops raided a protest camp outside the president's office in the early hours of Friday, attacking demonstrators with batons. Human Rights Watch said the action sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law.

Two journalists and two lawyers were also attacked by soldiers in the crackdown. Security forces arrested 11 people, including protesters and lawyers.

Urgently needed measures to address the economic needs of Sri Lankans demand a government that respects fundamental rights, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Sri Lankas international partners should send the message loud and clear that they cant support an administration that tramples on the rights of its people."

Also condemning the attack, Amnesty International said it is shameful that the new government resorted to such violent tactics within hours of coming to power.

The protesters have a right to demonstrate peacefully. Excessive use of force, intimidation and unlawful arrests seem to be an endlessly repetitive pattern in which the Sri Lankan authorities respond to dissent and peaceful assembly," said Kyle Ward, the group's deputy secretary general.

Wickremesinghe, who previously served as prime minister six times, was sworn in as president a week after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled the country. Rajapaksa later resigned while exiled in Singapore.

Sri Lankans have taken to the streets for months to demand their top leaders step down to take responsibility for the economic chaos that has left the nations 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. While the protesters have focused on the Rajapaksa's family, Wickremesinghe also has drawn their ire as a perceived Rajapaksa surrogate.

Armed troops and police arrived in trucks and buses on Friday to clear the main protest camp the capital, Colombo, even though protesters had announced they would vacate the site voluntarily.

Sri Lankas opposition, the United Nations, and the U.S. have denounced the government's heavy-handed tactics.

Despite heightened security outside the presidents office, protesters have vowed to continue until Wickremesinghe resigns.

On Friday, he appointed as prime minister a Rajapaksa ally, Dinesh Gunawardena.

Wickremesinghe on Monday declared a state of emergency as acting president in a bid to quell the protests. Just hours after he was sworn in, he issued a notice calling on the armed forces to maintain law and order  clearing the way for the move against the protest camp.

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 crisis.

The political turmoil has threatened efforts to seek rescue from the International Monetary Fund. Still, earlier this week, Wickremesinghe said bailout talks were nearing a conclusion.

The head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, told the Japanese financial magazine Nikkei Asia this week that the IMF hopes for a deal as quickly as possible.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing why police officers in the town of Oakland kicked down the door of a 25-year-old Black man and violently arrested him on accusations of speeding and running a stop sign.

Outrage about the arrest began to spread as video posted on social media showed officers chasing Brandon Calloway through the home, attempting to stun him, and beating him bloody before dragging him away.

According to a police affidavit, Calloway failed to stop at a stop sign on Saturday at about 7:30 p.m. He was then clocked driving 32 mph in a 20 mph (51 kph in a 32 kph) zone before an officer attempted a traffic stop. Calloway refused to pull over and continued driving until he reached a house, where he pulled into the driveway and ran inside.

The affidavit says that later Calloway and others were outside speaking with the first officer when a second officer arrived. The officers said they needed to detain Calloway, and he ran back inside the house. The officers kicked down the front door and followed Calloway upstairs, accordingto the affidavit. It said he ran into a room and locked the door. Officers then kicked down that door, used a stun gun on him and began to hit him with a baton, it added.

The incident happened in Oakland, Tennessee, a small town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Memphis. Calloway is charged with evading arrest, resisting a stop, disorderly conduct and speeding.

The family has retained an attorney and referred all requests for comment to him. The attorney, Andre Wharton, did not immediately return messages left with him on Friday.

Wharton told WREG-TV in Memphis that the beating left Calloway with stitches in his head and limited visibility. He said the family wants the officers responsible to be held accountable.

Brandon was assaulted in a brutal fashion. I describe it as animalistic, he told the station. The pictures are horrific. Hes fortunate to be here to stand up and express through his presence here he wants to see some accountability,

Calloway's sister, Raven Calloway, posted to Facebook that her brother is a 25-year-old graduate of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. She wrote that he is a young black man with a positive mindset, thats just trying to make a great life for himself!

My family and I are just thankful hes still alive, she wrote.

Keith Taylor, an adjunct assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former New York City Police assistant commissioner, said there's not enough public information to know yet whether the officers should have acted differently.

Ultimately, if police don't arrest someone who requires arrest, they're going to be seen as not doing their job," Taylor said. In situations that don't require an arrest, that can be deescalated, that is what police should be doing.
RICHMOND, Va.  A month after some members of Congress urged Google to limit the appearance of anti-abortion pregnancy centers in certain abortion-related search results, 17 Republican attorneys general are warning the company that doing so could invite investigations and possible legal action.

Suppressing pro-life and pro-mother voices at the urging of government officials would violate the most fundamental tenet of the American marketplace of ideas, the attorneys general wrote in a letter Thursday to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company.

The effort was led by Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and the letter was shared with the Associated Press ahead of its public release. Also joining the letter were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

The Republicans took issue with a June 17 letter to the company from Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., which was co-signed by 19 other members of Congress.

That letter cites research by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that Google searches for abortion clinic near me and abortion pill turned up results for centers that counsel clients against having an abortion.

Some of these places, known as crisis pregnancy centers, also have been accused of providing misleading information about abortion and contraception. Many are religiously affiliated.

Directing women toward fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and dont provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to womens health and undermines the integrity of Googles search results, says the June letter, which was authored after the leak of a draft opinion indicating the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The court took that step June 24.

The Democrat-led group asked Google to address what steps it would take to limit the appearance of crisis pregnancy centers in its search results, ads and maps results for users who search for abortion clinic, abortion pill or other similar terms.

The group also asked the company if it would add disclaimers to address whether a clinic provides abortions. New York Attorney General Letitia James office raised similar concerns in a June letter to Google.

The letter from the Republican AGs defends the work of crisis pregnancy centers. It notes that such centers often provide services such as free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and parenting and prenatal education classes. It also argues that at least some Google users who search for information about abortion expect to find information about alternatives.

They wrote that if the company complies with this inappropriate demand to bias its search results, their offices would respond by investigating whether there had been any violation of antitrust or religious discrimination laws. They also pledged to consider whether new legislation would help protect consumers and markets.

We trust that you will treat this letter with the seriousness these issues require, and hope you will decide that Googles search results must not be subject to left-wing political pressure, which would actively harm women seeking essential assistance. If you do not, we must avail ourselves of all lawful and appropriate means of protecting the rights of our constituents, of upholding viewpoint diversity, free expression, and the freedom of religion for all Americans, and of making sure that our markets are free in fact, not merely in theory, the letter said.

It asked the California-based company to respond within 14 days and explain whether it has or will take any steps to treat crisis pregnancy centers any differently than before the leak of the draft Supreme Court decision.

Google and other Big Tech companies also have faced recent calls for more stringent privacy controls to address concerns that information about location, texts, searches and emails could be used against people seeking to end unwanted pregnancies.

Google announced this month that it would automatically purge information about users who visit abortion clinics or other places that could trigger legal problems in light of the high courts ruling.
An abbot and several officials were dismissed or held responsible on Friday for an incident where four Japanese war criminals had been commemorated at a Buddhist temple in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, for about four years.

The abbot of Xuanzang Temple, Li Yijiang, was replaced by the bureau of ethnic and religious affairs of Nanjing's Xuanwu district. The operation of the temple has been suspended to correct its misconduct.

The director of the district's ethnic and religious bureau was dismissed, while the director and one of the deputy directors of the city's ethnic and religious bureau also received punishments.

On Thursday evening, the district's bureau got a report that several Buddhist memorial tablets of Japanese war criminals had been commemorated at the Xuanzang Temple.

According to a preliminary investigation, the temple noticed the incident in February and had corrected the misconduct.

According to photos uploaded by netizens, the Buddhist memorial tablets of the war criminals, including Hisao Tani, Matsui Iwane, Takeshi Noda and Tanaka Junyoshi, were commemorated at the temple from 2018 to 2022.

Of them, Matsui Iwane was one of the Class-A war criminals held responsible for the Nanjing Massacre. Hisao Tani, a Class-B war criminal, committed hideous crimes during the massacre.

Takeshi Noda was a Class-C war criminal who participated in a "killing 100 people" competition in Nanjing, and Tanaka Junyoshi killed more than 300 unarmed soldiers and civilians with a saber.

On Dec 13, 1937, the Nanjing Massacre began, and over a six-week period, invading Japanese troops killed more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers, according to Chinese historians.

Millions of Chinese netizens were angered after reports emerged on Friday. Many of them also expressed confusion.

"It might not infuriate so many people if it hadn't happened in Nanjing," said netizen "Meisheng" on the social media platform Sina Weibo.

"You cannot help but wonder: How can such a ridiculous incident happen in the city that bore so much pain and shed so many tears in history?"

"We must never forget the serious crimes committed by the invaders," the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders said on Sina Weibo on Friday and demanded a thorough investigation.

"We condemn the misconduct and deeply regret their indifference toward history," said Wu Xianbin, curator of a private museum commemorating the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) in Nanjing.
Three family members were shot to death while camping in a state park in eastern Iowa Friday, and the suspected gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Officers responded to reports of the shooting at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground before 6:30 a.m. Friday, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said in a statement. Officers found three people fatally shot in a tent at the campground, division assistant director Mitch Mortvedt said.

The three victims were related, Mortvedt said. Later Friday, the Iowa Department of Public Safety identified them as Tyler Schmidt, 42, Sarah Schmidt, 42, and Lulu Schmidt, 6, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Mortvedt didn't provide a motive for the killings.

Officials immediately evacuated everyone from the park, a children's summer camp on the grounds and the campground. Once the evacuation was complete, the only registered camper not accounted for was 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, Mortvedt said.

He was known to be armed. That of course heightened our awareness as well, Mortvedt said. Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit.

Using a plane to help search the area, law enforcement later found Sherwin dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a wooded area of the park. Sherwin came from Nebraska, and investigators don't believe he had any prior relationship with the victims, Mortvedt said.

Mortvedt said he could not say whether Sherwin had a criminal record. A search of online court records in Nebraska and Iowa did not produce any record of prior criminal behavior.

Autopsies on Sherwin and the victims were scheduled to be performed over the weekend, Mortvedt said, and more information would likely be released based on those findings.

The park, which remained closed Friday, is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Cedar Rapids.

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
DES MOINES  A little more than three months out from Election Day, the early measurables suggest Kim Reynolds, Iowas Republican governor, is a heavy favorite to earn another four-year term as the states chief executive.

Reynolds has dominated the campaigns fundraising efforts, and early polling suggests she is overwhelmingly the choice of Iowa voters. Four top national elections forecasters all rate Iowas gubernatorial race in their strongest category for a Reynolds win.

Deidre DeJear, the Des Moines businesswoman and the Democratic challenger, has lagged far behind Reynolds in fundraising and polling. DeJear has been attempting to make up that difference on the ground by hosting public campaign events across the state.

With holding a comfortable lead in the polls while running for re-election in a state that has a low opinion of the Democratic President Joe Bidens job performance, Reynolds appears satisfied  at least early in the campaign  to focus her criticism on Biden and Congressional Democrats rather than on her opponent, DeJear.

Reynolds frequently blasts Biden and Democrats in Congress in her media appearances. She rarely mentions DeJear.

With Gov. Reynolds having that lead, she doesnt necessarily have to talk about issues. The challenge for DeJear will be to bring the issues to the governor, said Donna Hoffman, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa. Certainly Gov. Reynolds can try to nationalize this election because its in her best interest to do that  run against Joe Biden, run against Joe Bidens policy, tie Deidre DeJear to Joe Biden.

Reynolds was chosen by national Republicans to deliver the partys response to Bidens State of the Union address in January.

The bureau reached out to the Reynolds campaign on Thursday, and will update this story if the campaign responds.

At a campaign event this past week in Cedar Rapids, DeJear said she is focused on reaching out to Iowans.

I dont necessarily need the governor to engage me. We all know that I am the governors opponent, not President Joe Biden, DeJear said.

And its clear to me more now than anything  especially as consistently that she has mentioned his name  that her perspective or focus is not on Iowa. Her focus is on something else. And we need leadership in the state to focus on us.

Who needs my attention? Iowans. Iowans need my attention. Iowans need the attention of their governor. So if she says my name or not, its not the end of the world. Whats more important is that we connect with the voter.  Thats who Im focused on.

DeJear said she plans to travel to all 99 Iowa counties  a practice made famous by longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley  to reach voters in all corners of the state and to continue to raise money for the campaign.

And DeJear said the early poll results do not concern her. Over the past week, the Des Moines Register/Mediacom Poll  considered by many to be the gold standard in Iowa politics  showed Reynolds with a 17-point lead, and a poll commissioned by Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation showed Reynolds with a 15-point lead.

Rick Stewart, the Libertarian Party candidate for governor, was at 5 percent in the Iowa Poll.

We knew that this was going to be a hard race, DeJear said. But where we are right now is its really about digging deep and working our plans, and well see the fruits of our labor.

Tim Hagle, a University of Iowa political science professor, said there still is time for DeJear to chip away at Reynolds lead because many voters are not yet tuned into the 2022 election campaigns, and because many voters have not yet become familiar enough with DeJear to form an opinion about her.

Having said all that, yeah, a 17-point lead is pretty big, Hagle said.

Hagle and UNIs Hoffman said Reynolds came into the campaign with at least two key foundational advantages  Iowans historically like to vote for their incumbents, regardless of political party; and Bidens low job approval numbers nationally and in Iowa could make it hard for Democratic candidates to win here, especially statewide.

Most national polling aggregators show Bidens average approval rating in the 30s and disapproval rating in the upper 50s.

Even though technically hes not on the ballot, everybody knows that, effectively, (a midterm election) is a report card on how the presidents doing in the first two years of the administration, Hagle said. And for the Biden administration, its not looking too good.

And so thats what allows Republicans to focus their attention perhaps on him and whats going on there, rather than necessarily your opponent.

The general election will be Nov. 8. In Iowa, early voting will start on Oct. 19.

Gazette reporter Marissa Payne contributed to this report.
SIOUX CITY  As the RAGBRAI kickoff overtakes Siouxland this weekend, the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Iowa will also make its presence felt.

All throughout the weekend, retired 3-star Admiral and Sioux City resident Mike Franken, the Democratic challenger to seven-term incumbent Sen. Chuck Grassley, will be campaigning in the area.

Following a RAGBRAI-related event, on Friday, at Beer Can Alley on Fourth Street, Franken is holding two meet-and-greets on Saturday: one at the Onawa Public Library, at 9 a.m., and another at the Missouri Valley Public Library at noon.

Then, on Sunday, Franken heads to Sac County for a noon event at the Sac County Recreation Center.

As far as fundraising for the race goes, Franken's most-recent federal reporting period (May 19 through June 30) was better than Grassley's as he raised $1.8 million to $800,000.

However, 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.

A recent poll from the Des Moines Register showed Grassley with an eight-point lead over Franken with 5% of likely voters saying they are unsure of who they will vote for and another 2% saying they would not vote. Seven percent of the likely voters polled expressed interest in voting for someone other than Grassley or Franken.
A Thursday night shooting near the 300 block of East 12th Street in South Sioux City, where an officer with the South Sioux City Police Department fired at and hit a suspect, is now being investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.

According to a press release, the shooting occurred at around 7:50 p.m. as officers were responding to a call about a possible overdose at an apartment complex. "Paramedics had already responded to the call, but they were forced to evacuate the location after a subject brandished a firearm," the release stated.

The release then goes on to say the suspect, identified as 61-year-old Richard Germek, shot at officers in the hallway of the apartment building which led to an officer returning fire and hitting the suspect.

At an 11:30 a.m. press conference on Friday, South Sioux City Police Chief Ed Mahon said Germek was injured and transported to a local hospital (Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City) to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. He then was placed in Dakota County Jail but needed to return to the hospital for a medical condition.

"It was unfortunate when we have to resort to that much force but the subject began firing on our officers and we had no other choice," Mahon said.

Mahon was unable to identify the officer who fired on Germek but said he would be going on administrative leave which is standard protocol.

"It's what we do, if nothing else to ensure the officer has time to decompress to make sure that he is okay," Mahon said. "He'll have at least several days of administrative leave, that is by policy, and in no way indicative that we think he did anything wrong."

According to Mahon, the most-recent shootout between South Sioux City Police and a suspect (before Thursday night) was in 2019 when officer Brian Van Berkum was wounded after a fatal exchange of gunfire outside of Los Amigos on Dakota Avenue.

Mahon also couldn't say whether Germek was the person who called 911 about the overdose and whether Germek was returned to the hospital for overdose treatment.

In 2021, Germek successfully completed probation for a misdemeanor assault conviction and had his jail sentence waived.

Charges are pending in the case and the investigation is ongoing.
This piece originally appeared in the Conversation

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.

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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.

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The clandestine projects lead doctor, Israel Milejkowski, wrote the books 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 worlds conscience.

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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.

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.

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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. Thats 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.

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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.

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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.

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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].

The teams 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
Welcome to this weeks edition of the Surge, a politics newsletter that, like Steve Bannon, has absolutely nothing to say in defense of itself.





This week we check in on the most important developments from the final Jan. 6 committee hearing of the summer, where we learned that the person tweeting from the @HouseGOP Twitter account isnt too bright. President Joe Biden has COVID, but relax, he is hard at work having his photo taken. Republicans in Congress are having to go on the record about their same-sex marriage positions for the first time in seven years, and it is melting their brains.





But lets start with the big result from this weeks lone primary, where Donald Trump and the Democratic Party had one of their most successful joint victories yet.
Just a few days ago, Slates Henry Grabar was in the middle of Europes devastating heat wave. He was in Normandy, in the French countryside, where on Monday and Tuesday the temperatures hit well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When he did venture out of the house, the village was empty and surreal. Wheat fields to the north of him had caught on fire, and the sky was filled with a combination of haze, heat, and rain. It felt, to Henry, like the end of the world.

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It sounds dramatic, but it might be a glimpse of what the end could feel like. As the planet struggles under the weight of climate change, Europe is reeling from a record-breaking heat wave. More than a thousand people have died. Wildfires broke out in four countries, British train service was suspended, and the London Bridge was wrapped in foil to protect it. On Fridays episode of What Next: TBD, I spoke with Henry Grabar, who covers cities, architecture, and the environment for Slate, about why Europe is vulnerable to extreme heat, and how its trying to adapt. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Lizzie OLeary: For Americans, one question that comes up a lot is why Europe and the United Kingdom have so little air conditioning. In France, where you are, roughly 75 percent of people dont have it. Why do you think that is?

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Henry Grabar: I think there is a sense that air conditioning is unnecessary, wasteful, and perhaps even counterproductive. Unnecessary because this kind of heat that weve seen in the last two days, is rarevery rare, for most people. It tends to happen in July and August when schools are out, half the countrys on vacation. People think its wasteful. And the French attitude towards air conditioning is that they think its counterproductive. Globally speaking, because air conditioners require power generation. Power generation tends to be dirty and contributes to the problem that requires the air conditioners in the first place. And also locally, because it contributes to the urban heat island effect

Which is when an urban area, usually someplace particularly dense, is hotter than surrounding places. Buildings, lack of trees, and lots of pavement often contribute to the heat island effect.

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And this is something that you see people talk about a lot in the news, even during a heat wave, when reporters will ask experts, Is it time to get air conditioning put in everywhere? And they usually say that they think of air conditioning as, basically, a bad adaptation. I saw a study saying that if the number of air conditioners in Paris were to double between now and 2030, the temperature on a summer day, when theyre all in use, could go up by as much as 2 degrees Celsius, which is 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

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My producer, who is from Texas, saw the 100 number, and was sort of like, Yeah, thats hot, but its not that hot. Can you give us some context of what temperatures people in France are used to?

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In Paris, the average July and August high temperature is 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The low is about 60. That means its nearly 10 degrees cooler, on both of those points, than New York City. And London, obviously, is both a little cooler and a little rainier. Even if on Monday and Tuesday many people wouldve loved to have an air conditioner, there simply arent that many days of the year where it seems even remotely necessary to have one.

What have you been hearing from the French government?

One of the things that weve been getting in Paris is little flyers that are posted on local government Facebook pages, and they give you advice about what to do on the hottest days. And, France being France, theres heat wave advice about some suggested meals you could eat. Theres a recipe for watermelon salad. Theres a specific bullet point on one of these that says, dont forget pleasure. To say like, Yeah, this is a public health crisis, and its important that you take care of yourself, but its also important that you enjoy yourself. Theres more practical advice, too. There are all these green spaces that the city has opened, until midnight, to try and give people a place to hang out, outside.

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Paris also has misters in outdoor spaces, and theres been an effort by the mayor to incorporate more shade and trees into the city. A lot of this came after the 2003 heat wave that killed more than 15,000 people in France. Since then, France has instituted a series of formal processes to deal with a heat wave, including a national alert system with four levels. How does that work?

On Monday morning, we could look up the region we were in, the department we were in, and they would show us a color. Each of those zones comes with various pieces of advice about what kind of risk youre at and what kind of steps you should take. There are new rules about working conditions in high temperatures. What kind of care can be taken to make sure that people who do have to be working outside, dont end up suffering from heat stroke, or exhaustion, or anything like that.

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The other thing is that theres a registry for vulnerable people. If you have health problems, and youre over 65, and you live alone, you can put yourself on a list of people who get checked in on by the city. Theres 10,500 people on this list in Paris, and the city takes the responsibility of contacting them, and seeing how theyre doing. And theres even a program called Accompanied by Paris, where volunteers will come and help you out with errands or just go for a walk with you.

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It really sounds like that heat wave galvanized the government into building in some climate-related resiliency. Is that accurate?

Yeah, to the extent they can. I think a lot of this infrastructure is soft infrastructure. Its practices. Its routines. Its thinking about heat waves as an event that we know how to prepare for, and that we can mitigate by following best practices. And I guess recognizing that when we have these heat wave days, people should not be expected to go about their day as they would on any other hot day, that it represents a legitimate environmental crisis.

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How much discussion, or public awareness is there, that this is tied to climate change?

A lot. The United Kingdoms Met Office had a chart out showing the top 10 hottest U.K. days on record. I think eight or nine of those have come since the year 2000. Thats a pretty powerful visual statement, when you see it. Nobody has any doubt that this is a climate change consequence.

Its interesting to hear you reference the Met Office. There was a quote I saw, from the wonderfully named Penny Endersby, saying Our lifestyles and infrastructure are not adapted to what is coming. And it was a bleak quote, but also, it struck me as a much more of a matter-of-fact way of talking about climate change than you might hear in the U.S.

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To the extent that theres a debate about climate change in Europe, its not a debate about whether climate change is happening. Its not a debate about the science. Its a debate about what to do. And that question is actually much harder than where were at in America, which is like a senator carrying a snowball into the U.S. Capitol. But yeah, people are well aware that climate change is coming. That its threatening the way of life, whether its agricultural practices, or train service, or extreme weather in all its forms. The EU has a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which is pretty ambitious. In a way, climate change is such a part of the discussion that this heat wave hasnt prompted a wave of calls for more ambitious climate proposals. That stuff is already on the books. I think that the difficult thing is the decisions about adaptation. In France, for example, theres a lot of debate about how big a role nuclear energy should play.

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Which has traditionally been a much bigger thing in France, than in neighboring countries.

Its huge. It provides like 70 percent of Frances power, which has been a lifesaver, at a time when oil and gas from Russia has been hard to come by. In France, like in the United States, theres long been a left-wing environmentalist suspicion of nuclear energy, and the sense that they ought to be able to get to 100 percent renewable energy using wind and solar, for example. I think most people now accept that nuclear is going to play a role in getting them to net-zero by 2050.

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What are other problems that are being caused by this heat wave?

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Its not just that people need to stay inside and people need to stay safe, but systems start breaking down when it gets this hot. Frances nuclear power plants are running at reduced capacity because the water is so warm, so, its not as effective as a cooling agent. Another sort of related issue is that the water level in the Rhine River in the German industrial heartland is really, really low. Its about 14 inches from being so low that barges laden with commodities, wont be able to ply the Rhine, and connect the German industrial plants in the Ruhr, to the Port of Rotterdam, which is Europes biggest port. Were 14 inches of Rhine River evaporation away from some kind of shutdown or slow down.

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You think a lot about cities, and design, and adaptation. And I wanted to ask you about this thing that is sticking in my brain. There was this sentence in the New York Times about how houses in the U.K. were built to retain heat in the winter. That makes so much sense, but that also has made me think about how we design, and build, for the future. How does design factor into this? Is Europe ahead of us, behind us?

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Thats very complicated because the building stock in Europe is really old. And that sometimes means that its super sustainable and energy efficient because its been built using, basically, the old ways. In general, I would say that the EU is probably ahead of the U.S. on this. The U.K. actually just reintroduced its new building regulations on overheating last month. Theyre really forward-thinking, and theyre definitely more ambitious than anything that we have going in the United States. This document says that every apartment in the UK must be categorized according to whether it has cross ventilation, which means: Does this apartment have windows on both sides? This is actually built into the U.K. regulations, along with things like, how much square footage of window is there, basically to let in sunlight, which is then going to heat the apartment. There are instructions on how to mitigate that with shutters or external overhangs. And that mechanical coolingair conditioningcan only be used, and this is a quote, when insufficient heat is capable of being removed from the indoor environment without it. Basically, you can only check these boxes with AC if you didnt already try all the other stuff first.

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Listening to that, it just seems like such a realization that climate change is here, and happening, and baked in, and sorry, you dont get the easy way out. You have to do all the other things.

Theres obviously two sides of adapting to climate change. One of them is trying to reduce carbon emissions, and the other one is recognizing that its here, and trying to mitigate its effects. Theyre really on the second half of that, at this moment in time. A lot of the first stuff, like we were saying, is, sort of, baked in, getting to net-zero. Theyre phasing out internal combustion engines by 2035. There wont be any gas-powered cars sold in Europe in 2036. But in terms of the mitigation stuff, thats, I think, where people feel like This is within our power to do this. We can make a lot of progress here, and we cant control heat waves, but we can make sure that weve done everything we can to make sure that the societal disruption is relatively minimal.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Embassies support Pride events around Slovakia.

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We believe that LGBTQI+ rights are human rights and cannot be compromised. In marking Banska Bystrica Pride on June 25, Bratislava Pride on July 23, Kosice Pride on August 27, and other Pride events around the country, we honour the resilience of LGBTQI+ people as they fight to live authentically and freely in Slovakia and around the world.

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Pride is an opportunity to recognise the many ways LGBTQI+ communities enhance and contribute to all of our societies.

Russias unprovoked war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine reminds us that we are united by shared values, including support for human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that each person is entitled to human rights and fundamental freedoms. Similarly, the principles of the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union enshrine equal treatment of all, including LGBTQI+ people.

We also recognise the efforts of LGBTQI+ human rights defenders and civil society organizations as they work tirelessly to advance respect for the human rights of all. They are partners and allies.

Strong and healthy democracies ensure LGBTQI+ people can enjoy full participation in society and access all the benefits available to their citizens. Countries are stronger when all people  regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics  are fully recognised as free and equal members of society.

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Song Jun, 45, had traveled across China a few days earlier from the southern coastal city of Shenzhen to Urumqi, the capital of westernmost China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Having been engaged in the international trade of agricultural commodities for 20 years, Song has been committed to facilitating cooperation between overseas source suppliers and Chinese food processors. This time, what attracted him was the market potential of Xinjiang's high-quality agricultural and forestry products.

In China, Xinjiang's fruits and agricultural products do not need to be advertised because of their high quality with low pollution. Song and his team want to scale up the application of low-temperature direct extraction technology in Xinjiang to extract products such as jujube, pomegranate, and cistanche into liquid. They also want to solve the problems of scattered lands and short planting seasons by using vehicle-mounted mobile factories.

He has also worked with Xinjiang's agriculture, forestry, and commerce departments to study how to turn agricultural products sold in sacks into high-value-added industrial products sold by grams.

Along with Song, more than 100 Chinese academics and entrepreneurs have made suggestions for Xinjiang's future economic development at a high-level forum over the week.

"Xinjiang has ushered in an important period of strategic opportunities for high-quality development," Bai Chunli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said. "High-quality development" is a buzzword experts in different fields pay close attention to.

Qu Jian, vice dean of the Shenzhen-based China Development Institute, was one of the planners of Xinjiang's two state-level economic development zones 13 years ago. He said the same as the coastal areas, Xinjiang used to rely on robust investment in fixed assets and labor employment for growth.

Now, Xinjiang has entered the transition period of economic development, increasingly driven by scientific and technological progress, educational innovation, and institutional innovation, Qu said.

In the first half of this year, Xinjiang's GDP grew by 4.9 percent, ranking third among all provinces and autonomous regions in China. From 2012 to 2021, Xinjiang's GDP increased from 740 billion yuan (109.6 billion U.S. dollars) to 1.6 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 7.5 percent.

Before the forum, more than 40 academicians from the CAS and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) did field research in Xinjiang for about a week on sectors including energy, the chemical industry, water resources, and the digital economy. With rich first-hand data and respective industrial experience, they submitted advisory reports.

Shao Xinyu, vice minister of science and technology, said the ministry would promote the high-quality development of various science and technology parks. It would also drive cotton and wind-energy innovation centers and accelerate the training of academic leaders and community-level agricultural science and technology personnel in Xinjiang.

"We encourage academicians to bring their research achievements and talents to Xinjiang. We support academicians in launching major projects and platforms in Xinjiang to conduct core research and tackle primary scientific and technological problems," said Li Xiaohong, president of the CAE.

How to carry out innovative international cooperation in Xinjiang, also known as the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, is another topic of interest for experts and scholars.

Experts have noticed that the China-Europe freight train service and cross-border cooperation zone achieved remarkable results. Xinjiang plays a significant role in Eurasian economic and trade logistics. Industrial upgrading in Xinjiang will also support the Belt and Road Initiative in the future.

In the first half of this year, 6,195 freight trains between China and Central Asia reached Kazakhstan by way of Xinjiang, a significant increase despite the pressure of the pandemic.

Xinjiang is rich in energy resources, with wind and solar energy reserves ranking first in China. In the context of China's promise to achieve carbon peak and neutrality, many experts mapped out realistic paths for Xinjiang to make clean and efficient use of coal, promote green and low-carbon technologies, and promote the renewable energy industry.

After the forum, Song, determined to start a business in Xinjiang, will go to the vast agricultural areas in southern Xinjiang with his team to land his project as soon as possible.

Many entrepreneurs like Song have attended the forum on-site or via webcast. For them, Xinjiang, a resource-rich region at the forefront of China's westward opening-up, could be a great place to invest in the future.
Three storms struck southwestern Pennsylvania during Saturday's (July 23) eliminations card for the $400,000 Delvin Miller Adios Pace for the Orchids at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows. The first was an act of nature that blew up rain, swirling winds, thunder and lightning that forced a delay of about 15 minutes in the card.

The others were named Beach Glass and Pebble Beach, who each stormed to a 5-3/4-length victory in the eliminations. Those results set up a battle between the leaders of the sport's glamour division in the $350,000 Adios final, which takes place Saturday, July 30 and anchors a blockbuster card that features six Grand Circuit stakes. First post is 11:45 a.m.

Joining Beach Glass and Pebble Beach in the final will be Fourever Boy, Nautical Hanover, Ario Hanover, Bythemissal, Quick Snap, Atlas Hanover and River Ness, who notched his berth by being the fifth-place finisher with the higher career earnings. The connections of Beach Glass and Pebble Beach will choose their post positions, with their order of selection determined by draw. All other post positions will be determined by random draw Wednesday.

The track had turned sloppy by the time Beach Glass faced the starter, and winning driver Yannick Gingras approached the first quarter cautiously.

"I was just letting them all settle," Gingras said. "I wanted him on the front obviously, but I just wanted to stay out of trouble."

Once on the point, the Meadowlands Pace winner widened steadily, scoring in 1:49 with a :27 final panel.

"He's better every week," Gingras said. "He was amazing in the Meadowlands Pace, and he was amazing today. We get to pick our post position? Awesome. You just made my day."

Brent MacGrath, who trains the son of Somebeachsomewhere-Im With Her for Schooner II Stable, said he saw everything he needed to see from his colt and likely won't be making any changes.

"He's just learning how to do it, and he's coming into his own," MacGrath said. "We just need to keep him healthy, keep him out of trouble and give him to Yannick."

Beach Glass pushed his career earnings to $628,250.

Pebble Beach had only a qualifier since his triumph in the June 18 North America Cup, but he showed no signs of being short. Todd McCarthy gave him a comfortable :56.3 half, and the son of Downbytheseaside-Santa Rosa prevailed in 1:50.1. The previously undefeated Bythemissal, who was facing elite competition for the first time, closed well for second, while Quick Snap earned show.

Noel Daley, who trains Pebble Beach for Laexpressfoderadeovolente, said he tried a rigging experiment with Pebble Beach in the elimination, an experiment Daley considers a failure.

"He runs in but doesn't like to wear a head pole," Daley said. "So, we tried a Murphy blind today. We tried it in Canada; he ran off the track, but we thought he needed it on a tighter track. We'll take that back off. He won't wear anything, and we'll have to steer him. Everything else looked good."

Pebble Beach now has banked $944,250.

Captain Cowgirl, Pennsylvanias reigning champion, completed her romp through the states three-year-old pacing fillies division with a convincing win in the $132,231 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes, known as the Romola Hanover. The daughter of Captaintreacherous- Rideintothesunset captured three of this years four preliminary legs and shapes up as the one to beat in the $260,000 championship set for Sept. 3 at The Meadows.

Captain Cowgirl endured a demanding :26.3 opening panel from post six before Tim Tetrick could put her on the point. Once there, she brooked no challenges and scored in 1:50.3, two lengths better than Sweet Treasure. Lydeo finished third.

Jim King Jr. trains Captain Cowgirl, who now boasts a career bankroll of $449,550, for Jo Ann Looney-King and Kenneth Frieder.

$60,000 PA Stallion Series  Three-Year-Old Pacing Fillies

Lyons Serenity threw down a sizzling 1:20.3 three-quarters before the rains came, enabling her to open three lengths on Galleria Hanover as the field turned for home. Would Galleria Hanover have enough racetrack to erase the deficit? Her driver Ronnie Wrenn Jr. thought she might.

I knew I would get a shot because they were going pretty good fractions, Wrenn said. Ive driven her a few times and had luck with her. Shes big and strong, and thats a big mile.

Galleria Hanover not only passed Lyons Serenity and downed her by a length, but she did so in 1:49.2, lowering the stakes record 1:50 established last year by Mackie Hanover. Lock Bridge rallied from well back to complete the ticket.

Ron Burke trains Galleria Hanover, a daughter of Always B Miki-Gallie Bythe Beach who lifted her lifetime earnings to $111,166, for William Donovan, Purnel & Libby LLC and Joe Sbrocco.

Also winning a split for Wrenn and Burke was Sweet Kisses, with Find Happiness taking the other division.

Burke enjoyed a four bagger on the 13-race card  with three of those winners piloted by Wrenn  while Todd McCarthy and Dave Palone each fashioned a triple.

Live racing at The Meadows resumes Wednesday (July 27), when the card features a $1,016.98 carryover in the Jackpot Pick 5.

(MSOA)
Trainer and co-owner Jack Darling was at home in Cambridge, Ontario watching from behind a screen, as many fans were, when Bulldog Hanover crossed the wire in a triumphant new world record of 1:45.4 in the William R. Haughton Memorial.

Both my wife and I, we kind of jumped ten feet high when he crossed the wire, Darling said in an interview with CHCH News.

Darling said the key to training is giving the horse the best care you can and common sense. Bulldog Hanover also receives massages and treats along the way with bananas being his favourite.

The team behind Bulldog Hanover was excited, but not surprised to see him make history.

Two weeks before he tied the world record, we knew there was a chance, but just to see it happen is pretty exciting, said Darling.

1:45 is a time that I would say that, at one time, nobody thought would ever be attainable," said Bill McLinchey, Chair of the Board for Standardbred Canada. "[To] see him do it, and do it quite easily, makes you pretty excited to see what he has got left and what he is going to do for an encore.

And when he did, it just felt good. I think everyone had Canadian pride when he did that.

To view the CHCH News interview in its entirety, click the play button below:
Driver Louis-Philippe Roy celebrated a career milestone with his first win on the Friday night (July 22) card at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Roy earned his 2,000th career victory as he guided the popular four-year-old distaffer Settn A Precedent ($5.30) uncovered to a sub-1:50 score in the $20,000 fourth race, equalling the 1:49.4 national season's record for older pacing mares. The 32-year-old reinsman worked out the winning trip aboard the daughter of Sunshine Beach for trainer/owner Jonathan Panos as they held on by half a length over the Ontario Sires Stakes prepping sophomore filly Silver Label.

Roy scored two more wins on the 10-race program to bring his seasonal total to 152, which ranks among the top 10 drivers in Canada. His mounts have earned in excess of $3 million this year and horses driven by the Quebec native have earned nearly $32.5 million lifetime.

Roy won the Future Star O'Brien Award after his first million-dollar season in 2016 and has since been named Canada's Driver of the Year twice, including in 2018 when he put up career-best numbers winning 416 races and $7.4 million in purses.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
After an impressive 1:48.3 victory in his last start, Soaring Now was back in the Harrahs Hoosier Park winners circle on Friday, July 22 when he captured the $97,000 Indiana Sires Stakes for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings.

Driven by Andy Shetler, Soaring Now stopped the timer in 1:48.1 to record his second straight victory against stakes company and establish a new lifetime best in the process. The 1:48.1 final time is the second fastest mile of the 2022 season at Harrahs Hoosier Park.

Leaving from the rail, Shetler sent Soaring Now away from the gate firing to protect his position. Driver Trace Tetrick had JK Victory pointed to the front from post nine and Ponda Warrior and Jimmy Whittemore also wanted a shot at the early lead. Ponda Warrior and Whittemore won the early battle for position and led the field through snappy first-half fractions of :25.2 and :53.1 while JK Victory opted for a pocket trip and Soaring Now sat third.

Unable to find a spot along the rail, Rip Wheeler and Brandon Bates pressed on to the lead and were applying pressure from first-over through the three-quarters in 1:21.4. Ponda Warrior was able to fend off Rip Wheeler but the rest of the field was closing in. JK Victory dipped down to the inside to make his bid at the leader while Soaring Now tipped outside from third. Using a :25.3 final quarter, Soaring Now surged past JK Victory and held off a late charge from The Longest Yard and Michael Oosting to get the win.

Soaring Now returned $8.80 to his backers at the betting windows.

Owned by James Miller, the son of JK Endofanera-Sunflower recorded his sixth lifetime victory for trainer Aaron Stutzman. Soaring Now has now won three of seven starts this season and pushed his lifetime bankroll to $154,300. The sophomore colt was bred by Luckiana Farms of Indiana.

(With files from Hoosier Park)
In a quick discussion, Culpeper supervisors recently shot down an idea for a Shark Tank-like business pitch competition here.

This was after one member of the county Board of Supervisors voiced distrust about the government picking winners and losers in the business world. The rest of the board members agreed to take time to think it over.

Meanwhile, neighboring Orange County is preparing for its 7th annual Quad County Business Summit and Tank Pitch in October.

The town of Culpeper, in addition, holds Culpeper Competes, which awards cash prizes to businesses that have since expanded and been successful.

At a July 5 meeting, Culpeper County Economic Development Director Bryan Rothamel gave his good news pitch for a county business-pitch program for small businesses.

Culpeper Competes 2.0 would collaborate with the town Tourism & Economic Development Department in seeking pitches from aspiring business owners looking to open brick and mortar downtown, Rothamel said.

The Graze to Griddle gourmet hamburger food truck won the top cash prize last year in the town program. It recently opened a restaurant in the culinary-renowned 100 block of East Davis Street, next to Its About Thyme, in the former Thyme Market, which closed after the pandemic.

The Central Virginia Small Business Development Center, with an office in Culpeper, would meet with all applicants to understand needs, help define a pitch or redirect to other programs they might need first. Businesses ready to pitch would complete the pitch deck, according to Rothamels presentation.

Pitch Night would select one winner each from the town of Culpeper and the county of Culpeper. Central VA SBDC would be tasked with pitch assistance, education and judges.

Rothamel proposed $18,000 in prizes through surplus funds from a job-training program.

Salem District Supervisor Tom Underwood, a former financial analyst who worked as a hotel executive for Orbitz Worldwide, did not like the sound of it during the recent presentation.

To have a branch of government determining successful pitches is something he said he did not support. The Reva farmer said he would prefer if banks and the business community would host such a contest.

I am uncomfortable with awarding government funding for what the government deems to be a successful pitchrubs me the wrong way, Underwood said.

Board Chairman Gary Deal, a retired county executive, said he would have think about Culpeper Competes 2.0.

Talk it over, know a little more about it before we make a decision, he said.

The Orange County Economic Development Office recently announced its 2022 Quad County Business Summit & QuadTank Pitch Competition in partnership with economic development offices in Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Madison and Central Virginia Small Business Development Center. The Quad County event does not include Culpeper.

The event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 12, at Bluegreen Shenandoah Crossing Resort, 174 Horseshoe Circle in Gordonsville. The summit will include a keynote speaker, business-owner panel discussion, Q&A session, networking, luncheon and the QuadTanka winner-take-all pitch competition.

The event is free for businesses from host counties. qcbsummit.com and Rose Deal at 540-672-1238.
 Flash

China on Friday expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to concerning content in Japan's 2022 defense white paper, urging the country to stop arbitrarily hyping up security threats in the neighborhood to justify its military build-up.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily press briefing that the white paper contains groundless accusations against China's defense policy, normal defense development and legitimate maritime activities, deliberately plays up the so-called "China threat," and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs on the Taiwan question.

"China strongly deplores and firmly rejects this," said the spokesperson.

Wang pointed out that China is committed to the path of peaceful development, and follows a defense policy that is defensive in nature.

"China's defense building is aimed at upholding our sovereignty, security and development interests. It is legitimate, reasonable and beyond reproach," he said, adding that military cooperation including joint naval patrol between China and relevant countries is consistent with international law and established international practice, and it does not target any particular country.

He further noted that due to the recent history of overseas aggression waged by Japanese militarism, Japan's moves in the military and security fields have always been closely followed by its Asian neighbors including China and the international community.

"In this latest white paper, Japan has openly added content about revising relevant defense documents by the end of this year, further increasing its defense budget, and developing so-called counter-strike capabilities," said the spokesperson. "All these give rise to the concern that Japan is deviating further from the path of pacifist and exclusively defense-oriented strategy."

"We urge the Japanese side to immediately stop the erroneous practice of arbitrarily hyping up security threats in the neighborhood to justify its military build-up, heed the voice of the international community, deeply reflect on the history of aggression, stay committed to the path of peaceful development, and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community with concrete actions," Wang said.




There are two active solar construction projects underway in Orange County off State Route 20.

One is a 62.5-megawatt Dominion Energy facility in Locust Grove. The other is a one-megawatt facility on land owned by Donald and Dena Jennings at State Route 20 and Porter Road.

The Dominion projectMadison Solarwas approved by a special-use permit in 2017 and began construction last year after multiple ownership changes. The project on 663 acres will produce enough energy to power more than 10,000 homes.

Once completed, 100% of the power will be dedicated to Northop Grumman, an aerospace and defense technology contractor that negotiated with Dominion to purchase the energy generated on-site.

The Jennings projectSweet Spring Solarwill be constructed by Hexagon Energy. It recently achieved approval from the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Sweet Spring Solar is on a 116-acre site opposite the Orange County Landfill. with approximately 8.5 acres planned under panel. Its lifespan is expected to be 30 years.

Power generated by the panels onsite will power approximately 88 homes and be transmitted to the Dominion Energy grid at a nearby transmission point on Porter Road. The project, unanimously recommended for approval by the Orange County Planning Commission, came before the board of supervisors in May.

Solar generation facilities in Orange County are permitted only through special use permits. District 2 Supervisor Jim White made a motion to approve the special use permit, seconded by District 5 Supervisor Lee Frame, with the project passing by a 3-2 vote. District 3 Supervisor Keith Marshall and District 4 Supervisor Jim Crozier voted against the special use permit.

Construction should take three to four months, Hexagon noted. As part of the special use permit, a vegetative screen of 50 to 100 feet will be constructed and maintained to screen the project from Porter Road and neighbors to the south.

Access to the site would be through the Williams pipeline easement on Porter Road. Given that solar projects in Virginia measuring under 5 megawatts are exempt from personal property taxes, the applicants offered an annual payment of $1,400 per year to the county to support public improvements. Following its approval of the project, the board later decided to direct those funds (across the life of the project) to support parks, recreation and open space in the county.
A Culpeper man has been charged with felony malicious wounding in a shooting after an argument early Thursday in a Montanus Drive business park.

It was just one of several criminal incidents that police responded to in 24 hours, coinciding with a heat wave.

Culpeper County E911 received a call around 9:23 a.m. July 21 about a shooting in the area of the 15500 block of the area behind the Target shopping center.

The caller, an adult male, advised that he had been shot and it was not an accident, the Culpeper Police Department said in a statement. The 36-year-old was transported to Novant Health UVA Culpeper Medical Center, then flown to UVA Charlottesville with non-life-threatening injuries. He was treated and released.

The alleged shooter, Kendrick Reaves, 29, of Culpeper turned himself into law enforcement within hours after the shooting, Master Police Officer Julia Cole said in the statement.

Reaves has also been charged with unlawful shooting in the commission or attempted commission of a felony as well as reckless handling of a firearm. Reaves was being held in the Culpeper County Jail without bond eligibility.

In the course of the argument, Reaves shot the victim before fleeing the scene in a vehicle, Cole said. Both men knew each other, and it did not appear a random interaction, she said.

A search warrant was executed at a residence in Culpeper County, leading to the seizure of an involved vehicle.

While searching the shooting scene, a Virginia State Police Explosives K9 Unit found a firearm as well as other suspicious items sent to a forensic lab for testing, police said.

This was an exhaustive investigation, said Police Chief Chris Jenkins, across multiple scenes, multiple agencies, and involving many officers.

He thanked the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office and Virginia State Police Tactical Team and Explosives K9 Unit for their assistance, and commended his officers and detectives for their hard work.

Most preliminary investigations finish within a few hours. Our detectives were on this incident for almost 12 hours straight in the heat, which doesnt include all the follow-ups that are still ongoing, Chief Jenkins said. While the detectives were working, our patrol units continued to assist with the investigation in addition to responding to two death scenes, a domestic dispute, a robbery, and a high-value fraud, all on top of the normal calls for service.

Police ask anyone with more information to call Sgt. Norma McGuckin at 540-829-5523 or email tips@culpeperva.gov. Anonymous tips go to Culpeper Crime Solvers at 540-727-0300 or culpeperpd.org.
Through a wave of pandemic-related litigation, a trio of small but mighty conservative legal blocs has rolled back public health authority at the local, state and federal levels, recasting Americas future battles against infectious diseases.

Galvanized by what theyve characterized as an overreach of COVID-related health orders issued amid the pandemic, lawyers from the three overlapping spheresconservative and libertarian think tanks, Republican state attorneys general and religious liberty groupsare aggressively taking on public health mandates and the government agencies charged with protecting community health.

I dont think these cases have ever been about public health, said Daniel Suhr, managing attorney for the Liberty Justice Center, a Chicago-based libertarian litigation group. Thats the arena where these decisions are being made, but its the fundamental constitutional principles that underlie it that are an issue.

Through lawsuits filed around the country, or by simply wielding the threat of legal action, these loosely affiliated groups have targeted individual counties and states and, in some cases, set broader legal precedent.

In Wisconsin, a conservative legal center won a case before the state Supreme Court stripping local health departments of the power to close schools to stem the spread of disease.

In Missouri, the Republican state attorney general waged a campaign against school mask mandates. Most of the dozens of cases he filed were dismissed but nonetheless had a chilling effect on school policies.

In California, a lawsuit brought by religious groups challenging a health order that limited the size of both secular and nonsecular in-home gatherings as COVID-19 surged made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. There, the conservative majority, bolstered by three staunchly conservative justices appointed by President Donald Trump, issued an emergency injunction finding the order violated the freedom to worship.

Other cases have chipped away at the power of federal and state authorities to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for certain categories of employees or a governors ability to declare emergencies.

Although the three blocs are distinct, they share ties with the Federalist Society, a conservative legal juggernaut. They also share connections with the State Policy Network, an umbrella organization for conservative and libertarian think tanks, and the SPN-fostered American Juris Link, described by president and founder Carrie Ann Donnell as SPN for lawyers. In the COVID-19 era, the blocs have supported one another in numerous legal challenges by filing amicus briefs, sharing resources, and occasionally teaming up.

Their legal efforts have gained traction with a federal judiciary transformed by Republican congressional leaders, who strategically stonewalled judicial appointments in the final years of Democratic President Barack Obamas second term. That put his Republican successor, Trump, in position to fill hundreds of judicial vacancies, including the three Supreme Court openings, with candidates decidedly more friendly to the small-government philosophy long espoused by conservative think tanks.

You have civil servants up against a machine that has a singular focus and that is incredibly challenging to deal with, said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

All told, the COVID-era litigation has altered not just the government response to this pandemic. Public health experts say it has endangered the fundamental tools that public health workers have utilized for decades to protect community health: mandatory vaccinations for public school children against devastating diseases like measles and polio, local officials ability to issue health orders in an emergency, basic investigative tactics used to monitor the spread of infectious diseases, and the use of quarantines to stem that spread.

Just as concerning, said multiple public health experts interviewed, is how the upended legal landscape will impact the nations emergency response in future pandemics.

This will come back to haunt America, said Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of Georgetown Universitys ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law. We will rue the day where we have other public health emergencies, and were simply unable to act decisively and rapidly.

Legal version of Navy SEAL Team 6

The entities pressing the public health litigation predate the pandemic and come to the issue motivated by different dynamics. But they have found common interest amid COVID-19, following the sweeping steps public health officials took to stem the spread of a deadly and uncharted virus.

A coalition of state-based libertarian and conservative think tanks and legal centers, known as the State Policy Network, long has operated behind the scenes promoting a conservative agenda in state legislatures. A KHN analysis identified at least 22 of these organizations that operate in the legal arena. At least 15 have filed pandemic-related litigation, contributed amicus briefs, or sent letters threatening legal action.

Typically staffed by just a handful of lawyers, the organizations tend to focus on influencing policy at the state and county levels. At the core of their arguments is the notion that public health agencies have taken on regulatory authority that should be reserved for Congress, state legislatures, and local elected bodies.

Its not about public health, its about weakening the ability of government to regulate business in general.

Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which calls itself the legal version of the Navy SEAL Team 6, has filed a flurry of COVID-related litigation. Among its victories is a state Supreme Court ruling that found Democratic Gov. Tony Evers declaration of multiple states of emergency for the same eventin this case, the pandemicwas unlawful. It used the threat of litigation to get a Midwest health care system to stop considering race as a factor in how it allocates covid therapeutics.

The Kansas Justice Institute, whose website indicates it is staffed by one lawyer, persuaded a county-level health officer in that state to amend limitations on the size of religious gatherings and stopped a school district from issuing quarantines after sending letters laying out its legal objections.

Suhr, of the Liberty Justice Center, noted one of his groups cases underpinned the Supreme Courts decision crimping the ability of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to mandate large-business owners to require COVID-19 vaccinations or regular testing for employees. The group teamed with the legal arm of Louisianas Pelican Institute for Public Policy on behalf of a grocery store owner who did not want to mandate vaccines for his employees.

Republican attorneys general, meanwhile, have found in COVID-related mandates an issue that resonates viscerally with many red-state voters. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry joined a suit against New Orleans over mask mandates, taking credit when the mandate was lifted.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sued the Biden administration over strict limits on cruise ships issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arguing the CDC had no authority to issue them, and claimed victory after the federal government let the order expire.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined with the Texas Public Policy Foundation to sue the CDC over its air travel mask mandate. The case was put on hold after a Florida federal district judge in April invalidated the federal governments transportation mask mandates in a case brought by the Health Freedom Defense Fund, a group focused on bodily autonomy. The Biden administration is fighting that ruling.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has sued and sent cease and desist letters to dozens of school districts over mask mandates, and set up a tips email address where parents could report schools that imposed such mandates. The majority of his suits have been dismissed, but Schmitt has claimed victory, telling KHN almost all of those school districts dropped their mask mandates. This year, legislators from his own political party grew so tired of Schmitts lawsuits that they stripped $500,000 from his budget.

Our efforts have been focused solely on preserving individual liberties and clawing power away from health bureaucrats and placing back into the hands of individuals the power to make their own choices, Schmitt, who is running for U.S. Senate, said in a written response to KHN questions. Im simply doing the job I was elected to do on behalf of all six million Missourians.

Numerous Republican attorneys generals teamed up and won a Supreme Court decision staying the OSHA vaccine mandate for large employers, building on the legal arguments brought by Liberty Justice Center and others. That decision was cited in the recent Supreme Court case rolling back the Environmental Protection Agencys authority to regulate the carbon emissions that cause climate change.

A shared ecosystem





Religious liberty groups were drawn into the fray when states early in the pandemic issued broad restrictions on recreational, social, and religious gatherings, sometimes limiting attendance at worship services while keeping open hardware and liquor stores. Although their legal efforts were unsuccessful in the first months of the pandemic, they gained traction after Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett, a stalwart conservative, was confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice in October 2020, following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a steadfast liberal.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, rewrote an executive order after receiving a letter from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a leading religious litigation group, announcing that Catholic and Lutheran churches would be opening with or without permission. In November 2020, the Supreme Courts newly constituted majority prevented New York from enacting some COVID-19 restrictions through a shadow court docket.

Courts started saying, Show me the proof, said Mark Rienzi, Beckets president and CEO. And when you start saying that casinos, good; churches, bad; Wall Street good; synagogue, bad, those things at some point require some explanation.

In February 2021, Barrett joined other conservative justices in ruling against California in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, ending state and local bans on indoor worship services and leaving the state on the hook for $1.6 million in attorneys fees to the conservative Thomas More Society. That April, the high court struck down California and Santa Clara County rules limiting gatherings in private homes that prevented people from participating in at-home Bible study. Plaintiffs lawyers arguing that case had clerked for Barrett and Justice Clarence Thomas.

American Juris Link, meanwhile, helped build out a list of COVID-related cases for lawyers to reference and connected lawyers working on similar cases, Donnell said.

Peter Bisbee, head of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a political fundraising machine, sits on American Juris Links board; Donnell said the two talk regularly. Bisbee said the groups have no formal connection but share a common cause of shrinking the expansive regulatory administrative state.

Liberty Justice Centers Suhr said litigation groups like his operate in a shared ecosystem to curtail government overreach. I have not been invited to any sort of standing weekly conference call where a bunch of right-wing lawyers get on the call and talk about how theyre going to bring down the public health infrastructure of America, he said. Thats not how this works.

Still, he said, everyone knows everyone else, either through previous jobs or from working on similar cases. Suhr was once policy director for former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, and a deputy director of the student division of the Federalist Society.

Its not about public health





No equivalent progressive state litigation network exists to defend the authority housed in government agencies, said Edward Fallone, an associate professor at Marquette University Law School and expert in constitutional law.

The difference, he said, is funding: Private donors, corporate interests and foundations with conservative objectives have the deep pockets and motivation to build coalitions that can strategically chip away at government oversight.

On the other side, he said, is often a county attorney with limited resources.

Its almost as if government authority is not getting defended, and its almost a one-sided argument, he said. Its not about public health, its about weakening the ability of government to regulate business in general.

Public health is largely a local and state endeavor. And even before the pandemic, many health departments had lost staff amid decades of underfunding. Faced with draining pandemic workloads and legislation from conservative forces aimed at stripping agencies powers, health officials often find it difficult to know how they can legally respond to public health threats.

And in states with conservative attorneys general, it can be even more complicated. In Missouri, a circuit court judge ruled last year that local public health officials did not have the authority to issue COVID-19 orders, describing them as the unfettered opinion of an unelected official.

Following the ruling, Schmitt declined the state health departments request for an appeal and sent letters to schools and health departments declaring mask mandates and quarantine orders issued on the sole authority of local health departments or schools null and void.

Not being able to work with the schools to quarantine studentsthat really inhibited our ability to do public health, said Andrew Warlen, director of Missouris Platte County Health Department, which serves the suburbs of Kansas City. Its one of the biggest tools we have to be able to contain disease.

You destroy government, and you destroy our emergency response powers and police powersgood luck. There will be no one to protect you.

The legal threats have fundamentally changed the calculus for what powers to use when, said Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving community health. Choosing not to use a policy today may mean you can use it a year from now. But if you test the courts now, then you may lose an authority you cant get back, he said.

By no means have the blocs won all their challenges. The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a Becket lawsuit on behalf of employees challenging a vaccine mandate for health care workers in New York state that provides no exemption for religious beliefs. For now, the legal principles that for nearly 120 years have allowed governments to require vaccinations in schools and other settings with only limited exemptions remain intact.

Several lawyers associated with these conservative groups told KHN they did not think their work would have a negative effect on public health. I honestly think the best way for them to preserve the ability to protect the public health is to do it well, and to respect peoples rights while you do it, said Beckets Rienzi.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, decried the wave of litigation in what he called a right-wing laboratory. He said he has not lost a single case where he was tasked with defending public health powers, which he believes are entirely legal and necessary to keep people alive. You destroy government, and you destroy our emergency response powers and police powersgood luck. There will be no one to protect you.

As public health powers fade from the headlines, the groups seeking to limit government authority have strengthened bonds and gained momentum to tackle other topics, said Paul Nolette, chair of the political science department at Marquette University. Those connections will just keep thickening over time, he said.

And the pressure against local governments shows no signs of stopping: Schmitt has set up a new online tips form similar to his efforts on maskingbut for parents to report educators for teaching critical race theory.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney is withholding some of his public records regarding a news conference he held about an alleged foiled mass shooting plot.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch through the state Freedom of Information Act asked for emails and other documents from Stoney and the Richmond Police Department following the July 6 news conference, where officials said authorities had thwarted a planned Independence Day mass shooting at the crowded Dogwood Dell amphitheater.

Speaking to the media, Stoney referenced what he called an epidemic of gun violence. The news conference was held days after a gunman opened fire on a July Fourth parade in suburban Chicago, killing seven.

Whether youre at home in your cul-de-sac, or in your neighborhood, or in a park, or at a parade, out dining  you have to keep your head on a swivel, said Stoney, standing in front of City Council members and other officials.

Police Chief Gerald Smith said during the news conference that the investigation began after getting a tip from a hero citizen on July 1. The person overheard a conversation regarding the shooting, he said.

Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52, was arrested that same day. Rolman Alberto Balcarcel, 38, was put under surveillance and arrested days later near Charlottesville, police said.

One phone call saved numerous lives on the Fourth of July, Smith said during the news conference.

But while Smith said a citizen tipster told police that the men were going to shoot up Dogwood Dell, a police spokeswoman told television station WRIC-TV a few days later that the tip did not include a specific location.

Court documents also revealed details of the correspondence between the tipster and Richmond police. The affidavit makes no mention that the person informed police that Dogwood Dell was where the mass shooting would take place.

Officials have not responded to questions about a possible motive of the attack they say was planned. The Fourth of July events and fireworks show at Dogwood Dell were still held.

The Times-Dispatch on July 8 submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Richmond Police Department and a second FOIA request to the mayors office to obtain correspondence related to the news conference, including emails, texts and notes.

Richmond police told The Times-Dispatch that it would be charged $568.32 as a deposit for an IT employee to spend an estimated 12 hours searching for the records. The newspaper is negotiating with police about that request. The mayors office charged $54.61 for records.

Stoneys office opted not to disclose several documents, including two emails containing drafts of statements from the news conference, four text messages and one text message between the mayor and press secretary Jim Nolan.

The mayor cited an exemption in Virginias Freedom of Information Act for executive working papers, one of about 150 discretionary records exemptions in the states open records act. The exemption allows elected officials to not make public documents that are for personal or deliberative use.

Stoney did not respond to questions from The Times-Dispatch about the documents. Nolan also did not immediately return messages for this story.

***

According to Alan Gernhardt, the executive director of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act Advisory Council, nothing in Virginia Code requires the mayors office to answer why the records will not be made public. The state agency helps resolves FOIA disputes.

As long as localities cite the exemptions as written in state code, theyre not compelled to tell you anything more than that, Gernhardt said.

He also pointed out a change to the FOIA law effective July 1 that states a public body searching for the requested records shall make all reasonable efforts to supply the requested records at the lowest possible cost.

Although VFOIA law does not require localities to charge per request, they still have the option to do so, Gernhardt said.

With the way the laws been phrased, it just says, You may charge, so its permissive not required, he said. Technically since it says may in the law, a locality could say our policy is to charge every request or every single time in some cases.

A Richmond city regulation says the citys VFOIA representatives shall charge the requester for the response.

I have heard of some other bodies that are like that. That they literally charge every single time. You get one sheet of paper and its 10 cents; you get 100 and its 10 bucks, Gernhardt said. I mean thats really up to them and their policy.

But he said Richmonds regulation isnt in conflict with the states new FOIA law as written.

A hypothetical example of a conflict is if somebody were to say, We shall charge a minimum of five dollars per record for every record to go out of this office, Gernhardt said. That would be a violation, because that could exceed a reasonable cost.

Gernhardt said there are rules outside FOIA that may require minimum fees for such records as Virginia court systems or the Department of Motor Vehicles, but lawmakers have addressed concerns over high charges for FOIA requests before.

Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, this year submitted House Bill 599, which would limit the charges incurred by an individual seeking four or fewer individual record requests. That bill was killed in committee. The new law that passed that requires government to keep costs minimal was sponsored by Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper.

Gernhardt said that in general, citizens have expressed concerns about higher charges for FOIA records, but hes unsure how those issues should be addressed.

Again as the law currently stands, technically its an allowed expense as long as its reasonable, he said. Should it be that way in an ideal world, thats not for me to say, but thats the way it is as the law as written.

The men arrested in the threat case are both from Guatemala and are not in the U.S. legally. Documents filed in General District Court in Richmond said Alvarado-Dubon has an expired visa, but did not include any details about the alleged plot.
Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Richmond on Saturday for a roundtable discussion with lawmakers about fighting for abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Further details have not yet been released.

Harris has been meeting with legislators and advocates in a number of states and urging them to protect abortion rights.

The vice president met in North Carolina on Thursday with more than 20 state legislators, local leaders and advocates who are fighting on the front lines to protect reproductive rights, according to Harris office.

Harris previously met with groups of state legislators on July 8 at the White House; on July 14 in Orlando, Fla.; on July 16 in Philadelphia; and on July 18 in Atlantic City, N.J.

Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, tweeted that she will greet Harris and participate on the panel. Lucas has said the state Senate, where she leads the Education and Health Committee, will block Gov. Glenn Youngkins push to ban most abortions after 15 weeks.

On June 24, the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Youngkin said he will push for a measure to ban most abortions in Virginia after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest or when a womans life is in jeopardy.

Four days later, Youngkin told The Family Foundation that he would like to go further, but his goal is to get a bill he can sign.

It wont be the bill that we all want, said Youngkin, indicating that he believes life begins at conception.
The Scotts Bluff County and Morrill County Sheriffs offices, Nebraska State Patrol, and the Scottsbluff, Gering and Minatare police departments were all involved in Thursdays efforts.

People can anonymously report their tips to the Crime Stoppers at 308-632-STOP (7867) or the Text-a-Tip program, tips@scottsbluffcounty.org.
This never seems to end. Johnny Depp countersued Amber Heard's defamation appeal. The actor was already ready to forgive the debt of eight million dollars if Heard agrees with the court ruling, but the actress continued the scandalous divorce.

This became known the other day when Heard's lawyers filed an appeal. The Daily Mail reported that Depp has since had to respond to his ex-wife's actions: the actor's lawyers have filed papers demanding a review of the case. "We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand," his spokesman said.

In early June, the jury unanimously found Amber Heard guilty in the case against Johnny Depp and ordered her to pay $15 million in compensation to the actor. However, Western tabloids soon reported that the actress has serious problems with her finances and is going to appeal.

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THURSTON COUNTY  A Kalama man is asked to repay the state $160,000 after a Thurston County court found he faked an injury to collect workers compensation benefits.

Between January 2018 and January 2020, James Joseph Thomasson, 53, stole from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries and must now repay $163,566, according to L&I.

The workers comp system is intended to help injured workers heal and get back to work  not line the pockets of cheaters, said Celeste Monahan, assistant director of L&Is Fraud Prevention and Labor Standards division, in an L&I news release.

On top of the fine, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Allyson Zipp sentenced Thomasson to 60 days in home detention.

According to L&I, Thomasson claimed he hurt his back while using a wedge to fell a tree in Shelton. In 2019 investigators got an anonymous tip Thomasson was active and soon captured him on surveillance video performing numerous physical activities that were inconsistent with his medically prescribed restrictions.

In early 2020, L&I investigators showed their footage to Thomassons medical provider, who said Thomasson was intentionally misrepresenting his injuries.

Thomasson admitted to this in court, according to L&I.

Zipp granted Thomassons request to delay his home detention until after fire season.
 Flash

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a congratulatory message to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Egypt's 70th national day.

In the message, Xi said that in recent years, Egypt has steadfastly followed the path of independence, made vigorous progress in national development, and played an important role in regional and global affairs.

Noting that he and Sisi both attended the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development held recently, Xi said they have pushed for fruitful results of the event, and sent a strong message of the times for common development and prosperity.

Stressing that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Egypt relations, Xi said that he is ready to work with Sisi to firmly support each other, advance the joint construction of the Belt and Road, conduct cooperation on the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and firmly march towards the goal of building the China-Egypt community with a shared future in the new era, so as to bring benefits to the two countries and their people.
A new design for the Industrial Way and Oregon Way intersection includes a roundabout and received early approval from Longview leaders this week.

The Washington State Department of Transportation presented the newly updated design to local business and agency leaders Thursday at the Cowlitz County Events Center in the third meeting this year aimed to finalize the long-discussed project.

Certainly the verbal endorsement yesterday from the room is a really big milestone so yes, this is the new design that is moving forward, WSDOT spokeswoman Kelly Hanahan told The Daily News.

A full cost estimate for the new design wont be available until late September, after the roadways have been modeled in more detail. Officials expect an increase from the previous $98 million estimate, largely due to the new designs additional roads.

Plans

WSDOT and the local community have been planning for years to redesign the roadway by elevating the intersection above the rail lines. The change would reduce traffic by separating the trucks and trains that travel into Longviews complex of paper mills.

The biggest addition to the current design from previous iterations is a roundabout that provides a secondary set of roads at the intersection. The roundabout will be located directly south of the elevated main intersection of Industrial Way and Oregon Way, with access into the mills and the Port of Longview from the east side of the intersection.

Kyle Williams, from the consulting firm contracted with the Department of Transportation, said Thursday the roundabout is intended to provide redundant access, or multiple ways, for trucks and employees to reach the mill complex, as well as easier U-turns.

By having a portion or a majority of those large vehicles using that as a release valve, the rest of the vehicles can cross the intersection much more smoothly, Williams said.

Roads from the roundabout would cross the railroad line heading into the Port of Longview at ground level. Williams and Lo said the design presented unique challenges to signal for incoming trains. However, they said the port indicated the area would likely not see a high volume of rail traffic.

The major complaint the mills have lodged against previous designs has been the elimination or impacts on main gates into the complex. Roads from the roundabout provide direct access to one gate currently along Oregon Way, or Route 433, and another that will be moved closer to the intersection.

Youve clearly listened to our concerns and attempted to address them, which we appreciate, Nippon Dynawave Packaging spokesman Brian Wood said Thursday.

There are multiple details and final design elements to work out as the roads get modeled in-depth. Stakeholders in the room Thursday debated about the best way to accommodate bicycles along the new roads and ways to design the roundabout.
An early version of the Interstate 5 Bridge plan officially moved into the federal environmental review process after it was unanimously recommended by the executive steering committee on Thursday.

In the next step, the environmental review phase, the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program will spend roughly the next year and a half conducting an environmental evaluation and design refinements.

This is like climbing Mount Everest, said Greg Johnson, the programs administrator. We are just at base camp, we are nowhere near the summit, we have significant work to do, but getting to base camp is a significant step and it prepares us to make a successful climb.

Johnson and members of the Interstate Bridge Replacement team also received feedback, ranging from questions about the financing of the project to concerns over tolling, from the bistate legislative committee today.

I am concerned that we are moving forward with just one (bridge) option in the supplemental draft environmental impact statement knowing that last time when we tried to get the Coast Guard to move it delayed us for one year, Representative Khanh Pham said.

The vote follows the endorsement of the modified locally preferred alternative by all eight partner agencies.

Next steps

An upcoming environmental impact statement will build off the work done for the failed Columbia River Crossing, examining everything that has changed to the project area over the past decade. It will also identify where the bridge will sit and what properties will be impacted.

We are building on that, but we are also acknowledging that there has been a number of changes that have happened in this region, Johnson said.

There will be an opportunity for public comment before the supplemental final environmental impact statement and record of decision are published.

Along with the supplemental environmental impact statement, the I-5 Bridge project will spend the next year and a half developing a conceptual finance plan, applying for grants, developing a plan to address partner conditions and going before the Oregon Legislature for funding.

I tell folks, were probably at the 10,000-foot view of a cost estimate we will be trying to get down to the 1,000-foot view or the 500-foot view by the end of the year, Johnson said.

The modified locally preferred alternative was developed with the assumptions that it will be a replacement bridge with three through lanes in each direction, additional interchange improvements within the program corridor and variable rate tolling for funding and congestion mitigation.

The bridge type and bridge layout  if it is side-by-side or stacked  will not be selected until at least 2024.
After two years of readjusting and struggling with COVID-19, the Kelso Public Library is revamping its in-person programs this summer.

Every Thursday this summer, the Kelso Public Library has drawn young kids to the library storefronts at the Three Rivers Mall for either Adventure Camp or Arts Camp activities. One of the camps involved making paper collages inspired by the paintings of Henri Matisse.

The camp activities are an extension of the librarys summer reading program theme of Read Beyond the Beaten Path and are one of the most visible efforts the library has undertaken to draw in more patrons.

We want to get the idea out there that were about a lot more than books, so we are making these programs to highlight the different areas of our collection, Library Director Natalee Corbett said.

Libraries in Longview, Kelso and across Washington have struggled to build back to their event and circulation levels from before the pandemic. Kelso is in the last phases of its recovery: in June the library had more than 2,500 items checked out for the first time since January 2020.

The rise in events and circulation is supported by an influx of new staff members the library has received over the last year. The city hired a new childrens librarian at the end of 2021 and in May hired a library assistant to lead the adult programming events.

It does feel like even since May, more people have been coming into the library. People are getting to these events at the normal amounts, library assistant Erik Moser said.

The adult programs Moser helped launch include monthly book clubs that meet at the library and the adult summer reading program, with a similar outdoor camping theme to the kids program and book tracking through the Reader Zone app.

Corbett said the heavy camping themes for the summer programs were based on the interests of Kelso residents.

We get good ideas from what circulates in our collection. We take a lot of feedback from patrons that are in the library and I try to be in the wider community as much as I can, Corbett said.

Additional programs and events are in the works for the fall. The library is shifting back to in-person craft nights instead of the take-home maker kits for small projects. The computer stations in the center of the library will be brought online over the next few weeks along with virtual reality headsets, which the library received grant funding to add to its collection in 2019 but havent yet made their debut.

Corbett said around Halloween the library plans to hold a harvest festival for Kelso families to attend for the first time in years.
KALAMA  For the first time Kalama has two police sergeants to help lead the small department.

Robbie Satterly was sworn in as sergeant during the Kalama City Council meeting Thursday evening. Satterly has been an officer with the department for over a year and beat out other candidates in the nationwide search for the sergeant position, said Chief Ralph Herrera.

Hes been a terrific addition to the Kalama family, Herrera said during the council meeting. Right away we knew Robbie had tremendous potential. And we were certainly fortunate to get somebody with so much training, experience and the type of leadership qualities you cant teach.

Satterly began his more than 16-year law enforcement career in Colorado and also worked for Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, Herrera said. Since joining the Kalama department, Satterly has helped mentor the younger officers, Herrera said.

A new officer will start Aug. 1 to fill the slot left by Satterly, Herrera said. At full staff, the department includes the chief, two sergeants, four officers and a police clerk.

Other business

The council also adopted the updated Cowlitz County Hazard Mitigation Plan and 2022 Comprehensive Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Plan.

Emily Moore, communications and records clerk, gave a short presentation on the citys new TextMyGov service. Residents can sign up to receive text message alerts for emergencies, events or both, Moore said. Residents can report an issue or ask questions by texting 564-204-4887. More information on the services is available at www.cityofkalama.com.
Saying its time for the state to up its game in recruiting law enforcement officers, Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday announced a proposal to create four regional police training campuses so new cops arent forced to take 19 weeks of classes far from home.

The planned expansion of the Criminal Justice Training Commission will increase training capacity, potentially eliminating wait lists for recruits and hopefully leading to more diverse police departments, Inslee said during a news conference at the commissions Burien training campus.

For those who want to keep officers safe and the public safe in interactions, the single best thing you can do is have a well-trained officer, and we are going to have well-trained officers to reduce untoward interactions with our citizens, Inslee said.

Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, who attended the news conference along with representatives from a variety of law enforcement agencies, said he intends to introduce legislation next year to add campuses in Pasco, Vancouver, Everett and Bellingham to reduce the burden on police cadets who dont live within easy driving distance of Burien.

Lovick, who served as a state trooper for 31 years before being elected to the statehouse in 1998, didnt provide a cost estimate for the plan, but said the state needs to make the investment regardless of the price.

Lawmakers earlier this year gave the commission an additional $8.7 million to increase the number of police cadets it could train, but those slots have already been filled and new recruits are waiting for spots to open, Lovick said.

This regional solution will expand access to law enforcement careers and will help train local law enforcement professionals who know the areas they serve. Ive seen many times the difference that makes in protecting communities, Lovick said. Im totally optimistic the investments that we make with this proposal will get the next generation of law enforcement professionals to step up and serve.

Though the commission operates a satellite campus in Spokane, capacity is limited to one or two small classes a year  which means that roughly 90% of new recruits statewide receive basic law enforcement training in Burien. The only exception: new Washington State Patrol troopers, who are trained at an agency facility in Shelton.

Between July 2020 and June 2021, 482 recruits in 16 classes began training in Burien, according to Inslees office. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 669 recruits in 22 classes had started training.

Monica Alexander, the commissions executive director, estimated that 95% of recruits graduate from basic training.

Meanwhile, the state lost 495 officers to retirements or resignations last year, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

The commission also offers equivalency training for experienced officers transferring from out-of-state agencies and advanced training for special investigations, crisis intervention, defensive tactics and other topics.

King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall said her agency has benefited from close proximity to the commissions Burien facility, allowing commanders to interact with recruits during their training. The new campuses will allow other agencies that same level of engagement with their recruits, she said.

Law enforcement in every jurisdiction is experiencing staffing challenges due to vacancies, said Cole-Tindall, adding her office currently has 118 vacancies.

Cole-Tindall said it takes 10 months to fully train a new deputy, including 19 weeks of basic training in Burien.

Regional campuses will mean more officers can be trained at once, she said. The result will be more officers on the street and that will have a direct impact on crime reduction, Cole-Tindall said. This is good news for us all.

Pasco Police Chief Ken Roske said his department recently had a viable candidate who had to turn down the opportunity to test for a job because she couldnt be away from her two young children for 4 1/2 months. He also pointed to candidates who are the only English speakers in their families and perhaps dont pursue a policing career because their absences while attending training would be too disruptive.

Those are quality people in our communities that we are not able to effectively recruit and retain, he said. What we are also missing is the cultural diversity that that would bring, not just from different walks of life but those people who want to serve the community but cant relocate.
Washington state is not constitutionally obligated to harvest forests or maximize revenue on state land, the Washington Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday.

For decades, the Department of Natural Resources harvested state forests to fund grade schools and universities based on an understanding of the state constitution, federal stipulations and legal precedent that land entrusted to the state must be used to maximize revenue and support public institutions.

But the court said this week the state isnt required to do either, a pivotal ruling that gives agency officials and lawmakers more discretion when interpreting the state constitutions policy on managing state forests.

While the court ruled in favor of the state, conservationists hailed the decision as a towering victory that paves the way for the state to maintain public forests in a way that takes greater account of endangered species, habitat loss, unemployment and climate change.

Thats what we were looking for, is that flexibility to now have a broader policy discussion of different ways to manage (Department of Natural Resources) lands, said Paula Swedeen, policy director of Conservation Northwest, an environmental advocacy organization.

The state Supreme Courts majority opinion, written by Justice G. Helen Whitener, said the use of revenue generated by logging public lands may be constitutionally protected, but its not the only way to manage public land for the benefit of all people, as the state constitution states.

There appear to be myriad ways (the Department of Natural Resources) could choose to generate revenue from the state and forest board lands or otherwise put them to use for the benefit of the enumerated beneficiaries, the state Supreme Courts majority opinion stated.

In Conservation Northwest v. Commissioner of Public Lands, conservationists challenged the underlying assumptions of the states management of land entrusted to Washington when it became a state in the late 19th century.

Conservation NW, the Washington Environmental Council, Olympic Forest Coalition and eight individuals argued the states prioritization of timber sales undercuts its other obligations to the public, namely efforts to counteract climate change, wildfires and land erosion. The lawsuit addressed two Department of Natural Resources resolutions concerning the protection of marbled murrelets  a small seabird found commonly along the northern Pacific Coast  and sustainable timber harvests on state and county lands.

The same lawsuit called for the court to interpret the state constitutions language on public lands. The constitution states all public lands granted to the state are held in trust for all people.

The complaint argued that using revenue from logging on public land to support certain projects does not reflect the interests of all people, and the state should instead manage the land in a way that reflects the growing need for sustainable jobs, climate resilience, salmon recovery and habitat restoration.

The state agency contended that it was acting on legal precedent.

The court held Thursday that the state has obligations to manage the land according to the Omnibus Enabling Act of 1889, in which the federal government entrusted the state with approximately 3 million acres of forested territory for the support of common schools and other public institutions.

Public Lands Commissioner Hillary Franz said the ruling gives her agency more leeway in how it achieves that.

I also recognize that in the face of a rapidly changing climate, we must do everything we can to safeguard public lands and protect our forests, Franz said in a statement.

The state and Legislature just need to generate revenue somehow, but they have all kinds of discretion that they didnt have yesterday, said Peter Goldman, founding director of the Washington Forest Law Center, an environmental nonprofit based in the state. We lost the battle, but we won the war.

The tethering of public schools to timber revenue has long been a heated controversy in Washington.

Earlier this week, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal put forward recommendations to decouple the states K-12 Common School Trust from funding for public school construction.

Currently, revenue from timber sales and leasing on roughly 1.8 million acres of public land is funneled into the fund. Schools have become less reliant on this revenue over the past decade  timber sales alone accounted for 0.7% of total school construction expenditure in 2021, compared to 2% in 2012.

Revenue from timber is often generated in rural communities but spent on more urban areas.

Reykdal proposed the Washington Legislature use other sources of funding, including general obligation bonds or cash, to decouple trust lands from school construction.
Belgium has severely criticized China's malicious cyberattacks against the country's federal ministries and called on Beijing to take steps to investigate the matter, media reports said.

Belgium has severely criticized China's malicious cyberattacks against the country's federal ministries and called on Beijing to take steps to investigate the matter, media reports said.

Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused China of cyberattacks against its federal ministries and Interior Ministries.

"Belgium strongly condemns these malicious cyber-attacks, which contravene the standards of responsible state conduct endorsed by all United Nations member states," said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported Brussels Times.

It added that the cyberattacks against the Belgian Government "have considerably affected our sovereignty, our democracy, our security, and our society".

Belgium's Cybersecurity Center has previously suggested that the attacks against its Interior Ministry was carried out with an ambition to gather intelligence.

Notably, the Chinese hackers have had access to the Ministry of the Interior for two years. In 2021, the attacks on the Ministry of Defence resulted in the Ministry's network being cut off from the internet for weeks and its staff not being able to communicate via email.

Belgium media have the country's defence ministry of an insufficient cybersecurity protocol after it bought hundreds of Huawei wifi routers at the start of 2022. Huawei equipment is considered a security threat with various governments, including in the UK, deciding to ban the company from working on its 5G rollout due to concerns of security breaches by China, as per the media portal.

In addition, Belgium's Defence has purchased video surveillance equipment from Chinese companies, Hikvision and Dahua, which have glitches in their system and could be easy to hack.

Meanwhile, Chinese hackers, reportedly sent emails with malware links to scientists and engineers at several of Russia's military research and development institutes on March 23 in order to purportedly obtain critical data on the country's security systems.

The emails, which were supposedly sent by Russia's Ministry of Health and contained seemingly tantalizing information about a "list of persons under U.S. sanctions for invading Ukraine" were actually sent by state-sponsored hackers in China seeking to entice their Russian targets to download and open a document with malware, New York Times reported citing a report by Israeli-American cybersecurity firm Check Point.

Check Point's research showed that despite the countries' deepening ties, China appeared to view Russia as a legitimate target for the theft of sensitive military technological information, the report said.

The report provides new evidence of Chinese efforts to spy on Russia, pointing to the complexity of the relations between the two countries that have drawn closer in solidarity against the US.

It also underscores the sprawling, and increasingly sophisticated, tactics China's cyber spies have used to collect information on an ever-expanding array of targets, including countries it considers friends, like Russia, the New York Times reported.

The Chinese espionage operation began as early as July 2021, before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Check Point report said. The March emails revealed that China's hackers had quickly exploited narratives about the war in Ukraine for their purposes.
Chinese researchers are planning to use the Moon as a base for defending the planet against deadly asteroids wiping the Earth. Read all about it.

Asteroids are harmless space rocks that give us something to stare at when they pass by Earth. However, if they slightly deviate their angle while approaching Earth, it could often mean deadly for us. After all, a large asteroid had done that almost 65 million years ago to wipe dinosaurs out of this planet. But what if humanity has to face such an extinction event in the future? Chinese scientists have proposed a way to use the Moon to protect us from these deadly space rocks!

Wu Weiren, chief designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, wrote in a paper published in the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Scientia Sinica Informationis that humans could use the Moon as a base station to defend us from these rocks. With other planetary defense options, everything has to be done from Earth and that could cost us time, which is valuable when a space rock is heading straight for us.

China to use Moon to protect us

The paper proposes an idea that plans to install two powerful space telescopes on the North and South poles of the Moon. These telescopes will looks out for threats that Earth-based telescopes may have missed out on. These could also looks out for the rocks that are approaching from the blind side of the Earth, which is the direction of the Sun. Currently, the telescopes and radar systems cannot look at rocks approaching from towards the Sun.

With the detection system in place, China would then use rockets to deal with the threat. These guardian rockets will carry fuel and weapons into the Moon's orbit. In the case of an incoming asteroid, the system can either deploy one or all the rockets to deal with the rock.

It will have the ability to intercept incoming asteroids from all directions, and can form a defense circle about twice the distance between the moon and Earth  about 800,000 km. in diameter, Wu and his colleagues said.

While the system sounds promising, it still remains to be seen if this is possible in reality. Carrying enough fuel and weapons into the Moon's orbit would require enormous rockets and multiple checks to ensure they work when needed.

Then there's the case of how to deflect the asteroids. Humans don't have the technology to vapourize astroids or space rocks, and NASA is currently doing a mission that will test whether hitting a small asteroid can deflect its angle ever so slightly. The most logical way to deal with these rocks is to simply deflect their angle of approach by enough margin so that they pass by peacefully.
An Australian town witnessed a creepy pink glow in the sky on Wednesday. While the initial assumption was interdimensional aliens or a solar storm, the truth was stranger than fiction. Check the details.

On Wednesday, July 20, the sky above the town of Mildura in Victoria, Australia began glowing in an eerie pink glow that startled many locals. Soon after, pictures of the night sky began being posted online with netizens coming up with reasons for this weird glow. While some decided to stick with science and thought it was some strange aurora display as a result of a solar storm, others thought it was the sign of the arrival of alien life on Earth. The event went on for a couple of hours, puzzling everyone. It was not till the next day when the reality finally surfaced and sadly, it was not as cool as interdimensional aliens. Read on to find out what caused this pink lighting in the sky.

Reportedly, the locals grew concerned about the event, not being able to find any rationale behind this strange phenomenon. Tammy Szumowski, a resident, spoke with The Guardian. He said, It was very bizarre. I was on the phone to my mum, and my dad was saying the world was ending.

Sarah Tomlinson, the chief of staff at local radio station ABC Mildura-Swan Hill finally posted on Twitter revealing the truth behind the mysterious event. She said, #Mildura and surrounds were treated to a spectacular sight tonight when a red light appeared in the sky. Was it aliens? An aurora? No, it appears to have been the hydroponic lights from a medicinal cannabis farm reflecting off clouds which is somehow the most Mildura answer ever. Check the tweet and the image of the sky below.

#Mildura and surrounds were treated to a spectacular sight tonight when a red light appeared in the sky.

Was it aliens?

An aurora?

No, it appears to have been the hydroponic lights from a medicinal cannabis farm reflecting off cloud which is somehow the most Mildura answer ever. pic.twitter.com/Wfy63tRrng  Sarah Tomlinson (@sarah_tomlinson) July 19, 2022

The mystery over the pink sky of Mildura is revealed

A pharmaceutical company called Cann Group later confirmed that it was indeed their facility where the lights were coming from. Explaining the reason behind the pink lights, senior communications manager at Cann Group Ltd, Rhys Coen said that it was for their Cannabis farms to help the plants grow better.

Cannabis plants require different spectrums of light in order to encourage their growth. A red spectrum light is often used. Normally the facility would have blackout blinds that come down at night, and will in the future block that glow, Coen said.
NEW YORK  The Democratic mayors of New York and Washington are asking the Biden administration to help with what they say is a surge in their cities of asylum-seeking migrants from border states, eliciting gleeful reactions from Republicans who say the pleas are evidence the U.S. is in an immigration crisis.

Muriel Bowser of Washington and Eric Adams of New York have plunged deep into the national debate about how to deal with migrants appearing at the U.S. border with Mexico, seizing on bus trips paid for by the states of Texas and Arizona to send migrants to the nations capital after their release by federal immigration authorities at the border.

Adams had incorrectly claimed migrants have also been bused to New York. He downplayed those misstatements Thursday, but stood firm in his criticism of the tactic touted by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, both Republicans.

The mere fact that they sent people out of their states, people who were seeking refuge in our country, then sent them away  did they deny that? Adams said. They ended up here because they didnt get the support there.

Abbott and Ducey have trumpeted the bus trips, a months-old practice that has been long on political theater but short on practical impact. Theyve sought to put President Joe Biden on notice about the consequences of border enforcement.

About 5,200 migrants have been bused from Texas since April and more than 1,100 from Arizona since May. The governors call the practice a voluntary free ride that gets migrants closer to family or support networks.

But Bowser said the asylum-seekers are being tricked, as many dont get close enough to their final destinations and some are ditched at Union Station near the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

This is a very significant issue, she said Sunday on CBS Face the Nation.

Under pressure to provide financial support, Bowser says she wants the federal government to help. The City Council told the mayor last week that volunteer groups are burned out and overwhelmed.

Now that the border has come to D.C., it is our responsibility to meet the moment, the council members wrote, while also castigating Abbott and Ducey for showing no regard for people who are exercising their human right to seek asylum.

Republicans who have been sharply critical of the White House have barely contained their glee.

Looks like Mayor Bowser is starting to feel a glimpse of what its like to be a border community under the #BidenBorderCrisis, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee wrote. Doesnt feel great, does it?

Ducey seized on Adams incorrect statement that Arizona was busing migrants to New York, noting it was sending them only to Washington.

Mayor Adams needs to get his facts straight and pay closer attention to whats really occurring because our nations security depends on it, he wrote on Twitter.

On Thursday, Adams placed further emphasis on the scale of New Yorks migrant influx and the citys legal and moral obligation to provide shelter, while condemning Texas and Arizona.

We do need help from the federal government, through FEMA, to assist us. This city was already dealing with a shelter population, and were going to need help to deal with this unprecedented surge, Adams said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week that the administration was looking into the mayors concerns. She said it was shameful that some governors are using migrants as a political tool, as a political play.

In Texas, Abbott has cast himself as a counterweight to Biden on immigration, insisting that every American community is a border community.

Abbotts busing is just one element of an increasingly aggressive expansion of his immigration enforcement powers into the traditional domain of U.S. government. Abbott authorized state forces this month to apprehend migrants and return them to the U.S.-Mexico border, where Texas has spent more than $3 billion in state funds on a massive security apparatus, without stemming the flow of migrants.

Arizona said it has bused 1,151 migrants to Washington since May. About one of every four of them named New York as their destination, about one in five said New Jersey, and many of the rest were headed to Georgia or planned on staying in Washington, Ducey spokesperson C.J. Karamargin said.

The Border Patrol stopped migrants nearly 193,000 times in June, the first decline after four straight monthly increases. Those numbers, hovering near the highest levels in two decades, show how little impact the bus rides have on overall migration flows.
Franklin County Public Schools transportation staff members have been working to address a shortage of bus drivers.

We do have 20 contracts open. If it came short of a thunderstorm that rained bus drivers, we are not going to fill those before the start of school, FCPS Transportation Supervisor Cheri Whitlow said.

The strategy created by the division combines route consolidation and shift sharing and will even require six office employeeincluding Whitlowand eight mechanics to drive buses.

Out of our eight-hour work day and the mechanics 10-hour work day, half of that goes to driving the bus, Whitlow said.

Even that plan leaves little to no room for error. If a driver or employee cant make it to work, that means some students may be late arriving to and returning from school.

There are no substitute bus drivers, Whitlow said. ...Last year we did have to do 15 elementary [school] call-outs. ... When we do that, literally there is nobody to drive the bus.

In those cases, the division may ask families to transport their students if possible.

If there is no additional transportation for your child, we will get them home...and we will get them to school. The timing may be a little different, Whitlow said.

Things are more complicated for secondary school students, who may be located further from their school depending on where they live. Some secondary school students have been added to a STAR, or secondary transportation alternate route.

Were asking secondary parents, when needed, that they bring their student in. Every elementary school will be a base area. For example, if we dont have a secondary driver in the Burnt Chimney area, Burnt Chimney Elementary School will be one pick-up, Whitlow said.

An elementary school driver would pick up secondary students at the base areas and take them to school.

We should not get them there past 8:25 or 8:30, Whitlow said.

Afternoons will work differently.

A call-out will go out that says, due to bus driver shortage, would you please pick up your child. ... If you cant, we will provide transportation, but it will only be when somebody finishes their route first, Whitlow said.

In the afternoon, students may be at least an hour late getting home.

Finally, Whitlow stressed the importance of updating family contact information.

Theres a plea to parents to make sure they update their InfoSnap, their information which goes into PowerSchool, which is where we pull our information when we do send a call-out through Messenger, Whitlow said.
After passing a resolution opposing 30x30 once and rescinding it, the Greeley County Board of Commissioners plans to pass it again Tuesday morning.

The commission passed a resolution on June 28, but rescinded the action on July 12, after receiving complaints from the Greeley County GOP.

Earlier, the Greeley County GOP had presented a proposed resolution to the county board. But Nadine Bane, vice chair of the Greeley County GOP, said changes had been made in the document that were not to the Republicans liking.

The term 30x30 is shorthand for a goal set by President Joe Biden to permanently protect the nations land and waters in their natural state or conserve 30% of it by 2030.

The plan is strongly opposed by Gov. Pete Ricketts. At his urging, 68 of Nebraskas 93 counties have passed a resolution opposing 30x30.

Jordan Foltz, chairman of the Greeley County Board of Commissioners, expects the resolution to be readopted with the right verbiage. Tuesdays meeting begins at 9:30 a.m.

Greeley County had been looking at passing a 30x30 resolution since last May, Foltz said. The board looked at documents from Valley and Howard counties, as well as the Greeley GOP document, trying to see what language works best for our county, he said.

Members of the Greeley County GOP didnt quite agree with it 100%,  Foltz said.

Public comments will be accepted Tuesday before the document is adopted. Everyone should have a chance to talk because it directly affects the county. So we want to make sure that all our taxpayers have a say in how it goes, Foltz said.

Bane said that former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Theresa Thibodeau helped her put the Greeley County GOPs version of the resolution together.

Thibodeau and Trent Loos, who was her running mate when she ran for governor, spoke at the July 12 meeting of the Greeley County board. Loos, a radio personality, lives in Loup City.

The resolution was originally on the May 24 agenda, but it was tabled.

Changes were made in the document submitted by the Greeley County GOP, which angered Bane.

She said the board members approved the resolution on June 28 even though they didnt have the document in front of them. After approving it, the commissioners signed a separate sheet of paper, Bane said.

Bane says significant changes were made to the resolution the GOP presented to the three-person county board. It was her understanding that she would be contacted if changes were made.

At the July 12 meeting, Thibodeau requested that the commissioners rescind their earlier action and to consider a new resolution similar to the original one we presented at their board meeting earlier.

No one at the July 12 meeting admitted to making the changes, Thibodeau said.

I dont know how or who exactly changed the wording somewhat but it offended the people that brought it to us the first time, said Commissioner Michael Goldfish.

Goldfish pointed out that the board takes public comment at every meeting.

Its his opinion that if somebody brings the resolution up you probably better leave it alone unless somebody says different.

Joe Leslie, vice chairman of the Greeley County board, said some of the language got taken out and he didnt realize the document had been changed. But the changes in the document were not substantial, he said.

The changes softened language regarding anti-30x30 talking points.

Leslie said hes confident the resolution will be approved Tuesday.

Tim Esch, chairman of the Greeley County GOP, is glad the county is passing a resolution against 30x30.

Its good for the American farmer that we have those protections against the federal government, he said, adding that the Biden plan amounts to overreaching.

Esch believes the Greeley County Board of Commissioners will pass a resolution acceptable to the Greeley GOP.

We will get what we want because it needs to be done, and he thinks the county commissioners agree with his group, Esch said.

Thibodeau will again appear at Tuesdays meeting.

Bane said a meeting will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at a Greeley building owned by Vicki and Mike Goodrich.

Invited are farmers, ranchers and landowners who want to talk about Greeley Countys government.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY  A Thursday night shooting in South Sioux City that involved an officer with the South Sioux City Police Department is now being investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.

According to a press release, the shooting occurred at around 7:50 p.m. as officers were responding to a call about a possible overdose at an apartment complex near the 300 block of East 12th Street. "Paramedics had already responded to the call, but they were forced to evacuate the location after a subject brandished a firearm," the release stated.

The release then goes on to say that the suspect fired the weapon at officers in the hallway of the apartment building, which led to an officer returning fire and hitting the suspect.

At an 11:30 a.m. press conference on Friday morning, South Sioux City Police Chief Ed Mahon said Germek was injured and transported to a local hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. He then was placed in Dakota County Jail but needed to return to the hospital for a medical condition.

"It was unfortunate when we have to resort to that much force but the subject began firing on our officers and we had no other choice," Mahon said.

Mahon was unable to identify the officer who fired on Germek but said he would be going on administrative leave, which is standard protocol.

Mahon also couldn't say whether Germek was the person who called 911 about the overdose and whether Germek was returned to the hospital for overdose treatment.

In 2021, Germek successfully completed probation for a misdemeanor assault conviction and had his jail sentence waived.

As of now, charges are pending in the case and the investigation is ongoing.
The word is definitely Grease when talented high school students and recent graduates from throughout the region gather in Southern Illinois University Carbondales McLeod Theater later this month to tell the tale of a 1950s coming-of-age love story through the early sounds of rock n roll, hotrods and malt shops.

The performances by the All-Southern High School Theatre Project is presented by McLeod Summer Playhouse and Artspace 304. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. July 28-30, with a 2 p.m. matinee on July 31. The theater is in the Communications Building, 1100 Lincoln Drive, on the SIU campus.

The often-told story of teenagers working their way through high school with numerous pressures, including love, was initially a stage production in 1971 in Chicago. The musical moved in 1972 to Broadway, where it ran for nearly 3,400 performances before closing in April 1980, and has since had numerous revivals on Broadway and London, in addition to tours in the United States, Ireland, and London. The 1978 film adaptation starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and a Grease: Live television production was broadcast in 2016.

The 2022 performance at SIU features 21 students from high schools including Agape Christian High School, Carbondale Community High School, Carterville High School, Frankfort Community High School, Illinois Math and Science Academy, Johnston City High School, Mount Vernon Township High School, Murphysboro High School and Pinckneyville Community High School.

Matthew C. Williams, assistant professor of theater and dance at SIU, is the productions director and choreographer. Williams Broadway credits include Will Ferrells, Youre Welcome America and All About Me, in addition to the off-Broadway revival of Carrie the musical, and the acclaimed Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center.

The performances music is under the direction of Jackson Love, a graduate student in music theory/composition from Huntsville, Alabama, with additional choreography by Aubree Jean, a senior in musical theater.

Tickets available now

Additional show and ticketing information is available at playhouse.siu.edu or 618-453-6000 or the Saluki Ticket Office at 877-SALUKIS (725-8547).
U.S. House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn recently received the NAACPs highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, at the organizations annual convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

I am pleased beyond measure and humbled to receive the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor. The history of this award speaks to the work done for over a century to ensure the American dream is made accessible and affordable for all her citizens," Clyburn said in an NAACP news release.

From the moment of being elected president of my NAACP Youth Council (Sumter, S.C.) at the age of 12, I was taught that we all have roles to play in our nation's pursuit of perfection, he said.

I look forward to living long enough and serving well enough to prove myself worthy of joining the ranks of previous Spingarn Medal recipients that include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Justice Thurgood Marshall and my good friend, Congressman John Lewis, he said.

Clyburn is a 1961 graduate of what was then South Carolina State College. He is the third person associated with S.C. State University to receive the Spingarn Medal.

The medals inaugural recipient in 1915 was Ernest E. Just, a pioneering biologist, academic and science writer.

S.C. States second Spingarn Medal recipient was Civil Rights Era and higher education icon Benjamin E. Mays, who was honored in 1982.

Both attended S.C. State in its early years as the Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina.

In the news release, NAACP officials said the award recognizes Clyburn's tireless work advocating for voting rights, the protection of democracy and the rights of Black and other marginalized communities across America.

Whip Clyburn's contribution to civil rights is extraordinary, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in the news release. From championing rural and economic development to advocating for the restoration of historic buildings and sites on the campuses of historically Black colleges and universities, Whip Clyburn has been at the forefront of advocating for Black communities and helping to create a more equitable society for decades. The NAACP is proud to present Whip Clyburn with our highest recognition.

Clyburn and his late wife, Dr. Emily England Clyburn, met as students at S.C. State and were married for 58 years before her death in September 2019.

When he came to Congress in 1993 to represent South Carolinas sixth congressional district, Congressman Clyburn was elected co-president of his freshman class and quickly rose through leadership ranks. He was subsequently elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, vice chair, and later chair, of the House Democratic Caucus.

Clyburns beginnings in Sumter as the eldest son of an activist, fundamentalist minister and an independent, civic-minded beautician grounded him securely in family, faith and public service.

The Clyburn family has generously supported SC State over the years, including the establishment of the Dr. Emily England Clyburn Honors College Scholarships.

Other previous Spingarn Medal recipients include Cato T. Laurencin, Mrs. Daisy Bates (Little Rock Nine), Myrlie Evers-Williams, Earl G. Graves Sr., W.E.B DuBois, George Washington Carver, Charles Drew, Jackie Robinson, Jesse L. Jackson, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Quincy Jones and the Honorable Nathaniel Jones.
BRANCHVILLE  Mayor Frank Dickson announced that the town would be reapplying for the Rural Water Grant offered by the South Carolina Municipal Association.

The grant is open to towns with populations less than 10,000 and award them with funds up to $500,000 to use towards water and sewer work for the town.

Audrey Dash of Faith Deliverance Healing Temple approached town hall with the request for the town to allow the church the use of Horton Field for their Fun Day on July 30.

Dickson quickly conversed with council, and they agreed that it would be fine for the church to the use the field. Dash thanked them on behalf of the church and mentioned that all are welcome and that they will be offering lunch at the event.

Branchvilles next council meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 8 at Branchville Town Hall, 7644 Freedom Road.
DENMARK  An almost $100,000 garbage truck has been added to the City of Denmarks expenses after their council meeting in June.

City Administrator Heyward Robinson asked council, during their June meeting, to approve the purchase of a 2015 Freightliner garbage truck for $96,840.00 from Amick Equipment Company of Lexington.

Council approved the purchase unanimously.

According to Robinsons report, there will be an increase in garbage rates for the town. He stated, as in a previous meeting, that the garbage rate for those inside the city limits would increase from $9 to $12. He also added that the current rate for those just outside the city limits and commercial customers is already $12 but will increase to $16.

Robinson gave a second reading of an approximately $3 million 2022-2023 fiscal year budget, which included those figures. This budget was previously reported in The T&D, and it also includes a 3 percent cost of living increase for all employees but no tax increase as the millage rate will remain at 108.7.

Mayor Pro Tem Jake Bookard made a motion to approve the second reading of the budget. The City of Denmarks water and sewer fund budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023 is $1,350,000. The general fund budget is $1,612,000. The motion was seconded by Councilman Calvin Odom and was passed. The vote was unanimous.

In other business:

The Summer Recreation Program, a partnership between Denmark Technical College and the City of Denmark, started this year on Monday, June 27. The program had been put on hiatus the past couple of years because of the pandemic, and Denmark Technical College houses it most years. Mayor Gerald Wright said, This program is to give the children of Denmark something to do to keep them from becoming idle. Odom, who helps coordinate the program, asked Police Chief Leroy Grimes and Sheriff Kenneth Bamberg of the Bamberg County Sheriffs Office to come speak to the children. Law enforcement officials have given presentations for the children in previous years when the program has been held. For more information, contact Denmark City Hall.

According to minutes obtained from the meeting, Terrance Staley, a citizen of Denmark, expressed concern about his water bill during the meeting, but no further details were provided.
(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.
On Friday, DP minister Yuriko Backes confirmed the fuel duty discount would remain in place until the end of August.

Earlier this week, government sources suggested the fuel discount could be extended by another month. On Friday, the Minister of Finance confirmed the extension until the end of August 2022.

It is thought the reason for the extension is to bring Luxembourg in line with Germany, which has introduced a similar measure. The Greens announced on Thursday that they intended to approve the proposal on Friday in the government council, even though the ruling party maintains that the fuel discount of 7.5 cents per litre of petrol or diesel would be "pointless".

The measure, which was subsequently approved on Friday, will cost the state 11.5 million euros for August.

Luxembourg's petrol association welcomed the extension, although they would have preferred the discount be extended to the end of September, to bring it in line with Belgium.

In France, the discount is gradually being phased out. On Friday, TotalEnergies announced discounts of 20 and 10 cents respectively until the end of the year.

Vice-president of the Groupement petrolier, Paul Kaiser, said prices at petrol stations on the German border would be up 35% due to the higher prices in Luxembourg, compared to 2021.

However, Backes ruled out a further extension to the fuel discount as things stand.
At around 5.30pm on Friday evening, a motorcyclist was involved in a serious accident on the CR121.

The motorcyclist was seriously injured as a result of the crash between Mullerthal and Vugelsmillen and had to be admitted to hospital.

The road had to be temporarily closed due to the accident. The first responder (Samu) from Ettelbruck and the emergency services from Larochette and Waldbillig were despatched to the scene.

On Saturday morning, the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) reported that another accident involving a motorcyclist had occurred at about 6pm on Friday. This incident occurred on the CR364 between Beaufort and Berdorf. The accident left one person slightly injured.

At around 11.15pm, a car caught fire on the A4 towards Esch-sur-Alzette. The incident occurred near Pontpierre. Nobody was injured.

A car crashed into the crash barrier on the A3 near the French border at around 2am on early Saturday morning. Nobody was injured.

Finally, one person was slightly injured in an accident that occurred on Avenue Emile Reuter in Luxembourg City. Two cars crashed into each other at around 3.40am.
These autonomous drones, programmed to kill, use artificial intelligence to identify their targets and neutralise them, without human intervention.

It might sound like a script from a science fiction film, but Minister of Defence Francois Bausch is adamant: "It is reality, and it is chilling".

Luxembourg's Ministry of Defence has been dealing with the subject of autonomous and lethal weapons systems for two years. An interministerial working group was launched on Friday, headed by the Ministry of Defence. This group is expected to provide a dossier by summer 2023, in which Luxembourg will take a clear position on these automatic lethal weapons.

The Minister has already set the tone, stressing that Luxembourg "will be among those countries that will demand very strict rules at international level, while still giving itself the means at national level to protect its population".

As part of a campaign to stop the "killer robots", scientists and states are trying to mobilise leaders through conferences and striking videos against the use of these pre-programmed drones to kill specific people. The drones make use of an algorithm that uses facial recognition software to easily find specific groups of people or even individuals and kill them, remotely, without human intervention.

Bausch explains that unlike other dangerous weapons such as chemical or nuclear weapons, which are more difficult to obtain or manufacture, the materials needed for drones are "available and relatively easy to manufacture". And the consequences can be "extremely devastating," according to the Minister.

These drones have already been used, for example in Libya against the troops of Marshal Haftar, according to a United Nations report. For Bausch, it is now paramount to set clear restrictions ensuring that a human must be in control of one of these devices at all times.

The members of the Future of Life Institute believe that "these weapons using algorithms to kill are immoral and a serious threat to global security" and that the international community needs rules.

The Luxembourgish government now wants to assume its responsibilities. According to Bausch, Luxembourg is not alone, as other countries, such as Austria or the Netherlands, are of the same opinion as the Grand Duchy. The next step now is "to form a coalition of nations that want an international convention capable of creating the necessary rules and laws," the Minister states.

The full report by RTL Tele (in Luxembourgish):
The Left Party ('Dei Lenk') invited the press on Friday afternoon for a review of the past parliamentary year and did not mince its words when it came to criticising the government.

According to the opposition party, there is "no consensus" between the coalition partners. Instead, the pro-capitalist stance of the Democratic Party (DP) is "blocking new ideas". The Left Party argues that rather than "handing out money to everyone" with a fuel discount, raising the minimum wage would have been a more effective way to address price increases.

For MPs Nathalie Oberweis and Myriam Cecchetti, the housing issue needs to take centre stage. "We don't just use the word 'crisis', but we really think that this is how the situation should be treated", Oberweis explained, reiterating that "we have to act now, but the members of the government are not concerned by this problem, so nothing is being done".

Although there is strong political support for the accelerated depreciation reform in the Chamber of Deputies, no progress is being made. The Left Party also calls for an increase in the rent subsidy. These changes "would cost nothing," the party argues, and wonders why the government "does not take matters into its own hands".

The opposition party also regrets that the government is using "a lack of money as an excuse to avoid implementing the tax reform".

For the Left Party, the DP is blocking the government's work in general to do everything possible to ensure the competitiveness of Luxembourg's financial centre. But doing nothing and riding on the status quo would only increase injustices, according to the opposition party.

Video in Luxembourgish:
A man incarcerated at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution died in a Torrington hospital Thursday, the department of corrections said.

Fred Matthew Foley was 88 years old.

Foley had been serving a 30- to 40-year sentence at the Torrington prison after being convicted of first-degree sexual assault in 2014 in Sweetwater County.

He was born in 1934 in Brooklyn, New York, according to the department.

The DOC conducts autopsies on all who die in its care, but does not release health information -- including cause of death -- to the public.

Foley's is the seventh death among WMCI inmates so far this year. The facility houses the state's only prison hospice unit and also provides the most extensive medical care of any state prison in Wyoming.
ROUTT NATIONAL FOREST, COLORADO  With mosquitoes swarming around her, Inna Willis inspects the unknown creature trapped in her net with a mix of disgust and fascination. After learning its an aquatic beetle larva, Willis discards the unintended catch and moves on, trudging through the muddy water in her borrowed wading boots.

Willis, a graphic design intern at the University of Wyomings Biodiversity Institute, is participating in a survey for the Rocky Mountain Amphibian Project on this hot July day with Mason Lee, a project coordinator at the institute.

Though a student at UW, Willis is not pursuing a science degree, nor does she have any particular scientific background. Such is the spirit of community science, aka citizen science, in which volunteers  some untrained in scientific methods  act as foot soldiers in research projects, often by helping collect data in the field.

During todays survey, Willis spots tiger salamander larvae, frog tadpoles and adult boreal chorus frogs.

She will contribute her observations to a vast dataset that helps researchers track amphibian populations over time in the Bridger-Teton, Medicine Bow and Routt national forests.

The amphibian project is a collaboration between the BI and several other partners, including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The BIs role in RMAP involves recruiting, training and equipping community scientists. Each scientist adopts a survey area in the summer, known as a catchment, collecting data on the amphibians and environmental conditions they find.

Volunteers help researchers cover a wider geographic area over a longer period, said Lee, who manages all community science projects at the BI. Meanwhile, participants get the opportunity to contribute to science and take part in research happening in their area.

Community scientists experience not only the scientific process of data collection but also some of the difficulties of fieldwork.

The catchment that Willis and Lee are surveying in Routt National Forest is identified as Lone Pine Creek on the BIs website. The site is rated easy but still requires navigating a field of fallen trees, through dense willow patches, alongside a mountain stream and around occasionally deep and muddy waters prone to trapping ones foot in the stinky sludge.

Most community science happens on public lands. Theyre able to actually go out into the public lands where they would normally go to mountain bike or hike or something, and they get to see a different side of it when theyre doing these projects, Lee said.

Some RMAP sites require longer hikes to reach, and a few in the Bridger-Teton National Forest even necessitate backcountry camping.

Recruitment, retention

RMAP is the BIs most intensive program for community scientists, Lee said, and it experiences low volunteer retention rates year-to-year.

Other community science programs at the BI include the Annual Wyoming BioBlitz, the Mullen Fire Initiative, Bi-Annual Moose Day and the Laramie Salamander Migration Initiative.

During Summer Moose Day community scientists adopt routes to drive or hike, searching for moose or signs of them along the way. Volunteers can ski or snowshoe their routes for its winter counterpart. The BI offers training to prepare volunteers and the resulting data are used for research and management by UW and Wyoming Game and Fish.

While the BI only offers moose monitoring routes near Laramie, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation hosts its own Moose Day each winter with routes around Jackson.

Though their contributions are valuable  an observation borne out by research  the BI struggles to recruit community scientists beyond the Laramie area, and few of the RMAP sites outside of Medicine Bow National Forest get adopted by volunteers each summer, Lee said.

While many of the BIs community science projects are centered around Laramie, the organization is working on expanding its reach to other communities and growing its volunteer base across the state.

I think community science is important in Wyoming. We dont have huge population centers. Were kind of spread out. Community science can help fill in those gaps, Lee said.

Community scientists on par with experts

Researchers at UW and Wyoming Game and Fish analyzed the contributions of community scientists to the Rocky Mountain Amphibian Project.

One of their findings, according to a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Ecological Indicators, suggests competence by volunteers in detecting and identifying amphibian species at their catchments.

Theres no agenda.

The study compared data collected by community scientists and professional biologists that surveyed the same catchments in the same year. The results demonstrated a 77%-99% agreement between the species observations of volunteers and professional biologists at those sites.

The researchers also modeled probabilities for community scientists and biologists in the detection of each species. The modeled estimates were similar for most species except the states smallest frog, the boreal chorus frog, whose detection had a higher modeled average probability for biologists (74%) compared to community scientists (44%).

Lee, who contributed to the study and is listed as an author, wasnt surprised by its findings and emphasized the training and preparation that volunteers at the BI receive.

They really help magnify the research thats happening in Wyoming on amphibians because, without them, we wouldnt be able to monitor these species over time. That paper just reinstates that theyre collecting good quality data, and theyre making a big difference in terms of what professional scientists could do, Lee said.

Preaching to the choir

Community science is sometimes couched as outreach, essentially as a tool to reach people outside of the scientific community, involve them in the process and improve scientific knowledge among the public. Community impact is often an important aspect that funders use to gauge research projects.

There are issues with this approach though, Lee said.

A lot of community science, they call it preaching to the choir. People that participate in community science are the ones that are already interested in it, she said.

Esther Gilman-Kehrer is a clinical associate professor for UWs Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing and a volunteer through the Wyoming Naturalist Program. The program, coordinated by the BI, Audubon Rockies, Wyoming Game and Fish and Wyoming State Parks, trains participants to become certified naturalists in part through community science work.

Through the program, Gilman-Kehrer participated in this years BioBlitz and has adopted a catchment for RMAP. She has also volunteered for the Laramie Salamander Migration Initiative and regularly contributes species observations to the iNaturalist app.

Gilman-Kehrer has years of scientific background and experience in the nursing field, including a masters degree and a Doctor of Nursing Practice, and took science classes during her undergraduate studies.

She agrees that many of her fellow naturalists and community scientists already come from science and biology backgrounds, and said her motivation for joining the Naturalist Program was to spend more time outdoors and feel a sense of purpose simultaneously.

Ive spent my whole life working indoors. Ive been a nurse practitioner and then a midwife. So, I always worked in the hospital or indoors or in a clinic, she said. I never really got out as much as I did when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I was outside all the time.

With the benefits afforded to volunteers like Gilman-Kehrer, Lee hopes the BI can attract and generate a more collaborative process with the public for building community science projects in the future.

We would be very happy to work with communities that have a question about something thats happening in their area, she said. If they want to create a project, thatd be awesome.
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.
One month before his passing on May 6, 2001 the artist Carlisle Chang relived with relish th
Ministers seeing what it costs to keep them in govt
L-R Mr. Hans-Erich Schulz, Chief Executive Officer, CARIRI, H.E. Peter Cavendish, Ambassador, Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Honourable Penelope Beckles, Minister of Planning and Development, Mr. Hayden Ferreira, Chairman, CARIRI, Ms. Vashtie Dookiesingh, Senior Specialist, IDB Lab.
HKSAR gov't appeals to support from residential care homes, healthcare in expediting vaccination

Xinhua) 10:16, July 23, 2022

HONG KONG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Friday appealed to support from residential care homes (RCHs) and healthcare organizations for new measures to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate and better protect the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Chris Sun, secretary for labor and welfare of the HKSAR government, said that with the recent rise of COVID-19 cases in RCHs alongside the persistently high level of community infections and considering the vaccination rate for the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccines in RCHs is only standing at 39 percent, it is necessary to speed up their vaccination progress.

Health secretary of the HKSAR government Lo Chung-mau said the elderly is one of the high-risk groups that are most severely impacted under the COVID-19 epidemic, and a special program will be launched with a target of not missing any RCH resident who is ready to be vaccinated and getting them vaccinated as soon as possible.

The HKSAR government's objective is to increase the vaccination rate of the second dose in RCHs to over 90 percent within August, and to provide the third dose to all suitable RCH residents by the end of September, with a view to increasing the vaccination rate of the third dose to at least 50 percent, according to both secretaries.

From July 25, the government will invite medical teams to visit their matched RCHs at least once a week for outreach vaccination service for six weeks.

On Friday, Hong Kong registered 4,090 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 and 180 imported cases, official data showed.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
We have been touting the benefits of supercooling for years. Hundreds, if not thousands of Arizonas residents have learned from Rosie on the House how to supercool their homes during the summer to reduce the cost of their electric bills.

In addition to supercooling, there are seven concepts regarding your monthly utility bill that might help bring down the cost all year round, whether youre supercooling your house or not. It will be helpful to have your last electric bill handy for reference, while reading.

Now, lets get down to saving some energy and money.

1. Forget about the fees and taxes

There are nearly 20 separate fees or taxes listed on your electric bill. Theyre a distraction that you should ignore. The fees and taxes are all part of what you pay for your electricity, and they always have been. Theres no sense getting mad about those charges because there isnt anything you can do about them. There are other actions you can take instead. Find out what those charges mean by scrolling down past step No. 7.

2. Find out your cost per kWhTake the total charges for electricity services listed on the bill and divide by the total kilowatt hours that your home used. The calculation will give you what you pay on average per kilowatt hour for electricity. If youre paying 12 to 14 cents a kWh, youre doing an average job and doing fairly well at controlling your bill. If youre running 10 cents per kWh or less, youre doing a great job. But if you have a cost of 15 to 16 cents per kWh, you could be doing better.

Look at the cost per kWh on this Tucson Electric Power customer  she paid 17 cents per kWh, resulting in a $552 electric bill. She almost doubled her kWh usage in one month. Turns out the coils in her air conditioning system were not working properly, thus, making the system work harder and use more energy.

3. Get rid of your standard rate plan

If you have a costly bill, youre probably on the utilitys standard rate plan which means you pay a high kWh price every hour of the day. Many customers accidentally get on these plans when they first call up the utility to start service. These plans charge the same average rate every hour of the day and they work best for a single person living in a home or apartment with 1,000 square feet of space or less.

The TEP customer who paid 17 cents that month, had been on a basic plan, and had been paying 17 cents all along. She just changed to the demand time-of-use plan. We are interested to see her electric bills after the new rate takes effect and her air conditioning is fixed.

4. Get on a time-of-use planA high cost of kWh number often means youre probably not on a cost-saving, time-of-use rate plan. Call your utility and ask to get on one as soon as possible. You should also be able to do it online by logging into your account.

The aim is to use electricity more during hours when rates are low. Keep the air conditioning on more during the weekends. Do laundry and baking in the mornings or after 7 or 8 p.m. when rates are less.

I havent heard from a customer yet whose bills didnt go down once they switched to a time-of-use plan, says Steve Koepp of Advanced Home Systems, Inc. in Phoenix, a company that helps homeowners control utility costs. Rosie adds that he only knows of one homeowner whose bill did not come down with a time of use plan. A little investigating revealed that there was a Tesla that was being hooked up for a quick charge during peak hours  his bill was painful!

5. Keep up the research

After you change plans, your bill will show how many kWh you have used on- and off-peak. On-peak should only be 20 to 25% of your bill. You are really doing well if its 12 to 15% for on-peak. With all utilities, you should keep dividing total charges by total kWhs. One woman managed to get her on peak usage down to 2%. Her bill year over year for the month of June was cut by 50%. As she learned how to live using electricity during off peak hours, she went from an initial $12 a day to $6 a day. We all have places we would rather spend our money than at the utility company.

6. Get off budgeting equalizer plans

These plans charge you the same amount every month for power rather than sending bigger bills during the hot season and smaller bills in cooler months. This process takes some of the pain out of bills in summer when your AC drives up your costs. But they can be a poor solution because you tend to waste energy if you think your bill will never change. In addition, if your power use increases one year, the next year that average monthly bill will be bigger than last year.

Another problem: If a defective appliance starts using power excessively, like a pool pump, for example, you might not notice the problem for months when youre on an equalizer plan.

An equalizer plan also makes it harder to track what youre spending per kWh.

7. Perform a home energy audit

What good is your time-of-use plan if cold air seeps out the gaps in your doors and windows?

A home energy audit specialist will test your home and air conditioning system for leaks and other inefficiencies. The auditor may bring a thermal imaging camera to help detect unusual heating patterns  a symptom of poor insulation. A blower door test will determine how airtight your home is.

Other charges on your electric bill

Here are some of the most puzzling charges and what they pay for:

Renewable Energy Standards Tariff: Mandatory, non-bypassable surcharge applied to all energy consumed by all customers throughout a companys entire electric service area.

Environmental Benefits Surcharge: Pays for programs approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission, including energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

Federal Environmental Improvement Surcharge: Pays for environmental improvements at the APS facilities that were federally mandated.

System Benefits Charge: Pays for assistance for low-income users, customer education, environmental programs, long-term public benefit research, nuclear fuel disposal and nuclear power plant decommissioning, and other programs.

Franchise Fee: Fee charged by a city or county for the utility using public rights-of-way.

Power Supply Adjustment: Passes on rapid changes in fuel and other power costs to the consumer.

Regional Transportation Authority Tax: Funds transportation projects such as roadway expansions and safety upgrades.

ACC Regulatory Assessment: Helps fund the Arizona Corporation Commission and Residential Utility Consumers Office.

Federal Transmission and Ancillary Services: Pays for moving high voltage electricity from generating facilities to the utility such as Tucson Electric Power.

Federal Transmission Cost Adjustment: This charge adjusts for annual changes in transmission costs to serve customers. Its based on your use of kWhs.

Four Corners Adjustment: APS has bought Four Corners Units 4 and 5, part of a power plant near Farmington, New Mexico, that previously belonged to Southern California Edison. This fee helps pay for that.

LFCR or Lost Fixed Cost Recover Adjuster: This fee is the result of a 2012 settlement of a rate case that was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission. It helps fund the operation of the electric grid while allowing customers to use that grid as needed.

Tax Expense Adjuster Mechanism: An adjuster that provides a reduction to customer bills based on recent changes to the federal corporate income tax rate. (A reduction! We like this one.)

A simple plan change and adjustment to your power usage can result in significant savings. These are great action items that dont cost you a thing.

An investment in a programmable thermostat will pay for itself in just a couple of months.

Send your before and after energy bills so we can see your savings to info@rosieonthehouse.com.
A crew of young adults from the Tohono O'odham Nation will work at all five national park sites in Southern Arizona this fall, learning restoration techniques for ruins while being immersed in the culture and history of the region.

The crew will spend two to four weeks each at Saguaro National Park, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Chiricahua National Monument and Tumacacori National Historical Park.

The Arizona Conservation Corps began operating a Tohono O'odham crew in 2018, with members working from September through March on traditional O'odham lands in partnership with the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service.

Crew members complete restoration work on trails, rivers and traditional sites. They also inventory resources, build fences, educate the public and help visitors understand the site's significance and learn its story.

"They'll spend part of the time helping to restore ruins and doing adobe restoration work, and a variety of other projects," said Lee Gault, director of partnership development for Arizona and New Mexico's conservation corps. "Each project with each park is a little different."

"Historical ruins are suffering degradation because of climate change," Gault explained. "With the heat and floods that come with intense monsoons, the ruins get beat down."

The parks are losing expertise when it comes to historic preservation, with staffing shortages and employees retiring or switching fields, he added.

Pathway to careers

The Tohono O'odham crew is part of the corps' Indigenous Communities Program, rooted in the culture and heritage of local tribal communities, which includes conservation crews, internships and individual placements into jobs.

The program is open to Tohono O'odham members ages 18 through 25. The experience is intended to create a pathway to a career within the National Park Service.

The crews can either be day crews, which go home each night; overnight crews, which spend a few nights a week camping at their project site; or backcountry crews, which strike out and spend most nights camping in the field.

Each crew is made up of a leader, assistant leader and four members, but every participant develops leadership skills through the process.

"A person will be a member, then come back as an assistant leader the next season, then a leader," Gault said, adding that the group is trying to create capacity within the Tohono O'odham Nation to create its own conservation corps program.

In its three cycles, 18 crew members have completed the program.

While there's funding support from the federal land management agencies to do more than one crew, recruitment has been a barrier so far, Gault said.

The National Park Foundation sets money aside each year, to combat the overall loss in expertise about historic preservation, with one grant supporting service and conservation within park service units.

The program is a mix of national park and U.S. Forest Service work, Gault said. A nearly $100,000 grant from the National Park Foundation to Conservation Legacy, the nonprofit that supports the corps, allows for the partnership with the five national park sites. The crew spends the first part of the program working at the national park sites before moving on to Forest Service work.

The second part of this year's program will be spent at Coronado National Forest, with the Arizona Conservation Corps receiving funding to do project work there.

"They'll help with the member experience and get a variety of park service work, but they also get to work with another agency," Gault said. "Each has its own culture and its own mission."

Job opportunities for Native Americans

In June, the Biden administration rolled out guidelines for a new youth service program that would create job opportunities for Native Americans, while increasing their cultural connections to nature through conservation projects on tribal and public land. The Tohono O'odham crew's work on the Coronado National Forest will be one of the first Indian Youth Service Corps projects.

The Conservation Corps is also creating an intertribal crew based in Tucson this year for Indigenous participants from any tribe, even nationally, Gault said.

Two members of the most recent crew are interning with national parks this summer, with one doing interpretation work at Chiricahua National Monument while the other works at Casa Grande.

"Hopefully, because career opportunities are limited on the reservation, this will get them into agency positions that are real careers that pay decent money," Gault said.

As of January, while the nation's unadjusted unemployment rate was 4.4%, the unemployment rate for Native American workers was 11.1%, according to the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization.

Before the pandemic, Native Americans had a higher unemployment rate than other racial groups, with a 7.5% rate in February 2020. During the pandemic, the Native American unemployment rate jumped to 28.6%, a level comparable to the nationwide unemployment rate during the Great Depression, Brookings reported.

Gault said the Conservation Corps is working hard to get the word out about the Tohono O'odham program.

"Now that we have some history, word of mouth is our number one recruitment tool. More alumni are able to be a voice and be supporters in the community," he said.

"It was awesome"

Kyle Juan was a crew leader last year and is spending his summer interning at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, mostly in park maintenance.

On the reservation, Juan worked outside, installing fence lines for land owners.

"I've always been attracted to working outside," he said. "One day, I saw a flyer (for the TO crew) and decided to check it out."

Juan said that while he already knew some of the information the crew was taught, the education he received in the program ran deep.

"Knowing there's a different aspect with more structure to it, I really appreciate that," Juan said.

Last year  Juan's first with the crew  he ended up "picking up everything and moving to New Mexico for half the year."

"I had two bags, a bundle, a tent and a pillow. That's it," Juan said. "But from working on cow farms, I'm used to traveling light."

Juan ended up falling in love with Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, relishing the opportunity to visit and spend time at a place that's so hidden from civilization.

While he went in as a crew member, organizers saw that Juan was willing to grow, and he quickly moved up to team leader.

"They saw I was outgoing and willing to converse and open myself up and talk with individuals I never met before," Juan said. "I was hesitant on a lot, but they talked me through it and kept me positive and showed me what can be. And it was awesome."

Juan was assigned to lead the trails crew, maintaining trails in different parts of the state.

"There were moments when I fell off and wanted to quit, but my crew pulled me together. We were like a little family unit, really," he said. "The crew would start to break down, but we'd take a moment and talk about how if we got this far, we can get a little further. Once we got that break in and a few laughs, we picked it right back up and got a little further."

Juan said he met "so many good people" on the crew, many of whom he's still in contact with.

While he's interested in returning to work on the parks, he's got a stop to make along the way. Juan was getting ready to apply to join the U.S. Forest Service's Wildland Fire program last year when he'd learned he'd been accepted into the Arizona Conservation Corps program.

"I never looked back," he said of his decision to put off the fire service. "Working in the parks is still my goal, but I know there's so much more I have to do. I can't just jump right into it."

Until then, he's spreading the word on the reservation that opportunities like this exist and are within reach.

"Having that opportunity to do certain things allowed me to push other people into the work, too," Juan said. "That's one of the things I want to push to people from our reservation: Our work is a lot bigger than the reservation. All it takes is one individual's willingness to take that step."
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

Three weeks ago, visiting Krakow, Poland, I summoned the courage to make the trip to nearby Auschwitz.

It was uncommonly hot, even for summer, worse than Arizona in June, and humid. It was hard not to think about the heat but no one complained. Imagine complaining having just learned that an inmates rations were a few ounces of bread and one cup of swill before working 12 hours in heat like this, or worse, frigid cold.

We hear of many Holocaust survivors living long lives after their liberation and wonder if they were somehow made stronger by the experience. But I doubt thats it. Rather, they were exceptionally hardy to begin with. My doctor, the son of Auschwitz survivors, attributes his parents survival to the fact that they were made to walk to Auschwitz from their home 25 miles away, rather than stuffed in cattle cars and weakened after days without food and water.

When the trains came in, Nazi doctors made split second decisions whether someone was fit to work, and those few were spared. The rest were sent immediately to the gas chambers, more than 1,000 at a time, as Nazi doctors measured the precise dose of Zyklon B to suffocate them in 30 minutes, but not longer.

As incomprehensible as the numbers killed, up to 10,000 a day, so too is the fact that an immense array of doctors, guards, soldiers and administrators  an army of staff carried out these acts so compliantly.

There are corroborated accounts, however, that the crematorium was an innovation urged upon Hitler by SS chief Himmler after receiving complaints by soldiers that they were bothered having to shoot thousands of Jews a day in cold blood.

You struggle to not let the staggering numbers numb your mind as mere statistic, clinging to accessible representations of the horror: three people sleeping head to toe in narrow bunks piled on top of each other, trying to survive the night with one bucket of coal for an entire barracks in freezing temperatures; or hundreds using one bathroom, most of them failing to relieve themselves before the morning roll call, then standing often for hours in bitter cold.

The commandants wife wrote that her years at Auschwitz were the best of her life. She lived in a mansion with servants, overlooking the chimney puffing out the remains of human corpses. After the war, the commandant was tried and hung in the courtyard where his henchmen shot political prisoners.

The absurdities go on and no one can understand how it could have happened despite brilliant analyses on the subject. But the theories never add up. So the question endures: what is it that allows, or compels, people to commit unimaginable horrors, willingly and without remorse?

What makes one person report a Jewish family, inhabit their house and refuse to return it when the owner, having survived the war comes to reclaim it. Yet another person hides a Jewish family, risking, and often losing, his life for doing so.

I think about our countrys corrosive divisions and the manipulation of fervor, by elected leaders that writer Milovan Djilas termed the germ of bondage. How strong are we to resist demagogues who summon seditious impulses from their countrymen to sabotage our institutions?

Could a holocaust happen in America? I have no answer, only a question: What in world history, and recent American experience, provides the confidence that it couldnt?

The final stop on the tour was the death barracks No. 25 at Birkenau where women too weak to work were warehoused without food for days until they could be exterminated. As the tour filtered out, I stayed behind. In those few precious moments alone, I stood by the bunks, said Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, and walked numbly back to the bus.
As her two teenage daughters cheered and screamed with other abortion-rights advocates in downtown Tulsa on Friday, Jessica Smith couldnt help but get emotional.

Those are my babies right there, Smith said as they cheered at a honking car. Its sad that we have to do this, but Im proud that my babies have a voice and to know that theyre the future.

Wearing matching shirts that read my body, not yours and holding signs hand drawn by Smiths youngest daughter, the three joined about 50 other protesters on Friday to march around downtown Tulsa and advocate for reproductive health care.

Smiths family isnt new to rallying for rights, as they joined other Tulsans in Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyds murder by Minneapolis police in 2020, but Smith said they are just as passionate about reproductive rights.

Smith is a working mother, and she said the abortion ban in Oklahoma affects people like her and her daughters the most because they cant easily afford to leave the state if any of them were to need an abortion.

It affects people like us, she said. Were not higher class. It affects us  the normal people. If youre rich, Im sure you can travel to another state, but if something happened to my daughters or they were raped, we wouldnt have that option.

She said its scary as a mother to live in that fear of being able to do nothing, but thats why she wanted to support her daughters and fight for change.

As she chanted with the crowd, though, Smith said that while the chanting has a purpose, there is only one thing that will truly make a change: voting.

We can chant all day long, but weve got to get to the polls in November, Smith said. Womens lives are on the line.

Susan Braselton, a board member of the Tulsa-based Roe Fund and the organizer of clinic escorts at the Tulsa Womens Clinic before abortion was banned in Oklahoma and the clinic moved to Illinois, echoed Smiths sentiment about voting and said protests like Fridays are more important than ever to show people the danger of current laws.

The Metropolitan Library System later released a public notice stating the ways it has determined that its librarians are able to provide certain information about abortion services, but Braselton said the state law only causes more fear and problems.

The way they crafted these laws is so vague, and they did that by design, she said. Its another way to put fear in people and make them not know what is allowed and what isnt.

But Braselton said abortion-rights advocates have to use that fear to turn people to the voting polls in November to make change.

They think theyve won the war, but it was only a battle, Braselton said. They didnt win the war.

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Germany, Poland and Malta have released their warnings against two instant noodle products and one rice noodle product imported from Vietnam as they failed to meet the EUs food safety requirements, with one of them containing ethylene oxide exceeding the blocs acceptable level.

The Vietnam Sanitary and Phytosanitary Notification Authority and Enquiry Point (Vietnam SPS), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, provided the information to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday.

The Vietnam SPS has recently received a notice from the European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (EU RASFF) about the problems, said Ngo Xuan Nam, deputy director of SPS Vietnam.

Specifically, Germany has issued warnings against instant noodles, including one with curry flavor and the other with chicken flavor, after detecting them contain ethylene oxide (EO) in excess of the EUs acceptable level.

These products were made by Asia Food Joint Stock Company based in Vietnams southern Binh Duong Province.

Malta has released warning for rice noodles carrying the brand name Nguyen Gia and ordered recall of them from the market, claiming such products have been processed from unauthorized genetically modified rice.

Meanwhile, Poland has returned kid instant noodle products made by Ho Chi Minh City-based Vietnam Food Industries Joint Stock Company (Vifon) after releasing a warning about them for a hazard that has yet to be clarified.

Following the EU RASFFs notice, the SPS Vietnam has coordinated with relevant agencies to clarify and trace the cause of the violation to take remedial measures, Nam said.

We are also contacting Polands authorities concerned to clarify the reason why Vifons instant noodles exported to Poland were returned, the official added.

Nam emphasized that the violation of the EUs food safety regulations by Vietnamese enterprises will make it difficult for the efforts of SPS Vietnam and other agencies in reducing in the testing frequency for Vietnamese instant noodles imported into the EU.

Nam also said that the EU is currently applying a 20-percent inspection rate for Vietnamese instant noodles imported to the EU market.

This is not the first time that Vietnamese foods have been warned for containing excessive levels of EO, said the Science and Technology Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In August 2021, several Vietnamese instant noodles shipments were subject to warnings and recalls for containing EO by many European countries such as Switzerland, Norway, and the UK.

Exporters should notice that each country has different food safety regulations, including those on EO acceptable levels, Nam warned.

For example, the U.S. and Canada apply a maximum EO content of 7mg/kg for herbs, dried vegetables and bulbs, and sesame seeds, while the EU adopts a much lower rate, from 0.02 to 0.2 mg/kg, Nam elaborated.

Therefore, exporters must carefully study and comply with the regulations of each importing country, he advised.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) classifies EO is as a mutagen, carcinogen and a reproductive toxicant, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said.

Foods containing EO does not pose an acute risk to health but will cause increased health risk if consumed over a long period of time, so exposure to EO needs to be minimized, the agency warned.

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Check out the news you should not miss today:

Politics

-- Tran Sy Thanh, deputy secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, has been elected as chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee for the remaining time of the 2016-21 tenure.

Society

-- Local law enforcement officers are investigating a case in which a womans body was found decapitated at her restaurant in northern Hai Phong City on Friday afternoon. According to the preliminary investigation, the suspect murdered the woman over love conflicts and then committed suicide later the same day.

-- Police in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang on Friday arrested and initiated legal proceedings against a 37-year-old man after a circulated video showed him repeatedly beating his son to the point of bleeding.

-- Vietnam Expressway Investment and Development Corporation on Friday inaugurated a non-stop electronic toll collection (ETC) system on Cau Gie - Ninh Binh Expressway that will begin operating on August 1.

-- The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) launched an investigation into a TikTok video in which a woman is seen posing for social media content while sitting on a baggage carousel at Ho Chi Minh Citys Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

-- Doctors from Thanh Vu Hospital Medic Bac Lieu in Vietnams Mekong Delta said on Friday that they had successfully resuscitated a female patient who suffered three bouts of cardiac arrest and apnea due to cardiovascular disease.

-- Police in northern Hai Phong City on Friday arrested a 38-year-old man for stabbing a commuter to death after a slight collision between their vehicles.

World News

-- The main mountain border pass between Chile and Argentina reopened this week after a heavy snowfall in the Andes forced it to shutter for about two weeks, stranding thousands of trucks, Reuters reported on Friday.

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Police in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang on Friday arrested and initiated legal proceedings against a 37-year-old man after a circulated video showed him repeatedly beating his son to the point of bleeding.

The public security division of An Bien District in Kien Giang is investigating Luong Van Luan for physically abusing children.

Officers managed to determine that Luan is the man who kept shaking a boy and slapping him until his mouth was bleeding in the viral video on social media.

The suffering boy was later verified to be L.H.T., Luans six-year-old son.

Luan often beat and tortured T., according to their neighbors accounts.

On June 22, Luan used an iron bar to hit T.s head, face, hands and back, causing several injuries on the boy.

At that time, people intervened in the incident and took T. to a local medical station for treatment.

Police in Dong Thai Commune, where the father and the son were residing, previously gave various warnings and imposed an administrative fine of VND7.5 million (US$320) on Luan for beating and causing injuries to his family member.

Luan did not pay the fine and continued to physically abuse T., prompting the functional forces to arrest him and launch an investigation to the case.

Police officers of An Bien District were able to seize some tools Luan used to beat his son during the investigation.

It is known that Luans wife left him a long time ago and let T. live with the father since the boy was still little.

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Police in Hai Phong City, northern Vietnam, are investigating a case in which a local woman died with her head severed at a restaurant and the suspect killer was later found dead in another place possibly due to suicide.

The death of the woman, Nguyen Thi H., 54, was detected by her daughter when she arrived at their familys restaurant in the citys Kien An District on Friday afternoon, local police reported the same day.

The daughter was deadly frightened to see her mothers head in the eaterys kitchen while the rest of the womans body was found on the second floor of the facility.

Local police were called to the scene where they found a stab injury on the woman's body, according to Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.

An investigation was immediately launched and police paid special attention to a waiter of the restaurant, who had two convictions, as the suspect killer.

This man, hailing from the citys Thuy Nguyen District, had an affection relationship with H., the restaurants owner.

This suspect could not be contacted on phone after the womans body was found, Nguoi Lao Dong cited the victims daughter.

While looking for the man, police officers discovered his body at a place in the citys An Duong District, not far from the restaurant.

The man might have committed a suicide by electrocution, according to investigators.

Local police are continuing to investigate the serious case.

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Tonight in Joanna Lumleys Great Cities of the World we visit Rome, as Joanna zips into the city on the back of a Vespa.

The Pantheon and Trevi Fountain are the first sites ticked off the list. Joanna says: Its very charming and because of the film Three Coins in a Fountain, people always throw coins into the fountain and it meant that if you throw a coin in, you would come back to Rome. Id empty my bank of coins and come and live in Rome!

Joanna considers Romes history and how it became a playground for glitzy film stars. She meets one of the citys most famous paparazzi to hear tales of fights with Mick Jagger, the allure of Katharine Hepburn and how one of the photos he took could have singlehandedly paid for a new house!

Before dawn, Joanna heads to the Vatican Museum for a 5.15am date with the gatekeeper responsible for a total of 2791 keys. He reveals the secret hiding place of the only key to the Sistine Chapel itself and together they unlock miles of corridors filled with exquisite treasures, leading to the Sistine Chapel.

Joanna then has a quick lesson from a master of pizza-making and after perfecting her dough, she enjoys their creation for lunch; a square pizza made using chickpea paste, radish and lashings of Italian honey.

After being unable to resist a visit to The Colosseum, which is over 2000 years old and still dominates the city, Joanna is reminded of some of the citys darker history. Finally, she heads to The Opera House to meet the cast of a new operatic production of Julius Caesar, just days before its world premiere.

7:40pm tonight on ABC.
Orange and MasMovil sign $19 billion merger deal in Spain Logo of French telecom operator Orange in Levallois-Perret

By Mathieu Rosemain and Aislinn Laing

PARIS/MADRID (Reuters) - Orange and MasMovil have signed a binding agreement to combine operations in Spain in a deal valuing the merged entity at close to $19 billion, the two telecoms firms said in a statement on Saturday.

The merger creates a heavyweight spanning mobile and broadband, posing a challenge to top player Telefonica and analysts say possibly opening the way to similar alliances in markets such as Italy, Portugal and the UK.

The merger of the second and fourth largest telecoms operators respectively also leaves third-ranked Vodafone stranded, albeit the beneficiary of a more consolidated market that is expected to reduce competition and boost operators profitability.

The tie-up is expected to test the European Commission's appetite for consolidation. It has previously opposed deals that reduce the number of players from four to three in major markets.

Spain's mobile market is a four-way fight with Telefonica's Movistar brand holding a 28.24% share, Orange 22.91%, Vodafone 22.26% and MasMovil with 20.55%, data from market regulator CNMC showed in March.

The Commission's response will also reveal whether it is willing to favour a market structure with fewer operators and potentially higher investments on infrastructure -- as lobbied for by industry -- or if it will stick to a consumer-centric stance marked by fierce competition and low prices.

The merger in Spain is based on an enterprise value of 18.6 billion euros ($19 billion), the companies said in the statement, including 10.9 billion for MasMovil and 7.8 billion for Orange Spain.

The merged entity would generate more than 7.3 billion euros in annual revenue and more than 2.2 billion euros of annual core operating profits, they said.

The combined joint venture will be controlled equally by Orange and MasMovil. A 6.6 billion-euro debt package will finance the transaction.

It will include a 4.2 billion euro upstream payment to Orange, to make up for its lower valuation as compared to MasMovil, given its higher level of debt.

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The deal includes a two-year lock-up provision that prevents Orange and MasMovil from selling their shares, a spokesperson for Orange said.

The aim is to have a possible initial public offering (IPO) after a lock-up period, the spokesperson said.

Orange will have a pre-emptive right to buy the shares owned by MasMovil in the joint venture following the lock-up period, the Orange spokesperson said, allowing it to take control of the entity and consolidate it in its accounts.

The transaction is subject to approval from EU antitrust authorities. It is expected to close in the second-half of 2023 "at the latest".

Orange is controlled by the French state through a 23% stake, while MasMovil's parent is London-based Lorca JV Co, a holding majority owned by buyout funds KKR, Providence and Cinven.

($1 = 0.9794 euros)

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; editing by Angus MacSwan and Jason Neely)
(Andrew Parsons/No10 Downing St)

Boris Johnson visited Yorkshire this week to meet Ukrainian soldiers being trained in the UK with new pictures showing the prime minister throwing a grenade and using some of the equipment, including a rocket launcher.

The UKs armed forces are training groups of Ukrainians in the continued fight against Russias invasion.

Mr Johnson, who announced his resignation as prime minister earlier this month, was seen talking to both Ukrainian and British troops, and joining them in training exercises.

(Andrew Parsons/No10 Downing St)

The pictures were taken by Mr Johnsons publicly funded personal photographer.

When it was announced, the government said the scheme to train Ukrainian soldiers in the UK would be able process 10,000 troops every 120 days.

The UK has provided more than 2.3bn in military aide to Ukraine.

This week I visited Ukrainian troops being trained by British Armed Forces in North Yorkshire.



The UK is committed to doing all we can to help Ukraine continue to repel Russian aggression. pic.twitter.com/HMTClRFST5  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 23, 2022

Mr Johnson said in a video posted on social media: Ive been meeting some of the 400 Ukrainian troops who are here, being trained by our forces, getting ready to go and fight in Ukraine.

Its part of a huge commitment weve made to train Ukrainian forces.

We want to train about 10,000 of them over the next four months.

(Andrew Parsons/No10 Downing St)

That comes on top of the investment were making in supporting Ukrainians with weaponry - 6,900, anti-tank weapons, about 120 armoured vehicles and much much else besides including now, the multiple launch rocket systems that together with the Americans, Germans, and others were providing really are starting to make a difference, we hope, to the course of that war, starting to push back Putins evil attack on Ukraine.

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(Andrew Parsons/No10 Downing St)

I know that in the end, the Ukrainian people are going to succeed, I know that the Ukrainian forces are going to succeed.

Im very proud of the role that the UK has been able to play so far. But in the end, this is thanks to the bravery and the heroism of these Ukrainian troops.
Thomas Lane, who is white, held Floyds legs as Officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyds neck with his knee for nearly 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane to 2 1/2 years in prison Thursday for violating George Floyds civil rights, calling Lanes role in the restraint that killed Floyd a very serious offense in which a life was lost but handing down a sentence well below what prosecutors and Floyds family sought.

Judge Paul Magnusons sentence was just slightly more than the 27 months that Lanes attorney had requested, while prosecutors had asked for at least 5 1/4 years in prison  the low end of federal guidelines. Lane was convicted earlier this year of depriving Floyd of his right to medical care.

Lane, who is white, held Floyds legs as Officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyds neck with his knee for nearly 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020. Bystander video of Floyd, who was Black, pleading that he could not breathe sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the world in a reckoning over racial injustice over policing.

Former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane (Getty)

Two other officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were also convicted of violating Floyds civil rights  for depriving Floyd of his right to medical care and for failing to intervene to stop Chauvin  and will be sentenced later.

Floyd family members had asked Magnuson to give Lane the stiffest sentence possible, with brother Philonise Floyd rejecting the idea that Lane deserved any mercy for asking his colleagues twice if George Floyd should be shifted from his stomach to his side.

Officer Lane did not intervene in one way or another, he said.

Prosecutor Manda Sertich had also argued for a higher sentence, saying that Lane chose not to act when he could have saved a life.

There has to be a line where blindly following a senior officers lead, even for a rookie officer, is not acceptable, she said.

Magnuson told Lane the fact that you did not get up and remove Mr. Chauvin when Mr. Floyd became unconscious is a violation of the law. But he also held up 145 letters he said he had received supporting Lane, saying he had never received so many on behalf of a defendant. And he faulted the Minneapolis Police Department for sending Lane with another rookie officer on the call that ended in Floyds death.

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Magnuson cited two letters in particular that he said came from doctors who recounted a situation when their diagnosis was overruled by a more senior physician, to disastrous result to the patient. He said the doctors described being haunted that they did not stand up to the senior physician.

It speaks loudly to this case, Magnuson said.

In sentencing Chauvin earlier this month on a civil rights charge in Floyds killing, Magnuson appeared to suggest that he bore the most blame in the case, telling Chauvin: You absolutely destroyed the lives of three young officers by taking command of the scene.

Lane did not speak at Thursdays sentencing and neither he nor his attorney, Earl Gray, commented to reporters afterward. Philonise Floyd called the sentence insulting and said he didnt understand why Lane  whom he called an accessory to murder  didnt get the toughest possible sentence.

To me I think this whole criminal system needs to be torn down and rebuilt, he said.

This image from video shows Minneapolis Police Officers Thomas Lane, left and J. Alexander Kueng, right, escorting George Floyd, center, to a police vehicle outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis, on May 25, 2020. (Court TV via AP, Pool, File)

Magnuson also said he would recommend that Lane serve his sentence at the federal prison in Duluth, a minimum-security facility about 2 1/2 hours from the Minneapolis area. The facility is classified as a camp, has no fence and has dormitory-style housing rather than cells. Prison assignments are made by the Bureau of Prisons.

Gray argued during the trial that Lane did everything he could possibly do to help George Floyd. He pointed out that Lane suggested rolling Floyd on his side so he could breathe, but was rebuffed twice by Chauvin. He also noted that Lane performed CPR to try to revive Floyd after the ambulance arrived.

Lane testified at trial that he didnt realize how dire Floyds condition was until paramedics turned him over.

When Lane pleaded guilty in state court in May to one charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, Gray said Lane hoped to avoid a long sentence. He has a newborn baby and did not want to risk not being part of the childs life, he said.

Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to a federal civil rights charge in Floyds killing and to another civil rights charge in an unrelated case involving a Black teenager. That netted a 21-year sentence from Magnuson, toward the low end of 20- to 25-year range both sides agreed to under his plea deal.

Chauvin was also convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in state court and is serving a 22 1/2-year state sentence. His federal and state sentences are being served simultaneously.

Kueng pinned Floyds back during the restraint and Thao helped hold back an increasingly concerned group of onlookers outside a Minneapolis convenience store where Floyd, who was unarmed, tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

Magnuson has not set sentencing dates for Thao, who is Hmong American, and Kueng, who is Black. But he has scheduled a hearing for Friday, after their attorneys objected to sentencing calculations under the complicated federal guidelines. Prosecutors are seeking unspecified sentences for them that would be lower than Chauvins but substantially higher than Lanes.

Thao and Kueng are free on bond pending sentencing on their federal convictions. They are also charged with state counts of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. They have turned down plea deals and are scheduled to go to trial on those charges on Oct. 24.

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The post Ex-Minneapolis officer sentenced to 2 1/2 years for his role in George Floyds death appeared first on TheGrio.
James Caan, whose remarkable performances in The Godfather, Elf and Misery made him a screen icon, has had his cause of death revealed by the Los Angeles County Coroner.

The 82-year-old Caan died earlier this month of a heart attack and coronary artery disease, according to the county report.

More from Deadline

His family announced his death earlier in July on the actors official Twitter account.

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6, the tweet reads. The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.

After a decade in the business, Caan shot to fame in the early 1970s with back-to-back signature roles. He earned an Emmy nom as the real-life cancer-stricken Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo in ABCs Brians Song, alongside Billy Dee Williams as fellow Bears running back Gale Sayers. The heart-rending tale of the hard-forged friendship among the NFLs first interracial roommates was the most-watched TV movie ever at that point, with a 32.9 rating/48 share and went on to win five Emmys including Outstanding Single Program  Drama or Comedy.

In a 2011 interview with the Television Academy Foundation (watch it here), Emmy-winning Brians Song screenwriter William Blinn said: Jimmys Jimmy. He always had a cockiness, a confidence. Very competitive. Edgy, in the best sense of the word. But hes a guy with all the pluses and minuses you can have.

Robert Duvall and Caan in The Godfather

Caan followed that success with his best-known role: the hotheaded, violent and vengeful Sonny Corleone, eldest son of Don Corleone (Marlon Brando), in Francis Ford Coppolas The Godfather. The film based on Mario Puzos bestseller won the Best Picture Oscar and is considered among the greatest movies of all time. Caans onscreen death amid a hail of bullets also is considered among cinemas best.

Story continues

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  International human rights groups on Saturday urged Sri Lankas new president to immediately order security forces to cease use of force against protesters after troops and police cleared their main camp following months of demonstrations over the countrys economic meltdown.

A day after President Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn, hundreds of armed troops raided a protest camp outside the president's office in the early hours of Friday, attacking demonstrators with batons. Human Rights Watch said the action sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law.

Two journalists and two lawyers were also attacked by soldiers in the crackdown. Security forces arrested 11 people, including protesters and lawyers.

Urgently needed measures to address the economic needs of Sri Lankans demand a government that respects fundamental rights, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Sri Lankas international partners should send the message loud and clear that they cant support an administration that tramples on the rights of its people."

Also condemning the attack, Amnesty International said it is shameful that the new government resorted to such violent tactics within hours of coming to power.

The protesters have a right to demonstrate peacefully. Excessive use of force, intimidation and unlawful arrests seem to be an endlessly repetitive pattern in which the Sri Lankan authorities respond to dissent and peaceful assembly," said Kyle Ward, the group's deputy secretary general.

Wickremesinghe, who previously served as prime minister six times, was sworn in as president a week after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled the country. Rajapaksa later resigned while exiled in Singapore.

Sri Lankans have taken to the streets for months to demand their top leaders step down to take responsibility for the economic chaos that has left the nations 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. While the protesters have focused on the Rajapaksa's family, Wickremesinghe also has drawn their ire as a perceived Rajapaksa surrogate.

Story continues

Armed troops and police arrived in trucks and buses on Friday to clear the main protest camp the capital, Colombo, even though protesters had announced they would vacate the site voluntarily.

Sri Lankas opposition, the United Nations, and the U.S. have denounced the government's heavy-handed tactics.

Despite heightened security outside the presidents office, protesters have vowed to continue until Wickremesinghe resigns.

On Friday, he appointed as prime minister a Rajapaksa ally, Dinesh Gunawardena.

Wickremesinghe on Monday declared a state of emergency as acting president in a bid to quell the protests. Just hours after he was sworn in, he issued a notice calling on the armed forces to maintain law and order  clearing the way for the move against the protest camp.

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 crisis.

The political turmoil has threatened efforts to seek rescue from the International Monetary Fund. Still, earlier this week, Wickremesinghe said bailout talks were nearing a conclusion.

The head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, told the Japanese financial magazine Nikkei Asia this week that the IMF hopes for a deal as quickly as possible.
Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party Adds Triton Poker Series and One Drop Event

July 23 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Just as you thought the inaugural Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party could not get any bigger and more exciting, the organizers go an add the Triton Poker Series and a One Drop event to the bustling schedule.

The Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party runs from August 19 through September 18 at the luxurious Merit Royal Diamond hotel in North Cyprus. The 200-table capacity poker room, one of the largest globally, will be fully utilized as players from all over the world descend on North Cyprus for a poker party like no other.

Triton Poker Series will be in town between September 5 and September 18, adding 13 high-stakes events with buy-ins of $25,000 to $100,000. The Triton Poker Series always attracts elite players, and the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party edition will be no different.

Triton Poker Series Schedule at the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party

Date Local time Event Buy-in Mon 5 Sep 2:00 p.m #1 Triton NLHE 8-Handed Day 1 $25,000 Tue 6 Sep 1:00 p.m. #1 Triton NLHE 8-Handed Day 2 3:00 p.m. #2 Triton NLHE 6-Handed Day 1 $50,000 Wed 7 Sep 1:00 p.m. #2 Triton NLHE 6-Handed Day 2 3:00 p.m. #3 Triton NLHE 6-Handed Day 1 $50,000 Thu 8 Sep 1:00 p.m. #3 Triton NLHE 6-Handed Day 2 4:00 p.m. #5 Triton NLHE 8-Handed Day 1 $75,000 Fri 9 Sep 1:00 p.m. #5 Triton NLHE 8-Handed Day 1 $75,000 Sat 10 Sep 2:00 p.m. #6 Coin Rivet Invitational by Triton Day 1 $200,000 Sun 11 Sep 1:00 p.m. #6 Coin Rivet Invitational by Triton Day 2 4:00 p.m. #7 Triton Pot Limit Omaha Day 1 $25,000 Mon 12 Sep 1:00 p.m. #6 Coin Rivet Invitational by Triton Final Day 1:00 p.m. #7 Triton Pot Limit Omaha Day 2 4:00 p.m. #8 Triton NLHE Main Event Day 1 $100,000 Tue 13 Sep 1:00 p.m. #8 Triton NLHE Main Event Day 2 $100,000 4:00 p.m. #9 Triton NLHE Turbo $50,000 Wed 14 Sep 1:00 p.m. #8 Triton NLHE Main Event Final Day 4:00 p.m. #10 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only Day 1 $30,000 Thu 15 Sep 1:00 p.m. #10 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only Day 2 3:00 p.m. #11 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only 1 Bullet (PL PF) Day 1 $40,000 Fri 16 Sep 1:00 p.m. #11 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only 1 Bullet (PL PF) Day 2 3:00 p.m. #12 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only Day 1 $50,000 Sat 17 Sep 1:00 p.m. #12 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only Day 2 5:00 p.m. #13 Triton Short Deck Main Event Day 1 $100,000 Sun 18 Sep 1:00 p.m. #13 Triton Short Deck Main Event Day 2 $100,000 1:00 p.m. #14 Triton Shot Deck Ante-Only $25,000

One Drop and Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party Join Forces

It is not only the Triton Poker Series throwing its hat into the ring because the One Drop Foundation is heading to North Cyprus too. A $10,000 buy-in event, named The One Drop, takes place across August 28-29. There is a 20,000 chip starting stack in this event, but anyone who agrees to make a $1,111 donation to the One Drop Foundation sees their starting stack doubled to 40,000 chips.

Neil Barrett, Business Development Director of Luxon Pay said: Poker and charity go hand in hand for Luxon Pay. With this tournament benefitting the One Drop Foundation, we are adding the final touch to the programme of the Mediterranean Poker Party which includes the Triton Poker Series. The charity resonates with the players and was an obvious choice for us. We are delighted to contribute to their worldwide impact on access to safe water.

Alexandre Meunier, Chief Marketing and Events Officer at the One Drop Foundation said: It has been an amazing year for us so far with the passing of the landmark $25 million total raised through our poker initiatives. Crossing the Atlantic is another important milestone in our beautiful story with the poker community, one that will enable us to transform even more lives.

Stay tuned to PokerNews as we bring you all the news, views, and gossip surrounding what will be an amazing Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party.
A dawn raid Friday on a key garrison town near the Malian capital was carried out by jihadist "suicide" attackers aboard two explosive-laden vehicles, Mali's army said.

In a statement, Mali's military headquarters said the armed forces had "contained... a desperate attempt" by Katiba Macina, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, to attack an army depot at Kati, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Bamako.

The attack on the Kati military base near Bamako began at 5am local time with two vehicles packed with explosives, said the Malian army in a Twitter post.

"The provisional death toll is two assailants neutralised. The situation is under control and clearing operations are under way to flush out the authors and their accomplices," said the army.

Residents from the area said they were woken up around 5am on Friday by gunfire and explosions.

"We don't know what's going on," a resident told AFP. Another source told AFP, "Our base is being attacked."

At 8am local time, an AFP journalist also heard detonations that came from inside the camp.

Malian special forces personnel were deployed in the area, and two helicopters flew overhead.

The French embassy sent text messages to French nationals saying "attack underway at Kati" and urging caution.

Military base at heart of past coups

The Kati base is the nexus of the Mali's military apparatus. The base was the site of mutinies in 2012 and 2020 that led to successful coups,

The impoverished landlocked country is governed by a junta headed by Colonel Assimi Goita, who forced out the elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, in August 2020 and carried out a second coup the following May.

The junta staged a second coup in 2021 to force out a civilian interim president who was at odds with Goita.

Goita then became interim president. He plans to continue to lead a transitional government until elections are held in 2024.

His government has sparred repeatedly with neighbouring countries and international powers over election delays, alleged army abuses and cooperation with Russian mercenaries in the fight against the Islamist insurgency.

Despite coming to power pledging to stamp out the insurrection, the junta has been unable to prevent the insurgents from extending their operations further south from their havens in the north and centre.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
HCM CITY  SSI Securities Corporation reported an after-tax profit of VN416 billion (US$17.7 million) on revenue of VN1.58 trillion ($67.3 million) in the second quarter of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 26 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

But thanks to good business results in Q1, the companys after-tax profit and revenue in the first half increased by 11 per cent and 10.5 per cent over the same period last year to reach approximately VN1.1 trillion ($47.2 million) and VN3.59 trillion ($153 million), respectively.

Viet Nam's stock market plunged in the first half, with the VN-Index falling to 1,197.6 points at the end of June, equivalent to a price to earning (P/E) ratio of 13, or below the 10-year average of 15.

Market capitalisation tumbled by more than VN1.22 quadrillion ($52.1 billion), with the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange alone losing VN1.08 quadrillion.

Liquidity has also plummeted. The average daily trading value on HOSE in June was only VN13.18 trillion, the lowest in a year and down 57 per cent from the peak of nearly VN1 trillion in November 2021.

In that difficult context, SSIs revenue from securities services in the quarter saw a slight decrease of 2.8 per cent compared to the same period last year to reach VN946 billion.

Its brokerage team always keeps a close eye on all developments to provide suitable advice to customers. Despite the markets strong volatility, the total value of forced selling at SSI in the quarter was low, the company said.

In addition, through the implementation of a series of consulting programmes and providing investment knowledge and training for customers, the number of new accounts opened in Q2 at SSI increased by 50 per cent over the same period last year and 21 per cent over the preceding quarter.

Its other business activities, including its treasury business and investment banking, were stable.

SSI plans to issue new warrants in the second half of this year, when prices will be much lower than that at the beginning of the year to help investors increase profitability.

SSI on July 20 paid over VN990 billion worth of dividends in cash at a rate of 10 per cent.

It will complete the issuance of an additional 497 million shares this month to supplement working capital, consolidate its strong financial potential, improve competitiveness and continue to provide new products and services.  VNS
HA NOI  The State should have policies to encourage the import of seafood materials for export processing because processing factories lack raw materials, according to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

In an official dispatch sent to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, VASEP said that after 12 fuel price increases since the beginning of the year, 40-50 per cent of fishing vessels have now stopped operation.

Meanwhile, businesses all have the need to expand aquaculture regions, which provide 70 per cent of raw materials for export processing, to increase the supply of the material.

However, at present, localities are urbanising, so change in land planning for production is a challenge for seafood enterprises and farmers.

These cause the input materials for processing plants to decrease by 70-80 per cent compared to before.

Therefore, based on the Fisheries Development Strategy to 2030 approved by the Prime Minister in 2021, VASEP has proposed the Government to issue regulations and policies to encourage the import of aquatic materials for processing export products.

This will help Viet Nam achieve the goal of becoming one of the largest seafood processors in the world.

In the past 10 years, the import of clean and legal raw materials to Viet Nam surged to meet increasing demand on seafood from the global market, according to VASEP.

VASEP said that the policies on encouraging the import of aquatic materials for processing export products are still lacking, and the procedures for the import still have many obstacles.

In addition, VASEP believes that it is necessary to speed up the amendment of the Land Law. Of which, the amendment should focus on the issues of land accumulation, land use regulations, and land planning. Those would help the fisheries sector develop suitable concentrated farming regions.

Meanwhile, Governments and localities also need policies to develop and expand the aquaculture regions.

VASEP also said that another challenge was obstacles in procedures of certifying the origin of caught fish.

According to VASEP, the COVID-19 pandemic has gradually stabilised, so the world's shrimp import demand has increased again.

Viet Nam's shrimp exports in 2022 are expected to grow well due to the advantages of free trade agreements (FTAs), ensuring stability in commercial shrimp farming and processing.

Meanwhile, food prices in the EU are forecasted to increase by the end of 2022. This will be a good opportunity for Viet Nam's pangasius businesses to return to the market after many years of Viet Nam's pangasius exports affected by the pandemic.

Viet Nam's pangasius exports to major markets at present have growth potential. Increasing and stable consumption demand can help maintain the volume of purchased fish material at the current level.

According to Nguyen Hoai Nam, VASEP deputy general secretary, the seafood exports in the first six months of the year gained growth, but there are still many unexpected factors threatening the seafood industry in the second half of the year.

Besides the problem of freight and supply chain disruption due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, one of the biggest difficulties for the local seafood enterprises is to ensure enough processing materials for year-end orders, Nam said.

Ho Quoc Luc, chairman of the Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, said that many shrimp farms in Soc Trang Province were facing difficulties because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some had closed.

The supply of raw shrimp will decrease sharply because farmers do not dare to develop shrimp farming due to the potential of a pandemic breakout.

Sao Ta is still dependent on external raw material supply because the company's farming region only meets 20-30 per cent of its processing demand. Full autonomy of all shrimp materials is not possible because the shrimp farming industry is still developing spontaneously.

Forecasting pangasius exports in 2022, Vo Hung Dung, former director of VCCI's branch in Can Tho, said there are two scenarios of surpassing the turnover milestone achieved in 2018 at over $2.2 billion, or only reaching $2 billion.

The export turnover depends on output and expansion of farming region, not market demand.

Dung said pangasius exports increased sharply in the first six months mainly due to large inventories from the previous year, not an increase in farming output.

At present, the world demand increases sharply while the domestic seafood industry is facing the biggest difficulty of lacking raw materials.

However, Dung said a shortage of raw material supply may be better than an excess. This shortage may be a short-term difficulty for businesses, but it is also a reason for them to make more effort in having sustainable development of their value chains.

"It doesn't matter if the fish industry lacks input, the businesses can increase imports for processing. The processors' increase in raw material imports is also a way for them to penetrate deeper into the global supply chain, making the businesses develop further," Dung said.

The Directorate of Fisheries forecasts the total seafood output in 2022 to reach 8.73 million tonnes and the total seafood export value to be $9 billion.  VNS
The opening ceremony of the Viet Nam - Korea Cooperation Forum in HCM City on July 22 to mark the 30th anniversary of the setting up of bilateral diplomatic ties.  VNS Photo Viet Dung

HCM CITY  Viet Nam will work closely with South Korea to foster trade and investment, a conference heard in HCM City yesterday (July 22).

Nguyen Phu Binh, chairman of the Association for Liaison with Overseas Vietnamese (ALOV), said South Korea is one of Viet Nams top investors, and has projects spanning the country and in a wide variety of industries.

Kwon Sung-Taek, deputy chairman of the Korea & Viet Nam Economic and Cultural Association (KOVECA), said the two countries economic co-operation has been the biggest achievement in their 30 years of bilateral ties.

Koreas trade with Viet Nam is equal to its combined trade with the other nine ASEAN member countries, he said.

Korean businesses are interested in Viet Nams abundance of affordable and young workforce and rapid digital transformation, he said.

Viet Nam is among the top investment destinations for businesses moving away from China, and many Korean companies are interested in doing technology transfer with Viet Nam, he said.

Efforts from both sides are needed to facilitate investment. Korean businesses need to research Viet Nam carefully, while Viet Nam needs to be more transparent in its policies.

KOVECA will continue to promote Viet Nam to attract more Korean investors to the country.

Nguyen Minh Lam, deputy chairman of the Long An Peoples Committee, said the province -- which is adjacent to HCM City and has favourable conditions for trade - welcomes foreign investors, especially Korean.

There are 209 Korean projects in the province with a total investment of around US$900 million, making Korea the second largest foreign investor in Long An, and they have been operating efficaciously, he said.

Long An has been organising networking events for Korean businesses to facilitate trade and investment, and focusing on traffic infrastructure to boost connectivity with HCM City and provinces, he said.

The province is interested in Korean businesses that specialise in waste and wastewater treatment, he said.

Other provinces leaders also commended Korean businesses expertise in waste treatment.

Nguyen Thi Hoang, deputy chairwoman of the ong Nai Peoples Committee, said her province has a high urbanisation rate and is struggling with wastewater treatment, and wants to tie up with Korean partners.

ong Nai has around $7 billion worth of Korean projects, and is building new industrial parks to attract more foreign investment, she said.

At the conference, Khanh Hoa, ong Nai and Long An provinces signed memorandums of understanding with ALOV, KOVECA, the Viet Nam National Startup Investment Fund, and the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank to create conditions to attract Korean investment.

At a conference at the forum, several of Viet Nams provinces solicited Korean investment.  VNS Photo Viet Dung

The conference was held under the Viet Nam - Korea Cooperation Forum to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

The forum, to go on until today in HCM City and tomorrow in Ha Noi, aims to connect the overseas Vietnamese community with business opportunities in Viet Nam, and help Vietnamese companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, explore business opportunities in South Korea.

South Korea has invested $74.7 billion in 9,223 projects in Viet Nam and is the third largest trade partner, with two-way turnover being worth $78 billion last year.

The two sides aim to increase their trade to $100 billion by 2023 and $150 billion by 2030.

Thirty Korean business groups and thousands of businesses are taking part in the forum. VNS
Deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  At the invitation of the Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son will lead a Vietnamese delegation at the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM-55) held in Phnom Penh from August 2-6.

There will also be meeting between foreign ministers of ASEAN and partner countries within the framework of ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, the East Asia Summit (EAS), including the first ASEAN-UK Foreign Ministers Meeting since the UK became partner dialogue to ASEAN, according to deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang.

Minister Son, along with other foreign ministers of ASEAN, will be attending the meeting of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) Commission and the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights.

As the country coordinator of the ASEAN-Republic of Korea relations, Minister Son and RoK counterpart Park Jin will co-chair the meeting.

This is the years most important series of meetings among ASEAN foreign ministers and between foreign ministers of ASEAN and outside partner countries.

At the AMM55, the foreign ministers will be discussing ASEAN priorities for cooperation in 2022, the process of building the ASEAN Community, the directions for ASEAN development for 2025, COVID-19 response, ASEAN external relations, ASEAN centrality, as well as other relevant regional and international issues.

The meetings between ASEAN and partner countries will focus on the assessment and future directions for the partnership between ASEAN and partners, and discussions of international and regional issues of mutual concerns.

As usual, senior officials of ASEAN will meet on August 1 to prepare for the AMM.

Ascension to ASEAN

Asked on the ascension of Viet Nam to ASEAN 27 years ago (July 28, 1995), deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang in a press briefing said since joining ASEAN, Viet Nam has increasingly proved itself to be a responsible and active member of the group as well as the international community.

Viet Nams admission to the bloc marked an important milestone in the country's extensive regional and international integration.

She said Viet Nam has promoted extensive integration in politics, economy, diplomacy and all other aspects of life with other countries and organisations around the world

Viet Nam and other member countries have actively built the ASEAN Community from politics, economy, culture and society, while especially giving priority to strengthening ASEAN connectivity.

During the process, Viet Nam and other ASEAN members have expanded relations with many partners around the world, Hang said, adding that more and more countries want to become partners of ASEAN.  VNS
Phan Xuan Hanh (first left) with the three other Vietnamese gold medal winners at the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) 2022. VNA/VNS Photo

HA TINH Chemistry was never the first love of 12th grader Phan Xuan Hanh, but that hasn't held him back from winning gold at the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) 2022.

Hanh is a student at the Ha Tinh High School for the Gifted. He said that when he was an 8th grader at Hai Thuong Lan Ong High School, he failed to become a member of the school's maths team for a provincial competition. Instead, he was summoned to the chemistry team.

"The more I explore the world of chemistry, the more I like it," Hanh said, adding that chemistry now was his special passion.

At a provincial chemistry competition for 10th graders, Hanh finished in second place, which made him more confident to apply for Ha Tinh High School for the Gifted.

He impressed his peers and the high school teachers by getting the highest score in the chemistry entrance exam.

Born and raised in Son Lam Commune, in the mountainous Huong Son District of Ha Tinh province, Hanh has always studied hard.

His parents are farmers, which helps them feed the family of four but leaves them with little time to support their children's studies.

Undeterred, Hanh has always gotten good academic results at school.

Hanh's father, Phan Sinh Quan, 51, said that even though they are farmers with a modest income, they try their best to facilitate their children's schooling.

When Hanh was admitted to the gifted high school 70km away from his home though, they were very worried.

"We were partly concerned over tuition fees and daily expenses. Moreover, we were worried about what Hanh could face when living far from home, especially bad enticements," Hanh's mother Nguyen Thi Trang said.

"At that time, Hanh reassured and promised us that he would study and live well," Trang said, proudly adding that he kept his promise.

Entering the high school, Hanh was cared for by teachers and school managers, who created conditions for him to develop his abilities.

"As soon as I entered the school, I set a goal to win the first prize in chemistry at the National Excellent Student Competition," he said.

During his three years at the high school, Hanh has always strived to achieve his goal.

"I think, first of all, to study well in any subject, I must have a love for that subject. I find chemistry to be a highly applicable subject in life and very interesting," he said.

"To understand chemistry better, I also do a lot of different exercises and afterwards, I draw experience for myself. In addition, I often define goals to orient myself to always strive for completion," Hanh added.

With his passion and determination, Hanh achieved impressive results during his time at high school time.

In the 11th grade, Hanh was called to the province's chemistry team for a national competition and won the third prize.

When he was a 12th grader, he won the first prize in chemistry at the National Excellent Student Competition in 2022. He was the first contestant from Ha Tinh to win first prize in chemistry at a national competition.

As he realised his goal, he was very comfortable attending other competitions, including the international ones.

Talking about this year's international chemistry exam, Hanh said that within five hours, he solved all the questions in the exam and had enough time to review his work.

"After re-checking the test, I was quite confident with my test. However, when I left the exam room and compared the results with my friends, I found that some of our answers were not the same, so I was quite worried," he said.

"The most nervous moment is waiting for the results to be announced. I did not have my name on the bronze and silver medals," he recalled.

"When the gold medal was announced, I nearly burst with joy. To top it off, all four of us in the chemistry team won the gold medals," he said.

Hanh scored 94.33 out of 100 points at this year's International Chemistry Olympiad.

Hanh's father Quan said that the whole family were delighted when they heard Hanh's name at the online results ceremony.

"We put our trust in Hanh. But we were still really surprised with the high result my son got. We are very proud of him," Quan said.

ang inh Hao, Hanh's chemistry teacher and head of Ha Tinh High School's chemistry team, said that Hanh is a student with solid knowledge and performance.

Accompanying Hanh for the past three years, I find that Hanh is also industrious, hard-working and determined before all the goals that he sets.

Hao recalled that in the national exam in grade 11, Hanh won third prize as he was a little nervous. However, in the grade 12 exam, Hanh was determined to win the first prize and did.

For me, when I accompany Hanh, instead of pushing him to study, I usually ask him to go to bed early and stay healthy because he usually stays up late studying," Hao said.

Hanh studies until 3-4am and only sleeps for a few hours before going to school at 6am.

"It is that hard work and diligence that has brought Hanh to an admirable achievement," Hao said.

"When I heard he won the National First Prize in Chemistry and then the International Olympic Gold Medal, I was very happy but not too surprised because this result was completely worthy of his efforts and determination," Hao said. VNS

Box:

All four members of the Vietnamese team that competed at the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) 2022 won gold medals.

The winners were; Nguyen Viet Phong, a 12th grader from Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in HCM City; Tran uc Minh, a 12th grader from Bien Hoa High School for the Gifted in Ha Nam Province; Phan Xuan Hanh, a 12th grader from Ha Tinh High School for the Gifted; and Pham Nguyen Minh Tuan, an 11th grader from the High School for the Gifted of Natural Sciences under the University of Natural Sciences, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi.

This is the second time that all Vietnamese members have won gold at the competition, after the first one in 2020. Last year, four Vietnamese students won three gold medals and one silver medal.

This years competition was from July 8 to July 18 and drew the participation of 326 students from 84 nations and territories.

This is the third year in a row that it was held online. The Vietnamese team competed from the Ha Noi National University of Education. VNS
Enjoying a cup of hot tea and reading the morning paper inside a spacious house, Vo Thanh Minh, a retired officer living in Alley No. 127 on Co Giang Street in HCM Citys Phu Nhuan District, said he now has a comfortable life thanks to a better income from his three kiosks for lease on the alley that was expanded three years ago.
Bank of America's executive vice chair of Global, Corporate, and Investment Banking Madhu Kannan confirmed this information with the Ho Chi Minh City delegation during a working session in the US this week.

Founded in 1904, Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individuals, small- and middle-market businesses, and large corporations with a full range of banking, investment, asset management, and financial and risk management products and services.

The company serves approximately 56 million US consumers and small businesses. It is among the world's leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading.

The bank had a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City until 2002 when the parent bank in the US liquidated it as part of a systemic restructuring.

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said, "Given its ambition to build an international financial centre, one of our main tasks is to invite Bank of America to contribute to the development of the city."

He confirmed that the local authorities would continue to promote the banks expansion into Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City also invites US-based funds and individuals to invest in various fields such as finance, high-tech industries, digital transformation, infrastructure, education, and healthcare.
Focusing on high-quality and impressive box design, JW Marriott puts passion into the process of providing the best mooncakes for customers.

The 2022 mooncake is inspired by the image of carp swimming in a lotus lake, which are symbols of prosperity and happiness. JW Marriott Hanois Mooncake box of delights is expected to contribute to fulfilling your season of family, friendship, and togetherness.

The mooncake box combines either four or six cakes with the typical taste of pandan leaves, taro, red bean, black sesame, lotus seeds, salted duck egg yolk, and chestnut, among others. The gift sets combine either tea or wine at a price of VND1.28 million ($55.65) upward.

Customers should order cakes before August 1 to enjoy a 15 per cent discount.

Mooncake brochure: https://bit.ly/2T5aaoJ
The Waco Police Department has identified an uptick in two crimes of opportunity that can take victims by surprise: bank jugging and trailer theft.

Bank jugging occurs when offenders park outside banks and wait for customers to walk in and out of the building. When the customer leaves the bank with money, the offender follows the victim to the next location and breaks into the vehicle to retrieve the money, police said in a news release Friday.

Police have reported four instances of bank jugging in the past week, though its been a problem off and on for the past few years, police said. Recent offenses have been documented at Chase Bank and Bank of America locations.

The offenders usually come in pairs and break into cars after the owner has exited the vehicle. Waco hasnt seen any jugging cases involved armed robbery yet, Sgt. Philip Zboril said on a recent episode of Waco PD on the BEAT, the departments podcast.

To protect yourself from bank jugging, police recommend tucking your cash and envelopes away when leaving the bank.

Also check your surroundings when walking in and out of the establishment. If you see people sitting in their cars for an extended amount of time, you should report this suspicious behavior, police advised.

The second crime on the rise is trailer theft, with some 15 cases reported in the last two months, Zboril said.

Zboril explained on the podcast that theres no specific type of trailer being targeted. Every part of town is being affected the same and this crime can happen in the morning, afternoon and at night, he said. Trailers may even be taken while attached to a vehicle.

Its common for offenders to reconfigure trailers by painting over them and changing the license plates, making it increasingly hard to track down stolen property.

To protect yourself from trailer theft, Waco PD suggests storing trailers behind a locked fence with a trailer lock. Zboril also mentioned getting a tire boot and camera for the trailer. In addition, you should etch the VIN number onto multiple places on the trailer and document those places in order to later identify the trailer in the case it is stolen.
When Alex Wheeler graduated from A.J. Moore High School in 1964, he left with more than just book smarts.

The many kindhearted teachers at the all-Black segregated school showed him how to navigate the world with what he called mother wit.

They provided not only the educational resources but also the wisdom that it takes to really survive, said Wheeler, president of the A.J. Moore Alumni Association, which is holding its biennial reunion this weekend. Those are the things I distinctly remember.

Wheeler, who lives in Waco, expects 150 to 200 people at the Baylor Club on Friday and Saturday for the reunion. The celebration continues into Sunday with a picnic open to family members and friends of alumni, as well as the general public for $15.

A.J. Moore alumni have been meeting biennially since 1973 for weekendlong festivities celebrating and cherishing the memory of their beloved high school and the people that owe their success to it.

The school traced its roots to 1881 and was housed at 600 S. First St. near the Brazos River from 1923 to 1971, when it closed as part a court-ordered integration plan.

Notable alumni include Dallas-based U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, class of 1952, who will be this years keynote speaker.

Other prominent alumni of A.J. Moore have included:

Vivienne Malone-Mayes, the first African American faculty member at Baylor University and the fifth African American woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics in the U.S.;

Baylors first Black graduates, the Rev. Robert Gilbert and Barbara Walker (60);

McLennan County commissioner and civil rights activist Lester Gibson (67), who died June 17.

Gibson was the first Black McLennan County commissioner since the Reconstruction era, a position he held for 28 years. Gibson and others who have died in the last three years will be honored in a memorial service Saturday.

Wheeler said there are four living faculty members from A.J. Moore, three of which will be in attendance during the weekends activities. The oldest, Loyce Wilkins, is 104 years old and lives in Houston with her family.

Sincere and nurturing

The alumni of A.J. Moore were a close-knit group when they attended Waco Independent School Districts only all-Black high school, and they remain close more than half a century after their beloved alma mater was closed.

Carolyn Giles, class of 1968, said the teachers at the school were nothing short of sincere and nurturing. Giles and other students never tried to get away with anything at school, because if something happened at the schoolhouse, everyones mamas and grandmas would know about it soon after.

Of Giles four siblings, three graduated from A.J. Moore as well. After Giles graduated, she went on to become a teacher in Fort Worth Independent School District for 45 years.

Giles said A.J. Moore wasnt just like any other high school.

It has a legacy, she said.

The reunions allow for alumni to reconnect with classmates and friends they havent seen in years or even decades. Giles said she was excited to see her friend, Lola Joyce Cook, who she hasnt seen in over 50 years.

A.J. Moore High School graduate Dwight Jones reminisced about visiting some of the small convenience stores and shops near the school. These places became afterschool hangout spots for many students.

That was probably some of the history that I remember from being there, Jones said.

Jones said students would walk some three miles to school from their homes in East Waco and over the Waco Suspension Bridge to the school, rain or shine. Students werent fortunate enough to take public transportation and cars werent as accessible as they are now.

Roots in Waco

The school was named after Professor Alexander James Moore, who opened the first public school for African Americans in Waco.

Moore taught out of his home until he acquired a former hospital and transformed it into a school, where he taught as the first principal from 1881 to 1905. The school relocated to a new building in 1923.

The school housed students first grade to 12th until 1951, when it was limited to grades seventh through 12th.

In 1971 the school was closed under a court-ordered desegregation plan, and the riverfront area was soon demolished to make way for Urban Renewal and the new Interstate 35.

By the time it closed, Wheeler was making his way in the world with the practical wisdom he had learned there.

He attended San Antonio College and Wacos Paul Quinn College and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, hoping to work as an intelligence officer. Instead, he was given a post in the air police and served four years before returning to Waco to serve at what is now Texas State Technical College. He served as a social worker in McLennan County and started his own janitorial company.

Ive always been an entrepreneurial type person, Wheeler said. I said, what can I do? and I knew I could clean houses. If I can clean houses then I can learn how to clean buildings, just readjust my habits of what Im doing, and I did.

Wheeler lived in Waco for another six years, earning his bachelors degree from Baylor and getting married to Patsyanne Mayes, daughter of Vivienne Malone-Mayes, the mathematician. The couple moved to Dallas, where Wheeler began teaching.

Wheeler said he is aware that as the years pass, the alumni grow older, but they are still experiencing consistent turnout. As people pass away or step down from their positions, others step up to fill those vacancies, to continue on with this decadeslong tradition.

You never know when its going to be the last time, Wheeler said.
Booing greeted Waco Mayor Dillon Meek about halfway through his speech Friday, the sounds source quietly slipping into the crowd as Meek talked about spending $9 million remodeling Waco Regional Airport.

The rude interloper proved to be none other than Chip Gaines, who never met a fixer-upper he didnt like. Turns out Meek invited the reality TV star, Magnolia mogul and Waco fan to join the fun. Gaines later donned a hard hat and joined others in bashing drywall with gold-painted sledgehammers.

All in a days work for the Fixer Upper co-star who made demo day a household word among the shows devoted followers. Gaines said from the podium the occasion was not about him, though his presence and banter with the crowd proved a hit in more ways than one. He professed love for his and his familys hometown and business hub. They have no plans to leave, he said.

He called the $8.7 million renovation a strategic move. A healthy, robust airport reflects similar qualities in its surroundings, Gaines said.

Thats the big idea behind Fly Waco Transformed: Terminal Building Modernization Project, years in planning and projected to create a clean and aesthetically pleasing terminal that best represents the culture and values of the community, said city spokeswoman Monica Sedelmeier in a release.

To that end, general contractor Hensel Phelps will update restrooms, flooring, ceiling finishes and security checkpoint, and arrange to install electronic charging stations, designated workstations and modern furniture.

These touches will all come together to create a travel experience parallel with some of the newest airports in the country, Sedelmeier said. Art pieces placed around the building will convey Wacos diverse history.

The airport will remain open and operational during construction.

Mark Flewelling, who will serve as Hensel Phelps project manager in Waco, said the job will include selective demolition, not to be confused with the battering a prop made of drywall took during and after the ceremony.

Hensel Phelps website reveals a coast-to-coast resume, including assignments at Love Field, El Paso International Airport, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.

Not to pat ourselves on the back, but we are rated No. 1, said Flewelling, mentioning Hensel Phelps expertise in aviation-related projects.

Flewelling said a crew numbering about 25 will carry out tasks daily during the construction process. He said Hensel Phelps will take steps to shield work from the flying public, not wanting to become an annoyance.

Airport director Joel Martinez said enplanements at Waco Regional have surged, though they have not reached pre-pandemic numbers from 2019.

Sedelmeier said the city learned Friday that American Eagle on Aug. 17 will add a sixth daily flight between Waco and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Eagle flew one flight daily during the worst of the pandemic.

Meek said Waco continues to pursue a second commuter airline, giving the traveling public another option flying to and from Waco.

Martinez said the search has become my full-time job now.

Waco has allocated $5.9 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funds toward the terminal upgrades. Another $2.3 million will come from the Airport Improvement Program, while Waco Regional Airport cash reserves will cover the $509,938 balance.

Renderings presented the Waco City Council show a welcome lane that will link the main terminal to other areas within the building. They also envision a childrens play area and a designated lounge area. The security check area will become larger to accommodate more travelers.

New floors, walls and ceilings will feature whites, neutral colors and woods. Bathroom renderings show white stalls, walls and counters.

Myriam Camargo with CaCo Architecture told the council the design would modernize a facility not renovated since 1999.
Policymakers in Washington are calling for a nationwide energy transformation  a future dominated by electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines. But theres a catch. Not only does China currently control the supply of critical minerals required for these advanced technologies, but recent news reports make clear that Beijing also relies on forced labor to make them a reality. This raises a question: Do Americans really want an energy future monopolized by Chinese supply chains rife with labor abuses?

Nowhere is this quandary more evident than in the electric vehicle industry, particularly high-tech EV batteries. The International Energy Agency predicts that, by 2040, the demand for lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt used in EV batteries could jump by a staggering 30 times. And thats where China smartly has a stranglehold, since it controls 70 percent of the worlds lithium supplies, for example, and almost all of the worlds graphite.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has allowed itself to become heavily reliant on imports for 47 of the worlds key minerals. In fact, the U.S. is 100 percent import-reliant for 17 of them. This leaves the United States dependent on mineral supplies from China in order to build its EV future. And thats doubly problematic since its now apparent that Chinese companies are using forced labor to extract these raw materials.

Specifically, the mining conglomerate Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Industry uses hundreds of ethnic Uyghurs from western China in its mining workforce. This isnt the first time were hearing about labor abuse in China, however. Its estimated that since 2017 at least 80,000 Uyghurs have been transferred from Xinjiang for forced labor across China. And roughly 82 well-known global brands have utilized this forced labor in their supply chains.

Beijings comfort with labor abuse should be no surprise, though. Chinese firms also control much of the cobalt mining in the Congo  and are complicit in the use of child labor to extract raw cobalt under grueling conditions.

Americas EV revolution shouldnt be built on a foundation dominated by China. As the demand for critical minerals soars, the U.S. must get serious about building a secure, reliable and responsible supply chain of our own. We can do so if we choose, since the U.S. is home to an estimated $6.2 trillion worth of untapped mineral reserves. That includes everything from rare-earth elements to lithium, nickel and cobalt.

What we need now is a commitment to produce these critical resources at home. But China is hard at work trying to stop that from happening. In the wake of President Biden invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up Americas mining sector, China has launched social media campaigns to discredit U.S. mining. The cybersecurity consulting group Mandiant says that China has used fake social media accounts to feign concern over environmental and health issues related to U.S. mining. These fraudulent accounts have also criticized President Bidens use of the DPA.

Clearly, China wants the U.S. to remain reliant on mining imports. But thats all the more reason to get American mining up and running.

The answer is for Washington to finally address the bureaucratic hurdles handcuffing Americas mining industry  particularly the duplicative and painfully cumbersome mine permitting process that regularly takes a decade or longer. Doing so will strengthen U.S. economic and national security while also creating good jobs at home. And that means future U.S. energy policy wont fund Chinas abhorrent labor abuses.
Lt Donald McKenna

Don McKenna grew up in Storm Lake, Iowa. He graduated from St. Marys High school in 1939 and then attended Buena Vista College (now Buena Vista University) in Storm Lake for a year.

Before enlisting in the Army on December 3, 1942, Don had worked for a time as a railroad clerk for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco.

In addition to Don, three of his brothers also enlisted; Raphael and Robert served with the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater, while J. Orton McKenna, like Don, joined the U.S. Army Air Forces.

Dan Sokolowski, Don McKennas nephew, generously shared information and photos about his uncle to make this article possible.
MAQUOKETA  Three Cedar Falls resident died Friday morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation identified the dead as Tyler Schmidt, 42, Sarah Schmidt, 42, and Lula Schmidt, 6.

Their deaths are being investigated as homicides, according to a news release from the Iowa DCI. A fourth person was found deceased of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green issued a statement late Friday on Facebook saying the family was camping at the state park. The Schmidts 9-year-old son, Arlo, was also there. He survived the attack, and is safe, said Green.

Green identified the family as his neighbors and said Sarah Schmidt was a Cedar Falls Public Library employee.

Like many of you just hearing the news, Im devastated, he wrote in the Facebook post. I knew Sarah well, and she & her family were regular walkers here in the Sartori Park neighborhood. He had spent some time working with her during the past week on a presentation.

Details will be forthcoming about services and other memorials, and I will ensure the community knows about this, Green wrote. Please offer some extra grace to the Schmidts many friends, neighbors, and coworkers as we try to process this horrible tragedy. The Cedar Falls Library was closed Saturday for the sake of the staff who loved and worked with Sarah, he added.

By Saturday afternoon, more than $63,000 had flowed into a GoFundMe page created for Arlo. The page, which says it was organized by a cousin, Beth Shapiro, states: Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can. The page says the fund will help Arlo now, and help fund his future education.

To find the page, go online to gofundme.com and then search Arlo Schmidt.

Found at campsite

The Jackson County Sheriffs Office and DCI were called about 6:23 a.m. for a report of a shooting at the park campground, Mike Krapfl, a special agent in charge with DCI, said during a news conference late Friday morning.

When officers arrived, they located three deceased bodies at a campsite, Krapfl said.

As officers searched the campground, they learned one other camper was missing.

He was later identified as 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin and we had information that he was armed at the time, Krapfl said.

Sherwin was found dead about 11 a.m. west of the park. He had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Krapfl said during the course of the investigation, authorities learned Sherwin was armed and that of course heightened our awareness. Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit and provided no information about the firearm that was used to kill the Schmidts.

Investigators were still trying to figure out what relationship, if any, there was between the Schmidts and Sherwin, Krapfl said.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safetys division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown.

We dont know what led up to this, what precipitated it, he said, adding that so far, the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.

Autopsies on Sherwin and the victims were scheduled to be performed over the weekend, Mortvedt said, and more information would likely be released based on those findings.

The Des Moines Register reported that Sherwin came from La Vista, Nebraska. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten told the newspaper that Sherwin had lived in an apartment complex with his parents and that he had no history of criminal conduct.

The park will be closed until further notice because of the investigation.

Crowded park

Other people were in the park at the time, and at least some of them were evacuated.

The campground was relatively full, Krapfl said, though he did not have the exact number of people who were in the park when police arrived.

Officers made contact with all the campers, tried to get as many out as they could, Krapfl said.

There was believed to be no further threat to the public.

One employee at Maquoketa Caves said that at about 8 a.m., she was given the option to go home after police arrived and the park was locked down in response to the report of a shooting.

Parents with children attending the nearby Camp Shalom were notified Friday morning that it also was locked down.

We were just notified that there is an active shooter at Maquoketa Caves, according to a Friday morning message to campers parents. Our top priority is camper safety, and we are following the protocols.

Fridays are usually pick-up days for campers at the Christian-focused camp. It is about a mile and a half away from the Maquoketa Caves, said executive assistant Beth Sallak.

But plans changed at 9:11 a.m., when local law enforcement sent a notification to the directors that there was an active shooter situation at the state park, and told them to evacuate immediately.

So, Sallak said, staff shifted gears.

We told the campers, Were going to do a surprise visit to Little Bear Park in Maquoketa. They all cheered, and we loaded everyone on the bus. They had no idea there was an active shooter a mile and a half down the road.

She complimented the staff for staying calm and quickly changing plans, as theyve trained to do in emergencies. Campers this week ranged in ages from second graders to seniors in high school.

Nobody expects for this to happen. The Maquoketa caves? Come on, Sallak said. Its one of the safest places you can be. I take my kids there, I hike there with my friends. That doesnt mean you cant in the back of your mind be prepared.

Officials respond

State officials issued statements about Fridays incident.

Im horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives, Gov. Kim Reynolds said. As we grieve this unimaginable tragedy, Kevin and I pray for the victims family members and the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene. We ask Iowans to do the same.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said on Twitter he was closely monitoring the situation in Maquoketa Caves State Park.

Praying for the lives lost & their loved ones Im grateful for Iowa law enforcement who responded +camp staff for ensuring safety of other campers Violence cant be tolerated Killing innocent ppl is sickening, Grassley tweeted.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, likewise, wrote on Twitter: I am heartbroken to hear of the tragedy in Maquoketa Caves State Park and am praying for the victims and their families. My staff and I are following the situation. Thankful for all of the responding law enforcement.

Kayla Lyon, Iowa Department of Natural Resources director, said she and the DNR staff were also devastated by the incident.

Our long-standing tradition of enjoying Iowas natural wonders was shaken today, but the legacy for the millions of families that recreate at Iowa state parks will continue, Lyon said.

Courier staff and Quad-City Times reporters Brooklyn Draisey and Sarah Watson contributed to this story.
CEDAR FALLS  Patrons of the Cedar Falls Public Library found the doors shut Saturday following the slaying of employee Sarah Schmidt, along with her husband, Tyler, and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula.

The family was camping at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Friday when they were killed. The suspect, who had no known interactions with the family prior to the incident, then took his own life. The Schmidts 9-year-old son, Arlo, survived.

We have no knowledge of the individual who conducted this act, Adam Morehouse, Sarah Schmidts younger brother, said in a phone interview. We dont know who it was. Weve never met that person. And this was 100% random.

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation identified the suspected gunman as 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin of La Vista, Nebraska. His body was found at the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Outside of the library Saturday, a sign explaining the closure was flanked by drawings and messages showing support for the family.

The Schmidt family moved from Lawrence, Kansas, to Cedar Falls around 2018 to be closer to Tylers family. Morehouse said his sister and her family took to the community immediately. When storms hit, Sarah would call her brother for help with reading the radar so she could share the information with friends and neighbors.

Sarah and Tyler and Arlo and Lula were the Midwestern family that we all would want to be, Morehouse said. They were extremely loving and compassionate to each other and everybody they met. They were always doing the right thing at the right time, and they were always that sound mind that you couldve called when something like this wouldve happened.

Tyler was a software engineer, working remotely for a company based in the Kansas City area. Sarah started working at the library late in 2021 as an assistant in the circulation department. Library Director Kelly Stern said she made the most of her short time there, and her impact will be felt for a long time.

Sarah and her family were some of the kindest and most loving people you could ever meet, which makes this tragedy even more incomprehensible and senseless and difficult to process, Stern said in a phone interview. Patrons loved her. Even in the smallest interactions with our patrons, Sarah let people know that she cared about them and they were important to her.

Sarahs supervisor, Amy Stuenkel, added that Sarah ran the summer reading program, took care of mending books and had a knack for finding things in the library that no one else could.

Stuenkel said her interaction with the rest of the family was limited, but Sarah always took the time to praise her children and say how smart they were. Arlo is ahead of his grade in math, and Lula also excelled in school.

She came home one time and said, I know what 60 + 60 + 60 is  three hours, Stuenkel said. Its really smart for a 6 year old.

Morehouse confirmed that Arlo Schmidt is safe with family and was with authorities immediately after the incident.

My nephew is strong and our focus in the next few days is on him, Jana Morehouse, Sarahs younger sister, said on Facebook.

By Saturday afternoon, more than $63,000 had flowed into a GoFundMe page created for Arlo. The page, which says it was organized by a cousin, Beth Shapiro, states: Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can. The page says the fund will help Arlo now, and help fund his future education.

To find the page, go online to gofundme.com and then search Arlo Schmidt.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo woman was found not guilty Friday of child endangerment for an incident at a child care facility in 2020.

Police alleged that Tammy Barrett, a teacher at Tri-County Head Start, assaulted a 3-year-old along with an assistant teacher. According to police, a video recording showed Barrett drag the child out of the classroom door.

Barretts trial lasted three days. The jury deliberated for an hour and 45 minutes before delivering its verdict.

Jenilee Schnell, an assistant teacher involved in the same case, pleaded guilty in March to child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor. Police said Schnell assaulted the 3-year-old by grabbing, pushing and holding the child to the ground several times. Police also allege Schnell laid on the child and put her arm on the back of the childs neck.

At trial, defense attorneys entered a picture of the childs injury into evidence. A hatch-marked bruise was above the childs ear. Police said they determined the cause of the mark was from the child being pushed down onto a cot.

The defense said the specific cot was not in Barretts room and, therefore, DNA testing could not be performed on the cot.
Robert LeRoy Rosenow, an inmate with the Iowa Department of Corrections, died on Monday, the department announced.

Rosenow, who was 64, died of natural causes at the Iowa Medical Classification Center, according to the department.

Rosenow was convicted of three counts of sexual abuse and three counts of lascivious acts with a minor in Scott County. He was serving a 70-year maximum prison sentence which began March 21, 2001. In 2002, the Iowa Court of Appeals denied an appeal from Rosenow to reduce his sentencing.
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.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

No fewer than six detectives interrogated Fabian Gonzales in the hours after 10-year-old Victoria Martens was killed and her body dismembered and burned in a bathtub on Aug. 23, 2016.

Josh Brown, then the Albuquerque Police Departments lead detective on the case, testified the entire morning Friday. It was his second day on the stand. In questioning from Gonzales attorney, Stephen Aarons, Brown confirmed portions of interrogation transcripts the attorney read. In them, Brown and the other detectives made up stories indicating that Gonzales cousin, Jessica Kelley, and Michelle Martens, Victorias mother, implicated him in the killing of the child and in the attempt to dismember and dispose of her body.

Brown, now an APD internal affairs sergeant, said concocting stories is a standard interrogation technique used by investigators to try get people involved in a crime to flip on each other and reveal the truth.

Gonzales and Martens were arrested shortly after Victorias death and originally charged with rape and murder. Those charges were dropped in 2018 after authorities discovered that Gonzales and Martens were not at the apartment at the time of Victorias death. At the time, prosecutors acknowledged that many of the initial allegations had been based on false admissions by Martens.

While Gonzales didnt personally strangle Victoria, prosecutors now argue, he created the danger that led to her death, and he tampered with the evidence of her murder.

Gonzales attorney counters that Kelley, the prosecutions star witness, was the actual killer and that prosecutors gave her a generous plea deal.

Gonzales, 37, is standing trial on charges of child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12, and seven counts of tampering with evidence and conspiracy to tamper with evidence.

Portions of interrogation transcripts were read in the 2nd Judicial District courtroom of Judge Cindy Leos on Friday. Those transcripts indicated detectives used extremely graphic language and imagery in telling Gonzales that Kelley or Michelle Martens, or both of them, had turned on Gonzales. The detectives said the women confessed that they and Gonzales had been smoking meth with Victoria, that the child had been raped and Michelle Martens watched as her child was violated.

Despite those tactics, Aarons noted, Gonzales repeatedly told detectives he had no role in Victorias death.

An autopsy report revealed the child had no drugs in her system and no evidence of semen.

A detective in another interrogation transcript told Gonzales that because this was a high-profile case involving the death and possibly the rape of a child, it would be difficult to keep hidden from other prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

How do you think thats going to make your visit there when you go on to DOC (Department of Corrections) after court and youre convicted? the detective asked Gonzales.

Aarons also questioned Brown about the efficacy of fabricating stories, noting that some suspects might be influenced to provide a statement to fit the story theyve been told, people like Michelle Martens, who, Aarons said, was experiencing trauma after being told the fate of her daughter.

Chief Deputy District Attorney James Grayson played a portion of a video in which Gonzales is shown motioning over and over how Kelley allegedly held a knife and plunged it into Victoria Martens torso. That video, Grayson noted, was made after Gonzales had earlier told investigators that he witnessed nothing regarding the childs death.

Most of the afternoon was taken up by the testimony of Jeffrey Smith, a forensic scientist with the Department of Public Safety, who has expertise in bringing out latent prints on surfaces and interpreting specific characteristics about those prints.

Smith said he examined 86 items taken from the apartment. Among them was a kitchen knife set and wooden block, which did not yield any usable prints. Gonzales fingerprints were on a mop handle and some DVDs, Smith testified.

A fingerprint on the inside of an orange laundry basket, Smith said, was from Kelley.

Attorneys have previously noted that a white plastic bag containing Victoria Martens severed limbs was found inside an orange laundry basket in the apartment.

Testimony will resume on Monday.

Michelle Martens, 40, pleaded guilty in 2018 to child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12. She has not yet been sentenced.

Kelley, 37, pleaded no contest to six felony charges, including child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12. She was sentenced to 44 years in prison, but will be eligible for release in half that time.

Both she and Martens are required to testify in Gonzales trial as part of their plea agreements.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  A Republican legislative candidate from Albuquerque could be blocked from taking office  if hes elected in November  due to past felony burglary and larceny convictions.

But the issue could end up playing out in court as a recent federal ruling found the New Mexico law that, in most cases, bars individuals with felony convictions from holding elected office might violate the state Constitution.

Solomon Pena, who is the GOP nominee for the House District 14 seat in the South Valley, served nearly seven years in prison after being convicted in 2008 of stealing large amounts of goods from several big box retail stores in a reported smash and grab scheme.

He declined to answer Journal questions about his criminal record this week, saying he was too busy knocking on district residents doors to talk.

I stand with Donald J. Trump, Pena said in a subsequent text message. I dont want anything to do with you.

Rep. Miguel P. Garcia, D-Albuquerque, a longtime legislator who is the incumbent in House District 14, said some elderly residents have expressed concern to him about Penas campaign style, including repeatedly urging voters to change their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

Garcia also said hes hired another legislator, Sen. Jacob Candelaria, an Albuquerque independent and attorney, to represent him in a court challenge aimed at having Pena disqualified from the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

In a Friday interview, Candelaria said that, while state law is not clear on whether convicted felons can run for office, he believes Pena committed perjury by filing a declaration of candidacy stating he was eligible to hold the legislative seat.

Were going to bring a case and let the court figure it out, Candelaria said. He continues to believe the law doesnt apply to him.

Candelaria also said he supports former convicts being fully reintegrated into society, but said there is a clear legal process for such individuals to run for elected office that Pena does not appear to have followed.

However, a House GOP spokesman accused Candelaria, a former Democrat who changed his party affiliation to independent last year, of hypocrisy for trying to derail Penas candidacy.

As someone who was raised in the South Valley, I am disappointed to see so-called civil rights activists attempt to use the example of this young Hispanic man, who turned his life around, for their political movida, said Matt Garcia-Sierra, communications director for the House GOP leadership.

No pardon, no job

Under New Mexico law, individuals with felony convictions are not eligible to hold elected office unless they have completed all the terms of their sentence and have received a pardon from the governor, said Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the Secretary of States Office.

A person with a felony conviction can qualify to run for office and be placed on the ballot, but they would not be able to hold that office, if elected, unless they received a pardon from the governor, Curtas added.

Nora Meyers Sackett, a spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, said this week Pena had not applied for, nor received, a pardon since the Democratic governor took office in 2019.

Despite that, Penas candidacy could be bolstered by the U.S. District Court ruling in January that found the prohibition on convicted felons holding office once theyve completed the terms of their sentence would likely be rejected by the state Supreme Court.

That ruling, which involved a different plaintiff, pointed out the Constitution allows all legal residents who are qualified electors to hold public office, if not otherwise limited by the Constitution.

But the New Mexico Supreme Court has not ruled directly on the issue since a 2010 constitutional amendment changed the definition of eligible voter and it is unclear if the states highest court would concur with the federal courts interpretation.

Legislators seek clarity

Pena, 39, was incarcerated from May 2009 until March 2016 at different prisons in New Mexico, a state Corrections Department spokeswoman said Friday. He completed his five years of probation in March 2021 and subsequently had his voting rights restored, according to court records.

Several photos of Pena at Trump campaign rallies appear on his campaign website, along with a list of political stances that include support for our local police and claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

The website does not mention Penas criminal record; he was convicted by a jury of felony larceny and burglary for stealing from at least four different Albuquerque retailers. He was reportedly part of a burglary crew that used stolen vehicles to smash into stores and take high-end electronics.

All 70 New Mexico state House seats are up for election this year, with Republicans hoping to pick up several seats in the chamber.

Currently, Democrats outnumber Republicans in the House by a 44-25 margin  theres also one independent member  but Republicans have recruited candidates to run in 50 districts around the state.

Meanwhile, Candelaria also said he plans to refer the case to Attorney General Hector Balderas office for possible review.

He also said legislators might, in the future, need to make it clear that residents with felony convictions who have not received a pardon cannot legally run for an elected office they cannot occupy.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Two Mexican men have been arrested for their alleged roles in the deaths of three undocumented people who were being smuggled across the U.S. border on Tuesday.

Jose Luis Aguilera-Guzman, 25, and Jesus David Nunez-Monreal, whose age wasnt provided, were charged Thursday with conspiracy to bring in and harbor certain aliens, as well as bringing in and harboring aliens resulting in death.

The U.S. Attorneys Office said in a news release that Aguilera-Guzman and Nunez-Monreal helped a group of Mexican citizens cross into Luna County. Border Patrol agents, Luna County Sheriffs deputies and a New Mexico National Guard helicopter conducted a search in response to a distress call and found seven members of the group, the release said.

Agents then learned that the group ran out of water while traveling through the desert, resulting in the death of three members who were left behind when they were unable to continue, U.S. Attorney spokesman Scott Howell said in the release.

According to the release, Aguilera-Guzman and Nunez-Monreal will remain in custody until a preliminary detention hearing, which is scheduled for July 27.

If convicted, they could face life in prison or death.
KYIV, Ukraine  Russian missiles hit Ukraines Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraines Foreign Ministry denounced Saturdays airstrikes as a spit in the face to Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements.

Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the ports infrastructure and Ukrainian air defenses brought down two others, the Ukrainian militarys Southern Command said. Odesa regional governor Maksym Marchenko said an unspecified number of people were injured in the attack.

Command spokeswoman Nataliya Humenyuk said no grain storage facilities were hit in Odesa. Turkeys defense minister, however, said he had spoken with Ukrainian authorities and one missile struck a grain silo and another landed nearby but neither affected loading at Odesas docks.

It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesas port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the U.N. and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.

The invaders can no longer deceive anyone, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Nikolenko described the missile strike on the 150th day of Russias war in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putins spit in the face of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who made great efforts to reach agreement.

Guterres office said the U.N. chief unequivocally condemns the strikes.

Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets, the Guterres statement said. These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people.

It was not clear how Saturdays Russian airstrikes would affect the plan to resume shipping Ukrainian grain by sea in safe corridors out of three Ukrainian Black Sea ports: Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Ukraine and Russia signed identical deals Friday with the U.N. and Turkey in Istanbul backing the plan, which Guterres hailed as a beacon of hope for a world in which food prices are rising rapidly.

The agreements sought to clear the way for the shipment of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and some Russian exports of grain and fertilizer that have been blocked by the war. Ukraine is one of the worlds largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russias invasion and naval blockade of its ports halted shipments.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press showed the deals called for the creation of a U.N.-led joint coordination center in Istanbul where officials from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey would oversee the scheduling and searches of cargo ships.

Zelenskyy previously called the agreements a chance to prevent a global catastrophe  a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us.

The head of Zelenskyys office, Andriy Yermak, said on Twitter that the Odesa strike, coming so soon after the endorsement of the Black Sea deal, illustrated the Russian diplomatic dichotomy.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink denounced the strike on Odesas port as outrageous.

The Kremlin continues to weaponize food, she tweeted. Russia must be held to account.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russias commitment to the deal and undermines the work of the U.N., Turkey and Ukraine.

Russia bears responsibility for deepening the global food crisis and must stop its aggression and fully implement the deal to which it has agreed, he said.

Russia also fired a barrage of missiles Saturday at an airfield and a railway facility in central Ukraine, killing at least three people, while Ukrainian forces launched rocket strikes on river crossings in a Russian-occupied southern region.

The attacks on key infrastructure marked new attempts by the warring parties to tip the scales of the grinding conflict in their favor.

In Ukraines central Kirovohradska region, 13 Russian missiles struck an airfield and a railway facility. Gov. Andriy Raikovych said at least one serviceman and two guards were killed and another 16 people were wounded in the strikes near the city of Kirovohrad.

In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper River crossings to try to disrupt Russian supply lines. Still, Russian troops have largely held their ground in the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces at a checkpoint are blocking 1,200 vehicles carrying people fleeing the area and four people have died after being stranded there for days amid high heat, said Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the city of Melitopol, which is now under Russian control.

In the key port city of Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said two people were wounded when Russian rockets struck an apartment building.

Fighting also raged unabated in eastern Ukraines industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make new gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.

Earlier this week Ukraine bombarded the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnieper River using the U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russia-appointed regional administration in Kherson.

Stremousov told Russian state news agency Tass that the only other crossing of the Dnieper, the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, also came under attack from rockets launched with weapons supplied by Washington but wasnt damaged.

HIMARS, which can fire GPS-guided rockets at targets 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, out of reach of most Russian artillery systems, have significantly bolstered the Ukrainian strike capability.

In addition, Ukrainian forces shelled an automobile bridge across the Inhulets River in the village of Darivka, Stremousov told Tass. He said the bridge east of the regional capital of Kherson sustained seven hits but remained open. Stremousov said that, unlike the Antonivskyi Bridge, the small bridge in Darivka has no strategic value.

Since April, the Kremlin has concentrated on capturing the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region where pro-Moscow separatists have proclaimed independence.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized this week that Moscow plans to retain control of other areas in Ukraine that its forces have occupied during the war.

___

Follow APs coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In leading NewSpace New Mexico, which houses a first-of-its-kind co-innovation hub called Unite & Ignite Space, I have seen the space race surge to new heights in recent years  and New Mexico is in the middle of the action.

Virgin Galactic, Space X and Blue Origin sent the first civilians traveling to space, over 100 companies have plans to get back to the moon, and thousands of low-orbit satellites will launch to bring new capabilities, such as reliable internet coverage worldwide. Leading financial institutions expect the global space sector will triple in the next decade and become a multi-trillion dollar market over the next 20 years.

Yet, within this backdrop, substantial barriers exist for promising space companies to succeed in bringing their innovations to market. While there is plenty of front-end support for research and development and start-ups, assistance that accelerates product development and sales is lacking in the fragmented, hard-to-navigate space industry.

Leading in the new space race requires providing space companies with support beyond R&D to address barriers that prevent them from thriving in the new space era. NewSpace New Mexico launched the NewSpace Ignitor funded in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory last week with this exact purpose in mind. NewSpace Ignitor will enable early-growth to mid-size space companies to leap forward in turning their concepts into revenue-generating products with end-to-end support and faster access to the right resources, relationships, workforce, customers and collaborations.

Support for the NewSpace Ignitor companies includes navigating companies to funding opportunities and customer contracts. We also provide access to secure and high-cost shared facilities that offer testing workspaces and specialized equipment that can cost millions of dollars. Throughout the program, NewSpace New Mexico will use its knowledge and vast network of relationships to bring vetted opportunities and often out-of-reach resources to the companies that need them.

These services deliver a system of support across the innovation lifecycle, which will be vital to space companies and the state of New Mexico capitalizing on the multi-trillion dollar market opportunity.

New Mexico demonstrated its leadership in the past by propelling the space sector forward in the areas of research and manufacturing, space flight and exploration, advanced rocketry and national security. Our statewide commitment to the industry has been unwavering, and our space ecosystem is driving greater economic impact today with increased partnership across government, industry and academia. New Mexicos ambition and rich assets, combined with the smart use of resources and capital, will take our states leadership in space to the next level by enabling more space companies to succeed with programs like NewSpace Ignitor and all working together.

For individuals that want to prosper alongside the industry, there are many ways space enthusiasts can participate. For example, investors can provide capital to local space companies, purchase stocks or make private investments through Space Fund, which is rapidly becoming a world-leading space venture capital company.

There has never been a more exciting time to be part of space with expanding investment and innovation flowing into the industry. New Mexico is poised to capitalize on emerging opportunities such as point-to-point travel, the space internet, climate change monitoring and improved low-cost broadband communications. NewSpace New Mexico is ready to work with our vast partner network to convene our states resources together and provide end-to-end support to space companies. We invite you to join us in leading the second space race as we grow commercial space from New Mexico for the nation.

For more information, visit NewSpaceNM.org.

Casey Anglada DeRaad is founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Space New Mexico (NewSpaceNM.org), a nonprofit organization that is accelerating the pace of space innovation by uniting and igniting the industry. The Executives Desk is a guest column providing advice, commentary or information about resources available to the business community in New Mexico. To submit a column for consideration, email gporter@abqjournal.com.
Enter a museum and it is filled with history.

Each piece has been carefully selected as it will be displayed for the public to see.

At the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, there are thousands of items within the permanent collection.

Each is special.

Each has a story behind it.

Its those stories that piques Alicia M. Romeros curiosity.

When the museum acquires new pieces, its part of her job to do the research and weave together the items history.

Museums only share about 3% of their permanent collection at any time, says Romero, head curator at the New Mexico History Museum. People dont remember that items cant always be displayed. We have to rotate the items out for them to get some rest from the lights and elements.

The museums mission is to be a statewide educational resource, local landmark and destination for anyone who wants to understand the diverse experiences of the people of New Mexico, the dynamics that have shaped our state, and the relationships that connect our region with the rest of the world.

While Romero gets to deal with thousands of pieces, she selected five to show the diversity in the collection.

There are 16,000 objects, she says of the museums collection. Thats a good size for the amount of history that I cover. I wanted to share with items that range from every day things to the super-expensive. Whats fascinating is each item is mesmerizing to look at. But the stories behind them; thats what is important.

Romero says the five pieces have incredible stories:

1. Cigar box and rock collection from Kunitaro Takeuchi

Romero says Takeuchi was born in Japan in 1887 and immigrated to Hawaii when he was 22 or 23. During World War II, he was one of the Japanese Americans forced into concentration camps.

Though he had family in Hawaii, in 1942, he was sent to the Santa Fe Interment Camp.

He was there from about 1942 through 1945, Romero says. He would carve rocks. He also collected them and would go around the camp and find the local rocks. He collected them and put them in a cigar box.

Romero says the other internees would find rocks for him and give them to him.

They are regular rocks, Romero says. They arent prized rocks. Its a cigar box and its falling apart. I find this piece interesting because its a part of American and Santa Fe history that people dont talk about or recognize. All of this happened here.

2. San Miguel Archangel bulto by Jose Rafael Arag o n.

Romero says Jose Rafael Aragons bulto is an old piece in the museums permanent collection.

Aragons work dates from about 1820-1862.

What I like about these objects is the fact they grew out of a long standing tradition, she says. One of the things that people dont recognize about these pieces is that most of them are in the Mexican into the American territorial periods. The fact that they reflect Catholicism is amazing.

Romero says the santeros were making the pieces during the beginning and the end of the Mexican period.

The Santa Fe Trail opened in 1821 and the santeros were seeing the challenges to their own local and political government, she says. Yet, they continued to make these objects and pieces on what it means to be Catholic.

Romero says she chose this piece because Aragon is a home-grown artist.

We recognize the well known artists like Georgia OKeeffe, but we dont pay attention to the santeros, she says. Jose Rafael was prolific. He produced hundreds of bultos and altar screens for northern New Mexico churches. Many of them still have some of the pieces.

3. Africo-Tubercular Sanatorium pin

Romero says the pin is a recent acquisition from 2021 and that museum staff is still researching more about it.

Its a promotion pin for the Africo-Tubercular Sanatorium in Fort Bayard, Romero says. The Buffalo Soldiers were in Fort Bayard and in 1899, the fort became a hospital to treat patients for tuberculosis. The dry air is what people needed.

A number of sanatoriums operated between Silver City and Fort Bayard.

On Jan. 14, 1911, this one was dedicated to the treatment of (African American) exclusively and it was the first kind in the country, Romero says. If you can see a bright side, its in this time of segregation, southern New Mexico had an entire hospital dedicated to African American access to being treated.

4. Roller skates from Josefita Manderfield de Otero

Romero says Manderfield de Otero came from a very powerful family. Her father owned the Santa Fe New Mexican at one point.

The museum has a large collection from her.

There are expensive pieces such as gold leaf clocks, she says. The pieces really reflected her own socioeconomic status.

Romero finds the roller skates fascinating because Manderfield de Otero wore them.

She was a kid of privilege, she says. She wore these roller skates as she skated around the Santa Fe Plaza around 1907.

Romero found an article in the Las Vegas Optic during that time about how roller skates were dangerous and young people were using them.

Fast forward to today and the same things have been said about skateboards and roller blades, she says. It was pretty funny to see the article say the same thing about kids having fun. I can imagine Josefita skating through the plaza. The skates dont look comfortable or safe at all.

5. Sleigh from Cimarroncita Ranch Camp

Romero says the sleigh was acquired in 2015 when the Cimarroncita Ranch Camp was closing.

They approached us and asked if they wanted their collection, she says. We got a number of 3D objects and this sleigh.

Romero says its in very poor condition and the Department of Cultural Affairs is working on getting it back to life.

The sleigh has an S-curve in the front and a slight curve in the back, she says. The body is wood and has padded edges and padded seats. You can imagine horses pulling this buggy which is painted yellow and green. Its a piece that the ranch kids used.

Romero is raising funds to restore the sleigh because its a part of New Mexico history.

We havent had a lot of time to work on it and do research, she says. This is part of the process to get it to a standard where it can be displayed.
Robert Arellano has 60 minutes to explain six decades of Cubas history.

Hes ready for the challenge.

Im not going to try and do it linear, Arellano says. Ill be dipping into every decade at some point. By jumping around and moving back and forth, Im giving myself more challenges. But it also gives me an opportunity to show how the past relates to the present.

Arellano will present Secrets, Spies, and Spanish Rice: Six Decades of the Cuban-American Experience at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 28 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

The presentation will cover the Cuban Missile Crisis to today.

For many Cubans who fled their country during the Cuban Revolution, the crisis was a point of no return, forcing them to make the most of their new home.

During his presentation, Arellano, an award-winning Cuban American novelist and scholar, will present never-before-seen material alongside readings from Havana Lunar and Havana Libre, a pair of books from his award-winning Cuban Noir series.

Arellano isnt worried about spoiling anything.

What Im about to tell you during this presentation is going to blow some minds, he says. Its interesting to learn how much the Cuban American experience has defined America. Its incredible how the second half of the 20th century and the first couple decades of the 21st century has been defined by this peculiar friendship and rivalry and suspicion. This has created a David versus Goliath within the Cuban and American relations.

Arellano is looking forward to his trip back to New Mexico.

He lived in northern New Mexico when he taught at Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and University of New Mexico-Taos.

To me, the NHCC has been on the radar of Latinx for some time, he says. We have this national beacon and place that supports us and our history. Its always been a goal and dream for me to do an event there. Having the community so close to me is important. The NHCC is there for us to embrace and explore our history.
Kamlesh Salvi is a Digital Lifestyle Content Creator and a sportsman who has represented his state in several volleyball matches. He had launched himself into social media as an influencer. In his words, being an influencer is what felt like interesting and brought out the best in me. Eventually, he started working on himself and making a career out of his talents.

Click here to check the Award Categories

Today, Salvi is a household name for some world-class brands like Amazon, Royal Stag, Titan, BenQ, MX Takatak, Park Avenue, RealMe, Nokia, Oppo, Samsung, and MI, which have collaborated to build strong followers and potential customers. He had also contributed his share to influence people with other brands like Iqoo, Tecno, Firebolt, Dorco, B612, Epik, Car24, and Myntra.

In conversation with Adgully, Kamlesh Salvi speaks about his journey as a content creator, building a successful career in digital media, his plans to launch his on YouTube channel, and more.

What particular skill sets do you think you bring to the table?

In recent years, I've grown a lot as a video content creator, and I truly believe in skill of quality content with honesty and have taught a few dozen upcoming influencers to start their careers.

How did you join your current organisation?

It is a long story to share. But in short, all my struggles and hard work made me what I am today. And the current organisation is a great opportunity that was bestowed upon me.

Icons in this field whom you look up to and how they have influenced you and your work?

I cannot say there is one person who motivates me. I seek inspiration from several success and failure stories. Because every person has their own story to tell and inspire.

What are the five most productive things that you do in your everyday routine?

I love to read biographies and autobiographies. It had a great influence on my mind. I start with running every day for an hour, then work out or do yoga. It keeps me fit and active during the workday. Other things include watching videos for inspiration and planning my schedules and shoots. For everything that goes on in my day, I plan it a day ahead so that nothing comes out as a surprise.

Do you think a career in this field is a viable one in the long term?

I cant certainly say a yes to that question. But for current trends, social media plays a big role in changing peoples lives. A decade ago, we werent much influenced by social media as it had just erupted. But no one had expected it would be a big bang. Maybe in the future, it would be something else. We have to evolve to survive. We all know that learning is a never-ending process.

What does it take to succeed in a career?

In any career, if youre willing to collaborate on what you dream, you can eventually succeed. Hard work and consistency will pay you in unexpected ways. Success is never a one-night job. It should have a foundation with discipline and be built with patience. In this career, I am successful because I worked hard to understand the perks of this job. With some support and motivation, I am here now.

What would be your advice to youngsters planning to enter this industry?

To anyone who wants to be a successful influencer, I can say only one thing. If you can give value to the people who follow you, then and only then you can step ahead. If there is nothing you change in their lives, why would someone invest their time in you? So, add value to others, and you can find your path towards success.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I am planning to start my YouTube channel and I want to get into the hospitality business. Things are falling together, and it wouldnt be too far before my YouTube channel will be launched. I believe it will be a big step in my career.

Is there any organisation that you would like to work with in the future?

I have my dreams that I work for achieving one day. In todays market, big companies tie up with influencers like us to promote themselves. It would be beneficial for both of us. So, I can say that I have a few companies on the list, some of which I am already working with. I love to work with a wide range of companies.
Css founder is transforming the approach of the web design industry with their "Website For Everyone" ambition. Their aim is to enable businesses from any class, country and locality to have a website. Having led a generation which is driven by the internet, the company aims to propel each business, small or big, new or old to be able to establish their presence in the world map. This can only be done when the business is established in a global space.

The "made in India" mission is one of the integral visions of the team and reigns back to the idea of "make in India" by Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

With branch offices in Noida, Mumbai and Dubai, Css Founder is reigning in the world of web design solutions and has acquired a customer base of more than 10k businesses that vary in shape and size. They have a diversified and dedicated team of dreamers who are propelled to bring the company and endeavor to it's forefront.

A website for everyone, from a street shop to a company with global operations, the team is dedicated to meet the capacities and designing solutions for those who are willing to make a plunge.

The firm was born in the year 2016 with a vision of bridging gaps that emerge due to lack of tech knowledge and resources for those visionaries who have something to tell to the world but lack the resources to deliver it.

Taking the vision of 'digital India' and 'make in India' ahead, the team is driven to be the forerunner of tech solutions and is empowering everyone big and small for tailored solutions.

Refueling the dream of 'digital India', the team is dedicated to move mountains to turn dreams of people from across societies, classes and financial backgrounds possible.

CSS Founder has been energetically working in an altruistic manner to feed people in the slum regions of Delhi-NCR. What stands apart as an honorable responsibility is that the company coordinates these projects consistently. Their team sets out time and resources to make the massive feeding programmes possible to spread bliss and satisfaction to the less advantaged.

Till date, they have organized dozens of food distribution campaigns that are highly recognized in the industry because of this. Along with their mission to be pioneers in making India the epicenter of the digital revolution, they are providing a platform for businesses to display their strengths and garner audiences of the world.
Just as things were getting a little gloomy and dull, Zee Theatres 'Monsoon Special' has arrived to add a little cheer and warmth to the rainy season. What can be more comforting than being cosy at home and watching teleplays that are both entertaining and have an enriching perspective about life? Engage with characters on a rainy day who are managing the ebb and flow of life in a unique way through these teleplays such as 'Internal Affairs', 'Sir Sir Sarla' and 'Ok Tata Tata Bye Bye'. These plays will air on Tata Play Theatre all through the month.



An overview of the plays



Internal Affairs



This contemporary play about modern relationships begins when a post-work drinking session leads to a clumsy one-night stand between new recruits Sid and Rhea. They tumble into a relationship neither of them wants and hovering in the background are the ghosts and regrets of their romantic pasts. Find out, if in this day and age, amid stressful workplaces, dysfunctional families, changing values and burdens of the past, any normal relationship stands a chance, leave alone an accidental one. The teleplay is directed by Adhaar Khurana and stars Hussain Dalal, Priyanshu Painyuli, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Shikha Talsania.



Sir Sir Sarla



Like the monsoon, is there a season of love where emotions can flow unabated? What happens if love remains stifled by tradition and cannot be expressed except as anger? Writer, director and actor Makarand Deshpandes much-loved classic, Sir Sir Sarla' explores these themes with great sensitivity. This is the story of Professor Palekar and his student Sarla  a pretty, innocent young girl who seems to be enamored by her mentor. There is also Phanidhar who shares a complicated relationship with the professor because of a personal grudge. The play explores how the bond between the students and their professor goes through multiple changes across the years. When emotions begin to overflow, secrets are revealed, accusations are hurled, and three characters in a single love story confront each other finally. The teleplay stars Makarand Deshpande, Aahana Kumra, Sanjay Dadhich and Anjum Sharma.



Ok Tata Tata Bye Bye



Director Purva Naresh's well-researched play based on the lives of sex workers brims with authenticity, honesty and empathy. It neither glamorises the protagonists, nor paints them like tragic figures. The story begins when Pooja and Mitch go on a journey to document a sex worker's life, but realize that it's not as easy as it seems. There is a lot to be found and perhaps a lot to lose in this little village, a hub of commercial sex work on a bustling highway. The young sex workers the couple meet, engage their hearts and minds and demolish their pre-conceived notions with their stories. Their life-altering revelations make the two laugh and cry and question their own prejudices. The play stars Geetika Tyagi, Jim Sarbh, Prerna Chawla and Sarika Singh. Watch 'Ok Tata Tata Bye Bye' on Tata Play Theatre
Hindware Home Innovation Limited, one of the fastest growing players in consumer appliances, today announced the rebranding of its consumer appliances brands under one brand Hindware Smart Appliances. Aligned to the mother brand Hindware, all consumer appliances products will now be housed under Hindware Smart Appliances.

With the rebranding, the aim is to continue to lead the industry with innovative, smart, and connected appliances that deliver ease, simplicity, and happiness to consumers' busy lives. Through this, the company aims to build a stronger connection with the consumers, enhance brand recall, and strengthen the market position while leveraging Hindwares long-standing legacy of continuous innovation and of trust among all stakeholders.

Mr. Rakesh Kaul, CEO and Whole Time Director, Hindware Home Innovation Limited, said, Since the inception of the Consumer Appliance business, we have worked hard to execute on our growth strategy by strengthening our capabilities, investing in our product offerings, infrastructure and people. Bringing our complete product portfolio under one brand Hindware Smart Appliances is a logical step towards solidifying our brand and clearly communicating what it reflects a smart, futuristic, and truly human-first tech brand.

He further added, We are working on enhancing our digital strategy to achieve a competitive advantage in D2C, e-commerce, and social marketing. Our focus has always been to leverage consumer insights to meet their needs and therefore, we are now following a digital-first approach to provide our consumers with seamless brand experiences wherever, whenever, and however, they choose to shop.

Hindware Smart Appliances new brand logo is designed with a bold black colour on a white background representing sophistication, and progressiveness. It uses hues to establish a better connect with the consumers. It further incorporates the smart power button in its design where the alphabet e has been carefully replaced with the power button symbol. This showcases the experience that Hindware Smart Appliances offers with its wide range of smart products by democratizing technology for all. The brands value proposition remains unaltered, and it will continue to be committed to its consumers by providing them with modern, smart and innovative solutions to add convenience to their lives.

Additionally, the website and marketing branding materials reflect the modernization of the new brand identity. As part of the companys brand refresh, the initial part of the ongoing rebuild of the companys website has already been launched.
The New York Festivals Advertising Awards announced the 2022 Special Industry Award, recipients.

Each year, New York Festivals honors those companies whose multi-awarded campaigns have demonstrated innovation and creativity with NYFs Special Industry Awards. This esteemed award is the ultimate recognition honoring holding companies, networks, and agencies whose cutting edge work inspired and engaged consumers while creating brand affinity.

2022s Industry Award winners are selected by the number of top-scoring entries that earn trophies within the competitions based on scores determined by New York Festivals in-person Executive Jury.

Impressive cutting-edge work and innovation earned Serviceplan Germany triple accolades for 2022, Agency of the Year, Independent Agency of the Year and Regional Agency of the Year/Europe. This special industry honor is awarded to the non-networked agency that obtains the highest score for creative entries in all of New York Festivals Advertising Awards competitions across all mediums.

Serviceplan Germany being named Agency of the Year, Independent Agency of the Year and Regional Agency Europe by New York Festivals 2022, makes this our most successful year at New York Festivals to date. It means a lot to continue to be recognised by the NYF Industry Awards: prestigious awards that are globally renowned for recognising creative work that pushes creative boundaries within the industry. Alex Schill, Global Chief Creative Officer, Serviceplan Group

David Sable, host of NYFs Creativity from the Other Side, recently interviewed Alex Schill, Global Chief Creative Officer, Serviceplan Group.

VMLY&R earned Global Network of the Year. This stellar honor is awarded to the advertising agency network that earns the highest score for entries in all mediums and produces the highest caliber of top scoring creative work within the competition.

Im so proud of the teams and the effort that has gone into all this amazing work over the past year. Earning 2022 Global Agency Network of the Year and Regional Agency of the Year for both North America and APAC from the New York Festivals is absolutely the icing on the cake. It takes passion and drive, and teams trusting and pushing each other. It also takes brave clients  Im happy we work with so many  and thank them because they share these honors with us, too.

Debbi Vandeven, Global Chief Creative Officer at VMLY&R

WPP was honored with the 2022 Holding Company of the Year Award. This prestigious honor recognizes the holding company that earned the highest combined score for all entries in all mediums, calculated from all points earned by its networks and agencies.

Spinneys Supermarket, the multinational supermarket chain in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Lebanon, Oman, and Pakistan; the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation, a non-profit, awareness, educational, fundraising initiative; and AUMBC Hospital, the most trusted and respected healthcare provider in Lebanon and the region earned the honor of Global Brand of the Year. Their fearless commitment to creating awareness about breast self-exam is illustrated in the Best of Show winning campaign, The Bread Exam created by McCann Paris. The life-saving campaign provided women with an option to share information about self-checking and avoid the cultural taboos that prevented Lebanese women from talking openly about their bodies via demonstrating the steps of a breast self-exam through the act of kneading and pressing dough.

Regional Agency of the Year is a Special Industry Award that honors an advertising agency that earns the highest score for entries in all mediums within their region.

2022s Regional Agency of the Year Awards:

Asia Pacific  VMLY&R India

Europe  Serviceplan Germany

Latin America  Wunderman Thompson Argentina

MENA  Keko FZ LLC Dubai

North America  VMLY&R

Its amazing when different campaigns from different teams get celebrated. We have not one, not two but three very diverse campaigns that fuse culture, technology and creativity. Being awarded the Regional Agency of the Year APAC by the prestigious New York Festivals is a matter of immense pride for the team and a testament to their talent and the effort we have been putting in. Mukund Olety, CCO, VMLY&R India

I am thrilled that were being celebrated as the APAC agency of the year at New York Festival. This feat feels even more special as it has come on the back of multiple campaigns, which have won across different categories. All the winning works are great examples of purpose powered creativity that actually has the power to change the world. I'm happy to see Smart Fill, work which has genuine impact, being recognized as one such piece of amazing work.Arpan Jain, ECD, VMLY&R COMMERCE India

Wow! This is such an honor for Wunderman Thompson and specially for WT Argentina. We are really happy for this achievement, NYF! One of the most important festivals of the world. Lots of people around the world worked on Degree inclusive. It took us more than two years to develop it and we are still working to make this idea even bigger. What we enjoyed more in this process is how we connected different people with different capabilities, regions, time zones, disabilities, to only think in one thing: make the world a more inclusive place to live. What we didnt know is that because of this work we would become the best agency of Latam. Thats Awesome. Thank you so much. Vamos WT Argentina!Daniel Minaker & Sebastian Tarazaga, Latam CCO's & Global ECD's, Wunderman Thompson Argentina

I am extremely proud of Keko Dubais achievement. The award came as a huge surprise as we are such a young agency. Our agency was founded because of Porsche, so to win this award speaks volumes and truly shows a perfect example of partnership at work. I am extremely proud of the whole team and I am looking forward to a bright future with PorscheBrigitte Kemper, CEO of the Keko Group

The 2022 Film Production Company of the Year is Iconoclast Germany, International feature film and commercial content group. The distinguished honor of Film Production Company of the Year is awarded to the film production company based on total points scored, regardless of whether entries were submitted by the production company, advertising agency, or a third party.

We were really lucky to get this once in a decade chance. You are always excited when you receive a script with potential. Like everybody else we love parents anxiety turned upside down. How Serviceplans idea struck a very common chord in these late days of the pandemic created a tiny bit of heat though. If this film does not come out great it would be on us. Then we read Marcus Ibanezs treatment. He didnt just design stunning vignettes to illustrate the voice over. Most casually he created a film. A beautiful film spot on the contemporary anxiety of parents and their kids alike. And that was anything but luck. Thank you, Marcus! Thank you Serviceplan! Thank you so much.Tim Augustin, Executive Producer, Iconoclast Germany

To view the 2022 New York Festivals Advertising Awards winners gallery, please visit: 2022 Winners.

New York Festivals is recognized worldwide as a touchstone for global creative excellence in advertising and marketing communications.
Times of India and Ad Club Madras is proud to announce ABOVE THE LINE- An Exclusive Brand Quiz for all marketing, branding and advertising fanatics.

Above The Line (ATL) is Indias first serial pub quiz on branding and advertising. Presented by Advertising Club Madras and sponsored by Times of India, ATL kick-starts on Wednesday, the 27th of July at Dank, the cool new pub in Chennai.

It will be an open quiz for teams of two. Anyone with interest in advertising or business quizzing can participate. The aim of the quiz is to have fun and raise the Advertising Quotient (AQ) of Chennai.

Register now and showcase your genius.: https://forms.gle/VHAPsK3h4SyWU3eX9
Over the years, Tata Steel has been known for its spirit of pioneering, one that goes beyond just products and solutions. The companys history of many firsts in human resources within the manufacturing sector includes 8-hour workdays, maternity leave, gratuity upon retirement, a 5-day work week amongst others.

In order to bring an exclusive focus on Diversity and Inclusion, Tata Steel launched MOSAIC in the year 2015. MOSAIC defines the path the company has taken to build a people culture that both celebrates and encourages diversity and inclusion. It has a five-pillar approach that covers recruitment, sensitisation, retention & development, infrastructure & celebration. The focus areas for MOSAIC are gender, persons with disability, affirmative action and LGBTQIA+.

Tata Steel has set a target of creating a 25% diverse workforce by 2025.

At its Noamundi iron mine, a 22-member all-woman team is already engaged in drilling, dumper and shovel operations across shifts. As an equal opportunity employer, Tata Steel respects the uniqueness of individuals and is putting its best foot forward, to shape workspaces of tomorrow.

Having broken the glass ceiling time and again, Tata Steel has onboarded 97 transgender persons in various roles till date. Such initiatives further reinforce Tata Steels belief in strengthening the organisation by embracing a variety of identities, thoughts and perspectives. In 2019, Tata Steel had also introduced a policy for LGBTQIA+ employees, urging them to enlist their partners with the Company, so as to enable them to avail all HR benefits.

Following in the footsteps of Tata Steel, Tata Pravesh - a brand of steel doors and windows - has too, endeavoured to open the doors of the mind through its thought-provoking films for World Environment Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Independence Day, World AIDS Day and most recently, Womens Day. Through these films, the brand attempts to change the way we look at the world around us. Tata Pravesh also felt that the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ persons within the workforce at Tata Steel would be revolutionary and merits being showcased to the world through a film. This initiative has been lauded not just because it is innovative, but it is also a progressive way for such employees to enter mainstream society, be embraced by all around them and be made to feel a part of the larger corporate family.

Humility has always been deeply ingrained in the fabric of Tata Steels history. Hence, instead of highlighting how progressive Tata Steel is as a Company, the film  Raahi, conceptualised by Wunderman Thompson Kolkata  is purposefully set to a neutral corporate backdrop. It tells the story of an LGBTQIA+ individual, shunned by society but who is accepted by colleagues. The film signs off with the strong social message, Acceptance can open doors, encouraging us to open our minds - #KholoMannKeDwaar - allowing the winds of change to air out our prejudices.

Lit up and shot beautifully by Happy Rabbit Films, the film encourages us to inculcate a sense of belonging in the workplace and make our LGBTQIA+ colleagues feel accepted, making them proud of us. It makes us stop for a moment and take cognizance of our biases, so we can work towards eliminating them.

Commenting on the film, Jaya Singh Panda, Chief Diversity Officer, Tata Steel Ltd., said, As a company, our objective has always been to drive diversity and build a benchmark workplace. The inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in the Tata Steel workforce is a step in that direction. The film urges us to accept everyone and create an inclusive workplace where equal opportunity is provided to all.

Commenting on the film, Animesh Roy, Chief Services & Solutions - Tata Pravesh, Tata Steel Ltd., said, Tata Pravesh has always stimulated people, making them think about issues that impact society. The film is the latest addition to a series of communications from the brand over the years which attempt to open the doors of our minds. It prompts us to ensure our LGBTQIA+ co-workers feel that we care, urging us to be empathetic and supportive.

Commenting on the creative concept, Arjun Mukherjee, VP & Senior ECD, Wunderman Thompson, Kolkata, said, We need to be sensitive towards our LGBTQIA+ co-workers and make them feel welcome at the workplace. This film encourages us to make them feel at home as our colleagues. It teaches us to build relationships based on love and respect, regardless of gender, so that no one ever walks alone.

Vijay Jacob Parakkal, Senior VP & Managing Partner, Wunderman Thompson, Kolkata, said, Tata Steel is widely recognised for its trailblazing HR initiatives and Tata Pravesh for its thought-provoking films. This extremely relevant and topical film will encourage us to embrace LGBTQIA+ people, making them feel accepted and included in the workplaces of tomorrow.

Credits:

Client: Tata Pravesh - a brand of Tata Steel

Agency: Wunderman Thompson Kolkata

Project Head: Vijay Jacob Parakkal, Sr. VP & Managing Partner

Creative Team:

Arjun Mukherjee, VP & Sr. ECD

Anurag Acharya, Creative Director II

Kaushik Roy, Creative Director I

Partha Chowdhury, Sr. Creative Director

Nuzhath Enayath, Sr. Copywriter

Bidisha Chandra, Jr. Art Director

Account Management:

Nilanjan Sarkar, Client Services Director

Production house: Habby Rabbit Films

Director: Dibyendu Bose

Editor: Arghyakamal Mitra

Music director: Hanif Shaikh

VO: Richa Nigam
In 1999, a jerk of a doctor at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio diagnosed Mia and Gianna with autism, handed me a $.50 school folder in which the very top piece of information said, "There is no cure for autism, you can only hope to make the person's life better," or something very close to that. She then went on to tell me that Gianna would likely be on medications for her oppositional defiant disorder by first grade. Gianna was 3 at the time. Then she gave us the HUGE treatment plan, "Call early intervention" and sent us on our merry way. Alone. To tackle then the growing universe of ABA, DAN!, Floortime, Education, TEACCH and 1000 other therapies.



NOTHING HAS CHANGED.



Without divulging any personal info, I am sharing what I read yesterday on a special needs Facebook group, from a Mom whose daughter was just seen for a diagnosis.



They also said something along the lines of her possibly never being fully independent which scares the crap out of me. Feeling so heartbroken and disappointed. She obviously needs help, why does it have to be such a fight.



Why does a doctor tell a parent the child MIGHT never be fully independent? It's akin to every cancer diagnosis coming with, "Well, it could be terminal, only time will tell."



It's TIME for change. But who? How? And when?
The beauteous Ali McGraw, in the movie Love Story, tells us, "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

As the latest variant of COVID-19 sweeps the land, that movie line is also the mantra of federal, state, and local health officials.

They're doctors, some of them much like "Dr." Jill, and they love you, John Q. Citizen, so much that, even when they totally botch the U.S. response to the Wuhan Flu, causing untold death and misery, they feel no need to apologize.

So they will never apologize for ordering shutdowns.

"Everybody stay in your cave!" is a short-term provision for a wolf or a shooter on the loose. Used on a large scale, society simply unravels.

We were supposed to shut down for only two weeks.

The extended and unnecessary countrywide shutdowns damaged children, mental health, small businesses, access to routine medical care, the arts, and...the list goes on.

But as the umpteenth variant of COVID-19 currently does its thing, it's obvious that shutdowns, especially prolonged ones  like children not remotely learning for two entire grades  had no positive effect. Still, don't expect anyone in the health establishment to feel bad about the lockdowns they ordered.

How 'bout them masks? COVID Mask Theater  that's what I called it in the beginning, and that's what I call it now.

I've worn paper surgical masks my whole working life, and for even modest protection against pathogens, you have to follow a strict protocol. It involves frequent changing of masks, proper technique when changing masks, constant handwashing, and covering your mouth and nose with a well adapted mask, at a cost of thousands annually.

None of that happened during the pandemic.

It had no chance of happening, and the idiots in charge knew it. For all the fiddling people did with their mostly improperly worn masks, they probably increased germ transmission.

Sadly, and those white coat bullies may not know this, much of human communication involves facial expression. For some, interacting with an entire society wearing masks must have seemed like an eerie episode of The Twilight Zone.

Forcing people to "pretend mask" may or may not have done considerably more harm than good. But there's no denying the damage mandated masking caused the American psyche, making the man on the street feel just a tad more isolated and disconnected from society. Take a drive on Route 684 if you doubt me.

Still, don't expect a "sorry" from Fauci and his liberal disciples, many of whom were photographed having great fun, sans mask, with their fellow swells during the pandemic. They knew that masking as a preventive measure against a virus was a joke.

The servants in those photos, however, all wore masks. Make of that what you will.

How 'bout the totally made-up six-foot "social distance"? (And wouldn't "Social Distance" be a great name for a punk rock band?)

I wore masks my entire working life because, as a dentist, I was constantly being showered in aerosols of blood, saliva, and whatever. And I assure you, saliva from quiet speaking may not travel six feet; but yelling, coughing, sneezing, and singing pretty much shower the entire room one's in with potentially COVID-laden spit. The mandated six feet of social distancing was purely a placebo, and a crappy one at that, meant to calm the masses.

Did phony-baloney social distancing seriously damage the way people look at each other? Did health officials not say all of these? Stay with your tribe! Stranger danger! Mask on between bites!

They did, but they're apparently OK with the immeasurable harm they caused, encouraging citizens to regard one another as disease vectors, something to definitely steer clear of.

I hate to appropriate the great Dionne Warwick, but what the world needs now is love, not mandated social distancing.

The people who made that six-feet crap up should be ashamed of themselves. But they're not  because they're rich, and you're not. (See net worth, Fauci.)

My screed would not be complete without discussing the COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters. They didn't work. In fact, they failed miserably.

As per the definition of "vaccine," the formulations our white-coated masters forced upon us totally failed to prevent the acquisition or transmission of COVID disease. When something makes disease symptoms less severe, it's not called a vaccine; it's called a "therapeutic," and it's something the patient decides whether to try or not  not some Trump-hating, scarf-wearing bureaucrat hoping to score a lucrative future book contract.

The failed COVID vaccines that were jammed down American throats, although protecting no one from getting or spreading the bug, did have quite a few other side-effects.

The failed vaccines made many, many people in Big Pharma and Big Government very wealthy. And refusing to take the failed vaccine caused cops, doctors, nurses, and pilots, among others, to get fired!

People who refused the failed vaccine were abused and demonized by their liberal bosses, the media, Hollywood, Twitter, the Biden White House itself. And at present, thousands of people have had adverse effects from the failed COVID vaccines, many in age groups, like children or teens, who are at very low risk of COVID mortality or morbidity in the first place. But, thanks to the brotherhood of shady politicians and sketchy drug CEOs that exists in today's America, we'll never hear about them.

The drug-makers are already immune from vaccine damage suits, thanks to the lawmakers they donated to, and the politicians are more than happy to hawk a failed, potentially damaging product, as long as they get their slice of cheddar. Neither group is remotely interested in stats on adverse events being kept, or, worse in their minds, being made public.

Our morally corrupt media will obligingly continue to sing the praises of both the failed vaccine and the multitude of public health bureaucrats profiteering from it, but the rapidly mutating virus that Democrats assure us had nothing to do with a Level 4 virology lab in Wuhan will simply continue to virus.

It's here to stay. Soon it'll soon be rare to meet anyone who hasn't had COVID.

Shutdowns clearly did infinitely more damage than good. Having the general population "pretend mask" was absurd from the get-go. Six feet of social distancing was capricious and at least twenty yards short. And relatively untested vaccines that ultimately failed were jabbed with immunity into the arms of a docile, trusting public, even as the fat cats got fatter.

You'd think you could at least get a "My bad!" and a shrug from the highly credentialed, richly compensated Dr. Fauci types spread, unfortunately, all across the fruited plains at the highest levels of government. An "Oopsie!" for their hubris, mistakes, high crimes, and misdemeanors in the Great COVID-19 Response Fiasco.

But you won't.

Big Government means never having to say you're sorry.

Image: qimono via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
The Courage to Face Covid-19: Preventing Hospitalization and Death While Battling the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex, by John Leake and Peter A. McCullough MD MPH is tale of the 2 - year - plus effort, accomplishments and travails of a remarkably prominent and successful physician. Dr. McCullough decided to push back on the establishment in the face of a global epidemic of a respiratory virus, COVID 19 (SARS COV 2) , risking everything in todays cancel culture. He pushed for sensible early treatment, when the establishment had another agendadont treat or treat with worthless drugs until we get our vaccine (its not a vaccine at all) out. The opportunity to make billions from scared populations, nations, politicians and create worldwide chaos and even reorder societies was at stake for them. As the progressives say, never let a good crisis go to waste if there is an opportunity for a power grab and profits.

I was impressed with the medical advocacy of Dr. Peter McCullough during 2020 as he became a leading voice in a worldwide effort by many medical experts to promote early ambulatory treatments with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin, with special attention to anti-inflammatory and supplemental adjuvants and blood thinners to reduce the complications of clotting. He was always on top of the literature and promoted the positions of the early COVID treaters around the world.

Dr. McCullough rejected the nihilist approach protocol of Fauci: just send them home and to come back if they really get sick, then well hospitalize them. He pointed out the ridiculous Fauci promotion of the nasty and ineffective Gilead drug Remdesivir, and he also rejected the shutdowns, school closures, masking and social distancing and quarantine measures widely promoted. As he put it so well, physicians need to treat the patients with effective regimens, not just sit around waiting for the magic vaccines. It is not good medical practice to ignore preventive and early treatment measures that work and reduce mortalities.

Dr. Peter McCullough is a Dallas, Texas Internist/ Cardiologist/epidemiologist (population health studies), and a former editor of medical journals/ consultant to pharmaceutical companies and research programs. He is an extraordinarily qualified individual, not just a prominent expert, but remarkable and extraordinary as well as courageous in discussing the epidemic of the Wuhan Lab engineered Coronavirus, that killed millions and disrupted the whole world.

John Leake is a professional writer and explains in the preface to the book how he became a coauthor with Dr. McCullough. He was impressed with his performance in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 in US Senate Hearings chaired by Senator Ron Johnson and a Texas Senate hearing chaired by Senator Hall and a follow up interview in May of 2021 with Tucker Carlson.

He met with Dr McCullough for an interview in his Dallas studio for a film/video session and described that interview:

He spoke so eloquently with such encyclopedic knowledge that his interview required no editing. The astonished video director recommended it uncut for the world to see.

Mr. Leakes experience describes how I reacted to McCulloughs testimony and interviews: he is a genius with a remarkable grasp of the medical research and science pertinent to the COVID 19 issues. But that is no surprise considering his remarkable career and stature in the medical profession. I watched him many times and never did he fail to impress me with his eloquence and erudition. He is one smart man with a knack for being a good educator and analyst, an ideal person to provide good advice and counsel, perfect choice for a Dr. Welby type impression in a hearing. I reviewed here at American Thinker his Joe Rogan interview that set all viewer/listener records for the popular podcast, a 2:45 hour tour de force. The man is amazing.

Mr. Leake also made a comment that rings true, I got to know him not only as a compassionate doctor but also a devoted family man and loyal friend. I must say that is the persona I saw on display when I watched Dr. McCullough and met him: his belief and commitment to the role of a physician, to treat the patient and do everything you can to help relieve suffering and promote healing. Nihilism has no place in professional conductas stated by the Hippocratic Oath, traditionally taken by medical graduates:

I will follow that method of treatment which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.

In the prologue, the book addresses what appears to be a troublesome rehearsal of a pandemic sponsored by Johns Hopkins and funded by Gates Foundation money and the World Economic Forum in 2019. One cannot help but be concerned that Gates money founded the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in 2017 and by 2019 CEPI was already developing vaccines for coronaviruses although even the public agencies admit mRNA spike protein stimulators are not vaccines at all.

The first section of the book is a fast-moving story of the spring and summer of 2020. Fraudulent propaganda on HCQ developed with Fauci in the lead. There were some badly designed studies for HCQ, defective because HCQ was always promoted for early treatment, not after hospitalization. Discovery of other treatments came, particularly steroids for inflammation and anti-coagulants for clotting.

Ivermectin became an issue and was condemned, just like HCQ, after some flawed studies. Fauci promoted Remdesivir despite the WHO warning not to use it on hospitalized patients. But it was produced by Gilead, one of Faucis favorite companies.

Lo and behold, the vaccine development seemed to be extraordinarily rapid with the vaccines magic promoted by Fauci. All these events are described in detail in the Leake and McCullough book, with the players named and the sequence of events.

Harvey Risch, an extraordinary epidemiologist and advocate, became engaged and supportive of the group effort to oppose Fauci and his minions in 2020. Dr. McCullough and Dr. Littell Lozano proposed an early treatment protocol paper for the journals, and the Henry Ford Hospitals and an Eastern Virginia medical group headed by Dr. Paul Marik also advocated early ambulatory treatment with HCQ and Ivermectin.

On the West Coast and across the country treatment programs developed that are described. Dr. George Fareed, a general practitioner, previously a virologist and Brian Tyson, MD, declared their commitment to early ambulatory treatment and reported their great success.

In August of 2020 the American Journal of Medicine published Dr. Harvey Risch and Dr. Peter McCulloughs paper on early treatment, but in the meantime Fauci and organized public health officials and medical societies lined up with the establishment position opposing Ivermectin, HCQ, and early treatment in favor of continuing the silly Remdesivir and allowing some anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory treatments. Dr. McCullough also found that colchicine (an anti-inflammatory used for gout mostly) was beneficial and planned to update the outpatient treatment protocol in the Proceedings of the Baylor University Medical Center. But the paper was retracted by the publisher after fully making it through peer review. Ultimately the followup protocol was published in Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons published information and treatment protocols provided by Dr. Marik.

These developments led to a hearing chaired by Senator Ron Johnson attended by Drs. Peter McCullough, Pierre Kory, George Fareed and Harvey Risch with one opposing expert, Dr. Jha, dean at Brown Univ School of Public Health. Probably the most telling episode in the hearing was Dr. Jhas admission that he had never treated a COVID 19 patient after advising the country for more than two hours. Recently, the Biden administration has appointed him the COVID Czar as a reward for his mendacious advocacy and toeing the line on the Fauci tyranny.

Sprinkled through the book are tales of episodes of legal fights with hospitals about treatments and patient family advocacy -- some triumphs with dramatic survivals, some disappointments that led to deaths from neglectful treatment that complied with the Fauci establishment rules. There is also plenty of evidence provided to show that pharma companies were involved in misconduct that was motivated by hopes of financial rewards.

A chapter is provided by Mr. Leake about the storied career of Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist who worked to reduce pharma influence and exposed big pharma misconduct in matters of psychiatric medications. Dr. Breggin and his wife Ginger also recently published an expose of the COVID 19 affair with a focus on Gates, the WEF, and pharma company misconduct COVID-19 and the Global Predators: We Are the Prey. I recommend it without reservation.

The last segments of the book describe the corruption in the healthcare establishment, compromising integrity in practice, research, policy making. Consider what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discussed in his book that I reviewed here, a problem he labels regulatory capture, meaning that the regulated parties corrupt the regulators. The collusion of organized medicine, academic medicine and the hospital industry with government agencies and their apparatchiks along with cover by the media is cemented with money. Pharma companies like Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, and Astra Zenica make and dole out influence money for sure. NIH officials, academic physicians, medical schools all pocket millions in donations for research or in royalties for sales of drugs they research and test for efficacy and risk and then approve. Thats a serious conflict and modifies behavior. Dr. Tony Fauci, for example reportedly is worth $10 million or more to include royalties.

The bio-pharma cabal mentioned in the title of the book certainly impacted the management of the COVID 19 epidemic and the attitudes about acceptable mitigation and treatmentsGates money greased some wheels in the public and private sector for many reasons, particularly for money and power.

The result of these collusive arrangements contributes to the cancel culture that has seen many prominent and accomplished physicians have been harmed -- physicians who departed from the Fauci canon, hymnal and diktats. All the major players in the group that I support have been censored, censured and persecuted, across the country. The story of the big stars in the anti-Fauci group is particularly appallingextraordinary physicians who were fired and punished in a Stalinesque manner, physicians exercising their best judgment as advocated in the Hippocratic Oath quoted above.

Here in Texas, my home, Dr. Peter McCullough was persecuted and cancelled in cruel and unjust ways by the hospital/pharma/medical organization/academic/medical journal community. Baylor University Medical Center, a Baptist founded and supported organization, was particularly despicable, but no doubt Baylor has wandered into the bright lights and power business of healthcare and shed any pretense of being a Christian moral organization in my opinion.

I would suggest thst any moral compass at Baylor has been demagnetized by our old nemesis, greed, ambition, and a desire for power. However, I met Dr. McCullough recently and watched him at a meeting. He remains the same quietly confident decent man I saw when this ordeal began. It is no wonder that Mr. Leake, his co-author, admires him. he is a man of extraordinary intellect, combined with discipline, humility, wisdom and fortitude, the stoic ideal. (He looks and acts like he came out of a factory that makes the perfect model of a great physician.) He makes his momma and fellow physicians proud. I wish him well and thank him for what he has done this past 2 years.

John Dale Dunn MD JD is a retired emergency physician and inactive attorney in Brownwood, Texas

Photo credit: YouTube screengrab
Parents across America (and other Western nations) have become increasingly aware that our children from kindergarten through college are being led to believe they can be any gender they want in modern sex-ed classes that are designed to normalize ungodly sexual acts, intentionally destroy Biblical morality and discourage heterosexual two-parent families.

The battle by parents in America to get public education back to basics is making some headway, but this past Wednesday, the school board in Hanover County, Virginia (just outside the state capitol) announced it has authorized the construction of gender-neutral school bathrooms. At least they are building single-occupant private stalls. Nevertheless, a few woke parents continue to prefer opening up the boys and girls restrooms to whatever flavor of gender a kid prefers that day.

This is a sign the LGBTQ+ chaos continues in Virginia despite the surprise win last November by novice politician and now Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) over Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe (D). McAuliffes loss was assured only after he clearly said during the campaign I dont think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. Youngkin is making an effort to renormalize public schools, but he continues to be constrained by a Dem senate majority, although this could change in November 2022. Nevertheless, it is apparent from his win that concerned parents can have a major impact on this issue; but only if they speak up. A related win for parents came earlier this month from Governor Mike Parsons (R) of Missouri who just signed into law the very first School Choice Program in the states history. And Just days ago a new and unexpected ally has joined the fight: a significant number of gays also oppose the child groomers.

An example from Mexican history demonstrates that concerned parents can overcome a Marxist school indoctrination program. This one grew out of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution. The resulting socialist government that followed had closed all Catholic schools and taken over all public education. The story that brought this to light was found in an article in The Remnant, a conservative Catholic newspaper. Until reading the Remnant article, I was totally unaware there was a Marxist connection to the Mexican Revolution. The legacy encyclopedia sites I opened to verify it made no mention. Deeper research found the Vanguard News Network which wrote The Mexican Revolution, so glorified by liberals today was basically a Marxist revolt I also opened some creepy Marxist websites that bragged about their role.

The history of the long forgotten and likely suppressed Marxist sex-ed indoctrination program was well documented by a Catholic priest, Fr. Wifrid Parsons, who spent years in Mexico before and during the Revolution and wrote an eyewitness account in his 1936 book Mexican Martyrdom. He wrote that during the period 1926-1935 indoctrination was highly unpopular with parents south of the border When they refused to send their children to Socialist school, a whole system of clandestine [home] schools sprang up This system is now organized in every part of the country. In some cases, priests also became home school instructors. Socialist education is not only anti-Catholic, but it is unapologetically atheistic. Destructive and warped, Socialists twist every subject into indoctrination to the collective. He also wrote that as a result of parents concerns fewer than 35% of children showed up to attend these socialist public schools in some Mexican states.

Father Parsons described what happened next. The Government was astounded to learn how enormous had been the secret educational work of the Church and others in just a few years. For Mexican Marxists, this level of disobedience by the citizenry was intolerable and embarrassing. Therefore, the government actually began raiding home schools, arresting teachers, and confiscating property. Since in many cases, it was priests and sisters who were doing the teaching, some were executed. If home school classes were conducted in a home; the home was confiscated, in a business; it was confiscated, at a farm; it was confiscated. Some owners were merely fined, others imprisoned, still others executed.

Some of Father Parsons graphic description of the resulting Marxist sex-ed program for public school children follows:

The Mexican Dictator, General Calles made his intentions clear in announcing a new program. It is necessary that we enter into a new phase of the Revolution which I shall call the psychological revolutionary period; we must enter into and take possession of the minds of the children, the consciences of the young, because they do belong and should belong to the Revolution." At that point, Mexican public education truly morphed into lunacy. In a Country with a 97% Catholic population, The Secretary of Education, Narciso Bassols, introduced into the public schools a system of sexual education for all students. It was modeled after a perverted, existing program in the Mexican state of Tabasco. What happened as a result was well-documented. Children were taken to the stockyards to see the coupling of animals. In classrooms, children of both sexes were undressed and had explained to them the process of copulation. It was reported that one teacher sponsored a dance in which boys and girls were unclothed. Other, and unprintable, things occurred. Mr. Bassols defended the sexual education decision by saying that such a class was modern. Mexican parents were not buying what Mr. Bassols was selling. But he seems to be correct in identifying this as: modern. This child-corrupting concept was undoubtedly generated by the influential and disgraceful Frankfurt School in Germany. (snip) As for the sexual education of children during the Mexican Revolution, it was fairly short-lived. Parents arose as never before. There were petitions, protests and harassment of teachers engaged in such instruction. Passions were so intense that offending teachers were even killed by over-enthusiast mothers. (snip) As critical as this was to the Mexican population in 1935, history records other Revolution events as more memorable. (snip)

To date, the sexual grooming process in America has not quite reached the level of insanity Father Parsons witnessed in 1935 Mexico -- at least not yet. But unless American parents and legislators get more deeply involved in protecting our children from this modern sexual depravity, it could end up as extreme here as in 1930s Mexico. Radical leftists should remember this Mexican history when pushing their degeneracy against parents wishes. It is dangerous to get between a mama bear and her cubs.

Image: Stockvault